Ravelry

Having kids has re-awakened my love of knitting. I learned how to knit when I was about seven years old and burned myself out after knitting a sleeveless, shapeless sweater for myself. I had cast-off so tightly that I could barely get my little arms through the armholes.

When I was about 18, I picked up the knitting spirit again when I met Jesse and thought I should create the obligatory boyfriend sweater. I knit the thing way too loose and long, so it really should fit a guy who is about a foot taller and about 100 pounds heavier. Bless him, he still has it tucked away in the back corner of his closet (albeit with some shaming after he asked me if he should donate it to Goodwill).

Then in my early twenties, I decided that I would knit "more seriously". Using the same pattern for Jesse's sweater, I made a new and improved sweater for my sister. By then, I found out how to control the tension on the yarn. I also made my mom a cabled cardigan for her birthday.

And then my knitting laid dormant until I was pregnant with Audrey. By the time she was born, I had knit her a baby blanket and two sweaters. I went on to knit her another hooded sweater.

At six months old, Grace has one sweater and I'm working on another for when she turns one.

In this new era of knitting, I've come across this great knitting site: www.ravelry.com. It's still in beta, but it takes only a few days to get your invite to join. Awesome site. I'm obsessed in finding other examples of projects that use the yarn that I'm using.

gDiapers

My sister sent me this link to a really cool product for those of you who are wondering if they should go with cloth or disposable diapers:

http://www.gdiapers.com/

The diaper consists of a reusable outer pant, and an internal flushable liner. Pretty cool!

Here in Toronto we are fortunate to have the green bin recycling program, which allows us to "recycle" our disposable diapers. The program turns organic materials (including diapers and kitty litter!) into high-quality commercial grade compost that can be sold to farmlands. It's pretty amazing. I'm not sure why ALL cities haven't jumped on board this program, but really it's something to have your city look into.

I found this article that provides some good links about the cloth vs. disposable debate. Really, why aren't the diaper companies more accountable? In our world where going green is getting super trendy, they really need to get with the program. Five-hundred years to biodegrade a diaper is not just unacceptable - it's irresponsible.

Follow the links in that article and contact Pampers and Huggies if you want to let them know how you think. Better yet, just click on these links, below:

Pampers:

http://pgcanadaen.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/pgcanadaen.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php

Huggies:

http://www.huggieshappybaby.com/utility/contactus.aspx