It's January and everyone seems to be on a diet. I hope those contemplating the Atkins diet or any that relies on meat will read this first. It's a very blunt essay by one of my favorite writers, Michael Pollan, on the sorry state of industrial meat. Actually, I don't bring this up to blast meat-eating or low-carb diets -- in fact, I'm trying to restrict my carbs, too, along the recommendations in The Schwarzbein Principle. And, after many years as a vegetarian, I'm eating small quantities of meat and fish again. My rule in eating meat is that it must be organic unless I purchase it directly from the farmer. I have a good local source, a young farming couple that raises drug-free livestock on pasture. Yes, it's more expensive than the meat at the supermarket, but isn't the health of my family and the planet worth it? I think so. Also, the extra cost forces me to keep meat from becoming a significant portion of my diet. In my grandparents' day, meat was a luxury consumed in small quantities. The industrial factory farming method has made it so cheap that now it's an everyday food item even for the poorest in the U.S. (I know this because I volunteer at a local soup kitchen and it's always on the menu there). I think that's too much meat-eating, and definitely too much consumption of toxins and drugs for those eating industrial meat.

Now, on to knitting. I have pictures! I'm close to finishing the body of "Midnight Sun," front:



and back:



Also, I'm working on pullover from Elsebeth Lavold's Viking Knits. It's in Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, here:



And, finally, the fish bag. I haven't quite finished the embroidery, and I forgot to sew on the fins before I felted it, but my daughter likes it anyway. Here it is: