Notes on an Organic Life, Week 2

I’m 2 weeks into my organic experiment of wearing, eating and schmearing only organic. Frankly it’s been difficult: cold, my options are rather limited and it’s been expensive. Yet I love it.

Let’s start with cold. I bought organic wool yarn from a sweet sheep farm in Petaluma last October. I thought I’d pop out some cute shrugs & easy cardigans. Now why did I think there was anything fast about knitting a sweater? A wool tube top – yes. In fact, I had moved on the “4-hour knitting project” some years ago when I diagnosed myself with inability to complete a sweater project (aka Knitting ADD or KADD).

I’ve been knitting for months and I’m delighted to have some yummy 4-hour product: fingerless gloves, hats, scarves, lotsa lotsa socks. Two half-finished sweaters. Record-low temps in the Bay Area + Half-awake thyroid + organic only = friggin‘ cold. All. The. Time.

All changed yesterday when my organic, fair-trade sweater showed up in the mail. The world brightened. Slipped it on at the UPS store. Fit gloriously and within seconds I was warm! Take me to Tahoe, Baby!

Next up: limited options. This one is mixed: a blessing and a curse. Blessing because limiting my options is delightfully liberating, the way a single peony in a vase can be so much more satisfying than a huge bouquet.

Packed up my beloved but probably toxic clothes, from my black Sevens to a rather frighteningly large Lululemon collection, last weekend.

Expensive: I’m trying to do this experiment on a reasonable budget. Yet organic cotton and wool are way more expensive (duh!). While the Europeans won’t import the nasty cotton laced with DDT from China and South America, we do, and there’s a cost differential for the cheap stuff full of pesticides vs the organic variety. I want to be transparent about the cost, so I’ll be posting about that.