Buying locally...it's easy!!

After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, I became extremely aware of where my food comes from. While it's awesome being able to buy fresh fruits and vegetables in the dead of winter, the problem is that "fresh" is relative here. As a consequence, I shop more frequently at farmers' markets and am growing some of my own veggies this year. It's a small change and I have far to go (I still can't break the banana habit), but I feel better with every locavore-like choice I make.

With fibers it's a bit more difficult. I love natural fibers and don't often think of where they come from. I do try to support small fiber producers by attending fiber festivals (and, as a bonus, this helps me stay on my yarn diet for most of the year) but, generally, while the local food movement is fairly well-known, local fiber movements are less on my radar.

A change is in the air, however. A recent Cast-On podcast addressed just this very topic; I don't remember the exact episode but it was in series 6 and, besides, I don't have a problem with telling you to go and listen until you find it...Brenda Dayne is that good! She's at www.cast-on.com.

Also making it easier to buy American-grown fibers is a brand-new store: Amia Yarn Company. Take a look at their "Why Buy American?" tab to find out why American-grown fibers are an excellent choice for lovers of natural fibers. If you shop their store, you can read the provenance of each fiber, which is awesome; I love knowing where the animals who donate their hair for my family's warmth can be found. Right now they have alpaca and llama fibers in their store. Fine by me; I love alpaca and, while I have never knit with llama, I feel good about trying llama from Amia Yarn Company.

Commercial over. But seriously, what Amia offers us is an easy way to get the fiber we love while supporting local farmers. And we can easily say "thank you" to the animals who share their warmth with us, maybe even in person. How awesome is that?