Bleeding Heart Freak

I would like to think of myself as someone who doesn’t play to stereotypes. Someone who despite being blond isn’t dumb and despite being a girl isn’t innately a feminist, but there’s one stereotype I can’t get away from: Bleeding heart vegetarian. I am a bleeding heart. I love animals to a distinct point of no return. Sometimes I love them more than humans. Scratch that. Most of the time I love animals more than humans.

When people ask me why I’m a vegetarian I usually try to come up with a response that doesn’t alienate people. Something along the lines of “it’s better for the environment” “it keeps me thin... sort of.” This is because I’ve found that saying, “because I love animals” usually has some underlying tone or subtext that includes “You don’t love animals as much as me and I’m a better human being for it.” That’s not what I mean at all. I don’t think anyone who eats chicken loves his or her dog less than I do. The problem comes in the fact that I’ve read too many books that make the cow or chicken or pig equal to the dog or cat in your home. Actually, the real problem comes from the point in my childhood when my mother declared we were no longer going to eat bacon because bacon used to be a pig. That got my pre-pubescent (and possibly clearer) mind gears churning. It was a while after our foray into the life sans bacon that I cut out all meat, and recently I’ve been dabbling in veganism.

Veganism is the scariest of all types of vegetarianism. Almost everyone is comfortable with the garden-variety ovo-lacto vegetarian who doesn’t eat any meat -- or “anything with a face” to make it clearer – but has no qualms against dairy or eggs. Sometimes you find a lacto vegetarian in the bunch that eats neither “anything with a face” nor eggs. But then there is the scariest vegetarian of them all: the vegan. The vegan is a rare breed in most rural and traditional families and cultures, but is growing in population in urban and other freaky areas. They abstain not only from meat but also eggs and dairy, and if you want to be really freaky most vegans go ahead and stop eating honey and gelatin (jell-o, gummy bears and the like). Scary right? Most people ask “but then what do you eat?” The answer to that is “everything else!” All those “healthy foods” you were supposed to eat as a kid, the pesky green stuff that got in the way of your entrée, are all grown up now and yummier than ever! Eating more fruits, veggies and whole grains is good for everyone, not just us freaks.

Believe it or not, this post is not about converting anyone to vegetarianism, but to talk about vegan lifestyle and how it relates to knitting. I’m currently working on a traditional fisherman’s sweater and in true prep fashion I chose creamy warm white un-dyed sheep wool. So what’s wrong with that? Well, those sheep are a part of a very large farm that are not as nice to their animals as I would like, and they are sent to slaughter once they don’t produce good quality wool. Unfortunately I love knitting, so I can’t stop that, so instead I went out in search of vegan knitting supplies. Thanks to the new and wonderful knitting developments in the world, they are making yarn out of cotton, bamboo and synthetic fibers. Consider making your next project out of one of these animal friendly products since they are everywhere and just as cheap as wool. In the same vein, if there is a no kill animal farm near you, they might have wool from their animals you can buy. This supports local agriculture, an entrepreneur or family farm and high quality wool!