Ever since high school I’ve had an interest in investing; more specifically investing in the stock market. Last year, twenty years after high school <deep sigh>, I finally opened my first investment account with Share Builder. I feel a deep acid-reflexed privilege to have started my investing dream just as the economy tanked <deeper sigh>. Despite the fact that my portfolio is down (way down) I still have the investment bug. But it’s a more environmently-friendly bug these days.

One of my philosophies with investing, as it is with any purchase, is “Buy what you love.” The problem is that sometimes there is no means in which to invest in the products you are most passionate about. Wool and cotton are both traded as commodities, but I struggle with investing in large corporations that over work our natural resources. And how often would I really see any return on my investment? Especially since I invest in such small amounts.

Today, I was so excited to learn about fiber community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs. In short CSA is a method for small-scale commercial farmers and gardeners to help increase the quality of their production and care given to their land, plants and animals while substantially reducing the financial risk by selling shares of their crops or flocks to the public.

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 What a GREAT pattern! That’s all I have to say.

No. Not really. I’m going to go on for a bit more.

This is one of those patterns that I got a little advanced notice on Ravelry that it was coming out in the Nov/Dec issue of Crochet Today. I fell in love with the preview pictures I saw from Drew Emborsky (the designer). I knew the issue wasn’t going to hit the shelves for a couple of weeks but I immediately asked him for the yardage needed so I could scope out yarn (you can read about the yarn scoping/buying pain here).

Once all the Christmas gifts were completed I was finally able to get started on the vest. The pattern worked up fast and easy. It’s the perfect introductory pattern for your first garment piece. Just six strips created by a nice non-coma-inducing alternating stitch (Don’t you just hate those patterns that use one stitch for a long-ass time?). Stitch the strips together, edge those suckers and bam, a vest.

I chose Lamb’s Pride worsted-weight yarn in Sable and Roasted Coffee colors. It’s a great wool and mohair blend, easy to work with no splitting.

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