When I consider how my light was spent, I want to know that I did it myself.

Over the past year I have spent copious hours learning how to make things myself, completely homemade. Though I have not yet successfully dyed my own yarn (or spun it for that matter) I have advanced my knitting abilities dramatically. I have learned many techniques, including how to alter patterns to my fit own preferences. Recently, I just learned how to make my own dried onion/garlic powder, how to churn my own butter, and how to infuse vodka with my favorite flavors. While reflecting upon my new found skills, I wonder why these skills require spending hours on Google. Don’t get me wrong, I am wonderfully happy that Google exists to aid me in my new discoveries, but it is a shame that simple recipes, such as making homemade butter, has turned purely into a lesson of how to get the best package deal at the grocery store. Since I live in an apartment, I am unable to grow my own herbs, so I have to get my raw goods from an outside source anyway, but whenever I give someone a gift that I knit or offer them dinner with my own homemade foods, they are more grateful than I could ever imagine. And that is worth taking the extra step in making things just a little more homemade.