1. I’m happy to report my toe is back to about 95%. Hooray for ibuprofen, rest, and sneakers.
2. Via Kottke, this is lovely and heartbreaking: “Closeness Lines Over Time,” by Olivia de Recat (buy it here).
3. And finally, you know I am here for writers being snarky and bossy and correct, so here’s Benjamin Dyer, Random House copy chief, telling you about ‘Close’ Proximity, ‘End’ Result, and More Redundant Words to Delete From Your Writing.
For Valentine’s Day, a poem by Ada Limón:
What I Didn’t Know Before
was how horses simply give birth to other
horses. Not a baby by any means, not
a creature of liminal spaces, but a four-legged
beast hellbent on walking, scrambling after
the mother. A horse gives way to another
horse and then suddenly there are two horses,
just like that. That’s how I loved you. You,
off the long train from Red Bank carrying
a coffee as big as your arm, a bag with two
computers swinging in it unwieldy at your
side. I remember we broke into laughter
when we saw each other. What was between
us wasn’t a fragile thing to be coddled, cooed
over. It came out fully formed, ready to run.
In addition to worrying about Toby’s ear (which is really slow to respond to medicine), this week’s stresses included a trip to Instacare Monday because I was afraid I’d broken my toe. The good news: it’s not broken. The bad news: it might be a neuroma, which is chronic.
I’m sitting out the gym this week–so my shoulders won’t be immediately getting broader–but I thought this piece of Instagram wisdom was good. It’s all about building resilience. And getting cannonball shoulders.
(via)
I finally finished the ninth item of 2018’s Make Nine list and moved right on to the first one of 2019’s Make Nine.
On the left we have an Archer button up, with the “popover” placket variation. I was so thrilled I figured out how to engineer the front placket so the plaid matched that I didn’t realize I cut it so it opens the “wrong” (man shirt) way. Oh well–still thrilled about that pattern matching. This is in a remnant from Stylemaker Fabrics, bought back in 2017.
On the right, we have a Nikko top in a nice cotton/spandex from Stonemountain. I hadn’t sewn any knit tops in a while and I forgot how fast they are–this was constructed in pretty much an afternoon.
January was, understandably, a hard month for doing things like sewing, or focusing, or enjoying anything, really–but it feels good to be getting back into the groove a little.
Approach it with the angry vigor of a cat whose mama has dared to put medicine on his ear.
1. Today marks eight years since I closed on my house. Honestly, I’m still a little amazed I was able to get one and take care of one. Is this how people feel about babies?
2. I know I’m getting older, but nothing reinforces that more than wanting to eat early, a development that only happened this year. Eater agrees that dining early is better, especially in restaurants.
3. Your longer read for the weekend: The Gym Isn’t Usually A Safe Space For Fat Women, But It’s Become My Sanctuary. I came to the gym as a weak and thin woman, but so much of this resonated with me:
Here’s to trying and eating early this weekend, my friends.
I’m not too proud to admit that I’ve saved a lot of encouraging images on Instagram and pull them up pretty frequently. Here are a couple on my mind this week:
A quote from Martha Graham, via Words of Women:
And this cartoon, which is PERFECT, from Sarah Andersen Comics:
Kottke posted about this Pixar SparkShort this week and, as a 13-year industry “veteran” who still has teams who are mostly men, it really hit me. As Kottke writes, “The story was inspired by Lester’s experience working in animation as the only woman at her company.”
In order to do the thing that I loved, I sort of became one of the guys. And then I came to Pixar and I started to work on teams with women for the first time. And that actually made me realize how much of the female aspect of myself I had buried and left behind.
Yes, it’s a fun eight-minute Pixar short and no, I don’t ACTUALLY think of myself as a pink ball of yarn, but Pixar knows how to make a potentially heavy-handed metaphor work.
I hope it doesn’t feel tone deaf to just hop back into projects and sewing and knitting. To me, it’s one of the ways I’m going to remember my mom: She taught me how to sew, she taught me everything I know about style, and she was always interested in what I was working on. The day before she died, she was asking what I was knitting and I showed her the new project and showed her these pictures of what I had just finished. She studied them and said, “That turned out so nice. You’ll get a lot of wear out of that.”
She was right, of course.
Details:
Cline Sweater pattern by Julie Hoover
Shepherd’s Wool yarn by Stonehedge Fiber Mill (“Storm” colorway)
Yarn purchased at Blazing Needles January 17, 2018
Sweater completed January 17, 2019
(PS, I was able to seam it up just fine, thanks to this tutorial)
Wow, was it a rough end to a rough week: Toby ended up at the vet Saturday because his ear was swelling with a lump (cue PANIC).
He’s fine–the vet thinks he bumped it somehow, but it’s been drained and the fluid wasn’t alarming and the swelling’s going down–but we took it easy on Sunday. No hikes, no socializing, just lots of naps and sewing.
