Tuesday Project Roundup: New River Shorts

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I finished my new active shorts in time to take them up to the river last weekend! Here they are doing what I love the most, Getting In The Water.

 

These are the Road Trip Pattern Co. Sierra Shorts. This is my second RTPC pattern and I’m a fan–professional instructions and drafting and I didn’t have to modify the fit. (However, I did go up a size based on the finished garment measurements, because I’m in my Giant Pants Era: I measured a 12 but as drafted that only had 1.5″ of ease, so I went up to a 14.)

The pattern has nice details, like the front cargo pockets that are big enough to hold a phone and instructions to use a mesh lining for the main pocket backing. I added a key loop to one front pocket and velcro to the back pocket so I don’t lose anything if I fall in the river.

The pattern would be a convincing Patagonia dupe if made in a solid color, but I found some print microfiber boardshort fabric from Fashion Fabrics Club to test the pattern with. I added a belt and belt loops because in my experience, wet elastic and cargo pockets means your shorts are going to fall off.

I put the belt and pocket lining to the test with a quick cold plunge and these were as comfy as cold wet shorts can be.

Learning From The Elders

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I asked my dad to pass on his electrical knowledge and help me get another outlet in the garage and some better lights … and by “help” I mean “end up doing all of it while I watched.” I had planned to be more hands-on but there was a lot of knowledge to be imparted and Dad had all the experience (and all of the tools), so I ended up asking questions more than anything else.

I felt bad watching my father, who will be 79 in five days, run up and down a ladder, but I think I did learn some things and now there’s an outlet right by the toolbox. Plus he did the groundwork for the lights I installed after I sent him home–when I vacuum my car out next, I’ll actually be able to SEE it!

 

As always, Dad, thanks for your knowledge and tools and supplies and labor. Remember, passing your skills on by doing things for your daughter is a way of living forever. 😇😆

 

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A post shared by Arleta Kay Didier (@grannybibbins)

Accessorizing Your Toolbox

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I got my orange tool chest a few years ago from Harbor Freight but I only recently learned they make accessories for it. Shown here: A magnetic tray, a magnetic paper towel holder, and a magnetic power strip, and on the other side, a fold-out table and a magnetic hook.

 

I don’t know why these make me so happy–maybe it’s the idea of Harbor Freight saying, “You know, manly toolbox-owning men really DO want to color-coordinate their manly toolboxes.” I guess the urge to optimize/organize is genderless.

AI Could Never

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AI anxiety is a theme here lately because I’m pretty sure a lot of my industry is going to get replaced by it in the near future. I don’t think it will be forever because these tools suck, but I’m brainstorming different ways to make a living for a while. Like being a wallpaper collector?

OK, maybe that’s not a real job but just look at these samples from the collection of Susanne Lipschutz, who actually did make wallpaper her job for many years (I remember an early-2000s feature in Martha Stewart Living!). I saw this older Messy Nessy Chic profile of her last week–old enough that the links to her larger collection were broken, so I had to look it up. If you want to scroll through 11 pages of glorious designs and ponder your career choices, go for it.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Seasonal Knitwear

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I put my pink sweater aside for a few weeks and knit up a summery little top that I finished during the season it’s meant to be worn (I honestly think that’s a first for me in 20+ years of knitting).

A woman wearing burgunfy stripe pants and a sleeveless boatneck navy knitted top takes a mirror selfie

This is the Sidewalk Top – Texture pattern in Gepard “Cotton Waves” yarn and I love the nubby fabric the yarn makes:Flatlay of a navy knit boatneck sleeveless top in textured yarn.

My only mod was to add half an inch to the length of the back before joining in the round to make a forward should adjustment. I was just winging it but it worked out–I’m really happy with the fit.

This was incredibly fast, even for me; it’s knit on big needles and has zero finishing at the end, so once you weave in the ends, you can wear it.

Was I so excited about finishing something in season that I cast on another summer project over the weekend? Obviously! Will I be able to finish that one before it gets cold? I guess we’ll see!

Did You Know?

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Did you know you can bring a chair up to the stream in Millcreek and just SIT in the WATER all afternoon? (Or until your butt goes fully numb, whichever comes first.)The legs and feet of a man and a woman propped up on rocks in a stream

A woman sitting on a low camp chair in shallow part of a stream. Her feet are up on a big rock that the water is cascading over. Trees are in the background.

I spent all week thinking “I should go to the pool more, we need to go to the Uintas, summer is winding down…” but this afternoon was a good slow-down and a reminder to throw the comb away. A numb butt is very grounding.

Friday Links

Karen

1. Red alert: Gap is re-releasing their 90’s fragrances. Obviously I need to buy some and smell the Grass one again and see if I’m transported back to 1995.

2. Here’s Dan Sheehan on airport lounges:

The product that airport lounges offer turned out to not be a luxurious alternative to the airport, but rather a fulfillment of what reasonable expectations for an airport would be. The experience is defined not by the consumer’s objective standard of a fancy lounge (a club for admirals!) but by the neglected hellscape that surrounds it.

3. Look at this orange cat version of Pinky and the Brain I saw on the Best Friends site this week. (I thought I wanted a dog? I thought it was too soon? But just look at them!)

Thursday Essay

Karen

This is disturbing and infuriating but wow does it make an excellent larger point: These assholes expect no pushback. It’s part two of The Ink’s look into Epstein, so be prepared for your stomach to churn, but Anand Giridharadas methodically connects the dots between “rich and powerful” and “predator.”

It is a different experience of life never to have to wait for your turn on the ski lift. Never to have to contend for space in the overhead locker with another person. Never to have to be charming to get into a restaurant. After a time, one imagines, all the not-having-to-dos will change you. You will become less capable of exerting yourself in ways you once did without a care. And one can even dig deep and muster the empathy to appreciate that, the smoother and easier and more frictionless many parts of your life become, the more intolerable is whatever continues to resist you. It may be no accident that the time of gaining access to this more resistance-free ecosystem often correlates with the time of second and third wives. (When no one talks back to you but your wife, you upgrade — although these “upgrades” are never complimentary.)

And later, in an interview with former FTC chair Lina Khan:

…there does seem to be a class of people in this country that have for too long enjoyed a level of elite impunity. And no matter what the domain of their wrongdoing, they have enjoyed protection. They have protected one another.

[…] For a lot of these individuals, they have come to occupy positions of power that really do surround them with people who are constantly enabling every whim and desire, be it in their personal lives, be it in their businesses. And so to actually have to reckon with law enforcement or people holding them accountable—it’s a very foreign and offensive experience for them.

 

Seems like the rich have forgotten to be afraid of the poor…