Month: July 2018

Summer Of Basics #2: Hiking Pants

Karen3 Comments

I’ve had my eye on a pair of Patagonia “Happy Hike Studio Pants.” The style looked interesting for the trail but I wasn’t sure I’d like it enough to pay $79 to try it. Mostly, I wanted to see if I could make a convincing copy, so they went on the Summer of Basics list.

Well, what can’t that True Bias Hudson pant pattern do? I didn’t even modify it, just sewed it up in technical fabrics–a durable stretch woven from Rockywoods and nylon ribbing from The Rain Shed  for the waistband and cuffs (I had to get swatches for a color match–this is “Gargoyle” DSW and “Foliage Green” ribbing.)

The only change I made was to deepen the pockets by two inches and add a phone “holster” inside the main pocket, so my phone doesn’t move around as I hike.

 

Overall, it’s a pretty close approximation of the Patagonia pair. The Hudson pattern has some more fullness and I cut my waistband taller, since I thought I might want to fold it over when not wearing a pack. The Patagonia fabric  probably has a lot more drape, though. This durable stretch woven isn’t all that stretchy, so up until wearing these on a hike I didn’t think I would like them–too much fullness for too stiff a fabric (they don’t look like much on the hanger). 

 

But that wide ribbed waist is so comfortable under a pack, and those pockets are so functional, that I was totally converted. I don’t even care if they’re “too” full, they’re my new favorite hiking pants.

When You Really Want To Go To The Pool

Karen

…but you talk yourself into a hike instead (because: fitness!!) then decide the hike is too hot and get in the stream, you see some delightful things:

Hike rating: meh. Stream rating: 10/10, would play “Wind in the Willows” again.

Friday Links

Karen

1. Via Jocelyn Glei’s newsletter, a research article about the positive impact of sending thank you notes:

The senders of the thank-you letters consistently underestimated how positive the recipients felt about receiving the letters and how surprised they were by the content. The senders also overestimated how awkward the recipients felt; and they underestimated how warm, and especially how competent, the recipients perceived them to be.

2. Via just about everywhere, the National Geographic piece about “The Science of Sleep” is really interesting.

 

Everyone Knows About This But Me

Karen

…but I finally poked around Donors Choose last week and it is a great place to throw an extra $20.

I got there from Swole Woman’s Instagram, where she had found a teacher who wanted to incorporate lifting weights into his classroom and was spreading awareness to get him funded (he is!).

Then I started searching for terms like “sewing” and found so many classrooms (seriously, so many) that need supplies to teach kids the sort of basic Home Ec I just assumed was still going on…and teachers asking for clothing items for kids…and even things like toothbrushes and bars of soap.

On one hand, this will break your heart (and then stoke those fires of rage over how we can say we’re pro life and then not give two shits about kids who are actually born). On the other, you can help out where it’s needed, get a message from the teacher, and make a tangible difference for at least a few kids.

If you’re like me and just hearing about it, check it out! And if you’ve known about it for years, carry on.

Wednesday Poem

Karen

My kind of love poem is the kind that admits how messed up the world is and goes for it anyway. This is one to add to the collection. (Also, “intreasured” is a wonderful word.)

 

Fix
by Alice Fulton

There is no caring less
for you. I fix on music in the weeds,
count cricket beats to tell the temp, count
my breaths from here to Zen.
September does its best.
The Alaskan pipeline lacks integrity,
mineral fibers are making people dizzy,
we’re waiting for a major quake. Ultra-
violet intensity is gaining,
the ozone’s full of holes and

I can find no shade.
There is no caring less.
Without the moon the earth
would whirl us three times faster, gale-force
winds would push us down. Say
earth lost mass, a neighbor
star exploded — it’s if

and and and
but. The cosmos owns our luck.
Say under right and rare conditions,
space and time could oscillate.
I know what conditions
those would be for me.
I’d like to keep my distance,
my others, keep my rights reserved.
Yet look at you, intreasured,

where resolutions end.
No matter how we breathe
or count our breaths,
there is no caring less
for you for me. I have to stop myself

from writing “sovereign,” praising
with the glory words I know.
Glaciologists say changes
in the mantle, the planet’s vast
cold sheets could melt. Catastrophe
is everywhere, my presence
here is extra — yet —
there is no caring less.

2018 Make Nine Progress Report

Karen2 Comments

It’s a little more than halfway through the year (how?!) so I thought I’d check in on the 2018 Make Nine Plans. I’ve made good progress overall, but looking at what I actually wear, what I’ve actually made, and what I realistically have time to do in a busy second half of the year, I’m changing up the plan a little.

What’s done:

  • The Toaster sweater in that beautiful gray terry
  • The quilted Nani Iro jacket (I considering cutting those sleeves off and turning it into a vest, since I’m still not happy with them).
  • The Wiksten Kimono Jacket which I love and wear a lot (when it’s not 100 degrees).
  • Three different Adventure Tanks–I realize I only blogged the muslin so I’ll have to get some photos of the versions in bamboo jersey.
  • A linen Willow Tank. After that post I went back and re-did that darts, so I feel a lot better about it now and love that indigo color.
  • A muslin for the vintage jumpsuit pattern, which turned out so wearable I may call it its own project? Love this one.

What I still have to do:

  • It’s prime short-sleeve boxy shirt season so I know I should jump on the stripy Blaire shirt (top row center) but I’m having a hard time getting motivated.
  • My annual plaid flannel Archer can happen in October or November, so I’m not worried about that (left of the Blaire shirt).
  • I have fabric for the long sleeve version of the jumpsuit and it would be nice to have, but I’m not going to push hard to get it done this year.

What’s changing:

  • I had planned to make a longer denim duster (second from left, bottom row) to copy this one, and I still think I’d like one in my closet. But copying that artist with my Nani Iro jacket  made me feel small, so I don’t want to rip off another small manufacturer. I made that amazing jacquard Wiksten Kimono Jacket, so I’m saying that can fill the navy jacket slot this year.
  • I was going to try a lengthened Archer shirt dress (bottom right) in some precious Kokka twill, but I have worn a dress exactly once this year and felt uncomfortable the whole day. So I’m scratching the dress plans–that fabric can be another jumpsuit instead.

So there you have it! I never thought I would be a joiner on a social media challenge, but this has been a good way to get me to think about a “wardrobe” versus “what can I make next?!”.

Also, lists. I love anything that involves lots of lists.

Relaxing Weekend

Karen

There was a lot less going on this weekend–“just” the gym and cleaning the house and restocking groceries and seeing family and making a couple weeks’ worth of freezer burritos–along with looking at some wildflowers and an excellent sunset.

10/10, would repeat this weekend again.

More Sports Metaphors

Karen

It’s nearly the end of my first month with the trainer and while I’m so much stronger than when I started, I’m still working my way up to doing anything with the bar and real weight. This week I struggled, I was frustrated, I forgot my form, everyone else in the gym was stronger than me and knew what to do already, lifting was hard and was (by design) never, ever going to get easier.

Then my work bro, who also lifts, sent me an essay by Henry Rollins (yeah, that one) and oh look! We have another post about doing a hard thing in a sport that is really about doing hard things in life and embracing the struggle, not fighting it. (If I get nothing else from learning to lift, I will have gotten so much blog content from it.)

Joking aside, though, it’s a pretty great essay–kind of a “Zen and the art of lifting.” From Iron and The Soul:

I used to think that it was my adversary, that I was trying to lift that which does not want to be lifted. I was wrong. When the Iron doesn’t want to come off the mat, it’s the kindest thing it can do for you. If it flew up and went through the ceiling, it wouldn’t teach you anything. That’s the way the Iron talks to you. It tells you that the material you work with is that which you will come to resemble. That which you work against will always work against you.

Losing The Ego

Karen

Via Swiss Miss:

“Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river—small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.”

-Bertrand Russell