Month: February 2021

Black History Month

Karen

I follow Rachel Cargle’s Instagram and for the month of February, she’s been putting up events and culture related to Black History Month to google on your own.

It’s been eye opening and uncomfortable to realize how much I don’t know about either Black history or culture. And that quick daily search usually leads me to more links and more I didn’t know about. And I think back to how entirely whitewashed my education was and how I didn’t think there was anything wrong with that.

So I’m sharing a little of my journey here, not to get “woke points” but just in case your education was similar to mine. This is what I’ve just researched in the last week that I never heard about in school:

and, to end on a note of Black joy, I listened to the “Black national anthem” for the first time, Lift Every Voice and Sing.

 

 

Buy It Or Make It? Print Parka

Karen1 Comment

First of all, have you seen this (entirely sold out and nowhere near my price range) collaboration between Gucci and North Face?

The whole thing might have been engineered in a lab to appeal to me: Bright primary colors! Being stylish in the Alps! PRINTS ON YOUR PARKA!

Seriously, shopping for ready to wear outerwear is just all solids, all the time, and the colors you get are either teal, black, or olive. Shopping for outerwear fabric is a little better–I have neon orange softshell waiting to be sewn up right now–but I can only hope that this fashun moment will trickle down into more prints on the trail.

Until then, I found this DWR polyester while shopping for my softshell and I bet you could use it to re-create that Gucci lewk:

Jalie even makes a pattern for a puffer. Hmmm…..

Tuesday Project Roundup: January Socks

Karen

I finished the first pair of my Year of Socks just a couple days into February–so far I’m on schedule! (It helps that this pair is made with two strands of sock yarn held together, so it knits up twice as fast as a regular pair.)

These are the Thicksgiving Socks from Summer Lee Knits in sock yarn from my stash (I actually unraveled an ancient unfinished sock project to get that purple yarn and finally use it up). Overall, they might be a little big, but this pair is FINALLY long enough for my foot–turns out that I was starting the toe decreases way too early on all my other pairs.

I also made my first peasant heel and yes, they are super fun, but all the reading I did about the fit not being great was right. I found that NOT doing a kitchener stitch at the end and just drawing the yarn through the last 12 stitches helped them stay a little flatter. (Kitchener on the left, “top of a hat” finish on the right below. You can see my heel stitch pickup on the right/second sock is nicer, too:)

I feel like I’m off to a good start with my sock project and have already learned a lot. I’m trying the other Thicksgiving Sock variation for my February pair (in the same size, since I suspect the ribs in January’s might be throwing off the fit).

Sock science! 

Inland Ocean

Karen

We went out to the Great Salt Lake yesterday to see the mirabilite mounds that had formed. The mounds were cool–I had no idea there were underground springs–but I was really taken by the lake (again).

 

Maybe it’s the pandemic and the fact we haven’t gotten out much, but the lake on a windy, unseasonably warm day was beautiful. It reminded me a lot of the southern Utah desert–that high-altitude, late winter light, the blue distances, the spaciousness.

I don’t think I’ve had enough coffee to keep pretending to be Terry Tempest Williams, but consider this your recommendation to visit the GSL in the winter.

Friday Links

Karen

1. There’s some really good stuff in this Times article “5 Minutes That Will Make You Love String Quartets.” I think I’ll put on the full playlist they included at the bottom and remember why I love string quartets.

2. I saw this post this morning; sometimes what’s most helpful about therapy is just having that validation of “yes, this is hard.”

The trick is to keep doing the work.

 

3. I am…jealous of these capybaras. The first thing I’m gonna do after vaccines is have a spa day.

Meme Feelings

Karen

I thought I could blame January for a lot of my winter blahs…but we’re into February and even though it’s getting lighter, I just can’t even this week.

So here’s some Relatable Content I saved from Instagram about how my brain feels lately:
via

 

Yuuup–but substitute “schedule a dentist appointment” or “return that Madewell order” or “look into refinancing the house” instead. (via)

 

Yes, even though I got a PR last week and felt super strong, this week has been a struggle to get to the gym. (Also, that Drawinfrogs account is a delight.)

Good thing feelings aren’t facts and feelings will pass.

Craving Color

Karen

We haven’t had snow on the ground for more than a week this winter, which means all the brown and gray and dead lawn and plants are in full view. I am 100% sure this is why I’m shopping for neon yarn and fabric lately. I’ve bought a lot of yarn, but I am trying really hard to not buy fabric (because there’s nowhere to put it). Maybe blogging about it will help me not want to buy it?


I was idly clicking around Stonemountain‘s site and found this assortment of cottons that would look great together as a tiered ruffly top. Good thing I don’t have anywhere to wear a neon tiered ruffly top, or I’d have to buy all of these.

 

However, I DO go to the gym, and there is a lot of neon spandex over at Blue Moon Fabrics:

Hmmm… I go to the gym AND I’m about ready to buy a coverstitch machine. Maybe I DO need some neon fabric in my life.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Making Furniture Out Of Garbage

Karen

I finished this back in December (before I started in on Coatstravaganza) and put it on Instagram, but realized I never blogged it. This is the Closet Core Patterns pouf, which you not only sew from scraps, you stuff with scraps, too.

Waaaaaay back in the day (RIP, old blog pics), I tried making something similar from an Amy Butler pattern. It didn’t have a zipper. It was supposed to be stuffed tight with fiberfill. I was too inexperienced to realize what a bad combo that was, but you can imagine the difficulties. I never liked the finished product.

This (free!) pattern has a zipper and is stuffed with fabric. What a difference! I’d been saving big scraps, old homemade clothes that would be tricky to donate, old worn out/ripped clothes that would just get thrown away, and sooo many underwear muslins for quite a while, thinking I would either find a fabric recycling program or…make this pouf.

Long-time readers will see parts of some pants, a shower curtain, a living room curtain, a jacket, and an ironing board cover up there in the mix. I made my own giant piping cord to be fancy, and added a covered button in the middle to hide my points not perfectly aligning.

 

My pouf took the entire black bag (!) and most of the white (!!) initially; after about a month of settling I shoved the rest  of the white bag in. That’s about 25 pounds (!!!) of filling that would have ended up in the landfill or still be sitting in the basement.

It’s solid enough to be a real seat that you don’t have to warn guests about it, too. Highly recommend making this and putting your fabric garbage to good use.

Halfway Through

Karen

Today is Imbolc, the Celtic cross quarter day halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox. Light a candle and celebrate the days getting just a little longer. From the BBC:

Like many Celtic festivals, the Imbolc celebrations centred around the lighting of fires. Fire was perhaps more important for this festival than others as it was also the holy day of Brigid (also known as Bride, Brigit, Brid), the Goddess of fire, healing and fertility. The lighting of fires celebrated the increasing power of the Sun over the coming months. For the Christian calendar, this holiday was reformed and renamed ‘Candlemas’ when candles are lit to remember the purification of the Virgin Mary.