I feel this:
From Poorly Drawn Lines, one way to embrace the darkness: 
From Made By Nelson, a reminder that it’s ok to do less for this half of the year:
Hell yeah:
This is what the Redwall Life looks like (from Brambly Hedge):
Karen
About Karen
Posts by Karen Kaminski:
Covering Household Objects In Paper
I had a picture that didn’t quite fit the mat that came in the IKEA frame. I also had a stack of bookboard and decorative papers. So I cut my own mat and covered it in paper and now there is even more pattern in the living room. Win-win-win.
What should I cover in paper next? A tissue box cover? The frame itself?
Tuesday Project Roundup: Kaftan!
Reader, fabric choice makes such a difference: The Bonnet Shirt/Dress in a shirting was stuffy and nightshirty. The Bonnet in a tiger block print? Desert Aunt Kaftan Time!
I don’t usually make a pattern three times in a row but apparently I really like this one. The sleeve details are nice and the band collar makes it fast (the collar/placket reminds me of a J. Peterman linen shirt I had in high school; I’ll try to dig up a picture).
I was a little worried about making a dress, since I haven’t worn one in years but because this is a KAFTAN it’s easy to just throw on and walk around in. 
Swimming!
It’s been a stressful few weeks and this has been my brain–except all the outdoor pools closed after Labor Day.
But it’s also been unseasonably warm so we headed to the closest reservoir Sunday and Got! In The! Water!!
The water was cold but I did go all the way in and those Victorians were on to something–taking the waters really does help. It wasn’t too crowded (I can’t imagine it in summer though) and we even got to see sailboats!
Friday Links
1. It’s never too late: Norma Geddes took her first stained glass class at age 69. “Now 82, Geddes spends up to eight hours a day, seven days a week working in her studio.” Living the dream!
2. I can confirm from personal experience this is true (also these are great colors for a crazy stripe sweater):
3. The idea of leaves being criminals just makes me laugh (good tips in the post):
4. And finally, this is the best description of Afternoon Writers Brain I’ve ever heard:
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Thinking About Sounds
I found an archive post from Kottke talking about how loud the Krakatoa volcano was–apparently loud enough to burst the eardrums of people 40 miles away. From the article linked in that post:
The human threshold for pain is near 130 decibels, and if you had the misfortune of standing next to a jet engine, you’d experience a 150 decibel sound. (A 10 decibel increase is perceived by people as sounding roughly twice as loud.) The Krakatoa explosion registered 172 decibels at 100 miles from the source. This is so astonishingly loud, that it’s inching up against the limits of what we mean by “sound.”
The Kottke post also talks about how loud a Saturn V rocket is–“At very close range, the sound from the Saturn V measures an incredible 220 db, loud enough to melt concrete just from the sound“–and then finishes with an incredible fact that sperm whale calls reach 174 decibels?!
Thinking About Bright Stripes
Who else spends a not-negligible amount of time thinking about GAP’s holiday collections of 1999 and 2000? Just me? It was all so good, though. I didn’t own this sweater–I think it sold out before I could scrape together $48–but it haunts me.
Sewing/textile influencer Martha Moore recently posted about the third striped sweater she’d knit. They’re all giving 1999 Gap Crazy Stripe Sweater and that gave me Ideas.
The pattern Martha used is from PetiteKnit, the designer whose pattern gave me such a gorgeous finish on my green vest. It’s called the Aros Sweater (yes, you can make a dress; I won’t, I just liked the stripe colors in the dress more).
Thinking about what colors I’d use in my stripes is, of course, the best part. Every time I use the hot water bottle in its stripey cover, I get happy. So what if I used that as a jumping off point? 
The only impediments are my unfinished summer sweater, the pile of sock yarn to knit up, and finding a yarn that isn’t the least bit itchy (but not spending $480 on hand-dyed cashmere; I have more money than I did at 19 but not that much).
Tuesday Project Roundup: The Most Karen Fabric There Ever Was
I’ve been sewing up the block print fabrics I found on Etsy into Bonnet Shirts/Dresses and this fabric in particular brought me so much joy.
It is pink! AND orange! At the same time! AND has fierce tigers all over it! Perfect for all your Desert Aunt wardrobe needs; that tunic length will also be ideal for a swim coverup.
The fabric is also really forgiving to sew–it’s not a tight or fine weave so things just relax with steam, and it doesn’t get the wear creases that a real shirting fabric does. Naturally, I want to buy even MORE of it. (I don’t need more fabric.) (Put that on my headstone.)
And Now It’s Fall
We did another Friday afternoon hike and that golden light sure is something.
The colors are starting, too!
Happy Birthday, Alan
My big brother is 48 today! I look back on previous birthday posts to make sure I get the ages right (easier than math) and it struck me how lucky I am that my brother is good people.
Last year I wrote he was “utterly convinced about right and wrong,” and only reading it this year did I realize that also describes me. Two siblings with Convictions could be a recipe for disaster, but he has a Harris/Walz yard sign. I remember how upset he got hearing about Matthew Shepard long ago. He’s never liked cops.
We fundamentally agree, because we’re fundamentally the same–same parents, same memories, same genetics. He remembers what made me spit my milk out at dinner 35 years ago, I remember what upset him in our 20s. There are jokes online about “the mortifying ordeal of being known” and let me tell you, that is a sibling relationship in a nutshell. I’m just thankful to be known by a good person, who loves me, whom I love. Happy birthday!