Work from home and roll around on the dining table to show how exciting it all is:
About Karen
Posts by Karen Kaminski:
Friday Links
1. This is the most accurate thing I’ve ever read:
But hey! It’s the last day of January. We’ve almost made it.
2. It’s a leap year this year so why not try a 29-day challenge for February? Austin Kleon proposed it and makes the case for February being the time for resolutions anyway.
3. Via this article by Mike Monteiro (which is great), I learned that the CWA–my daddy’s union!–is helping video game and tech workers organize.
..the industry’s practice of making employees work 100-hour weeks for months on end to finish a game in time for the preset delivery date, often without extra pay—a practice known as “crunch”—came under fire in discussions among workers, as did the rolling layoffs that come when companies staff up and shed jobs to fit cyclical production schedules.
Go for it, friends! You can’t scare me, etc.
Opera Stuff
I didn’t write about it here but I saw Akhnaten in the Met Opera simulcast back in November and it was incredible: A countertenor, a dozen jugglers, everyone moving in slow motion while singing “ah.” These things don’t sound like they would add up to anything other than “weird” but it was deeply moving and amazing to see.
I just found (via Kottke) this short video from Vox about how the production came together. I love behind-the-scenes/rehearsal footage so it’s right up my alley, but it also gives you a little peek at the costumes and some of the choreography.
Buy It Or Make It? Knit Set
After burning all my skinny jeans, I have knit things on my radar and have been seeing “knit sets”–a relaxed sweater and a matching sweater-knit skirt–at fast fashion places like ASOS. (I’m not linking because 1. fast fashion and 2. each piece is $40 and that is highway robbery.)
These look comfy! And warm! And versatile! And like something you could make with this fabric (or this, if you don’t want to buy from Amazon-owned Fabric.com)…. 
…and this pattern, all for about the cost of ONE piece from ASOS. 
Hooray, sewing! And hooray, clothes that don’t leave button marks on your muffin top.
Tuesday Project Roundup: Pants For My 40s
This was a conversation I had with my friend recently and let me tell you, I was FEELING this sentiment:
All of my skinny jeans are too tight (I now have an “athletic” build, a.k.a. “exercise butt”) and coming home at the end of the day and changing out of those leg-prisons and into the soft knit joggers I’d recently made was heaven.
Then I saw that my favorite company, Nooworks, had launched knit joggers in their fantastic prints and I had a lightbulb moment: First, I would burn my too-tight jeans, and next I would find a good printed knit and make myself some STRETCHY PANTS that are still work-appropriate.
The smug look of someone who goes to meetings in pajama pants
These are the Greenstyle Brassie Joggers again, quickly becoming my favorite pattern. I went up one size from my lounge pair for maximum comfort/work appropriateness, but they’re a hair baggy (I’m not complaining, though). The cotton knit was a lucky find from Fabric.com–it’s European, I think, and is light without being flimsy.
This were my first time making the Brassies with the zip pocket variation and the instructions were excellent. Just look at that tidy finish: 
I love my new non-jean pants so much. I’ve been scouring the internet for more cool printed knits. I have a plain black ponte pair on the machine right this minute. It’s a whole new world of stretchy pants!
Beating Winter Blues (With Greens)
There’s been far less snow on the ground this year compared to last year, but I’ve still reached the point in winter where I’m so sick of browns and grays and need to see green. So we went to Red Butte. There wasn’t a lot of green outside but their big greenhouse–the Orangerie–didn’t disappoint.
They even had orange blossoms!
Friday Links
1. I just discovered the work of artist Nathaniel Russell (via Austin Kleon). The “Fake Fliers” section of Russell’s is amazing:
2. Speaking of hair, I need to schedule a haircut in the next month or two. Should I get bangs? Is it time? This Man Repeller article says it might be:
Judging by how well the haircut turned out, I’ll be taking more risks in the future. I think this shag will be my gateway to loosening up in general. Looking back, I realize that I shouldn’t have been so nervous, and I wish I had chopped it off sooner.
Thursday Poem
This is another from Matthew Ogle’s Pome newsletter. After talking about the hard work of living and growing this week, it seemed appropriate.
Spiderweb
From other
angles the
fibers look
fragile, but
not from the
spider’s, always
hauling coarse
ropes, hitching
lines to the
best posts
possible. It’s
heavy work
everyplace,
fighting sag,
winching up
give. It
isn’t ever
delicate
to live.
Kay Ryan (2010)
Back To Sewing: A Fuzzy Coat
Every time I sew I’m glad my mom taught me so much about it. There isn’t a project I make where I don’t use a technique I remember her showing me. In this case, it was pattern matching while cutting out the fashion fabric:
It’s a good thing the pattern matching looks so professional because the rest of this really isn’t my best work: That fleece was so soft and thick and stretchy it was nearly impossible to sew nicely, and of course it didn’t press into shape like a wool coating. However, I love it and it’s the warmest coat I own. (It ought to be; there’s an extra 4 inches of fleece around me. This coat is BIG, both size- and fashion-wise.)
As planned, I used Simplicity 8797 and graded from a small at the shoulders to a medium at the hips; there’s still a ton of ease and I think a straight size small would have helped reduce some of the bulk. The fleece is from JoAnn and it’s super-soft but, as stated above, extremely difficult to sew–it’s literally an inch thick. My serger did the lion’s share of the work, as the walking foot on the Bernina kept wanting to get caught in the pile.
Thankfully, it was a simple pattern and it went together really quickly. I found some one-inch black snaps and disguised them on the black stripes for a closure and have been wearing it every time I want to be warm and/or make a STATEMENT.
A Year And A Day
Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of my mother’s death. I didn’t write anything yesterday because I can’t adequately express how a loss like that cuts your life in two (I still can’t). Everything now is either “before” or “after” and as much as you ache to go back to the “before,” you can’t.
I didn’t start therapy or medication until she was sick; I’m not sure how much longer it would have taken me to do it if she’d stayed well. I struggle so much with that: I don’t want to admit something good came out of her illness, but she’d be so proud of the work I’m doing. At the same time, I wish I had the tools I have now to use in our relationship when she was alive.
I know Mom would be proud of the whole family–I am, too, for not just getting through it all but also coming out stronger. We are gentler with each other. We are more open. We talk about feelings with each other more than I ever have in my life (much to my family members’ chagrin sometimes, but hey, therapy works!).
I don’t expect living without Mom to get any easier going forward, but it’s slowly, slowly becoming the new normal. That new normal has us closer to tears than we were before, but we’re also finding ways to enjoy this new “after.” She would have wanted that.
We miss you, Mom, and we love you.