Another Sweater Bandwagon

By in knitting, Tuesday Project Roundup

I’m making something for my nephew and the yarn can’t be itchy, so I ordered the rainbow of Lion Brand Wool-Ease that I posted last Monday. While I was checking out, I threw in 6 balls of the Wool-Ease Thick & Quick to make a super-fast seamless sweater for me (or, the opposite of my Cline sweater, which is now seamed but still needs a neckband, longer sleeves, and another wet blocking to see if the sleeve caps unpucker or if I have to re-seam them).

I was pondering the Knitatude “Beginner Raglan” for my bulky yarn when Karen Templer posted about a pattern from Good Night, Day–the “Moonsonee Sweater”

As Karen said in her post, “Every detail is just right — the yoke depth vs body length and sleeve proportion … they just work. And the way she’s styled them here has my name written all over it.” INDEED.

I have to finish my nephew’s knitting but I’ll be starting this by the end of the month. Another year, another sweater directly inspired by Other Karen. That’s not creepy at all, right?

 

 

 

 

Friday Links

By in Friday Unrelated Information

1. Everything is mental health now! Even Peanuts! But seriously, this was a nice Twitter thread appreciating how open the comic was about poor Charlie Brown’s depression.

2. Kimberly Harrington has a magnificent satire up on McSweeney’s (in response to Jerry Seinfeld’s interview about Louis C.K. and “tense times in comedy,” linked in her piece). It’s written as a Seinfeld episode and not only is the voicing spot on, there are some sick burns in there, too. Seinfeld Ep 181: “The Grovel”

ELAINE
By the way, what was he even doing at the club
last night? I heard he spends all his time riding
around in his friend’s fancy car, drinking coffee.

JERRY
He dropped in for a surprise set.

ELAINE
So he’s still taking himself out in front of people,
even when no one asked him to.

KRAMER
Good one.

Thursday Poem

By in poems

Since it’s unofficial Mental Health Week, here’s a poem about finally feeling better. Luckily, my struggles have never been severe enough to make me consider suicide (parents! please don’t worry!) so this doesn’t apply literally–but the joy and the sheer relief are spot on. “Every day I wake up with my good fortune.”  Hallelujah, indeed.

 

Hammond B3 Organ Cistern
by Gabrielle Calvocoressi

The days I don’t want to kill myself
are extraordinary. Deep bass. All the people
in the streets waiting for their high fives
and leaping, I mean leaping,
when they see me. I am the sun-filled
god of love. Or at least an optimistic
under-secretary. There should be a word for it.
The days you wake up and do not want
to slit your throat. Money in the bank.
Enough for an iced green tea every weekday
and Saturday and Sunday! It’s like being
in the armpit of a Hammond B3 organ.
Just reeks of gratitude and funk.
The funk of ages. I am not going to ruin
my love’s life today. It’s like the time I said yes
to gray sneakers but then the salesman said
Wait. And there, out of the back room,
like the bakery’s first biscuits: bright-blue kicks.
Iridescent. Like a scarab! Oh, who am I kidding,
it was nothing like a scarab! It was like
bright. blue. fucking. sneakers! I did not
want to die that day. Oh, my God.
Why don’t we talk about it? How good it feels.
And if you don’t know then you’re lucky
but also you poor thing. Bring the band out on the stoop.
Let the whole neighborhood hear. Come on, Everybody.
Say it with me nice and slow
no pills  no cliff  no brains on the floor
Bring the bass back.    no rope  no hose  not today, Satan.
Every day I wake up with my good fortune
and news of my demise. Don’t keep it from me.
Why don’t we have a name for it?
Bring the bass back. Bring the band out on the stoop.
Hallelujah!

Let’s Talk About Mental Health

By in let's talk

I’m eight weeks into taking an SSRI for anxiety and six weeks into cognitive behavioral therapy and I honestly feel like I’ve discovered a magic trick. If you’ve been on the fence at all about getting help, here’s my story–I hope it will help convince you, because it took a long time to convince myself.

I’ve been anxious my whole life. Even as a little kid I worried obsessively about things that were never likely to happen. As an adult, worrying about everything seemed like a normal way to live and people who didn’t were just too stupid to not worry. I had panic attacks. I judged everyone constantly and gave myself the worst of it. I lived with so much fear about the present, the future, relationships, job performance, planes falling out of the sky, car crashes, animal welfare, social situations, doing it wrong, where “it” could be literally anything…I COULD GO ON. And on. And on.

Here’s the kicker–I thought I was coping pretty well. It took a whole combination of things to push me to get help: My favorite coworker talked openly about his wife taking medication for anxiety, at length, many times over the course of a couple years (thanks, Karl). My mom was diagnosed with cancer this year, so “coping” got a little harder. And a loved one sat me down and said, in short, “You’re really negative and it’s hard to be around.”

I didn’t know until I was taking the GAD-7 survey in the doctor’s office that irritability and judgment were a symptom of anxiety. And I had NO IDEA that therapy–especially CBT–gives you tools to help change your thought patterns. This seems as obvious as realizing that getting enough sleep makes you feel rested, or that lifting weights gives you muscles, but mental health was a mystery to me–maybe because I was so profoundly unhealthy, or maybe because I heard depression discussed a lot more than anxiety.

So I’m talking about it here. SSRIs are, in my opinion, a miracle of the modern age. I’m not a zombie; I don’t feel like my issues have just been numbed. I’m still myself–but it’s so much easier now to not let that self spiral into worry/negativity when things get rough. Therapy is fucking hard work and I have lifetime of distorted thinking to change, but feeling stronger mentally makes doing that work easier. And that work is so worth it. I can already feel the difference.

If I know you in real life (or even if I don’t) and you want to talk to me more about this, hit me up. And if I can help you find a doctor or therapist, let me know. If you are struggling, hang in there. There’s people and tools out there that can help. I didn’t really believe that until two months ago.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Layers Of The 80s

By in sewing, Tuesday Project Roundup

I hit the “it’s cold and I have nothing to wear” wall hard this year. All my blazers are a little snug now that I have muscles and my office isn’t really a blazer office, anyway. So how to stay warm? Sew up some layers.

The 80s are back, if you haven’t noticed, and a mockneck under a shirt or sweatshirt is everywhere. So I made a couple True Bias Nikko tops.

The one on the left is an Art Gallery cotton knit, which is gorgeous quality. I’d seen the print a couple years ago and loved it but didn’t really sew knits at the time. Fortunately, I was able to find some of the last on the internet at Let’s Sew. I only got a yard and a half so I had to cut the back in two pieces, and I went up a size and cut the neck a little bigger to make up for the fabric having less stretch than recommended. But it all worked out–1980s me and current me really love this one.

The one on the right is a rayon/spandex rib knit that’s really soft and cozy, even if it is a little sheer. It doesn’t have weird faces all over it but you really can’t argue with a vintage-looking striped base layer.

I’ve been wearing these a lot under shirts and cardigans and have a couple cuts of fabric coming to make more–because you have to have different color turtlenecks to coordinate with your layers. It’s the first rule of the 80s:

The Good Life

By in Toby, weekend report

It was a great long weekend–my brother did a bang-up job with Thanksgiving, we were all there to celebrate, I made a huge dent in some top-secret projects, my friends sent flowers, and the mountains got some snow.

There’s a lot that’s wrong in the world but there’s a lot that’s good, too.

Long Weekend Links

By in Friday Unrelated Information

Let’s call it the weekend already, shall we? Maybe, while we give thanks and our inboxes explode with Black Friday offers, we can also remember those who need some help (this broke my heart; you can help her specifically here, and other Camp Fire victims here). And if the holidays are hard for you, here are some tips:

(by People I’ve Loved)

 

OK! On to the links.

1. This long essay (on MTV.com of all places) includes deserts, aliens, owls as aliens, the Western spirit, John Donne…and a Spotify playlist. I didn’t know where it would take me next and I loved it:  Aliens, Archaeology, and the Atomic Bomb: A Road Trip Through the American West

2. This piece from the New Yorker–about how Greek and Roman sculptures were often painted, and why people just ignored that fact until recently–was fascinating: The Myth of Whiteness in Classical Sculpture

Knitting: It’s Slower Than Sewing

By in knitting

Remember that sweater I started in January this year and only posted about once in March, because it was going so slowly? Well, it’s still waiting to be finished.

 

As you can see, the bulk of the knitting is done, but I have to sew the seams now. And because none of the seamed sweaters I’ve made in the past looked great, and because I really want this sweater to be wearable, I’ve built up the difficulty of actually doing the seaming so much that I’ve just stalled out on it (much like creating a new portfolio site or getting a business off the ground, ahem).

However, as the sign in my office says, “Nothing will make you feel better except doing the work,” which is true of…everything, really. Including seaming a sweater. So I’ll take an afternoon this long weekend and get going on it.

Monday, We Blep At You

By in Toby

Toby says, “What? You’re not going to be home with me today putting out blankets for me to sit on? I don’t think I like that, Mom. I’d better stick my tongue out.”

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