It’s Friday! In the last half of summer! Go find a pool and enjoy it while you can.
1. A little bit about Viking textile production–a women’s industry–and how that made the entire culture go.
2. Aw. Trucker beats smoking addiction with knitting. (Via one of Karen Templer’s link roundups.)
I don’t talk about my love of Frank Herbert’s Dune universe very much because it’s just too hard to explain, but this piece from The Outline does a good job summing up why it’s hard to sum up and why it’s the best thing to love: The Only Good Online Fandom Left is Dune.
Beyond that, Dune is not a corporate cash cow, and being a fan doesn’t carry with it that icky feeling you’re doing an unpaid PR internship for Disney or AT&T Time Warner. You’re not being cultivated when you make a Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohaim Appreciation Thread, the way you are when you do something similar for, like, Harley Quinn or Groot. Nor are you helping billionaires whitewash their crimes if you point out politically positive aspects of the series, like its environmentalism or its bone-deep skepticism of leader cults.
Also, the article linked to the Dank Dune Memes Twitter account (yep) and it’s my new favorite thing. There never was a more accurate image for me:
It’s Lughnasadh/Lammas/the mid point between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox today. This week I’ve noticed that we don’t have the lingering evening light past 9:00 anymore. When Toby gets me up at 5:30, it’s a lot darker.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
(Don’t take the advice in that poem literally, of course)
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.
…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.
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.
…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.
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.
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:
What I still have to do:
What’s changing:
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.
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.