Better Living Through Literature

Boxes, Boxes, Boxes

October 18, 2023 By Karen in book arts

Last week I branched out into custom box sizes, using the formulas in my book to figure out how to make a box big enough to hold post-it notes. Did it work? Yes! Did I use the same formula/notes to make the red box and then the green box, but they ended up having slightly different overhang dimensions? Also yes!

But practice makes perfect, and I’m still practicing.

Fair warning now: If I know you, there’s a non-zero chance that your gift this year is going to come in a homemade box. (The green box is actually going to hold carwash tokens for my friend’s traditional Christmas gift; I used paper from his store for it.)

Quick Project Roundup, Childhood Prints Edition

October 17, 2023 By Karen in sewing, Tuesday Project Roundup

I decided I needed some in-between tops that had more heft than a t-shirt but less than a sweatshirt, since the mornings are cold but it’s still warming up for the afternoons. I also had some knit pieces that I’d impulse bought over the last couple years and then thought, “What am I going to do with these?”

Turns out you can make a Serious Business Lady turtleneck in a pegasus print and a long sleeve top with French darts covered in Rainbow Brites:

The pegasii are a Euro knit from Jumping June, in a test of the Wardrobe by Me Trudy Turtleneck. The pattern delivers on its promise of a classic fit, but next time I make it I’ll need to do a full bicep adjustment (the hazards of being TOO SWOLE).

Rainbow Brite is a much lower quality knit from a place called Purple Seamstress Fabrics, but that almost doesn’t matter because RAINBOW BRITE. I used the Named Patterns Sloan Sweatshirt for this one–a sweatshirt shape in a regular-weight knit is something I saw Nooworks doing and it’s such a smart idea.

I’d almost forgotten how fast knits are to sew. Next up, some fancy sweatpants to pair with my new, inner-six-year-old-approved tops.

Orange!

October 16, 2023 By Karen in nature

The aspens higher up are losing their gold leaves but the maples this year are so brilliant. We had sun and blue skies to really show off that orange:

Friday Links

October 13, 2023 By Karen in Friday Unrelated Information

1. The best thing I read this week about the violence in Gaza: Isaac Chotiner interviewing Tareq Baconi, the president of the board of the Palestinian Policy Network. I’m just going to pull quote an entire exchange:

Many of the anti-colonial or revolutionary figures we revere—Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress come to mind—did use violence to achieve their ends. And I think there’s a naïveté today about how often groups throughout history have used violence. At the same time, when I hear Israelis say things like, “People in Palestine are animals who will be treated as such,” or when I hear the reports about dead children in Israeli towns, I sometimes have trouble thinking of this as military strategy, or some part of a coherent political struggle with clear ends in mind. It often seems like sadism. And I don’t know how we should think about these acts in the context of larger struggles, even larger struggles we support. How do you wrestle with that?

It’s a really important question and, I think, a very, very difficult one. I grapple with it every day. What you’re saying is absolutely right. There was no anti-colonial struggle or struggle for decolonization without violence. Part of the issue here is that it’s really important for us to go back to centering the primary cause in any anti-colonial struggle, which is colonial violence. It’s crucial to ground the discussion in that context because Hamas’s violence isn’t coming out of the blue. And part of the issue around, as you say, sadism, is that Palestinians have, day in, day out, been living with death and violence.

This is the first time I have been interviewed by The New Yorker, and it’s happening because Israelis were killed. What happened when Palestinians were killed in the thousands, just in the fifteen years that I’ve been covering Hamas? And so, when we really want to think about what this driver of violence is—and the pictures that have been coming out are sickening—we need to understand that colonial violence instills dehumanization both in the oppressor and in the oppressed.

2. The second best thing I read about it: David Klion’s Have we learned nothing?

3. No Context Noir continues to deliver:

Delighting In Things

October 12, 2023 By Karen in essays

This Heather Havrilesky essay came through my inbox about the same time I started the current book/box hobby, and this definition of “dilettante” in it floored me:

“Did you know the word dilettante comes from the verb ‘to delight’?” my friend asked. “As in, to delight in many things at once.”

“Wow, really?”

“Yeah! People get so hung up on mastery, when all that really matters is delight.”

“People get so hung up on mastery, when all that really matters is delight.” You don’t have to be good at your hobbies. You don’t need to gain all the knowledge on every subject. Just do them and be delighted.

(The rest of the essay is pretty great, too–less about hobbies than about staying open to delight, which pretty much translates to noticing and showing up. Yes.)

Like Legos, But With Glue

October 11, 2023 By Karen in book arts

I finished another project from the Constructing and Covering Boxes book. The book outlines every step you need to do and gives you all the measurements, so all you have to do is follow the instructions… and we know how I feel about that.

You even start with rectangles!

And you end up with something pretty impressive!

It’s interesting to compare this new hobby to sewing–there was a learning curve on the different papers, just like figuring out which fabric is best for which project. (This Florentine jewelry print is much thinner than the Japanese paper I used before so it wasn’t as forgiving when being glued). There’s figuring out how much material you need–I went through a whole half yard of bookcloth (I thought I’d use half of that). And much like pressing during sewing, you can really improve how things look by just rubbing them with a bone folder.

You can also see how box making evolved straight out of bookbinding: this is the base and lid for the box, but it could also be a hard cover for a (giant) book:

Look at how those pieces all fit together! Exactly like Legos–or even a quilt–but a lot faster.

Tuesday Quick Palette Cleanser

October 10, 2023 By Karen in sewing, Tuesday Project Roundup

My sewjo has been low lately, both because of that terrible pack sewing experience and because my brain is focused on COVERED BOXES. But I got an email last week that Grainline had 20% off their Field Bag pattern, and I had a kit (for a different bag) sitting around that had fabric and webbing, and I knew Grainline’s instructions would be impeccable. So I bought it and sewed it up in an afternoon.

I’m sharing the pattern illustration both because I didn’t get really detailed photos and because this is how it’s done. That LearnMYOG guy should take notes.

The webbing in my kit was wider than what the pattern called for, but it works. I like how it looks like a little pumpkin when it’s all gathered:

And it matches all my seasonally-appropriate sock projects:

It Only Takes One Visit

October 9, 2023 By Karen in gardening

I spent Saturday morning in the greenhouse at the arboretum and the rest of the weekend being a Plant Lady. I was there with my sister-in-law to learn about forcing bulbs, but the class let us wander around their giant working greenhouses afterwards and it inspired me to step up my care of the potted plants at home.

Bulbs ready to bloom… in about five months. (I don’t know why I thought forcing bulbs was fast, but now I know. And I got sources for heirloom paperwhites that don’t need the long cold period.)

The greenhouses were massive, big enough to devote a corner to water plants:

This lovely thing was called a snail vine and was growing on a 12-foot tuteur. It had just been moved in for the winter and the fragrance was astonishing:

Back at home, I topped off the houseplants with fresh soil and fertilizer and put some smaller orchids in fancy pots with moss. Then I moved outside and cleaned up the sad, heat-baked containers. (I had a pretty strong start with spring bulbs but the summer planters weren’t impressive.)

I’m trying again for fall though–I went to the wholesale nursery and got some ornamental kale and pansies, and will pick up some decorative gourds on the next Trader Joe’s trip.