Talking Tuesday: Show Me Your Hindquarters, Let Me Hear You Roar (part 1)

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I've written several times about reading Madeleine L'Engle's Irrational Season.  It is a very very good book, but not one to be rushed through.  I find I can manage a chapter at a time, at best, and then I have to set it aside to think about it.  I finished another chapter Sunday night and it was so good that I wanted to share some parts of it for today.  In this chapter, titled 'Show Me Your Hindquarters, Let Me Hear You Roar', L'Engle writes about doubt, and faith, and about writing process in the midst of messy motherhood.  The book follows a liturgical year, and this chapter happens to fall in the Pentecost season so it felt especially timely to me.

I especially liked her thoughts on writing, being in the throes of it myself.   I do so much reading in service of the book, or even for its own sake, and I sometimes think I could be focusing on other things, but now I know: reading keeps the instrument in tune, ready to play.  Having rich language at my disposal, acquired through the meticulous reading of good and deep books, gives my instrument complexity and tonality it would otherwise lack.

"A writer grimly controls his work to his peril, manipulates only in great danger (to be in control of your technique is very different from being in control of the work).  Slowly, slowly, I am learning to listen to the book, in the same way I try to listen in prayer.  If the book tells me to do something completely unexpected, I heed it; the book is usually right.  If a book like this present one, a strange kind of book for a storyteller, pushes me to write it, I have not choice except to pay attention.  All I can do, as far as activism is concerned, is to write daily, read as much as possible, and keep my vocabulary alive and changing so that I will have an instrument on which to play the book if it does me the honor of coming to me and asking to be written.  I have never yet fully served a book.  But it is my greatest joy to try" (160).

I have also written that my book has been a difficult emotional and spiritual journey for me at times.  Sometimes it felt like the book was writing me rather than the other way round.  Did I create the book in order to process the struggle, or was I struggling because I was writing the book?  Hard to say. 

"I concentrated on my work because it was what saved me....When I was working on that first novel I was genuinely and painfully unhappy.  But during the actual writing I was at play; I was completely thrown out of my subjective misery into the joy of creation, so that what might have been a totally destructive experience became instead a creative one, and a freeing one.  I was freed during the writing as my book wrote me, not as I wrote it.  And surely this was an experience of that special kind of unity which makes me understand the Trinity.  The pages which built on my writing table were not me, nor was I typewriter and paper; but we were, nevertheless, one.  The same kind of collaboration can come when I read a book; the books which matter to me, to which I turn and return are those which read me.  The music I play, or listen to, is that which actively participates with me in harmony or counterpoint.  The same thing is true in graphic art.  There had to be an amorous interaction between the work of art and the person who is opening himself to it, and surely the relationship within the persons of the Trinity is one of Love, Love so real we can glimpse it only on rare occasions" (162).

To this last bit, I say: yes, exactly.  I have a visceral reaction to the things I love: books, music, art, movies; they are the things that make me, move me, change me, tell me of the truth of the world and beyond.  These things are in me.  It cannot be otherwise. 

I have more to write on this book, even from this chapter, but will save it for next time. 

All quotes from Madeleine L'Engle, Irrational Season, NY: Seabury Press, 1977.

York Dress

This is the York dress.  The end.  Just kidding.

This is a double gauze from Cloud 9 by Sarah York that was released earlier this spring.  I hesitated a LONG time over this fabric and then decided I didn't want to make anything from it and closed out my browser tabs.

But then I found out I was going to a June wedding in the Midwest, and realized sometime in April that I had nothing to wear to the wedding.  I remembered that fabric, and knew I could make a woven M7353 out of it.  I made my usual changes, but added an additional1/4" to the bottom back edge of the sleeve seam.  I like the extra room and incorporated this change into a linen version I made shortly after this one but haven't worn yet.

The fabric is beautiful, and double gauze is so soft, and I'm glad I made this dress, but I'm still not 100% happy with the fit on the sleeves.  It is just a wee bit snug on the bicep, although gauze does stretch with wear.  I haven't actually worn this all day yet, just for the photos, so I can't say for sure how it will feel at the end of the day.

But for the wedding, with some nicer shoes and better jewelry, I think it will do fine.

The print is so pretty, and it is nice to have something a little bit pretty for the summer, even if it isn't something I'm going to wear every week.  

I think what I'm finding for this summer rotation is that I really want to spend my week days in separates, and wear dresses to church.  At least, mostly.  So it is probably good that I only have a few dresses this rotation.  I'm still working on the skirt situation, as the three I started with are proving inadequate to my wants.  I made another one out of some long-stashed fabric last week but haven't worn it yet, so we'll see if it fits.  I have some dark olive-y green linen coming for another.  (Watch this space!)  I'm also keeping my eyes open on ThredUp for good finds, as I'm finding skirts to be rather wretched to fit at the moment (I love my Everyday skirt pattern, but sometimes I want a different silhouette and don't want to fiddle endlessly with a pattern to try it out).

So things to discover.  I'm also experimenting with make up a bit, as I need to wear sunscreen every day now, and it isn't too much to add concealer, eye shadow and mascara to the mix.  I'm trying to keep it fast and easy, otherwise I won't keep up with it.  I'm in such a weird place with my body and my physical appearance and getting older and...well everything, I don't know.  I just keep trying things to see what sticks.  I'm working on another body image-type post, but I need more time to percolate.

I also made two dresses for Birdie in the past couple of weeks.  Simplicity 8101 (aka Dottie Angel frock for girls).  I graded a size four out to the next size and added length and Bob's your uncle.  The leaves dress was made from left over fabric from my Blue Forest dress of last summer.  

I had bought enough to make the girls a dress in addition to mine, but ended up not making it last year since they had enough clothing.  It was nice to pull that fabric out and just cut her dress out quick-like.

I'm considering whether to add 3/4 sleeves to my dress to make it more wearable for me this year; it was one of the dresses to go into my fabric bin this year, even though I really like the print and fabric.

And the Carson dress fail is redeemed!  I cut off the bodice and used the (LARGE VOLUMINOUS) skirt to cut Birdie's dress.  Worked a treat, and was the right amount with a bit leftover.  

She loves it, and I love how it looks on her!  (I *almost* want to try again for myself, but am reminding myself that I am not what I enjoy looking at).

Finally, this is the difference between girls and boys:

Nice, cooperative, imaginative play.  For most of the afternoon on Saturday.  Bliss.

(The boys?  Not so much).

Yarn Along: Major John Andre Sweater

~knitting~

I'm making good progress on what I'm calling my Major John Andre sweater (aka Rivel).  I'm calling it thus because I've knit almost the entirety of it while watching (and rewatching) the first three seasons of TURN: Washington's Spies.  I discovered the lovely JJ Feild through the show, and his performance as Major John Andre is a treat.  I rewatched a lot of the first three seasons just to see the man work.

The back and fronts are both done and blocked, as is one of the sleeves.  I'm about 2/3 done with the second sleeve.

I'm debating seaming the sweater on my sewing machine vs. mattress stitching for the first few episodes of season 4.  I also have to pick up stitches for the collar and bands which are knit as one piece.  The cable pattern on this was easy and satisfying.  I want to make another one with a similar cable style.

~watching~

TURN, obviously.  (I should say for the record that I have some issues with the costumers on that show--the lack of female shifts make my eye twitch--but overall, I can overlook the faults for the good storytelling).  I'm curious to see where season four goes (it is the final one, so it will have to wrap up a bunch of things).  I watched a little clip on Youtube with Samuel Roukin, who plays the dastardly John Graves Simcoe, and was startled to discover that his normal speaking voice is quite different from the voice he uses for Simcoe.  In the clip, he talked about developing the voice for Simcoe and it was so interesting to hear his process.  His whole bearing and demeanor are so different from his character; I find the contrast fascinating.

I also finally started season 4 of Sherlock (I know, I know!) while I was sewing a skirt, and was gutted by the first episode.  The second episode kind of redeemed itself, and now I'm ready for the final one.

As long as I'm talking about JJ Feild and Benedict Cumberbatch, I must tell you about a fantastic movie with the both of them: Third Star.  It is from 2010, so before Cumberbatch was well known, and is an ensemble piece. The acting is MAGNIFICENT.  Seriously.  Watch it. 

I will say, Cumberbatch plays a young man dying of cancer (no spoiler; he literally tells you in the first three minutes), so not a pick-me-up kind of film.  The story is about a final trip he takes with his friends to see a beach in Cornwall or somewhere, but the whole thing is so well done.  (I will admit that the first 20 minutes are slow, but after that, I couldn't stop watching).  JJ Feild should have won awards for his performance--it is subtle and nuanced and the end of the movie is just...wow.  

But if you want fun JJ Feild, watch the new BBC Northanger Abbey (he plays Henry Tilney) or Austenland.  He is so good and fun in those two movies.  Austenland in particular is so funny and frothy.

I also rewatched The Deep Blue Sea with Rachel Weisz because it is just that good.  I'll be honest: I didn't get it the first time I saw it (around when it came out in 2012).  It seemed like a strange play-not-play, and I didn't like Hester's character at all.  (This is important because she is literally in every scene.  You kind of have to like her, or at least sympathize with her a little or the film is excruciating).  Having said that, I revisited the film last summer and really fell in love with it.  The complex story, rich orchestral score, and tight film style, all resonated with me.  I'm at a stage in my life where I better understand the characters and the storyline.

~reading~

I finished these three books in the past week.  I raced through Vodolazkin's latest (I received an advance copy from the publisher through a connected friend shortly after Pascha); it is so good.  The Aviator is quite different from Laurus, but deals with similar themes.  So much goodness there.

I've been reading Stark's Rise of Christianity for several months and finally finished the last chapter this week.  (I can't believe I let it sit with 10 pages left for so long!)  As I wrote previously, it is a sociolological study of why Christianity took over in the Roman world and spread so far and so fast.  Stark is an expert in religious conversion in societies, and his perspective was fascinating.  I also appreciated that his prose was so jargon free and accessible.  It was well worth the read; I highly recommend it.  So interesting.

The John Chrysavaggis book was research for the novel, and while there were some good things in it, it wasn't quite what I was looking for.  I'm glad I read it (it was a fast read--I finished it in a day or so), but I'm hoping that revisiting John Mack's book (Preserve Them O God) will give me more of what I'm after.  

This is my current stack (plus L'Engle's Irrational Season, which I've set aside temporarily).  Lila continues to astonish, and I've only paged through Prayer and Temperament, but I'm looking forward to getting into it.

In other book related news, here's the summer stack I've been collecting for the boys:

School lets out on Tuesday, so hopefully that will last them for a little while.  Piglet reads so stinking fast, it is hard to keep him in books.

And speaking of kids' books, we have many many kids' books at our house, at all different reading levels (three dedicated bookcases, plus four good-sized shelves).  One of the bookcases was a purchase during the big house painting project of 2016 and has had some problems almost from the moment we put it up.  I'm not sure if the guy I had put it together made a mistake or if we just had too many heavy books on it, but the back had bowed out rather badly on one side and one of the cam lock screws on the fixed shelf in the middle was no longer making contact, which meant all the shelves were constantly falling down.

I decided enough was enough.  This morning, I took all the books off the shelf (all of them!) plus the photo albums that were stored there, and unscrewed the book case from the wall and got 'er done.  It involved putting the shelf on its side and pulling some brackets off the back and some muscle power to get the cam screw to make contact, but in the end, I think it is stable again and reattached to the wall.  I took all the photo albums and moved them to a different book case in another room, and rearranged the books so that only one shelf was double stacked, and the heavy Childcraft books (the orange set) is on the bottom shelf (they were on the second to top one before).  There is also some room to grow now, where before there wasn't.  I did have to move some things from the other book case to make room for the photo albums, but it was mostly vertical file boxes of my husband's stuff that he never looks at anyway.  I put it on a high shelf in the closet in that room and it worked out okay.

I do regularly purge books, and try to keep them at a reasonable level, but I have four children who are all at vastly different reading levels right now, so we have to keep a lot of books at a lot of different levels at the moment.  In a few years, we can get rid of the easier books and just focus on young adult reading.  Expand and contract, expand and contract.  'Tis the way of things.

Joining Ginny for Yarn Along!

1-2-3-4

Firstly, I am pleased to report that after 3 years of trying and failing to eat one of my favorite meals (pot roast), I was successful last night!  I still have to be careful--small bites, lots of chewing, drink between bites--and the meat was very very very very soft, but that is a big boost to me right now!  I am still struggling a lot with my limited food options, and having one more thing in the mix is always so helpful.

Secondly, I must bring to your attention the excellent musician Kaleo.  I discovered the group last summer and bought their A/B album.  I tried listening to it in the car on a trip and I wasn't impressed.  The first track on the album is a super hard hitting rock song, and I didn't like it.  (I had found them on a pandora station and the songs I liked were more indie rock type--think Mumford or Lumineers).  I revisited the album recently and realized that about 2/3 the album is what I was looking for (coffee shop style indie rock) and the other third is that hard rock sound I don't care for.  So I put the songs I liked into iTunes for my ipod shuffle; I have been enjoying them for the past week.

Thirdly, I have a manuscript!  131,000+ words, 292 typed pages, and lots of holes that still need filling, but it is printed out and ready for revision and editing.  It feels momentous.  I blitzed through a few working sessions, focusing on putting all the text I had typed/transcribed in narrative order and integrating the flashback sections. (Until now, I've been toggling between four documents: writing, editing, revising, and trying to put things in narrative order all at the same time; consequently, it felt like I was trying to wrangle a spaghetti monster).  There is a YouTube channel that has alpha wave music for studying and I found it so helpful while I was working.  It certainly helped me stay on task.

Lastly, it is time for my epic watch list of the last six or seven months.  I've been compiling, but I just need to post it already.  I left out the ones I've already written about previously.

1. Spiderman: Homecoming: I enjoyed this film so much.  Lots of fun, great humor, excellent (and believable) villain (played with panache by Michael Keaton)

2. The Last Post: Great amazon series set in Arabia in the 1960s.  Very well done.

3. Complete Unknown: interesting and weird at the same time.  Thought-provoking.

4. Britannia: very uneven.  some weird casting choices and an odd mix of "period" and modern.  I don't recommend it for a number of reasons.

5. Beguiled: Sophia Coppola's Civil War gothic set piece.  Super weird.  I don't recommend it.

6. Tulip Fever: I know the reviews on this one are mixed.  I liked it, but I didn't love it.  The costumes were quite good, and there were some good performances.

7. Secret Scripture: this was a great film, although I found the ending a little unsatisfying.  I really enjoyed the story and the performances.  The main plot twist really did keep me guessing until the end.

13. Breathe: Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy are AMAZING.  I loved this film so much.

14. Closed Season: I rewatched this German WW2 film again this spring.  It is so good.  And I want Brigette's wardrobe.

15. The Battle for Sevastopol: about a famous Soviet female sniper in WW2.  Really well done, I highly recommend it.  It reminded me a little of Enemy at the Gates (which I also loved).

16. Swept from the Sea: this is an old favorite of mine that I rewatch from time to time.

17. The Promise: another favorite, in German about the Berlin Wall and two people who spend the entirety of the wall separated from one another.  It is a fascinating look at the two sides.

18. Bitter Harvest: this one was very uneven.  I like Max Irons, but I didn't buy him (or anyone else for that matter) in this period piece about the Soviet subjugation of Ukraine in the 1920s.  That said, I think it is an important movie to watch for the history, which isn't well known outside the region. 

19. Atomic Blonde: I wanted to like this movie but I just didn't.  It was too over the top with everything. 

20. Man from U.N.C.L.E.: this was a super fun watch and made me an instant Armie Hammer fan.  I had no idea he was such a large man (6'5").  I already liked Henry Cavill and I thought this movie was just a good old fashioned spy story in the best sense.

21. Oscar: another old fave; saw in the theater the first time!  It was a fun entertainment one night when my parents were here.

22. Walking with the Enemy: uneven but good; second half was better than the first. 

23. Murder on the Orient Express remake: I thought it was good.  I enjoyed the first one, but I only vaguely remembered the details, so I was able to enjoy the mystery and suspense in this version as well.

24. Red Sparrow: I was prepared to like this, because I loved the book, but oh man.  This film has so many problems I don't even know where to begin.  If I hadn't read the book, I don't think I would have understood one thing that was going on in the film.  That said, Jennifer Lawrence acted her heart out.  It wasn't her fault that the script was a bad adaptation and half the actors were miscast.

I still haven't seen Black Panther (I know!  I'm getting to it), and I am still in season five of The Americans.  I intend to finish it, but that show is pretty intense, so I need breaks.  I just finished season 3 of TURN: Washington's Spies, but needed a break before starting season four because of how the third one ended. I also want to watch the second season of The A Word (the first season was wonderful) and finish the Russian series The Red Queen.  I also want to see Aardman's Early Man and series 2 of The Hollow Crown which covers the second set of Shakespeare's Henry plays.

Music from Another Room

Did you ever have something on the edge of your consciousness that you knew was there, but you couldn't quite catch the thread of it?  Something you knew was important or possibly the answer to a question you've been pondering, but you can't....quite....reach....it.  I've had that sensation about Project 333 for some time now (and also about the novel, but that is another post entirely).  It's a bit like hearing music from a far-off room.  You can hear there is music, but not necessarily the tune or the words.  It can be crazy-making time.

I think it will come as no surprise to any long time readers that summer clothing is my bane.  I dislike hot weather in the extreme (I'm a huge fan of the Great British Summer) and I always feel like I can't get a summer "uniform" that I like and feel good in.  I frequently want to burn my summer wardrobe by August.  This year is the first year I've felt that way going into the rotation, so I've been having a bit of a think about it.

A few weeks ago, I discovered a YouTube channel by an independent French fashion designer living in Berlin called Justine Leconte.  She has a ton of wonderful (and short!) videos about figuring out your body type, dressing for your body type, figuring out skin tones and what colors are most flattering, thinking about shapes and hair styles and make up in terms of what is most flattering to your particular face, shape and color tones, rather than what is necessarily the visual ideal of the moment.  She is a fashion designer, so obviously she is interested in current fashions, but I found her videos to be so body positive and helpful.  I also appreciate the fact that despite being rail thin herself, she addresses all different body types, from thin to curvy and plus size. 

The one that got me thinking recently was her video about dressing yourself after body changes (lost or gained weight, pregnancy, getting older, etc).  She talks about when your body goes through a change, that often affects your sense of style and what feels good on your body, and that it is okay to let go of what isn't working.  It sounds simplistic, but it was quite helpful to me.

I've had a lot of body changes in the past eleven years.  Five pregnancies, nursing four babies, caretaking a rather sick child plus two others with special needs, tons of weight lost and gained, swallowing problems, multiplying allergy lists, GI issues, simply getting older.  I'm also still working on losing that last 15 or so pounds to get to my personal moonshot goal.  I've been pretty stable for about nine months, fluctuating a few pounds here and there, but mostly sitting around the same weight and shape.  It's not where I ultimately want to be, but it is a much better weight than where I started in 2015.

With those changes, I'm at loose ends with myself on a lot of levels.  (And I do hope that by nearing the end of my 30s perhaps I'm getting to the end of this constant cycle of existential crisis.  Because I'm sort of over it at this point.  I want to settle into something and be done with it.  I hear one's 40s are pretty awesome on this score). 

So here's where I am at the end of my spring rotation, staring into a summer rotation I'm not that excited about. 

Spring 2018

Clockwise from top left: brown cotton sweater, Calligraphy cardigan, coral cotton/wool cardigan, navy cotton cardigan; spruce knit dress, Mille Fleur dress, Dottie Pearl flannel dress, Motherdress cotton/linen chambray dress; blue long sleeve shirt, navy henley, blue/white striped breton, navy battenburg shirt, gray wool pullover sweater, green henley; First Light dress, Pascha dress, Magic Tulips dress, Painted Roses dress; Octopus dress, Navy Birch dress, black knit dress, Kermes dress; marigold linen everyday skirt, Hobby horse skirt; coral cardigan, navy cardigan, gray cardigan; Liberty #2 dress, Dandelion Zadie dress, Menagerie dress, Triangle knit dress

I wore almost everything in my rotation this time, and felt pretty good about what was in there.  I didn't wear my Birch dress more than once, and never wore the coral cardigan that goes with it because the weather didn't cooperate this year.  The Octopus dress got one outing, and it is going into the bin to cut down for Ponchik for next summer.  I didn't wear the green henley either, and I think the color doesn't suit me, but I like the shirt, so I'm keeping it for sleep wear for next year.  The striped breton isn't a good fit or color on me, so that one has to go (I also only wore it once for non-sleep purposes). 

I had a few things I did not wear or only wore once or twice, and I think it is to do with a shift in style.  Since I discovered the M7353, a lot of my other dresses have been a bit neglected.  And despite rescuing (and wearing) the Painted Roses dress, I think that one just needs to be cut down for the girls.  I don't like the way it fits after it has been washed, and I generally did not feel good in it when I wore it.  The Dandelion Zadie is also well and truly finished.  I retired the Cross Hatch denim dress as well; it never fit me properly, and the fabric hasn't worn well at all.

I did think I could have used an additional everyday skirt in a navy linen or something, but that was the only thing I consciously missed.  I do have some navy fabric in my bin that would work for a skirt, so perhaps I'll make that up for next year.  As per usual, I wore about half the clothes at the beginning (especially my flannel and knit dresses) and half at the end (especially the rayons) and that is okay.

Summer 2018

Left to right, top to bottom: denim pencil skirt, red rayon/linen skirt (unblogged), chambray everyday skirt; coral striped shirt, coral 3/4 sleeve shirt, white linen shirt, blue striped shirt, white linen bib shirt; blue striped rayon knit dress; feedsack Portrait blouses x 3; yellow, aqua, teal, and red cardigans; York double gauze dress (unblogged), motherdress cotton/linen chambray, kermes dress, blue check linen dress (unblogged)

A very lean rotation, I know.  I put the Periwinkle Birch into the mix originally and then took it out again.  I also put my Liberty #5 dress on a hanger in a separate but accessible place, because I'm not sure about that one.  I took out almost all the dresses I wore last year, because I'm just over them.  I put them in my fabric bin to cut down for the girls.  I'm pretty excited to wear that rayon striped dress.  It was a random Amazon tryout, and I think it might be a good one.  (It seems to run about a size small, as per these China-direct garments).  I might get another one or two in other colors if I really like it.

I'm focusing a bit more on separates this summer, and I'm trying to shift to very lightweight clothing that covers more of my arms.  I don't especially like my arms, particularly my biceps, and prefer to have them covered, but more practically, I am skin cancer waiting to happen, and having less skin exposed during the summer is not a bad thing, I think.  I still have some short sleeved garments, obviously, but I included more 3/4 sleeve options that I'm looking forward to playing around with.  I might make another skirt (maybe a white linen one), or I might not.  I sort of want to see how things go for a while.  I also have the option to pull any of my summer dresses from last year out of the fabric bin if I really miss one of them.  Right now, I'm not interested in anything from last year, but sometimes I hit August and want something fresh.  (On the upside, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to make a few things for Birdie this summer, so it is nice to have a ready supply of fabric she can choose from).  

I have two dresses planned for my fall (both knits) and a possible skirt and that is about it.  I've leaned down my fall quite a bit too and retired all but one of my eshakti knit dresses (they were all slightly too big, and no longer suited my style).

The Motherdress

I'm a bit behind this month--we celebrated Ponchik's birthday a week ago and I've been AWOL from the blog since early May.  What can I say?  Two birthdays, an anniversary, Ascension, general May madness.  It got away from me. 

First up is Ponchik's birthday dress.  I may have created a monster, as she asked me for a birthday dress months ago and was super specific about it.  A cupcake dress.  

I honestly thought it would be easy to find cupcake fabric.  Not so much.  I spent way too much time looking at a handful of terrible fabrics in a lot of different online stores and not liking any of them.  They were either weird colors to wear, too photorealistic for clothing, or just strange looking patterns.  I finally found this older Kaufman print on etsy and snapped up two yards quick-like.  The dress itself was a snap to sew, since I've made it many times before.  I had to grade it out a bit from last year, but that was it.  Ponchik was super happy with it!

She also requests strange desserts, with things like strawberry and pumpkin in them.  Together.  I don't know either.  I gently suggested that perhaps a chocolate cake would be better?  She said yes, please, so I made her cake almost exactly like Boo's, except the layers came out a bit more even.  

For Mother's Day, I requested a dress length of cotton-linen chambray from Robert Kaufman and received it.  I sewed it up quickly on Saturday and wore it on Sunday last.  It is a delightful dress, I must say.  (I hasten to add that these terrible photos were taken at 3:30 in the afternoon after 2 hours driving, several hours of liturgy and coffee hour to boot.  Hence the wrinkles and rumples.  The sleeves are not too tight, despite the look).  I always seem to be looking for a good chambray dress at this time of year.  (Hence the Chambray Dress of Shame and the failed rescue of the same last spring).

I used my M7353 again, with my adjustments for woven fabric, but I also added 1/4" to the bottom edge of the back sleeve this time, which was just perfect in this fabric.  The rayon I used last time had a lot more mechanical stretch than this fabric, so I needed a bit more room for my guns, er, biceps.

I finished all the edges with zig-zag stitch, and used bias binding to encase the waist seam nicely.  So the insides are pretty good for this dress.  Bias binding on the neckline and hemline.  One package did the neck, waist, and hem nicely.

The fabric has a slight sheen to it, which gives the dress a little something-something, I think.  The sleeves are always a bit rumpled looking, but I can live with that.  I wore it again today with a long drop necklace and delicate earrings and liked it very well that way too.  I also discovered I don't need a slip with it, which is another win.  I think this one might make it into my summer rotation.

The linen gives it a nice swish and cool feeling.

The shoes were a random good ebay find after the second hand dansko clogs fell apart on me.  I'm always looking for closed toed sandals for warm weather.  These are perfect.

I kind of think this is the dress I meant to make last fall when my Summer Jazz dress failed.

I must highly recommend the movie Austenland, which I watched with great delight last Friday night.  I've become a big JJ Feild fan lately (mostly after his wonderful work on the Revolutionary War show TURN as Major John Andre) and he is so good in Austenland.  The movie is so funny (painfully so at times).  And I loved the ending.  Just right.  (The director is part of the creative team that put Napoleon Dynamite together, so you know it has to be good).

I watched the new version of Howard's End recently and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Great British cast, a wonderful adaptation, high production values and good costuming.  Matthew McFayden is a treat and Hayley Atwell is so good in it.  (I find it interesting that this is their third collaboration together).

I also went to an actual movie theater to see Avengers: Infinity War this morning, and it was good.  (I didn't want to put off seeing it too much longer since it was getting hard to avoid hearing spoilers about the film!)  I am disappointed about where a few plot lines ended up, but not surprised.  I also left with more questions than I had going in, so I'm super eager to see where the next movie will go.  I have some ideas, but I won't spoil the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. 

Yarn Along: Cowls and Rivels

It feels funny to post a photo about a wool cowl in May, and indeed, these photos were taken two weeks ago when it was still chilly out.  The weather has spring-ed up quite a bit, so I'm definitely not wearing my heavy wools right now.

Nonetheless, a cowl for the knitting.  It was just a simple cowl, knit twice because I made it too small the firs time.  50 stitches on size 10 needles, knit to the end of the ball and then seamed up the middle.  I should block it to stretch it a bit, but otherwise, I like it for this dress.  (I am actually wearing this dress today, but without a sweater or cowl, and with bare legs and red keds!)

I also finished the two dresses I had on my docket for the girls' warm weather clothes.  (The other was Ponchik's birthday dress, which I can photograph on her birthday later this month).

I love this fabric so much I actually bought some for myself, but ended up returning it as I wasn't sure it went with my complexion or suited my style.  I keep thinking about it, though.

In other news, I finished the back of my Rivel cardigan.  I worried that it was going to be very small, but blocking seems to have helped.  The trouble with the pattern is that it calls for 1-2" of positive ease, but there are 4" between pattern sizes, so in order to get any ease, I would have to go up 4" in size which always looks sloppy on me.  I decided to go with a zero ease size and hope for the best.  I cast on one of the fronts over the weekend.  I'm pretty happy with the shaping at the top of this one--I think I finally get short rows.  I've done them before, but I didn't really understand what I was doing.  I found a couple of youtube videos that were super clear and now I think I get it.  Bring on the short rows!

The kids and I drove to the central part of the state on Saturday to spend the day with some dear friends of mine from Russia days.  The kids all had a blast together running around outside, running races, making plays, looking at the chickens, and picking flowers for crowns.  I had a great day catching up with my friends and knitting.  I admit I'm a bit worse for wear after all the driving (we also drive an hour and back to church every Sunday, so that was on top of the trip on Saturday) and am glad to have a quiet day today.

This month kind of feels like All The Things and I've been running on fumes since late March.  I've also hit a particularly tough section on the novel so there's that.  I keep trying to write around the hard bits, but I'm going to have to tackle them for realz before too long.  And since you didn't ask, I will say: I have a craptastic mostly-complete first draft that is all in pieces that need to be stitched together.  So this is the hard part, the stitching and editing and the second guessing.

But do you want to hear something strange?  I love these characters. I find myself wanting to go for a walk with one of them, to have a chat about life.  Is that strange?  Probably.  I never said I was normal. 

I'm pretty much through my sewing queue for now, and while I'm trying to do Me-Made-May, I'm not doing a good job of documenting it.  It's just one more thing this year.  Also: I look at the pictures I have taken and I'm like ACK! Who stole my face?

My reading list is painfully brief as I'm not reading much right now.  I started Marilynne Robinson's Lila last month, but haven't made much progress on it since reading the first third or so.  I am nearly done with Rodney Stark's book, but can't quite cross the finish line on it, and I have an advance copy of Eugene Vodolozkin's new novel (out later this month) that I've not even cracked since it arrived in the middle of post-Pascha madness.  I am still in the middle of the second Red Sparrow book as I put it aside for Lent and haven't picked it up again since.

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along!