13 January 2021

Songs I listened to more than once this week
"When We Were Young" by Adele
"Soldier Poet King" by The Oh Hellos

Books I've Been Reading
( Little progress on this and that )

Crafting I've Worked On
I mended the ripped thigh seem of a pair of leggings! Only to realize that there are places where the elastic is giving out. I'm in a weird place about them. I really don't enjoy wearing things that are that clearly made of synthetic fabrics, but the underlayer is helpful for staying warm at work, especially when outside is this cold. At least they'll be wearable for a little while longer while I try to find a solution.

The cotton shawl is probably going to be finished knitting up in the next couple of days. I'm nearing the end of this skein and only have one more, so I might get it washed and blocked for my friend before next the next weekly update.

Gramps cardigan is finished! It's huge on me and the last two buttons probably go down too far to be useful for me. If I knit myself another one, I'll probably go down a size and move the bottom-most buttonhole up one and consider putting the highest button in the short row shaping area to close up the fairly wide v. It turns out that elbow patches are An Experience to place on your own! But I did it and liked it okay! The sleeves are kind of sweater-paw long on me, so I had to decide on where I wanted the patches to be covering. I decided that I liked where they'd be if I bent my arms to lean on things with the cuffs over my fingers. I washed it early and now it's beginning the long process of drying while laid flat on my kitchen floor. At least there's no lace in it, so I didn't have to put pins everywhere and won't risk stepping on them like I did with the white shawl.

Things I've Worked On Learning

I've spent a fair bit of time this week poking at Christianity. I'm still in love with Judaism, so I don't think it's any conversion urge, but I think I'm at a place where I'm ready to try to understand it? It's such a strong part of our overall cultural narrative here in the US, but I've never actually tried to learn it. I had a conversation about book recommendations recently in the comments of a post from over a decade ago because people were interesting and I wanted to let them know they were interesting to people in the future too, and then I found out a song that I was listening to for fandom reasons (up there at the top, "Soldier Poet King") was about Jesus and I just... didn't catch that. I couldn't figure out what was being said in the third verse and looked up the lyrics, and Genius told me the entire album was based on The Screwtape Letters. I was curious and I was thinking about what else I'd bumped into lately and realized that I hadn't really had the mental flinch response to any of it lately, so it was time to try to understand. It's... weird? I can definitely see where pieces of the readings I've done so far interact with how my parents raised me, but not very much and I just... feel like I'm trying to introduce myself to an entire language that's influenced so much of how people communicate around me.

I also fell back into watching the historical costuming/sewing videos of people like Bernadette Banner and Morgan Donner on YouTube and it's been so much fun to watch those while I knit! It's kind of interesting to realize that COVID affects their videos more than I would've guessed. But also definitely a source of comfort in a week that's been... well, stressful.

Cooking
So! In the good news! The scones are actually more edible after they've sat on the counter for a few days, so I've been nibbling away at them. I only have one or two left, I think, so I'll probably finish them tomorrow. I didn't get to the tuna noodle casserole, but I think I might aim to do it in the upcoming week. I cleaned instead, and I think that balances well for me in the win-some-lose-some of it all. I've had half a mind to try to find a focaccia recipe. The coffee shop I stop at sometimes on the way home from work does a sandwich on it and I keep thinking about how much I love how soft the bread is. It could be nice, if I figure out a decent solution to the kneading problem.

Thoughts on This Week's LoTR Chapter
( The Voice of Saruman )

Odds and Ends
Some coworkers and I were talking this week and one of them seems to have identified as neutrois without knowing the word for it, so I let her know it was a concept that has a name! She seems excited, but said that it was making her rethink how some of her life has gone. She didn't seem to realize that she could be trans and still want to keep her long hair and she/her pronouns, but also not want to have breasts? So probably we'll end up discussing how there's a wide variety of trans identities and expressions at some point.

My friend who has been away for the last couple of years moved back to nearish the area! We have plans to have a socially distanced and masked hang out in a couple of weeks. It'll be so good to see them. We were so close when we lived in the same area and have pretty compatible urges to live in each other's pockets and live in that weird state of friendship-relationship confusion. It's delightful and I'm kind of thrilled to see what the future might hold for us now that they're back to the Pacific Northwest.

It's been raining so much this week and I love it. It's so cozy to hear it rain while I drink tea and cuddle into my shawl with more knitting. Pretty strong wind tonight though. It's rolling things through the streets and I don't much care for that.