weekend fragments

The blue cardigan vest is finished. It is another of the good for wearing around the house knits, like my acorn hat. Someday there will be insulation in the walls, and boy would it be nice to have a tiny woodstove to make the house cozy. Navigator Stove Works is on Orcas Island and their stoves would make William Morris happy, they are both beautiful and useful (Halibut and Little Cod); these Morso stoves are bigger and come from further away, but are equally lovely.

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There is a rule of thumb, various folks say it differently but basically it is "don't cut fabric late at night" Do I follow this rule - no, not usually. Last night, cut out the pieces for a corduroy jumper promised to J, starting with the lining; hmmm, there are only three wee index cards of notes and sketches, (the actual dress this is copied from is still in Olympia) now how does this fit together? There is a real drawback to putting the pattern pieces for two dresses in one ziploc - my cut pieces were the fronts from one and the back from the other! Fortunately it was only the lining, and not the dress fabric. The pattern pieces are now labeled "dress 1" and "dress two".

This particular jumper/dress fastens in front with a button waistband and buttons all down the front of the skirt. Needs seven ¾ " buttons, preferably plain dark brown and definitely washable. Whilst out-n-about today tried to find said buttons without luck. Now mind, the long trip out to Fabric Despot or Millends was not an option, since there had already been a long trip out to Clackamas for vitamins.

On the way home, after a stop at New Seasons, I decided to walk home, as being faster than waiting for an evening bus; the weather was misting and not bitter cold, and walking is the best thinking time I know. (though I did be careful to pay attention to my footing, no more falling down for this gal if I can help it) Didn't solve the big issues, but realised that I could use some of the cast pewter buttons that are languishing in the tiny pile of SCA backstock. (They are washable and durable, used them on my old pair of overalls) Funny how objects move into virtual boxes and live there. They were a good idea, but not many folks wanted to buy them; those buttons could move in actuality into my button box and they might as well be used...

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I've read several books now by James Howard Kunstler, most recently The Witch of Hebron, a kind of sequel to World Made By Hand. Kept me up waay too late reading last night. He has a lot of interesting things to say, that have me wavering between hope and despair, the overall sense that resonates in my bones that the way things are now will not last.

When we were young the consensus was that the shit would hit the fan and we needed to be ready. Just no one was really sure what that meant, and it mostly consisted of having a knapsack and knowing the route to the roads out of the city, kind of like how as a child of the duck-and-cover age I always made a point of knowing where the fallout shelters were. A kind of false practicality.

When I chose to move here, to the city, it was with the full knowledge that it was/is a gamble. Olympia is more sustainable longterm, but Portland is less lonely. (I told a woman once that I didn't gamble small, but only with my life. That is perhaps why making committed decisions is so difficult for me, each one shifts the possible future, including the time before deciding.) Still uncertain what to do first, it is all about infrastructure, water-shelter-food. Here in the neighborhood we are taking babysteps towards community, which is hopeful...