Darkfoxx 62: The Wheel Turns Again

[darkfoxx]

This is a placeholder: I’m alive. I’ve got a challenge outline ready to go. I just need to collect my thoughts a bit better, so you’re not wading through a 63 page long exposition with loose ends and zero logic.

 

exposition there will be. Maybe a nugget of wisdom? Or pop masquerading as such.

 

ive got a few days to crack open the actual computer. 
 

EDIT:

 

I’m not feeling exposition afterall, so here’s my goals post:

 

This first challenge of 2020, I’ll be working on laying the groundwork for the year ahead.

 

1. 365 yoga challenge. I started this on my birthday and will continue - pic collages to come weekly.
2. This year I want to throw more focus on physical things - last year and the year before were mental; I have space for more physical pursuits mentally this year - just need to balance that with stupid small injuries, which I’m currently nursing, so I’m leaving this unfleshed for now. 
3. Continuing to figure my food ish out. Stick with not eating like an asshole, stick with eating in a way that doesn’t hurt my stomach, and work on figuring out what makes my body happiest (again). I’ll be keeping food photos up since y’all seem to like them, and I post recipes weekly to my blog, gastography.com.
4. Continuing to feed my mind through creation. Picture of the Day, sewing, maybe a return to painting - whatever catches my fancy.
5. Keeping up with my social needs - admitting I have more of them than I ever have (which I have) and making peace with that (which sometimes I don’t have, tbh - I miss being an introverted hermit!). Nurturing my primary relationships is in this heading. 

 

And I’m sure there will be 99999999999 other things to work on or that pop up; this is just the V1 draft of the year plan. 

[Tobbe]

I'm in! Hoping for some yoga inspo 🙏

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following along, with our without a cogent intro post.

[Loveable_Bouncer]

I'm here for the international food pics... 

 

More than understanding of finding the actual post and can't wait!

[Fonzico]

I'm heeeeeeeere! Let's do things!

[miss_marissa]

On 12/30/2019 at 6:07 AM, darkfoxx said:

This is a placeholder: I’m alive. I’ve got a challenge outline ready to go. I just need to collect my thoughts a bit better, so you’re not wading through a 63 page long exposition with loose ends and zero logic.

same tho

 

Following along  

[ladyofthebog]

following!

[darkfoxx]

Need to actually work on my intro post - I’ll have space to focus on that tomorrow, I think, post-yoga. 
 

my brain is too frantic from a whirlwind visit from an out-of-towner. Part 1 of 2; she’s blowing back through in 4 days.

 

Food has been eh - compiled a video featuring last year’s meals - need to condense down from :30.

 

Yoga dailies have been pretty good - more like meditation yesterday while hand sewing Freya’s dress jacket - and will be pre-bed meditation tonight. Spent too much damn time in the crunchy sandy air today and am not feeling movement. 
 

Also just finished the Witcher and am pouting about that.

 

And I’m full of Katsu curry. 
 

Tomorrow is back to schedule - hoping for fabric shopping Wednesday or Thursday am so I can start my next sewing project.

 

in the meantime, I may start a knitting project - and will give myself permission to be as slow about it as my hands require.

 

 

[Loveable_Bouncer]

1 hour ago, darkfoxx said:

yesterday while hand sewing Freya’s dress jacket

Oh gosh I do hope you share this one!

 

Good you are listening into yourself, and interesting on the food videos! 

[darkfoxx]

 It’s only Sunday.

 

Man, my brain has been confused about days. Tomorrow is yoga, today DH has off and we are walking the mall because there is no way I want to go outside with the dust still maaaaaaaaaybe lingering from yesterday. It looks clear, but my lungs were pissed last night. Better to play it safe.

 

I will definitely share the jackets dress - have to get her to sit still for pics in less-than-horrible lighting! 

[Tobbe]

20 hours ago, darkfoxx said:

in the meantime, I may start a knitting project - and will give myself permission to be as slow about it as my hands require.

 

What are you thinking of making?

[thekatisalie]

/me shuffles in late 

 

Yay knitting! Slow and steady is ok!

[darkfoxx]

On 1/5/2020 at 5:03 PM, Tobbe said:

 

What are you thinking of making?

I’m making something called a Sontag or Bosom Friend. It’s a triangular shawl that crosses in front of the chest and wraps around the back to tie or close with a button and loop.

 

it was featured in Outlander and I think it’ll work well for the summers here if I make it light enough.

 

Started that, and have also started a block sloped to make a custom muslin while I wait until I get my quilt fabric.

 

[darkfoxx]

I’m no longer feeling the desire to edit my exposition, so a simple goals post is in order:

 

This first challenge of 2020, I’ll be working on laying the groundwork for the year ahead.

 

1. 365 yoga challenge. I started this on my birthday and will continue - pic collages to come weekly.
2. This year I want to throw more focus on physical things - last year and the year before were mental; I have space for more physical pursuits mentally this year - just need to balance that with stupid small injuries, which I’m currently nursing, so I’m leaving this unfleshed for now. 
3. Continuing to figure my food ish out. Stick with not eating like an asshole, stick with eating in a way that doesn’t hurt my stomach, and work on figuring out what makes my body happiest (again). I’ll be keeping food photos up since y’all seem to like them, and I post recipes weekly to my blog, gastography.com.
4. Continuing to feed my mind through creation. Picture of the Day, sewing, maybe a return to painting - whatever catches my fancy.
5. Keeping up with my social needs - admitting I have more of them than I ever have (which I have) and making peace with that (which sometimes I don’t have, tbh - I miss being an introverted hermit!). Nurturing my primary relationships is in this heading. 

 

And I’m sure there will be 99999999999 other things to work on or that pop up; this is just the V1 draft of the year plan. 

[darkfoxx]

As such:

 

Monday I went to yoga, worked on a sloper, started my knitting project, and an audio book.

 

Dinner was a beyond meat bratwurst, kraut & vegan cheese mac.

 

Tuesday I was social, had yoga, knitted and ate leftovers.

 

 

[Raxie]

[Loveable_Bouncer]

Yay for figuring out where the "beyond meat" is? Is it hard to get to!

 

May your goals be part of a healing year

[Tobbe]

14 hours ago, darkfoxx said:

I’m making something called a Sontag or Bosom Friend. It’s a triangular shawl that crosses in front of the chest and wraps around the back to tie or close with a button and loop.

 

it was featured in Outlander and I think it’ll work well for the summers here if I make it light enough.

 

Started that, and have also started a block sloped to make a custom muslin while I wait until I get my quilt fabric.

 

 

So many words I have no idea what they mean! 😆

 

Shawl sounded just like the swedish word "sjal", but I thought that surely it couldn't be that easy. But it was

 

Googling Sontag, all I got was some famous woman... Bossom Friend also didn't give anything relevant. (Apparently it means "dear friend".) Finally "bossom friend knitting pattern" gave me this

 

 

And that seemed to go well with your description once I had figured out what shawl was

 

Your last paragraph still leaves me perplexed... 🤷‍♂️

 

 

[thekatisalie]

@Tobbe

 

More like this:

[Fonzico]

Yay for clothing projects! Much fun I'm looking forward to (slowly) seeing what you come up with.

[Tobbe]

2 hours ago, thekatisalie said:

@Tobbe

 

More like this:

 

Thanks. Now that I figured out that Outlander is a TV series I found this

 

 

And now I know she's wearing a sontag

[fitnessgurl]

Hi, I'm still in the beginning knitting stages ('cause life), following aling for knitting & noms.

 

[darkfoxx]

 
Thanks. Now that I figured out that Outlander is a TV series I found this
 

 
And now I know she's wearing a sontag [emoji4]

Yes! That’s exactly it!

As for the Muslin sloper:

A sloper is a basic pattern that fits your body. A block sloper is easy: you basically create a square on one page of big paper with a bunch of points and lines using your measurements.

And then somehow you cut it all up and make basic shapes of bodices and skirts that fit you in something called a muslin- which is just plain fabric that doesn’t really stretch or fray - in my case, I’ve used bedsheets.

I will take pics of mine when I get back to it: this is the website I was using to actually draw it: http://www.yourwardrobeunlockd.com/index-of-articles/costumemaking/paterns/65-drafting?start=3

And here’s the pattern I’m using for the Sontag: https://www.handylittleme.com/outlander-carolina-shawl-pattern/?epik=dj0yJnU9cU5uVThhQUh5NWZ2WG9aRFVyREJhUjhleE1nZG4zTDgmbj1yS0Q2Z0JjRzh4RzJIcFY0WGhJV2xRJm09MyZ0PUFBQUFBRjRPRXF3

I will try to describe things better! I forget which things I’m nerdy about [emoji38]

[darkfoxx]

Wednesday was great, though I totally ate like an asshole.

Went to a difficult but fulfilling yoga class in the morning, then off to pick the girlfriend up from the airport.

And what turned out to be a surprise adventure. I had said something about ‘going to the desert’, completely forgetting that people that don’t live in the Middle East would not then logically expect dune bashing. She didn’t ask questions, so ...

Off we went. It takes about an hour to get there from the airport if you’re driving leisurely, and our driver wanted to put our end time at sunset so we would catch that - because it’s stunning. I commentated on things as we passed them; he tried to help with the little English he had.

She had some inkling when he had me help type in English some of the “crazy” tours and things he can offer a client that had texted looking for a fun day with colleagues. I mentioned skydiving and dune bashing offhandedly, still not thinking that she didn’t know what was coming.

We get to the desert, and ride the camels - which is also fun but in a pony ride sort of way. We chatted to some falcons. Had some tea.

And then we got back in the car - the 4x4, whose tires we had just watched be let out a bit for better traction on the sand. The car with padded handles, wrapped in plastic to keep the sand off.

By the time we climbed nearly straight up the first sand dune and plummeted down the other side, she got the idea.

Luckily, that idea came with a huge grin.

Our driver was great - we dune bashed for a bit, hit a little high tide lake, sand sledded, gazed at Saudi Arabia while splashing our feet in the inland sea, and watched a stunning sunset.

I’m happy to report that it was the highlight of her trip. Yay!

I then showed her a local mall and grocery, where she was appalled but entranced by all the American stores with their Arabic signs - and bought lots of coffee and tea and spices at the grocery.

Then we hit the Souq (old outdoor mall thing aimed at tourists and locals) for dinner at a particularly delicious Syrian restaurant (Damasca One for the one of you that would likely know - she’s vegetarian, so we stuck to some salads and hummus variations and I ate waaaaaay too much).

Wandered over to a crazybananas store called Rawnaq - Rawnaq is a chain of stores carrying everything under the sun in an almost labyrinthine hoarder setup. All very cheap; most of dubious quality; and each store has slightly different focus.

This one seemed to be Qatar-branded junk, cheap jewelry, knockoff perfumes, hair accessories, amazing lace and beaded trims, some fabrics, potentially a second floor of fake flowers, and some random shoes.

It’s chaos and fun and you always find a bargain, if not what you’re looking for. We did not - she was after a sticker of the Qatar flag. Found plenty of temporary tattoos - but no single sheets of stickers. Found a pack of 50 sheets for about $1.50, though, and she walked away with some enamel pins bearing the country seal.

More wandering and another cafe sit put us at midnight - and she caught her flight.

It was a good day.

[darkfoxx]

Knitting update: just sat here finishing my first book on Audible - Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Happy to say I’m *finally* reading the series - loved the movies and the whole deal - but skipped the books when they came out (in favor of horror), and never felt like I had the bandwidth to go back and pick them up.

And now I can. While making a thing. And snuggling two pups who are having exactly the kind of day they both wanted - one in which my lap doesn’t leave their favorite couch.



I think I’m going to have to block (stretch to mold) the crap out of this thing to get the shape I want - or, I’ll just deal with a moon-shaped one.


Also: the more historically-accurate version: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bosom-friend-or-sontag-circa-1860