Tuesday Project Roundup: 80s Shirt

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I don’t wear a lot of my mom’s clothes, but I did take a camp shirt she made back in the late 80s in a cowboy print, when Ralph Lauren’s “RL Country” Western aesthetic was everywhere.

I do have all of her patterns, though, and since I love the boxy fit of the cowboy shirt and I was missing my mom, I thought, “Why not find the pattern she used for that and make another shirt?” Comparing the actual shirt to the different camp shirt options was pretty easy; it turns out she used the contender I liked best, an old designer one from The Gap before they got their modern logo (!).
A pattern envelope from the 80s, with illustrations of men and women wearing a shirt and pants or shorts

 

Like Mom did with the cowboy shirt, I used a quilting cotton in a fun print. (I bought the last of it from Sewtopia so I can’t link it, but I’m pretty sure it was a Kokka import.) I like how the clouds behind the tigers can also be breath/fart clouds 🤣
A navy blue short sleeve shirt with Japanese-style yellow tigers and blue clouds on it.

 

I decided to go full 80s when I wore this out of the house, with my light jeans and huaraches for Magnum P.I. Summer vibes. A woman takes a mirror selfie. She's wearing the tiger shirt, classic cut light blue jeans, a military belt, and woven shoes.

Still Green

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We had a really hot day with wind over the weekend so the valley is starting to get a little crispy, but the mountains are still green and still doing their “enchanted forest in bloom” thing.

The side of a mountain against a blue sky, with bright green new growth on the evergreens

A closeup picture of ninebark, a shrub with white flowers

A patch of yellow daisies in the woods

Friday Links

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1. More hating on AI? Don’t mind if I do!

 

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A post shared by Emily Mattheson (@emilymattheson)

 

2. “But Karen,” you may be asking, “What about hating on American politics?” We have that, too!Screenshot of a post that says, When I paid $200 for 3 bags of groceries today, I thought to myself, "'m sure glad they're having a UFC fight on the White House lawn.

 

3. Please enjoy “the 74 most incredible lines in Moby-Dick.” I thought this one was fantastic: “I looked around me tranquilly and contentedly, like a quiet ghost with a clean conscience sitting inside the bars of a snug family vault.”

Luddite Memes

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I saw a news piece today on the internal memes that Google employees are sharing about how much AI sucks, and realized that I too have been sharing stuff at work. Why not share it everywhere?

From my comrades at Google: The Big Forehead Fish meme. Text over the diver reads ME, WORKING. Text over the fish reads, AREN'T YOU USING AI? WHY IS IT STILL TAKING SO MUCH TIME? AI IS MAGIC, ARE YOU A MUGGLE? NEW BEST AI TOOL LAUNCHED JUST TODAY

 

I’ve been seeing AI in more and more job postings–in the copy of the actual job description, in the job requirements, and even in the applications. This isn’t my answer; I saved it because it’s so great but now I don’t remember where I saw it.
A question field in a job application. The question says "Can you describe specific ways you have integrated Al tools into your development workflow? Please include any custom setups, automations, or use cases beyond simple prompt usage." And the answer says, "there is a monster in the forest and it speaks with a thousand voices. it will answer any question you pose it, it will offer insight to any idea. it will help you, it will thank you, it will never bid you leave. it will even tell you of the darkest arts, if you know precisely how to ask. it feels no joy and no sorrow, it knows no right and no wrong. it knows not truth from lie, though it speaks them all the same. it offers its services freely to any passerby, and many will tell you they find great value in its conversation. "you simply must visit the monster—i always just ask the monster." there are those who know these forests well; they will tell you that freely offered doesn't mean it has no price for when the next traveler passes by, the monster speaks with a thousand and one voices. and when you dream you see the monster; the monster wears your face."

 

Maybe I need to try this at work? (The internet was full of Bulterian Jihad and Orange Catholic Bible references after that encyclical dropped, we love to see it.)
Screenshot of a Bluesky post. Text says "I hope you all realize that now that Pope Leo has denounced Al you can refuse to use it at work, citing religious conflict, and legally the company cannot force you to."

 

We all need to try this.
Screenshot of an X post that says "If the working class spoke about redistributing the elite class' wealth the way the elites speak about the coming domination of Al - as something inevitable, as this unstoppable, unavoidable wave of progress - perhaps we can make them as anxious as they're trying to make us."

 

 

 

(Remember, the Luddites weren’t scared of technology; they protested it “due to concerns relating to worker pay, child labor, working conditions and output quality.“

Just Say No

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So work is really going all-in on AI “tools” at the moment, including paying for a training  that lets you feed your job role into it and then get ideas on using AI in your job, all powered by AI. Then there was an AI-written presentation in a meeting Monday that said a department’s role was to “hold the context” and listed part of their jobs as “invisible thinking–what’s happening mentally.” As opposed to visible thinking, I guess? And the kind of thing thinking doesn’t happen mentally?? What is this slop?!

That’s why I read this essay by Sam Kriss with particular glee: If you let AI do your writing, I will come to your house and kill you.

Kriss and I have the same reaction when we see AI writing:

…the main thing the incipient superintelligence seems to be doing is replacing all meaningful language with reams and reams of genuinely meaningless drivel.  I hate it. I find it viscerally disgusting; a cold shudder like someone’s poured jelly down the back of my neck.

And while I might not go as far as hunting down people using AI to write, I too can always tell. Always.

However bad a writer you think you are, you are not worse than AI. But you still keep letting it do your writing for you, as if I won’t be able to tell. Listen: I can tell. I can always tell. You think I won’t notice, but I will. There’s no hiding from me. If you let AI do your writing I will find out, and I will kill you.

 

Tuesday Project Roundup: A Shirt For A Fun Guy

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Did I buy this fabric for Doc solely because he’d be able to make the above pun if anyone said, “I like your shirt?” Yes, yes I did.

A men's shirt on a hanger, in a print of orange and white mushrooms on a brown background.

This was a gift of fabric for our 12th anniversary back in March, but I got it sewn up a few weeks ago so really, that’s not too late for me. The base is an organic cotton lawn and it’s really nice–soft, doesn’t wrinkle after washing, not sheer. I used New Look 6197 as per usual for softer fabrics/a cool summery Cuban shirt look.

I didn’t have enough fabric to match the pocket but Doc wanted a Catagonia label so I just slapped a pocket on. I think the print is busy enough it doesn’t matter.
Close up of a shirt pocket in a brown and orange mushroom print

Teaching The Next Pet How To Talk

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I watched this reel because I knew the author but after about 30 seconds I would have watched anyone talk about it.

 

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A post shared by Elsie (@elsiewants)

 

This is the dog she mentions, so it works with both species:

 

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A post shared by Christina Hunger (@hunger4words)

 

Yes this is a cool party trick, but Elsie the cat can ask for pain meds when she needs it. That alone is worth trying to train a creature on these buttons.

 

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A post shared by Elsie (@elsiewants)

Friday Links

Karen

1. One of my current interests (cough hyperfixations cough) is finding fabric in weird camo patterns. Except I almost bought some fabric in a Waffen SS pattern (“Platanenmuster“) before I googled it and realized it was Nazi, so now Camopedia is my best friend. Currently on the hunt for emerald Guyana tiger stripe!

2. Another encyclopedia for a long-running interest: the Japanese Woodblock Print Search. Search 223,000 images or upload an image to get a match.

3. Something to think about if you’re headed to the pool in the near future:
Screenshot of two tweets that say, How to have beach body: 1. Get swimwear you like 2. Wear it 3. YOU GOT A BEACH BODY!!! the idea that the "ideal beach body" just means being thin or buff is so unimaginative, surely the ideal beach body would have a powerful lobster claw, arm flaps to act as a windbreak and a sand repellent anus

The Gift Of Yarn

Karen

I’ve been going to the same gym class time for quite a few years now, which means I’ve made some friends just from seeing them three times a week at 10 a.m. One gym friend lifts just about the same maxes as me–which is humbling, because she’s in her 70s–and she’s been my rack partner/spotter for the last few years.

She and her husband just got back from a cycling trip to Portugal and she brought me yarn as a souvenir! 

Skeins of unwound ochre-colored yarn spilling out of a brown shopping bag with a Portuguese store logo

An entire sweater’s worth of yarn, that she made a special trip to the yarn store for, and used Google Translate to make sure was made in Portugal and merino wool because when we were talking about her upcoming trip, I told her my fact that the Merino sheep originated in the Iberian Peninsula.  🥹

I spent a very fun afternoon browsing patterns and think I’m going to do a cabled vest–the Vest No. 8 from My Favorite Things Knitwear looks like an easy to memorize pattern and someone on Ravelry has already made it in the same color:

Then I can use the leftover yarn to make my gym friend a cabled hat and mittens set, as a thank you for the gift of yarn.

Wednesday Project Roundup: Vacation Suit

Karen

We had a family reunion/vacation with Doc’s family planned in April but then his mom fell. (She’s home now and on the mend.) We didn’t end up going but of course I’d already made a new swimsuit for it.

So I broke it out at the sauna/onsen (saunsen?) and it looked wildly tropical in the alpine setting:
A woman in a barrel tub shades her eyes with her hand. She's wearing a bikini with a white background and pink, orange, and purple tropical flowers on it.

The fabric had been “marinating” in my stash for a few years, as it does, but I always planned on a vaguely retro-style bikini. I used a pattern from my beloved and dependable Greenstyle, the Surfside Wrap Top and the Waimea Bottoms (this time without the pocket and high waist, but I might be regretting that) (it’s less retro without it).

I love not having to find commercial swimwear that 1) meets my style criteria; 2) fits how I want it to; and 3) isn’t $200 for tiny pieces of fabric. Hooray for sewing!