another one bites the dust! Two Amy Herzog sweaters in about 6 weeks’ time. Pret-ty, pret-ty, pret-ty good.
And….here it is! My new sweater, dubbed Laurayana, because Laura gave me the Ayana pattern for my birthday. It took me less than 3 weeks to make the sweater, from swatch to block. I really love it, though I may undo the hem facings and redo them in simple bind-off or something. I’m not sure I like the bulk there. But it’s flattering, and very comfortable, and it was a fun knit:
such great texture in that front panel
red in the sweater's hem, and in the sleeve hems, too! surprise!
really such a comfortable sweater to wear.
This is my first sweater knit in pieces, and the first time I’ve used Cascade 220 for a sweater. I’ll do both again, for sure.
Here’s my project page on ravelry, where I note a lot of details. And this leads me to a mini-rant, now that I think about it. I wish people would indicate the size they knit, and how much yarn they used! It’s also nice if they list mods, or problems they encountered, and I love to read notes about how the yarn wears with time. But at a minimum, I wish everyone would list the size they knit and how much yarn they used. This isn’t about comparing (ooh, she’s a 42!!), it’s about knowing how it’ll look in your size, and how much yarn you really need for that size. Good grief.
And with this, I suspect my long run of knitting posts will slow down. Though I’m nearly done with the deep ribbing on Audrey……
Have a wonderful Saturday, everyone!
this’ll be the last WiP shot for my newest sweater: next stop, FO!
Don’t forget the giveaway in progress — see this post for details, and leave a comment there.
I’m very nearly done with my Laurayana sweater (the pattern was a birthday gift from Laura, thank you!), and I’ve been doing finishing as I’ve gone along. I pause and weave in ends as I go along, I block each piece as it’s completed, and I’ve sewn together the shoulder seams and knitted the finishing detail. I’m halfway through the 2nd sleeve (first is finished and blocked), so when I finish the second sleeve, while it’s blocking I’ll sew in the first and seam the side seams. Then, voila! Nearly ready to wear.
the neck finishing detail is 3 rows of stockinette, designed to curl and show the purled edge. It's a nice bit of texture to complement the deeply-textured front panel.
Here’s an FO shot of my cute little hat, my Berry Welty. You know it’s got a blue/purple hem facing, which is my little secret, and why I’m smiling so:
fits like a dream, and oh-so-warm. Thank you for the pattern, Kelly!
The next time I show my Laurayana, I’ll be wearing it. 
i don’t usually do WiP Wednesdays, but I’m in a rush and this was easy!
Happy Thanksgiving Eve! It’s gridlock alert day here in Manhattan, and we’re all encouraged to use public transport. Since I’ll be using it a lot today, I dread the crowds, but what to do. If you’re busy making pies and all that jazz, I wish I were hanging out with you.
Thanks to my old-lady-can’t-sleep deal, I’ve been up since 4am. Whee! I spent some of that time making progress on my Laurayana sweater, which is coming along beautifully. The back is finished, and I’m just a few inches from finishing the front. The sleeves will go quickly, so I should have another new sweater in a week or two!
the back (on the right) has been blocked and the change in the fabric is WONDERFUL; it doesn't really have that underarm lump as it appears, on the right side of the back. The pattern up the center of the front is fun to work, waving ribs.
I was a little worried about the hem facing; first of all, it’s odd to face a ribbed hem, but also, I was worried that the bright red would show. I wanted that to be my private treat. When I blocked the back, turning up the hem gave me a bit of relief. Even when it’s not stitched down, it’s thoroughly hidden.
As for Audrey in Silt, I haven’t cast on yet; it has a very deep ribbed section of twisted rib, and I’m trying to think about how committed I am to that twist. I’m thinking the answer is not so much.
Lots of work to get done today, and a meeting with a client this morning followed by back-to-back meetings in the afternoon. Good thing I woke up at 4am.
in which I recount my history as a sweater knitter
Somehow I have become a sweater girl, knitting them almost exclusively. I’m thoroughly surprised by this, but think it’s primarily due to a couple things: (1) my friend Kelly, who inspires me with her sweaters, and (2) a few successes. Here is my sweaterography:
- Peasy – successful on all counts (though now it’s big, since I’ve lost weight, and it’s not the most flattering style on me, I now know.) Love the yarn (Rowan Felted Tweed) and would definitely use it again.
- Dark & Stormy — successfully knitted but unsuccessfully sized. Will be frogging. Love the yarn (madelinetosh vintage) and didn’t have huge problems with varying colors, but the FO is heavy. Very, very heavy. And that’s probably one reason it grew a couple sizes in blocking (and yes, I swatched and blocked.)
- Mondo Cable Cardi — successfully knitted but the yarn sucked, to be frank. Madelinetosh merino let me down in every way possible. The colors were so variable between skeins it was shocking; the yarn base itself varied wildly from skein to skein; and it turned into a giant pill within minutes of finishing it. Fail, but not because of my knitting. This one really put me off madelinetosh yarns.
- Featherweight Cardi — ding ding ding! We have a winner. This one was a win in every possible way, and I wear it a lot. I enjoyed the yarn a lot (Spirit Trails Fiberworks, clotho) and would use it again.
- Wintry Mix — ding ding ding!! A second big winner! I wear this a lot. Berroco Blackstone Tweed is a luscious yarn, and so far it’s holding up well.
- Vodka Gimlet — ding ding ding DING! The biggest winner of them all, I struggle every day to decide whether to wear this, or my Wintry Mix. The yarn is amazing (Plucky Knitter Primo Worsted) but trying to get it is an exercise in such frustration that I probably won’t use it again, to my endless disappointment.
Laurayana, sweater front
ready to roll -- madelinetosh pashmina, in siltwash
such a thrill to be able to knit and read at the same time!
I’m paid to read and write all day long (yay! [but sometimes ugh]), and now and then I can read and knit for pay. I know, so lucky. When I’m actually working in the manuscript, editing someone’s words, my hands are on the keyboard and that’s that. But when I’m just reading someone’s manuscript and giving them my feedback on it, I can knit at the same time. Not only are manuscript evaluations my favorite thing to do because I’m good at it, they’re also my favorite because of the knitting time. Yesterday I read a manuscript and made some headway on my Laurayana sweater. I’m about an inch away from beginning the armhole shaping on the back:
the back, with shaping darts -- of course I had to do extra shaping for my waist, as always
that hem facing is madelinetosh DK, in tart. so tarty, so pretty! It won't be visible at all, since this is a pullover, but I know it's there.
Unfortunately for me and my knitting time, the next run of work is editing, not evaluation, and I have so much it’s stressing me out, waking me up at 1am. In fact, I got up at 1 this morning to get some work done. So this rate of progress will come to a halt for now, but it sure was fun!
busy, busy, busy. getting shit done. my kind of gorgeous day!
It’s a STUNNING day outside — as soon as I finish this, I’m heading out into it. I’ve been so busy this morning, I’m just beaming. I woke up kind of early, drank some tea and my morning slug of Mighty Maca Greens, ate a few dried figs, took a long shower and tended to all manner of grooming, baked my husband a batch of crumbly buttery oatmeal-apple bars, got my green sweater blocking (FO photo to come asap! Finished knitting it last night, can’t wait for it to dry….), and did my first swatch for my next sweater, which I’ve dubbed Laurayana (gift from Laura + pattern name Ayana = obvious!).
I’ve stepped outside my normal range of colors here. I tend to wear deeply saturated colors, and I don’t really wear purple. I don’t have anything against it, it’s just not a color I’ve chosen. So here, it’s a pale lavender color, kind of dusty lavender. I like the color, love the pattern, and hope by the transitive and multiplicative properties of knitting it turns out to be a sweater I adore. I do like the fit of Amy Herzog’s patterns, so it’s a likely bet.
the color is called Montmartre, Cascade 220 Heathers
We’re running errands this afternoon, some shopping in NJ, sushi for dinner, a busy day for us. When I’m home later this evening, I think I’ll cast one for the adorable hat pattern Kelly gave me, because I just happen to need a hat. What do you know about that.
the guy could handle the whole deal by himself. he didn’t need no stinking dinner partner.
Will had dinner with me tonight, to finish my birthday celebration. It was great — we ate at a diner in my neighborhood that has my favorite salad ever, of all times. He was still zinging around from his crazy busy day at work, so I chattered for a while to give him a chance to settle in and unwind. But sitting next to us was this very strange old man who was talking and gesturing — a lot, and loudly — to a dinner companion who just wasn’t there. He was lit, let’s just say it that way.
It was like getting a glimpse into the guy’s mind, because whatever he thought came out of his mouth, and it was influenced by the slightest things going on in his proximity. So when I took this picture of Will:
my crazy son who cannot take a picture seriously
the drunk dude at the next table started talking about cameras. He stopped the waiter and asked him about cameras, told him stories about an SLR he used to have that could only take great pictures. The waiter humored him for a second and then slipped away. Then the guy started talking about something else, and then he abruptly said MAMMY! while lifting his hand.
It alternated between being extremely annoying, kind of funny in a trainwreck kind of way, kind of sad, and back to extremely annoying. It hit annoying two times out of every four rounds through the emotions. Mainly he was annoying. Yeah.
Today I tried to take a new picture of my Wintry Mix sweater so you could really see it, since the photograph I took in the Catskills made it look like the shoulder was weird and rumply in a way it isn’t, really. It’s a very dark green and I was indoors, and it’s just hard to get a good shot of it. This is the best I could do; see the great cowl, and the beautiful shape? It’s a wonderful sweater if you’re in the mood for a bottom-up pullover.
Wintry Mix, by Amy Herzog (yarn: berroco blackstone tweed, in evergreen)
It’s a great sweater; obviously, I wear a very thin long-sleeved t-shirt underneath it for extra warmth and because it feels a little better. The blackstone tweed is 65% wool, 25% mohair, and 10% angora, and it’s just the tiniest bit uncomfortable for some reason. That’s not really right — it’s just a tiny bit more comfortable with a very thin shirt underneath. I really love the sweater, and can’t recommend the pattern enough. I changed it up so the collar is more a cowl than a big flat Peter Pan-type collar, and I love it that way. And Will approves — he’s been my fashion approver for a very long time.
“There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October.” ~Nathaniel Hawthorne
When I was a little girl, I especially loved the lessons about explorers and adventurers. Henry Hudson, John Cabot, those early explorers of America captured my imagination and I couldn’t get enough. I imagined what it must have been like, coming upon the great landscapes and waterways of this part of the world. My first job after graduate school, in 2003, took me to Rochester NY and Marnie was in college at Smith, in Massachusetts, so to visit her I drove over the Hudson River, and through the Catskills, and I was always filled with emotion. The great Hudson River…..I’d look up and down the river as best I could as I drove over the bridge, imagining those early sailing ships. I’d thrill with the place names that were reminders of the early Dutch Knickerbockers, like Kaaterskill Falls, and the native Lenape people who lived here first, like Esopus River. It’s a beautiful place, and I’m so happy I get to know it.
We generally restrict our visits to the area around Phoenicia, Hunter Mountain, and Windham, though we did explore the northern parts once en route to Montreal and Quebec City. But it’s this area I know best, and dearly love. To a Texan, mountains and forests are really special, so they always thrill me no matter how many times I come here. And fall color — I used to think that robins and colored leaves were made-up things, just for storybooks. So even though the fall color is not that great this year, thanks to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Irene, it’s still thrilling to little old Texan me.
no reds and oranges, but lots of vivid yellows
gorgeous rushing creeks, water pounding against rocks
sometimes yellow + creek!
i just thought this was super creepy. those two muddy puddles looked like eyes to me.
i always love this and have dozens of photos like it
this one too. rocks and leaves in a puddle. why do i love it so?
and this, the color and texture make me so happy
Hunter Mountain -- autumn technicolor, waiting for the blast of snow that will transform the landscape
THRILLING
makes my heart soar
yours too?
Here's my wonderful Wintry Mix sweater, by the way!
this autumn, 2011
The promised partly-cloudy but sunny skies never materialized yesterday; it was quite chilly and the skies were always flat gray, covered in clouds, but it was still a beautiful day. We hike and tramped around, ate some great food at Brios, and generally enjoyed this autumn day. The devastation is kind of shocking to see; Hurricane Irene was a joke in NYC, ballyhooed and overly prepared-for, but just a bit of wind and little rain. Up here, though, bridges and roads were destroyed, homes were devastated, belongings lost.
My Wintry Mix sweater is absolutely wonderful to wear; it’s a bit more rumpled-looking in the photo than it really is. I’d been hiking in it all day, and pulling on/off a coat, so it’s a bit goofed-up looking by my shoulder in a way that it’s not, really. I love everything about it, and imagine I’ll wear it a LOT this fall and winter!
knitting and hol(e)y bones, batman.
- My Wintry Mix sweater is nearly dry, and it’s just gorgeous. That was the quickest I’ve ever made a sweater, even including the 15 days I was away on vacation. But when you take out those days, from start to finish it took me 13 days. I know some of you can make a sweater in even less time, but that’s record-making progress for me! It’s still too damp to take a picture of me wearing it, plus it’s dim and gray and rainy today so the light wouldn’t be good. But this weekend my husband and I are going upstate for a little foliage scouting, and it’s supposed to be gorgeous weather so I’ll wear it there and get an FO shot among the FOliage.
- I have osteoporosis. Boo. I had the bone density scan before we left on vacation and had the follow-up visit yesterday; I knew that’s what it would be, so I wasn’t fretting over it while we were gone and I wasn’t surprised. Sadly, the bone loss is worst in my hip, second worst in my spine. Time to continue (and amp up) my strength training, learn to love kale, develop the habit of calcium + D supplements, eat a lot of figs (surprisingly high in calcium, yo!). If you’re also concerned about calcium and want to get it from food as much as possible, check out this link(and shoot for 1300mg/day). It’s a bummer, for sure, and I’ll have to be diligent and careful about falling. Strength training is so great because it doesn’t just build bone, it also helps with stability and balance so it’s a double-whammy of good for your bones. Just do it, ya’ll.
The World Health Organization has put together a tool you can use to calculate your risk of fracture (click here for the US version of the tool). I happen to know the specific data for my hip bone density, but you can still use it without that piece of data. Here’s what you get — here’s mine:
interesting stuff
So I have a 6.4% chance of a major osteoporotic fracture in the next 10 years. The site defines the terms — secondary osteoporosis, for instance — and it’s simple to use. It only works for individuals 40-90 years of age, so you young whippersnappers don’t bother, just get plenty of exercise and eat your calcium.
- I’m dying to show you the brilliant yellow featherweight cardigan. I just have to finish the ribbing on the body (just another inch), then I’ll take a picture. Malabrigo is so wonderfully soft and that very light halo makes for a gorgeous sweater. As soon as we have some nice light I’ll take a photo.
- Casting-on for my Vodka Gimlet sweater this morning, while I read manuscripts. My yarn came while I was away, and knitting the swatch was a gorgeous experience; Plucky Knitter Primo Worsted is fantastic to knit with, and makes the most beautiful fabric, gorgeous stitch definition, a lovely hand. I see why everyone loves it so much! Mine is a color called Oz — obvious, when you see it — and it’s sumptuous:
vivid! And prompting me to name my sweater the Ozma Gimlet
What else. I had a wonderful dinner with a great, great friend last night, and was reminded just how much friendships add to life. Finding a good friend as an adult is kind of hard, unless you find them at work. Turns out she lives just a few blocks away from me, so we can easily get together for dinner. And she set up the poetry group that I dearly, dearly love. We had a very good meal and wonderful conversation — good enough to trump my incredible exhaustion and jetlag. Last night I took something so I slept from 10pm all the way through to 7:30am, yee-ha. And hallelujah. I feel human today.
Lots of work to do so this bullet-point presentation must draw to an end. I hope it’s not as gray and drizzly where you are, unless you’re in Texas and need some drizzle and relief from heat!
there’s very little as nice as knitting that’s working out as you hoped.
A bit of housework, a chat on the phone with a daughter, a disastrous pasta-making effort, and some knitting.
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- My “Oops I did it again” featherweight cardigan, cast on and underway.
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- Sleeve #1, one full ball of yarn. Close to the sleeve cap shaping, just another 13 rows.
So two things to say, here:
- MALABRIGO LACE, y’all. Oh boy do I get it now. It’s as soft as everyone says. It’s luscious, creamy, delicious, I want to run away with it. The color is so rich; the color in the photo is true, on my monitor. Deep yellow with a hint of orange. I don’t ever want to knit with anything else, as long as I live. I think I’m going to love this one even more than my red one. Hannah Fettig, you’re a genius with the little cardigan. So simple, nothing really, but wonderful.
- A sleeve in a day, along with the rest! Kind of amazing. I always had sleeves categorized in my head as “ugh, now it’ll be weeks.” Not with this yarn and these needles, man. Speedy Gonzales (speedy ka-dah-dis, if you’re my dear Katie). The angora and silk in the yarn gives it such a luxurious hand, I really like the fabric a lot. Amy Herzog, you fit-to-flatter wizard.
Homemade lasagna for dinner, even if no homemade pasta — smells so good, happy hands, soon-to-be-happy tummy, happy day. Ah! Time for a daily gratitude. I’m so grateful to be a maker, for which I take no credit. It’s just the software I came with, and I’m very very grateful for it. Grateful for the impulse, grateful for the experiences, grateful for the pleasures, grateful for the desire, grateful for the end results, grateful for the making life.
i’m dwiving in your caw…you tu’n on the wadio. You puww me cwose, I just say no. I’m on fi-yuw.
That’s the most hilarious thing ever — I’ve been laughing at it for decades. When I realized that my knitting desire was on fire again, that’s how I heard it in my head. And yes oh yes, my knitting desire is rekindled, to put it mildly. With the slight shift in the air to the idea of fall, if not yet the implementation of fall, and with the release of so many great new sweaters, my “buy now” mouse finger is itching and I just want to get after it and do nothing but knit. I’ve queued two new sweaters and I just bought the yarn for them, and (of course) I still have my Vodka Gimlet yarn coming, mid-September.
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- Flux, by Signe S. Simonsen
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- Wintry Mix, by Amy Herzog
For the Wintry Mix sweater, I just bought the recommended yarn, Berroco Blackstone Tweed, in a beautiful dark green — evergreen. And for the Flux sweater, which has a really beautiful series of braided cables on the front and back, I’m just going with good old Cascade 220, in a lovely heathered lavender called montmartre, which is a change of pace from the dark saturated colors I usually use (plus red, my old standby). I’d rather have used my beloved madelinetosh for the Flux, but my budget was blown.
Now I’ve really got to buckle down and finish my little red cardigan. I know what I’ll be doing over the long weekend….how about you?
Well! This was really the year of sweater knitting; I finished five sweaters this year. Last year I made two, so this was a dramatic increase. It was nice to start the year off with a sweater, even if 90% of it was completed last year. My first FO of 2011 was the Dark & Stormy cardigan, designed by Thea Colman, knit in Madelinetosh vintage (colorway baltic). The pattern was a birthday gift from my friend Kelly, and I absolutely adore the sweater. This’ll stand in until I get a nice shot of me wearing it:
Continue Reading–248 words totally
Well! This was really the year of sweater knitting; I finished five sweaters this year. Last year I made two, so this was a dramatic increase. It was nice to start the year off with a sweater, even if 90% of it was completed last year. My first FO of 2011 was the Dark & Stormy cardigan, designed by Thea Colman, knit in Madelinetosh vintage (colorway baltic). The pattern was a birthday gift from my friend Kelly, and I absolutely adore the sweater. This’ll stand in until I get a nice shot of me wearing it:
just gorgeous, in every way
It seems to be a blue year, this year; while I was waiting for some yarn to arrive, I knocked out a quick braidy cowl, which I named Oh, Marcia. So corny. It’s the Very Braidy Cowl, in Sweet Georgia worsted (colorway summer skin):
Marcia, Marcia Marcia - a very braidy cowl
In exactly the same colorway, but sock weight (which had been my intention when I mistakenly bought the worsted, above), here’s a pair of socks I made for my youngest daughter Anna’s 20th birthday. She really loves handknit socks, much to my real surprise, which makes it such fun to make them for her. This pattern is Komet:
the komet pattern (free on rav), in Sweetgeorgia tough sock, colorway summer skin
SO MUCH BLUE. Something very different was called for……red. Here’s my “I need something red shawl” (aka LaReine Shawl, by Angela Tong, in OkayKnits Sena, colorway sweetie-pie). I absolutely adore this piece, and wear it all the time:
it's such a vibrant color, and a very nice length!
I had this absolutely gorgeous colorway of madelinetosh’s Tosh Merino Light called filigree, so I used one skein of it to make a Saroyan. I loved the pattern, and loved the yarn, but for some reason it won’t photograph correctly, no matter what I do, what kind of light, etc. So trust me, it’s a gorgeous olive green, not so brown:
IT'S NOT BROWN!!! grrrrrr!!
If this wasn’t the quickest and simplest hat pattern in the world, I don’t know what is, but the yellow and white combo really lifts it into “Wow! Where’d you get that hat!” status. Made for Marnie, the pattern is “My Striped & Slouchy Hat“, knit in Cascade 220.
adorable, right?!
These socks — Angee, by Cookie A, knit in KnitPicks Felici (colorway: green vegetables) — are for my oldest daughter Katie, who (a) loves green and (b) picked the pattern. I love knitting for my kids. Knitting the hat above and the socks below was a great antidote to winter.
angee, in knitpicks felici
It took forever, but I made a second Traveling Woman shawl in tosh DK, colorway byzantine. It’s gorgeous, drapy, squishy, and warm:
Traveling Woman Shawl, by Liz Abinante, in tosh DK
A very very quick little knit, I cranked out the Fetching mitts in a couple hours. The yarn is so soft, Cascade Eco Duo (70% alpaca, 30% merino), in the vanilla colorway. It’s a fun knit, and I know the mitts will be luscious to wear but I don’t know how they’ll hold up, given how soft they are (and the yarn is loosely-spun singles). Still, look:
you wouldn't believe how soft these are!
I love this hot little number: Hannah Fettig’s featherweight cardigan, in Spirit Trail Fiberworks’ “clotho,” colorway deliciously called dragon’s blood. This is a wonderful little sweater, I see why everyone has made it.
the color is dragon's blood
This was without a doubt the fastest sweater I’ve ever knit; it really just took 13 days, even though there was a 15-day break in the middle while I was gone to Vietnam and didn’t work on it at all. This is my Wintry Mix sweater, designed by Amy Herzog, knit in the recommended yarn (Berroco Blackstone Tweed).
Wintry Mix, by Amy Herzog (yarn: berroco blackstone tweed, in evergreen)
A second Thea Colman design, this one the Vodka Gimlet — but since my colorway was Oz (Plucky Knitter Primo Worsted), I named my sweater Ozma’s Delight. I can’t express how much I adore this sweater, I’ll probably wear it every day:
sweater LOVE
When the weather started smelling cold, I realized I don’t have a warm hat, so I knocked out A Hat for Eudora, designed by Alexandra Tinsley. The pattern was a birthday gift from Kelly, and the yarn is Cascade 220. I call it my Berry Welty hat.
the hem facing is blue and purple, but only I get to know that!
Here’s my Laurayana sweater — Ayana by Amy Herzog, pattern gifted by my friend Laura. This was knit in Cascade 220 Heathers (color, montmartre, which is much more dusty lavender than it looks here).
really such a comfortable sweater to wear.
For my youngest daughter Anna, a pair of handknit socks — the only kind of socks she wears, which cracks me up given who she is, otherwise. Not a handknit anything kind of person!
Kai-Mei (pattern by Cookie A), in KnitPicks Stroll Tonal (golden glow)
Her foot is at least a couple sizes smaller than mine, so that sock is stretched pretty far to fit over my foot!
don’t hide!
my spirit animal must be an ostrich. i know that’s not a fancy spirit animal, or an elegant one, but it does seem to be mine. if everything is A-OK, buddy i can face it and do what needs to be done. but if anything gets a little bit wobbly, i just hide my head and do a bit of psychic fingers-in-the-ears ‘la la la i can’t hear anything’. and then the hiding takes on a life of its own, and i begin to feel so awful about having hidden, and having avoided people, that it just gets harder and harder to do what needs to be done. and doing what needs to be done becomes increasingly heavy, since – you know – it’s not being done.
i love the spirit of amy herzog’s ‘fit to flatter’ series, for a great many reasons. the reason that’s relevant to this post is that she says ‘here’s what IS, and here’s how to work with it.’ that’s right: this is how i actually do look. actually. not how i wish i looked; not ‘how i’ll look when i lose 10 pounds;’ not how i used to look; not how the victoria’s secret models that i walk past every morning look (well, how they look with a lot of airbrushing and photoshopping). no. this is how i look, right now, and it is.
i’ve enjoyed the fit to flatter posts, every single one. i’ve enjoyed seeing actual photographs of real women, and how real women actually look – and they look great, they look like regular people. like me. on top of the ridiculous blight of advertising and overly skinny models, i also live in manhattan, which seems to have a greater-than-average percentage of fancy people. i am not a fancy person. i am an average-looking person, an average 51 year old who has given birth to 3 children, who has had major abdominal surgery, who has less-than-perfect posture, who can be lazy and just throw on whatever is convenient, who could certainly benefit from more exercise.
facing what actually is requires either a bit of courage, or an attitude stripped of judgment. i think it’s the stripped attitude that helps the most. step on the scale and just look. open your eyes, really just look at that number. ok, that’s what is. and open that email and just look at it – that’s it. and go ahead and open the envelope, open the mail, look at what it actually is. what’s amazing – and i do already know this – is just how powerful it feels to go ahead and do that. i always feel so righteous, like i can just keep doing it, it’s so much easier – working is always easier than not working – and from now on i’m just going to do it. i’ll adopt a new spirit animal, something that Gets. It. Done. i wonder what that would be.
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