Proverbs 31 – The Lady Who Is Not Well Explained

In early 2024, I read through the book of Proverbs and planned to share more of my study, but this year, I’ve been feeling imposter syndrome about sharing what I’m reading and what God is teaching me. I’m not sure why either because I love cataloging my notes from my reading and sharing them here for whoever would like to read them. I enjoy a good book discussion and I want to see how my understanding of books, like books in the Bible, changes over time as I re-read passages and gain deeper knowledge of the text.

I’ve been doing this with Pride and Prejudice and other Jane Austen stories through a podcast/YouTube channel creator named Ellie Dashwood, who I’ve mentioned before. I’ve been watching through her historical videos which explore fascets of Regency Era England to bring greater context to the characters of Jane Austen’s works of literature. I think the combination of a video I watched following what Elizabeth Bennet’s life would be like as the lady of Pemberley and a recent video by With Love, Kristina brought me back to Proverbs 31 and the woman described. It’s a bit of a web, but I’ll explain.

In Ellie’s video, she walks the viewer through what it would be like to be a Regency-era lady of a large estate like Pemberley, which is a pretty fascinating thing to consider because we don’t learn a lot about this period in history classes! What we as the viewers learn is that Lizzie would have a rather full day. It’s honestly much busier than I ever thought because history tends to paint women in a few scant roles like wife or mother, object of desire, or damsel in distress. It’s frustrating because we aren’t that different from people of the past and it doesn’t make sense to me why women would be so lacking in life and personality until 1900’s?

I thought Lizzie would be a lady forced to read and not take long walks, as she so enjoys, and have to take turns about the room with Caroline Bingley. But actually, being the mistress of Pemberley gave her a lot of jobs to do. Like Cora in Downton Abbey, Elizabeth would be in charge of the house such as making sure it was running smoothly, would be in charge of entertaining, etc. Lizzie would also be in charge of running the budget of the house to keep their expenses within their means.

Pemberley is a large estate in Darbyshire, therefore they would have tenants and Elizabeth would make social calls as part of her role as mistress of Pemberley. It was part of building a good community. As the family with the most money and resources, they were to take care of their tenants, as lady bountiful she would call on the poor and the sick and bring them food from their table. They would also have people staying at Pemberley and balls which would be hosted at the estate that Elizabeth would be in charge of planning.

I could tell from watching the video that Ellie put a lot of research into discovering what a lady of the gentile class’ life would look like. I think it sounds like a much more fulfilling role than I imagined, especially with the income disparities of the time, I was happy to learn that if the family who held an estate like Pemberley were good people the poor and the sick would be taken care of as well as the staff, like we see in Downton Abbey.

How does this connect to the video I was watching the other day, from With Love, Kristina’s channel? She mentioned the woman in Proverbs 31 but challenged me to dig deeper than the trite “Proverbs 31 woman” stereotype that gets peddled around Christian women content on social media. I was quite pleased to hear what she reminded me of because it reminded me a bit of the Mistress of Pemberley as well as what life looks like as a 2024 woman.

Kristina is a full-time YouTube creator and fiction author who is also a stay-at-home mom with five kids. In a lot of her videos, she discusses the intentionality and work it takes to find a balance between all these roles. She is incredibly down-to-earth and that is why I find myself sticking around on her channel when she is not talking about vintage fashion, writing, neurodivergence, or vintage cleaning routines because I don’t have five kids, I don’t have any kids, but her real-life perspective and authenticity teach me things that I wouldn’t know otherwise and I find common ground where I didn’t expect it.

In the video that sparked me to write this post, she was discussing the outside opinions viewers share in the comments about how lucky she is to be just a wife and just a stay-at-home mom, and what she shared I connected with. My husband and I share labor, as I have transitioned in lockdown from bringing in income from my full-time job to pivoting towards a new path, my role changed. Since I temporarily couldn’t provide financially anymore for our lives, I wanted to take a more active role in the unpaid domestic labor that makes life happen. I became much more serious about housekeeping and cooking because it made me incredibly uncomfortable to not contribute financially. It was a struggle actually to let him fully take that role, something I continually struggle with and strive to change because that’s who I am.

I’ve had people in my life treat me like a spoiled brat who doesn’t want to work or got saved from working by my husband like I’m a kept woman and this truly irks me. It irks me how people in my life can’t see that paid or unpaid, domestic labor is work and also on top of that, I am working to build something for myself through knitting and sewing which is still in process. But just because I don’t have that “job” or typical career anymore, my time is devalued and seen as me “playing all day with my crafts” not spending 8 hours a day doing domestic labor and my own work on Instagram, the blog, and my current projects. It hurts but I can’t make people see things differently than how they want to see them.

This is where the Proverbs 31 woman stereotype came in, after I was laid off a few people in my life brought up the Proverbs 31 woman as my new role model from the season I was in being unemployed and just a wife. I could just “wife” like her and have kids and make my little crafts and donate to charities and be a woman of good moral character that is secondary to her husband. That’s what the Proverbs 31 woman is. But she’s not that actually if you read the text, and Kristina reminded me of this.

The Proverbs 31 woman works and has a successful income all on her own. She buys land with the money she earns and contributes to her family’s finances through her work spinning wool and flax into textiles. She is a wife, a mom, an artisan, and a lady bountiful with whom she shares her blessings with her community. She is a fully developed character with a big life. A woman that I can connect with and I think most women today will as well. She is not the watered-down version I see on social media that is mostly clothed in dignity and grace like good things just came to her because she is special. It’s not about health and wealth gospel and faith in God providing you with three wishes like Aladdin.

I think it’s a shame that we are under-explaining her in the Christian bubble to create engagement and sell people a fake sense of Biblical feminity. I love studying literature and seeing that women are not NPCs and haven’t always been NPCs. Women are an active part of the storyline. Both inside and outside of the Christian bubble, we should be able to agree on this and, sadly, it isn’t always the case. How much more could we be supporting each other if we realized this? How much stronger could our communities be? And how could this bring light to overwhelm modern-day women are experiencing?


Her husband has full confidence in her
    and lacks nothing of value.
 She brings him good, not harm,
    all the days of her life.
She selects wool and flax
    and works with eager hands.
 She is like the merchant ships,
    bringing her food from afar.
She gets up while it is still night;
    she provides food for her family
    and portions for her female servants.
She considers a field and buys it;
    out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
She sets about her work vigorously;
    her arms are strong for her tasks.
 She sees that her trading is profitable,
    and her lamp does not go out at night.
 In her hand she holds the distaff
    and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
 She opens her arms to the poor
    and extends her hands to the needy.
 When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
    for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
 She makes coverings for her bed;
    she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
 Her husband is respected at the city gate,
    where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them,
    and supplies the merchants with sashes.
—
 Honor her for all that her hands have done,
    and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Proverbs 31:11-24, 31 NIV

#60 – Two Red-Crowned Cranes

Recently I was sitting on my back porch on a warm July evening, watching the clouds shift and shape with the dance of the sun as their leader. They began the descent of sunset. The sky was painted with the colors of nightly splendor. A hint of pink and purple with the rays of light bending towards slumber with wide swaths of bright blue, white fluffy clouds, and trailing puffs of gray and slate.

It was one of those sights that change before your eyes without your eyes perceiving a change has happened. All of a sudden the sky was different, a variation of beauty next as the clouds drifted across its heavenly path.

A sudden change in the air pulled me out of the scene. A sound. A ruffle of wings. The pure speed of the flight. Usually, a fast-moving shape in the sky means a single goose or a group of Canadian Geese. You can hear them from their honking call. This was silent aside from the wings as they flapped in stride.

It was a pair of red-crowned cranes flying low across my yard onward back to their home, the open-air aviary of Keystone Safari in the next town over. These cranes are native to the Korean peninsula. I recognized them firstly, from viewing them at the wildlife park, but from the cover of the ‘ATE’ album.

I learned that they are a popular motif in Korean art, symbolizing longevity, purity, and peace. In Korean, they are called durumi or hak. Interestingly, they are found often in the DMZ between North and South Korea’s borders. They are a stunningly elegant bird to watch in flight, and fast! In an instant, they were a few yards from me and then they were gone.

The red-crowned cranes are native to Korea but that is not the only place they are found, their range continues into East Russia, into China, and has been found in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. I certainly wasn’t expecting to see them in my little corner of the world on that peaceful night but what an honor it was to see such a beautiful animal so close.

That’s becoming one of my favorite features of my house, the backyard is so quiet and peaceful. I can sit there throughout the day and depending on what time of day I see rabbits, birds, chipmunks, squirrels, bats, etc just doing their thing. I feel such peace and contentment. It’s like a reset of my mind.

Moments of K-Pop: Summer 2024

  1. Chk Chk Boom Music Video featuring guest appearances by Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool.
  2. Ryan Reynolds created a pre-movie short that played at certain theaters before Deadpool & Wolverine that showcased moments of his friendship with Stray Kids, including the confirmation that he planned to have them in the movie but had to nix it due to scheduling conflicts.
  3. Skz Code 57 & 58 (Go! Poolside) in the pool with special water sports challenges and a guest appearance of Han Jisung’s unexpected water athletics and a water-logged ferret, Hyunjin.
  4. NASA shared a photo of a supernova with K-pop references and puns including Chk Chk Boom, su-su-su-supernova, and Red Velvet as it was Cosmic.
  5. Dance challenges with NCT 127 and Stray Kids at MBC Kpop.
  6. Felix learns sign language before hanging out with Big Ocean the first hard of hearing Kpop boy group. They do a dance challenge together and Felix writes them a letter.
  7. Marvel Korea brings Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, Bang Chan, and Felix together for a promotional interview.
  8. Ateez Toward the Light Tour begins in the United States. At the Arlington, TX show at Global Life Field the Texas Rangers create Ateez personalized jerseys and baseballs.
  9. Hongjoong interactions with Atiny and their phones at concert meet and greets.
  10. Donatella shared highlights of Stray Kids at the I-Days music festival in Milan like a proud auntie.
  11. Ryan Reynolds photoshopping moments from Stray Kids’ music video Megaverse into a promo for Deadpool & Wolverine
  12. MTV interviewer asking if the OST for Deadpool & Wolverine featuring NSYNC, The Platters, Waylon Jennings, Patsy Cline, and Stray Kids is just a long con for Hugh and Ryan to join a K-pop group. Ryan and Hugh declare their band will be Stray Old Men.
  13. Hulu announcing that subscribers can stream Lollapalooza in Chicago meaning I can watch the Killers and Stray Kids since the tickets sold out at once.
  14. Jin returned from military service.
  15. An Old English scholar translating the chorus from Work by Ateez into old English under a bardcore Ateez meme.

How to Use a French Curve

It’s a bit silly to think about now, but learning how to sew from Youtube meant that using all the correct drafting tools, was a process of failing in order to realize I needed them.

I made a series of pants and shorts in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Some were okay, many were awful, some turned out better than expected because of a pattern. What I was missing in my sewing tool kit though was the predictability of the french curve.

Once I began drafting with this wonderful comma, I saw an improvement in my pattern drafting, ease of wear for garments made with this tool, and a reduction of fabric waste from cutting the curve wrong.

Looking to the Future

This July has been the first time I’ve recognized that feeling of time passing. The year is halfway over, what do I want to do with these last six months to finish the year strong?

In May, I felt like my life was done, as I knew it. Like a video game, I was done, out of hearts, out of health, game over. June felt like an exciting adventure and a respawn of my little game character in a new environment but the same life. It was thrilling and overwhelming at times, there was so much to catch up on and so much to do to begin our life in our house. July however has been this month of my brain feeling like it is in hyperspeed. Now that I have a new space to create, I also have new creative energy. That two-month break spent packing, moving, and waiting, was like a creative refresh and since then July has been a sprint.

I think some of this wild energy has been all the excitement of this month as part of the STAY fandom, this has truly been a one-of-a-kind comeback, but also I’ve been seeking distraction. My mom is walking through a health condition that came out of nowhere and in a matter of a few weeks she went from my companion packing boxes to being unable to do much physical activity without her body sending off alarm bells. I’ve never seen her like this before, and if I stop to think about it too much, I freak out.

I’ve turned my attention to what the second half of the year could bring. There have been so many wonderful things on the horizon, my friend’s wedding, my sister-in-law’s new place, Kyle’s new woodshop, the possibility of adopting a rabbit from E.A.R.S, Shakerwoods, the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival, apple picking, Pumpkinville, etc. I’ve begun planning Christmas presents for loved ones, trying to be more ambitious than ever to push myself to learn something new in the process. I’ve also been feeling the itch to actually sell my pieces. I think it’s time, I just have to figure out where and how.

Hit the Klaxon? (G)-IDLE and Aespa Confusing Summer Concepts

Something that I noticed this summer, is that Korean girl group (G)-IDLE’s July album release ‘I Sway’ felt disjointed and didn’t land. As I watched the beach dancing sequence in the music video, I thought I was the only one, but as I’ve browsed K-Pop subreddits, I am far from the only one feeling weird about this song and era.

I saw discussions about whether (G)-IDLE’s concept was going downhill or what was going on with this album. I have been confused by what a ‘klaxon’ is. Is it a made-up word? Is it a Korean word? Why did the trailer look like the song was going to be set in a city with old cars and instead we get cringe choreography on the beach while the members dance in swimsuits that feel so unoriginal and not true to (G)-IDLE’s normal aesthetic.

It’s vaguely Californian but honestly, the beach could be anywhere? The stage performance and dance challenge shorts feature the members in lifeguard-themed outfits that look like the lifeguard hoodies you can purchase at Wings at the Outer Banks. The dance challenges feel off, not even Changbin really got into it. Which I was looking forward to, as the weird sexual choreography where they pop their chest at the “honk honk” lyric sounded funny for a boy group member to do.

I did learn, from The Grand Tour ironically, that “Klaxon” is an old-fashioned turn for a car horn. Yeah, weird. A bit too niche. Maybe if the music video was more car-focused or the lyrics had built on that theme more the theme would have meshed well with the name and the choreography? 2Baddies and Faster from NCT 127 are two examples of car-focused songs and a car-focused music video that works well, a girl group building on this theme would have been cool!

I personally find this comeback disappointing because so far in 2024, (G)-IDLE has been one of my favorite bands. Super Lady and Wife were amazing concepts that challenged the norm without being trite. (G)-IDLE for years now has been so fantastically original and pushing back against the stereotypes women navigate. Hoping this is a fluke and not a full-on concept change.

Last Summer I had similar concerns about Aespa after their ‘Better Things” comeback which seemed to bop between a mermaid water concept and a sitcom “Friends” style. It was a different song for the band too, with a slower concept, less beat-heavy. In that way it reminds me of Stray Kids ‘Lose My Breath’ music video and concept from this year. Where Aespa was less successful than Stray Kids was that they couldn’t quite blend the conflicting aesthetics and song style together into something that landed. This song, Better Things, has grown on me in the months since they released it, but it isn’t one I listen to regularly.

I hope ‘Klaxon’ does the same. What surprises me the most with these concepts is that the coconut girl, mermaid-core, beach vibes aesthetic is not landing. You would think releasing this in the summer would be a hit, but these concepts just didn’t come to fruition in my opinion and other K-pop fans.

To be fair, I still don’t like the ‘Lose My Breath’ aesthetics, it was interesting but not a favorite compared to other Stray Kids concepts and maybe that is what ‘Better Things’ and ‘Klaxon’ are suffering from. Maybe the other stuff is so good, just peak concepts, that these good but not great concepts seem like flops?

#59 – Back to Square One

I rarely do a Japanese update so close together, but something discouraging happened yesterday and my last update seems inaccurate to what I wrote now. When I began my language learning journey (to learn German), back in 2016 I chose Duolingo and it was a fantastic free option. Yes, the 5 heart health system was frustrating but they reloaded in a few hours and the amount of ads was limited. There were few bugs and it was an easy interface to use. Fast forward to 2024, when I returned to Duolingo to pick up my Japanese learning because I was stuck in a rut from the move, things were very different.

My experience this time lasted a week. A whole week, that’s it. The ads between lessons were 1-3 mins depending on how long you used the app. The more you progressed the longer the ads between lessons. The ability to practice mistakes fully moved behind the paywall. The AI voices were normal at first but then I began to notice pronunciations that seemed incorrect to what I learned other places, and a quick reddit check and I am not alone in that experience.

But then, the nail in the coffin happened. Yesterday I was taking a final lesson review to move on to the next section in Japanese, and the app and AI format truly sabotaged the learning process. I was working on a listening exercise where you have to select words from a word bank based on what the voice says. I listened, listened again, listened on slow-mo, added some words from the word bank, checked my work, added a few more, checked my work, listened again, and submitted my answer. My answer was declared wrong and I lost a heart, although my “incorrect” answer matched the correct answer they showed.

I flagged it and submitted feedback and carried on with my lesson. No big deal. I went through the lesson, this was a review to move on to a new level, so you have to complete it to keep learning, well Duolingo presented the exercise again that I “missed” to do it again. I listened again, reviewed my work, and submitted. The same thing happened and I lost another heart. I flagged it again and moved on.

But I can’t, because this is the last obstacle to finishing the review. So I try again, maybe it will be fixed now? Nope, 3 hearts down. So I back out hoping it will reset the error and I forgot it would reset instead my progress, but not my hearts. I can pay for more hearts or pay for the Super Duolingo service for 99 USD a year for unlimited hearts. I was incredibly frustrated. I didn’t have enough hearts left to practice Korean too.

The hearts now reset after 24 hours. Plus, I can’t progress in Japanese nor can I go back and review previous lessons now because the app is gamified and you need gems to practice anything not just to convert your practice to “legendary” which means they go gold and your “practice streak” is frozen for a while.

Honestly, what the heck? They’ve made it unusable unless you pay money and I’d say that the current app is questionable enough to not justify a subscription even if you have 99 USD that you can spare because this is not even the equivalent of a virtual tutor anymore. I’m pretty disappointed. Having a free app that learning and language practice at its focus was such a good idea. It was accessible regardless of your financial status and it felt authentic.

This is a sham now. The language learning app are all expensive whether its Babbel, LingoDeer, Rosetta, etc. That’s why I would try Duolingo here and there because it was free and it kept you limited by hearts but it wasn’t unusable. That is no longer true.

Now I’m back at square one. I need to figure out a way to practice vocabulary and listening exercises, which I will it was just nice to have those practice sessions at the ready. I’ll go back to my books and flashcards and develop something. I’ll also keep watching Haikyu and Coupy Camper channel.

For Korean this will be a full new adventure. I’ll obviously continue to listen to Kpop and watch Kcontent but I’m going to make some Hangul flashcards and find some Korean language learning books. It will be fine. I’m sorry this post was a bit of a downer but I didn’t want to let my previous Japanese update stand as it was. It’s no longer accurate to my learning process.

Japanese Update with a Twist: July 2024

Moving and all the little details involved with purchasing a house wreaked havoc on my routines and productivity. I stubbornly vowed that I would not fall behind on my knitting project, my sewing plans, my writing goals for this blog, my Bible reading plan, and my language learning but honestly, it did! I lost all those good habits and since then, yeah my language learning has been spotty at best.

I did a little bit of learning while at my mom’s house where I spent an afternoon reviewing my hiragana and katakana flash cards where I felt like I was being defeated by the language. I would quiz myself and make some gains, do it again, and then I would forget the ones I had remembered previously. There was no perceivable progress and I was frustrated.

Frustrated by my lack of focus and lack of consistency in my life at that point. Frustrated that my Japanese study books were stored and questioned if I should have kept them out. Worrying that I was going to lose all my progress. It was a downward spiral. When I was studying my life was still in chaos and I think it showed in my studying. My perfectionism was coming on strong instead of being willing to learn, to fail, and to keep practicing.

Once we closed, June was basically a month of hauling cubes, cleaning, and finding our life once again. But in July I began to feel the lack of habits getting to me. I had a place to work, but instead, I was prioritizing sewing, knitting, and recording the process for Instagram and the blog. Although those are productive, not having that sense of order and balance was irking me. I was pleased with how balanced I was in the spring, I was working on, creating, learning, and progressing. Instead of letting myself get bummed out, I needed to keep fighting to reclaim those habits. I’m so excited about this new home and the space it has to pursue the things I want to do. I needed to accept that this chaos was temporary and discover a new plan.

To get started I’ve been blocking out activities for focus. Laundry on one day where I balance with knitting. If I sew I tend to do it all on one day where I can stay in my sewing studio. Cleaning in the morning, and my personal projects in the afternoon. I’ve been challenging myself to be in the moment and let things be out of my control. If I forget to workout, or read my Bible, instead of making myself feel bad I’ve shifted my perspective to looking forward to tomorrow and the ability to do better.

But what about my Japanese language learning? This idea came to me randomly. I was watching a video that had to do with K-pop and the person was saying she was also learning Korean through Duolingo. Well, I remember Duolingo. It was an option I tried before and got tired of. I questioned whether I would actually learn Japanese to the level I would like and if it was a gimmick. Feeling like I needed to break up my studying routine, something to jump-start my drive and get me motivated again, I decided to re-download the app. This time I mixed up my plan though – I signed up for Korean lessons and picked up my Japanese progress from 2022.

So yeah, I’m learning both now. This probably sounds insane but I watch so much K-pop content on YouTube, particularly the SKZ Code episodes. I listen to K-pop most of the time, and I like K-dramas. While watching M*A*S*H, I realized that they were actually speaking Korean and that I was picking it up because I was already learning Korean by exposure to Korean content. So why not start the process officially?

My plan is to practice on Duolingo and then pick up actual learning books because I have learned in the past year that Duolingo is a tool to practice with but it does not replace other resources and taking the initiative to study. Duolingo has its limitations but it also has one good feature – reminders! And pre-made lessons which are such an amazing thing when you are feeling stuck. This has been the jumpstart I’ve needed for Japanese. I’ve been getting into a habit again!

The last thing that I’ve added to my learning routine is watching Haikyu, a Japanese anime about high school volleyball. It is epic! I’ve been watching it with subtitles and getting immersed in the language like I have been able to do with K-dramas. I’m so encouraged by my enjoyment of Haikyu because I would love to find more anime shows to watch.

Oh, I almost forgot – I have also started listening to J-pop through an Ateez collaboration with the Japanese boy band Be First. I’m hoping this will continue my immersion into the language so that I can improve my listening skills and pronunciation. Things are looking up and I am feeling encouraged! 🙂

Kindness in the Culture: Cottontail Cottage

The algorithm brought something truly life-changing to me, shocking right? Not because it was a product or a service or an ideology, but because it reminded me that goodness, gentleness, and kindness make the world a better place. That is what makes Cottontail Cottage so special.

Prey animals. They are animals that get forgotten by us humans, sometimes they are seen as nuisance animals to us. They dig up our yard or garden, like chipmunks, squirrels, and rabbits. They are animals that our pets discover, like baby rabbit nests, skunks, and birds, that dogs and cats interact with. They are animals that we come into collision with our cars like deer, rabbits, skunks, and opossums. We forget that we are in their space and that our urban sprawl is eating into their native homes.

The decorative plants, concrete, mowing, roads, and traffic, have changed their home forever. And yes, I understand that this is what humans do, I think sometimes we forget how to live in harmony with creation, and to take accountability for how our dominion of the land, affects its original inhabitants. (Something that America has a whole lot of failings with for both disrupting nature, but also historic nations and their societies. That is a topic for another day, that I culturally do not have the appropriate experience to speak about. But it is something I recognize.)

Learning about a small wildlife rescue, located in New York state that is volunteer-run and donation funded, was one of the most amazing things I’ve learned about. Briggette Dix and her team are dedicated to treating and rehabilitating orphaned and injured neonate Eastern Cottontail rabbits. They prioritize care that puts the Eastern Cottontail first, by not treating the rabbits in a way that disrupts their wildlife nature but allows them to heal, grow strong, and be released back into the wild.

They help Eastern Cottontails, chipmunks, squirrels, deer, skunks, birds, opossums, and even bats. They bring awareness to treating wildlife with respect and dignity and encourage healthier boundaries between our world and them. For example, encouraging pet owners to be aware of wildlife in their yard to prevent dogs and cats from stumbling upon baby rabbit nests. They treat bites, car accident carnage when animals are struck by cars, and rescue animals from dangerous situations such as birds stuck on glue traps, rabbits caught in window wells, etc.

Briggette and her team are a shining light in contrast to the darkness of our society and their generous work is something of great importance to our world. In my region, we are seeing wild animals and humans coming into closer and closer contact. Coyotes walking down city roads at night, or curling up beside cars for a night’s sleep, bears wandering into yards and Walmart parking lots, animals like rabbits, deer, skunks, opossums, raccoons, and more being at greater and greater risk of habitat loss because of out of control development.

Wooded areas and meadows are being sold off to create townhouse neighborhoods as people move out of decaying cities instead of working to fix what is broken. They are taking what little habitat we have left for these natural animals and it is not good for anyone. We all need our places to exist. We need a healthy ecosystem, which includes flora and fauna on all levels of the food chain so that nature can do its thing and we can continue to enjoy our wild places.

It’s in all of our best interests to do better and be kinder to our prey animals and their world. Encouraging kindness in the culture, I believe goes beyond just being nice to our fellow humans, it means being kind to our nature and our animals as well. They were here first and deserve our respect. That’s what the work of Cottontail Cottage is teaching me as both a soul wanting to bring change and as a supporter of their cause.

As a believer, I think it is what God is calling us to do, to care for what He made and respect it. Helping orphaned rabbits is agape love in action. How can you bring kindness into your culture?

2000s Style Off-The-Shoulder Sweater and Tutorial

In middle school, I had a black off-the-shoulder sweater with a wide fold-over collar and a coordinating skirt in gray and black stripe. It was the first skirt outfit I tried wearing over pants, a trend that has come back in popularity over the past few years along with the 2000s style. All of this has made me nostalgic for my old sweater, but not interested in buying one like it because I don’t love the new take on 2000s fashion with our current-day fabrics and fast fashion construction. It’s just all off-kilter from the original subject material.

So, I had an idea. What if I tried making one with the yarn in my stash? I had several skeins of this navy tweed from Big Twist that I didn’t buy with a specific purpose, and it took up space. It seemed like a fun color I could coordinate like I did with the Houndstooth Denim dress worn as a maxi skirt. It was an ambitious make.

I’ve only been making sweaters for a few years and had no experience designing a pattern with no collar or shoulder seams. There was a lot to think about. How could I incorporate the big fold-over collar? How do you add sleeves with the new style lines? How do you keep it on the shoulder enough so it doesn’t fall down? As with most of my makes, I dove head first into the project ready to fail if that meant I learned something!

The first obstacle I found was not having enough yarn, shocking right? I was surprised I had multiple skeins of this blue, but it wasn’t enough to get the longer length, so I had a choice to buy more or get creative in this stashbusting project? I decided using what I had was more important than keeping the original vision so I chose this gray yarn I also had in my stash from the Bunny Hat project. It brought an interesting contrast to the tweed and I actually loved the color blocking once it was done.

The arm holes were such a challenge. As I was knitting this piece top down, I first knit the ribbed collar and then reduced down for the body section, leaving enough of the collar on the edge to insert an armhole after I was done with both the front and then back. All was seamed together and for a first try, I’d say it was a success. The geometry definitely worked. I had a free range of motion. It was a win!

What was not a win was my over-calculation when it came to fit. I forgot to accommodate the size needle I was using, a US size 8, which knits up with a larger gauge. I had been using US size 7 more recently and I sized like I would have for this gauge. My second mistake was not accounting for the stretchiness of this yarn. It is an acrylic and nylon blend that gets roomy with wear leading to a sweater that simply didn’t fit.

After the move, several months after this project was done, I tried this on again and realized that I had toned up more than I thought carrying all those boxes because the sweater slips right off my shoulders and off my hips too. It’s a total size failure! Now I’m not sure what to do with it. I’ve already taken in the collar back in April, I don’t think I can take it in again and it is constructed well so frogging this project is not going to be easy. It’s a shame because I think I had a good design here.

I think my only option is to potentially re-home it and make another one following the tutorial that I shared on Instagram which was my first time doing that. I felt such imposter syndrome! To my surprise, it was met positively even though it was not created for circular needles. It showed me that sharing my craft and creating tutorials is becoming a calling, free tutorials, and free knitting and sewing tips because I just want people to do this too.

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