If there is a new fall tradition from the 2020s, it must be Gilmore Girls. Maybe it’s the 20 year rule of trend cycles? Or the power of a tiktok phenomena? But this little show, that was niche throughout my time as a teen and into my twenties, is now a cornerstone of American autumnal celebration in our modern age.
I am honestly thrilled to see this story and its characters embraced by a new generation. It was a connecting point for me, my mom, and a few of our close friends. For a while it felt like a secret club, always disappointing me when I would make a new friend and ask – do you like Gilmore Girls? They shoot me a look of puzzlement, like it was a figment of my imagination. It was my comfort show throughout my teens, and finally others are finding its charm!
The only thing that I don’t if I agree with, is Gilmore Girls being crowned as a fall show when I believe it is a show that showcases the seasons. I guess, that’s why the follow up series – A Year In the Life had a seasonal format. At the time I thought it was ASP doing her own thing again, and it might be, but it may also be, artistic focal point to bring attention to what the show’s storytelling is rooted in – all four seasons.
So I took a look at the episodes, season by season, and tallied fall, winter, spring, and summer. I did not count Season 7 because creators, Amy Sherman Palladino and Daniel Palladino, departed after season six.
Fall: 38 episodes
Winter: 43 episodes
Spring: 28 episodes
Summer: 20 episodes
This is why I don’t understand the hype for this being solely a “fall” show. It is a winter show. A spring show. It is a story about four seasons. I’m happy people are finding joy in something that has brought me so much enjoyment. I just don’t agree that Gilmore Girls is only a fall show. I think it sells a show short, when it celebrates the seasons better than most.
Do you agree? Have you ever watched Gilmore Girls? What is your favorite way to celebrate the beginning of fall?
Fall knitting is here! I’ve been working on this cardigan, off and on, amid a myriad of projects since July. As the days have passed, and a slightly cooler air awakens, I am thrilled to say this piece is ready to wear! I used to struggle to finish sweater projects and I would wander along with my yarn, for three or four months, dilly-dallying on a section because I was bored. This led to a lot of plans and not a lot of garments. This is in the past though. 2024 has been the year of sweaters for me, this being my seventh finished sweater this year! And its only September so I’m excited to see what else I can do in the last quarter of the year.
Do you remember what episode of Gilmore Girls this audio clip is from?
This Comfy Cotton Blend yarn from Lion Brand is a 1 to 1 ratio of polyester and cotton and the tag labels this color blend as chai latte. As I knit it, I saw it more as a banana split blizzard color and now in the spooky cloudy light of fall, I see it as candle light with highlights and shadows. Hence the name, the Candle Light Cardigan. I opted for now to keep this as an open cardigan without a button placket. Not out of laziness, but out of my intention to wear it. This was a cardigan I made specifically for the changing seasons, as a piece I could layer over my summer dresses and tops to get a little more wear out of them on these days when it is both cool and warm as the day progresses. I have two more yarn cakes of this color way which I can use to add a button placket at a later time if I change my mind.
I received this yarn as a gift from my mom as she was de-stashing it. It has been a lovely weight to knit and I like how soft it is. My only notes for Lion Brand would be to work on the splitting. This yarn split often as I was knitting which caught on my needles and led to messy stitches. Either because my needle held on to the stitch below or the yarn split and left some of the stitch behind. It was frustrating at times but not impossible to work with. The fabric it made has a good breathability and warmth to it which I was looking for in a changing seasons layering piece. This is a self drafted pattern that I knit on US 7 straight needles.
Happy Fall everyone one! (And Happy Spring to the southern hemisphere!)
The start of September feels like the start of the Gilmore Girls season. Probably because it used to start airing around this time of the year, but also the show follows a seasonal structure. Usually beginning before or during the school year as Rory embarks on her next academic chapter. A key aspect of Lorelai and Rory’s life is the Friday Night Dinners at Richard and Emily’s house, every week. Emily and Richard, being rather formal people, expect a dress code for their family dinners being formal. It reminds me a bit of dressing up for church as a kid.
There is also a silhouette to the outfits each of the Gilmore Girls wear. They wear a lot of dresses with small cardigans over top, but they also pair fitted blouses with a knee length skirt, usually flared for Rory or a pencil skirt for Lorelai. Rory dresses with a more demure style, that reflects her academic personality where as Lorelai is a bit bold with her patterns, textiles, and colors. It matches her personality of being independent and need to separate her life from her parents’ world.
I thought this combination married both the silhouette of Rory’s style with the bold and playful textiles of Lorelai’s personal style. The blazer is not a Potato Technology piece, I ordered it from YesStyle, but the bustier top and skirt are my own designs. The Floral Print Grafitti Bustier Tank, I designed in 2023 from 1/2 a yard of fabric. This piece was draped and cut on the form. I wish I had known about making craft paper patterns at the time because it’s going to be a challenge to reproduce. The Expressions and Lines Skirt is a new design from this summer. It is a satin graphic print that for the first time, I was able to cut out the pattern directionally without any mishaps! I’m so pleased. 😀
I think the combination of pieces look a bit 2000s, mid 2000s for sure, and capture the essence of the time period. The blend of Lorelai and Rory’s style is a reflection of how I consume the show now. Which character I relate to is a blend as I get closer to Lorelai’s age when the show begins instead of Rory’s age, which is so weird to realize. I’ve truly grown up with this story, being just 12 when I first watched it. Lorelai’s story finds me more each time I watch it.
This weekend started off a little bit wild. At first, it was a normal Saturday, a day we decided to run errands and do normal things we had been unable to get done during the week. Nothing crazy, just the normal chaos of navigating the stores in our town that was feeling extra Stars Hollow-y that day.
Then four o’clock hit and things got wild. It started with some gray clouds rolling in from the northwest. Nothing too crazy, a bit dark, but they seemed like rain clouds, not a grand thunderhead. We had plans to go to Keystone Safari towards the end of the day, which is all outside, a little rain wouldn’t ruin it.
Strike One
But then the dark clouds began to produce lightning and thunder rumbles, so we checked the radar, nothing big just a passing shower. So I continued to get ready to leave and that’s when the rain began to come down in a deluge, the wind kicked up and the lighting put on a grand finale. We were engulfed in a full-on banger of a storm with the culmination crescendoing in a palpable strike and immediate thunder so loud it felt like it happened on our street.
In fact, it did. The lighting struck the transformer up the road and we were now in the middle of a storm with our power gone. My first thought was the fridge and the freezer, and the dinner I was really hungry for. Downright hangry. We had built a fire pit earlier in the day with bricks and I had passed on getting a snack at Sheetz because I was excited about the dinner I would cook. I opted for Mt. Dew and that caffeine was hitting hard.
My mind was moving a mile a minute because I was genuinely surprised. There had been no forecast of storms, barely any rain on the radar. There had been no warning from our local college’s severe storm alert system or even a lightning or severe storm alert from the weather apps. Actually, before the big bolt of lightning hit the transformer, I was ready to get in the car. I’m really glad I decided to wait for the rain to slow down or we would’ve been outside for that and that would’ve been sketchy. This just furthers my frustration with those tornado and storm sirens, this may have been a good time to use them!
Community Matters
What turned into an unexpected evening of silence, the neighborhood I learned is downright silent without air conditioners running, it was actually a time of fellowship. It reminded me of what would happen after a big storm in the neighborhood I lived in as a kid, the neighbors would head outside and check on each other. So this storm which in my hanger felt like a big slap in the face, became a way to meet and bond with my neighbors.
They’re all so nice and warm. Especially compared to the neighborhood we lived in before we bought this house, which was cold. Our neighbors called the power company immediately to report the issue and started checking on people. I met people all around us and had a blast doing it. I even learned more about the property we bought and its history. It truly was turning lemons into lemonade.
Thankfully the power connection was able to be fixed twice. After an hour in a half, which was incredibly fast, the workers were able to repair our line for a few minutes until we heard a loud pop. It was out again, but it didn’t last and they were able to replace all the necessary parts. Most importantly, no one was hurt.
Wallaby, Pygmy Hippo, and a Cloud Leopard
The rest of the weekend, including the two days of vacation my husband took at the beginning of the week were blissfully uneventful and we got to catch up on some things we hadn’t done yet this year because of the move and other distractions. We finally got to Living Treasures to see the Cloud Leopard, the Pygmy Hippotamus, and the sweetest little wallabies and juvenile kangaroos. Walking around the park and getting to be around animals brings me so much joy. Same with Keystone Safari, it is such a calming place to reset and unplug.
The weather after that storm has been spectacular. There has been a coolness, a crispness that feels like autumn is closer than we think. Some of the leaves are already changing. The sky has been spooky and rainy, like a mist that only happens in October. Autumn and spooky season is the time of the year I crave so it has been a wonderful surprise to see highs in the low 60s Fahrenheit and lows in the upper 40s Fahrenheit in August! I can’t wait for all the fall things! 🙂
I’d say overall this little staycation was a great way to reset but most importantly, by losing power and having to lean on the kindness of strangers, I feel like I have settled into this place. It’s starting to feel like home. I also learned to trust my observation skills, and really be skeptical of the meteorologist. I know they have made huge advances lately in technology but dang, they dropped the ball this weekend for me. I think education on how storms work and how to be safe is better than these apps because they fail and there’s really nothing we can do about it. Aside from petting baby goats, that really seemed to lift my spirits this weekend. 10/10 recommend.
I smell snow. An iconic line from a one-of-a-kind character, in a show that successfully captured the magic of winter despite being filled in southern California. They have me fooled every time!
Gilmore Girls has some of the most inspiring winter fashion of any show I’ve watched! I get excited as the temperature drops each fall because I know it’s almost coat season, hat season, scarf season, etc. From season one onward, Lorelai’s love for winter is magnetic! She has a passion for the flakey white accumulation, wrapped up in the atmosphere of cozy nights, and of course her cold weather accessories. She shares this dynamic winter wardrobe with Rory who can rock a good scarf with the best of them.
These items are not just layers or bulk, they are a canvas upon which to paint and express who the characters are by what they wear. They are sentences without words. Personality in yarn. A conversation starter, or simply a colorful way to brighten the gloomy and the gray. A bright point in our day. When I was thinking about adding a new cold-weather accessory to my wardrobe this was my ethos. It had to be special, something I would treasure and wear until it fell apart.
The Plan
My goal for this winter season was to make a striped, colorful, skinny scarf in the early 2000s, aka prime Gilmore style. To accomplish this I thought I would need a myriad of colorful yarns. You can see from my inspiration photos above, there is a lot of color. In my extant garments from that time in my life, there was also a lot of color. My skinny scarves from Aeropostale in the early 2000s were blended with a myriad of shades, but to my surprise, when I began to work on this project, a small color palette of three produced the most impact.
The Pattern:
On US 8 needles with worsted weight yarn, knit for 40 stitches, purl 40 stitches, and swap colors every 2 rows. To a desired length, I believe my finished product is around 48 inches. If you make one, I wish you happy knitting!
I’m currently working on a big knitwear design project. Probably the most ambitious project that I have taken on yet in my time designing knitwear and fabricating sweaters. It is a sweater coat with varying stripes that I have knit in sections over the past few months. I’m currently three months into this project, and per my working style, I’ve worked on smaller projects alongside this big project to keep me stimulated and my motivation high.
This was my progress at the end of September. I had the entire bodice done and sewn together at the shoulder seams, back seam, and under the arms until the point of the sleeve opening. Because I sew, this process of knitting makes more sense to my creative brain than the knitting in the round process. If this type of knitting drives you nuts, it’s only going to get worse so I warned you. 🙂
September Progress
October Progress
In October, I honestly futzed around with the hood and collar and that was about it. I knit one other body panel so two out of four were done and drafted collar and hood patterns, over and over again. I initially expected to make more progress in October and to have just the sleeves left going into November. That didn’t happen.
It was that dang collar and hood section, that kept me in this place of indecision and design frustration. I initially made a collar with a normal stitch, not a ribbed which looks a bit cleaner. I think I was concerned about the collar looking cohesive and was afraid that a solid collar in rib instead of a knit-purl stitch with a stripe would look less cohesive. It looked odd actually. The stripe was good, but the flat collar which began to roll on the end looked ineffectual for a collar. After I sewed it in I carefully cut the collar away which was discouraging from a progress perspective, until I realized the stitched of the collar remained (because I was afraid of snipping the wrong yarn and destroying the shoulders) and the neck opening had this lovely fit and structure now. The shoulders were slightly gathered up to the neck opening and the fit was fantastic now! It just needed a new collar.
I had an idea – what if instead of a collar I went straight to a hood. I had been watching a lot of Gilmore Girls throughout October, seasons four and five to be exact which spanned the years of 2003-2005, peak 2000s fashion. And you know what was popular during this time? The duster! I had an idea, what if the hood was just one piece of this puzzle, what if I made it longer, much longer, added a hood, a rib trim around all the edges with a button closure! A funky duster the likes of Sookie, the Olsen twins, Lindsay Lohan, and even Lorelai herself would have worn during this time.
I knew I wanted to keep the stripe theme going, something that looked labor-intensive and expensive, like a bohemian duster or sweater coat that would be featured in an Anthropologie campaign. I wanted the hood to carry on that stripe motif to make it feel integral to the garment, not an add-on.
Last October, I learned how to draft hood shapes for several outerwear pieces that I crafted for my loved ones as a part of my Potato Technology’s Autumn/Winter 2022 Collection so I am pretty comfortable with the shape and sizing scale for a hood on an outerwear garment. The thing I underestimated though was how tricky it would be to form the hood as I went, as you do with knitting, instead of cutting the hood shape out of fabric. This kicked my butt. I spent a weekend making one half of a hood out of yarn and it was so cursed. When I took it off the needles it didn’t look like the hoods I had created out of fabric and thread. It was lumpy, too short, and not going to work for what I needed.
Once again, I got my scissors out cut the bind off loose, and proceeded to wind the yarn back into a ball. That is when I decided I had to move on to a new section of the project, for my own sanity. Because I still didn’t know how the hood became misshapen in the fabrication process. None of it made sense. Going straight back into making a new hood when I didn’t know how to solve the problem would be a waste of time and resources. I only have one set of size 7 needles, there was no need to tie them up in another likely failed attempt.
I pivoted to the the length of the duster. To make the bottom have more structure I decided to knit this section in two pieces.
November’s Progress (11/16)
This was a good move. I made the first half 30 stitches wider than the previous body panels to create some drape around the hips and the results are cute. The sweater has this sophisticated little flare that accentuates the waist – I was not expecting that! 🙂
With this step in the right direction, I got to work and powered through the last two body panels and the second flare panel at the bottom. It was a lot of work but only took two weeks to complete with focus, stretching, and snacks.
I have a tendency to let the garment lead me. I like to see how the fabric or yarn responds to the vision I have in my head and adjust the design accordingly to the way the project is coming together. The flared panels at the bottom of the sweater inspired me to pivot again, to step back from the hood and long duster to a sweater coat cardigan that could be buttoned into a sweater dress if I would be inclined to wear it as such.
That’s where it stands now. I began drafting a sleeve and designing the color work I had planned for the stripes before I continued any further because I could change my mind and add more length. The hood is out through, it’s just not the vibe.
When will this project be done? I sure hope by the end of 2023, but we shall see.
What do you do when you feel out of control? I used to just blast music in my headphones until I could push the emotions down. For the sake of my poor eardrums, I’ve been trying something new.
I am a Tornado
If you knew me in real life, you would know that I am not a great housekeeper. I am more of a tornado of creative chaos, whether it be in the kitchen or in my workspace, there will be messes and clutter. As a creative person, sometimes I honestly don’t notice the chaos or clutter around me, I just see what I’m working on and if I have completed my project according to my vision.
It’s not a good way necessarily to go through life, but it is my authentic self. As a kid, this led to a lot of nagging me to pick up and friction with my mom and grandparents because I was not organized or faithful in straightening up my room. The same with vacuuming, dusting, or remembering to do the dishes before my mom got home from work. Now as an adult, it’s an internal battle I wage with myself between the chaos tornado and the desire to keep things tidy.
Over the years of working from home, I’ve learned that a chaotic space is not a productive space, as they said many times before, and yet I’m still a bit slow to do something about it. It wasn’t until watching Business Proposal that I began to connect the dots.
Kang Tae Mu
While watching Business Proposal earlier this year, a now beloved classic in my house, I related to a lot of the main characters. The one I did not expect to feel a kinship with was Kang Tae Mu. He is a young president of a company, he is rich, polished, and in control. The opposite of me. It wasn’t until the mask of perfection cracked and I saw the vulnerable moments of his character, the heartbreak and stress of his childhood, and his perfectionism as a coping tool that I realized we are not so different.
There is this moment, that truly endeared me to his character and opened my eyes to my own poor coping skills. Tae Mu and his friend Mr. Cha go to Mr. Cha’s apartment after work (Mr. Cha is his assistant) and Tae Mu cleans everything. Mr. Cha just steps back and out of his way, while Tae Mu works out all the emotions rattling around his mind in chaotic fractures by cleaning, and later cooking. His character decompresses by putting things back into order when he feels out of order and out of control. I never thought of cleaning that way before.
Gellers and Gilmores
I had seen it portrayed less healthily in the show Friends through Monica’s character. Monica’s character does this in a more unhinged and controlling way. But Tae Mu’s cleaning is so much more relatable. I mean it makes so much sense that tidying things can be a productive way to release the frantic energy of big emotions. In the show Gilmore Girls, emotional outbursts are normal. The characters rant, they yell, they express their emotions with big displays and that is usually how my feelings come out. In big messy paintbrush strokes over my relationships and my little house. I don’t like that anymore. I want to be kinder, gentler, a positive person to those around me.
I know I’ll still have those moments, but I’d like to minimize them and cope in better ways. Like not pushing the emotion into a box and tossing it to the back of my mind or feeling stressed and tense. So I’ve been trying to clean, when I really feel like I’m stuck.
Cleaning to the Beat of Wonderland & Item
I was feeling down in the dumps today, it was just an amalgam of bad communication with my husband, a cold, some other not feeling good things and discouragement. A lot of little things kept going wrong and my highly sensitive personality was feeling overstimulated. I was messing with my ability to focus on my current mitten project, my NaMo WriMo start, and planning blog posts.
I realized the only thing I could authentically change to set my day on a better path was to do some cleaning that had fallen by the wayside while I had been sick. With my earbuds in place and a playlist of Stray Kids’ 5-Star and Ateez hits I set to work on a kitchen deep clean. It is incredible how the first five songs of 5-Star changed my mood. The pacing of the music woke the dopamine centers of my brain back up and I was jamming through my stovetop scrubbing. By the time I switched to Ateez, I felt this weight lifted off. The stovetop was shining, the kitchen floor was lemony-fresh, the dishes were sorted into the drying rack, and the laundry was done with its spin cycle.
My environment was different even if my problems and little irritations from the day still existed, I was less stressed because I was able to do something to release my tension. Something active and productive. I felt like I was running my day, not my day running me over.
Last night, I decided to be productive. I gathered my scissors and descended on my fabric stash. To the cuts of fabric, I’d left for the first hint of 30 degrees, to make a tweed coat and plaid trousers. Oh how excited I was to have a tweed fabric that was free from wool, and on clearance no less. What a thrill!
For months, I browsed Pinterest through the forest of street-style pins to the flowing river of coat inspiration. I studied the silhouette, the collar, and the button placement. Oh yes, I was going to do this right. I referenced pattern against pattern, for the right feel. The right lapel.
For moral support, I played a fellow chaos sewist in the background, Stephanie Canada, and laid my fabric on the floor. I determined my cut lines and set them to work, as Stephanie set to work on her #grimgrinninggarb I set my scissors to work carving out the back coat panel.
With a smile, I draped it against my frame to see that the arm holes were placed correctly. The opening for the neck, cut as a slim yoke, compared to the wandering necklines of my past attempts.
Next the sleeves were ready to take shape, a careful gusset planned for the armpit. “What mobility I will have,” I thought, “sweaters, hoodies, flannels – none will be too bulky for this!”
But then the summit appeared in the distance. The jacket front and collar! It was time for the big hurrah, the moment I studied and planned for. I smoothed the yardage to the floor with care to ensure the edges were plumb. With a careful swoop, the arm holes were placed. I steadied myself for the neck opening and lapel.
I stood, I pondered, I cut. A neckline sloping down, reaching outward towards the heart. A lapel. Large enough to fold over and sit regal down the coat. With satisfaction brimming, I carried on to the collar. Easy peasy right? After such a feat! I referenced my pattern one more time and cut it. I placed. I saw what I have wanted to see for years now. A coat with collar, notch, and lapel to follow.
Alright! This is going to work. This is my dream coat. A piece of outerwear ready for Friday Night Dinner. It was sharp. It was, just one. But two? Where’s the second piece?
With horror, I realized my mistake. I laid the second piece to see that I once again forgot to mirror the pattern. It was perfectly cut, backward. The lovely lapel was inside out. I had two lefts and no right.
And I had no more yardage left, on a clearance find remnant. Game over.
No tweed coat. No coat project at all. It was over. Fin.
Sewing humbles me every time. I know one of these days all my practice and failures are going to produce something made with care and wisdom. But dang, I feel so dumb!
If you are feeling discouraged today, remember, that we’re all in this together. 🫶 Hopefully we can all find a way to laugh through our mistakes and keep looking toward what the future holds. We got this! 😁
This year has been weird, weird because I tried something new. I took a step back and let something that had felt out of my control for years be out of my control. I stopped pushing, trying, fighting, and shape-shifting. Instead, I waited. I took my hands off of my relationship with my mom and submitted it to God. I was at rock bottom, our relationship hit an all-time low in January. We were no longer Rory and Lorelai, we were Emily and Lorelai careening towards Emily and Gran. Things were bad. Our communication was broken, and both of us seemed to be unbothered by the problems, allowing it to be the status quo. For just shy of a decade our relationship had been in a bad place. My life took a wrong turn when I was in college and never righted its course. We were no longer pals, but secretive enemies.
I thought this was the final destination for our relationship. I was not hopeful. I put it down and left it. For months I barely spoke to my mom. For six months we did not see each other. It was the longest break we ever took. Even when I moved 14 hours away, we saw each other within 5 months. The distance was too far. This year it felt like I lived on the other side of the world. It pushed me to be still to process what I was doing wrong and to realize what I wished our relationship could be like.
When my mom had surgery this summer, the thought of a complication taking her away woke me up out of this experiment in distance. I visited her and it was strained, but doing a normal thing, like visiting your mom after surgery, seemed to bring a little normalcy back to our unbridled mess. As she recovered our relationship ebbed and flowed like tides. One day we’d be comfortable, warm, and friendly. The next it was cold, distant, irritating. I began to wonder if the small bit of hope was just that a small taste. That maybe it was what it was, and I needed to adjust my expectations. Could we get along in my adulthood? I was uncertain and began to think that maybe my mom was my best friend as a kid because I was young and different. Like my personality and needs have changed and that was how it was. I began to encourage myself to accept it, but I didn’t like it.
But then August and September came and something changed. They came to visit us, and we went to visit them. We stayed for the weekend and went to a familiar fall haunt, the Antiques in the Woods show in Ohio. I had fun, I remembered the past times we had together at this event, and I met a friend of my mom and grandma’s who told me how much they loved my mom. They told me stories of moments I missed over the past decade when I was not interested in spending time with my mom and painted a portrait I hadn’t seen in a while. They reminded me of who my mom could be and why I was always so proud to have her be my chaperone on school trips or invite friends over to my house because my mom can be really cool and a sweetheart. All the baggage of grief, growing pains, family fights, moves, it had all clouded my vision. I was seeing through the eyes of pain and past, I wasn’t seeing her in real-time.
We hung out with them again recently and went to Erie Bluffs State Park. I remembered how much I loved traveling with my mom. When the trip began my plan was to show her Erie in hopes that she would like a place I was considering moving to, but instead, I felt this pull to not leave again. I felt this peace to remain where I am and be comfortable in the familiar and close proximity to home. To not be afraid of staying close to home and not be scared or ashamed of my roots. I’ve learned a lot this year and I feel immense gratitude for the process of how I learned because if I had not fully walked away, my eyes may have stayed clouded in the lens of the past instead of looking toward the future and appreciating what is right in front of me. My Lorelai to my Rory, my home that still remains, the ideal mom-dad-dog-plus a husband that fits like a missing puzzle piece, the family I always wanted. I just needed to wait and be open to things getting better.
Will we probably fight again? Oh most definitely, but have I learned you can repair what is broken. Yes. And that is what I am grateful for. That might be the most important life lesson because it teaches resiliency.
One Rabbit Riot 