Ten for Thursday: The things I loved in the USA (eighteen years ago)

(Eeek, it's been so long?!)

A rare look at my All-time blog statistics informed me that actually one of my most-visited blog posts is the one about things in the Czech Republic I missed in the USA, from back in 2013, regarding my visit in 2007. It also happens to be one of my most controversial ones, in that I received a couple comments, including a dowright offended one, that did not quite get what I was trying to say. Namely, that it was just as much a post about the Czech Republic (which is something I explicitly said in the first paragraph - heck, it says so in the title) as it was about the USA. And that I hadn't hated my visit to the USA - just hadn't enjoyed certain aspects of it.

It's quite ironic because I have far more reasons not to want to return anytime soon now that I am writing this post. 

But I always felt I did owe my American friends and readers a post about the things I did love about the USA during my visit, because that old blog post did come out rather wrong. And I had written another rather critical post in the meantime. And, well, I suppose now is the time to finally restore balance. And perhaps more so than ever - perhaps a lot of people from the USA do need to see there are things to love about their country, even for a rather disenchanted foreigner.

So here you go! Ten things I loved, and still think of many years later! 

All right, this needs to be addressed: USA vs The World

(or, Assuming Everyone Is American by Default / Assuming Everything Everywhere Is Just Like in the USA / This Is an International Forum, For Crying Out Loud!)

This started out as a "Five for Friday" type of post - part of a post about my pet peeves in historical costuming discussions online that I have had in the works for about years now. The post got majorly out of hand, because I'm apparently incapable of writing short texts, especially in lockdowns. :P This part was one of those that got out of hand, and it quickly outgrew the confines of historical costuming discussions, too.

You will see soon why it got too long. It has something to do with the nature of internet discussions, where you're basically always open to arguing with the whole world (and isn't that a terrifying thought), and a lot of things I have observed over a lot of years. And I do need to get it off my chest. I am not particularly happy with this now becoming the first post of 2024, but also quite frankly I'm so fed up with so many things right now that finally getting this less consequential one out there feels somewhat vital.

* * *

It's intended to make people stop and think, I think.

It's ranty (and hopefully at least a bit tongue-in-cheek, but the rantiness can't be helped). It's not necessarily personal. It's not aimed at you, my singular, very nice American reader. Or you, one singular random American reader over there thinking every generalisation needs to be refuted as a generalisation, and every singular experience has to be interpretted as a generalisation and then refuted as a generalisation, and taken personally, or explained away and thrown back into the original commenter's court.

It's not aimed at you, Canadian or South American reader, arguing that "American" should not be used solely for USians.

(Okay, the above may be aimed at all of you. Those are all common features of this sort of discussions, so I had to get them out of the way first. If you come into my comments bringing up those discussion points, I can now freely ignore them. My point is, it's not a personal attack; not everything posted online is, and that's one of the major current frustrations with the Internet. It's intended as food for thought. It's ranty because it genuinely has accumulated for over twenty years.) 

* * *

It's just letting off lots of steam accumulated over thousands of little unintended transgressions. Lots of inoffensive but still pretty annoying stuff. I'm not the only one who clashes with this issue every now and then. But it's rarely one that's ever offending enough to roast anyone over on a case by case basis - and besides, doing it on a case by case basis won't help the next time someone else does it again, perfectly innocuously.

Thus all the accumulated steam. And everything in life including the kitchen sink* has been stressful lately, so some safe letting off of steam is sorely needed. One can't affect the big things getting on all our collective nerves, so it seems everyone's been more bity online recently, often unconsciously. I include myself in that group.

Maybe writing up all of this particular little problem like this can help someone else let off steam. Or help people who haven't stopped to think about it - to stop and think about it.

So that's all my cautions not to take this too seriously but do give it a thought out of the way, and here's a cute cat picture to ease you into it. And if that doesn't tell you something about the everyday stress of internet discussions...

(These days, the kitties are father's, and he's not entirely consistent about naming them, so I'm not sure what this one's called; father being what he's like with cats, I suspect it's "The Small One". I am fairly confident that the fragment of a black cat tail to the left is Lemur the tomcat, though.)

 

(* I'm not even kidding about the sink. Admittedly, this post sat unfinished for ages, so the sink is no longer recent. But there was a point when it was extremely annoying, draining veeeeeryyyyy sloooowlyyyy and getting clogged up quickly. Fortunately it turned out to be just a badly designed strainer, and was in the end easily solved by getting a new, different one. But the fact that even the kitchen sink was making my life difficult sums up the past couple of years really well.)

 

* * *

So, you see, on the whole Americans have many wonderful qualities. And one of them is that they're usually friendly and outgoing and pro-actively willing to help and support you with encouraging or informative comments. Sadly, a large percentage of them in online discussions (such as Facebook groups) also has the innocuous but unfortunate ability to forget about the rest of the world on a daily basis.

I live in the rest of the world. After nearly twenty years of using the internet in English (which, as you may realise from the name, is not an exclusively US-based language), it's impossible not to notice and not to be just a little bit fed up with it.

English-speaking countries of the world according to Wikipedia. I still live in the rest of the world which, you may notice on this map, is still not an insignificant portion of it.

It's not just me, either, so I think this constitutes more than just a Pet Peeve. It comes up in conversations with other costuming people outside of the USA. In fact, it comes up in all online spaces, not just the costuming circles. It gets on our collective non-US nerves just a little bit.

It's not even a case of the groups being primarily American. For example, the "1730-1830 Clothing Construction Support Group" was founded by an Australian and was originally geared towards making things for the Australian Jane Austen festival. Another group this happened to me in relatively recently (innocuously, it's always innocuous) is comprised of fans of a British YouTuber. (I have since then left it, but that had to do with different types of annoying posts.)

The Americans just come in, see everyone using English, and assume.

No one means to offend by it and they always apologise for doing it when their error is pointed out to them. And it's a low-key sort of annoyance when treated as individual cases. But, well, if you have to keep repeating the same sort of explanation ("I don't live in the same country you do, this is the Internet") over and over and over to people from one specific country out of nearly two hundred, you do eventually develop some unfavourable opinions about a certain nation's situational awareness regarding geography.

Oftentimes, in sewing and historical costuming groups, it is closely related to what was termed Pet Peeve Nr. 2 in my original list: that of not answering the question that is actually being asked and instead jumping in with your five cents and missing the fact the OP is using pennies (it was a metaphor in the original list, but in this context, it's getting close to literal!). By far the most common offenders here are:

A) "You can get XY material being discussed very cheaply if you save up your Joann's coupons."  / "You can get it at Joann's, they're having a sale on patterns right now / have a sale on patterns every now and then."
Reality outside of the USA: No Joann's anywhere outside the US of A (unless there are some in Canada?). There are next to zero fabric chain shops in the Czech Republic; most are limited to a single city anyway. Good luck getting such a sale on patterns anywhere. What coupons?!

(Seriously: What coupons are all you Americans talking about?! How does it work? After about fifteen years in internet sewing spaces, I still don't know what those actually are. In part because when I tried to actively look it up relatively recently, results were inconclusive. But largely because the moment when someone in a discussion jumped in with the automatic assumption that I must have them because obviously everyone who sews has them, usually unasked for to boot because no one was actually asking about buying anything, you just decided to answer my question about pence with giving me your five cents... well, in that situation I'm usually not in the mood to ask politely.)

B) "You can just get a free paint stirrer in a paint shop and use that as your busk."
Reality outside of the USA: The largest free paint stirrer I've ever seen here in Czechia was about 20 cm long (8 inches, for the Imperial-minded). It was also the first and the last shop with free paint stirrers I've ever seen in over 30 years of my life. Oh, and it's closed down since.

Understandably, when the prevailing costuming advice is tied to the cultural quirks of one specific country, your costuming journey can get pretty frustrating.

Although I think this one is less prevalent nowadays than it was when I started out with Regency, and I've more recently been informed that free paint stirrers suitable for busks may be a North American thing, not just limited to the USA. Still... the rest of us have to at the very least buy some paint to get a paint stirrer, and I don't know about you but I don't paint stuff all that often so that doesn't seem like a particularly advantageous manner of procuring costuming material when in the end I got my busk truly for free by digging through my father's junk. (I do not recommend that manner of procuring as a generalisation. I understand not everyone has access to a father's collection of junk. You may want to give the same level of consideration to other manners of procurring.)

The same thing does apply to all sorts of products and shops that Americans online assume you will be familiar with (one of the more recent offenders was a brand of butter, of all things). Joann's and paint stirrers are just the most common and most obvious ones in my usual circles.

A special mention goes to people asking "where can I get XY" in a geographically unspecified and therefore international group without mentioning where in the world they are. In about 95% cases (and I may be conservative with my estimate here), that person turns out to be located somewhere in the US of A. Although, in all fairness, I think it's mainly the lower 48 - Alaskans and Hawai'ians are probably far more used to needing special attention paid to location.

 This map of the world I lifted off of Wikipedia and coloured does contain the infamously often missing New Zealand, but somehow does not contain Hawai'i...

All this is, I think, aggravated by the fact the US of A are a big country so you can go for hundreds of miles and still find a Joann's. Meanwhile, Czech Republic is, size-wise, roughly comparable to South Carolina, so imagine living in South Carolina, and when you cross the border to North Carolina, everything is in Polish. Foreign countries are a basic fact of life in Europe, and here in Czechia just going hiking (or skiing) in the mountains almost automatically means that you'll be walking near (or on) a national border.

Many Americans at this point like to point out "You don't know anything about the US! We have states! The states are actually very different!" To which my answer is, picture crossing the border from South Carolina to North Carolina, and everything being in Polish.

 

Online, it's also aggravated by the fact that the inhabitants of the USA are a big huge mix of nationalities so it's much more difficult for Americans to look at someone's name on Facebook and go "okay, that's a foreigner". Even then, though, I think other English-speaking post-colonial nationalities with immigrant societies do this far less often.
 
You do see people from other countries not listing where they are from. But as I've already hinted, more often than not in that case their actual question has less to do with "where" and more with "what", and it's the Americans in the comments jumping in with "where". You want to know which type of fabric is best suited for a specific application (so that you know what exactly to look for in your part of the world)? You can probably expect some variation on Americans jumping in to tell you that Joann's currently has it on sale, or that their favourite US-based internet shop has the best and/or cheapest one, even though you never asked "where to buy" to begin with.

You never asked where to buy precisely because you know you'd just get Americans giving you answers that won't help you one bit in your part of the world. And then they do it anyway. Probably because it never even occurs to them, when they are asking, that some of the people reading their question may live thousands of miles and at least one ocean away.

* * *

And this is where this innocuous issue begins to get really, really frustrating. You begin having to think of clever and detailed ways to phrase your questions so that you can circumvent unhelpfully helpful Americans and actually get the pence you're after. And then after you've gone to all that trouble, they still don't bother reading the whole thing mindfully because now it's Too Many Words For The Internet, and they jump in with their five cents anyway.

They often don't even bother mentioning where in the States they are, even though it would often still get them better answers. You, on the other hand, start having to define yourself solely by your nationality because you have to mention your nationality Every. Single. Effing. Time. Everywhere. Even when you didn't even ask for where; even when you never even asked a question, you just shared a picture of your homemade breadrolls, and an American still came in convinced that you will eat your homemade breadrolls with their favourite American brand of butter. You have to preface everything you ever say online with your nationality just so they won't jump in with shop and product suggestions that are no use to you and that you never asked for in the first place. Because if you don't mention it right away, you will end up having to mention it later, anyway. You slowly cease to be yourself, an individual. You become a part-time volunteer (even though you never volunteered) ambassador of the rest of the world to the USA.

* * *

Still, all this is fairly innocuous. The problem is that Americans never even stop to think about it, and as with a lot of unchallenged assumptions, it can very easily get worse in less innocuous contexts.

You see, one of the offenders I noticed was a YouTube comment lecturing someone that a specific term had been struck out of an American list of mental conditions so they should not be saying they'd been diagnosed with it. In response to someone whose username was written in the Cyrillic alphabet. That one was definitely starting to cross the border into straight up "America rules the world so your lived experience and identity is invalid unless you conform to how Americans view it, and if you don't, Americans will just ignore it and force their own worldview on you."

And I'm still sure the person did not necessarily mean it like that, and yes, of course that list was compiled by leading medical professionals so they genuinely believed their correction was valid. But, dear anonymous American person who will probably never read this: Saying you were diagnosed with something is a significantly different kettle of fish from saying "I think I am..." It's not just opinion, it's not just the diagnosed condition in and of itself, it's something that happened. You're essentially saying "an American dictionary does not have a word for your experience so your experience never happened." That sort of thing - that sort of not stopping to look and think and just straight up assuming the same experiences apply to everyone else in this conversation - that genuinely is where the USA begin to be the country the rest of the world hates because they think themselves better and more important and more valid than everyone else.

And aiming that sort of carelessness at someone neurodivergent? That felt especially low. That can, in fact, completely ruin someone's day. Or week, because that sort of thing can have a knock-on effect, especially in tough times. And we all live in tough times right now.

And this, dear American readers, is why you should want to be more mindful with your careless US-centric cultural references. It's because you're putting all the responsibility for the mental effort in the conversation on the rest of us, and a lot of us straight up don't have the spoons. Most of you genuinely are perfectly decent people, and I think most of us will be only delighted if you prove yourselves to be.

* * *

So, listen, Americans. Of course people on the whole keep being polite about it to you because it's almost always a new, innocent person making the mistake.

But all put together it amounts to a pretty high degree of mental gymnastics the rest of the world has to perform for your convenience on an everyday basis, okay? A hundred times nothing did the donkey in, as the Czech saying goes. Don't be surprised if we sometimes explode in your face over something innocuous; you probably hit a spot that had been hit with something innocuous a hundred times before. Don't be surprised and offended if we say you're self-centered, and develop some unfavourable opinions about your country. We would welcome you taking up some of the slack once in a while.


There is actually a very simple way to get out of this national predicament with grace and no offense inflicted either way that many people from the rest of the world (and some very nice Americans!) utilise: Precede all your mentions of products & things with a variation on "I don't know if this is the same where you are but where I come from..."

See? Easy. By putting your suggestion in context and expressing consideration for the other side, you actually come across as even more helpful / friendly, and the person asking / posting does not have to spend such a big percentage of their free time and mental capacity volunteering as an ambassador to the USA.

Every time you go online, remind yourself that the internet is an international space where a lot of people communicate in a language not their own. That would be a good start for compensating for the way a lot of us go online every day communicating in a language not out own.

Where Were You When... Take 2

There hasn't been much posting here recently, for a number of reasons that can be summed up as "Real Life". I have a whole bunch of unposted, unfinished posts in the background. Waiting for photos and stuff like that. I even had my usual Easter post written for this year, and then I... I don't even know. Fell asleep? I was ill over Easter this year, so that seems like a probable explanation.

Google reminded me that it's Labour Day today. As an explanation, I did not exactly forget what day it was; a Monday off is easy to remember. But I've gotten used to thinking of it simply as "First of May", probably because there is more than just Labour Day connected to the date in Czech culture (such as our Day of Love proudly distinct from Valentine's, and Maypoles, and stuff). So. I got reminded it's Labour Day, and I remembered something from many years ago, and it both amused me all over again, and reminded me it's been nearly twenty years since we officially joined the EU, back in 2004. Which is a bit of a weird realisation. It doesn't exactly feel like it (maybe in part because we did not join the Schengen Zone until later) - until I remember where I was back then and where I am now.

Back in 2004, I crossed the border from Germany to Czechia on April 30th, on the return journey from a week-long school exchange trip. It felt rather symbolic. First of May fell on a weekend that year. I can't remember which day exactly, but I think it was Saturday. (I should probably be able to find out for sure, but I don't feel like it.) I do know it was a weekend, because that same weekend a weekend youth event in our presbytery was taking place, and I went there a day later, on May 1st, because I had been in Germany. All those events lining up is why I think it was Saturday.

After I arrived, my sister told me that that morning, the person responsible for waking everyone up walked into the room where they had been sleeping, and announced something like: "Rise and shine! Early bird gets the worm! We'll celebrate Labour Day with labour! And other than that, we're in the European Union."

Which always amused me, and did so again today.

If I remember correctly, the labour in question was helping out in the parsonage garden. I remember running around with a barely cooperative old lawnmower at some point, and I think it was that particular parsonage garden, so I think the memories slot together. I can't be sure anymore, though. It's been nearly twenty years.

So it's a bit of an interesting exercise in memory retainment and retrieval. A good deal of the memories can be retrieved with the help of other factors, like a historical date, and knowing how the weekend events usually went so knowing Saturday makes the most sense. But I don't actually remember. I need those mnemonics to put the memory together. The actual memories are fragmented, more like isolated images, and some of those images may not be from this particular time.

* * *

A while ago, I found this quote:

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

And found out it came from here.

Ayn Rand passed me by completely, and the more I learn about her, the more I'm glad she did. I think overall she's more of an American phenomenon. The Lord of the Rings, on the other hand, entered my life much earlier than at fourteen, and I'm also very glad of that. What a poor childhood it would have been without it. (I can't remember when I first read it. It wasn't entirely in one go because we were borrowing the books.)

So I can't remember if there was any book that "changed my life" at fourteen in particular.

Did I read The Last Hero at fourteen? (My first Pratchett, incongruously, because, as a heavily illustrated book, it ended up in the children's section of the library while the rest of the Discworld books were in the adult section.)

I can't remember.

I know I first read Pan Tadeusz earlier. By about a year or two years, I think, based on when Wajda's film came out.

The only conclusion I can make is that fourteen was not a particularly life-changing age for me. Zooming in on it, in the quote, feels rather random to be honest, which of course makes a lot more sense when you realise it was just a rather random, irreverent paragraph coloured by personal experience, quickly fired off in a blog post.

This, too, is that sort of blog post.

* * *

The previous post of this kind was from 2014. It serves, in a way, as an example of its own kind. There's the mention of me and my sister discussing big countries bent on acquiring and retaining territory at all costs. It was, of course, in reference to Russia and the annexation of Crimea. At this point, I'm honestly not sure if I should say it aged well, or it didn't age well. I think the observation I made back then did? I think I'm still glad to live in this country. We have loud grumblers, and out share of problems, but overall, it's still a good country to live in.

Pro tip (maybe) - Hip measurement complications

This is a blog post about the wisdom of very careful and detailed measuring of oneself.

(It's also one that, for the first time in my blogging history, made me want to go all silly puns with the title. I've stayed my hand.)

Re-measuring myself some time ago (it's now been several years - this is a post rescued from "development hell"), I found out a head-scratching thing:

At the largest part of my hips, my front measurement is bigger than my back measurement. That wouldn't be so head-scratching maybe; the head-scratching part comes from the facts that:

A) my hip-to-waist ratio is noticeably on the hourglass side, which one usually thinks of as "fluffy tissue on one's backside";

B) fitting tutorials dealing with bigger volume in the front assume volume in the belly; which is in center front and, once again, fluffy tissue;

C) meanwhile, my additional volume in the front is in my hip bones. That means I have volume at the side-front. Not an area you usually see dealt with in trouser-fitting tutorials. :P Conversely, I actually have a bit of a hollow space behind my hip bones at my sides.

The difference was about 4 cm some years ago when I first came across this problem. That's a lot of hip bone for an area of the body where the difference is usually in the back.

Seriously, I don't think I've EVER come across anyone approaching this as a fitting issue in explanations of fitting issues and how to fix them.

(Also, because it’s a bone issue, I think it’s a good thing I haven’t attempted a custom dress form yet, because that may well distort with stuffing. I will have to come up with some way to simulate my bone structure because one of the reasons I want a custom dress form is for it to be squishable for corsets. And its being squishable in places where I'm not - which is frankly most of them - would defeat the purpose.)

It goes a long way towards explaining some of my trouser woes. I have noticed that generally, trousers that fit me best in the hip area are actually often men's trousers (except then they gape awfully at the waist).

In historical costuming terms, most of the time I thankfully don't have to worry about it, because skirts. But because the re-measuring happened because of hypothetical future corsets, I came to wonder, how exactly do I deal with that in longer corsets? It's bone. It won't squish.

It's mostly something I'll have to experiment with on my own, I’m afraid. But I wanted to share it. In case there are actually other "curvy" women with bone structure interfering with the fit of their clothes, rather than being "fat"; and yes, to stress the importance of measuring oneself thoroughly.

He's not here, he's risen

And it's Easter Sunday and I'm alive.

Which, given the current worldwide situation, and my last post featuring a flu, is far less of a given than it may normally seem.

There have been sudden upheavals in my life since the last post.

But it's Easter Sunday. It's still Easter Sunday. I watched / listened to a service, and I sung Easter songs.

It's sunny outside and it's Easter Sunday.

... I can't get enough of that fact, possibly because I did not get to share it with many other people "live". But in a way, that's the only element missing from my requirements for Easter Sunday - it's sunny, and trees are in white bloom, and I did get to sing my two favourite Easter songs, and listen to a sermon. So that's the absolute majority of my personal Easter requirements checked, so I'm doing pretty well all things considered.

I had a bit of a habit, in the past years, to post at Easter - I even have a tag for it. So it seemed like a good opportunity to rear my head in the blogosphere again.

And I'm making things. They're not always the things I thought I would be making this year. But that's practically tradition with me by now. So, yeah. Nice worsted things, or finishing the whole of my folk costume? Probably not happening anytime soon.

Hand-knitted socks? Happening sooner than I thought. Right now, one. In about three days, I expect to have a pair, and then on to more. (The least enjoyable part is casting on. With most of the rest, I can sit in front of a computer and watch things, like videos from the Ffestiniog Railway with my father.)

Knitted mitts of a vaguely historical nature are happening.

New Regency stays based on Bernhardt's Fig. F (which for some reason not many costumers have used so far, despite the greater ease of adjustment with more seams?) are probably still happening.

Also, historical recipes are still happening every now and then, although I don't think that's anything I will ever document with much consistency. There has been Welsh rabbit. There will be something with eggs from Rettigová (and I should probably take care to document that). Beyond that it's anyone's guess.

* * *

Aside from Sunday services online, and regular fixed-days-of-the-week calls with mom, what's helping me along is videos from Kate on The Last Homely House channel. Kate is great. Kate has four cats. And chickens. And a goose. And bees. She's creative and imaginative and friendly and fun.

What's getting on my nerves right now is town PA. On Easter Sunday. They could have done that on Saturday instead, blegh. Especially because they're right now reminding us that going to church is not good and you should only watch services online. A bit late for that, folks, I've already done that. :D

But that was the last announcement for today. It's still sunny, and it's still Easter Sunday, and I think I'm going to cast the rest of my stitches in the garden. There were supposed to be photos in this post, but I have better things to do.

A historical costumer's progress

It's not going to be an overview for beginners's education / advanced amusement type of post.

It's just a fun little thing I noticed which marks my own progress.

Back in 2011 (whoa), I wrote about watching the Czech TV series F.L. Věk. I wrote also - how could I not - about the costumes.

What I did not mention in the post was that I had looked at the picture I shared there, of the character Márinka in a printed dress, and that I had gone: "Points for trying but that's a roller print and this is too early for that." (Early 1790s, I believe.)

The aforementioned progress is like this:

In 2018, I look at the picture and go: "That's modrotisk!"

Traditional indigo resist print. It's not roller print; it's block print. Even those that look like roller prints.

I still think this particular pattern is probably anachronistic for early 1790s, but now I actually know the technique isn't. :D

Bonus: I can get very similar fabric (or is it really the same?) if I were inclined to recreate the costume and put that kind of money into it (which I'm not, but I do badly want to make a historical modrotisk dress one day). I think the one in the costume got more indigo bath dips than the one the Danzingers are selling now, so I'd probably go with the version from Strážnice... also, how come they have the same printing block?!

... unless, of course, Márinka's dress was a cheaper modern knockoff of the fabric style. Entirely plausible with a TV costume.

(Further bonus: I can show you part of how it's done. If I get my act together and finally finish the post on the workshop in Strážnice I started last August.)

A Loki-coloured necklace

Some colours just look good together, okay? And I had these black and green glass beads. And these brass-coloured ones (that I suspect are actually glass, too).

And one single orphaned pearly bead.

The colours just work, and I had these beads that needed to be used up.

I was also inspired by some necklaces I've seen online - I had a mental image of a more masculline-y type of necklace, what with the black. It turns out the mental image was for a "twelve step necklace". Huh.

Whatever. I used that orphaned bead in a dignified manner and I now have a necklace to balance out my jewellery hanger. The bluish and silvery side started overpowering the warm-coloured side. That, frankly, was to be expected.

An Easter gift for you: Free pattern for a 1848 jacket aka kacabajka, and sewalong

So, the 1848 kacabajka. The one I have a pattern for.

Want that pattern? You can have it. You can have it for free, as a multisize printable PDF.

There are, of course, catches, because I'm by no means a pattern-making expert. But it's free! Well, free provided you don't count additional work as cost. Practically free! You can make yourself a mid-19th century jacket, or one in the style, and you don't have to pay for the pattern, or painstakingly resize it from a tiny draft. That's good, right?

I'm looking at you, Oona

I've suddenly realised that I'm somewhat bolder - or perhaps more "so what?" - about pattern combinations than I used to be. It's subtle, subtler than Oona's technicolour, but it's there. I would not have put this simple everyday outfit together like this - maybe not even a year ago. Or if I would have, I would have felt self-conscious walking the street like that, wondering if it looks weird. I only started feeling self-conscious today upon realising that I wasn't, that I liked what I was wearing.

I suppose this is how personal style happens. When you stop putting your clothes on just like that. And then you stop worrying if your clothes match and if the skirt hits a good spot on your legs and if the sweater does not make you look fat (actually, I don't think I've personally ever worried about that last item, but you get the picture). And you put your clothes on just like that.

I don't wear this every day - I still have trousers that don't fit me very well, and things. But this is what I can throw together when I feel like it and none of it is in the wash etc. etc. And looking at that photo - a quick snap with the camera sitting wobblingly on a chair, because the tripod is at home, and still the photo looks good - I think here I've managed the art of harmonising with my environment, too. :D

I wear that Felicitas Queisser scarf All. The. Time. I like having this as my signature style, for obvious reasons. I really need more fichu-en-marmote-able scarves. Ones I could wear with my bolder colours, too.

 * * *

I'm actually not looking at Oona. I'm looking into the garden. Some spring colours are very bold.

The Literary Heroine Blog Party 2014

It's that time of the year again and Kellie is holding the Literary Heroine Blog Party again. I participated only half-heartedly last year, so this year I want to be better about it.

But before I do that, I want to share yet another American Duchess giveaway, because it concides nicely with it - her shoes are definitely worthy of literary heroines (some are even named after literary places, after all).

The usual statement still applies - is she ever making shoes I don't like?! Well, okay, I don't like the Pompadours so much, they're too something for me... and since I don't like buttons, I'm not that mad about the buttoned boots either... but still, oh, I love her overall modern-historical aesthetics so much and wish all shoes were like that.


And now, finally, to the questionnaire! I tried to do a mostly new version this time, though it hearkens back to the previous ones.

Introduce yourself! Divulge your life's vision, likes, dislikes, aspirations, or something completely random!

I am, I think, something called “an eternal student”. I love learning things... I love language(s). I would like to be – already am, in one sense – a translator. And an interpreter, even though that’s really hard work. (By the way, it seems I really made it to the interpreting course, yay!) I like learning about different cultures and sharing tidbits about my own.

I like reading, and books, and this means physical books, too; and I have more books than I can fit on my shelves and still can think of books I would like to have.

I like writing, too. And I have this strong editorial streak, noticing typos and stuff, so I guess that’s why I ended up volunteering as an editor for my church’s youth magazine.

And I love creating, all kinds of things. Writing falls in there, too, but there is of course sewing; and I'm doing at least little bits of drawing once more (I had a years long artist's block in that area and am glad that I'm finally able to draw again, if only little sketches).

What, to you, forms the essence of a true heroine?

As I said the first time, being good / doing good things, and the ability to learn if she happens to be not that good.

Share (up to) four heroines of literature that you most admire and relate to.

Beside those I’ve mentioned before, there was the heroine from Silver Rose / Green Brigade, who happens to be the only (not historical) character in the book whose name I remember – Leslie. She was more of the kind of heroine I wished I were more like. She was brave, even bold at times, she was also loyal, and clever and thinking on her feet. Bravery and thinking on my feet seemed, and still seem, like things I could use more of.

Out of those already mentioned, I think I’ve always related most to Dorothea Callum / Dot, from her writing and making up of stories down to her braids (and now that I’m older, also to her imperfect attempts at housekeeping in Picts and Martyrs).

Five of your favourite historical novels?

Beside those shared before:

The book by Gerd Theissen that was apparently published as The Shadow of the Galilean: The Quest of the Historical Jesus in Narrative Form in English – I love how it combines the story with the research and reasoning behind it; I always start out reading it rather unimpressed and end up really moved.

Speaking of combining story and research, I love probably all the Cadfael books (certainly those I’ve read so far). Ellis Peters / Edith Pargeter knows a lot about England and Wales in the 12th century, so even though these are detective stories, you get a good idea of the times and places, too.

Speaking of medieval and detective stories, I’ve also enjoyed a Czech one, Zločin na Zlenicích hradě L.P. 1318 (The Crime at the Zlenice Castle 1318 A.D.), by Radovan Šimáček. I have to throw at least one Czech book here! And I’m always surprised just how good this one is. (I think a proof of the cleverness of the crime part might be the fact that I can’t remember whodunnit and howdunnit, yet I perfectly remember being enthralled by the story.)

The Czar’s Madman by Jaan Kross – that’s a rather tragic story, all in all, which I tend not to enjoy, but it’s so well-written... and deserves even more recognition in the world than it seems to be getting, I think, because it manages to cover so many grounds with its story, as excellent literary works do.

I can't think of a fifth one. I'm sure there's something yet that I'm forgetting, but that's how it goes. There are many of the Cadfael books, so I guess that balances it out. :P

Out of those five books who is your favourite major character and why?

Probably Cadfael; but I’m not sure if it’s not cheating when there are actually many books with him as the main character. :-)

I like that he's caring and understanding, I like that he's Welsh (ha!); and knowledgeable and using his knowledge for good. I like that, similarly to Father Brown, he is a detective who cares for the culprits' souls, too. 

(I also like the portrayal by Derek Jacobi a lot!)

Out of those five books who is your favourite secondary character and why?

Absolutely, without question, Hugh Beringar. :D I always like good, strong friendships in the stories I read, and Hugh is a good friend to Cadfael, a good husband to Aline (though she does not appear that often), a good (deputy) sheriff for Shropshire, and a very good character to read about!

I love how he's clever, even cunning; yet honourable. His cunningness makes him consider unconventional approaches, which is a good thing for a detective (and he seems to be more of a detective than sheriffs tended to be at the time, at least that's the picture painted by Peters).

(I also like the portrayal by Sean Pertwee in the first season of the series a lot. Aside from the tiny detail that Hugh is supposed to be a dark-haired Norman, Sean Pertwee is perfect in the role.)

Yeah. A Literary Heroine Blog Party, and I pick heroes, and post a picture of heroes. Bear with me, please. I think Eeva in The Czar's Madman is a really admirable woman as well, they way she tries hard to rise above both her peasant background without losing contact with it, and the little minds surrounding her in her new station in life, and the way she sticks to her husband through thick and thin; but I don't have a picture of her. :D

If you were to plan out your dream vacation, where would you travel to - and what would you plan to do there?

I think, at the moment, I would love to go back to Estonia and explore more of it. Go to Saaremaa and the coast, and to Peipsi järv (the large lake in the east)...

The beautiful botanical gardens in Tartu - a place where surely a heroine could find herself...

... and while I’d be there, I’d like to revisit the places I’ve been to before in the Baltics, and also see more of Riga because despite being in Latvia several times, I’ve only seen a small part of its largest city.

 
A little manor house or something, at a lake near Trakai, Lithuania, where we were in 2006 (as you can see, it was boarded up); photo by my father

Plus Wales. Always Wales. I’m even liking Welsh accents now.

Because how can you not love this landscape?! Again, photo by my father, who's been to Wales four or how many times, while I've never been. I don't know when this photo was taken, but I hear when father's friends visited later, the old church / chapel was already in ruins...

What is your favourite time period and culture to read about?

I honestly don’t know now. I just lap up nearly anything that is connected to my English studies...? And in my free time, beside that, I just read what I’ve always enjoyed, and that has always been somewhat eclectic, too...

You have been invited to perform at the local charity concert. Singing, comedy, recitation - what is your act comprised of?

Singing in a choir, or maybe acting with other people – probably not comedy, because I always kill my jokes by laughing first. :-)

If you were to attend a party where each guest was to portray a heroine of literature, who would you select to represent?

Phew! I’m out of ideas. Or maybe I have too many ideas...

With the sewing ideas and plans I have, maybe I’d be Lenka from Filosofská historie, to make use of the planned 1848 costume. I do not exactly relate to her in my life situation, but I guess I have similar interests to what I know she does (reading and sewing and enjoying the nature and, well, the Czech language, too), so that would be easier to imitate.

What are your sentiments on the subject of chocolate?

Dark chocolate is delicious. And cocoa. Milk chocolate tends to be too sweet for me, but dark chocolate, also with various flavours, is one of the most fantastic things ever invented.

Hot chocolate, too. Aah, hot chocolate!

Favourite author(s)?

C. S. Lewis

J. R. R. Tolkien

Ellis Peters :-)
G. K. Chesterton
I guess I can safely say Jane Austen now, too...

...

And I’m enjoying Shakespeare more and more, although more often in film form than any other for some reason. :D

Besides essentials, what would you take on a visiting voyage to a foreign land?

My camera. Probably a sketchbook and pencils, too. If I travelled by train, maybe even some sewing.

The old teddy no longer travels with me, because he’s so worn he could fall apart soon, and I don't want that. But I might take the newest one, this Canadian teddy I got from my sister for last Christmas. He’s called George, after Constable George Crabtree from Murdoch Mysteries – that’s a Canadian detective series that takes place in Toronto at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries (apparently originally based on some books, too); and George looks a bit like the Constable (who's played by Jonny Harris and is both hilarious and absolutely adorable).

In which century were most of the books you read written?

Still the 20th, despite my attempts to learn more of authors from other centuries...
... I've also been reading quite a lot of medieval literature recently, but that covers many centuries.

In your opinion, the ultimate hero in literature is…

Weeell, beside those already mentioned here and elsewhere...

... I’m also getting to appreciate Peter Pevensie; I think because he’s so far removed from me in the sibling constellation, it took appreciating the more “developed” John Walker to appreciate Peter. (They have a lot in common.)

And in the area of Austenian heroes, I’m always in love with Mr Knightley and Mr Tilney, both – I think my ideal is somewhere in between them. Mr Knightley, as Natasha Marie rightly commented on a Pin, is the perfect gentleman, and not afraid to speak his mind, which I greatly admire; but sometimes he could use more of Mr Tilney’s simple joy in life, I think. And Mr Tilney is definitely fun to be around, and he acts on his principles instead of (just) talking about them like some others, which I also greatly admire; but sometimes, he should talk about them more, like Mr Knightley. So I guess in that way they’re not exactly my candidates for “the ultimate hero”, but in the realm of flawed human heroes, they are definitely worth mentioning.

PLUS I love Faramir. I love that he’s tempted and resists the temptation, and I love the patient relationship he forms with Éowyn.
And someone else also mentioned Sam Gamgee (sorry I don't remember which of the many participants that was!), and while I tend not to think of him because I tend not to like the parts of The Lord of the Rings where he gets to shine, I like him when he gets to shine. :-) And I also just like him at the beginning where he is the wide-eyed novice to travelling, and at the end of the book when he comes back to his family. I very, very much like that the book ends with that.

Describe your ideal dwelling place.
Here I go back to my old description, because that's what it is:
A house. With a garden. At the outskirts of a town, with a forest nearby. In the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, because that’s my favourite part of my country (and I cannot imagine living anywhere else than the Czech Republic).
It’s probably from the turn of the 20th century. It has big windows and lots of light, but still rather thick walls that keep the warmth inside in winter.
It has bedrooms in the attic, with walls lined with wood.
It has a roomy kitchen equipped in light wood. (So that I am forced to clean it regularly.)
It has a cool pantry.
It has a room dedicated only to my sewing.
It has a big library.


And I have a Pinterest board of pictures that cover some aspects of it, too, for those of you who are more visual. (I'm both.)

Sum up your fashion style in a short sentence.

It is historically and vintage inspired - or outdated, depending on your point of view; and very eclectic with occasional classy peaks.
(I guess that's a bit longer than short. I can't do short.)

The coat and the hat are definitely the vintage-y classy peaks. The lace-up boots and barely visible corduroy trousers underneath are the eclectic part.

Have you ever wanted to change a character’s name?

As I said, naming a semi-villain in a Sherlock Holmes story A. Dvorak was a really bad and lazy choice on A. C. Doyle’s part.

(And, outside of names, I’m also a bit allergic to Prague being used as the mysterious city where dubious chemical-related things happen at that time in history. There were probably some dubious things happening, like in other cities, but as far as I know, the days of alchemists in Prague happened in the 16^th or 17^th century, not at the end of the 19^th century... I suppose I can’t expect better from the man who ignored the political situation of the time and made up the King of Bohemia as well.)

So in my mind, his name is actually F. Lischka and he lives in Vienna.

In your opinion, the most dastardly villain of all literature is...

Hmm... after the previous rant I’m tempted to say “Professor Moriarty”, but the thing is, he is not as much of an archvillain as the adaptations make him out to be, even though he is definitely very dangerous and very clever and very bad.

I’m still sticking to Iago, because I cannot think of any other character that undermines the other characters’ (ahem) characters in such a way.

Three favourite Non-fiction books? 

(If the question were “least favourite”, I just may have to say the MLA handbook. Because I always forget about some part of the MLA formatting; and after the years of struggling to keep up with it, I will probably have to use a different format for my thesis anyway.)

I enjoy most of C. S. Lewis’ non-fiction in general; my favourite is probably The Four Loves – I even used that one for school two times, years apart. :D

As mentioned previously, Das Traumcafé einer Pragerin by Lenka Reinerová is a really delightful slim book of memories about various interesting people. I can read it in about an hour and a half, so it makes for a really nice mood-making read, if you know what I mean. :-)

And on a completely different note, I’m very fond of An Illustrated History of Britain. It’s also a slim volume that somehow manages to give a really good overview of British history (though with a definite bias for England).

Your duties met for the day, how would you choose to spend a carefree summer afternoon? 

Reading somewhere outdoors out of the sun but with light... or writing there... or walking in a forest, picking blueberries... visiting a chateau with family and friends... with a campfire and singing in the evening... all of the above.

Create a verbal sketch of your dream hat - in such a way as will best portray your true character. 

Once more, words shared before:
My hat is a wide-brimmed straw hat. It shades me from the sun, so that I keep cool in summer heats. It is also fun and pretty to look at, because the brim is embroidered with small flowers. They are ordinary but colourful flowers, daisies, poppies and cornflowers, entwined with ears of grain. It’s a summer hat, and brings summer back into shadier days.

Share the most significant event(s) that have marked your life in the past year.

Well, I already have those covered in the 2013 in review posts. :D Namely, Part 3.

Share the Bible passage(s) that have been most inspiring to you recently.
I'm not sure this qualifies as "most inspiring", but I was once more struck by the unusual connections in the passage on killing in the Sermon on the Mountain - this time suddenly noticing that it goes straight from saying that whoever, you know, speaks badly of someone will end up badly, to the idea that if you realise someone's got something against you, you should sort it out first... and I suddenly wondered, does that mean we have to think about their spiritual health as well? It ends with a suggestion we have to sort out our guilt in the quarrel to save ourselves, but now I think that does not quite cover everything that preceeds it...