Darkoshi

While reading someone's profile, I realized for possibly the first time that the German word for a sweater, "Pullover", is based on the English words "pull over". I may not have ever thought about the word in that way before. It was just a German word to me, sort of like "palaver" is a just an English word if you don't know its etymology.

I'm also not sure I've heard it used as a word like that in English before (which helps explain why I didn't make the connection), even though wiktionary lists it as English.

.

Updated to add:
I just remembered this too: Germans often use a short form of the word, Pulli.

I found this cute and colorful ruffly skirt at Target in the Pride section (it looks so good on the model on that page!). I passed on by with an admiring glance, but came across another one while browsing for knee shorts. You know, like a sign that I should at least have some fun trying it on. The dressing rooms were already closed. But when I held it up against myself in a mirror, it looked so good together with the contrasting colors of my shirt and socks, that into my cart it went.

I find skirts to be impractical, but ruffly ones are fun.

Some interesting tidbits I came across.

Team GB's Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics kit is made from recycled ocean plastic


Winter Olympics 2022: Team outfits and the brands who designed them

Regarding the U.S. team's outfit:
The most interesting feature of the jacket is its Intelligent Insulation technology, which is battery or wired tech that expands or contracts the fabric with temperature change. This allows the wearer to extend the use of the anorak.

(But see below article which indicates the jacket does *not* require batteries and wires.)

Regarding the Chinese outfit:
China also unveiled a uniform with self-heating thermal underwear

What is that?, I wondered. Here is one page that explains it:
SKIINCore, the self-heating underwear that is going to revolutionise winter


Of all the outfits shown in this article, the Kazakh one looks the best to me, a nice light blue/white/black color combination and neat design across the chest. It looks very stylish and pretty to me!
For that matter, the Kazakh flag is pretty too, with a yellow sun and flying bird on a light blue sky, and that same neat design on the edge.

Here's how Team USA's Olympic Opening Ceremony outfits were made

The jackets include a built in smart, honeycomb-like fabric layer that expands or contracts in response to temperature changes — all without the use of a battery or wired technology, they said.

The fashion company said this allows the apparel to have the ability to transition through three-seasons, and from indoor to outdoor environments, which eliminates the need for multiple garments.

Here's what Canada and Mexico wore during the Olympic Opening Ceremony

Mexico's jacket has a (candy) skull image on front which was striking enough that after glimpsing it, I rewound the DVR to see it again.

Canada's outfit includes a puffy-sectioned insulated scarf which looks like it must be very nice and warm. But seeing it worn by the athletes along with their jackets and all else, it looked bulky and awkward to me. But gotta say, they did look warm! And from the group photo shown on this page, it looks like they have a lot of choices on what to wear.

things to do:
submit my taxes online (I've already done the numbers, just need to submit them)
order some things
other stuff on my to-do list maybe
catch up on TV recordings

not going to do, even though I could spend my whole life at it and never finish:
work in the yard again

what I've done:
online reading, all starting with a Nextdoor.com post.

"ball caps" - is another term for baseball caps which I've never heard before, but dates back at least to the 1940s.

honeydew - is not just a melon. It's sweet liquid in leaves, and also the excretions of insects who feed on the leaves.

Kubla Khan - His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Habesha peoples - the video on this Wikipedia page of traditional Habesha dance and music is from 1987* and over an hour long, and I wish I could find a better quality version of it. The dance is wonderful and not quite like anything I've seen before... From what I found, it is called Eskista, characterized by rapid shoulder movements. I've found videos with other examples of it on YouTube, but none that I enjoy as much (or as impressive!) as the one on the Wikipedia page. The outfits of the women dancers look similar to me as some Native American outfits, which confused me at first.

*That Wikipedia file says 1965 but must be wrong. The TV logo shown, ETV, may be for the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, which didn't start broadcasting in color until at least 1979.

I found this copy of the same performance on YouTube, in poorer quality but with the name of the performance: People to People Tour part 1 of 9; it also says "1987/1988. National Theater Troupe of Ethiopia." The title is "ህዝበ ለህዝበ" (Hizb le hizb) in Amharic, so searching on that gives more results.

This page has more info:
1987 Hizb le Hizb

And this Facebook page says even more:

Hizb le Hizb (People to People) – a 54-person collaboration of Ethiopian musicians and performers. The cultural exhibition kicked off in March of 1987 on a whirlwind tour of 60 cities around the world in 118 days. The purpose behind the creation of a ensemble to basically give a tour de force of Ethiopian music and culture throughout the world and a way to thank nations for the assistance they had provided to Ethiopia during the ‘Great’ Famine only a couple of years earlier.

Tilahun Gessese. Mahamoud Ahmoud. Bizunesh Bekele. Neway Debebe. Tsehaye Yohannes, Mulatu Astatkie. Iniye Takele. Asnaketch Worku and Maritu Legesse are among the list of topflight entertainers that the show laid claim to be the very eminence of star power on the Ethiopian music scene at the time. Never before or since has such a collection of talent been melded together to deliver what would be historical performances under the guide of Mulatu Astatke’s composition and Tadese Worku’s choreography. The ensemble itself was referred to as the Adey Abeba Traditional Music Group. From Kibur Zebegna to Police and any orchestra that could claim the best talent in the country were called up to fill its ranks.

The storyline of the exhibition is the journey of a young girl traveling through the country and being introduced to the different peoples and their culture. There is an older woman accompanying her (who may symbolize Ethiopia). The vocal delivery of the songs by this extraordinary group of musicians was simply part of the story. The standout dance and theatrical performances that accompanied them were a similarly impressive feat for the breadth and depth of cultural spread they provided. Who could forget the baby faced Iniye Takele who would – it seemed like – pretty much begin talking to herself when she really went into an iskista groove and Kuribachew Woldemariam whose transcendent beauty seemed only to shine brighter at the height of her performances.

[I have this urge now to find every online thing that mentions this concert tour from 1987/1988, like it's a scavenger hunt to see how much info I can dig up.]

Concert poster of the tour from Berlin, East Germany

THE SHIFTING STATUS OF THE GONDAR AZMARI IN REVOLUTIONARY ETHIOPIA:FROM OUTCASTS TO POPULAR STARS (PDF)

Several of the members of Fasiledes kinet actively participated in the Hizib lehizib (‘people to people’) campaign, a programme that brought together the people, cultures and traditions of Ethiopia. Thus, from May 15 to 28, 1987 the Fasiledes performed in Debre Markos, Gojjam.
... The campaign also included an international tour across fifty-two countries that spanned for four months. The tour made the artists of Fasiledes kinet known to the Ethiopian diaspora public. Some of the key performers during this tour were Eneye Takele, Abebe Belew, Yirga Dubale, Tamagn Beyene, Wasie Kassa, Abdela Hussien, and Kenubish Abebe.

Ethiopian Dance Troupe Fails to Appear (LA Times article, 1987/05/17)

A comment on this page by "Adamu LA" indicates that the HIZB LE HIZB group did not visit the U.S.A because of "ideological difference between eastern and western block". That makes me wonder if that is why the troupe did not show up in L.A. as mentioned by the above article. But the below article said that they performed in Washington DC, so I'm not sure Adamu's comment here is correct.

Ethiopian Dancers To Perform (PDF) - 1987/03/30 - Article from The Clark College (Atlanta) Panther. Has a lot of details. Mentions "They have already performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C."

..

I don't know much about Ethiopia, other than famine, wars, and food. There is much history that I know very little of. I didn't even know that most of the country is mountainous and based on the photos looks gorgeous.

A few of my shirts have been making my upper back itch lately, even though they are tag-free shirts. Sometimes when this happens and I carefully inspect the shirt, I find a tiny hair or eyelash or some such thing which is the culprit. But the last times, I've found nothing.

I now suspect the tag-free labels themselves are the culprit. The shirts are several years old and the substance (acrylic paint?) used to print the label text on the fabric now has cracked and the edges of the cracks stick out just enough to irritate the skin.

Mask Envy:
When you keep seeing photos and videos where other people's face masks look better fitting, more comfortable, more snug and protective, than your own. Even though you've got like, 5? different kinds, but none of which are without problems.

.

I wanted to wear something other than a turtleneck+sweatshirt this evening, but I've already tried on 5 combinations of things, and they've all been too uncomfortable. How did I ever find things to wear to work, every day?
Egadz, these cuffs on my wrists, this collar at the back of my neck, this metal zipper by my chin, this fabric in my elbow when I bend my arm...

Note to self: Don't buy waffle-pattern undershirts, even if they are 100% cotton. Uncomfortable against my skin.

Me: Dang, I hate that I can't raise my knees up when wearing certain pants like these, unless I grab the fabric at the thighs with my hands to raise it up first. Grumble, grumble.

Other me: Well, what is it about these pants? What could I do to make it better?

Me: Hmm, I never thought about that before. Maybe if I sewed a silky fabric on the inside of the leg, that would reduce the friction, to prevent the fabric from binding against my legs.

::Sigh:: But it's not worth going through all that trouble, and it might not even work, and I don't want an extra layer of fabric in my pants.

::looks down at the pants some more::

Hey, wait a minute... could it be happening because of the side pockets? Maybe it's because I'm too short for these pants; maybe the pockets are supposed to be up higher on the legs instead of down there by the knees? Maybe if I reposition the pockets up a bit higher, that would help? Heck, I could even just cut those 2 pockets off; these pants still have enough other pockets that I wouldn't miss them too much.

Hey, I use the left pocket less than the right one. So I'll cut off that one first to see if it really helps, before removing the right one.

::uses seam ripper to cut off left pocket, then tries on the pants again::

::is able to lift left knee up::

::is able to lift right knee up::

Me: WTF???

(But okay, I'll go with that. And I get to keep one of the extra pockets, yay.)

Looking at it, it seems that raising one knee also applies tension to the fabric on the other leg. Maybe releasing the tension on one leg was enough to make it work on both sides?

......................

[Later]

I'm again not able to raise either knee! Now I think it also has to do with how much perspiration is on my skin. This fabric must stick to damp skin more than dry skin.

Several of my "hacks" actually involve hacking (i.e. cutting) things.

This hack works for knee socks whose top elastic band is somewhat too tight. It can also help if the socks are a little too short. But if the elastic is very tight, this probably won't help enough. If the elastic isn't too tight to begin with, then doing this may make them too loose.

Many knee socks nowadays have the top elastic band made of an elastic section that's been folded over and knit together on the inside, so that it's two layers of elastic fabric. With this kind of sock, it is easy to cut open the seam where it's knit together, thereby changing it into a single longer layer of elastic.





Right leg: original sock. Left leg: hacked sock.

Because I like my clothing to be loose, I often end up with shirts that are very wide on the torso. Sometimes that bothers me when I look in the mirror, because the shirt, which may otherwise look awesome, sticks out in back or puffs up in the middle, making it look less good.

One quick fix is to use safety pins to pinch in the left and right sides a few inches up from the bottom of the shirt.

Another thing I've done is to sew a short inside seam on the left and right sides, angling inwards towards the bottom. That keeps it from billowing out on the bottom. But then the shirt may still be too wide and puffy on the top.

A better option may be to turn the shirt inside out and sew new seams for the entire left and right sides a few inches inward from the original seams. Extend the original sleeve-seam inwards a few inches, and then curve downwards for the new side seam. The problem I've had with this in the past, is that when the shirt is turned right-side out again, the fabric bunches up at the sleeve-to-side seam. That happened even if I cut off most of the excess fabric. The following page explains how to prevent the fabric from bunching up.

Sewing Tips – Clipping Corners and Curves.

The only difficulty then is how to sew the edges of the seam to prevent fraying, after having clipped the edges. I've been doing it by hand-sewing those parts, and sewing around the clipped edges, in and out, so that the new line of thread doesn't make it bunch up again.

So far, I've done that for 3 shirts.

I also hand-sewed belt-loops onto one pair of pants, and started sewing them onto another. Having a belt feels much more comfortable and convenient to me, than having only elastic or a drawstring at the waist. And I can clip things like my keys to the belt or to the loops.

My inner aesthete wasn't satisfied with the last photo, so.