Nylon and waterproofing

Yesterday after rowing, I visited Narain's and bought a yard of ripstop nylon, and a big spool of heavy-duty nylon thread. I'd been keeping an eye out for nylon thread while visiting various fabric stores, but hadn't seen any. Of course, a quick Oogley-Googley just now suggests the big-box store in the nearby Plaza as a place that carries it for upholstery projects. Oh well. I like my giant spool of heavy-duty thread.

Then in the afternoon, it occurred to me that I might want to start my cycling gaiter project from a pattern for regular hiking/skiing gaiters. Which led me to this pattern from Seattle Fabrics, including a more involved description of the various fabric types from which gaiters can be constructed.

So now I'm not sure if I got the most ideal nylon fabric. My main concern is waterproofing. So that led me to read all about options for waterproofing nylon tarps, which appear to be either silicon-based or polyurethane-based. Apparently, old polyurethane coatings start to peel and flake off, and can get really sticky, too.

Anyway, now I think I'll run around for a while, looking at various coatings on various things, to get a better handle on these two waterproofing approaches, and their merits and drawbacks. If nothing else, this seems like useful information for the longer-term purpose of learning about pack, pannier, and basket cover options. I also suspect that I'll just make future nylon purchases from Seattle Fabrics because they carry a more extensive set of options, and to some extent it's easier to make decisions based on specs than on how the fabric looks and feels.

There's also probably a sewing machine upgrade somewhere in my near future. Most likely a Janome HD1000 because of their all-metal construction. I have no interest in nylon sewing machine gears. The last time I used the Kenmore, it generated a LOT of ozone.

Book Excerpt [Self-compassion]

I think this excerpt may be helpful to others for its shift in perspective. It's in the book Come As You Are, by Dr. Emily Nagoski, which I may write about further in a future post (after I've finished reading it):

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In her book Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind, researcher and educator Kristin Neff describes self-compassion's three key elements:

* Self-kindness is our ability to treat ourselves gently and with caring. On the Self Compassion Scale (SCS), a survey used to assess self-compassion, self-kindness is described with items like "When I'm going through a very hard time, I give myself the caring and tenderness I need." In contrast, its opposite, self-judgment, is assessed with "I'm intolerant and impatient towards those aspects of my personality I don't like."

* Common humanity is viewing our suffering as something that connects us with others, rather than separates us. It's assessed on the SCS with items like "When I feel inadequate in some way, I try to remind myself that feelings of inadequacy are shared by most people." Its opposite, isolation, is assessed with "When I fail at something that's important to me, I tend to feel alone in my failure."

* Mindfulness is being nonjudgmental about whatever is happening in the present moment...Mindfulness is important. On the SCS it's assessed with items like "When something painful happens I try to take a balanced view of the situation." Its opposite is over-identification, as in over-identifying with your own failures and suffering, holding fast to the pain and being unable to let it go. It's assessed with items like "When I'm feeling down I tend to obsess and fixate on everything that's wrong."

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So my impression is that what's presented in this book is reasonably well scientifically substantiated. [temporarily setting aside the general and growing concerns about reproducibility in the cognitive and behavioral sciences] Self-Compassion sounds to me like it may fall somewhere in the realm of cognitive behavioral therapy, in a good way. I appreciate this excerpt from Come As You Are for succinctly discussing the point about "common humanity" in particular. I think when I was younger - middle school, high school - I was much, much worse at self-compassion. A lot of things have reshaped my perspective since then, thankfully, but I especially find it helpful to remind myself to step outside of my individual experience and put it into a broader context.