@batbetbitbotbut / batbetbitbotbut.tumblr.com
It's off the loom! After all that, the weaving itself was probably about 4 or max 5 hours (including winding bobbins and fixing mistakes), most of which (1.5 metres) was woven on Sunday alone.
Now to spend at least as long again on knotting and twisting the fringes, 20 threads per knot. (Should have hemstitched. Didn't.) You can watch the daylight fade from stage to stage...
WHAT WAS IT, TUMBLR
WAS IT THE WORD KNOTTING
It's off the loom! After all that, the weaving itself was probably about 4 or max 5 hours (including winding bobbins and fixing mistakes), most of which (1.5 metres) was woven on Sunday alone.
Now to spend at least as long again on knotting and twisting the fringes, 20 threads per knot. (Should have hemstitched. Didn't.) You can watch the daylight fade from stage to stage...
sexy trans stuff embroidered on the fly of my shit crust shorts
Hey, I made Broken Jack socks and named the project "What Remains of Barbie Land!
My copy of "Bog Fashion" finally arrived, and there is a small part about makimg bone needles..
I was instantly obsessed. Today's dinner is sponsored by bone needle making desire
Apparently Lamb Shank is very good for needles, so that is what I bought. And the Internet said to simmer them in water for 2 hours (not boil! Apparently it does something with the fat in the bone)
I'm thinking about degreasing one of the bones and not the other to observe the difference in needle making...
All pictures are under the cut, because it is a bit gory, even though it's just making stew with extra steps...
Okay, but, How expensive can they make a sewing machine?
So, if we start out with a "cheap" machine, what happens when we go up in price.
Welcome to the Brother CS4000. It's a computerized machine and usually runs at like $130 right now. It does all kinds of cool things! The only thing that it doesn't do is last very long.
Well, here's what happens if you take it apart and take out all the circuit boards:
No, there's no missing central component.
If you've never taken a sewing machine apart, this might not look wrong, so let me explain.
This is a Singer Izek, and the same machine with the plastic outer casing removed. Inside, there's a metal frame that all the components are attached to.
See, most modern sewing machines are plastic on the outside, but the plastic is just a cover. The insides have a frame, and the mechanism can function without the shell at all.
That Brother up there doesn't have a frame at all. Everything that should bolt to the frame is just attached to the plastic housing. This is a problem for a lot of reasons. Notably, if the machine is being held up by flexible plastic, then there's no way for the machine to be consistent and precise. Also, the plastic shell serves as a protection, like a bike helmet for your sewing machine. When the components are attached to the outside, your machine becomes very fragile, because hitting or tapping the outside of the machine is the same as hitting or tapping the inside. This is why we don't allow newborn babies to ride bicycles, btw.
Even in a metal-frame machine, there's going to be plastic parts. Putting plastic parts in a sewing machine makes it quieter, more portable, and cuts down on maintenance. People don't fucking do the maintenance anyway, so finding ways to reduce it is going to help the machine run well longer.
Unfortunately, most machines are sold in boxes, where the person selecting the machine has to make a choice by reading the outside of the box. This means things like "This machine has 4672 stitches!" looks good and "this machine has 12 stitches but its brain is not basically exposed to the elements," doesn't. Any description of superiority that requires a human to explain it instead of a catchy tagline just isn't going to sell.
So, when you're looking at the Brother CS 4000 and the Baby Lock Zest, they're about the same price. The Zest has like 12(?)ish stitches, half of which are double-action (the same stitch but it goes forwardbacky instead of just forward) and no width control, and the CS 4000 has more technology in it than we took on the first manned trip to the moon, you might ask why they're the same price. Well, in the Zest, they cut down the features like easy bobbin setting, number of stitches, complexity of internal cams, and other features that you get in higher end machines.
In the CS 4000, they just got rid of...you know...the insides. The. The important parts. Imagine a car where there's no chassis and they just glued the engine to the underside of your hood.
Not all plastic machines are the same.
Anyhow, since I'm possibly unique in the world of budget lolita sewing blogs to be able to make a post about the most expensive sewing machines possible, I'm willing to try to undertake that expedition. Stay posted.
so i made and account on tv tropes and it asked for my relationship status
i went over and was about to put in “single” or “it’s complicated” and, well..
i can’t deal anymore
I’m absolutely certain they put a thread on the forums for suggestions and then used all of the suggestions they got.
I say that because I recognise two of my own contributions, which are both Green Day references.
It started off as a surprise from the admin/mods: one year in the super secret staff forum the admin (just the one admin, back in the day) said he would make the feature for Valentine’s Day and the mods all chipped in with suggestions. This would have been, what, 2013-ish? Once it went live, the general forum rabble made a fast moving thread about it and the list more than doubled. We didn’t use all the suggestions but by gods we used more than I expected. People liked it more than they were annoyed by it so it stuck around permanently.
I can pick out somewhere between 10 and 20 that I wrote myself before it went live - my memory of who wrote what is sometimes a bit fuzzy now but I am definitely, solely, responsible for the rickroll.
I was there, Gandalf. I was there mumblemumble years ago.
Good spot, that puts a date on it - it must have been for valentine's day 2014, when frozen was settling into pop culture oversaturation. The whole list is a snapshot of a very specific time and place in meme culture.
All of my funguary quilts together (*ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)🍄
Chicken of the woods, destroying angel, black trumpets, pixies parasol aaaand wrinkled peach mushrooms.
so i made and account on tv tropes and it asked for my relationship status
i went over and was about to put in “single” or “it’s complicated” and, well..
i can’t deal anymore
I’m absolutely certain they put a thread on the forums for suggestions and then used all of the suggestions they got.
I say that because I recognise two of my own contributions, which are both Green Day references.
It started off as a surprise from the admin/mods: one year in the super secret staff forum the admin (just the one admin, back in the day) said he would make the feature for Valentine's Day and the mods all chipped in with suggestions. This would have been, what, 2013-ish? Once it went live, the general forum rabble made a fast moving thread about it and the list more than doubled. We didn't use all the suggestions but by gods we used more than I expected. People liked it more than they were annoyed by it so it stuck around permanently.
I can pick out somewhere between 10 and 20 that I wrote myself before it went live - my memory of who wrote what is sometimes a bit fuzzy now but I am definitely, solely, responsible for the rickroll.
I was there, Gandalf. I was there mumblemumble years ago.
The trouble with being a super super process-over-product knitter who doesn't want to do things like "maths" or "weighing my yarn" is that this week I have had to rip back a garter stitch triangle twice because I started at the long end and ran out of yarn. Twice. I've started again at the short end now - you know, like a person who has put any thought into the matter at all - but I don't even think I'm mad about it. I quite like making a garter stitch triangle. It's been a tough couple of weeks. I like my hubris insignificant and I like to be along for the ride
All foreign films/shows should have two subtitle options. A localized one that better serves the original intent of the story and dialogue and a more literal one that awkwardly translates phrases in a preserved state, specifically for perverts who want to learn the language (me)
Ideally subtitles would take up about a third of the entire screen, consisting of the written dialogue in the original language, a literal translation in English, and a localized translation. "That sounds terrible and inconvenient" NOT EVERYTHING IS FOR YOU. SOME THINGS CAN BE 4 ME
The full weaving in all its glory! I’ll probably finish off the ends properly and take nice pictures sometime later, but I’m currently very busy with finals and it’s kinda a pain to check out a sewing machine and photography equipment from my school when I have my own back home. It’s technically long enough that it could be a scarf but I’ll probably only use it for decoration. I love how much enthusiasm y’all have had for this project, it’s really made my year.
New glamour shots for the Veggie Patches
I've never spun anything before, how do I teach myself to spin really really short staple fibers? Wool feels itchy to me so would prefer something else-- I have some acrylic... like... roving that's yarn...? somewhere, it's Yarn Bee Showstopper iirc. Have a drop spindle and some Egyptian cotton combed top somewhere but haven't seen either of these things in over a year, so improv/no-tools things to start would be great. It's about to be cottonwood season again and this time I'm really gonna do it, man, for sure. Im can feelb it
tool for the crazy short staple length fibers job: the tahkli spindle
How to make one?
A) find the straightest shaft you have laying around...maybe a chopstick, or a small diameter dowel, or a DPN, or a tig welding rod.
B) sharpen the end as much as it needs, using whatever's handy: sandpaper, file, dremel, pencil sharpener (if dowel)... optional if DPN
C) to create the whorl, drill a hole through the center of a coin, using a metal bit about the same diameter as your shaft.*
*{do NOT hold the coin in your hand, use at least pliers wrapped in rubberbands (for good grip) or a padded vise clamp. incidentally, this is also a step in making a coin ring.}
D) fit the two together and delicately glue if necessary. this is glue-in-a-secondary-container-apply-with-a-toothpick time. if necessary, use https://thistothat.com
E) test various bowls and teacups and paint palettes and whatnot around the house until you find the perfect spinning bowl surface
oh, Joan Ruane! I love her! her videos are so calming. She's like Bob Ross but for fiber.
Do I need a coin, or would any small thing work? I saw where you could make a drop spindle whorl out of polymer clay, and I have that, but I don't have the means to drill through a coin. thank you so much btw! is a takli hard to learn, should I start with something else first?
you can do it with polymer clay, or whatever material is handy. any supported spindle will work for short staple fiber.
but. plastic clay is not as heavy and won't spin for nearly as long or as fast. the fast is key to the short fibers, so you'll have to flick more often than you might with a slightly heavier disc...like porcelain or metal or glass.
I don't think it's hard to learn if motivated. across all cultures, humans solved for thread in similar ways and all of them are somewhat ingenious, but they all follow rotational/inertial/momentum rules of physics. ☺️
ah thanks! would a heavy glass bead work, maybe? or a washer? I'm thinking of what would be smaller and more balanced but also already have a hole.
human beings have been doing this for thousands of years, whatever you find around the house is going to be great. seriously. some people talk about improvised tools as if they can't possibly do the job… But all we had was improvised tools for literal thousands of (clothed) generations, people could do this before we had the written word, you know?
is starting with a longer staple fiber somewhat simpler? yes of course, because the act of making string is taking fibers and overlapping their ends and twisting them together so that they hold. So the shorter the staple of the fiber, the more overlaps, and the more twist. All of these work together to create the reasons why a tahkli is the best tool for the job for short stuff… Because it spins really fast and imparts all of that twist really quickly, catching all of your very short overlaps. is that any reason not to jump in with cotton? No, of course not. People in hot climates have always only had cellulose fiber to work with, wool/angora/cashmere is too hot! 
boo the naysayers and jump in. whether you like to learn for written tutorials or videos, there are 1 million resources these days… Do let us know if you need help with anything in particular, this community is happy to point those resources out. 🤗
