This time came out way better than the first few tries!
Partly the change of thread, I think, I could better see what was happening, but also what I was doing started to make sense to me.
The end instructions confused me though, I think that's obvious, lol
Still, I'm really pleased with how it came out.
Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo weโve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and itโs revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.
Might I add:
The defeat of the wizard who made people choose how theyโd be to be executed
The woman who raised the changeling alongside her biological child
The human who died of radiation poisoning after repairing the spaceship
The adventures of a space roomba
Cinderella finding Araura (and falling in love)
I donโt know a snappy description but the my nemesis cynthia story certainly lives in my head
hilariously, these are almost all in my fic tag. so, a compiled list from the notes (and some extras):
I am in love with you /p
adding the Doctors Without Borders one
I LOVE tumblr storytime, so hereโs a bunch more your weekend reading. Enjoy!
26. Haunted house
33. Narrative Town
35. Robot Apocalypse
37. Kushiel
38. Tooth Fairy
39. Alien abduction
42. Space cousins
What a workout ๐ด๐ด๐ด so many days of cloth stitch, so many flowers, so much sewing. This was a lot of fun to make. Definitely improved on some skills I've been working on. I think one of the biggest improvements from this piece just came from the actual approach. I found myself making decisions on how to approach different elements, when to hang in and cut out pairs for different spots, and stuff like that that was no longer written into the instructions in the book. Speaking of the book, by finishing this piece, I officially graduate from the beginner patterns chapter ๐ฅณ๐ฅณ๐ฅณ My plan next i think is to go work on some torchon pieces again because I need a break from sewing while I work on ordering some finer thread. I want to repeat the sunflower pattern at the actual size, and then move on to the next chapter!
The Technique of Honiton Lace by Elsie Luxton- Pattern 6: Horseshoe
Curate everything.
Curate your hygiene routine, curate your clothing items, curate your home, curate your habits, curate your nutrition, curate your environment, curate your circles, curate you socials, curate the content you consume, curate your social skills, curate your financial situation, curate your emotions, curate the version of you that shows up in public, curate your hobbies, curate your knowledge.
Live with intention, itโs too easy to get distracted and itโs harder to come back each time.
It's wild seeing the people hating on this, who will then reblog Hit Da Bricks or "eat off the good china" memes with no self-awareness.
I think some folks are conflating lifestyle curation with presenting a capital-L Lifestyle for others to consume.
This isn't about neatly capturing, tagging, and running filters on every facet of your life. It's about being mindful of who and what you choose to let into your life.
I'm willing to bet we all have things in our lives that cause pain/frustration that we could let go of or otherwise change, from toxic "friends" to that coffee mug you never use that takes up space in your cabinet.
These are all examples of questions I have asked myself that led to more mindful curation in my life (ymmv):
It really helps to have a little voice in your head that pipes up when you make decisions on autopilot, especially when the reason is "that's just how it's always been".
There's a lot we don't have control of in our lives, and a lot we where do have control, but are either afraid to exercise that control, or have never even *considered* we have control.
Sometimes, curation is changing your gender presentation. Sometimes, it is buying duplicate cleaning supplies because you know you won't ever bother to go downstairs to get Windex to clean the upstairs bathroom mirror. It can be as radical as makes sense for you. But it should be mindful, and ultimately, honest.
one of my favorite things about being a fiber artist in this day and age is that everything is still mine.
patterns are still being made in physical books.
paying for a pattern on ravelry gives me a PDF file, not a link or a subscription or some stupid NFT style thing.
anything i make by hand with a fancy pattern, any stephen west pattern I put together- no AI can replicate that.
sure, you can try to use it to write a pattern, but itโs going to make even less sense than whatever other AI โartโ slop is being put out.
sure, maybe itโs because what we do has already been โreplacedโ by easy textiles and fast fashion and big brands. but a hand knit object will live longer and look better and has far more care put into it, just like any other hand-created piece of art.
i just. feel really blessed as an artist that this is the community that i have. support your LYS, get involved in your community, make your friendsโ wardrobes a little more sustainable.
update on my latest knitting projectโฆ
colorwork in stockinette is so evil but hopefully it will be worth it? i WILL be learning to steek before i knit another vest though
So this is a totally useless rant, but as a skinny girl, Iโm getting extra, extraย tired of fat-shaming.
I work for a corsetier at a Renaissance Faire. We sell corsets. Not flimsy bullshit costume corsets; like real, durable, waist-training corsets. Today a woman came in with her boyfriend, so I helped her pick out a corset and try it on. While her boyfriendโwho was decidedly enthused about the whole corset thingโsat watching me lace her in, he told me, grinning, โOf all the good jobs at the Renaissance Faire, I think you have the best.โ
I shrugged in agreement. โI touch butts and reach down cleavage all day; I meanโฆโ Because we like to be a bit rakish at the Faire, and, yโknow, itโs true. Tying people into corsets pretty much invariably requires getting handsy.
The couple laughed at that, and the boyfriend said,ย โThatโs the job I would want!โ But then he chuckled again and said, offhand,ย โOr maybe not; while we were looking at the racks, there were some pretty big sizes on there!โ
Our sizes are all done in inches, and the biggest we make is a 46. And youโd better believe our large sizes sell. For a second I wasnโt sure what to say to the guyโs comment, but I answered him casually.ย โWe get a lot of beautiful big ladies in here.โ Because we do.ย โWe make corsets for real women, not Barbie dolls,โ I added. Wasnโt trying to be smart, just kind of tossed it out there because thatโs the line we like to use when people ask about larger sizes, and because, again, we do.
The boyfriend went quiet at that; I didnโt think anything of it, I just kept on lacing. A moment later, he said, a little awkwardly (but sincerely enough), โDidnโt mean to be offensive.โ
I quickly smiled and brushed it off, said he wasnโt, said I was just saying. (Donโt want to make the customers uncomfortable, you know?) And that was the end of it. His comment had rubbed me the wrong way, but it wasnโt a big deal. Now, I wear a 20-inch corset. Iโm a few cup sizes short of being one of the Barbie dolls. Like his girlfriend, Iโm one of theย โhot chicksโ; he doesnโt have to worry about offending me by implying that I wouldnโt be fun to poke and pull at.
Honestly though, of all the people I fit sexy technically-undergarments to in a day, fat girls are maybe my favorite people to lace up. Because they are just so damn happy that we have stuff that fits them. They are so damn happy that the corsets we make in their sizes are all the same pretty, shiny colors and cool flower/dragon/skull/etc. prints that the smaller corsets are, not ugly beige and boringย โgrannyโ colors. They are so goddamn happy that at leastย one (of several on the grounds) corset shop carries things that they can wear, that they actually want to wear, and that they look fucking awesome in. This is only my second season working, and weโve fit 60+ inch waists and double-K busts. The only people weโve ever had to tell sorry, we donโt have anything that fits them, are twelve-year-old kids.
Itโs half-wonderful, half-heartbreaking how excited those women get. Women who say with sad smiles, when we ask if they want to get fitted,ย โOh, no, you donโt have anything that fits me,โ and then are stunned when weโre 300% confident that yes we do, and we have options. Women who canโt stop smiling and looking at themselves in the mirror after weโve got them laced in.
I had a lady last week whose waist I measured (cinching the tape tight, as per procedure) at 41 inchesโhonestly not all that big. So she picked out a 41-inch corset to try on. I could tell halfway through getting her laced that it was going to be a bit big for her, so I mentioned it and said she might do better to try a smaller size. She started crying on the spot. She was so overwhelmed; she couldnโt believe someone had just told her that a 41 was too big. She told me about how hard clothes shopping was for her, how her mother would tell her she needed an XXXL instead of an XXL, how she had recently lost weight but still couldnโt wear certain colors because they didnโt fit or she wasnโt confident enough.
She did end up getting her corset, and after I checked her out she asked if she could give me a hug, so we ended up standing there hugging each other for a minute. While we did, I told her,ย โDo not ever let anyone tell you any bullshit. You are gorgeous.โ She said,ย โI have a new boyfriend and he keeps telling me that.โ I told her he was right, and to just keep telling herself sheโs gorgeous; it was okay if she didnโt always believe it, but to keep telling herself anyway. (Thatโs how I talked myself through shit when I had bad anxiety.)
We all know fat-shaming is bad. The stupidity, fatphobia, and misogyny of it has pissed me off since I first became aware of it. But working with clothing, especially as figure-hugging and precise as corsets, has given me a new perspective on itโhow much it affects people and just how shitty it is. Like, what does it sayย that I had a grown, only average-big woman crying into my shoulder because she was so overjoyed not to be the uppermost extremity of what a manufacturer can clothe?
My job rocks and itโs really rewarding, but sometimes it highlights some of the ugliest shit about society. Iโm so glad I work at a shop thatโs not bullshit about body types and operates with more people in mind than just scrawny white chicks like me. The fat women I work with are a ton of fun to lace up, and theyโre so much more than their sizeโtheyโre cool, theyโre smart, theyโre funny, theyโre sweet, theyโre great to talk to, and yes, theyโre hot. Iโm so damn done with them getting short-changed and shamed by petty fucks who refuse to make them nice clothes, who refuse to even try to work for them, who refuse to consider them pretty. This whole rant was useless and wonโt get read, but I had to vent because itโs been driving me nuts.
So actually, screw you, random dude. Fat girls are the highlight of my job.
Day ??? Of Learning Bobbin Lace
The cardboard in my DIY cookie pillow is wearing out, and apparently a girl CAN have too many bookmarks, so I decided to try a bolster pillow instead.
I grabbed a paper towel roll, layered some felt under a dish towel, and pinned it all together. Itโs sitting in the only Tupperware that fit it.
Iโm excited to be able to make longer tapes of lace, and I finally understand what people mean when they talk about working the bobbins palms up! I tried that on the flat pillow and couldnโt understand the appeal compared to palms down.
Unfortunately the thread Iโm using is way too fine for this pattern (from Bobbin Lacemaking by Doris Southard) so I may need to unwind and restart with some pearl cotton instead. At least until I can get my hands on graph paper with more squares per inch ๐
a masterpost of resources to complement that post going around the other day with a glossary of several different kinds of small weaving. design your own potholder loom squares: https://friendlyloom.com/pages/potholder-design-wizard
warp a pin loomย the regular way:ย https://adventuresinpinloomweaving.com/2018/09/21/choose-your-warping-method/
the diagonal way: https://howdidyoumakethis.com/square-pin-loom-speed-weaving/
fingerweaving
another how-to: https://nativetech.org/finger/beltinstr.html
additional resources: https://jumaka.com/2019/03/finger-weaving/
tablet weaving
another how-to: https://jumaka.com/2019/02/card-weaving/
personal favorite site for designing tablet weaving drafts: https://twistedthreads.org/
backstrap rigid heddle weaving
3D printed rigid heddle backstrap loom parts:
3D printed rigid heddles for band weaving:
inkle loom weaving
how to build a loom from pvc and get started: https://littlelooms.com/a-free-guide-to-inkle-weaving/
inkle loom/rigid heddle backstrap pattern design: https://carolingianrealm.blog/PatternGenerator.php
Blanket/ playmat #2 is underway, this time with a lightly padded texture! Video is 2 minutes of me stuffing the latest complete row (quiet, birdsong), then 2 minutes of awkward weaving because my phone is in the way of the very long unwieldy shuttles (loud, loom noises). Each pocket is completely sealed between the two layers of fabric as they are woven, no seams, no way to open it again except for scissors.
Double cloth pick up for class! Itโs genuinely irritating how obnoxious this is to set up and weave because the result is SO pretty. I drafted this up for a different class last semester (which is also posted on my page) and Iโm hoping to get at least two full dragons if not more.
