babygladiatorwitch

[babygladiatorwitch]

Got the itch to try something new, so cast on a brioche hat with some spare yarn from my cable sweater last year

[babygladiatorwitch]

Sabrina Carpenter — 67th Grammy Awards

[babygladiatorwitch]

Hello all!! I have finished the colorwork part of my CatKnit Pullover! Around the yoke are 11 cute kitties. You can also see my cat Apollo in the background, my little muse.

I’ll try and update you all as I finish the body and sleeves. I’m a little bit nervous about doing tubular bind off for the first time, so I hope y’all bear with me if my ends aren’t the neatest. Thanks for so much love so far on this project! I’ve been on tumblr for years and my knitting projects are the first things I’ve really posted so it’s nice to see the love! 🫶

baby boy baby boy baby boy baby boy

[babygladiatorwitch]

Hi. Things are bleak, I know that. I know that we paid for Trump's last term with blood and it is likely the price will be blood again.

But listen to me. LISTEN.

You do not have to force yourself to witness horrors as an act of activism. It is not a form of activism. You can put your phone down, you can block that horrific video. We cannot win if you cannot fight and you will not be able to fight if you are hopeless.

Do not let them guilt you into this. People who are exhausted are easier to walk over. Take care of yourself, find community where you find joy.

[babygladiatorwitch]

Do you have the Libby library app?

If not, download it to your phone, and under "Add library card" select the button to search for a library and start typing in "queer"...

Sign up with an email, no actual address required, and you are good to go 🏳️‍🌈

[babygladiatorwitch]

Resources for Mending Clothes

We toss out over 80 pounds of textiles each year. These textiles are often made of plastic materials (polyester, nylon), made in unethical conditions, dyed with harsh dyes that often get put into the rivers, etc. Even a single cotton shirt releases carbon emissions and uses tons of water. 

So the best thing to prevent the unsustainable growth of the fashion industry is to make sure that your clothing lasts as long as possible. To do so, mending clothing is a must. So here are some resources to help you learn how to do various things, such as sewing a button, to tailoring clothes, or even upcycling old clothing into new styles. 

* How to sew on three different types of button

* How to hand sew on a patch on a torn pair of jeans

* How to sew up a hole in an old shirt

* How to sew a simple T-shirt

* How to upcycle old clothing into new clothing

* More upcycle and sewing techniques

* How to repair a damaged sock

* How to do an invisible stitch

* 3 different stitches to work with for different results

* How to make a T-shirt smaller so it fits you better

* How to make repairs to your shoes

These are just a few of the things that you can do in order to make sure that your clothing lasts for a long time. Nobody wants to keep buying new clothing, as it is expensive and wasteful. 

So making alterations to your clothing, or fixing small holes hen you see them can be hugely beneficial to your wallet, to garment workers, and to the environment in the long term. 

[babygladiatorwitch]

Jogless stripes in the round

I used to think that the jog at the beginning of a round is an unavoidable fact of life, but then (thanks to the internet) I started seeing different tricks to get jogless stripes when knitting in the round and carrying the yarn from one stripe to the next.

I tried a couple of different methods, before settling on the one shown in the video, which is the one I like best:

Knit to 1 st before end of round, make a yo with the new colour bringing it up from behind the working yarn. In the next round, knit the last stitch together with the yarn over.

[babygladiatorwitch]

Afternoon of knitting during company wide meetings

[babygladiatorwitch]

Another labor of love💙 finished this last week and I love it. It took me longer than I wanted because I’ve been busy but I love the results.

I still gotta add the embroidery but I may save that for next November/December🎄☃️❄️

[babygladiatorwitch]

[babygladiatorwitch]

👏🏾Education 👏🏾is 👏🏾a 👏🏾right,👏🏾 not👏🏾 a👏🏾 service 👏🏾

Pass along and use the shit out of them

[babygladiatorwitch]

Get yourself a fabric store that will light your fabric on fire for you

No but legit I asked what the fiber content of something was and the guy didn’t know so he cut a chunk off and lit it on fire and felt the ashes and was like. Yeah this is mostly cotton with a lil bit of silk. And that was the moment I knew. This is it. This is the fabric store for me. Also that guy is marriage material. Not for me but damn some person is gonna be so happy with him.

[babygladiatorwitch]

TWO SLEEVES

[babygladiatorwitch]

All of the sweaters I knit in 2024

Betula by Jaqueline Van Dillan

Chained Oblivion by Kelcey Garner

Lakes Pullover by Ozetta

Rivendell by Sari Nordlund

Vargo by Sari Nordlund

Lumme by Sari Nordlund

Diona by Sari Nordlund

Wave Sweater by Spektakelstrikken

Ruka by Sari Nordlund

[babygladiatorwitch]

Okay so we have this huge problem with forgetting about everything that’s happened by the time the next election rolls around so I’d like to keep a running list of things as they’re happening to help remind us when the 2026 midterms roll around. And please add to this if I’ve missed anything.

January 2025:

Donald Trump pardoned 1500 people who participated in the insurrection of January 6th, including those who violently assaulted and nearly killed police officers.

Donald Trump has declared that trans and non-binary people don’t exist.

Donald Trump is working towards firing everyone in the government who isn’t loyal to him.

Donald Trump has effectively fired everyone who he claims is an “illegal DEI hire” …whatever that means

Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization

Congress are trying to pass the Laken Riley Act to, effectively, round up every immigrant in the country, including LEGAL immigrants

Donald Trump removed caps on prescription drug prices.

Donald Trump wants to withhold federal aid to help combat the LA wildfires and help the thousands of people who have been displaced and lost their homes.

The Department of Justice has put a hold on all civil rights cases.

Donald Trump has cut off aid to Ukraine.

Laken Riley Act has been passed by Congress and is awaiting being signed into law by the President. Here’s the breakdown of the votes: House Senate

Donald Trump purged a dozen inspectors general from the federal government and intends to replace them all with people loyal to him.

Pete Hegseth has been confirmed as Secretary of Defense. Here’s the breakdown of how the Senate voted. Note, it was a 50-50 tie that JD Vance had to break.

Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on Colombia after the Colombian government turned away two airplanes carrying migrants. Columbia has retaliated by imposing a 25% tariff of its own on US goods.

Donald Trump has also issued a travel ban for Colombian citizens and revoked visas from Colombian migrants coming to the US.

Donald Trump has now backed off the tariffs and other threats against Colombia. Note for future reference: this comes just hours after Trump made the threat in the first place and he and the Colombian president got into a big fight on social media.

Nearly 1,000 migrants were arrested mostly in Chicago on January 26th by ICE and ICE has been told to meet a quota of 75 migrant arrests every day.

Donald Trump rescinded an anti-discrimination executive order from Lyndon B. Johnson

Donald Trump signed an executive order banning trans people from serving in the military and also ordered that people who were discharged for refusing to get mandatory vaccines be reinstated.

Donald Trump has frozen all federal grants to institutions.

After pressure from state governments, activist groups, and the general public, the White House has rolled back some of the freezes on federal funding.

This.

Donald Trump is trying to fire all federal employees who don’t want to return to the office (work-from-home saves the federal government millions of taxpayer dollars in overhead). He also sent an email to federal employees saying that if they’re not loyal to him, they’ll be investigated.

Donald Trump has signed the Laken Riley Act into law.

Donald Trump has said he doesn’t think Palestinians should be allowed to return to Gaza but instead should be sent to Egypt and Jordan.

Also this.

Donald Trump has ordered undocumented immigrants to be sent to Guantanamo Bay

Donald Trump signed an executive order to expand federal funding for school choice programs. [x]

Donald Trump signed an executive order saying that he will deport visa-holding students who protest against Israel. [x]

I’ll keep adding to this list as new things come up and, again, please feel free to add anything I’ve missed. I know that in this world of constant news it’s easy to forget, so let’s give our future selves a little help!

[babygladiatorwitch]

I finished this quilt months ago, but never got around to taking a picture of it. It has since been covered in cat hair. My first go at free motion quilting, and it’s not the best. I do think it appears like bee buzzing swirls so I’ll take it.

Elizabeth Hartman Beehive quilt pattern with suggested fabrics

[babygladiatorwitch]

A quick dump of everything I managed to knit in 2024! It felt like I didn’t accomplish much - but seeing it in one place is very encouraging 💜