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OMG LOOK AT IT

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Sock Quest

Followers of this blog may know that a few weeks ago I started properly learning to knit. I'm very much in the hobby honeymoon period - knitting is my Passion and Joy.

I am in dire need of socks. The moment it occurred to me that socks are something I could make for myself, the idea of purchasing them became anathema. So, a sock-making quest.

My socks have a tough life - walking is my primary mode of transport. Longevity is a trait I value highly in a sock. However, I would also like to avoid using nylon or plastic-based yarns if possible. 

You guys! It is so fun to knit a sock! I used a wool yarn, held with a strand of mohair silk for added strength at the heel and toe. I followed a simple pattern, with just the right amount of new-to-me techniques (ribbing, decreasing, picking up stitches) to be really engaging. The result is not perfect, but absolutely wearable and infinitely better than I expected. 

I can't comment on the durability until I've knitted the second one and stomped around wearing them in earnest.

I plan to experiment over the coming weeks with other types of yarn (nettle fibre?), yarn combinations, and reinforcement techniques. All suggestions welcome. Perfecting a durable plastic-free sock is my holy grail now.

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[ID: Two short gifs of four and five photos respectively, essentially extended stereoscopes panning over a collection of crocheted orange and green objects on a wood table. The first gif has progressive prototypes of the "Alkekengi Bookmark" by @cjgladback, a design with a conical orange lace bauble, wider at the top, on the end of a long green crochet chain with a lacy green leaf on the other end. On the far left is Number 1, with a fairly shapeless bag of a bauble and a tiny leaf. Number 2 is not pictured. Number 3's bauble has prominent ridges between five pieces and is very squat, almost pumpkin shaped; its leaf is built on the same shape as the first, with an extra row of lace around giving it a curved shape and some wave to its profile. Number 4 has no chain or leaf attached, and is even more squat than the previous, but its five sides are held taut between the ridges in the middle. Next are two individual sides of the baubles, with unevenly ruffled edges, labeled "narrower!" The final prototype, Number 5, is the narrowest and held with taut straight sides at the apex between the ridges, its leaf the same curved and wavy shape as Number 3's.

The second gif shows close-ups of the baubles of Number 3 (Unsupported) and Number 5 (Supported) immediately after they've been crushed in a hand. Number 3's walls are still mostly the right silhouette but they are concave between ridges. Number 5 isn't completely symmetrical but kept its widest point at the top smooth between ridges. End ID]

I think I have my design! Though I'm tempted to push the length of the medallions just a little further to confirm, my goal with this bookmark is to be small (at this gauge the bauble's about an inch and a half tall and in diameter) and I think I've gotten the lace shape I wanted about as narrow as it can be while working in the round. And I really like the end-encasing abilities of single crochet border seaming so I don't think I can cut down width on the ridges. It would collapse in on itself a little to be more proportionally long if I didn't have the pentagon support, as well as just being an easier construction, but without the support I keep wanting to pick and pull at the centers of the medallions and beyond annoyance that's not a recipe for lace longevity.

So I'm gonna look around for any standards for swatching; presumably something small and specific like this would just have you start with making one of the parts and measuring it, but I'd like there to be an easier way to check proportions separate from readability if someone were scaling down or up.

On my next bookmark I'll do my best to be consistent in tension, just to be sure I wasn't only getting lucky with where my pieces were firmer versus stretchier. Next steps will be figuring out the yardage, finalizing the charts, and getting a first draft of the pattern written out to ask for feedback from test crocheters. Also probably harshly washing that first prototype to get an idea of whether any of these will hold up to rinsing out fiber reactive dyes if I do get them, since that was a fair concern brought up by members of the Love to Dye community on Ravelry when I raise my advice request over there.

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The dinosaurs in jurassic park being mixed with frogs is clever and conveniently also means theres an in universe explanation for them not having feathers, but i do think they should go one step further and have like a little exhibit in the visitors centre or something with a plaque like "more recent research suggests many of the species you will see today likely had feathers, to make up for this inaccuracy we would like to present you the following:" and it's a little terrarium with a frog they've genetically engineered to have feathers, yknow to even it out

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Flying South by Clara Scintilla, 2023

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tiger gang

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These photos aren’t particularly aesthetic, but I realized this week that I never made a post for my finished wonky stars cape. Everyone should make a wearable quilt, I highly recommend it.

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The creature

I needed a creature.

Had some fun with object naming ^^

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[ID: Photo of the packed space on a desk in front of a laptop, with two balls of crochet thread, orange and green, a pair of scissors, and two fidget toys as well as several small, orange crocheted pieces. One of the pieces is a pentagon while the rest are five lacy arrowhead shapes, each with two open plastic lock-shaped stitch markers, one slid through each side. End ID]

Yoyo, my desk lap cat, is normally quite polite, only maybe twice has tried to drink my milky coffee, and generally doesn't play with anything not moving. But I tell you, the confidence she had that those medallions with clattery plastic wings, all tidily stacked behind the yarn this morning, must be cat toys just for her--the first one hit the floor before I even saw her reaching.

Very understandable of course. And good motivation to seam things up soon before they all go missing.

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In the autumn of 1883, a paper in the nation's capital reported that "an Iowa woman has spent 7 years embroidering the solar system on a quilt" — to teach astronomy in an era when women could not attend college. Her story.

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The creator is Kyoto Ohata; English article including the DIY instructions on My Modern Met here; following a slightly broken trail through their listed sources you can find this Japanese article on Daily Portal with more photos here. (The My Modern Met listed sources are here and here; the first of which in turn lists a Metro article which has a broken link attempting to filter that Japanese page through google translate, the second of which is in a Cyrillic script and shows the smaller selection of photos in carousel format.)

Also, a couple videos of her wearing them amongst pigeons.

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Poor little guy. So sad, so pitiful.

Forced to go run errands while it's raining and windy.

Poor little puffball who was nearly swept away by the wind.

He sits in the stores having flashbacks to the war he fought with the wind on the way here

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In case the future requires more scrolling, here's the specific source post: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6_2grBxPKk/

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nimble, a border collie-papillon mix, wins the 12” class in the 2024 masters agility championship. the first time a mixed breed has won at westminster ever.

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[ID: Two colorful scribbled diagrams on a white background, neither including a legend for their not-necessarily-standard symbols of circles and various T shapes indicating crochet chains, slip stitches, and single, half double, double, and treble crochet stitches that radiate out from each diagram's middle. The first is thinner lines and starts with red, then orange, olive, green, and sky blue on the outside. The second, chunkier diagram is only slightly neater and starts with green, then teal, blue, and purple on the outside. End ID]

Feeling good about this most recent alkekengi (paper lantern plant) bookmark prototype, though I've still got a few medallions to go before I can seam things together to really check. But having thoughts after redrawing the diagram again; it's been pretty much two diagrams per prototype--making the edits I expect to help, taking notes as I go with the first one on what further edits are necessary to work with the shifting earlier rounds in the actual process, and drawing that reality up to reference for the next four petals.

I'm getting a strong draw toward some future visual gag where you've got that classic prison wall with scratched hatch marks tallying the number of days in captivity. But! On closer inspection it's a crochet diagram.

Everyone who is me will find it hilarious.