knotknitted

[knotknitted]

Just realised something while watching a shop for killers.....assassins are also high risk groups for blood transmitted diseases. Dear assassins, please get yourselves your Hepatits B shot and tetanus shots. Also, no harm in taking HIV prophylaxis when the job gets too messy. You don't know the viral status of the person whose blood just spluterrred all over you and I would lile you to be safe. Oh gods, I hope their heath insurance covers this....

[knotknitted]

I usually avoid incomplete series like the plague because it stresses me out, not being able to binge them, but I only found out it was the start of the trilogy half way through, and now I'm too invested

Just read a truly adorable book (Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy) and loved how it ended but knew the sequel would be good esp with the world building and the main pair only halfway on their enemies to ???? journey - only to discover that the book came out THIS MONTH and there's not even a hint of when the sequel will come out.

[knotknitted]

Books that remind me of Howl's Moving Castle: A Masterlist

Howl's Moving Castle (HMC) is my favorite book of all time, and I tend to look for the things I like and love to read the same trope or style of book over and over again. There are a few things I look for in a book when trying to capture the magic of HMC:

Characters - we are looking for STRONG and quirky characters that follow the general vibes of a vain man (or whatever) with magical power and a salty stubborn kindhearted woman (or whatever) who bursts into his life. Preferably there is a third, magical little fellow to fill the Calcifer role who is a dear friend to them both.

Romance - this vain silly powerful character and this pushy kind character need to fall in love. Im sorry. Its what im HERE for. I love a romance.

Funny/Witty - the book should be FUNNY, not "unserious", but not take itself so seriously. I want BANTER and witty dialogue. We want a little bit of jabbing, name calling, and arguments as our two leads fall in love.

Cozy Vibes - the plot should not be "Avengers style saving the universe from destruction" levels of stress. We should have character driven moments, scenes that evolve naturally out of us feeling "of course that's what he/she would do", scenes of domesticity whether that's eating or cooking, cleaning or decorating. There can be stakes, and there can be danger, there can even be plot twists, but overall we should not feel stressed while reading - these are comfort reads with happy endings.

Setting - I have to be honest, I have never really looked for a HMC book stand in OUTSIDE the fantasy genre - I really want this to be a fantasy setting. It is also important to me there be a "home base", i.e. the Moving Castle. So I love for our heroine (or whatever) to MOVE INTO the Sorcerer's space for some contrivance and cause havoc.

SO HERE ARE THE BOOKS, and how/why the remind me of HMC. THERE MAY BE SOME SPOILERS and I will continue to update as I read (I will only inlcude books I have read to be sure of quality - but send me recs so I can check them out):

Emily Wilde Series: A magical male lead who is the combination of Sophie and Howl - gorgeous, vain, argumentative, particular, loves cleanliness, loves spiders, loves sewing, and is embarassingly smitten with our female lead. Emily herself is not really a one to one for any of the HMC characters, but she feels like she fits perfectly - smart, sharp, blunt, and loyal. Emily's hound Shadow sort of meets my Calcifer stand in character, as does a little fairy named Poe. The adventure is small stakes, affecting a small nordic town nestled into snowy mountains, and many of the scenes take place inside a cabin in need of a facelift like the moving castle. Others on this list follow far more of the beats of HMC, and yet Emily Wilde feels like the strongest successor to the characters and the charm in my opinion.

The Maid and the Crocodile: The third installment in the "Raybearer" world, but a stand-alone novel that does not technically require you to read "Raybearer" and "Redemptor" but I think it helps... This was my favorite of the Raybearer books by far and away. The story is fairly small stakes - the consequences of the plot will really only affect the two main characters. Sade reminds me of Sophie in many ways - a girl on a journey from meek and quiet to opinionated and outspoken all the while sharing her passion for cleaning and domestic work. She also has a rare and undiscovered magical power of her own, like Sophie. Her love interest is a terribly vain cursed magical man seeking her help to break his curse, and he has a little magical gecko helper that soooort of fills the Calcifer role. The Crocodile also has a magical house with multiple magical doors leading to various places in the Realm. The author even shouts out the HMC novel in the acknowledgments for inspiring parts of the book. I think OVERALL this is the closest one-to-one adaptation to HMC, but the wittiness and characters for me do not reach the levels of some of the others on the list.

Uprooted: A klutzy nature loving girl is surprisingly whisked away to a castle by a local curmudgeonly sorcerer, named The Dragon. Turns out, she has a unique magical ability she never knew about. The Dragon teaches her magic in a cozy single location first half of the book, and our heroine learns baking and cooking, cleaning and loooove along the way. Much higher stakes story revolving around saving the kingdom, some politics, and some much darker parts of human nature and well just nature than others on this list. But numerous beats are similar.

Sorcery of Thorns: A young librarian learns a terrible secret and is forced to cohabitate with a handsome young sorcerer in a deal with a demon for magic. The two leads are bickering and witty, trading barbs as they fall in love. They eventually make home base in Thorn Manor, and the demon aforementioned is a Calcifer-esque addition to the fun. Tad less cozy, tad higher stakes than I would care for - but the banter and found family in the Manor reminds me a lot of HMC.

The Paper Magician: For this one... you have to sort of squint to see it. But trust me: there is SOMETHING here that is HMC all over it and it would be a HUGE spoiler to go into it. Lets just say it has something to do with a LITERAL stolen heart. A young magicians apprentice is paired against her will with the titular Paper Magician, to live in his home and learn his trade. Along the way, we get some lovely world building, fall in love, and save some hearts.

Sorcery and Small Magics (edit to add) - two sorcerers studying at the best magic academy have been “rivals” since they met. They accidentally get tangled up in a curse and embark on a “forced proximity” adventure to find a sorcerer living in a magic tower full of doors to strange places to break their cursed bond. Did I mention they bicker and provoke one another, and our main lead has a secret special magic to uncover? This is a queer, slow burn, low spice low stakes (only effects the two main characters) story and it was full of the type of comedy and whimsy I look for in a HMC successor. A planned trilogy

Where the Dark Stands Still (edit to add) - WOOOOW wowie wow this might be the new contender for best “clone” of HMC (lovingly I use this it def stands on its own); magic girl who can’t control powers enters a bargain with a demon and moves into his magical manor and befriends a hearth spirit only to fall in love with the demon who is actually a sorcerer who sold his heart in a bargain with a REAL demon and she has to use her lovable nature to save her found family. This is the only book on this list to date that has a true Michael stand-in character as well as a Calicifer stand in. O and The romantic couple call each other charming insults. This one is much darker and bloodier and morally greyer than HMC, but takes place almost entirely in the bounds of our “castle” and the magic wood that surrounds it.

[knotknitted]

Yknow what niche sv fanfics I fucking love? All the peak lords as disciples who are ride or die for each other. And I mean all of them thank you very much.

If anyone has recs, then PLEASE

Anyways, here's one dysfunctional and stupid family for you <3

Shen Yuan is the beast taming head disciple, and Mu Qingfang is just a deadass tired med student leave him alone.

And Wei Qingweiiiiiiii I want to make a whole character ref sheet for this dude and he doesn't have any business being a favourite of mine. Bro is the only peak lord that doesn't have a character description in the glossary. Btw if anyone knows what the Wei in Qingwei is pls tell meeee

Just pretend Shen Jiu got rescued early bc of Shen Yuan/Shang Qinghua's influence or smt idk. Pls don't don't follow your nightmares A-Jiu! You only got into this mess coz you did buddy TUT

Rip Yue Qingyuan this is my first time attempting to draw him and it just wasn't working out so I turned him around.

Recs bc I don't gatekeep>>

Shen shixiong by Ourliazo

Dark clouds by Invidia_envy

Close to you by Aledono

For a better day by Midnight_illusi0n

Predator and prey by Cheesie13

Black crow by Zypll

If I knew it all then (would you do it again) by Zypll

[knotknitted]

I just want to get the make a post notification to go away

[knotknitted]

K so not to be dramatic or anything, but there's a free vintage French pattern book available on antiquepatternlibrary so if you like to crochet/weave/make pixel art/tie epic friendship bracelets don't walk- RUN.

It has scenes from aesop's fables! Cherubs doing things! Beheadings! Greek muses! Little farm people! Intricate floral pattern! Goth stained-glass window like patterns! Fun little corner pieces! Eeeeeeeeeeeeee

https://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/html/warm/C-TT008-180.htm

[knotknitted]

A tree for all seasons.

Pattern here.

[knotknitted]

I really enjoyed making this one for a coworkers birthday. She told me about how she makes little clay frogs and I knew I had to make this for her!

I was almost done, but I couldn't just leave the background white, so I added in the light blue with a half stitch. It really just pulled it all together for me.

18ct DMC Aida cloth with 2 strand DMC thread. Pattern found on Etsy Here

[knotknitted]

Lavender's Blue is an older piece. It's still a favourite of mine, partly because the colours remind me of a pair of quilts my sister and I had on our beds as kids.

Pattern here My Etsy shop

[knotknitted]

More blackwork shading, this time inverted. Cross-stitched candle casting a blackwork glow.

Pattern here (my site) or here (Etsy).

[knotknitted]

Sqh would be swinging between trying to flirting or angling for angry sex and sqq would be oblivious because my man doesn't even realise he is in the closet

sorry for the redux but i noticed i made the voting timeline too short so i thought i would fix it a little and add more tags idk

also reblog please i want more votes :)

[knotknitted]

This is all I want

Sapphic remake of W: Two Worlds

It could be phenomenal.

1) Instead of child Oh Yeon Joo watching the Olypmics and creating a gender switched sharpshooter character, she keeps her fictious Kang Cheol a girl. Cue fun childhood ‘I want to be just like her’ to adult realization of ‘no wait, I just want her’.

2) Kang Cheol’s character needs little modification from the male version of a perceptive, unconventional thinker, strong-willed, and with an armour of charm and humour.* A little more on her mental state as she questions her reality and if her friends ever loved her would be good.

3) Oh Yeon Joo’s character needs to be consistently competent and the plot should find ways to showcase this beyond her using her medical skills twice. More exploration of why she became a thoracic surgeon vs following her dad into comics would be good.

Keep reading

[knotknitted]

Still can’t believe this

[knotknitted]

I am a British person who is probably

Honestly the more I think about grian and zedaph’s dynamic the more I’m obsessed with it. These two have such a weird rivalry going for absolutely no reason. The quartz shop the base swap the. whatever is happening with the dragon egg right now. They bring out the absolute worst in each other. If you put grian and zedaph in a box together they’d tear each other apart like betta fish. Why? Why is that? They both exist at the fringes of hermit society, often elusive and shy around those not in their inner circle of trusted besties (yes this applies to grian too, trust me ok). And yet when they interact with each other (approximately once per year) they are such haters to each other. And for what. They don’t even know each other that well!!! Two species of animal who occupy the same environmental niche and thus must compete for resources type dynamic. Maybe british people are just like that. Idk.

[knotknitted]

[knotknitted]

I just realised something. Jin Ling better get an expert matchmaker when he grows up. Lord, he's surrounded by the most rizzless people ever!

Who is this boy going to learn from? His dad, the martyr to chronic foot-in-mouth disease? Jiang Cheng, the man boycotted by all the matchmakers? Wei Wuxian, disaster gay? Lan Wangji, lord of let me bite you to tell you how I feel?

[knotknitted]

"You can't be a lurker on tumblr." Yes, you absolutely can. I've been quietly reblogging things since 2014 and I haven't interacted with anyone in years.