#*sews not knits?

[orchidvioletindigo]

Subaru not being an aggressively masculine straight boy isekai protagonist is so precious to me. The way he admires Emilia's outfits and hairdos and told her she could opt out of their first kiss, the way he's good with kids and loves small animals, the way he isn't petrified of things that might make other people question his manliness – he does have some toxic traits he's needed to work through that could be tied to gender ideals, but truly the ingredients for a wholesome man are all here.

Also he's bisexual and we love that.

[sinensis26]

You all need to hear this:

1. You probably dont suck at your craft as much as you think you do, I bet a lot of people are amazed at what you can make, and

2. If you actually are the Literal Worst In The Whole Wide World at your craft... who the fuck cares? What are they gonna do, call the police on you? Keep making your shitty little things, youre the boss of you, fuck the haters.

[anxiousangerball]

I don't know who needs to hear this, but

YOU DO NOT NEED TO START A NEW HOBBY!

STEP AWAY FROM THE TEXTILES!

YOU DON'T NEED MORE YARN!

THAT FABRIC IS NOT CALLING TO YOU! LEAVE IT ALONE!

[ineffectualdemon]

Fibre crafts are 50% soothing repetitive action and 50% "God Fucking Damnit"

[fiberfantasies]

Fiber arts is just Math in sheep's clothing

[smorpher]

Note: You don't have to know how to make anything fancy. Just do you know the basics well enough to at least get started?

(Please reblog for a larger sample size)

[nonbinary-octopus]

honestly yeah, fiber arts is magic. you cast spell of warm gloves, spell of nice hat, spell of stuffed animal.

material component: yarn

wand: single hooked wand or double pointed wands, depending on caster's preference

mechanical component: specific motions repeated in a particular pattern

time component: a while

look seriously the first step in a knitting recipe is "cast on", and then it's a bunch of letters and numbers incomprehensible to anyone not versed in the arcane art. that's a spellbook. yes it's a book of knitting patterns but also. it's a spell book.

[kleinergeist]

I'd like to introduce to everyone this horrid thing I created about a year ago but haven't shown many people yet (probably for the best).

This is Baby. AKA The Monster. AKA Sight Tremendous and Abhorred, AKA Vile Insect, AKA A Thing Such As Even Dante Could Not Have Conceived, etc, etc. It's made from bits of scrap fabric I scrounged from various sources and is roughly the size of a human toddler. Its design is based on Mary Shelly's original descriptions of Frankenstein's creature.

But that's not all! Behold!

You can dissect this little abomination to reveal a full set of crocheted, knitted, and scrap fabric organs, all hand-stitched by yours truly!

It has a heart, stomach, lungs, liver, small and large intestine, kidneys, bladder, and, of course, a brain! So it can ponder the horrors of its own existence!

I used this pattern by Less Than Three for the heart. I ended up felting it because I screwed up most of the stitches (I was relatively new to crochet at the time). The result was a bit of a blobby mess, but oh well.

So yeah. This thing lives in my house now (my family hates it). I have yet to reap the full consequences of my hubris.

[eleilinnrallin]

This is a reminder for those who handmake Christmas presents that now is not too early to start. It may in fact be a good time to start if you have a lot to make/your craft takes a long time. You should maybe start it now, whether that's brainstorming or actually doing the crafts!

[gwenthebard]

I feel like something that doesnt get talked about enough is how fast fashion is coming to hobbies as well. Sure, you can sew, knit, and crochet something better than youd buy in store, but good luck finding quality materials

Want a fabric that doesnt fray from being gently caressed? Want yarn thats not 100% plastic and splits if you touch it wrong? Good luck finding that if you dont have a genuinely good crafts store near you.

Go on any thread where people are trying to figure out where to buy fabric. 50% of it is people saying big stores are servicable, online stores work, or the like, and the other 50% are talking about how bad the quality is or how the quality of a website dropped because it was bought out

Were running into a problem where fast fashiob is so integrated into society that even the ability to make your own, comfortable and long lasting, clothes is being threatened by capitalism

[omgitskangel]

“why is no one DIYing their own clothes anymore :(“

*calls crochet wearables ugly* *dedicates whole subreddits to mocking ppls bacttlejackets* *dedicate whole subreddits to mocking beginners* *never shows themselves sewing, crocheting, or knitting only complains about those who don’t* *lumps customizing preexisting clothes with sewing your own pieces from patterns and fabric under “DIY”* *calls punks with crust pants dirty* *is STILL harassing that woman on tiktok for her rust dyed pieces* *thinks just bc there’s no goth bar in their bible belt state and saw some annoying teenagers on tiktok the WHOLE ENTIRE DECADES LONG SUBCULTURE IS DEAD*

[sinensis26]

I love all handmade stuff, but before I started knitting, I always wondered why folks poured so much time and energy into making stuff that looks exacly like what youd buy at a store.

It very quickly hit me: store- bought stuff SUCKS. Handmade stuff RULES.

The kinds of stitches used, the thickness/ quality of yarn, even the dimensions of the item itself are just so shitty and cheap on mass- produced clothing. Once you know what youre looking at, you can see that its made to be worn and disposed of within a year. But that handmade brown sweater? That sucker weighs 3x what a store bought sweater weighs. Its softer, it has better stretch and even with messier seams, its STRONGER. It can survive a trathalon, a hop over a barbed- wire fence, and a minor nuclear explosion.

So hats off to all of the more stubtle fiberworks artists out there, your bulletproof crafts are magnificent.

[kingscythe]

one of the coolest things about being a crafter is seeing an Object and going “🫵 I could make that”

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Child's Sock from Egypt, c.250-350 CE: this colorful sock is nearly 1,700 years old

This sock was discovered during excavations in the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus. It was likely created for a child during the late Roman period, c.250-350 CE.

Similar-looking socks from late antiquity and the early Byzantine period have also been found at several other sites throughout Egypt; these socks often have colorful, striped patterns with divided toes, and they were crafted out of wool using a technique known as nålbinding.

Above: a similar child's sock from Antinoöpolis, c.250-350 CE

The sock depicted above was created during the same period, and it was found in a midden heap (an ancient rubbish pit) in the city of Antinoöpolis. A multispectral imaging analysis of this sock yielded some interesting results back in 2018, as this article explains:

... analysis revealed that the sock contained seven hues of wool yarn woven together in a meticulous, stripy pattern. Just three natural, plant-based dyes—madder roots for red, woad leaves for blue and weld flowers for yellow—were used to create the different color combinations featured on the sock, according to Joanne Dyer, lead author of the study.

In the paper, she and her co-authors explain that the imaging technique also revealed how the colors were mixed to create hues of green, purple and orange: In some cases, fibers of different colors were spun together; in others, individual yarns went through multiple dye baths.

Such intricacy is pretty impressive, considering that the ancient sock is both “tiny” and “fragile."

Given its size and orientation, the researchers believe it may have been worn on a child’s left foot.

Above: another child's sock from Al Fayyum, c.300-500 CE

The ancient Egyptians employed a single-needle looping technique, often referred to as nålbindning, to create their socks. Notably, the approach could be used to separate the big toe and four other toes in the sock—which just may have given life to the ever-controversial socks-and-sandals trend.

Sources & More Info:

Manchester Museum: Child's Sock from Oxyrhynchus

British Museum: Sock from Antinoupolis

Royal Ontario Museum: Sock from Al Fayyum

Smithsonian Magazine: 1,700-Year-Old Sock Spins Yarn About Ancient Egyptian Fashion

The Guardian: Imaging Tool Unravels Secrets of Child's Sock from Ancient Egypt

PLOS ONE Journal: A Multispectral Imaging Approach Integrated into the Study of Late Antique Textiles from Egypt

National Museums Scotland: The Lost Sock

[digi-tally]

idk who needs to read this but you can make things for yourself. Without excuses. People/friends/family are not owed things from you. And don't get me wrong, giving people gifts is one of my favorite things to do but I get so burned out by it.

My dad's favorite question when he sees me working on a new project is "who's it for?" and then looks vaguely disappointed in me when I say it's for myself 9 times out of 10 and then I feel guilty cause I feel like I make too many things for myself.

He is incorrect. Make things for yourself. I love making things for other people but I also love making things for myself, and I don't need to justify the second. Neither do you.