#but buying yarn online is scary

[mildly-magpie]

thinking about getting back into yarncrafting but "vegan" yarns are plastic and animal fiber yarns are often dubiously produced. I've heard aplaca wool is usually produced ethically but it's expensive and I've never felt it before so idk if it will bother my sensory issues too much. I've pet alpacas before and they're nice and soft but I don't know if that translates into being soft in wool form.

[garden-of-violets]

Giorno Giovanna with an s/o who crochets/knits!

Character(s): Giorno Giovanna

Type: Headcanons

A/n: I wrote this because I love crocheting and I recently got back into it after two years. I’ve made a couple hats, and I’m working on a bag ♡ (I don’t know as much about knitting as I do crocheting, so I’m going off of my limited knowledge on knitting!!)

♡︎•♡︎•♡︎•♡︎•♡︎•♡︎•♡︎•♡︎•♡︎•♡︎•♡︎•♡︎•♡︎•♡︎•♡

♡ Giorno, in all honesty, wasn’t that surprised when you’d mentioned that you liked to crochet. It’s an activity known to be calming, and in your line of work, he’s happy to know that you have a calming activity to help you get through it.

♡ He actually doesn’t know much about crochet. He knows it’s similar to knitting, in the sense that you’re using yarn to create, but that’s about all he knows. Knitting and crocheting aren’t things he ever got into (that’s not surprising).

♡ He’s very supportive of it!! He may not know much, but he’s happy to help support your hobby! He thinks it’s very fun and absolutely adores to see all the fun stuff you create!

♡ He started looking into the hobby more after you’d mentioned it to him. He quickly gained a love for crocheted/knit flower bouquets. He thinks they’re quite sweet. He also really likes the small knit animals he sees people online making. (The small plush crocheted ladybugs are his favourite.)

♡ Giorno likes to give gifts. He usually gifts you flowers, jewelry, or small trinkets you’ll like. Although, once he becomes aware of your love for this hobby, you’ll often be gifted some balls of yarn! He’ll start to buy you some yarn he’ll think you like and he’ll pick the prettiest of colours. He will buy you any yarn you want.

♡ You want blue yarn? He’s already got it on his list. You need some fluffier yarn? Don’t worry, he’ll have it for you asap. He won’t hesitate to support your hobby.

♡ (Sometimes he’ll even buy you little books that are full with different kinds of designs and projects for you to try!)

♡ If you ever gift him a project, he’ll be overjoyed. He won’t show much excitement, but you best know he appreciates everything you give him.

♡ If you ever gift him a crocheted/knit flower bouquet, he’ll keep it in a rose-coloured vase on his office desk for him to look at everyday. If you crochet/knit him a hat or some gloves, he’ll wear them whenever it’s appropriate. He absolutely adores anything you give him. (Maybe he’ll even ask you to make him some gloves sometime, it does get a bit chilly in the winter and he’d love something handmade from you!)

♡ Whenever he finds some patterns or projects online that he thinks you’d like, he’ll send them to you to help you come up with ideas for your next project. (You often get sent photos of tiny knit animals and flower themed projects.)

♡ When you start trying to teach him how to knit/crochet, he finds it a bit difficult. Knitting is hard (and truthfully it looks kinda scary) and crocheting is just a bit difficult to figure out. He doesn’t give up that easily though, and it’s not like you would let him anyway.

♡ He tries his best! Maybe one day he’ll be able to gift you a handmade knit/crocheted flower bouquet full of your favourite flowers!

♡ Once he actually got the hang of it, he made you a small teddy bear.

♡ Overall, he’s very supportive of your hobby and loves anything you make for him!

[eaterofpi]

Nintendo Direct 9-14-23 Reaction Post!!

That's right, there's another Nintendo Direct, and I am a bit tired, I wasn't able to get any sleep last night!! (There was a dog taking up my entire bed)

It's starting!!

What's first for today...

Oh!! The Splatoon 3 DLC!! I guessed this right, in a Discord!! I wasn't expecting it to be the starting thing though/.. The feel of this is very different to normal Splats.. Is this the... Octo Subway? The Thing from Splatoon 2, but for Splatoon 3.. It escapes my head right now.. Very much a different tone

OH!! Order.. Like.. The other choice from that Splatfest!! Kinda a smart choice

MINI MARIO

YES YES YES YES MARIO VS DONKEY RETURNS??? THIS WAS LIKE ONE OF MY FAVORITE GAMES.. A REMAKE OF A GAME I REALLY LIKED?? Thank yous Nintedo!! Having to explain the game in the direct... But I wonder if it will still have all that silly music... Woah... Multiplayer... I wonder if it will have the E Reader Levels!! February 16th.. What a nice start..

I've heard of this series before, but after the previous announcement, I already got what I wanted--- Or rather, what I didn't know I wanted

Racing games... It looks like it was lagging a bit in the multiplayer..

A Rythym game--- I know that song.. I think? It feels familar..

AAAAAAAAH OOMFIE 2 JUMPSCARE

Oh! More details on the Mario RPG!! They changed stuff, will people enjoy it? Rematches are always fun!! The iconic Forest Maze Music.. I remember hearing that a lot in the past... Despite not playing the game...

Wait, from the Brawl Trophies... Nintendo really bringing back some dormant franchises.. It's nice to see them return.. I wonder if that other one might eventually return.. that.. I also can't recall the name of right now.. Wait it was just remakes?

The Peach RPG? The Sparkle Theater... New little guys... New designs in a Mario game!! Crownless Peach??

Kirby Peach... I guess this makes a lot of sense for a play, to wear costumes like that! That feels like a Mario Party Minigame.. Is this an RPG? It feels more.. adventure-y?

Showtime???

I can't tell if this is a remake or a new series.. Oh, it looks like a new Entry (Maybe?)

Tomb Raider.. I remember buying a bunch of them on Steam a long time ago... and I never ended up playing a single one.. Oops

Dectective Pikachu 2.. I started my day way too early... Goodman??

THIS GAME?? Trombone Hero.. I thought it was Wii Music 2 for a second.. this game is so silly.. Glad to see it on more platforms.. Wait.. Will there be Nintendo musics??

Some of these headlines are very generic.. Scary... A MOBA Battle Royale... That toneshift was kinda wild.. Contra is back?? Oh! Wayforward helped!!

Famicom Wars? I have no idea what game this could be... It feels weird to not have the normal narrator.. Unicorn Overlord is an odd name.

AAHHHHH Scary.. Luigi's Mansion 2 Dark Moon (very scary) Oh!! They put an "HD" onto the title!! I wonder what they will add!! I watched a let's play of this game way back.. I even was able to do a bit of Download play with a friend back in the day... I wonder if this also means a Polterpup plush rerelease.. Next Summer? That's pretty far off

Nintendo Gallery? Nintendo Muesum?? Nintendo's History is vast.. I would like to eventually see all the cool stuffs.. Amiibos!! Xenoblade Amiibos!! Smash Amiibos are over... OLIMAR SHOWN

F-ZERO?? NOOOOO BATTLE ROYALE??? DIDN'T SOMEONE PREDICT THIS?? I'm also really bad at F-Zero, judging by my current skills on the Switch Online App.. I am glad to see it return in some form.. This feels like... a Monkey Paw case...

A Party too wild... Wait is that just like.. the story of Kirby Epic Yarn?? Okay it has fishing.. awesome.. LEAGUE OF LEGENDS?? SCARY

WARIOWARE SMOOTH MOVES 2, THE FORMS ARE BACK... This game will be awesome.. I really need to make more space for it in my room.. FISHING!! That's quite soon!!

100 Heros.. Like.... Pikmin!!! Sharks.. (Magical Girls)

A Farming Game.. I really should get another one..

Making a Campaign seems pretty cool!!

Fishing!!

The final wave.... Diddy Kong!! FUNKY KONG!! Pauline!! Peachette!! They only showed off one track!!

Sus.... Wait.. New Map?? It's a shame that playing games like this are a bit too stressful for me...

Recaps!! PIKMIN SHOWN!!!

The finale..

PAPER MARIO THOUSAND YEAR DOOR HD... Now people can't complain anymore!!

Wait.. I think I mentioned in a chat that I would play it if they rereleased it...

A pretty nice direct, many games that I may eventually get in the future!!

[claitea]

some thoughts about pokemon violet. spoilers ahead!

there are. quite a few graphical glitches and messes whbejrvhr. sometimes trainers and pokemons eyes get stuck closed for a while, camera clips into the floor during battle, a sunflora i was in battle with and therefore Very Close To moved at a lower frame rate like other faraway entities. hough the homeroom scene..... almost everyone in that room looked so janky.

but tbh? i've been having too much fun to care too much about that specifically. the rest of the game is pretty :)

wish i could stop the minimap from spinning. i can lock the map app to north but not the minimap????

THE FOOD ILLUSTRATIONS ARE SO GOOD I WANT TO EAT THE ICECREAM SO BAD

rip pixel pokemon and item icons though </3 i find them more charming. also the icon for persim berries is too red and its bothering me, persim berries are PINK this is BRIGHT SCARLET

idk how pokemon icons on the minimap work either i'll be running all over the place it indicates and not find the pokemon its showing. i want a charcadet :(

i chose sprigatito but was THIS close to choosing fuecoco because of the first cutscenes. quaxly having to tell fuecoco not to eat the burnt orange whjegjevdj

miraidon my beloved asshole lizard who eats all my sandwiches. i gotta rewatch any and all miraidon scenes with koraidon when i'm done with the game, the first cutscene with the houndoom was SO COOL

PEOPLE WERE RIGHT ARVEN IS THE PROFESSOR'S KID

there were a couple nods to older games! a book in the library talks about someone seeing the stow-on-side mural get broken by a copperajah, another book talks about pewter crunchies, and the meditative seat art installation in artazon are items you could buy in oras as decoration for your secret base. i know every game has callbacks to previous ones but the stow-on-side one caught me offguard because thats a spoiler isnt it?? the other one surprised me too but more becaue Why do i remember this one specific base item. i havent touched oras in years

a library book also said Hydreigon and Volcarona got alt forms like donphan did and i need to see them IMMEDIATELY

as far as i've seen in the library, the pokemon that get those forms are donphan, tyranitar, volcarona, hydreigon. and Delibird. which i find hilarious bc its all these threatening scary pokemon and then. DELIBIRD.

WHY DID MY BELOVED LECHONK EVOLVE INTO AN EMO BOY

so far out of the new pokemon. the only design i dont like is spidops. spiops. i forgot how to spell it. where did my cute little yarn ball go :( maybe its just New Pokemon Doesnt Look Like A Pokemon Yet Syndrome but there is just SOMETHING about spiops's design that doesnt sit right with me

miraidon jumping is a little janky sometimes idk??? also i got stuck in a pond once and it could NOT climb out no matter where i tried. i had to fly out

i already like tera raids a lot more :') i HATED how max pokemon could shield and move multiple times and all that. i dont have online so max raids are damn near IMPOSSIBLE for me to do because the ai sucks That bad. i feel like with the time limit thing and infinite revives i could stand a chance doing it solo. this is just me talking about the early 1-2 star raids though idk how it'll go later on

i did get one odd glitch where my first attack didnt appear to deplete the hp bar, but then a few attacks later it looked like it had hp left but it fainted? my damage just. Didnt Show for some reason while still registering as damage

i think they fixed the overlevelling problem bc i was even getting my ass kicked by wild pokemon sometimes HKWBDJBF. i was cruising through fast like i'd gotten used to in xy to swsh, so i was actually underlevelled a lot. mela almost curbstomped me

THE CAR IS A POKEMON THEY WERE RIGHT ITS AN ACTUAL POKEMON

mela walks like manga emmet lmao

clodsire. thats it thats the bullet point <3

in conclusion i am having a BLAST. i absolutely adore this game so far!! i'm honestly able to overlook anything that bothers me just because i enjoy it a Lot. like of Course i still wish the subpar graphics werent subpar but Who Care look at my clodsire his name is Mousse and i love him

[c-is-for-circinate]

Learning to Knit and Crochet Resources Online

The world’s a strange, scary place right now, y’all, and I can’t imagine what my past several days would’ve looked like if I didn’t have a mountain of yarn and needles to focus on.  Sometimes, when everything is scary, there’s nothing more comforting than soft things in bright colors and the small satisfaction of creating a thing in the world.

But what if you, dear reader, don’t have a stash of yarn and needles?  You’ve never needed to turn to fiber arts in a time of need before!  (Or at least, not in years.)  What if you can’t go outside?

Fear not, friends, this is the post for you!

Step 1: Get some supplies

To begin knitting, you’ll want at least one skein of yarn (I recommend worsted or bulky weight, which is a thicker yarn that’s easier to work with for beginners, in either wool or acrylic) and a set of needles (I recommend somewhere between size 7 and size 11).  I’m less familiar with crochet, but you really can’t go wrong with a good worsted weight yarn, and the internet tells me the recommended hook size for that is I-9 through K-10.

The whole world might seem very far away outside your front door, but plenty of local and small businesses would love to bend over backwards right now getting their products to you to help in your time of need.  And basically the entire yarn community is made up of small businesses, so there are LOTS of options.

Option 1: local yarn stores.  Chances are, if you live anywhere near a major urban area in most countries where it gets cold in the winter (and quite possibly even if you don’t!), there’s an independent yarn and fiber shop near you.  Go to google maps and search ‘yarn store’ to see what pops up.  (Michaels, JoAnn Fabric, and large retailers like that will probably appear too, and they’re not a bad place to start for a beginner in normal times, but I have no idea what their hours or approach to delivery might be and supporting local businesses is so important right now.) If you find one reasonably near you, check out their website or give them a call.  A lot of local yarn stores are taking online or phone orders right now even if they usually don’t.  Many will deliver to your door; others, you may have to come into the shop to pick something up, but you’ll be able to make it a very short trip. Bonus here: If you call up a local yarn store on the phone, they’ll probably be delighted to help you decide exactly what to buy as a beginner.  (They also probably know more about crochet than I do.)  Knitters and crocheters are ridiculously helpful as a community.

Option 2: online yarn retailers.  If you don’t have a local yarn store, or if they can’t deliver/you can’t go in, or if their options are too expensive, or for any other reason, there are also LOTS of places to buy yarn and materials online.  I’ve had a lot of luck with Alpaca Direct, including that time they were out of the color I ordered and an incredibly nice lady called me on the phone that same afternoon to work out other options for my project.  WEBS is also pretty well-known, generally reliable, and often has good deals.  Both of these places, despite doing a lot of online business, are associated with individual brick-and-mortar stores which are closed down for shopping and classes right now, so you can feel good about supporting them too. Outside of the US I’m less familiar with the common retailers, but some work with Google should be able to find you someone who can ship to you relatively easily.  You can also buy direct from manufacturer in many places! As a last resort, Etsy has some beautiful yarn available pretty much all over--since that tends to be all hand-dyed and often small lots, though, it can be more expensive and less what I’d recommend to a beginner.

Step 2: Learn the basics

Youtube has been a godsend to the whole community for learning fiber arts techniques.  There is pretty much no technique you can’t watch demonstrated by half a dozen different people in different ways and languages.  And pause and rewind at will.

Casting on, or getting the yarn onto the needle: video 1; video 2; video 3; written instructions with pictures (note that there are LOTS OF WAYS to do this, and the videos don’t all show the same method--searching on youtube offers tons of other options too)

Knit stitch, the most basic stitch: video 1; video 2; video 3; written instructions with pictures (note that these tutorials are all for English style knitting, which I find easier to teach to beginners.  If you run into confusing videos later when the yarn is being held in the left hand, that’s Continental style--same result, slightly different technique!)

Purl, the other basic stitch: video 1; video 2; video 3; written instructions with pictures

Bonus: How to crochet: video 1; video 2; video 3

Step 3: Ravelry.com

Now that you’ve got some yarn and you know how to hold it, what do you do with it?  Welcome, my friend, to the wonderful world of Ravelry.

Ravelry.com is basically the website for knitting and crochet.  It’s the biggest repository of patterns anywhere online (possibly anywhere in the world? somebody fact-check me on that), and it’s very much a place where fiber artists congregate to share project photos and tips.  It’s free to make an account, and they take very little personal information.  Some things you can do there include:

Find something to make using their fabulous pattern search filters.  For instance, you could find all free downloadable patterns written for one skein of worsted yarn at a beginner difficulty, in both knitting and crochet.

Browse the forums looking for help or chatting with other fiber artists

Keep track of your own yarn stash, your projects, and future projects you might want to knit

Look through pictures and projects made by other people to get ideas

Accidentally spend hours going through patterns and project photos self-soothing by looking at pretty things

...etc

I, and most people I know, mostly use Ravelry as a giant pattern library.  Any time I decide hey, I want to knit a sweater, I can go over to Ravelry and try to find a pattern for a sweater I like.  There are zillions of options, and trust me, as somebody who has written her own knitting patterns--don’t.  (At least not until you’ve been at it for a year or two.)  A good pattern helps you make sure all the stitches you’re trying to make go in the right place to make something cool.  You absolutely don’t have to use one--but it often helps.

Step 4: Just make something!

Crafting is so good for mental health, especially in times like this.  I knit while I’m watching shows, listening to podcasts, or just sitting on the couch.  It gives me something to do with my hands, calms me down, and lets me feel really good about making something that’s my own.

And the knitter community is pretty awesome.  I already know they’re going to fill reblogs of this post with more and better advice that I forgot, as they pass it along.  Come on over and join us.

[purplesurveys]

428

What is the next craft you are going to make? I don’t know how being creative works. Do you go outside every time that it's sunny? God no. It’s sunny 80% of the time in this country and I always look for places with aircon. I’m only happy under the sun if I happen to be at the beach. What's the last thing you purchased with cash? I had a coffee from Starbucks earlier. I didn’t want to spend any more of my money after buying an expensive WWE book last week, but it was SO HOT TODAY and the temperature has made so sluggish that I haven’t touched any of my readings throughout the break. I could only study at a coffee shop so I shelled more of my savings out :( But I finished two chapters of my pol sci book today, so I guess I’m still a winner. In the winter, would you prefer it to be snowy or not snowy? I just want to experience snow, dude. What decade did you grow up in? 2000s.

What was your favorite Backstreet Boys song? I don’t have one. Favorite *N Sync song? I never did form an attachment to 90s boy bands.

Which of those two bands did you like best? Do you learn choreography easily? No. I’m amazingly bad at dancing. I’ve seen myself dance because we had mirrors all over the dance studio in my old high school. I used to be in pain watching myself try to copy my dance teachers. If you had to choose, would you rather be taller or shorter? Taller. Filipinos are really short. Do you feel you can trust your doctor? I don’t have a permanent doctor but I like to think doctors are trustworthy??? What is the theme of this year's wall calendar? I don’t have one; I just use my phone’s. Do you feel like you were just writing 2009 on your school papers? Well, not that far back; 2016 seems like a better comparison. How old will you be in 2033? 35. Do you still have your favorite toy from when you were kid? No. My mom threw out my toys long, long ago. What was the last good book you read? I don’t read a lot these days. Which do you do more: read books, spent time online, or watch television? Definitely spending time online. What do you do the most when you're online? Work, since that’s all I do nowadays. Do you use a sunlamp? I’m not sure I know what that is. I don’t think I use one? Is your 2019 off to a good start? No. How will you decorate for Valentine's Day? It’s passed, but we had dinner in Barcino. Terrible service, and it was my first time having Spanish cuisine. Overall it tasted just like Filipino food and I didn’t feel like it was worth it because it tasted like something my dad could have easily made. But Barcino’s supposed to be fancy and we paid so much for the food lmao. Gab and I were so stressed from their service that we both made a vow to not make a big deal out of Valentine’s anymore. Which foot is bigger, your left or your right? Right. What color is your winter coat? I don’t need one. I’m like, perspiring just from the thought of wearing a really thick and (faux) furry coat :((( Do you have an art journaling Bible? Nope. What's your favorite candy to receive on Halloween? Anything chewy. Do you think you're too old to go trick-or-treating? No. Do you have a bobblehead? No, but we used to have several lying around the house when I was younger. If yes, what does your bobblehead look like? They were girls with cute oufits...that’s all I remember. Have you ever spent your birthday alone? Yes. I was alone throughout my early teens. I think I’ll be alone again this year, which is why I’ve ended up dreading my birthday just for this year. Do you enjoy spending holidays alone (if you've ever done it)? No. It’s terrible. Which holiday is closest to your birthday? Well this time around it’s gonna be on the same day as Easter Sunday, so people are defo gonna pay more attention to Jesus on that day lol. Have you ever had a themed bday party? I don’t think so. My parents just threw elegant birthday parties for me, which I lowkey like better than having a theme. If yes, what was the theme? What is your favorite ride at the fair? Anything that doesn’t go up/down rapidly or spins around–so basically, any of the kiddie rides hahahaha. Were you afraid of heights as a child? Nope. I was afraid of flying cockroaches. Do you think it's stupid when you're dying to have someone pray that you don't feel afraid? (I would want them to pray that I live, personally) I wouldn’t find it stupid especially if they're sincere in their prayer. To be fair, to know you’re dying is fucking scary. Do you enjoy and appreciate life? Or is this something you need to learn? I try to do both. I learn before appreciating. What was on the last mylar balloon you bought? The first and only time I got one was a heart-shaped one for Valentine’s Day 2016. Back then I didn’t know that they were harmful to the environment, but when I learned that, I never bought them again.   Which dollar store is your favorite? No dollar stores. Have you ever made a pom-pom out of yarn? I don’t think I have. Do you prefer to take showers in the morning or at night? NIGHT!!! It feels so much more refreshing. Can you read in the car? Only for a few minutes. What food gives you diarrhea? Anything with lots of cheese or milk. Do you keep a diary with a lock and key, or do you just hope no one will read? This Tumblr is practically a diary with a lock and key. No one I know is aware of this blog. Do you have a friend turned enemy whom you wish were still your friend? If they’ve turned into an enemy, I wouldn’t wish they were my friend anymore. Have you ever had a lead role in a play? HELL NO that’s so not in my character. Do you know how to use imovie? Nah. What does your phone look like? It’s...an iPhone 8? So it’s like all the other iPhones but its back is made of glass. Would you raise your kids differently than your parents raised you? Definitely. What was the best part about college? The chance to reinvent yourself. If you were homeschooled, did you come up with a school mascot? If so, what? I was not homeschooled. Are you really "wild & free?” I wouldn’t consider myself that...also I always found that song to be stupid. Do you wish to be a free spirit? It would be nice, but it’s not something I actively wish for. Where would you go and what would you do if you could do anything? I’d take a trip throughout Southeast Asia and just do local stuff and bond with the locals. Would you ever take a solo road trip? No, I’m too scared of that level of independence haha. Do the mountains fascinate you? Of course they do. What is the most fascinating part of nature? It’s peaceful and yet can kill much of a population in seconds. Probs not the most positive thing to observe, but fascinating (at least to me) nonetheless.

[alagaisia]

I was tagged by @overwhelmsion , so that’s super cool, thanks!

1) Are you named after anyone?:

I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s any cool story behind my name; I think for all of us my mom just had a book of baby names she looked through. My sister’s middle name was almost Ruth, after our great-grandmother on our dad’s side, who was still alive at the time, but my dad said no because his family is Jewish and it’s considered bad luck to name someone after a living relative.

2) When was the last time you cried?:

Not yesterday. Friday night? 

3) Do you have any kids?:

No, and I don’t plan on having any. 

4) Do you use sarcasm?:

All the time. I think we need punctuation to distinguish between different tones of sarcasm online. It would make my life so much easier.

5) What’s the first thing you notice about people?

I don’t know. I think voice, maybe? I think it depends on what is distinctive about the person.

6) What’s your eye color?:

Hazel, but usually more brown than green. Occasionally it looks like my (red) hair and my eyes are the same color, which is neat.

7) Scary movie or happy ending?:

Happy ending all the way. I will not watch horror movies. 

8) Any special talents?:

Oof. What counts as “special”? I really enjoy singing and writing, but I wouldn’t claim to be ridiculously naturally talented at either. 

9) Where were you born?:

Appleton, Wisconsin, USA.

10) What are your hobbies?:

I like to read, though I don’t have much time anymore, and I don’t have as much of the same single-minded focus on it that I had as a kid. I knit sometimes, but I haven’t in about a year, just because I haven’t had any interesting ideas, and I don’t really want to knit a thousand really basic scarves that would pass the time but be ultimately useless. I meant to bring some yarn and stuff back to school from Thanksgiving break, to maybe get back into it, but I forgot. I do play a lot of Minecraft with my friends... 

11) Do you have any pets?:

Two small dogs, Cosmo and Squiggy. I love and miss them. They’re good boys.

12) What sports do you play?:

Hahahahahahahahaha

Actually, I might start working out with some of my friends. I got my mom to buy me sneakers over break and everything. The goal is less “fitness” and more “I want men to be intimidated by me”.

13) How tall are you?

5′4″. Hence the difficulty in intimidating creepy men.

14) Favourite subject in school?:

English, specifically creative writing, and Humanities in general. I’m taking Sociology 101 right now (today was the first day) and it already seems really interesting. There’s going to be a lot of reading, but I’m looking forward to the class discussions.

15) Dream job?:

Oh, god, please don’t ask me that. At least you didn’t ask for a major. Eesh.

I’d like to write/publish books, but the first step would be to write a book, and I haven’t done that. I’m very interested in politics and social justice, but I wouldn’t want to be a politician- I might like to work in an adjacent field, though, maybe trying to influence policy in things like how public schools deal with sexual assault cases. Or doing something to help give resources and safe spaces to queer kids. I don’t know. 

I’ll tag @insertagoodpunhere, @mercutiglo, @jesstheespeon, @hidingamongtheshadows, and @rentedroomofaveragechange

Have fun!

[nyrator]

goddd okay

post solo exchange diary feelings

warning this got super dark/personal real fast and I apologize but mannn

so like

goddamn what a relatable author kabi is

god I wish I had scans of this manga to post and scroll through over and over again, I buy physical whenever I can but always read the digital versions anyway because convenience (also my head gets dizzy from physically reading things apparently, or at least my eyes don’t know how to focus properly)

okay so like

yeah it started off like “oh well yeah haha I’m successful now time to keep going, oh I’ll right an exchange diary”

and boy did it spiral down from there (in a good way)

the fight with her father, the feelings of abandoning her mother... those especially got to me. I’ve grown distant from my mother, but I still feel afraid to abandon her, leaving her behind with her growing dementia and inability to take care of herself, she can hardly walk. But at the same time, for my own happiness, the only thing I can do is leave. And yet, even if I do, the guilt will remain. That part resonated with me so hard and made me want to cry.

and then kabi’s life, writing about her ten years of depression, being a lesbian, her infatuation with her mother, and then having it published and trying to keep it a secret from her family, while also wanting to share it- until it ended up getting delivered to her house after she moved out, and her mother ended up reading it and just being so cold to her- such a familiar cold feeling. The lack of love in her family, the complexity of it all, I can feel it, I can relate to it so hard.

it’s scary to think there’s someone out there, who is suffering just like you are, but can phrase it so beautifully, and yet they continue to suffer and there’s nothing you can do about it

I have to admit this gamejam has brought up my underlying feelings of depression again. It’s something I’ll never be rid of, the scribbling insides of my head begging for suicide every day and every night, intrusive thoughts about returning to the lifestyle of mutilating myself with any object in my vicinity, my eating disorder, my lack of energy to even move at times, and other gruesome things I probably shouldn’t lower your moods with (sorry for getting too detailed here whoops)

yet I still have the mindset of “at least I’m not as bad as I was before, I’ve been worse”

which honestly is true, I have good people in my life, which honestly I admit makes me more fearful for losing them by venting, if solely for the fact that I know I’ll never get completely better, and am afraid of them giving up on me with these kind of relapses

but Kabi reminded me of something

loving myself is the only way I’ll find happiness, even if short-term. I have an extreme self hatred, I’ve noticed my mental nickname for myself is “you piece of shit”, and I’ve noticed any time I get remotely happy about something, or praise about anything, it makes me so estatic and grinny that my inner voice tells me “aaa, I’m such garbage, look at me getting excited for a single comment on this trash”, yet I still bask in the moment in a mixture of self-hating ecstasy 

it’s probably impossible, but I need to keep it in mind

but yes, this depression and Kabi make me want to do something recreational with it- if I’m going to vent about depression, I might as well do it in a format people might enjoy

after the jam is over I might try again to make a serious comic

I have a poll on twitter about it, but even then all the categories bleed together and I have no idea how I’d actually organize it into a coherent structure, but I want to make something. And not about me, but about a fictional character, some idealized version of me probably, some author avatar or something. That Rotten Nyan character I mention every now and then. And the events would be exaggerated but based on my life, without feeling weird or lying or anything since it’s partially fictional, and I feel that it’ll be too tryhard and dark and grim and beyond my capabilities of making, but I still want to at least try.

the problem with trying though is sitting there concentrating and turning these thoughts physical, and trying not to be overwhelmed into a crippling depression where I don’t want to move for hours at a time due to focusing on them and getting sucked away into the abyss with them. At the very least, I can vaguely picture the artstyle in my head, it reminds me of an artist I follow on twitter whos name begins with dorm, that sad yet more detailed deformed-anime look

at the very least I’ve managed to sort of distance myself from it and instead focus on it in terms as a story, but the biggest thing I’m afraid of: hurting people I reference in the story. There are friends I want to talk about, events that happen, but I don’t want to risk hurting my friends with this information (they’ve gone through their own fair share of hardships), but I’d feel rude hiding this story from them too. I think I’d probably just keep it underwraps for a bit and mostly keep it to online friends if it ever happens, though, see if the internet discovers it on its own.

but yes, the gamejam itself

I love the people involved and hanging around them is always a good time, and I really do want to finish this game someday, but man, this game just brings about some kind of irrational guilt in me, why I don’t know, that triggers my depression- but it’s so dear to my heart at the same time. I’ve tried taking breaks from it, for months, years, and I come back, reread my notes, and it still hits me as hard as ever. It’s not like other projects that I can just lose attachment to, something in me tells me this is what I want to make someday, this is the one. Even if it isn’t as a game, just some way to share Yarn and Nyla’s lives with the world.

I don’t know if it’s the feelings of sadness the game gives me, the doubts I have over the game itself, or just doubts in myself in being able to bring it to life, but mannn, it crushes my soul in more ways than one when I try to work on it

I’ve gotten two worlds done-ish-but-not-really, and my mind just isn’t feeling it, it’s not satisfied, and it doesn’t have the energy to polish it up. Backgrounds were always my hardest thing to visualize, and this game always proves it to me- I just can’t create landscapes or environments. I can make concepts, but not a solid physical form. It’s funny, I knew I’d only get three worlds done instead of ten by the end of this, but I didn’t expect the progress to be this painful to just get three done. Still, the jam gives me the most incentive to work on it, even if I don’t submit anything at least I’m working on something in a good environment.

but yeah, this got a lot more dark than I intended whoops

luckily I have good people to talk to about ideas and need to open up more to more people in general and get a better understanding of what I’m doing with this game

also yeah

read Nagata Kabi stuff

she’s great and I love her and wish her the best

[putthison]

I Dropped $100 on Sweater Shavers and Tested Each One So You Don’t Have To

Almost everything nowadays is labeled as a “wardrobe essential” -- Melton wool pea coats, Dainite-soled boots, and even tapestry bombers with white piping running down from the shoulders. In reality, very few things are universally good -- at least outside of what we call a sincere suit -- since people live such different lives nowadays. One of the few exceptions? Sweater shavers. 

If you have a sweater, you need a sweater shaver. That’s because all sweaters pill, a term for the fuzzy little balls that appear around areas of high-friction. Sweaters are made from yarns, and those yarns are made from fibers. When the fibers break, they tangle into each other and form something that looks like a mini-tumbleweed. Whether you buy your knits from high-street shops or luxurious boutiques, all sweaters pill eventually -- the question is just how soon and by how much. And by safely getting rid of those pills, you can turn back the clock on your favorite knits, making them look like they were just bought yesterday. 

For years, we’ve recommended sweater shavers for this. They’re better than sweater stones or combs since they don’t put in new breakages in the yarn. However, with hundreds of options on the market and many online “reviews” looking like paid advertorials, I’ve never been sure on where to direct readers. So, this past week, I spent about $100 on a few shavers, each chosen to represent the best (from what I can tell) at its price point. I tested them this weekend and noted their pros and cons. 

Cheap Generic Models ($5)

You can find hundreds of sellers on eBay for cheaper, more generic sweater shavers. They're super small and grip like a water pistol. Their compact size makes them a great travel accessory, and they're about the best value you can get. Assuming you can get the right one.

The problem with these is that they're not always reliable. In the past, I've bought really cheap ones that almost ate up my knitwear (mine aren’t pictured above because they were thrown away years ago for being pieces of junk). The blades are sometimes dull and not terribly well designed, so loose yarns can get sucked into the machine, pulling the yarns out further. Pretty scary, especially if you have a fancy cashmere knit. If you see one of these $5 shavers, skip it. It’s worth getting something better.

Perfect Solutions Sweater Defuzzer ($20)

I’ve had this one for years, and if the model was still being made, it would be the one I’d recommend. Unfortunately, the company has seemingly gone under, although you can still find their Defuzzer floating around eBay. Like the generic shavers, this is compact and appreciably simple, running on AA batteries and featuring a transparent lint case. The head is small, so you have to give your sweaters a few passes, but that’s the trade-off with these compact designs. 

Just Care’s Lint Remover ($25)

A little larger, Just Care’s shaver fits comfortably in the hand and works on a rechargeable battery. The shaver is simple, with a wider head to sweep down your knits. The downside? I found it had maybe twenty or thirty minutes worth of power before needing to be recharged again. The shaver feels a bit more solid in the hand than Conair’s, but not by much. I also don’t like how you need to keep the power cord somewhere -- just one more part to lose. 

Conair’s Fabric Defuzzer ($12)

Conair’s is one of the most affordable on this list, yet comes with some whizzes and bangs others lack. For one, I like how it has three adjustable settings at the head, which allows you to set how closely the shaver sits on your knit. I still mostly found I use it on the closest setting -- matching the other shavers -- but this could be useful if you want to be extra careful. The shaver is also large and easy to handle, with a transparent and removable case to hold the lint (like most on this list). Helps to know when to dump out the shavings, especially if you have a pile of sweaters to work through. My only complaint is the quality of the build. This feels like a cheap, plastic toy for toddlers.

Steamery’s Pilo Fabric Shaver ($50)

Fancy! Luxury! Design! That’s my impression of Steamery, a Swedish company for garment care products. Their Pilo shaver is carried at Mr. Porter and sells for a notably higher price of $50. So, what do you get? Aesthetics, mainly. Steamery’s Pilo looks like if someone at The Monocle reworked Darth Vader’s helmet, then shrunk it down by a few sizes so you can slip this into your Rimowa suitcase. This not only shaves your sweaters, but also increases your Monocle soft power score and lets you use terms like “global cities” with a straight face.  

Unfortunately, I found the design to be more about aesthetics than function. The shaver does its job admirably, although no better than the Conair or Just Care’s models. It loses points, however, because the round body is a little more awkward to hold, the all-black casing makes it difficult to see when shavings need to be dumped out, and the USB-charger, again, seems like one more part you can lose. Still, it’s damn handsome and the build quality feels a lot more solid than the options above. 

So, what are my suggestions?

Conair is the best pick for most people. The build quality could be better, but the adjustable head and battery operated system give this an edge over Just Care. You also get a bit more reliability than generic shavers. You can find these at select chain stores, such as Walgreens and Target, or online at Amazon. 

If aesthetics are important to you, however, try Steamery’s Pilo. This isn’t the device I would use if I had to go through a stack of sweaters, mainly because it’s awkward to hold, but it’s perfectly fine for normal jobs. I wish this were a bit simpler and had features where it mattered -- a battery operated system instead of USB charger, as well as a head with adjustable height settings -- but those things may not bother you. 

[ruusuhaava]

Best Value Fake Designer Handbags

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[knitcrate]

At KnitCrate, we are always fervently searching for ways to share the love of the fiber arts with as many people as possible, from those who are already avid enthusiasts to those who are just curiously thinking about giving the fiber arts a try but don’t know where to begin. Part of this involves making the fiber arts more accessible to everyone by making it more affordable for everyone.  It also involves being proactive about working with independent dyers and designers and compensating them for their hard work, so that we can bring a truly unique experience to our community.  I strongly believe that introducing more people to hand-dyed natural yarns (and the fiber arts in general) helps everyone in the industry, from Local Yarn Shops to independent designers.

As KnitCrate continues to grow thanks to our amazing customers and community, I believe it has an obligation to be a greater source for good in the industry.  In this letter, I hope to explain how KnitCrate plans to do this. In particular, I would like to talk about how we are working to introduce the fiber arts to a wider audience by making it more affordable for more people, how we support independent dyers through various initiatives we have launched, and how we work with designers to ensure they are compensated fairly for all the work they do.

More accessible to everyone by making it more affordable for everyone

One of the most frequent comments we see from customers and would-be customers wanting to try hand-dyed natural yarns for the first time is their shock at how expensive those yarns can be. For those new to knitting or those venturing away from the big box retailers for the first time, the price of a hand-dyed skein could be a little scary.  And it is not that they do not see the value in all the hard work, effort, and creativity that goes into hand-dyeing the yarn… quite the opposite… they see it, they want it, but they cannot afford it…or they are not familiar enough with hand-dyed yarns to spend the money and give it a shot.

The situation I describe above occurs every day, and it is a disservice to everyone in the industry, especially the customer.  This is someone who won’t physically touch, smell or see hand-dyed natural yarn (at least not as soon as they otherwise would have); they may never venture into a Local Yarn Shop; they may never go on Etsy to search through the shops of various dyers; they may never go to Ravelry and search through the patterns featuring one of their favorite hand-dyed yarns.

What we need is a way of introducing people to hand-dyed natural yarns at a price that is reasonable and not off-putting at first glance.  Because once you get your hands on one of these skeins and start working a project with them… once you do that… there is no going back.  You instantly see what all the excitement was about.  You now realize that $24 per skein is not too expensive.  The Local Yarn Shop you used to drive by on the way to the market is now a place you want to stop in at to see their selection.  You can find a whole new universe of independent dyers on Etsy or on our shop that you want to explore. And you can find even more inspiration in the patterns you are now browsing through on Ravelry.

The new KnitCrate Membership

This is why we have made the decision to launch a new line of KnitCrate yarn available on our site and are also launching a new KnitCrate Monthly Membership on September 1st.   Our intention is not to replace the independently dyed yarns we have traditionally featured, but to complement them.  Having an affordably priced option for our customers will bring more knitters and crocheters into the community, who can then be introduced to the many independent artists we work with (either through our Artisan Crate monthly club or through our online shop).

The KnitCrate membership is a little different from our other monthly clubs, but it is great for those who need more affordable options or as a gateway for those venturing into natural hand-dyed yarns for the first time.  Members pay $24.99 per month and receive a heap of benefits:  you receive a monthly project kit (valued at $58) which includes 2 skeins of hand-dyed yarn, 1 knitting pattern, and 1 crochet pattern from that month’s exclusive KnitCrate yarn and pattern collection, free shipping on that month’s kit ($5 value),  25% off all products in a new members-only section of our website, 25 reward points for each month you are a member, and free video tutorials with tips & tricks paired with that month’s project.

This KnitCrate membership also gives us the opportunity to work with more designers every month.  Each month, we will have a collection of patterns to go with the featured yarn.  Members will receive two patterns out of the collection as part of their kit, but you can also choose to buy another pattern from the collection on the website, as well as purchase more yarn at a discount if the pattern chosen requires more yarn.  With this membership, customers are able to support more designers more frequently than we can afford to do with any of our other monthly clubs.

How we collaborate with designers

This is as good a segue as any to talk about how we collaborate with designers.  Designers are one of the biggest sources of inspiration for our community, and it is important to protect the integrity of their work and ensure they are compensated adequately. We want KnitCrate to be one of the leaders in this regard.  This is why we have developed several programs that designers can choose from if they would like to work with KnitCrate.  I believe transparency in the industry is important, so we have our compensation structure listed openly on the homepage of our website for all to see.

We have multiple programs for designers where KnitCrate pays designers directly, ranging from flat fee exclusive designs to shared royalty structures, but one of the programs we are most excited about is the Designer Marketplace.  Designers can take advantage of our active knitting and crocheting community and sell right on the KnitCrate website via the Marketplace Portal. They can upload any pattern they have designed using any yarn and sell it to our community on the KnitCrate website! Proceeds from any pattern sales done through the Marketplace Portal go 100% to the designers; KnitCrate does not take a cut at all. Designers are able to monetize their hard work by placing their patterns in the KnitCrate community, the KnitCrate community benefits from having a rich library of patterns for inspiration, and we as a business benefit by selling customers the yarn and supplies needed to bring that inspiration to life.

We have a pretty wide variety of programs because we want designers to have options and pick and choose how they decide to participate with us.

Supporting independent dyers

If it weren’t for the interplay between designers and independent dyers there would be no KnitCrate today.  Every month our team collaborates with both dyers and designers to present you with a finished project that until then had only existed as an idea in the minds of its creators.  It was the very genesis of the first KnitCrate monthly crate ever shipped back in 2012.  Since then we have worked with hundreds of independent dyers.

As we grew, indie dyers could gain exposure to an ever-increasing community.  However, our larger sized orders also meant dyers had a larger bill to cover when buying undyed raw yarn, dyes, etc. in preparation for our order.  That could prove untenable, especially for up-and-coming dyers.  Hence, KnitCrate saw an opportunity to go to fight for the dyers.  We worked out special partnerships with select mills to produce a range of high quality, cruelty-free (no mulesing) yarn bases that are ideal for dyeing with natural or acid dyes. We actually offer yarn to KnitCrate featured dyers free of charge! For dyers who opt to dye on one of our bases, KnitCrate ships the undyed yarn to them (we cover shipping to and from), they dye the yarn, ship it back, and we pay the dyers a commission of $4-$5 per skein on average.  That amounts to $15,000 - $20,000 in costs that KnitCrate absorbs for the dyer.  This really gives up-and-coming dyers an equal footing with their more established counterparts.  More importantly, it introduces our community to new exciting dyers and dyeing techniques that they would otherwise be missing out on.

Access to these undyed yarns isn’t limited to indie dyers who collaborate with KnitCrate in one of our monthly crates. We built out a website dedicated to supplying dyers with reasonably priced, ethically sourced undyed yarns so any indie dyer could take advantage of the savings KnitCrate could bring them. In speaking with a lot of dyers we have worked with, it became apparent that their options for sourcing undyed yarns at true wholesale prices were quite limited.  We wanted to do what we could to help fix that.  Therefore, www.dyersupplier.com was born.

We have other programs dedicated to independent dyers, from carrying their yarn on our shop to featuring them in one of our monthly crates.  A complete listing of our programs is available to everyone to see on our home page.

Conclusion

Sometimes at KnitCrate, we do things that seem counter intuitive.  More than a few of our designers were surprised by our decision to let them make 100% of sales through the marketplace.  Some find it a bit weird that we have a link on the top of our site to a Local Yarn Shop Directory when we are an online business (we have only put up a listing of US shops so far… international shops will be up in the near future).  But here is why we do it the way we do.  When designers and indie dyers are put in a position that their odds for success are higher, everyone in the industry wins. If we can get someone interested in hand-dyed yarn by providing an affordable line of KnitCrate yarns and membership club, we are bringing someone into the fold who may otherwise not have partaken in the dialogue. If we can help our customers find a local yarn shop that they may not have known of (or find one when they are traveling), we are helping the independent dyers whose yarn is sold in the shop.  In doing so, we are also helping the Local Yarn Shop.  If more people are aware of what a great resource their local yarn shops are, that means more people are having a dialogue about natural hand-dyed yarn.  That’s more people that may one day be part of our KnitCrate community.  The online world and the offline world can do more than co-exist.  We can actually help each other, and the more one grows, the more the other grows.

In order to be true to our mission of sharing the love of the fiber arts with as many people as possible, it is critical that we help everyone in the industry succeed…. yes… even our competitors (more on that in my next post).

If you have any questions or would like to share your thoughts, please don’t hesitate to email me at rob@knitcrate.com or message me on Ravelry at YarnRob.

[smartwebhostingblog]

More China Tariffs? Why Some Business Owners Say Bring Them On

New Post has been published on https://croopdiseno.com/more-china-tariffs-why-some-business-owners-say-bring-them-on/

More China Tariffs? Why Some Business Owners Say Bring Them On

The escalating trade war between the U.S. and China has many detractors–the loudest among them being the business owners and CEOs who fear the tit-for-tat tariffs will imperil their companies’ competitiveness. Nearly 360 executives are expected to testify by the time the six days of hearings on Capitol Hill wrap up August 27. While the vast majority are planning to argue against a proposed additional 25 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, you’d be wrong to think all businesses are against them.

Some business owners–particularly those whose products are made in the U.S.A.–welcome the effort as they hope it will lead to a renaissance in U.S. manufacturing, bolster job creation, and elevate the American brand worldwide. Inc. spoke to several such owners who, although they won’t be making their case at the hearings, see the tariffs as a win for their industries.  

“Nobody makes anything start to finish anymore, I find that it’s a little scary,” says Laurel Murphy, co-owner of Handknitting.com, a Jackson, Wyoming-based online yarn and knitting supplies store founded in 1996. “There used to be a wool industry in this country, and there is not anymore.” 

Murphy is one of many entrepreneurs who lament the loss of U.S. manufacturing strength, which has indeed plunged. By way of example: manufacturing jobs numbered 11.5 million in 2009, down from 17 million a decade earlier, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The loss follows the uptick in the U.S.-China trade deficit, which ballooned to $375 billion in 2017 from $83 billion in 2001.

To be sure, many of these jobs were not so much lost but rather moved from manufacturing to other industries such as construction and commerce, explains Brad DeLong, an economics professor from the University of California, in this thoroughly illustrative piece from May 2017. 

Even so, recent reports suggest that the Trump administration’s strategy may achieve its goal. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg reckon the ongoing trade battle will effectively reduce China’s economic growth–albeit only by an expected 0.2 percentage point this year and 0.3 percentage point in 2019. The most populous nation’s economy, before the tariffs, was on track to grow 6.6 percent this year and 6.3 percent in 2019. The trade war also will slow the U.S. economy, which last quarter’s data had put on track to grow 4.1 percent this year. Economists peg next year’s growth at less than half that rate. 

Greg Owens, the co-founder and CEO of Sherrill Manufacturing is fine with the short-term ding to the American economy if it means China will cease unfair trade practices like devaluing its currency to keep prices artificially low or subsidizing certain industries. “What [the administration is] trying to do is force China to change its behavior, [and] they’re using tariffs to get them to the negotiation table,” says Owens whose Sherrill, New York–based company makes Liberty Tabletop, the last American-made flatware brand. (It’s worth noting that the U.S. also awards subsidies to American companies in various industries.)

Similarly, Larry Homsher, co-owner of Llads Ventures, a Quarryville, Pennsylvania-based business that buys and sells tire casings for trucks, thinks the trade dispute will be a win for the U.S. Today, he says, people choose to buy new “cheap Chinese tires” rather than retreaded, or repaired, ones like the kind his clients sell. That, he adds, reduces opportunities for his buyers. One of his customers, a Virginia-based company that repairs used tires, has seen a 50 percent drop in sales in the last year, Homsher says, from 9,000 retreaded tires per month to about 5,000.

The trade tactics follow Trump’s other so-called business-improvement measures, such as the massive tax cuts passed earlier this year and a bid to reduce regulations curbing coal production in the U.S. Homsher says that Llads Ventures, which he runs with his two brothers, is experiencing its best epoch since their father started the business in 1948. While it is true that some customers are suffering, Homsher says he managed to expand its customer pool in part thanks to President Trump re-igniting the coal industry in West Virginia. The company recently added four new hires, growing the team to 21 employees, as a result of strong sales.

As for the critique that tariffs will cause American consumers to shell out more for everything furniture to smartphones, Handknitting.com’s Murphy, for one, is unmoved. “If the tariffs will encourage more people in this country to participate in the economy and [produce] things, then I think it’s a good thing in the overall long-term view.”

[tacituskilgores]

i was tagged by @reluming and i need any and all excuses to procrastinate studying so here we go~

Rules: complete the survey and say who tagged you in the beginning. when you’re finished, tag people to do this survey. have fun and enjoy!

1: Are you named after someone? nope. my brother got my grandad’s middle name, but my parents couldn’t find a ‘family’ name that went with nicole (which they weren’t going to budge from) so both my names are aaall mine.

2: When was the last time you cried? honestly i don’t even remember and that’s probably for the best.

3: Do you like your handwriting? yeah, a lot. it’s a printing-cursive hybrid and it’s very swoopy and fun to write in.

4: What is your favourite lunch meat? ick, nast. i don’t really like cold cuts but if i had to, i’d pick turkey. i’d rather have actual turkey breast in my sammich, tho.

5: Do you have kids? i’m the last person who should be having children, so thankfully no. just two kittybabies.

6: If you were another person, would you be friends with you? honestly probably not. i mean, maybe. but i know i come off pretty standoffish at first (in person; online is a different story), so it would depend if i was willing to stick it out past that. 

7: Do you use sarcasm? enh, sparingly.

8: Do you still have your tonsils? yes.

9: Would you bungee jump? “i don’t know how else to say this except no. i suppose there’s fuck no. or, fuck you…”

10: What is your favourite kind of cereal? i don’t really eat cereal much anymore. but if i ever buy it, i get either frosted mini wheats or apple cinnamon cheerios. also i haven’t had this in ages, but cornflakes with milk & lyle’s golden syrup is 💣

11: Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? all of my shoes are either some form of boot or like, slip-ons/flats, so no. 

12: Do you think you’re a strong person? it depends on the day.

13: What is your favourite ice cream? whiskey hazelnut from earnest ice cream (local stuff). there’s so much whiskey in it, it smells like a 2-oz pour the moment you unscrew the lid. heaven. otherwise i like any variation of mint chocolate chip or coffee.

14: What is the first thing you notice about people? outfit. hair. and weirdly, eyebrows.

15: What is the least favourite physical thing you like about yourself? the bangs i got done a few months ago that i now super regret. i always think they’re going to be awesome & cute, then i remember how much i hate having them after the first 12 hours.

16: What colour pants and shoes are you wearing now? black shorts and fuzzy slippers.

17: What are you listening to right now? of monsters and men, i of the storm

18: If you were a crayon, what color would you be? i’d like to be a nice yellow.

19: Favourite smell? lavender. vancouver in the rain. coffee. my cat’s tummy.

20: Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? the owner of a yarn store who told me that my yarn delivery was ready to pick up

21: Favorite sport to watch? basketball, and that’s it.

22: Hair color? hmm right now it’s kind of auburn-y.

23: Eye color? green.

24: Do you wear contacts? eugh thank baby jesus i don’t. i got glasses in november and wear those almost all the time now, but you’ll never get me into a pair of contacts.

25: Favourite food to eat? all of it.

26: Scary movies or comedy? probably comedy because i’m a huge wuss but if it’s a psychological horror/thriller, i might be down. i always have to read the plot first so i know what i’m getting into. gore & jump scares can gtfo. 

27: Last movie you watched? the age of shadows. it’s a korean movie set in the 20s about resistance fighters trying to smuggle explosives into seoul from shanghai to oust the japanese occupation. it was amazing.

28: What color of shirt are you wearing? black

29: Summer or winter? winter, but not the winter we’ve had this year. i like the winters where it rains all day every day, none of this snow business.

30: Hugs or kisses? this is such a weird question. i’m so, whynotboth.gif over this question. it depends who the giver/recipient is, too.

31: What book are you currently reading? labyrinth lost by zoraida cordova. also the canadian securities course volume 2 but that’s for my work certification and it’s also the reason why i’m procrastinating by filling this out instead of studying 👍

32: Who do you miss right now? my parents i guess. it’s been two weeks since i last saw my mom and a month for my dad. they both only live like 45 minutes away, but: life. being an adult is weird.

33: What is on your mouse pad? see, this question is proof that this survey was written like 10-15 years ago and is therefore a relic of the email survey chain phenomenon. who still uses a mouse pad?

34: What is the last TV program you watched? this really cool one from iceland called trapped, which just got added to netflix here. only watched one episode so far but it was a ride.

35: What is the best sound? the little chirps my one cat makes at me and only me.

36: Rolling Stones or The Beatles? enh. neither. but i do like here comes the sun and strawberry fields forever which is two songs more than i like of the rolling stones, so i guess the beatles win.

37: What is the furthest you have ever travelled? it would probably be mali. i think it’s like 10,000km away. maybe latvia but probably not quite the furthest.

38: Do you have a special talent? not in the slightest.

39: Where were you born? milton, ontario.

i tag my usual suspects @commanderruthernerd, @rangerous, @jerkuleshansen, @agrayjedi and anyone else who needs a way to kill an hour on a saturday afternoon!

[unifiedsocialblog]

How to Use Social Media for Small Business: 11 Simple Tips

Getting started with social media can feel overwhelming for small businesses. But you don’t need to rack up millions of followers or have a slick brand campaign to make effective use of these budget-friendly tools.

Social media is one of the best ways to connect with fans and potential customers. If you don’t have a presence on the main networks, you’re missing out on an audience that’s ready and willing to connect with your brand.

Using social media for small business doesn’t have to be scary or expensive. Using these 11 simple social media marketing tips, businesses of any size can reach new markets, build awareness, and drive sales.

Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.

11 essential social media tips for small business

1. Start with a plan

Every good business strategy starts with a good plan. Social media marketing for small business is no different. Since it’s so easy to use and you can get started with organic posts for free, it might be tempting to dive in and just start posting.

But without a plan, you have no way of knowing what you’re trying to achieve with your social media posts, and no way to measure whether you get there. Taking the time to create a social media plan right upfront will ensure that all your social efforts support specific business goals.

As we outline in our guide to creating a social media marketing plan, you need to:

Set social media goals and objectives: Create goals that follow the SMART framework—they should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Base your goals on metrics that will have a real impact on your business, like acquiring customers or raising your conversions rate, rather than simply racking up likes.

Research the competition: What is your competition up to on social media? While you don’t want to copy them, learning from what others have done is a great way to reduce your learning curve. A competitive analysis and some social listening strategies can give you insight into what’s working and what’s not for other businesses like yours.

Conduct a social media audit: If you’re already using social media, now’s the time to take a step back and evaluate what you’ve done so far. As part of your audit, you’ll also look for impostor accounts that may be stealing your online thunder. We’ve got a full social media audit template to walk you through the process.

Find inspiration: You’ve had a look at what your competitors are doing online, but what about other businesses? Take inspiration from the success of small business in all industries. Where can you find these success stories? Head to the business section of most social networks and you’ll find useful case studies. It’s also a great idea to ask existing followers what they want to see more of, then give them exactly what they ask for.

Create a social media calendar: A social media calendar helps you post the right content to the right social channels at the right time. It should include a plan for your content mix. Try starting with the 80-20 rule: Use 80 percent of your content to inform, educate, or entertain your audience and 20 percent to promote your brand or sell your products.

2. Decide which platforms are right for you

Don’t make assumptions about where your audience spends their time online. Your instinct might tell you that you should skip Facebook and focus on Instagram and Snapchat if you’re targeting millennials, but the data shows that 82 percent of millennials still use Facebook.

We’ve compiled demographics information for all of the major social networks that can help you gauge where your audience spends their time online.

Keep in mind that you can use different social channels to reach different audiences, or to meet different business goals.

And remember that these demographics are just an overview. It’s important to understand how to reach your specific audience. In order to figure that out, you’ll need to make sure that you really…

3. Know your audience

Using social media for small business let you micro-target your audience—but first you need to understand who your audience is. By compiling data on your current customers and then digging deeper with social media analytics, you can develop a solid picture of who’s buying from you and who’s already interacting with you online. Then you can revisit your social media plan to include ways to reach more people just like them.

For example, Jimmy Beans Wool clearly understood its core market was crafty knitters and crocheters across the United States and Canada. But when the company first started, it had limited access to this huge group. The company had an email subscription list of dedicated fans, but that was not a large enough audience to sustain and grow the company.

When Jimmy Beans launched a first-of-its-kind subscription service for yarn samples and supply kits, they used a Facebook lookalike audience to reach people who shared the same characteristics as their existing dedicated fans. The ads brought in 1,000 subscribers in 36 hours—such a massive response that Jimmy Beans had to pause the ad for a few days so they could catch up with the orders. That’s a sure sign that the company understood its audience well and created an offer that spoke directly to their wants and needs.

Using social media marketing, this small yarn shop has grown into a multi-million-dollar business.

4. Build relationships

The unique benefit of social media compared to other marketing channels is that it allows you to talk directly to customers and followers. You can build relationships over time, rather than asking for a sale right upfront. That’s one reason why 93 percent of people who follow small- and medium-sized business on Twitter plan to purchase from the SMBs they follow, according to a report from Twitter and Research Now.

When people engage with your organic content or ads, you can jump in and reply, helping to build trust and form the early stages of a rewarding customer relationship—like SkinnyMint did here:

Facebook Groups are another great way to build community and establish relationships and brand loyalty. Sticking with SkinnyMint, they have a group in which women can show off their weight loss and support each other. The SkinnyMintBabes group has more than 3,300 members who act as brand champions for the product just by showing what they’ve achieved.

Using social channels, you can also build connections and relationships with other entrepreneurs and influencers in your niche. Think your business is too small to work with influencers? Consider that microinfluencers (starting with 10,000 followers) can be incredibly effective for establishing brand trust, and they are often not out of budget range for smaller brands.

5. Expand your audience

Once you have dominated your original market niche, you can use social tools to reach out to new audiences.

For example, the nutritional supplements company GoSupps started as a small business in the United Arab Emirates. Its original audience was primarily made up of bodybuilders. In order to grow the business, GoSupps needed to expand its audience to a more general sports and fitness demographic.

Using Facebook targeting options, the company reached out to new potential customers who were interested in health and fitness. The campaign resulted in a four times return on ad spend, and GoSupps has grown its Facebook Page to nearly 97,000 fans.

While the company still has a strong focus on its original bodybuilder audience, it also posts social content that has broader appeal.

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Studies show that following a diet high in calcium is associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.know what's…

Posted by GoSupps.com on Thursday, November 9, 2017

You can also use social media to drive new customers to your local business. For example, Hootsuite geo-search streams can help you monitor and respond to local conversations about your business, and build relationships with other local businesses in your area.

6. Share compelling visuals whenever you can

People have come to expect social posts to include a visual component. Twitter’s internal data, for example, shows that people are three times more likely to engage with Tweets that have visual elements like a video, photo, infographic, or GIF.

Social images drive real-world action, too. More than half of millennials have made travel plans or visited a restaurant based on an image or video a friend shared on social.

Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat, in particular, are visual-first networks. If your content doesn’t look good, no one will stop scrolling to read what you have to say.

The Peach Truck has a business that’s practically made for Instagram. They sell fresh Georgia peaches across the United States, and all those gorgeous peaches are perfect for sharing in social posts. They’ve got a beautiful feed on Instagram and they’re making great use of Pinterest, too.

View this post on Instagram

Who else is immediately craving all their peach treats they canned this summer on the first chilly day of fall? ???? @theurbancanningco

A post shared by The Peach Truck (@thepeachtruck) on Oct 11, 2018 at 7:22am PDT

Social media was a critical component of The Peach Truck’s early growth. They started out literally selling their peaches from the back of a truck, and they used social ads to get the word out about where they would be each week. More than half of the people who came out to buy their peaches heard about the company on Facebook.

Even if you’re not selling beautiful fruit, it’s important to use great imagery in your social posts to increase engagement. For service businesses in particular, this can be a bit of a challenge. But every business can tell its story through photos and videos. Maybe you can showcase your company culture with images from inside your office.

We're working hard this week, can you tell? Happy (almost) Friday, everyone! #hootsuitelife #hootdogs ????: @milosraonicthedog pic.twitter.com/F8Nvmn4tCv

— Hootsuite Careers (@HootsuiteLife) October 19, 2018

Or maybe you can use photos of your customers to highlight how they use your service. Square does this really well, highlighting customer success and creating a warm and fuzzy feeling about what is at heart a pretty boring (though important) product.

Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.

Get the free guide right now!

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Yassin’s Falafel House in Knoxville has been recognized by Reader’s Digest as the “Nicest Place in America.” Congratulations, Yassin. It's an honor to be part of your incredible journey. ????

A post shared by Square (@square) on Oct 11, 2018 at 10:11am PDT

Another option is to use stock photos. There are plenty of free, high-quality photos online that you can legitimately use in your social posts. We’ve compiled a list of 21 free stock photo sites you can use to find images for your posts. Just make sure you stick to using appropriately licenced stock photography (like you’ll find on the sites in our list), since using random images you find online is definitely not okay and can get you in some serious trouble.

If it’s GIFs you’re looking for, check out Giphy.

7. Focus on quality over quantity

The sheer number of social media marketing options for small business might seem overwhelming—but you don’t need to do it all. It’s much more important to create quality content on a couple of key channels where you can really connect with your audience than it is to have a presence on every single social network.

Above all, be sure that your social posts offer value. If all you do is pitch and sell, there’s very little motivation for people to follow you. Remember, social marketing is all about building relationships. Be human. Be honest. Provide great content.

This is important, and you can’t fake it. According to a survey from Stackla, 86 percent of consumers say authenticity influences which brands they like and support.

You can’t do it all, and there’s no reason to try. Reach out to your audience in the places where they’re already spending time online. Focus on using one or two social channels really well, at least to start. Once you’ve got those mastered, you can build from what you’ve learned and expand your efforts.

8. Use the right tools

The secret to effective social media use is to take advantage of tools that automate or simplify much of the work. There are loads of tools to help boost your productivity so you can take make great use of social media marketing for your small business without having a full-scale social media team.

Engagement management: Social media is not a broadcasting system—it’s a way to engage with customers and fans. Social media management tools like Hootsuite can help you centralize all mentions and messages directed at your company in one dashboard so you can respond and engage without having to log into each of your individual social media accounts.

Analytics: We linked to information about analytics for all of the social networks above, but getting all of that information in one place can help you get a better picture of your social efforts overall. Brandwatch allows you to create in-depth reports, while Hootsuite Insights provides a great overview of how well you’re capturing the conversation in your niche.

Graphics: If you’re having trouble creating eye-catching for your posts, turn to tools that will help get the job done. VSCO, Piktochart and Canva are some of our favorites. You can find more photo-editing tools in our post on how to edit Instagram photos.

Content curation: It can be a struggle for small businesses to come up with new content to share every day. Content curation—the art of sharing quality posts from others (with credit, of course) can be a great way to provide value for your followers and keep them engaged. Tools like BuzzSumo and Pocket can help you find and organize content to share. You can find more content curation tools in our beginner’s guide to content curation.

9. Monitor and respond to all social media conversations around your business

We’ve already talked about the importance of responding to people who post comments or questions on your social properties. But there’s more to social engagement than that.

You need to be aware of the conversations that are happening about your business elsewhere online and respond where appropriate. This is known as social listening, and we’ve created a whole guide on how to use social listening for your business.

10. Schedule your content to free up more time for engagement

We talked about creating a social content calendar way back at the beginning of this post. Once you have that calendar in place, you can create your social posts in advance and use scheduling tools to post them automatically at the right time.

This allows you to dedicate one block of time per day or per week to creating your social content, rather than having it become an activity that takes you away from other tasks throughout the day.

11. Track and refine your performance

As you implement your social strategy, it’s important to keep track of what works and what doesn’t so you can fine-tune your efforts and improve your results. All of the analytics tools mentioned above give you a great picture of your social efforts and can help you track whichever metrics matter the most to you.

Once you have a baseline picture of how your strategy is working, it’s time to start looking for ways to get even better results. Using A/B testing, you can make small changes to your strategy that boost your success over time.

No matter how small your business, social tools can help you better connect with your audience, reach new potential customers, and increase awareness of your brand. If the possibilities seem overwhelming, start small. Remember: you don’t need to do it all. Take a focused approach—start small with one or two key networks and build your social media marketing efforts over time.

Social media for small business is easy with Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you can schedule messages, engage your audience, and monitor relevant conversations across multiple social networks. Try it free today.

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The post How to Use Social Media for Small Business: 11 Simple Tips appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management.

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[gethealthy18-blog]

26 Non-Candy Halloween Treats Kids Will Love

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26 Non-Candy Halloween Treats Kids Will Love

Halloween and I have a complicated relationship, at least since I became a mom. Take trick-or-treating, for instance. It’s a fun tradition, but there certainly aren’t too many healthy Halloween treats (or even close to it). Easter and a few other holidays require some similar soul-searching.

So what’s a health-conscious mom to do? As I see it, I have a couple of options:

Option #1: Ignore Halloween Completely

Yep … I did this!

I’ll admit it: when my kids were all really young, I just pretended Halloween didn’t exist. We didn’t do the trick or treating thing or the costume thing. In fact, we usually just turned out the lights and went to bed early on trick-or-treating night.

I just didn’t like the idea of already grumpy toddlers staying up late to go to strangers’ houses and ask for candy packed with food dyes.

As my kids get older and want to dress up, trick-or-treating is harder to avoid. On the one hand, I completely understand the fun tradition of wearing a costume and spending time with friends. On the other, I don’t love the idea of them getting bags upon bags of candy (that will make them crazy and rot their teeth out).

Since I’ve learned a thing or two about balance and moderation over the years, we’ve moved on (a little reluctantly) from this option.

Option #2: The Candy Fairy

Opinions differ on whether or not receiving a mountain of candy in one night provides a natural opportunity to learn self-control. I’m all for kids having these life lessons, but I’m a big believer in giving kids choices within certain boundaries set by the parent. (Hence my love for Montessori.)

The Candy Fairy (or Switch Witch, take your choice) visits our house after trick-or-treating and the kids don’t seem to mind a bit. We switch out the majority of the candy for a fun grab bag of treats. Since they come from our home, this also gives me the chance to throw some tasty edibles from better sources.

Option #3: Offer Healthy Halloween Treats

I know, I know … handing out a treat other than name-brand candy is a surefire way to get your house rolled. I promise, I’m not suggesting handing the kids an apple or a carton of bone broth.

Still, since childhood obesity rates are around 17% in the U.S. (and thankfully holding steady for the last few years), wouldn’t less candy given to kids be a positive change?

In fact, there plenty of reasons to consider giving out non-candy treats:

Food Allergies – Food allergies are on the rise and many popular types of candy contain peanuts and other allergens. I know quite a few moms who can’t let their kids trick or treat because of potential peanut exposure. (Proof this is a real trend: The Teal Pumpkin Project.)

Too Much Sugar – With high rates of obesity and other health problems, especially among youth, I can’t in good conscience hand out tons of sugary candy. The 80/20 rule is great and there may be a time and a place for treats. The problem is that time seems to be all the time. And the place seems to be everywhere. Kids get candy at the bank, the doctor, school, and almost everywhere they go. Do they really need bags of it?!

Dye Sensitivities – Many kids are sensitive to food dyes and it is tough to avoid them in most types of candy.

Orthodontics – Candy and sugary snacks aren’t good for teeth and can stick to braces and other mouthpieces.

Easier on Parents – When you give out non-candy Halloween treats, you save parents the trouble of checking for anything harmful in the candy.

True, non-candy treats may not make your house the most popular stop in the neighborhood, but there are some really fun alternatives to candy that are definitely kid-approved. And all the other families who are trying to limit sugar or who are sensitive to food dyes will thank you!

Ideas for Non-Candy Halloween Treats (Kids Actually Like)

These are the top healthy Halloween treats I keep in my stash. Bonus: If you have some leftover, most of these will keep until next year!

1. Glider Airplanes

Surprisingly, mini airplanes are inexpensive and a great alternative to candy. My brother loved these when we were little and would have taken one of these over candy any day!

2. Organic Juice Boxes

A consumable Halloween treat that is practical. After walking around the neighborhood, kids may be thirsty. It still has sugar and isn’t an everyday thing for us, but it makes a great treat.

3. Natural Fruit Leather

In my opinion these taste way better than artificially flavored fruit candies! Buy them in bulk for the best price. I’ve seen them at Costco for a good price, or they’re available from Thrive Market or Amazon for a good price.

4. Bouncy Balls

My kids love bouncy balls and we don’t usually have them around the house because of all. the. bouncing. Grab a pack of 100 for cheaper than a big bag of candy and call it a day! They even make creepy eyeball bouncy balls!

5. Local Honey Sticks

My oldest son brought home a bunch of these from a beekeepers’ meeting one time and they were an instant hit with his siblings. Ideally find some from a local beekeeper, or order online. These are still a sweet treat, but the beneficial properties in honey make it a healthier alternative to candy.

6. Stamps

My littles spend hours stamping pictures on paper and they gave me the idea for this candy alternative. Stamps are also cheaper than candy when you get them in bulk.

7. Apple Cider Packets

I’m hoping it will cool down by Halloween, and if it does, kids will love something to warm them up after walking around. Even better, this brand uses pretty decent ingredients!

8. Carabiners

A novel and practical kid favorite! Carabiners top the list of practical gifts that can be reused, and as a bonus… they are plastic free!

9. Mini-Flashlights

A practical idea for kids walking around after dark! Keychain flashlights are fun for kids and a good candy alternative if you don’t live in a busy neighborhood. Order them in bulk for a good price.

10. Pumpkin Oranges

Feeling crafty? Get some organic oranges and use a natural marker to draw some pumpkin faces on the peel. This is probably best for a group of friends or close-knit neighborhood where people trust an unwrapped offering.

11. Organic Candy

If you just can’t fathom the idea of giving out something besides candy, opt for a better kind of candy. This brand of organic lollipops is dye-free and contains vitamin C.

12. Fake Mustaches

Kids love these hilarious fake mustaches. I brought a few packs of fake mustaches to a costume party for adults once and the next morning we woke up and found all of the kids in mustaches too! For a holiday that requires a costume, these are fun to give out!

13. Stickers

I have to say, kids have ruined stickers for me. They seem to think it’s a great idea to plaster stickers on any surface to make it more festive. (There is still sticker residue on their bunk beds to prove it.) Since Halloween is about fun for the kids though, I’ll be a sucker and order 1000 of them really inexpensively for treats to give out.

14. Bubbles

Bubbles are a fun activity that every kid loves. My children will play with these for hours a time!

15. Mini Notebooks

My daughters keep these mini notebooks in their mini purses so they can draw and take notes.

16. LED Light Up Rings

Forget Ring Pops! These rings light up in crazy colors and are a fun way keep kids safe in the dark.

17. Skeleton Bone Pens

Possibly the coolest item on this list! These bone-shaped pens are really cool and practical too!

18. Wikki Sticks

A great inexpensive Halloween treat to give out that stimulates creativity. Wikki Sticks are made from yarn and natural wax and are a mess-free creative way for kids to draw and build pictures.

19. Lego People

Want to be the coolest house on the block? Give out little Lego compatible figures!

20. Glow Bracelets

I don’t usually get glow sticks because of the plastic, but I’ll pull them out as a special treat or candy alternative. Glow bracelets are the most practical option because they also make kids easier to see in the dark while out trick or treating! I’ve never seen a kid leave disappointed when receiving a glow bracelet instead of candy.

21. Puzzle Balls

The downside? They are plastic. The upside? Puzzle balls are a reusable treat that encourages critical thinking.

22. Fancy Crayon Pens

Practical but still cool. These crayon pens have multiple tips and encourage creativity.

23. Slap Bracelets

Slap bracelets were all the rage when I was a kid. Maybe they are outdated, or maybe, like many poor fashion trends of decades past, it’s time for them to come back!

24. Mini Play Dough

We usually make our own play dough, but pre-made mini play dough containers are a good alternative to candy!

25. Spooky Spider Rings

Another plastic toy, but when store-bought candy is at stake I’ll compromise. This kid pleaser adds to the spooky fun. Warning: they’re as bad as Legos … inevitably I end up stepping on them in bare feet around the house for months after.

26. Punch Balloons

I remember punching these with great glee as a kid (probably in the direction of my brother’s face). This perennial party favor comes in Halloween-themed colors and encourages kids to be active and have fun!

If You’re Going to Hand Out Candy…

Opt for pre-packaged treats from reputable companies who use organic or natural ingredients with few to no additives. These are my favorite healthier candy “compromises” since their ingredient lists are a lot less… scary!

What’s your policy on candy on Halloween? Which healthy Halloween treats would you like to see your kids bring home?

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/128061/healthy-halloween-treats/

[thegloober]

The Best Developmental Toy For Kids Isn’t What You Think

Shopping for toys can be overwhelming. There are STEM sets and Surprise toys, coding tools and crafting kits, interactive pets and Augmented Reality apps. It’s hard to know what toys be fun for your kids, let alone what might actually help them develop worthwhile skills. What are some must haves? What should be avoided? For those answers we turned to Alexandra Lange. The author of The Design of Childhood: How The Material World Shapes Independent Kids, Lange is an architecture critic for Curb, 2014 Loeb Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Art and Design, and an all-around design expert in play as well as what toys help build better kids. We spoke to her about the state of the toy industry, what parents should be sure to add to their kids’ collection, and why nothing beats a good old set of building blocks. 

Why is it important for parents to be thoughtful about the toys they buy their kids?

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The first way that children learn is through their hands and through manipulating objects. That’s why the first play sets that most kids get are building blocks. Educators and parents have understood from the end of the 18th century through today that there are a number of cognitive connections that can be made through manipulating blocks. The psychologist, Piaget, talks about ‘object permanence,’ which is a stage of cognitive development where kids understand that if you put a block underneath a piece of fabric, the object is still there, even though they can’t see it.

Building blocks also teach a number of other skills, too. 

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There are larger concepts like gravity, which kids learn by stacking things up, and size, like physically comparing two blocks and seeing that one is bigger than the other. Kids can figure out stability: put the bigger block on the bottom, and the smaller block on top. Going forward, as kids get older, kids learn to share blocks with other kids. Blocks are the first thing a kid can grasp and they become an entry to Lego sets and the larger building blocks, like the Imagination Playground blocks. They are a lifetime toy.

What do you think about play sets which constrain kids to a certain end goal? For instance, the Lego Millennium Falcon set compared to those which are more like building blocks, which is play with no specific end result?

Lego is an interesting case. You can still build in an open way with Lego. They sell those Lego studio bricks, which is a box full of white bricks that come with no instructions. In The Design of Childhood, I actually write about how unconstrained Lego play has become the province of artists rather than children. A contemporary artist, Olafur Eliasson, has a piece called “The Collectivity Project,” where he sets up bins and bins of white legos and basically invites everyone to play with them. It was a really beautiful thing. But it also made me a little sad.

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Why sad?

Lego is not packaged in that open-ended way now. It tends to be packaged as branded sets and single use sets. Parents and children have to overcome that sense of constraint. However, I do think that a lot of children end up building freely. I have to say that I struggled with it as a kid; I’m a bit of a completist. My son is the same way. We love to build the sets. I think it’s a positive thing. It’s about following directions, building the set, and accomplishing a task over time. That is a really different form of play than open-ended play, though.

What are your thoughts about STEM and coding toys that are so in-demand right now? 

I don’t really think they’re necessary. I especially don’t really think they’re necessary for three year olds. They exist — there’s a whole set of toys that basically look like little wooden blocks and they’re intended to teach your kids to code. That is not what three-year-olds need to focus on. Three-year-olds need to think about building, space, gravity, and the basics of life. They do not need to think about coding yet.

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Why not?

It’s not going to set them up to be billionaires. It’s just not. The idea that I think that is embedded in these toys, that I hate, is that playing with blocks isn’t good enough anymore. Playing with blocks is always going to be good enough. We’re not going to leave the physical world behind. Children, more than anyone else, need to experience the physical world to grow their minds and bodies.

Are you saying that you disagree with coding toys in general?

It’s perfectly fine for older kids to learn how to code. My son goes to public school, and in third or fourth grade they were introduced to Scratch and Scratch Jr. Those are free online programs developed by the MIT Idealab, and those are, in fact, block-based early coding programs that are on screen. You snap together Lego-like pieces to build command sequences to do simple animation. That’s free. Kids can do it at a pretty young age. It doesn’t require all of this parental investment and it doesn’t necessarily require a physical toy.

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So for you, coding toys are fine as long as it’s not toddlers who are playing with them.

Some of the older connected toys, like the Lego Mindstorm, have an online component and are part of the larger Lego universe. Those are great. Kids can code so they can move a Lego spider around the room. That’s part of a larger system aimed at older children. Those are kids that have already had a chance to play with building blocks, have already played with Lego, and now they are adding coding to a system they already understand. I think that makes more sense developmentally, because it builds on systems they know.

In your opinion, what should always be “must-have” toys for kids?

I love basic building blocks, the unit blocks, which were invented by this amazing educator, Caroline Kratt, in 1913. Those are the classic blocks and a great thing to have.

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I also really love Magnatiles. They say they’re only for three-and-up, but really, the magnet is very safely encased in plastic, so I don’t think they’re that big of a swallowing hazard, which is generally why there are certain restrictions on a lot of magnetic toys. Those are either opaque or translucent colored plastic tiles with magnets around the edge. You can build big structures really quickly. My kids have played with those for about 10 years. They’re a little bit expensive, but they’re a great investment.

I also love Zoob. You can build animal structures and textile structures. They click together with ball and socket joints. They were created by this great artist, Michael Joaquin Grey, and are in the collection at the Museum of Modern Art. But they’re also a really inexpensive and readily available toy.

What are some toys you don’t like? 

I already mentioned toys that teach your kids how to code when they’re three-years-old and they often cost $70. Those are pretty dumb.

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There are also a lot of block sets where they try to “add” something to the basic building block. It’s a marketing ploy. Blocks that teach your kid the alphabet or colors can be confusing for the child. It’s important, with blocks, to allow kids to focus on one quality of the block: just the shape or just the color. But once they start layering on colors and numbers and the alphabet, it’s actually not helpful, cognitively, because the child doesn’t know what to focus on.

With Montessori toys, they are very careful to only introduce one new concept at a time with each new toy. Or all the consonants will be one color and all the vowels will be another color. If the toy hasn’t been designed thoughtfully, and there’s no system as to why its colorful, it can actually be detrimental and a bad toy, because the child tries to make a system out of what they see.

What do you think of the “surprise” toys out right now, where the whole gambit is you don’t know what you’re going to get until you get it?

My seven year old loves them. I feel like we already have a fair amount of experience with surprise toys: both Lego and Playmobil make these surprise baggies with a mini-figure in them, and people have been giving those out at birthday parties that my kids have gone to for several years. They’re pretty fun but tend to have a bit of a gender problem. They are very gender distinct. I wish that the makers of those figures would think harder about how to make all of the figures, equally heroic or equally scary across gender.

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Play is essential for kids. But what about adults? After your research, how important is it for adults to let loose their inner child?

I’ve always done a lot of crafting. I feel like having children actually brought me back to crafts, because as a busy adult you don’t always prioritize that. But we all need to do things with our hands. That’s one of the things that our very digital society separates us from.

You can get the same satisfaction building a tower of blocks as you do cooking a meal or sewing. That’s the niche that the coloring book craze was also tapping into. People just wanted to be able to feel okay taking a moment and thinking about colors and structure. When you’re a kid, your options are managed by your parents. But as an adult, you can do the crafting you want to do. Do you want it to be with yarn? Do you want it to be with food? Do you want to just color?

Source: https://bloghyped.com/the-best-developmental-toy-for-kids-isnt-what-you-think/