#crafts and hobbies

[salkosafic]

The Future of Woodworking in a Challenging World

[noirandchocolate]

Several weeks ago one of my coworkers called me over into her cubicle and gave me a very unexpected gift. Her mother passed away recently, and she'd been packing stuff up at her condo to give to relatives and sell, so the home could be sold. The mother was an avid knitter and crocheter, and when my coworker came upon her stash of equipment, she told me, she "immediately thought of me as someone who might get some use out of it."

So, I have inherited a varied collection of knitting needles and crochet hooks, cable needles, sewing needles, and, best of all, now-out-of-print pattern books, mostly for blankets, because that was what this lady loved to make most. Plus, I also have a bunch of gauge swatches she made, pinned to little bits of card covered in perfect schoolteacher handwriting setting out the patterns they were made to test.

And also...

My coworker brought another bag, full of yarn and...knitted blanket squares. Her mother's last started project, before she got too sick to continue. And she asked if there was anything I could do with it.

It turned out, there are twelve completed squares, and I quickly located the pattern book they are from amid those given to me. It's a book of 60 patterns, meant to be put together however the maker wishes into blankets of 20 squares. I figured out which of the numbered patterns were already made, and selected eight more that I thought might go well with them.

So now! I am working on completing! My coworker's mother's last knitting project!

And I really am feeling very good about doing it.

[dandy-daisylion]

every time someone says ‘oh, you knit? do you like it?’ i have the marrow-deep urge to tenderly take their face in my hands and press my lips to their eyelids and telepathically transmit the full overwhelming awareness that i carry just beneath my skin every moment of every day of how important fiber crafts and textiles are and historically have been to humanity. every stitch i work is a thousand billion stitches that have already been worked and will be worked in the future, from the farthest reaches of prehistory until time immemorial. every spindle i spin is spun with the same flick of uncountable fingers from ages past, all united across history in the deceptively simple movement that has shaped history, and art, is the context within which every single person on earth has ever lived their life and lives their lives still. everything from our phones to our homes is given shape and form by the overlooked but utterly important textile arts.

‘of fucking course i like knitting, you jackass,’ i say gently. ‘i wouldn’t do it otherwise.’

[empty-movement]

Hi, Vanna here. I have submitted to the strange authority of Xenforo's image hosting system, which demands that if I want gallery items to appear in proper order, I will have to upload them back to front.

As such, welcome to the last few page's of Animedia Magazine's September 1997 supplemental Duelist Bible, translated by Nagumo and edited by me!

Anyway

THIS IS NOT A DRILL, VINTAGE OFFICIAL PATTERNS FOR YOUR VERY OWN DIY CHU-CHU

[malacandrax]

On a splendid walk!

I finished making this guy, v inspired by @slocotion, old clown dolls, and Vanessa Stockard. I'm not sure what to call him, Timothy, maybe!

[auressea]

"Table braiding is similar to Japanese KUMI HIMO!" huh. so, do we classify this as 'braiding' or weaving.. or macrame? they use lace bobbins!

cool. lost arts. human hair is Super strong and durable.

Check out the link- there's patterns!

Victorian brooch made from table-worked human hair, c. 1850s-1860s.

Such examples of hair jewelry are often mistaken for mourning pieces: While hair certainly WAS used in some mourning jewelry, most hair work like this is simply sentimental, worn as a love token of family, lovers, and friends.

Patterns and instructions could be found in the “ladies’ magazines” of the time (like Godey’s). Women took the completed pieces to a jeweler to have hardware put on.

[handmade-by-jane]

[cuubism]

you guys know about the hobby lobby smuggling scandal right

[ineffectualdemon]

I really think everyone should find an offline hobby that you can do while listening to podcasts or music

Like there is nothing more centering then listening to something enjoyable while doing something with your hands that isn't endless scrolling

Hand sewing small items or embroidering moss while listening to people chatter about things I don't really care about just to enjoy their chatter is so very grounding

[marzipanandminutiae]

I love sewing

I love making things

I love having made things

I love seeing where a garment is not, where I want one to be, and being able to say "let's make that happen"

I love inspiring people to say "wait, you can just do that? time permitting, you don't have to be bound by what massive, wasteful corporations tell you to wear or how long they say you're allowed to keep wearing it?" obviously there are other barriers to entry, but I find that so many people regard sewing as this impossible alchemy they couldn't even begin to touch- and the fact that I can make it real and less intimidating for them is huge to me

I wanted to learn to sew for as long as I can remember, with no real idea why. and even though I didn't learn until I was 19 or start in earnest until I was 23, I'm proud of the progress I've made in the last eight years

I bought a mantle that my friend was retiring from her historical wardrobe, and it arrived in the mail today. it's soft and warm and gorgeous to look at, but it's also something my friend made herself. I can wear my friend's skill and talent and careful creation as I move through the world

I can wear things born entirely in my own mind, made three-dimensional and real

god, it's the best feeling

[bembely]

Can someone please explain to me WHY no one can accept that I knit for pleasure?? Every time someone compliments me on my knitting they ask me if I've thought about selling it. NO GOD DAMMIIT NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE A SIDE HUSTLE

It would take all the pleasure out of it.

Bring back people doing things for fun. Jesus.

[deeply-winter]

quantity over quality is the key when starting a new craft/hobby/whatever

It took me thousands of stitches to figure out the best way to knit, to purl, to tension my yarn. I tried English and continental. Circular and straight needles.

All the advice and videos and tips in the world won’t replace actually doing the thing. Over and over. And ripping it all up and starting over.

[dearlittlebuttercup]

I want to learn to knit so I can make hats for the babies at work, so my mum is teaching me.

I know this is bad, but I'm learning! If i saw someone else learning this way, I'd celebrate it, so I want to encourage others by sharing my efforts.

You have to be shit before you get good.

[serendipitouslyyyyyy]

idk who needs to hear this but if you knit or crochet you do not need to stress about it all of the time. that defeats the purpose of having a hobby. yes sometimes i do projects that require learning new stitches and making several runs to the craft store and searching for a specific brand of yarn and counting stitches and recounting stitches. but i also have a blanket that i call my "idgaf blanket" and it's literally just a giant gloriously repetitive chain stitch blanket made of a conglomeration of whatever yarn i happen to have scraps of. my rules are no undoing for dropped stitches, no overthinking color patterns. for just this one project, i simply crochet it because i like the feeling of crocheting. sometimes i just need to work on my idgaf blanket and that's okay and when it's done i'm sure i'll appreciate it a lot more simply because it never gave me anxiety

[ancient-art-of-craft]

Quilter's Dilemma

A phenomenon I made up where you have a talent that takes so much time to produce something, that you can't sell it anymore. There's a market for handmade quilts, obviously, they're beautiful and warm and wonderful, but no one would be willing to pay the amount of money that is required to properly compensate the artist.

I don't quilt, but the raw materials to make a couple of pairs of mittens is $70 for some nice wool. But the hours required to make them is roughly two seasons of Criminal Minds, and some Doctor Who episodes with my family. Those are 45 minute episodes. Minimum wage in my state is around $11.

No one is willing to pay several hundred dollars for a couple of pairs of mittens, no matter how warm and detailed they are. Especially if I'm not a master knitter, which I'm not, and they're bound to have mistakes in them.

So we loop back around to giving them as gifts, and instead ask nothing in return.

If someone gives you something they handmade this Christmas, cherish it.

[grickle14]

Some quiet knitting time for the King of Monsters.