#pagan knitting

[rherlotshadow]

Yarn bomb green man at Avebury stone circle

[babysfirstpentagram]

How to incorporate yarn crafts into your cottage magic journey!

If you are a witch that likes to journal or keep a book of shadows, you can use this to help plan out your crafts. You can write down what you want to make, your goals, the colors, and what hooks you are using. This allows you to focus your intentions, your goals, and even color magic into the craft! Crocheting and knitting can also be calming and possibly meditative! It can help you get ready for a different spell as well, if you are not using the yarn for the spell itself!

This can also be a form of knot magic, and you can focus protection or any other outcome as you work and make your stitches/knots in the yarn/string! You are most likely zoning out anyway while working, so thinking about your intentions should be easy to do in the moment. If knot (:3) then you can write your intentions in a journal to help you!

You can also burn incense or a candle while you work to help calm yourself, breathe life into the craft, and help set your intentions. 

Did you know that you can make a familiar out of yarn? They obviously behave differently from a living familiar but they are still used for protection and companionship! 

Yarn can also be used for jinxing and hexing. You can weave your intentions into the yarn and then burn it at the end of the project. Please make sure you are being careful and practicing proper fire safety!

You can also make offerings with the objects you’ve made. Remember, deities often prefer handmade offerings than store bought offerings!

[textileowl]

Crane butt! Current knitting project is finally looking like something.

[frojyablog]

[coriander-candlesticks]

I realized recently (read: today as I'm writing this) that while I associate certain specific fiber arts with Athena (knitting, weaving, dying, and spinning), I associate crochet specifically with Apollo, though Athena's there too, of course. I think it's because it's more free-flowing: I can freehand something with crochet more easily than I can with knitting, both because I've known it longer and because there are fewer Things To Learn, unlike knitting which has a million different techniques that may seem interchangeable but actually aren't and that all affect the end product in a pretty big way (looking at you decreases & bind-offs). Because I can free-hand crochet more easily, and I grew with it the same way I did with drawing, they have similar vibes. Knitting and weaving, on the other hand, have steeper learning curves imo and are way more structured- and I associate more solid (dare I say rigid) structure with Athena. Embroidery and cross-stitch are kinda in their own floating category, maybe because I do them less and therefore have weaker associations with them over-all. I associate hand-sewing largely with Hestia, though again, Athena is always also there, because I associate it with mending, altering clothing, and making home items (ex the quilted pillowcase I've been mentally turning around in my head for the last few weeks).

Interestingly, I find printmaking specifically to be associated with both Athena and Apollo. It leans into the latter's domain, of course, the same way crochet does Athena's, but the structure you need in order to layer & print properly without hurting yourself, ruining equipment, or fucking up you edition seems reminiscent of Athena. Dyeing, especially making & using natural dyes, feels very much like an Athena thing despite it 1) feeling similar to painting or using inks and 2) being a trial & error process that's honestly pretty free-flowing if you approach it a certain way (especially if you do solar dyeing, which doesn't necessarily need some of the more meticulous processes you need to boil-dye something).

[olekciy]

Braided belts with zoomorphic buckles. Hemp, wood, amber, malachite.

[mawce-mirari]

I always forget how helpful veiling actually is for me. I'm just so reluctant to use veiling bc I don't really have a veil that matches my overall style or enough to match on an outfit by outfit basis.

[staticonthestratosphere]

maybe someone could make something make sense to me, perhaps if you’re of the witchy/magik or something otherwise adjacent and not specified persuasion

okay so like, here’s what’s good:

I broke my leg when I was 11 and taught myself how to crochet while recovering but I had actually wanted to learn how to knit and went with my mothers advice of “learn to crochet, it’s easier”. which, whatever (funny and ironic since my mother never knit or crochet, her further reasoning was “one hook how hard can it be”)

anyway, since I’ve been very focused on on knitting this year with minor hiatuses of crochet in between, something has felt different while knitting like.. like I was supposed to be doing that all along? I just keep having these strong feelings of when I look at my hands they’re not, my hands? like obviously it’s Me and That’s My Body, but more of This Isn’t The First Time These Hands Have Crafted Like This

my first instinct is that maybe it’s my lineage and connecting way back with some of my ancestors, and them reaching out somehow or way and that they knit and knit for necessity. maybe explaining my batshit obsession with socks, but?? I would kill to hear if someone else has had similar experiences

which granted, the whole thing Is An Experience but *shrug* pleabe send help lol

[vanilla-cigarillos]

Magic and Fiber Arts

I’ve recently come to love knitting as a hobby through the encouragements of a very wonderful friend of mine. It’s become such a lovely way to spend my time, in fact, that I’ve begun incorporating it into my practice as well!

Grounding

Knitting can be an excellent way to ground yourself before doing any sort of ritual or spell work. The act of creating art can be very intensive, making your mind focus on something and helping you create more specific intentions that you’ll need for your practice work.

Protection

Weaving intent into your fiber arts can be an excellent way of creating protection spells. Giving blessings to the yarn as you create shawls, scarves, etc. can be either a gift to yourself or ones you love with an additional magical bonus.

Knot Work

Creating your own cords to use in rituals, ceremonies, and knot magic can add an extra layer of power to your work. Making your materials gives a level of intimacy to your practice that not many other things can.

[amieravenson]

Fiber Crafts and The Craft

Around September or October, I start getting the urge to work on fiber crafts. And it's no wonder. In an agrarian society, there's not a lot to do after the harvest and preservation is all done. The nights get longer, and we tend to go within and think more about quiet, peaceful activities after the Summer's rush. The holidays are also around the corner, and it may be time to make handmade gifts as well. But have you considered making your fiber crafts of choice a part of your magickal work as well? As you weave, stitch, knit, crochet, or quilt, you can chant magickal charms, embedding them into your work. You can even create a whole work dedicated to love, protection, abundance, any of the good wishes you would like to give to the lucky recipient of your work. There's a scene in a book (I'm not going to name the book because the author turned out to be a real shithead) where a woman scries as she spins yarn. I love that. The almost mindlessness of the spinning and the rhythm of pumping the pedal could definitely bring you into a deep trance state if you let it. Another book (where the author also turned out to be a shithead) described a woman who made wonderful sweaters for her magickal children, imbued with love and protection. I think the key is in what you concentrate on while you do your fiber arts. Crochet- Everytime you push your needle through your work, imagine pushing your intention into the fabric you create. Cross stitch- Say a charm as you create each stitch going in one direction, and then chant a second charm, meant to lock in the magick, as you stitch in the other direction. Embroidery- Imagine 'building' your spell as you 'build' your design, keep checking in and thinking about your intention. Knitting- Imagine the spell strengthening every time the needles click and clack together. Every loop ties your intention into the fabric. Quilting- Piece together enchantments and affirmations as you stitch together the pieces of the quilt. Sewing- Create something magickal, like a poppet or a pouch to carry sacred items, and breathe your intention into it. Spinning- Chant your intention as you spin, imbuing the very fabric itself with your positive intentions. You can do a lot of other things to imbue magick into your fiber crafts. Burn essential oils or incenses as you work to keep bringing you back to your intention. Stitch sigils or symbols onto your finished objects. Say a blessing over your finished objects before you give them to someone. And by all means, do your fiber crafts in a group with other witches. You can build some incredible energy that way! What about you? Do you do any fiber crafts, and if so, have you considered adding magick to your crafting time? Please let me know in the comments, and blessed be! Read the full article

[poesielibre]

I finished my last knitting project Saturday morning, in time to wear it for the first time. I don't have good pictures yet but maybe I'll post them later.

I am now back to my neglected knitting project, a shawl with a 16 row cable repeat. Funnily enough both projects are made with purple yarn. Do I like purple ? Yeah ! But also the two yarns are completely different. The just finished project (a cowl/ shawl hybrid) is made with Han dyed variegated purple yarn while the shawl is made with a dusty and slightly heatered purple yarn.

I also finished my most frustrating project ever yesterday, my first and last woven scarf. I can barely look at it because of how much grief, anger and frustration this thing has given me. Hopefully those feelings will fade when fall comes so I can start using it. It is objectively a good project, a nice long, wide and soft wool scarf.

[gabessquishytum]

King Robert tends to sneak out of the castle a lot. His advisors and guards despair, trying to impress upon him the danger of the monarch just wandering around villages. They argue even beloved monarchs have enemies who might seek to hurt him while he's dallying about, outside the safety of the palace and his armed guards. The King nods and smiles......and continues to sneak out.

Hob, please don't call him "king" or "Robert," loves getting out of the castle! It's not like regular people really know what a king looks like, even if it's their monarch. When he's out Hob is amazed by his people.

Hob has helped raise a barn, brought in crops, been taught to knit by sweet old ladies, celebrated one of the pagan-ier holidays in a village square (the mead and food were fantastic), got into numerous sword fights to defend the honor of young ladies and men..... It's fantastic and real, and Hob would argue it makes him a better king.

Yes, Hob is aware that his various counselors (and his mom the Dowager Queen) want him to get married and stop venturing out, but all the stuck up potential consorts or soooo stuffy and entitled. Hob does think any of them have helped dig a well for a town that needed water or helped celebrate the birth of a new baby in a village pub!

Besides, there might be this beautiful new artist in town, Dream, who rents a room over the inn and takes simple commissions, who is so lovely. Hob is working so hard to be charming and learn more about him,,,but Dream is tight lipped as to where he's from. Still Hob knows he's wearing him down.....Hob got a small smile from his targeted buffoonery last time!

👑🤴🏽👑🤴🏽

Since they won't stop, Hob has decided he's going to see if he can convince Dream to marry him! Marrying him has to be better than those self serious "royals". But when he goes to see him, Dream is gone,, like he was never there. Hob is heartbroken.

He guesses he's meant to marry one of the snobs. He lets his council choose. They decide to accept the Endless Kingdom's offer - Prince Morpheus.

This is the romcom we ABSOLUTELY deserve with these two beloved idiots <3

Hob is disconsolate after Dream leaves - he doesn't even have the heart to sneak out of the castle. The villagers are quite worried about him until he finally turns up one evening, basically to say goodbye to all his friends. He explains that a spouse has finally been chosen for him, and that as a married man it will be inappropriate to go out gallivanting and putting himself in potential danger. He will have a duty to spend time with his new husband, too. And his friends all understand - they accept his heartfelt invitations to the wedding. He's brought gifts from the castle for all the kids who've basically adopted him as a big brother. And he definitely sheds a few tears in the arms of the old ladies before he leaves.

Meanwhile, Prince Morpheus is en route to his new spouse's kingdom. He doesn't want this marriage at all, but after he ran away (and then got caught and dragged back home) his parents forced him to accept to situation. They won't even tell him where he's going or who he's marrying - a punishment for his disgraceful behaviour! Dream is fully expecting to be married to some awful old man. But when he gets out of the carriage he finds himself in a rather familiar place... he almost laughs out loud! He quickly has to pretend to be heartbroken over the impending marriage, when he really he's nearly vibrating with excitement.

They don't meet until they get to the altar (it's tradition, for royal marriages). Hob’s eyes light up and he looks over towards where his village friends are sitting like "are you seeing this??? it’s dream!!!" Everyone else is quite confused about why King Robert suddenly looks so happy, but his friends are able to heartily applaud the marriage. He truly deserves to be happy!

As for Morpheus - or Dream, as he prefers to be called - with the wedding officially performed, he can throw himself into Hob’s arms. His parents are pissed off to see their wayward son looking so content, but Dream no longer cares. The fates have been kind to him, and delivered him into the arms of the only man he has ever wished to marry. He can't wait to spend many years sneaking out of the castle with Hob, getting up to all kinds of mischief, and finally enjoying life.

[librastrai]

v weird to be like you're BARELY jewish bc i'm mixed? my dad's side is irish traveller / roma due to intracommunity mixing. my jewish side is majority mizrahim with ashkenazi slightly mixed in. i know it's hard to imagine but people can be multiple things, especially when these communities are very close knit.

jewish people are indigenous to israel & irish travellers are an indigenous minority in ireland. this is basic knowledge.

my mother isn't a christian, she was forcibly adopted by a christian family. currently she's pagan religiously & still very much jewish ethnically. as we are.

i am not arab & to say otherwise shows the ignorance of mizrahi jews, we are not arab. we were colonized by pan arabization across the middle east, violently & with multiple pogroms.

there are no "lesbian only" slurs. dyke is reclaimed by bisexuals & you owe pride to a jewish bisexual.

i live in the uk, i'm a 3rd gen immigrant & very much am still connected with my jewish family in israel. we would still be in yemen if we weren't you know, ethnically cleansed by arab houthis intent on slavery.

also saying this in response to all of your antisemitism is wild considering i've faced both cultural genocide through the irish / english government & then violent antisemitism day after day by self righteous westerners like yuorself. diving into my ethnic background like this is practicing blood quantum, whether you like it or not lamb.

since we wanna talk about mizrahim though, let's talk about how you platformed the "leftist" hasan who platformed someone he believed to be a houthi, which has death to jews in their slogan? who sexually harasses sex workers? is antiblack & transphobic?

are you going to talk about how the people you sided with misgendered me? or how they sent rape & death threats? if not, go back to playing with your sex doll masquerading as an oc.

[saoirsegraves]

Talking about what magic feels like over on the blog...

[tyetknot]

At the Wiccan temple I help run we usually have a Braggi in January, which is a sort of weird Norse-flavoured ritual thing where people get drunk on mead, do performances, and make brags for what they plan to do over the course of the year. If they end up actually doing the thing they say they're going to do then they get an apple (which we say is one of the golden apples of Iðunn) at next year's Braggi and if they fail to do it they have to admit defeat in front of everyone and get solidly booed.

My brag for last year was to knit one blanket square a month and have them all sewn together to show off at the next Braggi, which I managed to just barely finish in time (I got tired of it and wasn't having fun with one of the squares). Fortunately everyone was very impressed with my deliberately-ugly blanket.

This year I decided to really push myself into new territory and said I'd make a sweater and wear it to the next Braggi. Now, I've never knit a swatch in my fucking life, I live dangerously, and the only fitted garment I'd ever done was socks and lots of 'em, but I found a sweater pattern I could knit in the round (because I figured something mindless would be a better choice here, so I went with the Flax sweater from Tin Can Knits and omitted the garter panels on the sleeves because they're ugly). Somehow I managed to finish that in a month and a half.

Maybe next year I'll threaten to do something with all the yarn my girlfriend spins, because Gods know she never does anything with it and that stuff is piling up.

Does anyone else crochet as part of their practice? Like, I made several altar items with crochet and I'm currently working on a blanket infused with spellwork. Who else does projects like this? I'm so curious.