#wool buy

[marzipanandminutiae]

no but genuinely I lose a little more patience for people who won't wear wool, leather, silk, or fur every day that I live in a world where plastic is increasingly the only damn kind of clothing you can find (or the only kind of fabric for sewing, even)

obviously, animal cruelty is horrible. I believe that even industries that rely on the deaths of animals should make their lives as good and their ends as humane as possible. and many of these industries need tighter environmental regulations on their production practices- some of the chemicals involved are highly toxic and ill-controlled at times

but at some point, you have to wake up to the fact that the only alternative we've found to date is destroying our planet

it's all plastic. and plastic is horrible for the world- the environment, humans, and especially animals. how cruelty-free is it to cause mass habitat loss? or climate change that disrupts food sources for those animals on a vast scale? how is that better than the deaths of a relatively small proportion of animals comparatively?

(and don't even start with "but pineapple leather! but cactus leather!" when those are still basically plastic due to heavy plastics use in their production processes. there is currently no non-plastic alternative to most animal-based textile products)

I've always tried to keep in mind that we all have to decide where our line is, that we all consume and there's no way of living in this world that doesn't take something from it. that for me, plastic clothing is to be avoided as much as possible, and for others, animal clothing products are to be avoided as much as possible. that the choice is equally valid

but I'm having a hard time seeing it as valid anymore when it just feels like trying to push the unpleasant part away from yourself so you can pretend your choice has no negative impacts. you're not wearing animal skin (or wool that an animal didn't even die to produce), so surely your way of doing things is better! no animals were harmed in the making of your outfit!

except. they were.

they and all the rest of us.

[ancient-art-of-craft]

Yarn for Christmas?

An open PSA to anyone with crafting friends (and isn't really sure what they like):

DON'T BUY THEM YARN

Part of the hobby is the purchasing yarn, which some might argue buying yarn and using yarn are two different hobbies. "But OP," you might argue, "I just know they'll love the Red Heart Super Saver I got on sale at Joann's! One skein should be plenty, and they can make me a sweater!"

This is one of those rare cases where a gift card to their favorite yarn store is more personal. First off, nothing against Red Heart, but if they're a yarn snob, it's going to collect dust. If they're a project-oriented purchaser, it's going to collect dust. If they like to buy yarn, then it's just mean.

Also, NEVER imply that your crafting friend should make something for you. If they love you, they will. If they don't, then you're not close enough to be making expensive demands.

[obsob]

the accolade ( the...the cat-olade...)

[cozylittleartblog]

yeah like having to deal with the obnoxious middle aged women who thrift to resell wasn't bad enough, now we got the braindead fast fashion bozos cluttering things up too.

its ok shirt, i will love you like somebody else apparently couldn't even if you shed microplastics into the water supply and will fall apart after 7 wears. and then i'll sew you back together like anyone with two braincells to rub together Should

[1000dactyls]

i was a so called warm-up sketch enthusiast up until when the sketch suddenly had strong words for me (about hiccup in a fisherman’s sweater)

[amberaesthetic101]

I bet you tried peeping up my skirt, you perv

[territorial-utopia]

Celebrating my silver jubilee (turning 25 today) with chill vibes and surrounded by stuff that gives me serotonin. Esp these two art nouveau-ish moustachioed gentleman candleholders that I got from a friend.

[milkweedman]

I think ive got a good idea for my next warm knit--wool legwarmers that go up to the thigh. I'd only be wearing them in my wheelchair so I'm hoping them staying up wont be an issue. I was initially thinking long underwear but I think I could eliminate most of the need for washing by just ... not doing a crotch ? Also idk how to knit a crotch anyway, and it's my legs that get horribly cold. I have quite a lot of pink laceweight millspun wool that I think should be enough. Very excited to get started on it... basically will just be a long tube with increases so it should be easy enough.

[makemeimmortalwithahug]

i have a stupid idea that involves crocheting, dead boy detectives and probably lots of tears

Will I do it anyway? Probably

[disgruntled-lifeform]

People who sell handspun yarn, how do you manage it when the profit margins are so razor thin?

I'm unable to work and money is tight so I've been considering how I can contribute financially and attempt to save up for the future but boy, things look lean.

If you sell your handspun, I'd love to hear from you either in my DMs or the replies/reblogs/tags because I have to make this work somehow...

[marzipanandminutiae]

Re: the lack of demand for wool thanks to propaganda causing more waste; my parents live part-time in a small village in Ireland that is about half populated by sheep farmers. ALL those farmers have had to pivot away from wool production to mutton production, because they can't survive off selling the wool anymore. So now they are killing exponentially more sheep than they were killing before, since. You know. You don't have to kill the sheep to harvest the wool!

God, this is incredibly sad

all that wool that could become, not just winter/cold-weather fabric, but summer-weight wool that's excellent for temperature regulation!

and of course, the irony of killing more sheep because P*TA told you the non-lethal sheep product was evil

[comradecowplant]

omg is "vegan" wool & leather often made of plastic???? i've never heard this, can anyone tell me if it is made of oil?????? is it (and only it!) made of plasoiltikblasticfossilossilpetroil?????????????? damn such a shame that vegans and their desire for animal material alternatives single-handedly invented the demand for fossil fuels, better pack it all in fellow vegan/vegan adjacent folks 😔

[obsob]

there he is......the man of the house

[darkelfchicksick]

IT'S BLOCKING TIME

this is the first wearable I've crocheted in a few years; I often make pieces of lace or filet just for fun, but I've been craving a high-necked short-sleeved wool sweater for agessss. the pattern looked fun, a little easy for my level (I'm pretty sure I made mistakes anyway but shhhh!) and i finished it within the year!

I used Drops alpaca, a 100% alpaca yarn that's 167 m per 50 g. The pattern, Victorian Love Top by chunkywools, is crocheted top-down & in the round and was reasonably well translated. It comes with a detailed video subtitled in English. It had a few minor mistakes that I found easy to solve and that wouldn't turn the garment non-functional.

Since I used a different yarn, my sweater turned out a lot more drapey than the original. I went single strand instead of double strand, but the weight technically stayed the same. I also had to go up in needle size to match the gauge swatch, so I used a 5.0 instead of a 3.5. Ouch! It's all that lace crochet tension training, I swear!

I also changed the closure since I didn't want to button up five billion buttons whenever I wear this. Instead I threaded a 0.5 cm silver polysatin ribbon through part of the. holes? around the neck and laced it through the back of the sweater. Might add pictures of that tomorrow. Since I crocheted loosely, the collar is actually not so tight that I need to loosen the laces, although I'll probably sew them down about a quarter or so down from the top of the collar. That way I only have to tighten the top two or three lacings.

I do love how the alternating back and front-loop hdcs worked up, it gives a much nicer look to the body of the sweater. It's ironic that I crochet since I dislike the dc turning row look so much, huh?

The full length would have been too bulky under my high-waist skirts so I just cropped this.

Now that I'm looking at it, I'm contemplating adding silver ribbon to the sleeves as well. I think that would really round out that choice.

I'm pretty sure the pattern stitch is supposed to look tidier - maybe I should have started in the same loop each row? it's not so messy that I'm unhappy with it, though.

All in all, I'm super pleased with it! It's exactly my style and of course I picked the perfect color, too. I'll probably make another one in some sort of charcoal and change a few details - I think I would prefer slightly less puffy sleeves after all.

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

^ not finished process current sheep fleece n already want more

[coridallasmultipass]

Finally knitted Halloween socks that I've been meaning to knit since I bought this yarn last year!

The yarn is from "SavannahRoseHandmade" from the 90s Halloween Collection (sold out now UGH [understandable, but UGH]) and is visually inspired by the movie Scream (1996). I saw the colour pooling effect on their sample swatch when they shared the yarn collection images on Reddit last year, and was immediately like, 'Holy shit it's just like CRT TV static!!' And I had to get it. (And then life happened and I didn't get around to knitting them until now lol).

And unfortunately, I'm SO IN LOVE WITH IT!! THE EFFECT DID TRANSLATE TO SOCKS AND NOW IT'S LIKE, AHHH I NEED MORE. I don't know if I have enough yarn left to make an additional pair, so I'll have to figure out how to weigh it and the socks and see if the weight compares (really don't wanna end up with 3 socks and not enough for the 4th lol). But yeah. I'm so glad I got to do this. The yarn colouration was SO fun to work with, and the yarn was a nice and smooth 1-ply which was a huge relief from the fluffy yarn on the socks I'd been working on just before this. And yes, I did intentionally take this photo in front of those books because of the spiral-ish pooling.

Can I just also... like... holy fuck, man. I LOVE when yarn pools into unique patterns. It's the best phenomenon ever. And especially like for this one being black and white? That subtle grey transition from stark white to pitch black is EVERYTHING. Like I never would have thought one could create yarn that would pool EXACTLY like TV static rolling down the screen when knit. Major nostalgia vibes. I can feel the forcefield.

Also, started these babies September 27 and finished the second sock today October 3rd, which may be a new record for me knitting socks, I was so fucking excited. I even have a big ole 'writers bump' on my finger from the way I hold my knitting needles lmao (was also knitting a different pair of socks before this, too), and my arthritis is Not happy, but screw you, arthritis! I'M HAPPY.

Side note: it would be cool to pair this yarn with like a red addition somehow. Get a Saw vibe going bc of the TV static pooling effect. (I do love Scream though.) Or you could even probably take it a The Ring route with like a fly applique or something. So many horror movie staples with TV static effect, and not enough Scream yarn to test them out!!

Bonus image when the socks were a WIP:

I had my new tooth and doll eye stitch markers going. I DO have bloody murder weapon stitch markers, but none of them are a buck knife (Ghostface's weapon), so I went for general Halloween vibes instead (even tho I use stitch markers like this year-round lol).