Amy's Stitches

just so we're very, very clear:

knitting was not invented by white people

knitting, while historically most commonly practiced by people in cold climates (namely europe), does not belong to the quote unquote "west"

except for extremely brief windows of time in very specific locations, knitting was not considered "women's work"

knitting is not a symbol of rugged individualism. in fact, throughout most of history knitting was considered a social activity, inextricably entwined with community

Wool was a huge industry in Europe in the middle ages. It was hugely in demand, particularly broadcloth, and was a valuable trade good. A great deal of wool was owned by monasteries and landed gentry who owned the land. 

And, well, the only way to spin wool into yarn to make broadcloth was by hand. 

This was viewed as a feminine occupation, and below the dignity of the monks and male gentry that largely ran the trade. 

So what did they do?

They hired women to spin it. And, turns out, this was a stable job that paid very well. Well enough that it was one of the few viable economic options considered ‘respectable’ outside of marriage for a woman. A spinster could earn quite a tidy salary for her art, and maintain full control over her own money, no husband required. 

So, naturally, women who had little interest in marriage or men? Grabbed this opportunity with both hands and ran with it. Of course, most people didn’t get this, because All Women Want Is Husbands, Right?

So when people say ‘spinster’ as in ‘spinster aunt’, they are TRYING to conjure up an image of a little old lady who is lonely and bitter. 

Indonesian fiber artist Mulyana has taken over the Fisher Museum of Art with colorful, hand-knitted and crocheted aquatic life. 

With the duality of life and death as a recurring theme, Mulyana crafts a tactile, mystical world in which fish, whales, and coral reefs coexist with sea monsters and slow states of decay. 

This is worse, in its way, than the pornbots.

Here's something that turned up in my ask box just now.

...So. You've all seen these. Some of them are genuine. Lots aren't.

Here's where their message leads:

...Okay. The first warning sign: this account is about 3 days old.

But the second: searching on the details of the plea for help via Google, what do we find but...

...Poor Macaroni has repeatedly been hit by cars, and has repeatedly suffered busted femurs, since 2015.

"This," as the saying goes, "starts to look like carelessness." :/

Taking advantage of the kindness of strangers this way is vile... and plainly there's no shortage of people willing to indulge.

So: yeah, I'll be delighted to help the OP get some more traction on this! You betcha. By:

Blocking. Reporting. Reporting to PayPal as well. And dropping @staff a note, when I have a moment. Because allowing this stuff to prosper here just invites more people to try it on. :/

You know, I see pictures like this baby woolly rhinoceros and think, "Aww! Look at the baby!!!! How strange to think that rhinos once had hair like that. I wonder what it looked like when it was alive...." And then I remember that baby Sumatran rhinos exist...

it was a book from 2005 that never really took off until they put it in the Macy’s parade for some reason. the title being coercively named “A Christmas Tradition” seemingly made a bunch of parents panic and think they were withholding some beloved christmas tradition from their children, leading to the book and subsequent elf doll to receive its first ever surge of popularity. at that point it just started spreading through cartoon adaptations (creating the expectancy of this product from children to uphold Christmas Lore) and online memes showing the elf in silly locations. anyone who was a child from 2012-2014 will tell you that it literally appeared out of thin air one year.

@tattinglacework said in the tags of my post about yarn substitution that a gauge swatch is the knitting/crochet equivalent of "measure twice cut once" and I'm stealing it forever now because it's so true. I've had to frog weeks worth of work because I needed to go up two needle sizes and I didn't do a swatch. But it was better than having a finished shawl that was way too small to be useful.

And listen, eventually if you keep refusing to do swatches and being all "teehee I'm such a rebel" about it, you're going to come to a project that you're super excited about, really looking forward to, spend time planning, maybe even buy really nice yarn for it... and you hate the finished product and never use it. Which makes all that work a waste of time.

I know it seems like knitting a swatch is a waste of time but knitting for a week only to have to frog it all is more of a waste of time than the hour I would've spent knitting a swatch. Even with cobweb lace knitting where a proper gauge swatch takes several hours (I've spent 10 hours on a gauge swatch before and I am glad I did cuz it saved my ass), it's a looooot better to knit for several hours and know the next 100 hours will not have been in vain.

A swatch can also help you see whether you like how that yarn works up, and can give you an idea of how that yarn drapes and works up. This is important if you are knitting with a different fiber yarn than what the pattern calls for. Some fibers have a lot more stretch than others. Wool is nice and stretchy but silk is not. Cotton isn't very stretchy. Acrylic stretches and drapes differently than wool or cotton. A swatch will tell you if a fiber is suitable for a pattern.

Some pattern swatches are stockinette stitch and some are in pattern, and an in pattern swatch is going to tell you a LOT about how that yarn will work with that pattern. For example: I like to buy the occasional indie dyed yarn that's got pops of color and multiple colors per skein. But those yarns are hard to find patterns for because the color change/variegation is so quick that it ends up being very busy fabric. A gauge swatch in pattern will tell me if a pattern will show well or get lost in the variegation. Indie dyed yarn is expensive and I am poor so I want to make something I actually like, is the right size, and I will actually use because looking at it doesn't make me miserable.

I'm begging you, just make a swatch. At worst you've lost a little bit of time confirming your needle and yarn choices work for the pattern. At best, you're saving yourself from spending dozens of hours on something you'll never use because it didn't turn out the way you want, doesn't fit, and you hate looking at it now.

Also this is important and I've deeply regretted not doing it before: treat your finished swatch how you're going to treat the finished object. Block it if you're going to block the finished item and then unpin it and let it rest for a while (your swatch WILL lie to you if you do not) before taking any data from it. If you're not sure how a yarn is going to survive the wash, chuck your swatch in the washing machine to see! Better to felt a swatch than a pair of socks you just spent a week knitting.

He is not a fictional character or a good person, but was an evil real asshole.

Remember to be adults or at least mature. Don’t idolize this man. Idolizing him will be disrespectful to these young men.