Pixie Nest

Oh no we fired a rocket at the Moon and it hit with the force of 11.5 tons of TNT.

Here's more on that. Because they did also use explosives, just not 11.5 tons of them.

@two-wizards-in-a-trench-coat #my future sounds funny as fuck

@kentm4nsley #oh that's so fucking cursed. not in a disparaging way just #if i had this happen to me once i would simply pass away.

@literallybyronic #10 bucks says I met op's parents at a diabolique ball like 20 years ago

@staggered-stones #it's true no one told me about this

@gideonisms #GOD. i can't imagine #no new problem under the sun but this is one i hadn't thought of

@chirpchirrup #condolences i think?

@erudipitous #mood #the greater seattle area polycule T.T #replace 'tri-state' with 'pnw' and this post could be about me #the number of times my polycule has almost wrapped around to MY FATHER despite the fact that I DON'T EVEN DATE is. #well it's happened like 3 times which is saying somethiny #at any given kink or poly event I can generally assume someone there knows my parents

@prairie-grass #Having priests for parents is kind of like this #Lol I know I know #But I bump into people that know my parents ALL THE TIME #If I'm at some sort of religious event I just assume someone there knows at least one of them #Inescapable #Gotta say I prefer that over the idea of fucking someone who also fucked one of them so l'd prefer the cards I got dealt there

@kurtwagnermorelikekurtwagnerd #i have to travel three hours in any cardinal direction to play comfortably it fucking sucks #last time i tried something local the host Messaged My Mother About It. needless to say that group is dead to me.

I've seen this technique at the Lower Saxony spinning group meet-up in June and @disgruntled-lifeform has asked about it, so here is a tutorial. I'm not comfortable with having videos of me taken and no one to take the video anyway so I hope photos are enough...

Little diclaimer: I have only seen someone else doing this so I just pass this knowlegde on. I don't know where it originates. Also: I assume you already know how to spin a single and know the basics of chain- or Navajo-plying

It's really an intreresting technique. You spin and chain-ply in one go, no endless spinning and after that endless plying, which is very practical if you (like me) are no fan of endless spindle plying. Or if you only own one spindle for whatever reason - everyone knows spindles are gregarious animals and keeping only one is not appropriate XP

You need:

A drop spindle of your choice with a leader (Maybe one a little bigger than mine, since the yarn we wind on the spindle is a three-ply, which means it is thrice as thick as your usual single.

Fibres of your choice you want to spin

It's important that your leader has a loop at the end to pull your single through.

Step 1: Spin your single as you always do. *spinspinspin* You want to do that standing up as you need the single to be quite long:

Step 2: Then butterfly the single up on your thumb and forefinger to avoid tangling:

Step 3: Pull the single through the loop of your leader and unwind it from your fingers. At the beginning it's easier to sit down for this step until you get used to the finger movements. It's difficult to pull the single through the loop while holding the spindle in your hand and we don't want any broken fingers!

Step 4: Pull the single all the way through until just a little bit below the beginning of your unspun fibres:

Step 5: Then you just ply the loop together in the opposite direction from the direction you spun the single - just as most of you will do anyways while plying. The spindle wants to turn in the opposite direction by itself anyway. Make sure the new loop at the end stays open!

Step 6: Wind the plied thread on your spindle. Then secure it well on your spindle's hook. Take Care Of The Loop. It Must Stay Accessible for the next section of spun singles.

Congratulations you have your first section of chain plied yarn on your drop spindle.

Then you repeat the whole thing again and again: Spin a long piece of single - pull it through loop - ply - wind on spindle - secure the new loop at the end on your hook and then go on spinning.

First little fish of a rainbow of fish!

No parts of it extended beyond the lines, and the paper ticket was clearly displayed, impaled on a horn.

For the second time in 2 years I've been given a gunky old treadle. This one's a Bernina KL 105, which I hadn't heard of, and it's very interesting! It's a rotary machine with backstitch and drop feed, which is much more modern than any treadle I'd ever encountered before.

The model was first introduced in 1932, but this particular one was sold in 1945 to someone named Karl Seebacher, as can be seen in the manual which it still has! It was made in Switzerland and evidently sold there, as all the writing is in German and the markings are Metric. I'm very happy about the Metric markings! Someone must have moved to Canada with it somewhere along the line. I've read that these machines are more common in Europe than they are over here.

There are several different feet, and It came with a fantastic little hoop for darning socks, which I'm quite excited to try.

The machine itself is quite gunky, and has some rust spots, so I'll disassemble and clean as much as I reasonably can. I think it'll be alright. The wheel was turning very stiffly and jerkily when it arrived, and oiling everything didn't help much, but after it sat there for a couple weeks the new oil seems to have soaked in and softened things up and it's spinning quite smoothly now.

It came with two new drive belts that someone appears to have bought fairly recently, and as far as I can tell the only thing that's missing is the pair of set screws that hold the machine head to the hinges. Very odd, I can't imagine them ever falling out by themselves. Hopefully I can find replacements, but for now it's sitting in place well enough without them.

The cabinet needs a lot of work, but once the machine head is cleaned up it should be useable even before doing anything to the cabinet.

you can take it off and add a new motor, or pop it in a treadle table, or add a hand crank. I just came across a video of a 1960's Singer being temporarily put in a treadle cabinet while waiting for replacement electric components, and if I got a hand crank and spoked wheel (which can be bought new!) I could stick them on any one of my electric Singers.

And it works the opposite way too, treadles or hand cranks can be switched to electric. I even remember reading somewhere (though it was years ago and I don't remember where) that when electricity was new you could buy treadle/crank machines packaged with a motor that you could add on later once electricity reached your area!

But imagine my delight to free it from the case and see they also put the set screws in there when they made it!! This thing is attached to the lousy plastic case with one large screw at the bottom, there are no hinges on this machine, but they must have expected some people to swap them to a wooden case or table because the screws are waiting in there!

So far I've only mixed up the main batch of colors, but I'll split them up and create a palatte of tints and shades once I have access to a scale again.

I don't have any fancy tools and have been blending the fiber by hand, so it's probably best I have a forced break for the sake of my fingers. Once I'm done I should have a very useful set of 57 2g swatches to play with! (Plus 5 more for a set of grayscale swatches)

The ratios are presented in the same order as the wool swatches in the photo above it. I didn't simplify any of the ratios so you'll have to deal with 2:2s instead of 1:1s, oops.

Sometimes I make art instead of knitting (most often it's watercolour or pen and ink). There's a lot of it here so I took pictures of a few and started a ko-fi shop. Some of the pieces aren't framed, but these landscapes are already in frames with double mats.

for example, we have a microscope that is perfectly functional, good microscope, but its software is abandonware because the company refused to maintain it. the company is still in business, still makes essentially the exact same software, but they made all of the old tech incompatible with new software to force people to buy the new microscope tech. it would cost a quarter million dollars to replace this microscope. this perfectly good microscope.

There's something so beyond words about playing hide-and-go-tag with a fluffy little guy who will try and sneak up on you the same way you sneak up on him, who will chase you when you run, who totally GETS what's going on and will enthusiastically join in despite having no common language or anything.

And the we just lay on the nice cold floor together like freaks

Rainbows are in a separate post.

The above are all a single commission.

Please, share your Pride-related textile projects.

You can see more of my work and visit my shop here: