a million stairs and a million stares

I'm getting a late start because I had to finish the Fluffy Yarn first (not yet skeined or washed so no pics, but it is Done). Which, I suppose, technically still counts towards the "spinning every day" goal, so I only started one day late.

My goal this year is to spin one kg of wool, so about one and a half sweater quantities. Will I be able to accomplish this? Who knows! I feel it's ambitious but not crazy. Contrary to the Tour de France, which is insane.

First batch is these two braids from my dyeing spell in spring:

About 400g Cheviot which I did not split into even amounts because I'm an idiot, so the blue braid is much larger than the green. 400g isn't enough for a sweater, so I'll need to combine it with something else. I have these two to chose from:

Beige didn't-write-down-the-breed wool (carded) from local sheep that I got at the shepherd's day a year or two back (top) and grey Corrie (bottom).

I was gonna do a poll, but I mean. Obviously it's gotta be the Corrie.

That brings me to about 650g total which should be just enough for a sweater.

The dyed braids came as "multicolor" wool, meaning white and grey fibre carded together. The colour difference was kind of subtle in the undyed fibre already, and now it is almost invisible but still there when you look closely.

This is probably the best blue I have ever done it's so nice. I want to peacefully drown in this colour.

And here's all of that yarn done! This is all 3-ply, and I managed to keep it at a more-or-less uniform weight, please applaud 🙂‍↕️ Even though the Corrie is a bit more dense than the Cheviot.

The light is abysmal today, and apparently my phone camera hates subtle tones. This has a bit more of a green tinge irl. About 600m.

An extremely nice, foresty, summer-leaf green, I love how this turned out. 360m.

And of course Corrie, my beloved, who never disappoints me 💖 about 630m.

(imagine me like the retro astronaut from the Lego movie but instead of Spaceship!! I'm yelling Sweater!!)

Some time ago I came across this gorgeous piece made by @ratatoskrr and I loved it so much. Look at that XOX detail around the hem! Isn't that brilliant!

However, the way the pattern is designed, the horizontally striped body does not meet up with the underarm, and I - don't love that. So I'm gonna go the easy route and make a T-shaped tunic thing. Iron age vibes :D

Behold my very professional schematic!

I'm gonna start at the left sleeve with a provisional cast-on (the cuff will come later as I'm not sure what I want to do with it yet) then knit in the round up to the shoulder, change to flat knitting, split for the neckhole, join everything together for the right shoulder, and make the right sleeve.

Or, on second thought, knit the second sleeve from the wrist up too and graft everything together, so the sleeves are symmetric.

Then pick up stitches around the chest and knit the rest of the body in the round. Simple.

I factored in about 10-15cm of positive ease around the chest, but that's adjustable, depending on how everything develops.

Obviously I don't have equal amounts of each colour, so it took some thinking to figure out a stripe pattern that would work. More or less.

Not perfect but that's as good as it's gonna get.

Because in the German edition they call him "Eichelhäher", which is Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius) in English and looks like this:

But in English they call him "Blue Jay" (Cyanocitta cristata), which would be Blauhäher in German and looks like this:

Those are different birds!! Granted they're both jays and in the same Family (Corvidae), but they're different species! They don't even share the same Genus. Eurasian Jays are in the Genus Garrulus (Old World Jays) while Blue Jays are Cyanocitta (New World Jays)

Like, I understand why this was done and that nobody else cares about the classifications of these birds, but I still think it's interesting. I mean these birds do look very different and depending on the translation you read, you might get a different idea of what the Blue Jay/Eichelhäher looks like.

You're so right @bookshelfdreams!!

I got distracted by my obsession with classifications didn't even think about the symbolism, but an Eurasian Jay really is a better namesake for a robber.

I can even read way to much into those conspicpuous blue feathers...

One could see the blue feathers as representing the scar on Mo's arm that reveals him as the Eichelhäher. Without those feathers, the Eurasian Jay would just be another inconspicuous brown bird, just like Mo not be a robber without the scar that connects him to the character Fenoglio has created. Now, you might be thinking: but Luna, aren't you forgetting that Fenoglio also gave the Eichelhäher Mo's general features (height, hair colour, etc). Well, I think this actually fits my point. An Eurasian Jay without the blue feathers is still an Eurasian Jay, just not as easily identifiable as one. And Mo would still look like the Eichelhäher without the scar, but the feature that proves to people that he must be the actual Eichelhäher would be gone.

The striped head! The black spots on his cheeks, and the bright white above his tail! They're so beautiful aren't they?

Has anyone spun cat hair before? My sister collected some of her cat's undercoat (maybe 10-20g or so, haven't weighed it yet) and asked me to try and make some yarn for her. The cat is your standard european shorthair, so the staple length is very short.

I thought I might blend it with something to make it workable. BFL maybe? But I'm not sure.

It's a bit dirty but I haven't washed it. I think that would just make everything worse, tbh.

Pictures! Apologies for the quality, the light is abysmal today.

I personally haven't spun cat hair yet, but i do have some of Grushka's fur around as well that I really want to try and spin. I would think BFL would be a good choice, though idk if something a bit coarser with slightly shorter staple would be better? I once tried spinning a silk/yak blend and the yak hairs, because they were so short, kept falling out. So maybe Corrie could help 'lock' the cat hair in?

Has anyone spun cat hair before? My sister collected some of her cat's undercoat (maybe 10-20g or so, haven't weighed it yet) and asked me to try and make some yarn for her. The cat is your standard european shorthair, so the staple length is very short.

I thought I might blend it with something to make it workable. BFL maybe? But I'm not sure.

It's a bit dirty but I haven't washed it. I think that would just make everything worse, tbh.

Pictures! Apologies for the quality, the light is abysmal today.

I personally haven't spun cat hair yet, but i do have some of Grushka's fur around as well that I really want to try and spin. I would think BFL would be a good choice, though idk if something a bit coarser with slightly shorter staple would be better? I once tried spinning a silk/yak blend and the yak hairs, because they were so short, kept falling out. So maybe Corrie could help 'lock' the cat hair in?

I would recommend carding it well with whatever wool you chose and I'd say keep the ratio heavier on the wool.

Has anyone spun cat hair before? My sister collected some of her cat's undercoat (maybe 10-20g or so, haven't weighed it yet) and asked me to try and make some yarn for her. The cat is your standard european shorthair, so the staple length is very short.

I thought I might blend it with something to make it workable. BFL maybe? But I'm not sure.

It's a bit dirty but I haven't washed it. I think that would just make everything worse, tbh.

Pictures! Apologies for the quality, the light is abysmal today.

I personally haven't spun cat hair yet, but i do have some of Grushka's fur around as well that I really want to try and spin. I would think BFL would be a good choice, though idk if something a bit coarser with slightly shorter staple would be better? I once tried spinning a silk/yak blend and the yak hairs, because they were so short, kept falling out. So maybe Corrie could help 'lock' the cat hair in?

Has anyone spun cat hair before? My sister collected some of her cat's undercoat (maybe 10-20g or so, haven't weighed it yet) and asked me to try and make some yarn for her. The cat is your standard european shorthair, so the staple length is very short.

I thought I might blend it with something to make it workable. BFL maybe? But I'm not sure.

It's a bit dirty but I haven't washed it. I think that would just make everything worse, tbh.

Pictures! Apologies for the quality, the light is abysmal today.

With the recent rumblings about censorship and work deletions on Wattpad, many users are considering posting to AO3 for the first time. If that describes you, you may have questions.

This post is a collection of resources you can use to start finding the answers to these questions. If you don’t find what you’re looking for at the links below or you have something more specific to ask, please feel welcome to post questions in the reblogs and comments here.

If you’re an AO3 pro answering questions in these notes, be kind. We were all new once, and other fans helped us then. It’s time to pay it forward.

Resources (under the cut)

At least AO3 makes it easy to find things, no matter how old or obscure.

my friend @orangestorapples made a pretty decent summary, see below

They no longer allow works:

- Created primarily for sexual arousal

- Exploitative or harmful

- Intended to shock, glorify harm, or promote hate

For their updated sexual content policies, they do not allow:

- Pornographic content (created primarily for sexual arousal)

- Any sexual content involving minors.

- Sexual exploitation, coercion, or non-consensual acts that are glorified

- Sexual roleplay, solicitation, or messaging

- Illegal sex acts in violation of applicable local and international laws, including but not limited to, bestiality, necrophilia, incest, or child sexual exploitation and abuse material

For their updated violent content policies, they do not allow:

- Content created primarily to shock or glorify harm

- Gratuitous or prolonged violence that doesn't support the broader narrative

For their updated Self-Harm and Suicide content policies, they allow:

- General, non-graphic references

- Stories that explore self-harm or suicide in a responsible, story-driven way

- Recovery, survival, or awareness-focused narratives

And do not allow:

- Graphic depictions

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For their updated Real-World Harm and Extremism content policies, they do not allow:

- Glorification or support of real-world violence, hate groups, or extremist ideologies

- Content that promotes or imitates real-world harmful acts or actionable plans/steps on how to commit violent acts, illegal acts, or organize real-world violent crimes

For their updated Self-Expression and Sensitive Topics content policies, they allow:

- Survival stories that offer a sense of hope or support

- Could contain graphic descriptions

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And do not allow:

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Historically, straight marriage requires an explanation.

Sometimes, common people could simply announce they were married in front of any witness and count as married. Rich people might marry as purely strategic arrangements. The Church didn’t make marriage a sacrament until 1124. And, if they’re Christian, no one is getting married inside a church until after the medieval period. So if there’s a formalised “institution of marriage” in any historical fantasy, that requires explanation for straight people, let alone for gay people. What is marriage and why would people do it?

Very genuinely, one of the most infuriating parts of the fight for gay marriage in the USA was conservatives clutching their pearls and yapping about how the queers were gonna sully some sacred practice that had existed since time immemorial. But marriage isn’t “mundane” enough to go unquestioned when you’re building a whole fantasy world: it’s a complex cultural construct that changes depending on all kinds of factors. And given that the history of sexuality as “identity” is wild and mostly modern, that requires explanation, too, if marriage involves fucking.