DancingGeek

It’s because after spending serious £££ on materials, and then HUNDREDS OF HOURS OF LABOR on the creation of the item, with every stitch a prayer of totally focused intent, creating a large display of technical skill - it is then gifted to a non-knitter who does NOT APPRECIATE the work/effort/skill/cost/TIME it took to make it, and in fact thinks you’re a bit weird and making a big deal out of a piece of clothing, and after they go “oh thanks” and shove your creation in the cupboard next to a sweater they got for £15 at an M&S sale, then they never wear your sweater because it’s too tight because when you asked them how their favorite sweaters usually fit they said “I ‘unno” and when you measured them for the fifth time and asked, rather tersely, if they had enough room in the chest, they said “I guess,” and then if pressed they say they don’t really like the sweater design, but then you point out that they were supposed to participate in helping you design it and they say they don’t really care about how things look, and when you say that you tried to match it to their other clothes so how can they hate it, then they say that honestly their mother still buys all their clothes because they hate going shopping, and that they hate all their other clothes too, well. That’s when a sensible knitter goes “Fuck this shit. And you know what? Fuck this man.”

This is what happens when someone posts in a knitting forum “Attack of the sweater curse!” - this is the usual story. It has a rigid plot. It is as old as myth.

That’s when you look at the time you spent and realize, “I could LITERALLY have written the first draft of a novel instead of doing this.” That’s when you go “I could have taken that £200 and bought myself a new wardrobe.” That’s when you go “I could have taken all that intent, all that willpower, all that creative force, and laid down some fucking witchcraft, all right?” That’s when you go “I basically spent 100 hours straight thinking about this bastard while making something amazing for him, and I have no evidence that he ever spent 10 hours of his life thinking about me.”

And “I could spend this time and energy and money in making myself an enormous, intricate heirloom silk shawl with just a touch of cashmere, in elvish twists and leafy lace in all the colors of the night, shot through with subtly glittering stars, warm in winter and cool and summer and light as a lover’s kiss on the shoulders, suitable for draping over my arms at weddings or wrapping myself in to watch the sea, a lace-knotted promise to myself that I will keep for my entire life and gift to my favorite granddaughter when I die, and she will wear it to keep alive my memory - but instead I have this sweater, and this fuckboy.”

The sweater curse is a lesson that the universe gives to a knitter at an important point in their life. It is a gift.

Knitting a sweater for a husband or wife generally doesn’t call down the curse, because the relationship is meant to be stronger than 4-ply.

hi tumblr-the conservative party is back at it again. 

currently, the GRA (gender recognition act) says to transition “legally”, trans people have to: 

 get two diagnoses of gender dysphoria (including one from an NHS gender clinic, which have a 2-3 year wait time currently), 

prove you have lived as your chosen gender for 2 years, 

swear to live the remainder of your life as such

and  do all of this in front of a “gender recognition panel”, a process which is very humiliating and largely depends on people deciding if you are “trans enough”. 

in 2018, the idea was put on the table to progress the rights of transgender people in the UK. Including: 

 allowing them to self identify as their chosen gender (including 16 & 17 year olds, who have previously been denied the right to)

demedicalising the transition progress, no doctors would need to diagnose gender dysphoria to transition.

removing the cost to have your gender legally recognised

allow non-binary identities to be recognised

it has recently been leaked that the current government has scrapped these ideas [source  source]. Our equality minister, Liz Truss, is horribly transphobic and wishes to backpedal on the few rights we have. 

trans people have said for years that the GRA is outdated and in need of reform, and have had the tiny ray of hope that it may be changed ripped out from under us behind closed doors. 

petitions on the parliament website are legally obligated to be responded to at 10k signatures and have to be debated in parliament at 100k signatures. 

only british citizens can sign this, but if you are not from the uk, please boost it so your british followers can see! 

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/327108

including the very real lyrics “oh, we’ll emasculate him slowly/all the better to enjoy/how delicious to humiliate the boy”

Disney why

Maybe that’s the best irony of it all—Runechild, Sorcerer, Dueler of Dragons, Guardian of Whitestone and Patron of Heroes—really, Gilmore had thought that at least one of those titles would’ve gotten him killed by now.

But no, here he is, lying in bed on a warm summer morning.

They say that when it comes, the most magical of folk can feel it lurking in the background like a hushed shadow. Waiting and soothing, with all the subtlety of dust.

He thinks that maybe they forgot to mention the way the rest of the world goes dim. The way his breathing slows. The way his body stills. 

All in all, it’s not so bad. It really is like falling asleep.

And then, Shaun Gilmore wakes up. 

Except that’s not it at all. 

When someone uses a slur that can be directed at you it’s terrifying. There’s a moment of “oh god, am I safe?”. To be part of an oppressed group is to know that there are people out there who can and will hurt you. And when someone uses a slur you are suddenly confronted with the very real possibility that they are one of those people. And you have to ask yourself “am I safe?”. 

Caption:

[Person 1: WALL-E and EVE are both nonbinary.

Person 2: What are you talking about? Keep your... Liberal politics out of my kid’s movie. WALL-E’s a boy and EVE is a girl.

Person 1: But they’re... they’re robots. They don’t have genitals.

Person 2: Yeah but like WALL-E is square and does construction and EVE is like feminine and sexy looking.

Person 1: So, gender is a matter of presentation and expression, not a matter of biology.

Person 2: No! Gender’s just about your genitals.

Person 1: Then, WALL-E’s nonbinary. He doesn’t have genitals.

Person 2: No, WALL-E’s a boy.

Person 1: Then gender is a matter of expression an-

Person 2: No! Gender is just biological!

Person 1: Then WALL-E doesn’t have a gender

Person 2: No! He’s a boy robot!

How to see whether a Chinese handmade teapot is well done or not - quality of the spout is an important standard.