Kes Beacon

Author, artist, crafter, all-round creative.

Currently working on my novels Oathbreaker and The Meat in the Machine.

Happy (slightly belated on both counts) fifth birthday and 30,000 views to Ganaka Pit, my Murderbot Diaries animatic!!

It hit 30,000 views on the 3rd of this month and turned 5 on the 7th. Genuinely still staggered by the amount of love so many people hold for this - I'm proud of it, of course I am, and I was proud of it to begin with, but to see it still getting attention and so many lovely comments on a steady trajectory five whole years later is literally mindblowing.

Back in 2020 I sent a bunch of my RPG characters to Pride. This year, I'm sending a handful of 'em back - but in honour of it pissing down at my local this year, this time it's raining.

Right, so, explanation needed. These were started back in April, during a hot spell, but not finished till afterwards, so I don't know if they work. Maybe I will by time of posting.

Every summer, I have a problem: thigh chafing. My thighs chafe on each other, and also on the seams of clothes, especially at the crotch. And I don't know if you've noticed, but every item of commercially-produced bifurcated garment (boxers, trousers, leggings, shorts, pyjamas, tracksuit bottoms, etc) has THE SAME CROTCH CONSTRUCTION with a nice chunky seam running up between the thighs. So I chafe on one, and I change to another, and the other one's seam just makes it worse.

The only thing that has worked to date is putting a plaster on the spot, but that gets expensive and the skin gets irritated.

So that's where these extremely stupid-looking shorts come in. They are a midlayer, since the crotch is open, but they are a very light cotton muslin and they are designed to place two very smooth curves of fabric right up between my thighs, one on each side of the crotch. The curve is edged with bias binding of the same fabric, with the stitching on the 'outside'. The fabric between the thighs is held smooth and down with elastic.

Like I say, they look really stupid. But they should squish down under whatever outer layer I am wearing, and they should PROTECT MY THIGHS FROM GETTING RUBBED.

EDIT from after I queued the post but before it posted. They... sort of work. Like, I walked a long way on the hottest day of the year and I didn't chafe. Unfortunately, I was still very uncomfortable and I kept having to adjust them.

A few months ago, just after we got married, me and my partner had to go up to A&E in a hurry (everything's fine now). I grabbed the first yarn that came to hand to continue making hexagons for my sky blanket (not pictured) and then realised it was too thick. However, I was stuck in A&E with no other yarn available so I was like, fuck it. Phone bag time.