full speed in the wrong direction

“Hey,” Cliff says, suddenly struck with the best idea he’s ever had. “I think I know someone you’d get along great with.”

“Marleau, I’m not really looking—“

“No, no, trust me. He’s a good guy, and one of the best hockey players I’ve ever met—aside from you, of course.”

Shane isn’t sure where Cliff is going with this, but he does know he’s not interested in anyone but Ilya.

“I know you mean well but—“

“Rozanov,” Cliff announces, grin a mile wide, and Shane blinks. Cliff, for his part, is incredibly sure this is a good idea; he knows that Ilya is bisexual, even if he doesn’t talk about it. Even Cliff is aware of the dangers with Russia. Even if the rest of the league hates it, they can fuck off.

Mistaking Shane’s silence for skepticism, Cliff continues, “I know he seems like an asshole, but he’s one of the best men you’ll ever meet. I know you’ve seen it—the whole rivalry thing is bullshit anyways, right? He’s actually a big softie…”

I had a lot of fun with this project and I also learned a lot along the way. Looking at the finished blanket, I can see how different my tension was for squares by how much they puff up after the seaming! This picture is after washing and drying, because first off, a blanket made over a year and a bit probably has a bunch of dirt on it and second, I don't want there to be any surprises if I tell the parents to toss it in the washer and dryer. I also lightly ironed but that didn't really stop the puffing.

I am extremely pleased with the design I chose for this - there were many variations in the running (and I had a little poll for it as well, here and on my discord) and in the end I went with a fun asymmetrical pattern that still had a lot of orderly lines to make me happy.

Also cannot believe that the colour lines could turn out this crisp - like I am shocked at the effect when they're arranged like this.

And now that I've made this, I do want to make something else with half square triangle crochet but not with cotton again because this was a pain to seam and it definitely has less stretch than wool would. Before this, I had bought yarn to make a cardigan from half square triangles and maybe I make that or I try for something else. We'll see.

This is what the backside looks like! the squares are joined with a slip stitch join through the back loops of the squares. It also worked out that there were 11 seams horizontally and vertically and I used 11 colours on this so I just used a different colour per seam and then did a final slip stitch edge all the way around.

me, an elder fandom veteran, suddenly having anne rice flashbacks:

no.

NO.

starting to rock back and fourth.

you do not understand.

you were born into an age of peace. i was there Gandalf. i was there three thousand years ago. i remember the cease and desists. i remember authors hunting fanfic writers for sport. i remember when every fic opened with a disclaimer because we genuinely thought it might protect us.

we do not charge money for the copyrighted gay wizard stories.

do not tempt fate youngling.

step away from the paywall.

that is how you summon the ancient evils.

"We know it looks like a butt plug, just drink the water, it's hot outside"

“I have something important to tell you but can’t message u pls message me ” - accidentally reported you scam

“I love your story and want to illustrate it dm me at discord” - commissioner scam

“I saw your post looking for artists to draw (x) and would love to draw it it sounds like a lovely idea and im an artist” - commissioner scammer who DM’d you when you didn’t ask

“Did you send me this link for free tumblr premium?” - accidentally reported you scam