Life gets hard and it gets messed up

But the Hobbit and the early chapters of Fellowship contain much more jarring and numerous anachronisms than post-Columbian-exchange plants. There are metaphors referring to gunpowder, guns, a train engine and express trains! There are commodities that are from the Old World, but were not widespread in Medieval Europe, such as coffee, tea and fireworks. Even silk might be a bit of a stretch. And then there are tons of things that could or technically did exist  in a medieval world, but we definitely associate them with later eras: top hats, public museums, clocks small enough to put on a mantelpiece, football, golf, mothballs, umbrellas, metal pens, water bottles instead of waterskins, Christmas crackers, and then there’s the entire question of the hobbits’ written culture. Paper appears widely available and cheap, not everyone is literate but there seems to be a large literate middle-class that owns multiple books, has long legal battles with paperwork involved, sends tons of letters, sends written party invitations, uses anachronistic pre-cut envelopes. Letters aren't carried by random servants, there's an official postal service and a post office: this all implies a level of literacy and written culture more typical of an Early Modern-ish setting. Or Regency? Or Victorian? But definitely super not Medieval.

Conclusion one: when Tolkien started writing The Hobbit he very much did not know where he would end up, which is thematically appropriate.

Conclusion two: Tolkien semi-intentionally wrote the Shire as low-tech but still very recognisably similar to modern England, so that the hobbits leaving its safety to enter an Actual Fantasy World would feel more relatable. (LOTR is a portal fantasy.)

Conclusion three: these are not the aspects of worldbuilding that actually matter, it is actually good that Tolkien is obsessed with mythology and linguistics and only sketches the rest of the worldbuilding out as far as it's necessary for the plot, no need to sweat the small stuff. You should only write about agriculture and taxation if you care about them as much as Tolkien cared about unhinged comparative linguistics.

someone sent me an anon ask about rocky meeting eva and i tried to post it not once but twice and tumblr ate it both times so now im just regular posting it here

i think ryland would grow to understand stratt’s choice with time, and even thank her logic of it because it led to his meeting of rocky, but i dont think he’d ever really forgive her for what she did to him

(Ryland had to prep rocky before they touched down to meet Stratt so he wouldnt charge her at first sight)

You have to hem *everything* eventually. Hemming isn't optional. (If you don't hem your cloth, it will start to fray. There are exceptions to this, like felt, but most cloth will.)

The type of cloth you choose for your project matters very much. Your clothing won't "fall right" if it's not the kind of stretchy/heavy/stiff as the one the tutorial assumes you will use.

Some types of cloth are very chill about fraying, some are very much not. Linen doesn't really give a fuck as long as you don't, like, throw it into the washing machine unhemmed (see below), whereas brocade yearns for entropy so, so much.

On that note: if you get new cloth: 1. hem its borders (or use a ripple stitch) 2. throw it in the washing machine on the setting that you plan to wash it going forward 3. iron it. You'll regret it, if you don't do it. If you don't hem, it'll thread. If you don't wash beforehand, the finished piece might warp in the first wash. If you don't iron it, it won't be nice and flat and all of your measuring and sewing will be off.

Sewing's first virtue is diligence, followed closely by patience. Measure three times before cutting. Check the symmetry every once in a while. If you can't concentrate anymore, stop. Yes, even if you're almost done.

The order in which you sew your garment's parts matters very much. Stick to the plan, but think ahead.

You'll probably be fine if you sew something on wrong - you can undo it with a seam ripper (get a seam ripper, they're cheap!)

You can use chalk to draw and write on the cloth.

Pick something made out of rectangles for your first project.

I recommend making something out of linen as a beginner project. It's nearly indestructible, barely threads and folds very neatly.

Collars are going to suck.

The sewing machine can't hurt you (probably). There is a guard for a reason and while the needle is very scary at first, if you do it right, your hands will be away from it at least 5 cm at any given time. Also the spoils of learning machine sewing are not to be underestimated. You will be SO fast.

The students all take turns telling him about themselves, what they like, what they want to do, who they are, and Grace in turn tells them about the names they make him think of, and the stories (fictional and real) that go with them, and the kids get to pick the ones they like.

It’s a beautiful exchange of cultures and personal experiences, and every class is unique (one class ends up entirely named after niche Star Trek characters after requests from multiple students result in “Earth culture storytime” devolving into Grace infodumping about his favorite show and everyone becomes obsessed). 

I love the mighty nein 🌟