#dailyroot2026

It took a while to figure out how Filet/fillet crochet was supposed to work, but it's easy enough once you get the hang of it.

Ignore the little pointy bits. I blocked it out a little too tight to correct some warping. This was done in number 10 off-white cotton thread with a 1.25mm hook.

There's a waxiness to the dandelion stems that I think might help them last longer exposed to the elements, but I'm not sure on that. Halfway curious what sort of wicks they'd make.

I'm thinking it'll be useful for adding to things that are meant to be left to nature, or allowed to return to the earth on their own time. They'll probably come in very handy for the garden, since it's one less bit of plastic to worry about.

"Why are you learning basket weaving and cord making and crochet and spinning and all of these other things?" Ehhhh...

Truthfully? I always found it fun, and I always felt that having a toolkit of survival skills like that was just a very prudent course of action.

If I can make cord I can make a fire bow. If I can make baskets I can carry things, but I can also make fish traps. If I can crochet, knit, sew, etc. I can make and repair clothing. Once a t-shirt is too far gone you can still cut it into strips, and cord those strips and crochet into a big ol blanket that'll get many more years out of every fiber.

I already skipped posting about this twice because I was sort of scrambling to get everything into position for what I had planned.

Every day this year I'll be doing reconnection, journaling, and writing in (or for) my "BOS". Alongside this (mostly as a place to turn to for ideas when my brain goes "I got nothin") I'll be using the Timothy Roderick "Year and a Day" book.

I am also making it a priority to tackle unfinished projects every, single, day until I have plowed through them all. And, yes... the Lenormand that got derailed by my life imploding is on the list.

Once in a while (whatever feels like a good "hunk" to talk about) I'll make a post here going over what I accomplished, sharing some selected pictures, etc. Every so often I'll collect some of what I've posted here, plus things I haven't, and translate that over at the big blog. Likely less in the form of "showing my work" and more in the form of "this is what unfolded when I actively engaged."

My calendar year is split into two "ritual" sub-'years'. These are roughly "Summer" and "Winter". One begins at the Midpoint between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, and the other starts at the opposing midpoint between Autumn and Winter Solstice.

It used to be that this lined up very well with the Oaks waking up and going to sleep. That... that got a little looser this last decade and this year they were putting on catkins in March. Not just one outlier with delusions of Summer. Nope. It's an overwhelming majority.

That would be okay if the seasonal shifts themselves didn't twist and pull the inner tides with them. This full moon feels like it wants to yank the wriggling, tumbling, ass-up, mote of the soul out and send it flying to some distant hilltop. It didn't, it just lets you know it wants to.

Still, the moon's face was hidden behind layers of tepid storm cloud that left the morning smelling of Spring.

One of the things I've been doing to re-ground time is daily prayers to 'planetary spirits'. The way I work is to throw out the titles and see which local shows up with "I'm pretty sure you meant me." An angel-worker I am not, but "O lord of smooth and beautiful words, of a lying tongue and a truthful tongue who knows all of the arts and sciences and is like unto both man and woman." ... Yeah, I know them. We go way back.

"Chalk markers" haven't been a good choice, because they leave a greasy residue (and have been pretty hard to remove in general). Instead I've been using water-activated gouache. The dark background doesn't have problems with staining, and opaque pigments are usually pretty non-staining anyway. I use a swiffer and (if I really need to) a magic eraser type sponge. But that latter really only needs to get busted out when I've let designs sit for too long in summer heat.

The existence of a "Ritual Swiffer" is, perhaps, comedic. But I can put whatever I like in the swiffer's tank. Infused "teas" can also be used to activate the gouache. It ain't dumb if it works.

Pouring a lot of time and effort into creating ornate "circles" does something. What is that something? Palpably intense is about the extent I can put it into words. There's an extra degree of attention from spirits, and an extra degree of "Oh shit I'm sorry I wasn't familiar with your game".

I haven't managed something significant every day but I have managed "something" every day. Usually progress on embroidery or crochet (robe and altar cloth respectively). Sometimes it's cleaning and organization. Sometimes it's taking offerings and harvesting bits and bobs.

I'm going to step up my game (so to speak). Today I crossed every "to do" off of my fridge list and am now typing up modified habit trackers for daily, weekly and monthly tasks. My goal is to be full clearing those lists by the end of the month, with no leftovers and no "it can wait."

I'm making new inserts for my fauxdori journal. I also got myself a lovely folder that holds old inserts, so I have somewhere better to store my "BOS" notes as they get filled up.

In all honesty I am fighting my way back from a very bad place. A place that was so bad that I didn't realize how bad it was until I was a couple of years removed from it. I need to thrive again.

The goal I have for the next six months is outmanoeuvring the part of my brain that says "It doesn't feed me dopamine so I'm not doing it." And, yes, it's also the part of me that has slowly been gaining weight.

Quite frankly: I do not give a single, solitary, fleeting, indo-pacific pygmy goby lifespan of a fuck about societal "standards" of beauty or weight or what other people think about my appearance - be it positive or negative. This is not about that.

Body positivity is beautiful, and I'm absolutely positive that my body hurts. Weight leads to pain, pain leads to being sedentary, being sedentary leads to weight. Weight, as you may have read previously, leads to pain.

A tip for anyone considering using it: Soak it thoroughly. Let it sit to rehydrate. Rinse the hell out of it with cold water. Let it sit to air dry, no heat! Wait until it is fully dry!!! Pull out all of the threads on one axis first, then the other. Don't even bother using tweezers - go straight for the needle nose pliers.

The stitching turned out beautifully, but the lining made it a little warm (and my waistline has grown which made keeping it closed a chore. I really need to trim down so things I love fit again). And naturally I forgot to add the belt loops...

I give it the smallest tug, and feel the entire thing start to come loose. Roots and all. "Oh. Well, fuck."

There is a trunk the size of my wrist, and a couple that are just a bit smaller. I think it's a knife-handle waiting for a blade (I can see it in my mind's eye... I just need to find the smith who will make it). I see runes as well. Beads.

I know this is not the end of our partnership, because it had all the pomp and circumstance of helping a friend clean their garage. But I know it's going to be different.