Textileophile

 It's only been about a week since I last posted, but boy howdy, do I have news! Well, I'll start from the beginning.  Two or three weeks ago, Zac ordered ceiling fans for the living room, office and bedrooms.  We spent the next week installing them.  It wasn't too difficult, the wiring in the house is brand new, and it was just a matter of getting them up there.  I helped, naturally, and it was a very productive week. Hazel's room was the penultimate one.  I sat on her carpet putting rubber grommets in the fan blades for attaching the metal bits while Zac was doing the wiring and installing the fan base.  I was admiring the pokemon, you know the first generation I stitched in 2021? Such an enormous amount of stitching, over 115 thousand little exes.  And so much fun to watch all the little monsters take shape. And then... I felt that familiar pull.  The one that makes me do nutty things like stitching entire pokemon generations.  When I...

 Well, shoot.  Another few weeks have gone by and uh, I'm afraid to say the reading train is still a chuggin'. There was some crafting though. I brought out my e-spinner, Ariel, for some continuation of this spin:       This is Merino bamboo, slippery as all get out, but not unenjoyable. I've been spinning on this while watching short things on youtube (things like catching up on a few knitting podcasts, watching Dansg08 play FFX using only 'attack')  Not actually very much progress, really, but if you work on something for 30-60 minutes every day-ish, you're likely to see progress. Last I talked, I was working on the redo socks from earlier this year.  I officially re-finished the first one, but I officially did not take a picture.  oop. The kids were on Spring break last week!  They mostly slept.  I had to pry them out of bed in the late afternoons to eat something before they crawled back to their dark hiding holes, only their faces a...

I, uh, feel weird posting again cause it's been a few weeks and I don't have very much at all craft-wise to show for it. I know I said I'd spin.  And I did.  A little bit. Well, now that looks like a lot a bit, but I have 3 more bobbins to fill and since this happened I have done fuck all on my wheel.  Shameful. And in fact, my drive band snapped when I was nearly done with this braid (this is 4 ounces of polwarth for the uninitiated/ forgetful among us).  I was able to reaffix the ends together with a bit of fire and gumption, but looking at it, well, it's yellowing.  And it's nearly 8 years old.  So, I did the thing and ordered a new one.  This isn't so strange. Wheels, like some other tools, have parts that are good for the life of it as long as you take care of them-- the wheel itself and all the wood and metal bits.  And then there are the parts that wear out like the drive band and the footman ties and the leather bits. All part of wheel upk...

So, you know how I said I'd be spinning a lot and there wouldn't be a lot to share.. Weeell, I lied.  and not only did I lie, I have things to share and I *haven't been sharing.*  Beyond shameful. I suppose I'll start where I left off last month.  No, I haven't really spun at all since then.  I watched The Good the Bad and the Ugly while spinning one day, fantastic movie, fantastic spinning.  And then I haven't spun at all since then. In fact, I've picked up my crochet hooks and have been doing a lot of nerdy things.  Things like replaying FFX and FFIX.  Things like, crocheting a Tonberry and finishing up the crochet part of my cardigan. Very little knitting has been happening, but I'm OK with that. So, on to the crafting: A Tonberry if you're uninitiated is a reoccurring nightmare in the final fantasy multi-verse.  He's a small, slow guy with a kitchen knife and is not afraid to stab you with his kitchen knife. XD I am going to go out on a limb ...

It's only been a few days, but I have some good things to chat about! I have a round up of finishes to talk about and a fancy new start.  Good things. First things first:   I finished my socks! These are nice.  I luff them. Secondly, I finished my final fantasy 9 epic cross stitch! This finish feels really good.  I love the way it turned out.  I am.. mmm.. a little unhappy with the subtle back-stitching I added, but it's not really my forte and it's fine.  I'm, well, I'm kind of proud of my work here.  It was a lot of it-- from the drawing of the pixel art and the converting it to a design to the stitching itself. The stitching was almost the least of it, cause I can cross stitch just about anything.  The title did get a bit long, but overall, it was an enjoyable cross stitch! I took a few hours in between finishing this and diverting my energies.  I had a big job to tackle, and it directly involved floss.  See, when I bought the 180ish ...

Hey there folks! What have I been up to, craftwise?  Well, honestly, not a whole lot. A few days after getting back into spinning that old shiny from Christmas, I stopped spinning altogether and now my wheel is sitting near the desk upstairs mocking me for taking it upstairs.  :sigh: Instead I've fallen back into cross stitch.  You see, I'm getting there with the FFIX cross stitch, I'm right about halfway through with Quina.  So, I had to work on them. This is several days of progress.  Quina is a large person, as you can see.  In the game they're a blue mage, so they learn abilities through eating.  And sometimes anime is as subtle as one of Quina's weapons (they fight with large sporks).  Anyway, the large swath of Quina's robe is why I put down the cross stitch in the first place.  But I'll never get through it if I don't work on it. Anyway, I'm also to the toe on the socks that I always have going: This was when I was to the heel of the s...

I've been crafting a lot in the week and a half since I posted last.  Most of  the things I did I actually foreshadowed in my last post.  Socks, spinning, finishing stuff.  So, let's get on it. In finishing stuff, I finished my sweater! And then knitting attacked. I don't know if you can tell.  You, a person who also has shoulders.  But there's something not quite right about the shape of this sweater.  It's got a long narrow top.  and most people aren't shaped like that.  In fact, I didn't even notice until I was all the way to the end of this, but the picture on the pattern showcases what's wrong with the sweater. As written, the collar area is gapey.  It's terrible.  Here, I tried it on for you: Look how stupid that looks.  Stupid designer. A friend on discord took a few ganders at it and said instead of ripping it out (my first choice) that I should take out the top 3 or so repeats of the raglan shaping and put the collar i...