frolickinganxiously

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My FO for the test knit of Acacia Leaf Cardigan🍂 by @/sedna.knitting on IG

I used stash yarn afraid of how the colours would look since they are not as contrasting as I wanted, somehow it turned out really beautiful to me :’) Planning to knit another one with dark olive an lilac🌿

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You think “oh it would be useful to learn how to identify my thrifted yarn and clothing” and before you know it you’ve been recruited by fiber witches giving out their spells willy nilly, again

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Gorgeous new dress from @idodeclaredesign and my handknit vest from a pattern by Teti's Knit Garden.

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After 4.5 years of making this I'm finally finished! The Beekeeper's Quilt pattern by tinyowlknits.

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Mila is ready for big adventures, despite her tiny size. To prepare for those adventures, she picked out her perfect companion outfit, playful glittery short-alls and a cozy hooded cardi.

Crochet toad/frog pattern by Claire Garland

Short-alls designed by me

Cardi designed by me

She is made with sock yarn, a 1.5 hook, and wires.

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I made a frog purse

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Making friends at the yarn show 🐑🐈

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Ett uppskattningsinlägg

Det var länge sedan jag skrev ett inlägg här, inte minst på svenska. Förlåt i förväg om min skrivning är sten.

Det var alla hjärtans dag igår.

Vi brukar inte bry oss om årsdagar eller andra parrelaterade firanden. Det var en gång när vi helt glömde vår årsdag och bara sov förbi den där dagen.

Men nu bryr jag lite om sådana firanden för jag inser att jag får en ursäkt att äta något fancy. Och med fancy menar jag inte fine dining, vinn, handgjort dyra choklader och försiktigt kurerade Instagram bilder. När jag säger fancy menar jag helt enkelt mat som inte är vardagsmat. Det kan vara pasta, grillat köt, ribs från Coop eller ICA... för att vara ärlig är jag glad om jag får Mcdonalds eller kebab.

Och det var alla hjärtans dag igår.

Vi hade redan bestämt oss att äta på stekhuset i stan och så åkte vi dit igår kväll.

Jag hade oxfilén och han hade ryggbiffen. Restaurangen var upptagen men maten var god. Det var en besvikelse att de inte längre hade potatisgratäng. Jag hade inga problem med klyftpotatis men killen var lite ledsen eftersom han förväntade sig inte friterad potatis.

När det var dags att betala frågade restaurangägaren oss om vi skulle betalar separat. Svaret var uppenbart nej. Men det väckte en känsla hos mig. Jag kände mig lite skyldig - varför är det alltid killarna som betalar mer under firanden?

Sen fick vi glass.

Jag ville betala men killen var för snabbt!

Vi åkte till hamnen och åt glass i bilen. Det var mysigt. Som vanligt tapade jag choklad på min jacka. Vi parkerade bilen framför vår lägenhet och gick till matbutik för att köpa ägg.

Till slut kom vi hem med ägg, salladslök, en påsse munk och en påsse bullar! Fyfan hahaaha

Vi har varit tillsammans i mer än fem år men det känns inte så. Vi skrattar mycket och är fortfarande barnsliga (man skulle argumetera att jag är barnsligare men ehhhh).

Jag har många problem som jag bör lösa, du har dina egna. Vi är långt ifrån perfekta, även om du har det finaste håret jag har någonsin sett. Ibland är jag överväldigad och du frusterad. Men det är okej. Allting är alltid okej.

Livet är spännande med dig. Livet är fullt av gladje med dig. Livet är skönt med dig.

Jag visste aldrig att jag kunde älska någon som jag älskar dig och jag har aldrig upplevt en kärlek som den du ger mig.

Jag hoppas att vi kan fortsätta utforska världen tillsammans.

Älskar dig.

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I've been sick and stuck on the couch, which is the perfect time to knit. These are my second pair of Petal drop socks. Black lace socks are quite difficult to photograph nicely.

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Embroidery project from fuck off ages ago I’ve had sitting in my drafts. Really do like this one, its kind of giving me faerie vibes.

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another week another sewing project

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Hazel the Chicken

I have knitted another emotional support chicken!

Meet Hazel, lovingly named by me, who up until very recently thought the hazel colour was brown, like hazelnuts. Turns out it was a combination of brown, gold and green.

I gave her the name because she was going to have hazel brown eyes and I had already decided on the name way before I even finished knitting her.

I had been referring to her as Hazel during the whole process and to be honest I think she is very Hazel. So yea, we are sticking with the name.

Unlike Hank, Hazel's stripes are not wonky! Yay! However, you can tell that I did not do a good job with the whip stitches on the second stripe. I blame this on the yarn Léttlopi. Léttlopi is single-ply and that means I as a tight knitter break the yarn when I sneeze in its general direction. I did not dare to tighten my stitches when I was seaming her stripe, fearing that I might break the yarn beyond saving.

I don't even want to imagine me doing a mattress stitch with Léttlopi.

That aside, I think I improved a lot with seaming!

Ah, but Hazel is not my child if she is not in some way wonky, right?

I messed up her comb! If you look closely, you can tell that the comb is skewed. And because of that Hazel looks like she has a receding hairline on one side.

Did I mention that Hazel and Hank are siblings?

Hazel is Hank's younger sister. Since she was knitted on 3.5mm needles, she is smaller than Hank, who was knitted on 4mm.

I originally wanted Hazel to have a strong, bold, somewhat sassy, maybe a bit of a goth-like personality. I thought the yarn colour would make her look like she is not a chicken you would want to mess with.

But after installing the eyes, I realised she looked just as kind and friendly as Hank.

Maybe a knit will always have a mind of its own.

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Fiber arts are a slippery slope. I started with knitting, then got the quilt bug about 6 months ago. Made a quilt, said I wasnt going to do it again for at least another year. My 2nd hand quilted blanket is almost done. Got my mom's old sewing machine, I'm thrifting shirts and tailoring them. Now I'm resisting the siren call of a RIGID HEDDLE LOOM? who am I. What's happening to me. I used to go to the club.

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Sewing Machines & Planned Obsolescence

I've got these two sewing machines, made about 100 years apart. An old treadle machine from around 1920-1930, that I pulled out of the trash on a rainy day, and a new Brother sewing machine from around 2020.

I've always known planned obsolescence was a thing, but I never knew just how insidious it was till I started looking at these two side by side.

I wasn't feeling hopeful at first that I'd actually be able to fix the old one, I found it in the trash at 2 am in a thunderstorm. It was rusty, dusty, soggy, squeaky, missing parts, and 100 years old.

How do you even find specialized parts 100 years later? Well, easily, it turns out. The manufacturers at the time didn't just make parts backwards compatible to be consistent across the years, but also interchangeable across brands! Imagine that today, being able to grab a part from an old iPhone to fix your Android.

Anyway, 6 months into having them both, I can confidently say that my busted up trash machine is far better than my new one, or any consumer-grade sewing machine on the market.

Old Machine Guts

The old machine? Can sew through a pile of leather thicker than my fingers like it's nothing. (it's actually terrifying and I treat it like a power tool - I'll never sew drunk on that thing because I'm genuinely afraid it'd sew through a finger!) At high speeds, it's well balanced and doesn't shake. The parts are all metal, attached by standard flathead screws, designed to be simple and strong, and easily reachable behind large access doors. The tools I need to work on it? A screwdriver and oil. Lost my screwdriver? That's OK, a knife works too.

New Machine Guts

The new machine's skipping stitches now that the plastic parts are starting to wear out. It's always throwing software errors, and it damn near shakes itself apart at top speed. Look at it's innards - I could barely fit a boriscope camera that's about as thick as spaghetti in there let alone my fingers. Very little is attached with standard screws.

And it's infuriating. I'm an engineer - there's no damn reason to make high-wear parts out of plastic. Or put them in places they can't be reached to replace. There's no reason to make your mechanism so unbalanced it's reaching the point of failure before reaching it's own design speed. (Oh yeah there is, it's corporate greed)

100 years, and your standard home sewing machine has gone from a beast of a machine that can be pulled out of the literal waterlogged trash and repaired - to a machine that eats itself if you sew anything but delicate fast-fashion fabrics that are also designed to fall apart in a few years.

Looking for something modern built to the standard that was set 100 years ago? I'd be looking at industrial machines that are going for thousands of dollars... Used on craigslist. I don't even want to know what they'd cost new.

We have the technology and knowledge to manufacture "old" sewing machines still. Hell, even better, sewing machines with the mechanical design quality of the old ones, but with more modern features. It would be so easy - at a technical level to start building things well again. Hell, it's easier to fabricate something sturdy than engineer something to fail at just the right time. (I have half a mind to see if any of my meche friends with machine shops want to help me fabricate an actually good modern machine lol)

We need to push for right-to-repair laws, and legislation against planned obsolescence. Because it's honestly shocking how corporate greed has downright sabotaged good design. They're selling us utter shit, and expecting us to come back for more every financial quarter? I'm over it.

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I have finished this baby quilt for my teammate at work, or I suppose more accurately it is for her baby.

My rule when picking fabric from my stash was that it had to have a floral element to be included. I like that despite being very floral it didn’t turn out to be girly like you might expect.

And I literally spent zero dollars on it. I even pieced together batting scraps and used some binding I had leftover from a different project.

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It is not done (needs seam binding and strap), but over the weekend I made a fish purse.

The pattern is here https://www.thegirlandthelamb.com/shop/swim-along-sewing-pattern and I used EPP to make the scaled body.

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Three savory, stinky pals (not really stinky)

These are made with the new garlic pattern, since I lost the one from 2017 whoopss