#mostly yarn and other craft supplies

[queerstudiesnatural]

sometimes watching tv is good :) i've been watching home decor and home organising shows for the past couple of weeks, and today is my very first day of summer holiday (perks of being a teacher) and i immediately started reorganising and cleaning up my home

[dandyshucks]

the dollar store did not have much for felt or fabric but i managed to scrounge everything i needed except for guz.ma's skin colour :(

i CAN make the janitor since they had a peach colour but I'll have to look around the house again to see if i can find anything that might work for guz's skin tone

[nightmaremonarch]

circus baby redesign! i redesigned every canon sister location animatronic except ennard and the little freaks (biddybabs n minirinas) so go check out my previous redesigns! feel free to use this with credit :)

if you want to see more fnaf redesigns let me know! now onto the explanationnn

Ok. So of all the redesigns. circus baby's deffo took the longest. the others each took around ~5 hours and circus baby's took. ten. mostly because of the excessive amount of detail i gave her. she's the main character! she needed way more detail!

so. anyways! i made her much more clowny! her name is circus baby, and her original design was barely a clown besides the face and the shoes!! so i upped it by a thousand, and now she's much more circus-y! she also needed a fun hat because i think the clown hat is very important and essential. for everything.

along with that she's covered in glitter! how r u gonna have a voice line of hers be "i was covered in glitter" and NOT cover her in glitter! so now? all her clothes sparkle!

out of all the funtimes i think her and funtime freddy are the largest because they both have to be proportional to their large internal systems, funtime freddy having the storage tank and circus baby having her "ice cream" machine. so for funzies and be she's so large her eyes r up really high!! cause.. nobody's gonna be viewing her from head on. so if she looks down at some kid or smthn, she looks more normal!!

like the other funtimes she still has all her original features!! i didn't know how to show an emergency stop thing though so she still has that, but it's probably. like. a button or something somewhere. also the tips of her fingers are the balloon makers !!

she also has a lot details that are really hard to see but like.. i thought they'd be fun to add!! one of those is sliver of blue in her eyes as a reference to her original eye color :)

her hair, like ballora's, is synthetic cause it adds more movement! and her most of her clothes are real. her hands, legs, and feet are rubber though.. so the gloves and socks are not real :( the ruffles on every part of her outfit were also very important and very necessary to the fnaf lore and not just be i like drawing ruffles!!

so inside her internal compartment are a supply of balloons, cake perfume (“i smelled like birthday cake”), ice cream, ice cream cones, an ice cream holder, and the scooper. to stay inside the scoopers all folded up in there like a really painful jack-in-the-box, so the internal compartment is really cramped and does not leave much room for anything else. it's kinda more a "murk on sight" thing rather than a "kill and contain" like funtime freddy because there simply isn't enough room for storing anything else.

also while i was making this i was thinking of a scrap baby design to maybe create in the future, but im probably not going to 😭😭 but. Scrap babies hair would be yarn and her face would be paper plates or something cause she raided a craft store. Idk where she got the roller skates but in this au scrap baby robbed a craft store.

Anywho! that's all for the sister location redesigns!! if anyone has any questions or wants to see other characters in this au Imk!! i love requests and i will answer the questions to the best of my ability!!

[trashpandacraft]

I'm a long time knitter thinking about getting into spinning (probably not soon bc I live in a tiny apartment and barely have room for my knitting stuff), but I'm curious: what do you do with your handspun yarn? Do you ever spin enough to make a larger project like a sweater? (That's mostly what I like to knit)

one of the cool things about handspun is that you can literally make anything out of it!

i personally have made socks, shawls, hats, mittens, scarves, and—once—a baby sweater, but not an adult sweater. (yet.) this is for a couple reasons, though.

first, i'm fat. i'm not especially fussed about it, but it does mean that just from a coverage perspective, my 53"/135 cm bust is going to need a lot more yarn than someone with a 35"/89cm bust.

the second reason complicates the first: i really don't like knitting with worsted-and-heavier yarns. i'm currently working on a jumper that has 4.75 stitches to the inch, and i am suffering because i hate how big everything is. so spinning for a jumper for myself means probably 2000 metres of sock weight. which, don't get me wrong, would be fun, but this brings me to:

the third (and biggest) reason, which is that i'm disabled, and for a lot of years i had to really limit how much spinning i could do because my damaged hips couldn't bear the motion of treadling. for probably ten years, i didn't spin more than 100g of anything, because even doing that much could take me a month or more of regular spinning sessions.

that said, reason the third has been largely mitigated by my eel wheel, so i've actually been thinking about trying to spin for a sweater this year! my personal physical issues made spinning really hard for a while, but generally speaking, there's absolutely no reason you can't spin for a sweater, and there are quite a few people around here who've done so with beautiful results.

i will say, with regards to spinning, that it's a remarkably forgiving craft with regards to space. i cleaned out my nightstand the other day and discovered four spindles and 50g of fibre in it—i hadn't even realised they were in there! spinning supplies can be really tiny, so it's actually a great choice for small spaces. a drop spindle and some fibre will fit almost anywhere you want them to, so space doesn't have to be a huge concern if you don't want it to be. i hope you give it a go!

[slasher-male-wife]

General relationship head canons for Jason Voorhees

Happy Friday the 13th everyone. I wanted to write something for my sweet baby girl, also happy unofficial birthday Jason.

Warnings: Mentions of murder, violence, kidnapping, Stockholm syndrome

Jason Voorhees

The way your relationship starts is when Jason kidnaps you. He was watching you the entire day or however long you've been at Crystal lake. The main reason being that he thinks his mother would have loved you and that whoever you were with aren't good for you.

In the beginning of the relationship he's mostly going to be giving you small gifts and doing things for you as a way to show affection. He won't do physical affection until you initiate it first.

Part of him showing you affection is trying to cook for you. Now it's not going to be great food but he's trying. If you want to cook he'll let you, but watch over you carefully so he knows you're not trying to pull anything on him.

But as the relationship goes on he's going to follow you around like a puppy more and more. He's still going to be a 'provider' for you but when you're together he's going to follow you around as a way to protect you.

Speaking of protecting you, you're not leaving the house without him. Probably a year into your relationship he'll let you go out to a local town to go get stuff from the store.

You'll be joining him for walks in the woods a lot. He might be setting up bear traps or just gathering firewood, he wants you there with him.

He knows he can't hide that he kills people from you but he's going to make sure that you avoid all of the violence and blood that comes with killing people.

Just in case you do get in trouble he's going to want to teach you self defense. It's not like formal training or anything just how to throw punches and use weapons and stuff.

I feel like Jason also knows a good amount of medical knowledge. Some of it was learned on his own but I also think that he's found medical books in the camp infirmary that he's read.

Speaking of books there is so many at camp. There's a lot of different types of books too. Most of them being ya books but there's also cook books and novels the councilors were reading floating around.

Books aren't the only thing left at camp. I'm sure Jason has a big collection of other little projects and supplies for other fun things to do as well. Most likely arts and crafts stuff but still probably old toys if you're into that. I could also see Jason having stuff like sewing kits, yarn, knitting needles and crochet hooks from his mother.

He won't really open up about his mother or really any of his emotions or mental health struggles to you until like a year into the relationship. Most likely because he's seen how emotional men get treated by watching other boys interact with each other. Also because it's a sensitive topic for him.

On a lighter note he will love to share clothes with you. It's most likely that you're smaller than him because he is 6'5 and built like a linebacker so his clothes might be too big on you but that just makes him adore you even more.

I mentioned this before but Jason can and will build you furniture for the cabin. It won't be totally uniform but it'll still look pretty good.

He's also going to let you figure out how to decorate the cabin. You might not have much to work with in the beginning but I'm sure that it'll turn out great either way.

[pollenallergie]

Billisms Pt. 2

Some more headcanons about my favorite blorbo. Enjoy. <3

Side note: a bitch is running out of not-sad Billy Knight gifs so pls accept this up-close JQ gif instead (using an up-close gif bc Billy’s hair isn’t as curly as JQ’s)

Not only is Billy practically a grandmother trapped in a 26-year-old man’s body, he quite literally has a posse of elderly people (mostly elderly ladies) that he meets with once a week at the local community centre for a knitting circle. Although, occasionally, the group will switch things up by having Billy lead/instruct a paint night instead of doing their usual knitting and gossiping. His favourites of the group are Evelyn and Auggie. Evelyn is an 82-year-old who’s originally from Newcastle, and she’s one of Billy’s favourites because she’s quiet and doesn’t easily trust others, but once she opens up to you, she’s incredibly kind, although she’s also a bit of spitfire. Auggie is a 70-something-year-old native Londoner who tells the greatest stories, most of which occurred before he settled down with his husband Hugh, and who always carries around a bag of sweets to snack on throughout the day; Billy is the only person in the whole group who Auggie willingly shares his sweets with. <3

You and Billy tend to seek comfort using your foreheads… Let me explain… When you’ve had a rough day, you’ll come up to Billy and rest your forehead against his back or shoulder. When Billy’s not feeling well, he’ll come up to you, gently grab one of your hands, and hold it to his forehead so that the heat of your warm palm can soothe the pressure in his head. When either of you is having a bad mental health day and desperately need some reassurance and consolation, you’ll rest your foreheads against each other, breathing in each other’s air in deep, grounding breaths as you relish in the closeness. It’s something you’ve always done since you were a kid, and within the first few months of your relationship with Billy, he’d swiftly picked up that habit from you. <3

You like to bring Billy along with you to shop for clothes and makeup so that he can use his profound knowledge of colour theory and his artist’s eye to help you pick out the products and clothing items that will best compliment your features, your skin tone, your eye colour, the colour of your hair, etc. Then, afterward, you reward him for his complaint-less cooperation by letting him drag you along with him to do whatever it is that he wants to do; visit an art gallery or museum, go to his favourite bakery so that he can get some spiced chai and eat his weight in delightful little desserts, go shopping at the nearest craft store so he can stock up on yarn and art supplies, grab lunch at his favourite Vietnamese restaurant, walk around the Chelsea Physic Garden and marvel at all of the beautiful fauna, anything his lovely heart desires. <3

You and Billy adopted a cat shortly after moving in together. The little fella is seven years old, has a permanent resting bitch face, and is named Dennis after ‘Dennis the Menace’ because he’s a mischievous little guy. Despite his serious attitude problems, Billy loves that little guy more than life itself. Truthfully, Dennis is more so Billy’s cat than yours because he really only loves Billy, or at least, Billy’s the only one Dennis loves unconditionally. Don’t get me wrong, Dennis likes you a whole lot, he thinks you’re pretty great, but he definitely only loves you some of the time. Dennis loves you when you scritch his little chin, when you sneak him extra treats, and when you indulge his desire to be carried around like a human infant constantly. However, his love for you fades when you try to give him his antidepressants (yes, your cat is on antidepressants… he’s a little guy with big emotions), when you reprimand him for trying to hop up onto the counters and the kitchen table, when you move a little too much in your sleep, thereby interrupting his essential 12-hour-long nap, etc. Billy, however, can do no wrong in Dennis’s eyes. The way Dennis sees it, Billy is his biological mother, gender and species incompatibilities aside, while you are only his step-parent. <3

Billy’s the kind of partner that enjoys slow dancing with you in your kitchen, listening to slow, easy music whilst you both wait for your dinner — an impressive roast that Billy had been working on all evening with you as his sous chef — to finish cooking in the oven. <3

It’s like his brother’s ex-wife, Dawn, said, Billy’s “a sweet boy.” He’s always been a sweet boy. When he was little, before his mum passed, the ladies in the village used to think Billy was just darling, always doling out compliments and offering to help out in any way he could. His teachers always liked him, too; they said he was incredibly mild-mannered and bright. Really, the only people who’d never liked him were his father and his older brother, Jimmy. They had no empathy, no compassion. When Billy was having a rough time emotionally and mentally, they were quick to write him off as a burden or, worse, to punish him for something entirely out of his control. All their violence and vitriol only made things worse, made him more troubled, made the voices louder, made him more timid and uncertain, and made him more skittish. However, the wickedness of his father and brother could never dull his sparkle, could never rob him of his kindness, could never turn his warm, tender heart to cold stone. Even after all the horrors he’s endured at their hands, Billy’s still the sweetest man you’ve ever known. He’s sweet in more than just that classic, chivalrous way. Sure, he holds doors open for you, cooks for you, walks on the side of the pavement that’s closest to the street whenever the two of you walk to places together, constantly tells you how pretty you are and how much he loves you, etc. However, he also does much, much more than that. For example, Billy buys you a bouquet of flowers from the supermarket every single time he goes shopping for groceries. In fact, that’s something he started doing long before he even moved in with you. Billy would go to the supermarket or a nearby corner shop to stock up on groceries for him and his flatmate. On the way back to his flat, he would make a quick (truly not all that quick, as your flat was usually a bit out of the way) trip to your place to drop off a lovely bouquet that he’d bought for you and to check in on you. Also, on nights when it’s his turn to make dinner, Billy has you talk about what you’re studying in your courses at the moment (for my fellow university babes) or a project that you’re working on at your job whilst he cooks because he knows that you best absorb information and retain it long term when you teach it to others. I could go on and on about all the sweet things Billy does for you, but instead, I’ll just offer you one last example: He lets you cry when you need to. Billy doesn’t try to quiet you or to dry your tears; he holds you and lets you cry, lets you sob as loud as you need to, and lets you get it all out. He doesn’t try to talk you through it; he knows that’s not what you need. So, he just holds you. Whenever you try to put on a brave face and reign in your emotions, Billy will even encourage you to cry (gently and kindly, of course); he’ll remind you how good it is for you to let it out, how natural and valid it is to feel the way you’re feeling, and how it’ll likely make you feel much better if you face these intense emotions head on instead of repressing them. <3

[plethomacademia]

this is an invitation to infodump about your hobbies i want to know more about them and what brings you joy about them

Buckle up kids.

There's the one you see: writing. There's the related one: reading. Also the fanfic related one: gaming. Those are the known entities.

I am also really big into what my partner calls "soft works," aka hobbies that involve soft materials like yarn, thread, fabric.

I have been knitting for over 25 years, crocheting for 15.

I cross stitch, I embroider (a little, I am not as good), I do sashiko.

I mend mine and my partner's clothes when I can.

I have a sewing machine and make some of my own clothes because I am now a 2X in US sizing which means nothing except straight sizes tend to exclude me and plus sizes tend to run out of my stuff, so I just make my own now. It also means I think hard about what clothes I actually need.

I have a rigid heddle loom and have just started getting into weaving. I have made nothing successfully but I am taking a couple classes in June. I long term really want to try a floor loom.

I want to learn everything. I have done some needle felting, want to do more. I want to learn enough leather working to make bags. I want to learn punch needle. I want to do some quilting.

The only fabric art I think I do not want to do is dying but there is a dye studio in Philly that I plan to take a class at long term to see if I am wrong actually.

I also never plan to do spinning. My friend does spinning. I have seen how spinners end up with tons of yarn. I pride myself on keeping my craft supplies pretty tight, mostly because I have too many hobbies not to, so I am happy to just buy yarn made by other talented spinners.

I also really want to try pottery but that's another conversation entirely.

[olderthannetfic]

Okay, but where did the recent yarn - and all things crafted with it - craze come from? Or has it been building for a while and I just didn't notice? No intention to offend, I'm just genuinely curious. In all the discord servers I'm in, there is a whole bunch of people getting really into knitting. And I see it here on tumblr too. Curious minds want to know!

--

Oh? Are you seeing a new craze.

I got into knitting in college in 1999 and then wandered away for a long time. I got back in last fall after discovering a discount store that sells 100% wool and other fancy-ass yarns I like but dislike paying full price for. I mostly knit sweaters, and that means a lot of yarn.

Overall, the pattern I've seen is that in the early 00s, Stitch N Bitch Nation or whatever that book franchise is called started up and then college students decided the craft was cool. (It had previously been hip in the 1920s, mainstream in the 40s, and embarrassing grandma stuff by the 70s.)

Some level of young people remained interested post Stitch N Bitch era, but the recent big boom was in the early pandemic when it joined sourdough bread as an unwise new hobby people bought supplies for and then didn't stick with. (Leading to the second hand yarn store being liberally blessed with sweater lots of expensive silk-wool blends. Thanks, suckers!)

I don't know why there would be a sudden bump just now. Perhaps the pandemic bump is filtering out to other people.

Fiber arts is a crazypants "My hobby is my personality" subculture though, so if your friends are falling in, they have a long, long way to fall.

If you're asking about my tumblr specifically, I started mentioning my own projects a few months ago, and all of the fiber people crawled out of the woodwork. It's not new. It just hadn't come up.

[aybri]

Hey! Wanna know about my Cool OC World/Potential Series™️?

N- No?

Well too bad, cause I'm gonna tell you about the wonderful world of...

Angel Valley

About

Angel Valley is a small town in the middle of nowhere. The buildings are old and unkept, the grass is tall and thick, it's almost always raining super heavily... weirdly though, despite it seeming like quite an old town, it's filled with mostly teenagers and young adults.

The culture is a bit weird. Every single person there, no matter their personality or the vibe they give off, is shockingly good with technology. Hell, half of the population uses Linux. Everyone tends to reference memes a lot, even the graffiti is just more reposts.

Nobody ever seems to leave. You may think they just like the town, but the truth is that everyone there is cursed. When all the clocks strike 12 and the moon is high up in the sky, you'll be trapped in Angel Valley forever. Try to talk about the curse while someone unaffected is listening, and your head will begin to spasm and glitch out, eventually killing you if you don't stop.

Nighttime is dangerous. Mysterious, pitch-black creatures called "Bits" stalk the night. Their appearances are heavily variable with random, strange body parts. Sometimes, they'll look blocky and sharp; other times, they may look more "human" than you; often it'll be a mixture of the two and more. Don't be too afraid, though, they mostly just go for lonely noobs. Stick around a local and you'll be safe.

Occasionally, a shining light will guide lost souls through to safety. Angel Valley has it's very own guardian angel, but whether it's truly good or evil, no one is too sure.

In summary, it's kinda like Silent Hill but with a video game-y, internet culture-y twist and everyone is kind of used to the weirdness and honestly don't mind at all.

Main Characters

Aybri - Self insert, baby! She's intelligent to a fault and kind to a fault. She loves planning everything out meticulously, but often fails in her goal. Doesn't stop her from buying out the entirety of her local arts and crafts store's yarn, thumbtack, and corkboard supply.

Nathan - Aybri's older brother. Super tall, easily angered, could easily squish you if he wanted, addicted to alcohol. On the inside though, he's a big softie, and with the help of anger management therapy he's managed to channel that anger into protective instincts for the ones he loves. D'awww!

Sam - NOT MY CHARACTER. Certified newbie to Angel Valley, but he's doing his best to learn the ropes. Witty and sarcastic, but in an endearing, fun way. The most badass of the bunch.

The three live in an apartment together and get up to all sorts of wacky hijinks with their other friends from across the town, including but not limited to: stealing from an auction, running from fake cyborg angels, running away from glitchy eldritch beings, doing a LOT of introspection in the rain, and hacking into several important government mainframes.

[kindheart525]

Sunset Shimmer’s empathy senses were tingling all of a sudden. It happened whenever Marmalade or Blackfire were struggling with one of their projects, or Peach was feeling unwell, or any of her friends were going through something. But this was a bit different. 

She had a strong intuition but she also had working ears, when she entered her Mother’s house she heard sobbing and was determined to find out what was the matter.

“What’s going on here?”

The sight she found was a heartbreaking one, her niece curled up in her youngest daughter’s arms, crying her heart out. Both of them were surrounded by socks and yarn and all sorts of craft supplies, the physical mess almost as big as the emotional mess.

Her niece who she wanted so badly to connect with…opening up to her cousin first. It wasn’t jealousy—no, Sunset had mostly moved past that more toxic stage of her life. Instead it was regret, as she realized she hadn’t really been there for Luster as much as she should have.

“Mom! Hi!”

Peach suddenly perked up at Sunset’s presence, shifting herself a little so Luster could face her.

“What’s going on here?”

Sunset walked closer, ever so gingerly. She was normally pretty self-assured except for those times, like now, when she feared she wasn’t as emotionally tactful as she’d worked so hard to be.

“Do you want to tell her? Or should I?”

Peach pulled away from Luster a bit, allowing her the space to speak.

But the filly didn’t respond at first, practically hyperventilating so hard she couldn’t get a word out. And she didn’t want to.

“Y…you wouldn’t understand!”

She finally squeaked out.

Then Sunset asked the question that even she herself had been dreading.

“Is it about your parents?”

This triggered a fresh wave of tears out of Luster, once again reminded of the harsh reality she faced.

Peach immediately dove in to do damage control, she was all for helping Luster express her feelings but she didn’t want her to feel even worse than she had to.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to! It’s okay!”

“I don’t think YOU want to talk about it!”  

Luster pointed her hoof straight at her aunt.

“You’ve barely talked to me at all other than that first time! And even then you didn’t talk about it! It’s like you want to forget about him! It’s like you don’t want ME around!”

Those words were the most stinging Sunset Shimmer heard in a long time.

Her dear little brother. Once so close, and then like strangers. All because of her selfishness. She was so young when she burned that bridge, yet deep down she thought she’d get another chance one day, when she was ready to face that part of her past—but now it was too late.

But it wasn’t too late to get to know the daughter he left behind.

For too long she had been avoiding the topic herself, never forgetting but trying to push down the regret. But now was the time to be honest, with both her niece and herself.

“No Luster, I never want to forget about him. I do want you around, more than anything. And I’m so sorry I ever made you feel like I didn’t. Maybe I was trying to avoid feeling it myself as much as I didn’t want to upset you, but…”

She took the filly’s hoof in her own.

“I do want to talk about it, if you do.”

This was all Luster wanted. Through all her attempts at bonding with her cousins, she longed to get to know her aunt, hoping she could finally find solace in somepony who shared the same loss without all the fighting and drama. 

To finally confront her feelings, guided by somepony who felt the same way.

“Yes please, Aunt Sunset. I do. I really do.”

She wasn’t normally a touchy-feely filly, but all she could do in this moment was lean into her auntie’s open arms, soon joined by her cousin in a group embrace. 

For perhaps the first time, she felt like there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe far away, but finally both mare and filly could start to heal their old wounds together.

~~~~~~~~~~

Previous: Peach Skin Next: Unique Perspective

[encephaloscope]

I wrote this little short story last year to send to a knitting magazine who always calls for articles and other texts at the same time as they call for patterns. they never picked it to be published, so I decided to share it with the world. it's just a lil fiction piece and I had lots of fun working on it (mostly in the parking lot at my workplace when I arrived too early and waited to get inside). hope you like it.

***************

Her Craft Room

I hesitated as my fingers reached for the doorknob. I hadn't been in that room for months.

I took a deep breath and made contact with the cold brass. The door creaked as it opened.

This was my girlfriend's craft room. Everything in here was hers except for the vintage armchair with the velvet fabric. She loved to sit in that chair to knit when she spent the weekend at my place, so when we moved in together three years ago, I suggested we place it in her craft room.

I took a few steps inside. Dust was dancing in the sunlight that the big, south-east facing window was letting in. The natural light was the reason she had claimed this room as hers.

I sat in the velvet chair and took a moment to look around. The desk was messy, filled with craft supplies. On the wall, shelves were heavy with bins of various fabrics, ribbons and scraps of paper. She could never settle on one hobby.

To my right, at the feet of the armchair, was her knitting project basket. She called it Area 51, because it contained all her UFOs - Unfinished Objects. On the top of the pile, I could see my favorite pair of socks, the first one she made for me. She was going to mend them for the third time.

I reached into the basket, under my holey socks, for the project bags. There were two. I opened the smallest one to find a colorwork hat. A piece of paper was also in the bag - the chart she was following.

Judging from the highlighted rows, it looks like she was about halfway done. The yarn was a bit rough for my taste, but I know these more rustic yarns were her favorite. She didn't find them scratchy at all.

The contents of the second bag surprised me. I recognized this project, because I had started it.

Two years into our relationship, we visited Portugal and Spain. She was ecstatic when she found a little yarn shop in one of the cities we explored. I have to admit I was also impressed by the richness of the fibers and the colours they offered. Soft yarns, scratchy yarns, thin ones and big ones, in a multitude of shades. Her happiness, the stars in her eyes as she went from one shelf to the other, carrying multiple balls of fluff in her arms - I still carry this memory with me all these years later. I wanted to pay for her yarn, as a souvenir of our travels and an anniversary gift. She agreed on one condition: that I also chose a few skeins and let her teach me how to knit.

I picked a few balls of medium weight rustic yarn, because I liked the color. She had assured me I would get used to the texture and that once knit and washed, it would feel very soft. Back home, she taught me how to cast on stitches and how to make a knit stitch. With this new knowledge, I set out to knit a garter stitch scarf, a classic beginner project. Unfortunately, I lost interest pretty fast. I couldn't get used to the feeling of the rough yarn on the delicate skin of my hands. She wasn't mad. She said she was happy I tried and spent this time with her sharing one of her favorite pastimes.

This was the project I was looking at. The old garter stitch scarf I had started so long ago. There was a very noticeable difference in the stitches about five inches from the edge, where I had abandoned it and where she had picked up. Her work was even and tight, whereas mine was irregular and loose in some places. She has added ten inches or so.

I took a needle in each hand. Did I remember how to do this? I tried a first stitch. Then another. And soon I found myself completing a row. The yarn felt rough but I was too focused on the movements and the rhythm to bother.

I did not keep up with the craft back then, but I could listen to her talk about it for hours. One of my favorite topics was the vocabulary. She told me about the abbreviations that the knitting community uses, like FO, WIP, and one of my favorites: SABLE, which stands for Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy. The knitter's version of "biting off more than you can chew".

I looked up from my work in progress, towards the bookshelf. Of course, it did not house books, but instead an impressive number of skeins and balls of yarn, some new, some half used. Her own personal yarn store, carefully curated to fit her palette, with some odd balls in the mix because they were just "too fun to pass on".

How I missed her smile, her touch. The rough yarn I was holding suddenly felt very soft. I knit a few more rows, contemplating how in this very moment I was sitting in her chair, knitting with her needles, feeling so close to her.

I decided I would keep knitting, as I couldn't imagine parting with her precious yarn. Her stash acquisition beyond life expectancy.

[aspl1tl1fe]

Setting Up Audre 3.3

Back at the Sea Salt Strip to wrap up the Crafter’s Paradise showing. As mentioned in last week’s post, today I’ll be sharing shots of the art supply store’s furniture section, as well as snaps of the second floor.

I’ve wanted to build a furniture store for the longest time, but just never got around to it. While this isn’t exactly what I had in mind, and do plan to have a lot set up for that purpose, putting this together partially fulfilled my desire to design this kind of retail space.

As I’m only supplying art related items at this shop, the furniture section of Crafter’s Paradise only includes (mostly cc) draft tables, and bar stools, which can be used with the Ambitions’ item.

I got Ambitions to play the interior design/architect career. It was my first expansion, and as I came to the game a couple of years after it’s launch, I selected it from a number of other pack options. Ironically, I never actually got around to playing this career path. I think I came across LRG’s review for the pack before installing it, and was disappointed with how it actually worked in game.

I don’t even think I’ve used the drafting table in any modern games, and only rarely in my others. I don’t dislike the item, I think it’s that there are too many objects for the painting skill. 

The glass staircase in the picture just above this, leads to the part of the store set aside for sewing, knitting, crocheting and quilting. 

I placed a bunch of deco fabric items, sewing dummies, and kits up here. Originally, I was only going to sale the objects from the hobbies and skills section, both cc and official. But the space would have been too bare. What I did instead was mix the previously mentioned deco objects with the items required for the crafting mods I uses. So the material for Lyralei’s Functional Sewing Table and the yarn items for @zoeoe-sims​’ Knitting mod (both mods are available on ModTheSims).

A better shot of how I did that is just below.

Those shelves that are kind of flanking the staircase are actually from a yoga fitness set, whose creator I am drawing a blank on at the moment. I’ve used these several times to fill out crafting spaces, despite the limited ways in which the rolls can be recolored.

I think they go really well with this space, and make it easy to give a full shelf store look.

This next picture has a better shot of the cc items that came with the above mentioned mods. 

It is also the last shot of the second floor, this shop, and the last of the lot. Next week, I’ll share images from a new public strip located just around the corner.

[ittybittywaterlily]

hi lol i’m not dead, just. very very unmotivated to make any sort of content LMAO

i’m looking through my drafts (which have been sitting here for 3+ years at LEAST) and past me had some pretty interesting ideas for stories mostly borrower stuff and a few outliers, but lemme see if i can get the gist out of the biggest storyline i have in my drafts here under the read more

this one originally started out around the peak of my activity, so it’s probably the one i’ve put the most thought into

so i have three borrower families, but the last two are the ones i’ve put the most attention into:

- Seam, Patch and Acacia Alcove: the first characters to be conceived. Seam and Patch were siblings who lived under the guidance of their grandpa Acacia, and the family lived behind a shelf in a craft room. With Grandpa Acacia getting in on years and not being able to go out as often, he now teaches his grandchildren the ins and outs of borrowing.

The family is incredibly resourceful, with plates and bowls fashioned out of polymer clay, quilts made out of fabric scraps, and even some furniture carved out of wood by Acacia himself in his younger years.

- Potter, Dawn, and Tisp Tile: To be honest, Tisp was the most thought out in this family. Yes, I named her after the Sleeping Beauty scene where the fairies try making a cake for Aurora and call teaspoons “tisps”. I can only assume Dawn comes from the dish soap and Potter comes from, well, pots.

The family lived underneath the kitchen of an old house, the main entrance being under a loose tile. Tisp is around 6 years old and has a doll made out of a small chess pawn and some yarn. She’s a bit shy, but is a very inquisitive child. She loves helping her mom arrange her findings after borrowing trips, and would love to be as experienced as her someday. The family is very familiar with human customs.

- Aphrodite Tine: Nicknamed and always referred to as “Dite”, she’s a young adult who lives by herself in the house’s (rarely used) upright piano. She’s been living on her own ever since she was separated from her parents mid-move. Having never really come into contact with any other borrowers, she comes off as standoffish and blunt.

Everything she knows about borrowing comes from the bits and pieces of information she learned from her parents and pure trial and error as she tried to survive before eventually settling down in the piano. Tisp and Dite’s stories were meant to be connected.

So the gist of the Dite and Tisp’s story is this: for some reason or another, the Tiles have to move away. Maybe the kitchen is getting a renovation that involves replacing the flooring? Maybe Dawn was seen while borrowing? I never specified the reason when I came up with this story for some reason. But the family has to go, but they can’t bring Tisp with her. She’s a child, for pete’s sake, the stress and potential risks are too great for them to bring their only daughter along on such a trip.

Luckily, they aren’t planning to move far; their destination is the nearby forest just past the house’s backyard. Potter and Dawn decide to leave Tisp with Dite, who they’re acquainted with (and by acquainted, Dawn spotted Dite coming back from a borrowing trip once and pretty much insisted she stay until the next night when Dite mentioned how far her home was from the kitchen). They won’t be long, Potter and Dawn reassure Dite. They’ll be away just until they clear out an area and make a home for themselves, and then Potter will come back for Tisp when everything’s ready.

So begins a series of Dite trying to raise this ball of sunshine with no prior experience, while at the same time, trying to get enough supplies for them both while also trying not to be seen and put both her and the Tile family’s futures in danger.

There were also unfinished oneshots: One of Dite heading back to the (now abandoned) Tile household to search for Tisp’s doll, and another holiday-centric one where Tisp finds out Dite has never celebrated the holiday season and decides to remedy that.

extra notes: originally i was going to have Tisp in the care of the Alcoves, but with the idea of Dite beginning to take form, i guess i decided it’d be more interesting to have Dite and Tisp form some kind of found family thing.  after that, i saw the Alcoves living in a house separate from the one the Tiles and Dite live in, but looking at it now, there really isn’t any reason for all three families to coexist in the same house. i did imagine it to be fairly large, after all. the og borrowers book had several families living in the same house too iirc

speaking of humans... that was actually the part i was most stuck on lmao but i imagined the human family to be composed of a single mom and her two sons. the older one was somewhere in middle school while the younger was around elementary. the most coherent plot point i remember was that Tisp snuck out after an argument with Dite, which would cause her and the younger boy to meet. the younger boy promises to keep the secret of Tisp’s existence a secret, but like most children, he’s not exactly too good at hiding something he’s excited about. his older brother catches on, but he and his mother both brush it off as a case of imaginary friends.

thinking about it now, i could maybe have the older brother tease the younger one to the point where he does reveal Tisp and Dite? hmmm

[gaypandaindistress]

HOMESCHOOL PTSD

When I was a kid my mom decided school was some sort government conspiracy, no joke and decided to homeschool us but she didn't really know how so she bought some workbooks from the local school supply store and hand us crayons and hope for the best. I didn't learn to read until I was eight.

I wanted to be an astronaut when I was 9. my mom got me a book from a school supply store and we read it together and then she told me that astronaut did not seem like a viable career choice and told me to dream smaller. As an adult I settled on becoming a problem as an alternative. Now I mostly lurk on World of Warcraft servers and pretend I know how to heal. 

I have a job but its mostly based on telling other adults that they can adult while I do NOT adult because its stupid and it sucks.  I am going to college and I have no idea how my GPA is so high, mostly because I am really good at convincing people I know what the hell I am talking about. 

I don't. I have terrible short term and long term memory and the self restraint of a squirrel. My redeeming qualities are being compassionate and good at finding resources. I can make things out of other things. SO I own way to many things to make other things with. Yarn, glue, paint paper, fabric, in case I need them.

so of course whenever I find a new project I want to do I never have the supplies I want. So I have to go buy them which would be bad for my budget if I understood math, but since my mom never taught me that either .... well here we are. 

Craft store math is its own particular kind of math because all the signs are like Buy 4 get 3 free or buy 5 and get 2 free or pay for one of them with a pictures of a chicken. And I go in expecting the prices to be this item costs this much money but instead the prices are all subjected to some sort of random lottery system based on what instgram said was cool this week and I just wanted some brown paint damnit.  

[godofmichif]

Heyyy so I need to bring a gift (more or less $20) for the gift exchange in the fnmi centre at my school but idk what to make/get. Any ideas?

I am assuming FNMI means First Nation-Metis-Inuit haha. Gosh so many ideas! Are you crafty at all? I love going the handmade way myself. But if you're looking for more things to just buy:

Beads! It is almost certain you have a couple beaders at the centre. You're going to want seed beads mostly but you can buy in any colour or style. You could seriously just spend $20 buying your favourite colours, put them all in a bag and call it a beading kit.

Other craft supplies. Beading needles, small loom, ribbons, things for leather art, yarn. We got a lot of craft we do haha. Some of us do carpet knotting for some reason.

Tea. You could buy something in a nice tin or maybe create a little tea advent calendar of different flavours.

Jewelry. Luckily Indigenous men can be a little easier to shop for since they tend to wear a bit more jewelry than our non-Indy friends. A rosette, necklace, medicine bag holder and hair accessories (especially if you got a lot of guys rocking the traditional look) are usually unisex. Probably be hard to find something with a lot of beads for $20 but you never know. I was about to shameless promote my own etsy store for the jewelry I sell there but maybe I shouldn't cross real life with my fandom life >_>

Drum beaters. This are pretty easy to make. You can literally just find a stick outside to get that rustic natural look. Then pick out some cool fabric, grab a little stuffing and you're done! If you have any sewing skill you could whip up a drum bag.

Food mixes. I'm sure everyone has seen the "cookies in a mason jar" and I think this can be done with a lot of our food. Here is a Metis cookbook and maybe you could find something you could mix all together or layer nicely. Sadly, fry bread is delicious but simple so I don't know how pretty it would look in a jar.

Tribe Called Red cds would be good if you think anyone still listens to CDs haha.

If you have lots of readers at your centre, I think anything by Louise Erdrich is good and Stephen Graham Jones is supposed to be really good too.

If you're crafty and want to DIY I might have some more ideas.

Hope that helps!

Okay I decided to risk it, my shop is Made in Kanata and it's not great but it is trying it's best.











[olivia07]

Types of Crafts

Crafting includes a variety of art forms, from sculpture and metalwork to knitting and printing. These crafts can all be divided into five basic types based on their form and purpose.

Craft is a specific skill that anyone learns to do a specific task. Many people don’t know that, there are types of crafts too! 

There are five types of crafts which are mostly used to get the final product after using set of skills which are as follows: 

Textile Craft 

This type of crafts involves anything that is done on fabric or any clothes material.  Anything that involves surface design, yarn, thread, or fabric fits into this crafting category. Some examples include weaving, quilting, dyeing, and knitting. It can be decorative, fashionable, or practical. 

Textile Craft is in huge demand where anything related to fashion is involved. 

Paper Craft 

As the name implies, Paper Craft involves making something useful out of paper. This type of craft is firstly introduced in schools to children. Now, there is an adult version of this which includes wood and linoleum engraving. Other paper crafts include papier-Mache, calligraphy, and papermaking.

Decorative Crafts 

When you want to brighten up your room with handcrafted home decor picture frame,  the balcony, or another space, this crafting method is the one to use. Everything from furniture making fits into this category. This category also includes toy making and other arts—anything where the final product is a piece of decor. Unlike fine art, decorative art typically has some element of utility to it. A piece of furniture is a perfect example of Decorative crafts. These include Picture Frames, lamps, Decorative trays etc. which are used to decorate the house. it should have some utility element to it.

Functional Crafts

Many of the four other types of crafts can also be classified as functional. Some items can be purely decorative when you pursue this category. The goal is to make it functional if the user wants it to be that way. This is called functional crafts.

Fashion Crafts 

Anything that involves dressing or accessorizing the human body fits into this crafting category. This includes jewelry, hats, leatherwork (shoes, belts, handbags), and garments. It will naturally intersect with other craft types since jewelry can be made through metalworking and garments are fabricated by Knee Length Casual Dress —which can be classified as a textile craft.

Conclusion: 

When you pursue your imagination, the craft projects you start will fall into one of these categories. Follow your heart, gather your supplies, and have some fun! and try each and every craft type.