#sorry this got kinda long

[semisolidmind]

if the question bothers you then please ignore it ;; but I wanted to ask what you thought of “shadow peach” cuz it’s a pretty dominant ship in the lmk fandom. Again, if you don’t wanna answer questions like this then please ignore this ask😭

hooh boy, ok. figured id get this eventually.

alright. so. shadowpeach.

here's the thing. if you ship it, cool. i get why you would. it's sorta easy to see that dynamic between them in lego monkie kid. if you ship it , have at it! you should enjoy making or consuming content for whatever you like. personally, i see the mystic monkeys as having a familial or platonic type of bond between them (pre-betrayal). their relationship isn't much more than a short-lived rivalry and a murder in the book, so it's free to interpret as you will.

however.

there's a pervasive issue in the lmk fandom when it comes to tagging this ship. i think that because shadowpeach is such a dominant ship, some people think they dont need to tag it. because everybody likes shadowpeach, right? 🙄 now, ive done my fandom curation. i don't like the ship, i block the tags associated with it, and that's as far as my interactions with that tag and the folks in it goes.

the thing is, ill be scrolling through the general lmk tag, and ill see art for shadowpeach completely untagged. sometimes it's just suggesting the ship, other times it's full-on ship art. again, ship what you want, that freedom is what fandom is for.

but please, please don't assume that just because a ship is ultra popular that you don't have to tag it.

i know this is a problem a lot of fandoms have; one ship gets super popular, and then it's assumed that everyone ships it; any other points of view get steamrolled in favor of the big ship. and then the issue of people bashing anyone who doesn't ship it eventually comes up. in the course of my relatively short time in the lmk fandom, ive received more toxic anons than I have in any other fandom ive been in. ive gotten reblogs that just say "no" on my posts and then i go and see that the blog that reblogged it was full of shadowpeach.

it's just...tagging things correctly is the least you can do on tumblr. it's there for curation. please don't assume that everyone is going to agree with you just because you're on the biggest boat.

and shadowpeach is the only lmk ship ive had this issue with? every other thing that can be shipped is tagged fairly well, though i don't have anything else blocked.

anyways, long story short; please tag your ships.

[silverstreams]

You’ve had the chapter count of TLG within five chapters of its current count the whole time I’ve been reading it. How do you structure your stories? How much is planned beforehand?

Hm, let's see. When I started to plan it out in late 2018, I wrote out a pretty sparse outline. My goal for the project overall was to get some practice with writing a novel, so I used a fairly standard plot structure (and also incorporated some stuff from the book Save the Cat! which is about screenplay writing, but still had some good info nonetheless. I had some approximate wordcounts for different stages, and a general idea of where the story needed to be by those points. But there was still a lot of room for detail, and for act 2, I had a lot of ideas for different kinds of bonding moments or activities, but I wasn't sure in what order they would go in. It was just a sort of grab bag of ideas. I didn't really start to nail things down until later on in 2020, after I had made my way through act 1 and realized I really needed to plan stuff out more. @gladosisstillalesbian helped me out so much with brainstorming for those few months, and I was able to further develop each of those ideas, and begin to group them together into chapter chunks. For an example, I had hair braiding and I had Chell reflecting on her time on the surface, and then put those two together. And then begin to arrange those chapter chunks in a way that made sense, but this still changed a little bit (for instance, I had the oracle turret chapter happen later on, after the records room stuff I think).

But once I had those chapter chunks, I was able to estimate how many chapters the whole thing would be overall (and I added an extra number or two to that chapter count because I knew that something might come up or be added.) Most of the changes I've made to the word count are for stuff that I decided would work better as its own chapter (such as the short one with Chell reflecting after the records room stuff and then going to shower), or deciding to split a chapter into two (like this climax chapter) so that I could get it out in a more timely manner.

Then over time, I fleshed out each of those chapter chunks into a much more detailed outline, which also helped me with figuring out if some parts of it should go into a different chapter or not.

In my mind overall though, I tend to visualize it as rearranging a set of blocks. 

So yes. When I first started posting in 2019, my outline was a lot more sparse, but I had the big picture. Late 2020 is when I really started to figure out, in detail, how I was going to hit all of those key points in the outline.

[blurglesmurfklaine]

Stick Season (9/14)

Summary: After Finn dies, Kurt leaves everything he knows behind without a trace. His hometown, his family, his boyfriend. When his dad has a medical scare, he returns to Lima, one year after breaking Blaine’s heart with no explanation.

A non-chronological series of one shots and drabbles set in this universe

Tropes/Genres: Angst, Reconciliation, Grief, Alcoholism, Mentions of Major Character Death, Mental Health

Track 1: Northern Attitude // Day 9: Same Old Country Song

Words: 1162

Kurt has forgotten how to be a fucking human being, apparently.

He wants Blaine, loves Blaine, never stopped loving Blaine. Kurt wants him close so dearly, but can’t help except push him away. It’s infuriating.

He wants what they used to have, the waves of security that washed over Kurt whenever he was nestled safely in Blaine’s arms. He wants the laughter shared through inside jokes, like how Let’s have a Star Wars marathon actually meant Let’s dip and go make out in your room. Kurt wants everything to go back to the way it was, but that isn’t possible.

He’s not the person he used to be. There’s been efforts on his part, to get back to who he was before bitterness jaded him into the cynic he is today. He quit drinking, and though he’s fallen off the wagon a few times, it’s been nearly half a year since his last sip. A few stumbles, however, were to be expected when he didn’t really stop to better himself, but out of guilt and shame. 

If you were to put shame into a petri dish and shove it into the dark and damp crevasses of your mind, anxiety would grow on it like a deadly fungus. Everyone thinks that only depressed people turn to the bottle, but Kurt’s nerves prove otherwise. A coping mechanism is a coping mechanism even if you think you’re just a kid who gets a little too nervous in large crowds. It’s a coping mechanism when you think you’re just having fun with some friends. It’s a coping mechanism when you take a sip because you’re stressed about school, and wake up face down on your boyfriend's lawn.

It’s a coping mechanism even when you insist it isn’t.

He’s changing. He’s trying. Fuck, is he trying.

But what if it’s not enough? 

What if, after the last year, Kurt’s soul is missing the shine that was there before grief dulled it? Blaine would be foolish to want him back when he’s this broken.

If Kurt gets too close and he isn’t how Blaine remembers—how he hopes—he’d have every right to just up and walk away. Kurt can’t even forgive himself, how can he expect Blaine to forgive the old attitude he’s adopted after spending a year in the dark?

So why the hell is he here, standing out in the cold and staring at Blaine’s familiar figure, playing the guitar through the frosted windows of the Paper Tiger? 

He’s in the middle of a set, so Kurt is able to sneak in without distracting him, feeling the winter chill thaw, like just being around Blaine lights a fire in him.

He plays some cover about gay cowboys that Kurt can’t help but smile at. The crowd is a little less receptive, but not angry or outraged, which honestly is about as much progress as Kurt could have ever hoped for.

Blaine looks so happy, so in his element here. Despite what he may think, from what Kurt can see, he’s better off without him. 

He should leave. Again. Go farther this time, and maybe he won’t be such a nuisance, such an unpleasant disruption to Blaine’s healing process. What the hell is Kurt even doing here, in a bar, when he's feeling so, so anxious and there are so many people and they’re all drinking around him and god, he wishes that were him, he wishes he could just have one drink—just one, and maybe the raging fire scalding his nerves would be doused for even just a seco—

“Alright, so, I know you guys usually like my covers of the classics.”

Blaine’s voice cuts through all the noise, and for the first time in too long, the static in Kurt’s brain is silenced. 

“But, uh… I’m gonna play something original for you tonight. It’s a really special song to me. It uh, started off as an anniversary present that I never got to give, and over the past year has morphed into something totally different and unexpected but uh… You know what? I think I’ll shut up and just sing for you.”

When the audience’s laughter settles, Blaine starts plucking at his guitar’s strings, and Kurt prepares himself for the worst. Sure he’s about to bear the brunt of all the anger and confusion he’d caused in Blaine’s life. Leaving lima, then showing up at his house. Their conversation at Sam’s party, and Kurt leaving. Again. 

Kurt forces himself to stay, smothering the cowardly little voice in his mind that wants so terribly to leave. He should hear what Blaine has to say, even if it hurts.

You try covering the cracks in your walls with paint But I love staring at them so beautifully shaped Everyday I wish you’d see what I could see And your hand in mine fits so perfectly

I’ll never want a new lease I’ll never trade you in You’re the home that I want Perfectly imperfect

I’ll come home to you I’ll come home to you

Even though you’re gone I’ll leave the light on Hopefully you can see The path back to me

I’ll never want a new lease I’ll never trade you in You’re the home that I want Perfectly imperfect

I’ll come home to you I’ll come home to you

You try covering the cracks in your walls with paint But I love staring at them so beautifully shaped

It’s not what Kurt expected, and he swallows down the lump in his throat. He’ll be damned if he breaks down in the middle of a bar full of strangers.

Watching Blaine pack up his set, Kurt pulls out his phone and goes to his recents, knowing all the calls he’s been dodging from Blaine will be at the top.

“Hello?”

“Blaine?” 

On the other side of the room, Blaine freezes, and Kurt’s heart goes still. “Hi.”

“Hi…” He repeats dumbly. Because he’s an idiot. He’s forgotten how to human. Still, he hasn’t forgotten how to love Blaine. That’s something etched into his heart forever. “You at Paper Tiger?”

“Yeah, just finishing up, actually.”

“How did your set go?”

“About as well received as it can be in a town like this. No one heckled me to try and play Wonderwall, so, progress.”

Kurt can’t help but let out a small chuckle. “I really liked that last one,” He finally admits. “The one about home being a person.”

Blaine smiles, and even if there’s a trace of sadness behind it, Kurt’s heart swells. “Thanks… Full disclosure, uh, you’re the inspiration on that one.” He pauses, apparently barely processing Kurt’s words. “Wait. What do you mean you liked it?”

“Turn around.”

Blaine turns around in a flash, dropping his phone from his ear to his side and staring in awe.

Kurt swallows. “Hi… again.”

“Hi.”

“Can we talk?”

[jjmayday]

hot take i guess: all 6 pogues should have been there for the el dorado discovery.

it could have easily been changed; jiara and cleope get there earlier, ward + singhs man + pogues with machete stand off next, then ward’s self sacrifice, and big john gets shot during the misfires instead of the night before, that’s the blood singh tracks. and the cave scenes/el dorado scenes (+big johns death) are the same but ALL 6 POGUES are there cause this show is about ALL of them!!!! the found family!!!!

(side note/hot take: big john should have been less of a shitty father, not perfect, but maybe closer to the heywards than the other parents on the show)

i hear you. i would need to rewatch the finale but i do think the final stand off means more after they find the gold bc theres more on the line-- they were successful for once and yet again someone is trying to take all the glory. however i do wish everyone had been there in some capacity, maybe we get pope and jb going into that final leg underwater while the others wait for them (where singh found big john originally), or something like that. i did like how pope, kie, jj, and cleo were able to kind of hop in and temporarily save the day or attempt to, even if they werent there for the initial discovery.

on that last part, i disagree! i hated big john bc he was so shitty. i think its integral to john b's arc. we have seasons 1 & 2 where we see the loss of his father and how much he regrets everything that happens. jb is idolizing his father as he is presumed dead, holding onto hope that he is missing somewhere so that he can mend what happened. but then big john is back, and he SUCKS. he is single minded, shady, and morally dubious, all things that were touched upon previously but forgotten about as john b mourns. jb now has to reconcile with the fact his dad is back but is isolating him from his friends and being a shitty father in general. we start to see this complex relationship and how it affects them (father and son) and the pogues. my gripe is that john b never gets to confront big john ab this, he dies clutching the gold and saying jb was the best son he could ask for. which i hope can be a point of angst in the future

send me your obx hot takes

[ninemelodies]

y’all ever think about how small ten looks without his jacket on that roof with donna? like.

idk i guess what sticks with me is that it’s the ONLY time (so far in nuwho) that we see the doctor take off his suit jacket. like yeah he goes places without his coat, but we NEVER see him without his suit jacket. its basically his armor.

and then, for this woman he barely knows, who yelled at him and insulted him and slapped him, because she’s shivering on the edge of a roof and disappointed about missing her wedding, he just. gives her his jacket. doesn’t even stop to think about it, he’s unbuttoning it before donna even sits down fully.

AND THEN. AND THEN. he didn’t even take the sonic out of it first. and like the doctor is the doctor no matter what tool he uses, but the sonic is one of his BEST tools, one he never goes anywhere without. and he just. gives up his jacket with the sonic in it again to this woman he hardly knows.

and like yeah, it’s RIGHT there. he can just reach over and grab it, but idk that says a lot to me about ten, especially when he JUST lost rose and has been thrust into saving donna.

idk i’m probably reading way too much into it, but i’m mentally ill and i can’t stop thinking about him looking so small and vulnerable on that roof next to donna. he gave up his armor, his tool, for a some essential stranger who needed his help.

[dammarchy211]

THE COMMITTEE FOR RAPACIOUS INTERLOPERS AND MANIACAL ESPERS !

drawing dump I definitely can’t fit all of them in but here’s most of em lol. Neo Cortez the founder and Head of C.R.I.M.E. Got a complete redo which I actually Like now so’ll probably expand on him more

[mabaki]

He's got a voice in his head... that's his but not his. (Tower of Nightmares era)

Oh, all the things he hears and endures.

I only wanted to do the first panel but then I added more sketches and sometimes I dont know when to call it quits.... until I get lazy LOL

Me: Im gonna draw Lore The Lore: gay LMAO

Without the extra cropping. I mean i might as well, i drew it all out after all LMAO

He's the reason why he can use the vines and Dreamthistles the way he does, but the more Mabaki uses it, the stronger he becomes, at least in terms of influence. And if he wants to, he can take away the ability to control the vines. (Totally didn't hurt someone because of this as Mbk watched, not able to control them at all, no no).

Bonus, he's the reason Mbk didn't fall to Mordremoth.

[stuffeddeer]

i came across your blog a few days ago and all i could think of is deerlike/fawnlike darling 😭 someone who’s sensitive and shy, a bit vulnerable !! would go so well with any of the dazais omg

YOURE SO RIGHT imma delve into a few different variations :)

Deludedly obsessed Dazai would view your deer-like traits as something inherently weak. It’s something that makes you sensitive and ill-equipped for the cruel world he grew up in. Since he’s well versed in the cruelties of life, Dazai can make sure you stay safe, right? He takes it up as his job to look after you and keep you safe, remaining close at all times when he can be. If you work in the agency alongside him, he makes sure to pull you onto missions that he’s already leading or will pawn off whatever he’s working on to join yours. He works at the agency, sure, but his job is to look after you. If you find him scary, that's merely because of how many people must have been able to wrong you in the past! It's not like it's hard to, in fact, he could easily— no.

That's why he needs to protect you, to keep you away from people like himself. Oda would want him to help out the poor and defenseless, right? Even if you can't accept that yet, you'll understand in a matter of time. Or you won't, and Dazai will have to take more... drastic measures.

-

Dazai who knows his obsession for you is wrong will start out thinking similar things — how easy you would be to manipulate (he hates that that’s his first thought), how much he should make sure to keep you safeguarded and out of harm’s way — but try to put a stop to it. If you work in an office job or something similar, he’ll be sure to remind himself that you’ve made it this far, and it’s not like you’ll be stumbling into trouble any time soon. To keep his mind from unraveling and his obsession and anxieties from worsening, he’ll follow you home after work under the blanketed night sky, reminding himself the whole time that you’re safe. And if anyone tries to harm you? …

He’d have such an urge to just keep you at his home, safe and away from the cruel outside, but he knows that’s wrong; Dazai knows how sad you’d be and while you’d have no way to fight back, he’d feel so guilty watching you break down in front of him. Looking after you is all he wants to do, including emotionally. But maybe feeling a little sad at the beginning is better than someone hurting you…

As much as he tries to fight it, Dazai knows you’d be better off staying by him all the time.

-

Manipulative and harsh Dazai who gets some sick joy out of your timid demeanor. He’ll want to crush your spirit, prove that your invulnerability is nothing more than a weakness he intends to exploit. You work in some sort of cozy shop mainly by yourself (ie coffeehouse, flower shop, something cutesy) and it almost makes him sick - how can someone be so sweet and innocent? He wants that for himself and you make it far too easy to obtain. A few kind words and polite smiles and he knows he’s become your favorite customer, even if he never buys anything. He brings you a coffee one day out of the goodness of his heart and Dazai swears he sees hearts in your eyes. He builds up a rapport so quickly and smoothly you don’t notice the red flags (how he always seems to know your schedule, favorite coffee..) and dismiss your co-worker’s worries. There’s no way he could be so rude and flippant with them, it’s not in his nature!

And when you get fired after some anonymous customer continuously claimed you were horribly rude to them, Dazai was there to console you. You find yourself at his place much more often, spending time solely with him as your friends begin to ghost you. As thanks to the man who kept you afloat during all of this, you’d stay and help around Dazai’s apartment, cleaning up and bringing him food… and when he mentioned how lonely it gets, well, what kind of friend would you be if you didn’t stay the night? And the next one. And the next…

Once you’ve all but entirely been kidnapped moved in, Dazai reminds himself that the world out there is cruel. So, if you miss being outside so much, then he’ll gladly bring the harsh world to you.

-

Possessive loser Dazai who doesn’t want your vulnerability and (as he views it) “pureness” tainted by someone else, but is happy just watching you stumble from afar. He swoops in during your date with a friend, dragging you out claiming that they were planning on hurting you! He just wants to keep you safe, don’t you understand that? And you do. You so pliantly nod as you thank him, letting out a sigh of relief that Dazai saved you yet again. How do you keep picking these horrible people?

One night, last minute, you went out with a few friends, and Dazai found out the next day. He spent all day avoiding you, angry beyond belief that you could be so stupid! Don’t you know they’re all the same?! He’s just trying to keep you safe! You’re so sensitive, so malleable; the last thing he wants is for some assholes to make you do something you don’t want to (never mind you saying you had fun). You apologize profusely, because of course you do: Dazai is your best friend.

-

Port Mafia Dazai whose only basis for relationships comes from Mori and his ability. He knows it’s wrong, right? But when he sees you, so shy and easy to scare, his mind is made up: You are too good for the Mafia. He takes you back to his small shipping container and decides he’d be the one to take care of you, like Mori does with Elise. His paychecks begin to go towards frilly outfits and soft pajamas for his darling, expensive cakes he wants to see you try and the same kind of crayons he saw Elise forcing the Boss to buy a few days ago. You’re well pampered and still so shy and polite, which is why Dazai is so aggravated when you finally ask to feel the sun on your skin once more. He’s sacrificed so much to keep you happy and spoiled, but you still ask for more?…

…He buys you a big house away from Yokohama’s port with big glass walls for you to enjoy the sun.

-

I imagine a more work-oriented or apathetic Port Mafia Dazai would be the only rendition that doesn’t treat you like a frail doll. Your vulnerable and shy side is cute, sure, but that can be a skill. He’d send you on missions to lure and attack like Kyouka or undercover, as no one expects such a shy person to be apart of the feared organization. He would spend his time training and mentoring you like Akutagawa, but he wouldn’t be nearly as harsh. You don’t have the ability and skills Akutagawa does, but you still should know basic self defense. Who knows? Maybe one day he’ll wrap you up in bandages and train you to follow in his footsteps.

[dizzybevvie]

obligatory kh1 Paopu tree scene redraw

og under cut <3

[kitocrystal]

[spiderziege]

Your art is so pretty, but I’ve been wanting to ask forever how you get the cool dot texture effect?

thank you!! i use two different things for that, one is a brush called 'small dots' (i got it in a brush pack somewhere, i honestly dont remember where exactly, but theres plenty of very similar halftone/screentone brushes in the csp asset store if you're using csp). the other one isnt a brush but a texture overlay. i got it on the csp asset store, it's just called 'risograph texture'

my method is to basically just cover the whole drawing with the brush/texture and then use a really big and very soft eraser to take some of it away again, so that the dot texture only really comes through on the outer parts of the drawing. hope this kinda makes sense ^^' obviously theres a million ways to use those brushes but this is how i like to do it

[ourfag]

Forgive my asking, but what are you meant to do if you find hair in your food at a restaurant? Send the whole thing back to the kitchen? I'd of course send my food back over something larger or grosser, like a nail clipping, or multiple pieces of hair, but it seems like such a hassle for just one piece.

[trashpandacraft]

hi! ok so i'm going to talk about one of my top-five favourite things, which is: dyeing stuff! this is going to be specifically about dyeing protein fibres (animal fibres—wool, alpaca, silk, etc) in a pretty low-key way in your kitchen.

to be clear up front: this is not the most scientific, most perfectly reproducible, or most Objectively Correct way to dye things. i get a lot of fibre that i like this way, though, and i think that other people can, too.

fibre i've dyed that i think is neat:

you can also dye yarn like this:

yes, i like blue a lot. i also really like variegation and heathering, which is why most of the fibre here has patches of white—it's an intentional choice that i've made. you can make different choices.

here is what you need to dye things:

fibre, vinegar, dye, a pot, heat, and some water.

that was so you don't get overwhelmed by the impending wall of text. here is what you need to dye things (it's the same stuff!), but with way more detail:

fibre or yarn. this is the big one, obviously. i tend to dye in 100-200 gram batches, because that's approximately what fits on my stovetop easily. if you're very nervous about felting or harming your fibre, you can use stuff that's been treated to be superwash, start with yarn (which is harder to felt than fibre is), or use a felt-resistant breed like dorset or suffolk. honestly, though, i learned with merino because that's what i had, and it was fine. again, though, this guide is only for protein fibres. it will not work for things like cotton. the only exception to this is nylon, which will take on some colour, but less than a protein fibre will.

a mordant. this is a fancy way of saying a thing that makes dye stick, and for what we're doing here, it's citric acid or vinegar. your grocery store definitely has at least one of them, though if you can choose, i prefer citric acid, because i love wet wool smell but i do not always love wet wool vinegar smell.

dye. i use acid dyes, and am personally deeply loyal to dharma acid dyes, but ashford and jacquard acid dyes work the same way. if you don't want to buy dye or don't have access to it, food colouring will often work, as well, though i haven't tried this with natural food colourings and have no idea how well they'll work.

a dedicated dye pot. ok, if you're doing food dyes, you don't need this. if you're not, it's definitely best practice, though i don't know how dangerous it is not to. any large metal pot will do, but my favourite option is hotel pans, which are those huge metal pan/tray things that hold food at buffets and the like. i have a full-size one that's 15cm deep, and a half-size one that's 4cm deep. they're great because they let you lay out the fibre you're working with so you can see most of it in a single layer.

dedicated dye utensils. as before, i don't know how much of a huge deal this is. i'll be honest and admit that for several years i had a single pair of tongs that got used for all tong-requiring events, including dyeing, and i'm still alive. i suggest that you have at least a big spoon, and a big spoon and tongs are even better.

something to mix the dye in. yeah, i use empty plastic sports drink or soda bottles for this. you can be fancy and get mason jars or little squirt bottles or whatever, and if you get super into dyeing you'll want to mix up dye stocks, but that's way outside the scope of what we're doing here. i like the powerade bottles that have a little squirty mouthpiece, because it's fun to squirt dye onto things.

personal protective equipment. i think this is the part of things that freaks people out. ideally, you wear plastic gloves and a mask (yeah, like your covid masks) when you're working with dye. realistically, i almost never remember to put on gloves and just accept that my hands are going to be blue sometimes. you should wear a mask, because dye is an irritant, but the world is an imperfect place and i have wicked bad adhd and sometimes i forget. this isn't advice. i'm just being honest. you should use some kind of safety stuff. you probably won't die if you don't.

you might also want some little random bits: an old toothbrush or paintbrush, a pipe cleaner, some toothpicks, etc. this is mostly if you like speckles, or if you want very small patches of colour.

so first: there are a million ways to dye things, and i'm not convinced that any of them are objectively correct. i do what i do and it works for me. some of the things i do are the opposite of what most guides suggest, but i do them because i like the effects they create.

ok, that's all the background stuff you need. let's dye some stuff!

the number one most important thing to remember when you're dyeing is this:

you can always add more colour. you cannot take it away.

that's in fancy writing and bold because every once in a while i forget this, and every single time i end up regretting it.

here is how to dye things:

put water, citric acid (or vinegar), and fibre into a pot. add dye and heat. let cool completely. rinse the fibre in cool water, then hang to dry.

like, sure, we're going to go into way more detail, but push come to shove, if you do that, you're going to end up with dyed fibre. there are a lot of tutorials telling you that you must soak your fibre first, or you must add your citric acid this way, or hold the water at exactly this temperature, and i'm here to tell you that while any of these things can give you different results, those results aren't necessarily better.

the only way that you can totally screw this up is by accidentally felting your fibre, so before i get into the way more detail part of things, i'm going to talk about that.

how not to felt your fibre

i feel like if you've read this far, you know how things felt: wool, heat, and agitation. you may also notice that at least two of these things are required for dyeing. this can be stressful! but you don't have to be afraid of it. there's only been one time that i felted something to the point that it was unusable, and that happened because i literally fell asleep for several hours while the pot was on the stove. you can avoid doing this by simply setting an alarm—this is a good idea anyhow, because you'll want to check on your dye pot!

when you're dyeing, use the lowest heat that you can while still keeping the water at a simmer. if your stove, like mine, has one burner that's wildly unpredictable and sort of out of control, you may want to look for some sort of flame diffuser, also called a flame tamer or a simmer ring. i bought one on amazon for about fourteen dollars, and it's literally just a thick metal circle. it works fine.

you can also keep the heat low by using a pot with a thick bottom, though in my experience those are expensive, and if i had one i would be using it for soup, not wool.

avoid shocking your wool—never put room temperature wool into hot water, and never put hot wool into cold water. leave your wool in the dye bath until it's cooled completely, which for me usually means overnight.

finally, obviously you have to move the fibre around some. you'll need to peek under it in the pan, and when you're done, you have to rinse it and squish out the water. try to minimise handling, though. don't run water directly onto the fibre, don't get a wooden spoon and stir your dye pot around, don't wring the fibre dry when it's done.

you're probably never going to be perfect. i often find that i lose a gram or two of wool where fibres have grabbed onto each other, or where parts of the ends clumped up. it's not really felted, just sort of compacted, but it's not great to work with, and i'd rather lose a gram of fibre than fuss with the clumpy bits.

back to how to dye things

let's take it step by step, assuming a hundred grams of fibre.

put your pan on the stove and fill it halfway with water. add either a teaspoon of citric acid or a tablespoon of vinegar. this is going to help the dye strike, or stick to the fibre. the teaspoon/tablespoon is a guideline, but one that it's fine to exceed. adding more will help the dye strike faster, which can be useful if you're trying to create blocks of colour on your fibre. i usually err on the side of a little more than the guidelines, and just eyeball this—if you feel like the dye isn't taking well, you can add more later.

add your fibre to the pan. this is the first place you have to think about what you want the finished fibre to look like! you can put it into the pan any way you want, but i suggest trying to keep it in a relatively even layer, regardless of what that layer looks like. here are some ways to get specific effects:

if you want a gradient from one end of the fibre to the other, use a rectangular pan and lay your fibre out so that the line of it is parallel to the short sides of the pan

if you want a short, repeating gradient, use a rectangular pan and lay your fibre out so that the line of it is parallel to the long sides of the pan

if you want something that starts with very close repeats that get further apart as you go down the fibre, make an approximate spiral

if you don't want A Pattern (i usually don't) just lay things out in a single layer, more or less

here comes the next exciting part! decide if you want to let your fibre soak or not. again, doing or not doing this gives you some different effects!

soaking your fibre will mean that dye takes more evenly. if you want consistent colours, you'll want to soak.

not soaking your fibre means that the dye takes less evenly. the fibre on top will have less acid available to it, spends less time in the dye bath, and also has to actually get wet before it will start to dye. i actually love doing this, and think it affords a lot of cool opportunities to play with and layer colours.

if you're soaking, leave the fibre there until it's submerged. if not, don't.

now you're going to add dye! decision time, again.

you can add dye when the water is cold, which will give you more even dye coverage, and in my experience gives the colours more time to mix together

you can add dye when when the water is hot, which will give you less even coverage, and tends to encourage the colours to stay more delineated

probably surprising no one, i tend to heat the water first unless i'm starting with a base colour or i'm doing a two-colour gradient.

time to mix up some dye

as i mentioned earlier, i'm assuming that you're using powered acid dyes for this. if you're not, this mixing up part is technically optional—but doing it gives you way more control about how and where you place your colours, so i'm going to assume that you'll do it.

i usually mix dye in some sort of empty drink bottle. regardless of what you're using, before you add dye to anything, put some water in the bottle, wipe off the lip, put the lid on tightly, and shake the bottle vigorously. if there is any leakage at all, do not use that bottle. find a better bottle. if your bottle cap doesn't seal well or if you have an empty condiment bottle that's just a little wonky or whatever, you will get dye all over the kitchen, and your landlord will be really really mad about it, and you will regret your life choices. (if you own your kitchen, you can do whatever you want, but this isn't about you and you know it.)

so you have a bottle that seals tightly! great job. dump out the water and carefully put some dye powder into the bottle. remember earlier how i said you should be wearing a mask? this is the part where you should be wearing a mask.

i know that people are reading this and going, ok, but how much dye do i put in?

my answer is put in the amount that feels right in your heart, and don't forget the number one rule of dyeing things, which is that you can always add more colour, but you cannot take it away.

this isn't a very scientific answer. most dyes have a guideline about how much to use, expressed as a percentage of the dry weight of the fibre, which is what you use to get the whole quantity of fibre dyed evenly. for dharma dyes, it's like 1.5-2%, i think ashford is 1%, and jacquard is more like 2-4%, depending on the colour.

here is the problems with doing that in your kitchen: first, using that much dye will get you an evenly dyed piece of fibre, which—for me, at least—is basically the opposite of what i want. second, and more importantly, unless you have one of those teeny tiny scales used by jewelers and drug dealers, your kitchen scale will not weigh out such tiny quantities with any accuracy. third, if you do it like this, you really have to plan what you're doing ahead of time, because there's a point after which no more dye will bind! the fibre will be like enough thank u that's it i'm good and that'll be it, so you lose some of your ability to decide that actually, you want more green.

you can probably guess, at this point, that i don't weigh the dye. once you've done a couple batches of fibre with a given brand of dye, you'll start to get the vibes for how much you should use. if you really want a guideline, for a hundred grams of fibre, start with a quarter teaspoon of a given colour. you can add more—either more of this colour or a different one—later, as desired.

put your dye in the empty bottle, and then fill the bottle partway with hot water. the amount of water doesn't really matter here, nor does the specific temperature of the water. i usually fill about 3/4 of the way, because that way there's plenty of room for this next step, which is: wipe the lip of the bottle, recap it tightly, and then shake it up real good. the dye powder is going to dissolve into the water, and you now have a bottle of dye!

if you're going for a gradient, you might want to mix up your second colour so you can add them at (basically) the same time for more even mixing. if you're not, or if you only have one mixing bottle, you can do them one at a time.

oh my god we're finally putting dye on the fibre

are you ready? it's time!!

you have basically infinite options for how to do this, and many of them will give you different effects. here are some ideas:

pour the dye all at one side of the pan. and if you don't add anything else, your fibre will fade from the colour of the dye to the natural colour of the fibre

pour two colours, one at either side of the pan. depending on how much dye you use (and remember, you can always add more), this will give you either chunks of colour surrounded by white, or a two-colour gradient

add all the dye to unheated water and mix it gently, then let the fibre soak for a few minutes longer before turning on the heat. this will give you a fairly even colour

pour randomly all over, and you'll either end up with a tonal yarn or a heathered one, depending on how much dye you're using

add the dye to the water under the dry fibre, which will sink in and take up more dye on the bottom of the fibre than the top

if your heat wasn't on before, it should be now, and you're going to let the dye hang out in the hot but not boiling water for a while. how long? well, one of the cool things about dyeing with these dyes is that they exhaust, which means that when the dye has been sucked up by the fibre, the surrounding water will be clear. how long this takes will depend on the specific dye, how much of it you used, how much mordant you used, etc. i try to check every fifteen minutes.

reminder: if you started with room temperature water, the dye's not going to start taking until the water heats up, so don't check it after fifteen minutes and freak out that nothing has happened. it is fully normal for it to take up to an hour for the dye to exhaust. don't turn up the temperature, just give it time.

yay it worked!

at this point, you have a pot of hot water with some beautifully coloured fibre in it! but maybe it's not beautiful enough. maybe you want...more colours.

that's cool as hell and you should go for it. we mentioned two-colour gradients up there, but what if you want something else?

the answer, probably obviously, is adding more dye.

first, a caveat: while you can successfully make multicoloured gradients like this, it's more difficult than you think, and if it gets messed up—all the colours bleed into each other, say—it turns into a muddy mess. my suggestion is to stick to two (or three at most!) colour gradients until you have a much better feel for what you're doing.

let's talk about ways you can add more colour. you have two options: big colour and little colour.

big colour is going to add a lot of colour—you're going to mix up the dye and pour it just like you did before, but paying more attention to places that don't have dye yet. sometimes it's the middle of a gradient, or the white splotches from random pouring, or the half of the fibre that wasn't submerged when you started. or maybe you dyed the whole thing yellow, and now you want to add a blue gradient over top. whatever!

if you don't want to freehand pour, consider buying a couple large syringes, or a bottle with a squeezy top. these are also fun because you can easily get more colour between the laid-out fibre, or even under it.

in the pictures at the start of this post, the red-and-gold top and both yarns were dyed by adding big colour.

little colour isn't going to add big patches, but is going to add speckling, tonal depth, or smaller patches of colour. all of the blue-base fibres and the yellow-and-blue yarn were dyed like this.

if you're still reading this closely, you might have caught that i just said both yarns were dyed with big colour, and that the yellow-and-blue yarn was also dyed with little colour. these are both true! the base colours of the yarn were done to make big colour, but if you look at the full-size image, there are also a bunch of speckles. you can do whatever you want! no one can stop you!

here are some ways to add little colour:

mix up some dye, but use less water. add drops of the dye, either directly onto the fibre (more dramatic!) or in the water (tonal!)

use a toothpick to grab a little bit of dye powder and drop it into the dye bath (similar to the previous one, but a little less predictable)

put on a damn facemask. take a clean toothbrush, paintbrush, or pipecleaner, and just barely touch it to the dye powder. gently flick or tap the brush to add speckles of that colour

find a salt shaker that you're never going to use for anything but this. put citric acid, salt (to make it distribute better), and dye powder into it, and shake it up (with the holes covered, please cover the holes) to make sure they're evenly distributed. gently shake this over the fibre to add speckles, but more of them, and clustered together

put a little dye in a spray bottle and gently mist the exposed fibre, kinda glazing it with colour

another thing is that if you like a natural coloured yarn with dyed speckles, you can do any of these techniques without doing big colour first. the only thing to note when doing this is that you'll want to be very sure to spread out the fibre well, and maybe to consider dyeing one side, then very very carefully flipping it over and getting the other side.

ok, now what?

let's say that you've added all the colours that you want, and you've let your bath simmer long enough that the water is clear, or nearly clear. (if it's not, check troubleshooting, below.)

put the lid on your pan and walk away. if you don't have a lid, just walk away, but it's less dramatic.

the super frustrating part here is that the safest thing to do is wait until the water and fibre is fully cooled before you do anything else.

have i ignored this? yes

has it ever gone horribly wrong? not horribly wrong, but it's definitely caused me to lose an inch or two of roving on occasion

is it way more stressful if you don't wait? absolutely yes

honestly maybe just go to bed and deal with your fibre in the morning

so now let's say that it's morning and you slept long enough that your water and fibre are both room temperature, which often actually feels quite cool on your hands.

you have to drain your fibre. there are two ways to do this:

lift the fibre out of the water. this has the upside of not risking dumping your beautiful fibre into your sink, and not needing to maneuver a full pot of water, both of which are admirable. the downside is that wet fibre is fragile, and you'll want to be careful to support it.

dump the water out of the pan. this has the upside of minimising how much handling you're doing of the fibre, as well as (in my opinion) making rinsing easier. the downside is attempting to keep the fibre into the pot while you dump the water into the sink, and also needing to carry around a full pot of water.

secret third option: dump the fibre (and the water) into a strainer. upside: very easy, and you can keep the fibre in the strainer while you rinse, minimising both how much it needs to be handled and the weight on the fibre. downside: i never remember that this is an option until i'm already elbows-deep in acidulated water, discovering every tiny cuticle tear.

you're going to fill your dyepot with water again so that you can rinse the fibre. you want to minimise thermal shock, so keep the water temperature as close to the temperature of the fibre as you can, and don't run the water directly onto the fibre. i like to pull all the fibre to one side of the pan, and fill the pan on the other side.

side note: if you, smart person, remembered that you can use a colander, simply fill a pot with water, put the colander in the pot, and gently agitate the colander.

if you, person who is deeply relatable, did not remember you can use a colander and now have a pot with clean water and fibre, gently move your fibre in the water to encourage any excess dye and also citric acid to get out of there.

drain your fibre again, and this time, you're going to squeeze it dry. you're still trying to minimise agitation, so this isn't a 'wring it out' situation, it's a 'gently squish it between your hands and/or a hand and the side of the pot' situation.

hang your fibre to dry. remember what i was saying earlier about it being fragile? let me suggest, here, that you do not simply drape the entire length over a single hanger or something and hope for the best. if you literally have a single hanger, at least drape it back and forth a bit, but better if you can use more than one hanger, or a clothes drying rack, or that weird metal wine rack thing that came with your fridge that you've never used, or whatever.

important reminder: drip-drying things will make your floor wet! if you live somewhere very clear with no major roads or pollen nearby, you can probably dry things outside, but if you don't, you'll probably want to position the drying rack in a bath, shower, laundry area, or otherwise over something that will catch and/or absorb the water.

how long it takes for the fibre to dry is another unknowable variable. if it's warm and dry where you are, it might literally be overnight. if it's damp and cool, it can take days. the batch i posted a couple days ago literally took almost a full week to dry. spread it out as best you can, gently squeeze out the water you can, and otherwise you just have to wait.

you're done!

when it's dry, that's it, you're done! you might find that you need to pick off some little lint balls or a bit of compacted or slightly felted fibre from the tips, but other than that, you should be good to go.

like most fibre stuff, this is best maintained by handwashing in cool water. you may see a little bit of dye or colour loss the first time you wash it, which is pretty normal and nothing to worry about.

congratulations! you made it to the end of this incredibly long post, and if you followed along, you've just dyed some fibre!

troubleshooting

this isn't dyed enough! i want more colours!

add more dye! i'm not the boss of you.

this is true even after the fibre is all done and dryed. there's nothing that says you can't dye it again—you can, and i have.

some fibre seems to require more dye than others. silk, for example, dyes beautifully with acid dyes, but also needs way more dye than i expect it to.

remember that if you're dyeing something that's a wool/cotton blend, for example, the cotton isn't going to dye. the only exception is nylon, which will kinda dye, but not as dramatically. this guide will not work for plant fibres.

this is too dyed! i want fewer colours!

please refer back to the number one most important thing about dyeing, which—as you know—is: you can always add more colour, but you cannot take it away.

pull out some more fibre and try again. this has a learning curve, just like any other fibre craft.

these colours don't look like i expected!

this can be about a lot of things.

colour guides, especially if you're looking at them online, aren't always very accurate.

colour guides tend to assume that you're dyeing a single colour at the suggested dye percentage of weight, and using less than that will give paler colours.

dyes, especially if you're mixing brands, can interact with each other and behave in ways you didn't expect.

dyes can also break, which is when they split into their component colour molecules. this happens commonly with blacks and browns, food colouring, and anything that dharma trading has marked as 'advanced'. some people find this very desirable and seek it out; some people are very frustrated by it.

the ph of your water can sometimes affect your dye. i've been lucky enough that i've only lived places with lead problems, not weird ph stuff, so i haven't investigated this closely, but if you're consistently not getting the results you expect, even going for a single, solid-colour dye, look at the ph.

my dye water's not clear!

if you used a quarter teaspoon of dye and a hundred grams of fibre, and it's been, say, 45 minutes of actually hot water and your water still isn't clear, you probably didn't use enough mordant, and you should add some more citric acid or vinegar to encourage the dye to get in there and do its thing.

if you used you used more like a teaspoon of dye, or if the citric acid doesn't change anything, you used too much dye for your fibre. you can either shrug and pour it down the drain, or you can add some more fibre and dye that, too.

my rinse water's not clear!

you probably used too much dye. it's ok—just keep rinsing it, gently, until it's more or less clear.

some colours just like to run—you know how every once in a while you get a yarn and it just bleeds a little bit every time you wash it? sometimes it's just like that. i wouldn't worry about it too much.

my fibre has felty/clumpy bits!

a little bit of this is normal, especially at the ends of a fibre that felts easily (this means you, merino!)

pick off the bits that you don't like—this is generally fairly easy, and involves very minimal fibre loss. i don't bother doing it until i sit down to spin, and then just pull off bits as i come to them.

if there's a lot of felty/clumpy bits, more than you can reasonably pick out, you agitated the fibre too much. there's not much for this other than trying to card it out, which may or may not work.

sometimes this happens because your stove got weirdly aggressive and boiled your fibre. especially for wool that's prone to felting, the bubbling and jostling can be enough to encourage more clinginess than you'd like.

i want my dyeing to be reproducible!

this is kinda doable. it's a handmade thing, so it's always going to have some natural variance, but you can do it.

buy a jeweler's scale that measures in fractions of a gram.

start measuring your dye and acid, and take detailed notes about what you do.

follow those notes in the future, and you'll be probably 90% of the way there.

i want to dye with natural dyes!

i fully support this and have played around with it a little bit myself, but absolutely do not know enough about it to advise you.

the internet is very large and full of many people who are much smarter than i am, and i feel confident that at least one of them is desperate to tell you all about how to do natural dyeing.

i am, at this point, not that person.

i want to dye plant fibres!

i am begging you to find another guide, because this one will not work.

you didn't answer my question!

that's what my inbox is for

i have to reiterate that i'm just a person with real specific interests who started dyeing things because i couldn't find or afford the kinds of colourways that i wanted.

i am not a professional

i will do my best to answer questions, but sometimes the answer is 'just fuck around until you find out'

plant fi—

shhhhh

the end

thank you for reading this incredibly long post! i might make another one in the near future, either so i can show pictures or because i took out an entire section about how to choose colours and pick a colour scheme and work with colours, and i kinda want to talk more about that, but this is no joke almost six thousand words long, so i thought, you know. maybe not tonight.

anyhow, i hope that this was useful to someone! thank you for letting me talk about one of my very favourite things.

[buwheal]

eeeyyyy, got bored and tried to draw you from memory.

how good is my memmory?

[cherriko-art]

I haven't even started Leah's romance route yet but I've already got their entire relationship and dynamic mapped out in my head.

Rambling into the void, but my female farmer OC, Mili, is basically a female himbo. I'd like to think that she doesn't really get all the passive aggressive jabs Leah makes to the farmer in the beginning of the game, and it makes Leah feel kinda bad abt it later on. As they grow more familiar with each other, I'd believe Mili's tenacious attitude eventually wears down Leah's defensive walls and she starts to grow fond of Mili and her lil' antics (much to Leah's own horror).

And since Mili is kinda airheaded but kind, she's easy to take advantage of, even if others don't exactly have any ill intentions. This would start to annoy Leah as she sees Mili running around helping everyone and their dog around town, and she starts to get kinda overprotective of Mili, and chastises her for never being able to say no to anyone (both farmer siblings are like this tbh). I kinda headcanon that Leah hates Scott bc 1. She's lowkey jealous that Mili and Scott hang out a lot in the mines (but she can't bring herself to go to there herself, its gross and dirty and also there's no reception) but mainly bc 2. She thinks Scott is absolutely full of shit with his museum that exists purely due to all the donations Mili makes to it, but he essentially takes all the credit for. Mili disagrees, but regardless, Leah and Scott don't get along.

After they start dating, Leah becomes an overprotective but proud gf who loves showing Mili off to her followers. The only thing is that she despairs over Mili's lack of fashion sense, esp since Mili's older sibling, Lu-Ran, is perfectly well-dressed themselves. So it becomes her hobby to dress Mili up in cute but practical clothes.

On Mili's end, she's just a simple girl with simple thoughts. Leah is a drop-dead gorgeous gf with a heart of gold (according to Mili, disagreed with by many others). She doesn't really get all the influencer stuff but she's supportive and likes to chat with Leah's followers on livestreams. She doesn't know that Leah's followers have basically formed a Mili Fan Club/Protection Squad.

I also like to think that Leah is a lifestyle influencer and environmental advocate. She donates the money made during livestreams and sponsorships towards environmental research and causes. My headcanon is that she's one of Ling's main sponsor (anonymous of course) for her coral research.

Overall, I'm a big fan of "opposites attract" tropes, so I am obsessed with my OC Mili and seeing how the relationship dynamic with Leah would work out. Mili would help Leah become more emotionally vulnerable and be less rigid, while Leah would be a solid rock in Mili's chaotic life who helps keep her grounded and remind her to take care of herself and not just others. Leah is a bit antisocial though, despite being an influencer, so being together with the social butterfly that Mili is would be quite interesting. With Mili as the bridge, Leah would eventually open up to other villagers too and become friends with Mili's friends too (other than Scott of course). From the get-go, Leah would get along very well with Mili's older sibling (my other farmer OC), Lu-Ran, as they're very down-to-earth, quiet and acceptably-dressed (to Leah's standards).

Anyways, if you actually read my word vomit, thank you for entertaining my 2am brain ramblings.

[human-encounters-diary]

Day 16

As the human and I did not share any duties during this particular cycle, I decided now might be a fitting time to inform the Vitrichl about the aforementioned book, which could possibly grant a further insight into Terrans.

Despite the quite serious circumstances we are currently in, I was able to secure a time frame to initiate a conversation regarding this topic.

I repeated the information V-7 had been able to conjure on this as well as other stories and reports on humans.

"There seems to be one…obstacle, though: The book‘s last documented location is in system Skė-51-33, which does not seem to be even remotely near our current route.", I eludicated.

The Vitrichl seemed to consider the information given, keeping in mind the reason the SIIR Noxos usually avoids this particular system: its unfriendly and occasionally aggressive nature.

Concluding, I was able to convince the Vitrichl through the benefits this book could provide in the task of studying humans, causing the Vitrichl to eludicate that changing the route was currently not possible, but as soon as the chance was offered to us, we would make a short detour through this system to retrieve said book, given that the book was still located there.

In the meantime, I was tasked with retrieving as much possible information on this particular and other sources about humans.

Our arrival on Fendaar is imminent, as we are nearing the planet‘s atmosphere. Further reports will follow.