[radicalgraff]

"Deny, Defend, Depose"

Luigi sticker spotted on a Boston train

[massachusetts-official]

Official Post of Massachusetts

[kajtekmakesthings]

Back in October, I crashed a rented electric scooter and tore a hole in one of my favorite shirts. I finally got around to patching it today, and I'm really happy with the result.

The fabric was pretty torn up (it was shredded by friction, not cut) and I often wear my sleeves rolled up, so I put patches on both sides of the hole.

I used some scrap quilting cotton I've had around forever, attached with lightweight fusible webbing (which I'm trying out for the first time). I whip stitched around the edge of each patch to prevent fraying and then reinforced the whole area with big sashiko-inspired stitches using 4 strands of embroidery floss.

It was a pretty quick mend once I figured out what I wanted to do, and I really like how it looks.

[malefixium]

the trees you grew up with have not forgotten you. their branches still whisper your name in the breeze and their roots remember the paths your feet once traced through their shade.

[closet-keys]

it’s so wild that trumps executive order has that bit about sex being assigned at conception.

I assume this is the anti-abortion position being encoded into the anti-trans legislation. no one is testing what gametes their embryo has— such a thing isn’t possible (embryos don’t produce them yet; there are primordial germ cells, but they aren’t differentiated as sperm or egg cells).

it just goes to show that gender/sex policing is never based on any science— there is no "scientific" definition to what “female sex” or "male sex" is. It doesn’t exist as a material reality. It is a legal construct that is assigned with the first legal documentation assigned to a subject—the birth certificate.

and that isn’t based on chromosomes or gametes. it’s a decision based on whether a doctor thinks the infant will be mostly likely to be capable of penetrative heterosexual sex as “female” or “male.” because penetrative heterosexual sex is the point, the determination is based on whether the clitoris is long enough to penetrate (in which case “it’s a boy”) and if not whether there is a vaginal canal deep enough for penetration (in which case “it’s a girl”) and if neither or both are true the child’s body is forcibly surgically altered.

they can't define sex "biologically" because it is not a "biological" reality. it will be determined, as always, punitively, on a case by case basis on varying traits and legal documentation, to enforce patriarchal economic systems that depend on misogyny and transmisogyny.

one of the most telling parts from the executive order, to me, was this (emphasis mine):

"The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system. Basing Federal policy on truth is critical to scientific inquiry, public safety, morale, and trust in government itself."

this bit gives the game away with how important the institution and enforcement of sex assignment is to capitalism, the united states economy, the carceral/legal system, and the ideological buy-in to us-american hegemony.

[memewhore]

[voidsnout]

hold on let me google something

[voidsnout]

what the fuck

[triflesandparsnips]

happy Boston Molasses Flood to all who celebrate

[massachusetts-official]

Official Post of Massachusetts

[audaciouslesbian]

Found @massachusetts-official tonight and it genuinely tore open the hole in my chest that exists only in the shape of Boston, Massachusetts. I spent three days in Boston last summer and have not spent any other time there before or since. And yet ever since I left I feel like there's been something viscerally missing from my soul. It’s fucking ridiculous and I cannot justify it but nothing fills the Boston Hole. I miss the group of drunk historical reenactors I saw in front of the Old State House. I miss the weird boat tour bus things. I miss lobster roll. For multiple months I was overcome with a desperate longing for Beacon Hill at least twice a week. I have genuinely never missed a place so much. I am from Canada. I don't know why I feel this way

[massachusetts-official]

Official Post of Massachusetts

[sweetsarcasm-deactivated2020052]

[officialspec]

walkable cities also means sittable cities send tweet

[officialspec]

some people are responding to this like its a joke and im going to assume u are the type of people to say "its only a 3 minute walk" when i tell them the nearest bench is too far away

[officialspec]

also anyone who thinks "3 minutes isnt THAT bad" you will be old one day. and you will wish the bench was closer

[shinraalpha]

walkable cities also means cities with free accessible public bathrooms whilst we're at it

[official-lucifers-child]

still thinking about the brainrot that fast fashion has caused in people, like i made this pair of pants that are black and white with a cool flowery design, and an acquaintance saw them and said "wow i'd pay like 20 dollars for you to make me a pair" and i could barely think with how utterly horrified i was at that; i told them that 20 dollars wouldn't even cover the materials, let alone the hours of work that went into cutting, sewing, ironing, hemming, altering, etc. they just had this look on their face when i told them that, when i said i wouldn't make them a pair for even 100 dollars because that was still way too low of an amount, a look that said "you're crazy for thinking that those cost 100 dollars" and maybe i am crazy but holy shit, 20 dollars for a pair of handmade, durable, lined pants fitted specifically to your measurements? 20 dollars for upwards of 60 hours of work? 20 dollars for several yards of high-quality fabric, thread, and buttons? 20 dollars???

[green-mug-tomato-juice]

i still agree with this very much, but the more i think about it the more i feel like the way we as textile artists talk about fast fashion sometimes is really disrespectful. the category of "handmade" we have made up to describe things we make that take lots of time and that we put lots of love into is fake. all clothing is more or less handmade. FAST FASHION IS HANDMADE. you can not totally mechanize the process of sewing garments. a home sewing machine doesn't operate itself. neither does a factory grade sewing machine. fast fashion is cheap because the people who make it make almost no money from it and work under dangerous and inhumane conditions because noone invests in their safety. in mass production singular steps of making a garments are split to different people to make things more efficient, which also speeds up the process. but these people STILL work with their hands. it's handmade. the only real difference is that while we craft for fun, they do it to survive. because there's no other option. and like OF COURSE you're right op, we should all be paid fairly for the things that we make. but when we praise the process of handmaking our own textiles while bashing fast fashion, that's just punching down. we need to always remember that the fact that we are ABLE to make textiles for fun and demand fair prices comes from the (relative) privilege that we don't have to do it for our survival.

basically i just think we need to be more mindful how we word these things. if people don't value our work the way they should, it's not because of fast fashion clothing itself - it's because of capitalist consumerism and the fashion industry. and exploited person's labor is NOT worth less than our labor just because we have the privilege of putting love and passion into it and they don't.

[suffer-louder]

Autism Speaks Canada is "concluding its operations" on January 31st 2025!

[rabidwormjumbles]

Next knitting project will be a vest saying ‘fuck my stupid baka life’

[how-to-be-a-grouch]

Daryl Cagle, November 23, 2003

[wingstothesun]

Going to add something here as a few people in the notes don't know the significance of the date here, or think this might be a dig at Sesame Street somehow - on November 18th, 2003, there was an absolutely landmark legal case in the state of Massachusetts that ruled that civil unions in that state needed to be given the same rights as marriage. This was HUGE - gay marriage was not legally recognized in any state at the time, and civil unions were the closest you could get. This is a WONDERFULLY hopeful, sweet comic drawn five whole days after an enormous, major step forward for gay marriage POSSIBLY being legal. Massachusetts wouldn't even properly legalize gay marriage until May 2004, and it was the first state to do so.

You can Google Goodridge v Department of Public Health for more details.

[massachusetts-official]

Official Post of Massachusetts

[fiberfantasies]

Fiber arts is just Math in sheep's clothing

[g-ri]

I still feel really annoyed by that. What do you mean sewing is just geometry and ironing ? Two of the things I successfully avoided for 20+ years ? Why are knitting and crochet just counting ?

[brush-script-lover]

“Dyke church” promotional dental dam.

Photopolymer relief print on latex dam, 6x10”

[ilookattextile]

Suddenly everyone is reblogging my natural fibres post with tags like “but we cant find any natural fibre clothes in stores anymore” “but natural fibres clothes are too expensive” “what if we dont have time to make our own clothes because capitalism and what if we have chronic illness” holy cow. Do i need to tell you how to search “wool sweater” on ebay? Fb marketplace? Go to the thrift store and look at the material content labels i guarantee you can find 100% cashmere sweater at the thrift store for less than new “wool blend” sweater from uniqlo stop complaining

[ilookattextile]

Not to mention the ones who are like “actually OP is wrong, wool is very itchy” ok there is itchy wool and there is very soft wool and there are many different kinds of wool and ways of preparing wool and they are used for different purposes i’m not asking you to wear a fisherman sweater directly on your bare tits or sleep under a scratchy wool blanket with no sheet in between

[omtai]

they need to invent a running away & never coming back that doesn’t affect your life

[headspace-hotel]

y'all HAVE to watch this...interview??? with the inmates of the prison where luigi mangione is being held.

the reporter is standing outside the prison walls, while the inmates are inside watching the news, and collectively screaming out one-word answers to questions loud enough to be heard by the reporter.

I've never seen anything like it