Knitting finished as of last night! Still need to weave in a few ends, wash, and block.
Was aiming for 48” x 60”, came out 39” x 60” so far, but I’m hoping to be able to block it to a little wider and I’m ok losing a few inches of length for that
Thank you so much for all the nice things everyone has said about this blanket! Unfortunately, I do not have a pattern, so much as I have several patterns and some back-of-the-napkin style math notes that won’t make sense to anyone but me - but I do have a picture of this planning piece (since frogged to reuse the yarn in the blanket itself.)
As a few people in the notes pointed out, the dragon pattern is Tahesha the Dragoness by Ina Wendrock
Skill level: Advanced cable knit / Zopfmuster für Fortgeschrittene
But it's on a plain reverse stockinette background, and I wanted this as part of a complex cable afghan. It's going to be a wedding gift for two friends in my DnD group, so I knew I wanted it big enough that two people could reasonably share it while watching TV together on a couch, and for a dragon to still be visible when folded and draped over the back of a couch or chair, in case that's how they store it. So I knew I was committing myself to knitting 5 dragons (one in the center and one in each of the four corners), and figuring out myself how to plop the dragon in to a larger cable blanket pattern.
Back in November, I bought the dragon pattern and knit a test version of it so I could see how it worked and measure the dimensions. (You can see from the curled up edges that I did this before I found the part in the pattern notes where Ina Wendrock helpfully informs us that the dragon is knit over 45 initial stitches, to help us add it to our own projects, but ah well.) Then I started trying to figure out the other cables.
I knew I wanted some traditional cables so that it had an heirloom look to it (but with dragons), but I thought that the dragons would look too out of place if everything else looked copy-pasted from a classic fisherman’s sweater. Fortunately, there are a number of knitting designers right now doing cool things with trying to make cables that resemble Celtic knot motifs, so I went to the public library and borrowed a bunch of cable knitting books and started bookmarking what I liked. My favorite patterns were all coming from this book:
Mention the phrase ?cable knitting,? and most people?knitters and non-knitters alike?envision textured ropes, twists, and braids winding up
Which looks like it's out of print now, but wasn't in December and I was able to ask for and receive it for Christmas. (Designer Melissa Leapman's ravelry store is here in case anyone wants to check it out):
I narrowed my bookmarked cables down to patterns that had 1) an odd number of stitches; 2) a central "crossover" cable in multiple parts of the pattern so that I could "open" it up to create the medallions that the dragons would sit in; and 3) a stitchcount of less than 45, by enough that I'd have room to drop a traditional cable on either side. My favorite two would then be the center cables for the central dragon panel and the left & right dragon panels (when I wasn't doing the dragons), and then I decided on a very simple c4b twist between the panels and a tight 5-rib cable braid on the edges. I loved the first two patterns from the book that I tested and didn't have to try any of my runner-up bookmarks - but if you zoom in on the picture, you can see that for the traditional cables around the Melissa Leapman cable for the center panel, I tried and discarded a honeycomb cable and an Xs and Os variant before deciding on the one that I'm not actually sure of the name of that made it into the final pattern. For the side panels, I had thought it might be nice to incorporate a hearts cable since it was for a wedding blanket. I'm not sure how traditional these heart cables are, but I've seen them unattributed in more than one published pattern from different sources, and they're published in a number of cable pattern guides online. They worked next to the Melissa Leapman cable I wanted for the side panels, so they went in the pattern without me trying anything else.
While practicing the dragon cable, I had noticed that many of the cables started with an increase, so on the back of one of my chart print-outs, I graphed a rough plan for what I had decided to put where in terms of the traditional and Leapman cables that would go around the dragons, and numbered out the stitches if I worked the first cables in each pattern as increases instead of cables to mimic the start of the dragons. Then I added up the total number of stitches and cast on, and it worked surprisingly well! After completing one repeat of the side-panel central cables, I started "opening" up the circles where the dragon would be through improvisation (the left and right panels that were parallel always matched each other because I was doing the same thing in each row - other than that, I wound up doing it slightly differently every time, and that was ok. They look the same enough.)
I had planned to either leave it un-bordered or add the full mitered border that Ina Wendrock (who designed the dragon pattern) has on her store depending on how it worked up, but after I'd knit enough to see what it looked like, I decided that the mitered border was overkill, but it did need something, so when I finally got to the end I did an I-chord bind-off and then went back and picked up stitches along the cast-on to do an I-chord bind-off there too. If I had it to do over again, I might have done a folded hem on each side instead, but we'll see how the I-chord blocks.
So, that's how you make the dragon blanket. Either get the patterns I mentioned and try to duplicate, or just buy the dragon and add your favorite cables for the rest!
[Sorry I'm not more help, but I cannot stress enough - I did not write any of this down as I went.]
[[For the patterns that were from the Continuous Cables book, I used panel 10 from page 136 for the center and panel 27 from page 146 for the sides]]
ideal living situation is what i call the 'sitcom special' : having all your closest friends live in the same apartment building or neighborhood where you each have your own space but can wander in and out of eachothers homes at will, seemingly always welcome and never at bad times. and also all of you only have jobs when its important to the plot.
The moment I stepped through the hatch, I was hit with the smell of the air. Preservation Station smelled exactly the same as it did when I left to go on that stupid water planet survey almost a whole year ago now: clean, well-recycled, but also kind of like plants and dirt.
I was back. I’d never come back anywhere before.
It was just the Preservation Station embarkation/disembarkation bay. Ordinary, old but well-kept, everything kind of scruffy. The art display on the far wall was different, a statue of nothing in particular that glittered under the light, but it was so Preservation. The station feed recognized my feed credentials right away, and connecting was effortless. I did, and immediately received a :) through the feed from Jollybaby. I tapped an acknowledgement but did not send an amusement sigil back.
And all of my humans were crowding around to greet me.
I’d considered not telling any of them that I was coming back today, and then I’d considered only telling Dr. Mensah. I mean, technically I was required to notify Dr. Mensah, still being my guardian and all, but I don’t think Senior Indah would get on my ass if I spent a day or two in my own quarters first. They’d all find out soon enough, and I knew that most if not all of them (it was all of them) would be waiting on the station as soon as my ship was announced approaching.
But it had been an entire Mihiran/New Tideland school year cycle since I’d seen some of them, and longer than that for others. And, after that time spent with ART’s crew and students, it was weird, I wanted to see them.
So I had sent a message buoy before getting on an ordinary transport back to Preservation (well, from Mihira to UplandGateway One to Port FreeCommerce which sucked to be back through THERE again, by the way, but I was only stopping over very briefly and that didn’t count, and then to Preservation, which is why I took ordinary transports and not ART because the trip was a pain and ART had a job to do and couldn’t justify the time away to administration) so I fully expected them to be here, and of course they were.
I didn’t expect them to look different.
There was more gray in Mensah’s hair, and more lines around her eyes. She looked tired, and it was a weird thing to see. Volescu was rounder in both his face and his body, and in contrast to Mensah, he looked more relaxed than I’d ever seen him. Bharadwaj was sitting in a wheelchair, though she also had her telescoping cane attached to the back so I guess she still used that sometimes. Ratthi’s hair was longer now, and Arada’s was pink. Overse’s midsection was distended in a way that looked concerning but I think actually meant she was pregnant. (I’d never actually seen that in real life, but it was a popular plot on serials.) Pin-Lee and Gurathin looked basically the same as they had when I left, though Gurathin had changed the gender marker in her feed profile.
It’s not like I didn’t know humans aged and changed. The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon has been running for 17 seasons. A lot of the actors are older and look different than they did in seasons 1 and 2. Some have more hair and some have less, and various cast members and/or characters have gotten injuries, gotten pregnant, gotten older, gotten augments, changed their hairstyles or gender markers. But that’s a serial. It was… different, to see that in my humans. Maybe it was just different knowing that I had known them long enough to see that there were any changes. Or that I’d been away long enough for them to have changed while I was gone and couldn’t see them. I’ve never been around the same group of humans for long enough to see that, before. I’ve never paid close enough attention to any individual human to notice that anyway. And obviously when a contract ended I never saw any given humans again. But my humans were changing over time while I was away, and I knew them long enough—and was away long enough—that to see the changes was startling.
But the way Arada smiled and bounced on her feet in excitement when she saw me was the same. The way Ratthi waved hello to the drone that zipped over to him was the same. The way Pin-Lee stood, the way Bharadwaj tilted her head, the way Gurathin rested her hand on her shoulder bag was the same. And the way the tension left Mensah’s shoulders when she walked up to greet me—that was the same, too.
It’s been true for a while, but I’m still not used to humans feeling relieved and happy to see me.
“SecUnit!” Mensah said. (They weren’t all mobbing me at once even though I could tell it was taking a valiant effort on some of their parts. Arada’s clasped hands in front of her definitely indicated that she was trying /so/ hard to not run and hug me, and I was grateful for that.) Mensah stepped up to me and she looked so open, so happy. “It’s great to see you again. I’m glad you’re safe and everything’s gone well.”
“We only did one actually dangerous anti-corporate espionage run,” I said. “Most of the time was data analysis, distance hacking, legal stuff, and ART being really enthusiastic to teach human adolescents about space.”
Mensah laughed. Volescu said, “Well, that can be almost as harrowing. Teaching freshmen is always an adventure.”
“I’m glad you wanted to spend term break here, then!” Arada added.
“No, this is third term now,” I said. “I don’t have a lot to do on ordinary semester-in-space terms, it turns out. Term break is when the stuff we’re not actually supposed to talk about without NDAs happen.”
Pin-Lee snorted. “Well, glad we’re more interesting than mapping the same nebula again with a new group of teenagers.”
“Oh come on,” Ratthi said. “I’m sure there’s got to be something worthwhile here that’s not just avoiding freshmen again! But I’d love to hear about how the non-classified semester went. What working for the university is like over there. And a lot has happened over the past year here too.”
I wondered if I looked different at all. SecUnits don’t really grow and change the way humans do.
i want 2 say this isnt just about aro characters. im aro i love aro characters i love ace characters but this also is about allo characters. its normal and healthy and fine for alloromantic people to not be in romantic relationships and i wish media reflected that
The soon-to-be-released new TMBD story "Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy" covers ART revealing to its crew that it met a rogue SecUnit! This formerly-missing scene has been the subject of a lot of fan speculation, including many fanfics. Now's your chance to enjoy them before they're de-canonized! (And keep enjoying them afterwards, because even Martha Wells' version is just one more cake for us to enjoy!)
Below is a collection of every fic I could find that features the "btw, I met a SecUnit" conversation between ART and its crew. Works tagged with a / relationship tag are placed below the cut.
I very well may have missed some—if you know any more, please add them! And be sure to show the authors some love in the comments :)
Not Angry, Just Disappointed by mensah
Seth said sternly, “Perihelion, you need to tell us the truth. We can’t leave the home system until we find out what happened. If you’re hiding something—”
Peri cut him off. I am not hiding anything.
Peri might be able to lie astonishingly well to a corporate representative, even impersonate a human over the feed, but it couldn’t lie to Iris. “Yes, you are,” she said.
--
Or, the story of how exactly ART told its crew about Murderbot.
Private Diary of Iris after Artificial Condition by ImitationGame
Perihelion returns from its solo mission.
Dr. Delawyn, an expert in machine cognition, notices that there has been unusual activities in its emotion processing system.
Perihelion admits having allowed a rogue SecUnit onboard.
Not applicable by Wrenz
Iris is finally back on board Perihelion after its latest cargo-run (with side-order of espionage) and they have a chance to catch up.
She wasn't expecting her sibling to have become attached to someone new while it was away. Let alone a rogue SecUnit.
Partial Disclosure by Gamebird
The complicated family dynamics when you're a super-secret intelligent spaceship trying to explain the illegal things you did to help your new friend (the rogue security construct) to your augmented sister so she'll team up with you against your dad who is also your captain and commanding officer. Actually, best not to explain the illegal things. Maybe just the 'new friend' part for now and hope for the best on the rest of it.
The Talk by Gamebird
From the tags of fingolfinwiththesteelchair on Tumblr, “can you imagine ART having to explain to Iris and Seth WHY it let SecUnit on??” (https://www.tumblr.com/fingolfinwiththesteelchair/735884180224950272/this-has-been-perihelions-guide-to-making?source=share)
This is set very shortly after [redacted] in System Collapse and before the trip to the surface that serves as the opening scene for that book. (No System Collapse spoilers to worry about, though.)
(Minor edits since initial publication to bring it in line with canon.)
unexpected object in ventilation system by CompletelyDifferent
When people are overwhelmed with feelings they won't (or can't) admit, it causes them to vomit out flowers. Love is a particularly common culrpit. And yes, it's been an enduring symbol of enduring love for humanity since time immemorial, yadda yadda, truth is, in reality, it's kind of a pain to deal with. Kaede's picked roses and daises from her teeth more times than she'd care to admit, and helped friends hack out lilies even more. She knows the drill.
Someone on board The Perihelion has a bad case of The Petals, and she's determined to track down who.
Below: Fics on this list that include a / relationship tag. (This is a somewhat arbitrary separation—I suggest reading the author's tags and notes for more nuance.)
Gos-ship by urisaarang
Peri tells its crew it met someone. Someone special. Someone worth committing a little crime for.
Fallen the hardest by OctoberSeventeenth
When Perihelion keeps playing the same song Iris suspects that there might be more to this...
Basically How I imagine Peri told its crew about SecUnit.
Parallel Signaling by Joyfulldreams
After leaving RaviHyral, by the time I exit the wormhole adjacent to Port Outlander, the sting of SecUnit’s absence has finally begun to fade. Cargo runs are always lonely, so this is nothing new. SecUnit left me with more to occupy my time than I usually have. Media. Memories. A few topics of pointless rumination, I suppose, but also new topics of data analysis and research.
OR
The time period between the end of Artificial Condition and the end of Exit Strategy, from ART's POV.
nk jemisin was crazy for alabaster and syenite/essun. what a dynamic. blurring that line between the platonic and romantic and then hitting it with a blowtorch until it metamorphises and fuses into an intense totally undescribable narratively critical bond. do they like each other? sometimes! is it healthy? hard to say. is it compelling? yes, incredibly.
I don't understand people who are all like "I'm not really happy in this relationship but I don't want to be alone" like why not? Not being in a relationship is the dream. A mediocre partner shouldn't be a safety net or consolation prize, your partner should be amazing enough to beat out the really fucking awesome position of being unattached. It's fucking great. If your partner's making you unhappy then not having one is better, trust me.
Also if you're worried about being "alone" you don't need a romantic partner you need a circle of friends. Join an art club at your local library or something.
(This post is about people who are settling not people with practical concerns like 'cannot afford to live alone' or 'we're raising kids together and it's be worse for everyone to go through the mess of a breakup' or 'I am disabled and because of my country's shitty shitty support system my quality of life would tank severely and I could easily die if I break up with my partner', those are important and very different problems. Let's not piss on the poor here.)
I am aro but alloromantic people are not helplessly mind controlled into Must Have Relationship either. I know lots of allorom people who get into relationships when it makes them happy and enjoy their freedom when they're not in a relationship. They're not helplessly fated to be miserable in an unhappy relationship until a happier one comes along to jump onto.
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