I reblog stuff. Currently a huge fan of the Murderbot Diaries. I also draw and write. Sometimes. Rarely. Queer adult. I stand by trans ppl, aces, POC and disabled ppl.
i actually have 0 idea where "arctic" and "antarctica" come from but the post that's like "the greeks called one of these bears and one of these no bears and they were right!" makes me mad every time because "anti" does not imply "no bears" it just implies. "opposite of the arctic." perhaps "opposite of the bears" if you want to do that. but like. it could be "antarctic" and still have bears and linguistically that would be just fine.
Friends. Romans. Countrymen. I find myself in need of your wise councel.
I'm doing this yearly book reading challenge with my home library that has fifty prompts. Some of them are really easy to fill, some require more detectiving to find a book that fits them. (Yes, doing detectiving (and statistics) about books is a separate hobby.) (Yes, I do enjoy it, thank you very much.)
This year there's one prompt in particular that is going to be the end of me.
I need to read a book that features an ice hockey player.
Some things that I, as a reader, do not generally give a singular steaming horseshit about:
sports
biographies
(formulaic, straight) romance
contemporary drama (the break room at work has that covered)
You see the problem.
The book does not have to be about the hockey player. The book does not need to be about hockey at all. It can be a book where the hockey player is a one sentence mention.
Some things I do like, as a reader:
mystery
humour
speculative fiction
historical as long as it's not about a world war
romance is fine if it's done interestingly (and doesn't have a love triangle) (unless it ends in poly) (I'd go for that, actually)
Ideally some brilliant soul will pipe up and tell me there's an Unseen Academicals except about ice hockey. But at this stage of despair I'll take anything. If there's a hockey romance or hockey nonfiction you swear is Totally Actually Worth It Bro I'll listen to that, too.
Hanabi propaganda! I would particularly like to draw The People's attention to her splotchy ears and the fact she stuck her face in a cappuccino as a kitten
"adventurers are actually more scared of you than you are of them"
"he's literally just doing what an adventurer is supposed to do"
"do you think they think of us as Giant Adventurers?"
"do you know how many other creatures would be infesting our cave if there were no adventurers?"
"how would you like it if you were bumbling along on your little adventurer day, and some giant dragon thing squished you for the crime of being yourself?"
"y'know, so many dragons are grossed out by them, but i think they're fascinating! Did you know some adventurers form symbiotic relationships with small monsters? Some of them even do a simplified form of spellcraft! Like, with actual magic and everything!"
Aww based on the behaviours in my own household, if there were baby dragons, they’d be going around
Following the adventurers around at what they believe to be a sneaky distance, narrating them at what they believe to be a discreet volume
Getting closer and closer and cheekier and cheekier, and then, when the adventurer reacts, emitting the most violent scream and vanishing
Dropping/forcing/shooing them into a dollhouse and squealing as they Touch Things
Being extremely torn between squalling for parental assistance and not letting the more impatient parent kill the adventurer, resulting in much crashing about the cave, shushing each other loudly, announcing on repeat, “don’t tell dad about THE ADVENTURER!!!”
Adventurer is briefly, unbeknownst to themselves, named and kept as a pet
Adventurer is requested to pick what music they shall play, and is serenaded against its will by recorder playing from a baby dragon who cannot play the recorder.
One hatchling suddenly takes against it and demands it be killed
One hatchling immediately begins to fight with that one, leaving adventurer to be monitored by a neutral hatchling, possibly a toddler
With utterly unclear motives, toddler dragon pours milk on it
More screaming
Adventurer gets regrettably bruised by all of this very subtle and discreet interest, and the hatchlings, in a panic, in no particular order, chase the limping creature into a corner, scream the place down, fetch the more patient parent, read it a helpful storybook, panic when it moves, and also pour milk on it.
When the more patient parent eventually places a cup over the adventurer, it will be accompanied by the hatchlings springing about screaming continuously in excitement, winding around the parental feet like cats, causing the adventurer to lose the rest of their composure and beg to go home or have a quick death.
Hatchlings accompany adventurer to Settle Into Its New Home, offering it a gigantic gummy multivitamin and ear splitting shrieks, eventually forcing it down a hole.
“We are Friends of Minibeasts,” the baby dragons tell each other.
“Border fragment of wool with a continuous band of #hummingbirds and fringelike appendages representing beans. Early Nasca [Nazca, Peru, c.1-450 CE]. Pollination of bean plants by birds may be suggested here. Border was formed using a needle-knit stemstitch.”
On display at American Museum of Natural History [41.2/6321]
(Reblogging with what I put in the replies so that I can attach images!!)
This is such a beautiful example of Nasca needle knitting!!! I took an art history course on Andean visual culture and we had a whole lecture dedicated to Nasca textile art. Needle-knitting is done with a single needle and is the Nasca are the only culture that did this particular kind of textile knitting until the 20th century when it was brought outside of the south coast. This is a really interesting border because it's the second example I've seen of the hummingbird pollinator theme. Here's the one that I saw in the class I took:
This hummingbird border (while a lot less vibrant) defines a lot of what's so special about Nasca textile IMO. Each hummingbird is 3d and double-sided. They're also only about 1.5" (3.81cm) tall (tail-tip to beak-tip). It's an extremely detailed form of knitting!
For people interested in some of the history of Nasca textile, this article about the Paracas Textile (the most famous example of Nasca needle knitting) is a great introduction and overview: https://smarthistory.org/the-paracas-textile/
Here's the Paracas Textile for your viewing pleasure:
And a close-up of the border:
I could talk about this a lot more but I'll save everyone's time and point them towards the website above LOL
(P.S. - hummingbirds show up a lot in Nasca visual culture as pollinators. The hummingbird is also one of the most famous Nasca lines! For those curious, yes, we talked about what those mean in my class. According to my prof, they're actually water guides that track the path of water underground and during rain so that the Nasca people could access irrigation and drinking water!)
theo van gogh was the one who suggested that his older brother vincent start seriously painting. as soon as theo was gainfully employed he gave vincent around 15% of his own yearly salary for art supplies, lodging, and food. about 2/3rds of vincent's surviving letters were to theo (including vincent's earliest and last letters), all of which were found stored in theo's desk. theo's child, vincent willem, was born on january 31st, 1890, and vincent was so delighted by his nephew that he painted almond blossoms for him. vincent shot himself half a year later on july 29th, 1890. theo's distress at his brother's death worsened his syphilis symptoms and he died half a year after his brother on january 25th, 1891 (four days before vincent willem's first birthday). theo was reburied next to vincent in auvers-sur-oise at the request of theo's wife johanna.
And that love lived on Theo's wife, Johanna, who was the one who pushed for the preservation of Vincent's paintings. Johanna who made sure that her husband's beloved brother would not be forgotten. Johanna who fought tooth and nail so that Theo and Vincent would never be forgotten. Johanna who carried the family legacy, who made sure that the works of Vincent would be kept in her possession. And then Vincent Willem, named for a uncle so loved, carried this legacy and founded the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.
The van Gogh family history is deeply interwoven with love. It was the love of a brother that gave a young man the courage to paint and the resources to do so. It was the love of a woman for her husband and her husband's beloved brother that made that story known. And it was the love of a nephew, who was so deeply loved even if for such a short time, that made it possible for the world to know Vincent van Gogh.
What was your word for "skipping school". This is primarily directed towards british and oirish anglophones but everyone tell me if you're not shy. Ours was dossing / being "on the doss"
skipping school =
dossing
mitching
skiving
bunking off
ditching / cutting class
playing hooky
not anglophone (please lemme know your term!)
anglophone but none of these (what term did you use...)
Who wants to hear about my new obsession? Great. Textile people, knitting folks, fiber peeps, history of those things lovers, and archives/special collections comrades, this is for us.
So a few weeks ago, in the midst of A Big Sad, I set out on the simple distracting mission of giving my mom the link to something I want for Christmas. Long story short, I failed. I fell down a deep rabbit hole on traditional Estonian knitting and ended up ordering a book on the subject from Estonia for myself. Anyway, it arrived and holy shit.
300 pages of fiber/knitting/history nerdiness. The first hundred cover Estonian knitting history, including archaeological finds (bog body knitwear!), regional traditions, dyes and colors, museum collections and patterns reconstructed from them!
As an archivist, I lost it when I saw this, a helpful guide to searching Estonian museum collections for English speakers. Vocabulary for knitwear collections! Navigating the search features! MIND BLOWN. In the history intro section, they recommend books on knitting history with the website link to libraries with free digital copies. They are pulling me farther into the rabbit hole and I am here for it.
And because I am a knitter and an archivist, they included a basic guide on preservation and care of vintage knitwear. I am crying rn
Ok, history is cool and all but what about the knitting??? It is amazing. This volume is not complete patterns but more of a stitch/pattern encyclopedia that can be added to other projects. It includes tips on color palate while providing reference to various traditional plates of different regions of Estonia
So these are suggested stranded colorwork patterns for mittens. But use them wherever
Stranded colorwork, intarsia in the round, lace, cables, interlay, enterlac, fringes, brioche, boarders/edging, several cast-ons I had never seen
The second volume (hard to find) is all on socks/stockings, and volume 3 (which has just been released in English) is all about mittens and I might have ordered it this morning.
It is not the easiest book to track down, nor the cheapest. As I said, I ordered it from Estonia. Amazon and Amazon owned Abe Books both had it for around $70. I, personally, refuse to give bezos money and, in this case if you are considering buying it, I encourage you to order it from this shop in Estonia. Even with international shipping, taxes, fees, and such, it was actually about $10 cheaper.
I got you! And by that I mean the authors are on it.
(Here is a tiny section of it) There is a 4 page section on the history of traditional dyes and how fiber was colored, in addition to the section on regional color preferences. Only a small bit on synthetic.
I also thought I would add the table of contents and a small lace sample below based on other notes
Because many of the notes are correct, Estonian lace is freaking gorgeous!
Anyway, I am extremely delighted with this purchase and I very excited for the volume on mittens to arrive, currently en route from Estonia with a considerable amount of yarn. Adding the link to the shop again and reminder that it was cheaper to order from Estonia than buying it on amazon.
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