But why not?

Attempts at sustaining sustainability. Largely visible mending, with all my other favourite textile crafts sneaking in at the back when it’s not looking.

[swallowsummer]

Insanely proud of these ones. They’re mending and reinforcing a worn pocket and were really fun to do. All done with scrounged scraps of detangled mercerised cotton thread and a scrap of plaid I rescued from the gutter.

It’s almost like it’s Summer and I have time/the mental capacity to actually be creative…

[swallowsummer]

What is it about these pockets?

[swallowsummer]

And the garden continues to grow.

All done by eye, starting with the orange blanket stitch and then the dark blue loop stitch, and embellishing from there. It takes about three rounds for me to convince myself that the imperfections won’t matter, as long as nothing else is perfect either. By that point I can’t be bothered unpicking it all anyway.

[swallowsummer]

Keep arriving home and running to my fibre box (read: one of at least ten fibre boxes) to cradle this treasure. It’s the most yarn I’ve ever spun and I think I might be in love with it.

[tempered-grace]

photo is kinda buns but i embroidered over some holes on a tshirt for my friend

edit: redid the flower

[swallowsummer]

This is gorgeous!

[swallowsummer]

Finally worked out what my rescue wheel is, and was then able to source more bobbins, meaning now I can ply without a lot of faffing around with centre pull balls.

[morningstartextiles]

Mended some pants for a friend of mine recently

[household-horrible-lesbian]

I mended a small rip in the inner thigh of my favorite jeans then did a sashiko section around the rip to try to fortify the denim.

I have one other pair of jeans that are sturdy enough to wear to work, and I just patched the inner thighs on those because the holes were more numerous.

[findingpeacethroughchaos]

[thevastnessof]

it’s actually quite easy to take over a small local government group if you really want to, bc if you volunteer consistently people will just put you in charge of whatever. I’m now one of like three people at a nature preserve making official decisions about trails, putting in a prairie, and designing a series of illustrations for a storybook trail etc., and it’s just because last summer I started coming over once a week to help the naturalist out for a couple hours. Mine now. you too can steal an organization and shape it to your will 🫵

[florad0ra]

fun upcycle/repair from today

[mcromwell]

In only one year, Echo and I have gone from absolutely 0 community interaction to volunteering with climate groups, attending (and joining!) citizen committees, making public comment at county and state level, and participating in local Pride event planning. We showed up ONCE and now we're here.

All it takes to get the ball rolling is showing up ONCE. Find a local org in your area that's helping people and you'll find cool organizers who could use someone like you. The more you show up, the more you learn what it takes to make meaningful change. You'll be able to help more and more.

If it can happen in my rural county, I bet it can happen wherever the heck you are, too. When we moved here, we didn't expect to be making so many new friends and community connections, but now more than ever it feels so good to call myself a part of this place. Community is out there. Find it.

[bookshelfdreams]

Made a sweater :3

Yarn: woolen handspun, Corriedale (beloved <3), 3ply, about 550g total

This ticks off the 'use a technique you've previously attempted without success' (seamed sweater) and the 'try a pattern from a new to you designer' squares on the fibre craft bingo.

The fit could honestly be better but I think it will look a bit nicer once I wear it in. Or well. I hope it will.

Pattern: Margaret Beaufort by Alice Starmore.

[swallowsummer]

Blue Yarn Day

[swallowsummer]

Finally realised that I wasn’t going to learn how to card wool from a textbook, no matter how many labelled photos it had, and reluctantly reached for YouTube.

And guess what? The matted fibre is now spinnable.

[swallowsummer]

Behold the lichen clusters still multiplying on my very tatty sleeve!

The reverse looks like this, by the way:

[werewolflake]

I have more fun mending when I'm not trying to make it look super neat

[swallowsummer]

Patching the patches of patches on my cosy crochet slippers. Technically visible mending, but no one really sees it.

[swallowsummer]

Mended one knee with patches from some denim scraps, embroidered with a 6-pointed star pattern. Also used the indigo thread to reinforce the existing shippo tsunagi pattern (seven treasures).

And I was enjoying the indigo so much that I used it for some accents while extending the seven treasures mend on another patch.

Probably photographing these would be easier if I could bear to take them off.