#mila kitty

[alexseanchai]

if my cat can't tell the difference between long thin things I chase her away from every time and long thin things I usually let her at—

—or not from outside chewable range, anyway; or indeed simply because the above bit has "usually" in—

—then her participation in her beloved experimental physics and collaborative fiber arts projects is contingent on her compliance with social rules that are poorly communicated to her and must seem entirely arbitrary

[alexseanchai]

ace pride dragon shoelaces, here we come!

I'm numbering my cards 0 to 19 bc I'm doing four stripes on each side of the dragons, and for rows 7-12 I'm turning cards 0-3 and 16-19 backward so it's twist-neutral

got from zero to all warped up in a bit over two hours, with Mila's help:

also I meant to take a break when the feed cats alarm went off, but Mila knows the sound of all the Alex get up alarms, and Mila said no:

but it is all warped and ready for me to load up the shuttle and go!

...tomorrow.

[alexseanchai]

Mila helps

[alexseanchai]

past couple months, notably excepting the days when I had birthday money in my possession: I wanna inkle loom and tablet weaving cards

(like. look at these:)

(that said, my partner artist and I are making good use of what I did buy with my birthday money:)

[image: tortoiseshell tabby Mila paws at the current contents of my yarn bowl. not shown: her back paws and most of her weight pinning my upper arm to the mattress.]

[image: Mila has extracted my crochet-thread rainbow in progress from the yarn bowl and moved to the more open workspace of the blanket on top of me. She is now pressing my leg down with her front paws, while adjusting the tension of the active thread with her claws and teeth.]

[image: Mila has confiscated the project entirely and giving the camera and me a look of long-suffering exasperation.]

so

day before yesterday: okay let's get Everything off these shelves, I want to know what all I actually Have

today: hey this unopened box is covered with the name and logo of one of the well known weaving and spinning equipment manufacturers

anyway 2018 me got 2025 me a marvelous birthday present

[image: an Ashford inklette loom, still disassembled in the box, with a shuttle, a pack of Schacht tablet weaving cards, and a booklet that contains instructions for Ashford inklette loom assembly and first use.]

so!

What shoelaces should Alex weave themself first?

ace pride, lengthwise stripes

ace pride, chevrons

ace pride, Dublin dragons

nonbinary pride, lengthwise stripes

nonbinary pride, chevrons

nonbinary pride, Dublin dragons

Voting ended onFeb 19, 2025

[alexseanchai]

[image 1: something like a hundred fifty dandelion stems, tied in clusters to a coat hanger and hung on a hook above the closet, near the dehumidifier and not directly above the litter box (not shown), and hopefully out of reach of—]

[image 2: cat on her climbing wall, leaning forward from one of the platforms. the dandelion stems look suspiciously reachable.]

[image 3: cat staring directly into camera.]

[image 4: dandelion stems are now hanging from the hook farthest from the climbing wall platforms, which is coincidentally closest to the dehumidifier and the heater/AC box, and still probably easier for the cat to reach than the monkey, because Mila can climb on her litter box lid or on the stuff in the closet (also not shown), and Alex had to climb on the table the litter box is on.]

[alexseanchai]

pro tip: if a project requires delicate handling in order to avoid accidental damage even when calm, then when looking for a project to calm oneself with, consider: not that one

I will extract for reuse the thread I used on the now-torn paper, Eventually, because that's basically guaranteed to tangle horribly enough to notably worsen whichever day I decide to untangle it

went back to the cardstock-backed paper with my first attempt at this @heatherwitch | @honeyandhestia sigil design, and it's going much smoother, and also I've been in a bad enough mood all day to like the odds that my having to poke more holes when I switch colors will burn off the existing frustration instead of generating more

Mila is most helpful as always

[alexseanchai]

this week I:

gave up on the fiddly little strings entirely

yanked those off the loom (still in order for when I put them back on later)

warped it with black worsted-weight cotton on the five unoccupied cards with crochet thread as accent color

glued popsicle sticks together so I wouldn't have to take the crochet thread weft off the good shuttle

and did no pattern whatsoever! except for figuring turning all five cards four or eight or twelve cards in one direction and then the other would make a wavy pattern that would fit well with my accent colors being the genderfluid flag

and behold, I now have pretty cotton rope

[alexseanchai]

I am permitted one lap accessory at a time, unless that one isn't Mila, in which case I am provisionally permitted two, pending permission from my supervisor