Tempestuous Reed

A sentient thesaurus possessed by the spirit of a magpie.

[leafstem]

*while sewing*: you are a fabric. you can stay a fabric. you do not yearn to return to being string.

[batbetbitbotbut]

*while spinning*: you are a thread. you can stay a thread. you do not yarn to return to being fluff.

[tempestuousreed]

*while recycling textile waste*: you are trash. please don’t stay trash. i yearn for you to return to being string or fluff or chemical soup with industrial uses.

[tempestuousreed]

Did anyone else read that book as a child where there’s this really nice schoolteacher but her students are so disrespectful to her that one day she puts on a scary outfit and pretends to be a different, mean teacher so that when the nice teacher comes back the students will be respectful?

The plot twist is that the mean teacher and the nice teacher are the same person because it ends with the nice teacher having her scary black cloak in her closet in case she needs it again.

I can’t for the life of me remember what it’s called, but I remember it vividly. It’s so weird to reevaluate children’s media as an adult because what even is the lesson here?

Be respectful of your teacher or else she’ll use deceptive tactics to scare you into submission?

[bluestone-dragon]

Really funny to me that “goddamn” is technically a curse word but “godforsaken” isn’t. I’m sure there’s some official reason, but in my head, it’s blasphemous to say that God is actively praying for our downfall, but if you imply that he’s just looking the other direction and whistling because he’s ashamed of what he’s created… you get a (reluctant) pass.

[tempestuousreed]

Interestingly, some people are actually more familiar with the power of Gosh, who can darn you to heck if you fudge up.

[tempestuousreed]

I’ve never thought I needed crochet hooks with ergonomic grips, but I also never thought I’d be working bobble stitches in super bulky chenille yarn with a 3.5 mm hook, so go figure.

[nebulae-d]

"okay, but are you a nonbinary woman or a nonbinary man" im going to nonbury you in a fucking hole.

[stillout2lunch]

Most recent progress pic of my glorious loon sweater. It’s a little old, it has sleeves now!

[birdsofafeathercolchester-blog]

Little knitted pigeon enjoying come crisps on the pavement…

[2-shane-s]

I thought that only the bag of chips was knitted so I was like lmaoo fucking idiot bird got owned then I saw that the bird was knitted as well then I realized I was the fucking idiot bird getting owned

[tempestuousreed]

LET THE WASHENING COMMENCE!!!

Yarn soup is my favorite kind of soup, actually.

[tempestuousreed]

I’ve not had much time for spinning lately, but I’ve started working through the last of the raw wool I currently have:

It was from this big random assortment that I got second hand, and the probability that I have 2+ breeds here is… …closer to 1 than 0.

But I’m lazy and didn’t feel like trying to sort it, so we’ll just have to see what it looks like after it’s washed.

I’ve really been enjoying spinning in the grease because my very sweaty hands can’t get the wool wet if the wool’s already greasy.

[knit-with-it]

I've been missing for a while because I've been working in some larger projects! This time I finally finished my Cozy Cottage Cardigan design in rainbow (just as pride month ends of course).

This is the first project I used buttons for and it was much simpler than I expected. Hopefully I will finish more of my ongoing work soon!

I will definitely be doing more types of designs in this "no sew" type of style!

[delinquentbookworm]

one time I went over to a friend's house and their housemate was making paper in the living room, and we saw this big tub full of water they were using to dissolve old scrap paper into a slurry, and everyone was immediately like "oh, you need scrap paper?" and started turning out their jacket pockets and producing expired coupons and bus tickets and crumpled receipts and old shopping lists and whatever else they'd been carrying round with them for no good reason, and passing it all to the paper-making housemate to make sure it was suitable before it got torn up and dropped into the tub, while people took turns stirring the slurry with a big wooden stick. it was strangely ritualistic, like presenting an offering to some kind of temple elder for inspection before placing it in a watery shrine to be devoured and reformed. pulp for the pulp god.

[unalivejournal]

Ok. What you're gonna want to do is chop up a cucumber and put it in a bowl. Then you're gonna sprinkle a generous portion of salt on top. Then you're gonna drizzle them with a balsamic vinaigrette and gently shake to combine, leaving you with a cool and refreshing summer snack. In 15 seconds dangerous and burly men are going to drag me away to an unknown second location. Remember everything I've taught you. I love you

[emilysidhe]

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

[tempestuousreed]

I did a cool thing.

It’s rather crude, but it’s a functional first attempt.

I wanted to try my hand at making a spindle so I roughly whittled a a stick and put a weight on it.

(Yes, the weight is just some metal washers with duck tape)

As expected, it’s not the most balanced and I would’ve liked the stick to be longer, but it works okay once I’ve wound the cop a bit.

I spun a single with some of my random wool roving then plied it on the spindle—it actually turned out okay!

I’m more confident now about my ability to produce clothing in a post-apocalyptic setting…

[tempestuousreed]

Update: it’s looking and spinning even better after I oiled the stick and secured the whorl by wrapping it in some cotton thread.

The wool is of unknown origin, but I did comb it myself.

Still in the grease, though, because I am Lazy and it’s way easier to wash it after the fact.

[tempestuousreed]

I’ve had this breed sampler from Wishful Knitting languishing in my stash for a while, so I wanted to start Tour de Fleece by taking a literal tour of fleeces. I’ve done the Herdwick and Swaledale already, and I’m going to spin up the Devon later today.

I’m pretty bad at spinning thicker, and I don’t often spin with coarser wool, so it’s been nice to practice that.

I want to try to knit an interesting sample project with all the fibers after I’m done, but I don’t yet know what it should be since I’m going to do the breeds at different weights.

[tempestuousreed]

More breeds!

From left to right we have Devon, Jacob, and Shetland.

[tempestuousreed]

Dyed some cotton for the first time.

I used yellow onion skin again because I’ve done it on wool a bunch of times and I wanted to get a good comparison.

I used apple cider vinegar as a tannin source, and it turned out okay, but I’m not sure how long it’ll last.

I’ve since acquired oak gall powder for the next time I dye cotton.

[circusheart]

If I keep practicing I might even be a person soon