had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on

[preserving-tiktok]

[windowdressage]

Two stranding drops kidsilk and drops alpaca. Cable sleeves with a tiny bit of lacework, as a little treat.

Last project was colour work, so I'm happy not to have those changes. I thought cables were hard, but this one is both simple and super satisfying to knit up.

[windowdressage]

It took me > a year and lots of frogging. I was ready to give up multiple times and took so many breaks from it. But it's finally done! This is before blocking and steaming, so some of the puckering should settle down. It's currently drying as I type this.

The pattern is Whale Season by Nazilia Zemdikhanova. I was having trouble with my tension in parts with three colours, so I modified the pattern to only ever have two going at once. I also didn't do the colour work on the sleeves or near the hem, because I had so many false starts.

Whale Season pattern by Nazilia Zemdikhanova

Whale sweater is a good start for those knitters who feel confident in making knit and purl stitches and are ready to start with a big proj

This was a really significant knit for me. Since finishing my PhD I've had a lot of trouble doing anything I used to enjoy. I had finished a few projects, but I always had a real sense of disappointment or anticlimax after, like after my Viva. I still don't feel that proud of my thesis, but I think this is the first time I've felt accomplished in over a year. I stuck with it and tackled it slowly and made modifications where I needed to. And now that it's done I feel good about having done it, putting in the time and the work. I am excited to knit again for the sake of knitting, rather than to produce something. Which seems silly, but it feels like a bit of my old self coming back.

[tiktoks-for-dead-pope]

[sixmonthsandgone]

Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin (2018), dir. Arwen Curry

[aiweirdness]

The next line of her speech is also great: “Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.”

[bunjywunjy]

Do animals cuddle in the wild ?

(Totally not me wanting an excuse to see cute animals photos)

pretty much all animals with social or semi-social lifestyles cuddle at least occasionally in the wild for everything from protection to enhancing bonds and relieving stress! this includes everything from birds and mammals to some really unexpected animals like sharks.

touch is just a near-universal love language.

[windowdressage]

Yeah, but anyone else think those birds were a caterpillar?

[viralfrog]

[windowdressage]

Do it 300 times and you've got your doctoral thesis

[windowdressage]

Everytime I make myself a garment it always looks off. Hangs wrong, stitches weird, already tired and worn despite being fresh off the needles. Is this because I make it for myself?

I avoid making things for other people because I don't want them to wear weird inferior things I have a problem with. Do I need to start making things for people I love so the garment exists in the context of them? So I see them wrapped up in something that I made for them and the very fact of them, a person I hold dear, wearing it somehow elevates it?

[terpsikeraunos]

ancient greek word of the day: κακοθερής (kakotherēs), unfitted to endure summer heat

[aphilologicalbatman-deactivated]

this literally means “bad at summer” pass it on

[zipstick]

Reblog if you, too, are bad at summer

[windowdressage]

We went to a comedy gig last night and today we keep turning to each other and going "Jay Gatsby lived in a house made of string" and then later "You did it Mr Gatsby, you're the fastest man in the world" and I couldn't even begin to explain the context and in time I'll probably forget but that's ok.

[windowdressage]

What's the word for when you're time rich but kinda languishing and all you want to do is go down a big twisty slide that takes a day to complete and then you sort of tumble out into a pile of chestnuts, and they're all smooth and cool and you slowly sink into them until you're surrounded and supported on all sides?

[windowdressage]

Today we were driving and started singing along to songs without the lyrics, so just imitating Hall or Oates with non verbal noises and then St Elmo's Fire came on and we carried on and I laughed so hard that I cried and wiped my eyes and tore my contact lens and I was half blind and hooting and crying and these are the little moments that stack up on each other to become love.

[windowdressage]

I want to learn to set scenes better. Anticipation building etc

[windowdressage]

And maybe one day future me will burst in and say "you did it. It was done." and I'll remember her every time I want to stop and instead I will do one more bit, and I'll do that until it's done, and then I'll go back in time to burst in and say "you did it. it was done."

[windowdressage]

Feeling totally normal

[babyfoxcollectionthings]

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

#it fucks me up that this dolphin is obviously not trying very hard#is there some kind of fucking Physics happening here? i don't know of any

He's riding the bow wave! The boat, moving forward, also pushes quite a bit of water forward. The dolphin is letting the boat push him with the water, to save on the effort of swimming. It's like birds that fly in a V formation to take advantage of the wings of the bird ahead of them.

[marithlizard]

That dolphin is having such a good day that I stop and watch him every time this comes around. Imagine how it must feel, basking in the rush of water, effortlessly carried forward.

[windowdressage]

when do I get to feel like that

[windowdressage]

When I was in my early 20s I bought a pregnancy test at a pharmacy. I picked up a few other random items at the same time because I felt, I dunno, embarrassed, ashamed? The woman at the till was close to my age, smiled at me and said hello, saw my face, saw the test, then rang it through quickly and piled all my other items on top and around it before putting it in a bag.

It was such a small thing to do, but I appreciated it so much at the time. I still think about it a lot.