make, break, fix, go outside ∞

stitching and all manner of scrappy makery, rooted in abundance, mixed with a healthy dose of critical cancon. all we have is each other let's go.

[fluentisonus]

He added, after a pause: “Remember this, my friends: there are no such things as bad plants or bad men. There are only bad cultivators.”

Les Misérables, Volume I / Book V / Chapter III, trans. Hapgood

[worthmending]

Baby’s first time spinning wool!!!! I took a class with Steph at Flying Squirrel Yarn Shop and it was such, such a delight. I still haven’t learned to work a spinning wheel, but I’m sure I will one day. I’m always yammering on about care and RSIs and I am happy to anecdotally report that when I asked some ladies demonstrating spinning what sorts of injuries might be common among spinners...she said she hasn’t had any issues and in fact the practice was great for her hands. Hmm.

(natural/beige was from the class, orange was my first independent try)

[worthmending]

Finders keepers.

This plaid button-down was left behind at the community bike shop I used to volunteer at. On their semi-annual big cleanup day my partner decided to adopt it.

THAT was probably a decade ago now because we, joining the lucky including this dear garment, continue to age. It’s worn thin at the elbows and the cuffs and the collars and I continue to add patches that make it far more interesting and storied and loved than when it was new :):):):)

[worthmending]

Giant post of all my March events happening in Kitchener, Hamilton, and Toronto Ontario!

Lots on the go this month :)

I’m excited to join IRL Festival – teaching knit repair on Saturday March 8 at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery. Tickets are $25/PWYC for this two-hour session. Get them via irishreallifekw.ca !

Then it’s March Break and, fine, you aren’t invited but I’m helping out Mindful Makers (mindfulmakers.ca) with their day camp – giving a tour and some demonstrations of all the cool things we share at Kwartzlab Makerspace! You can come down to Kwartzlab any Tuesday evening for our open house, or check out our public events calendar to see what’s up, like ::::

March 19th is our monthly Repair Cafe and Mending Night at Kwartzlab (kwartzlab.ca). It’s free! We prefer that you sign up in advance via Eventbrite (kwartzlab.eventbrite.com), but clothing repair drop-ins are welcome (I know I’ll be there to help ya, so we won’t need to coordinate any special-skilled volunteers for textile things.)

March 22 is the Hamilton Fibre Forge (thefibreforge.ca)! This kicks off the fibre festival season for us, we look forward to seeing you :) either there orrrr the next weekend cuz ::::

Finally we’re closing out the month in Toronto with Knit City (knitsocial.ca) on March 27-29. This will be a big one! There are TONS of vendors in addition to talks and workshops, check their website for more info :)

But if you don’t want to brave that big-city fibre stuff, you can drop in at Kwartzlab’s monthly Be Gay Do Crafts event, March 28 & the last Saturday of every month. (kwartzlab.eventbrite.com)

This month I think they’re doing collages. I try not to think about collages since I stressed myself out big last time we made ‘em and I’m a little glad I’m missing out BUT I do hear lots of people find that collage art is fun and light and sweet and overall BGDC is a darling queer community space open to all ages go enjoy!!

[linesdotsstudio]

[worthmending]

I've been playing with some pick-and-pick weaving for rugs. Saving this as inspiration for my next one... Love the overlaps between colour blocks!

[worthmending]

I co-host a monthly Repair Cafe and Mending Night at my local makerspace, Kwartzlab. It’s free and there are so many sweet volunteer tinkerers who would love to help you fix all manner of things. Of course, my specialty is in the soft arts, so you can find me fixing clothes and other textiles, but there are lots of folks skilled in small electronics repair and other areas too! You can RSVP on Eventbrite with more details on what you need fixed, or you’re welcome to just come through for a tour to see our awesome community workshop.

THIRD THURSDAY OF EVERY MONTH! :) so, next week.

These yellow socks were mended (and knit) by my friend Courtney using the Swift Darning Loom that we donated to Kwartzlab (and also made at Kwartzlab yay!!!) for member and event use. Come by and try it out! :)

[worthmending]

Jeans: best mended by hand or by machine?

We're still enjoying summer, but soon enough we're going to need layers again. How's your denim doing? Mending is a perfect project you can

Sometimes, funny enough, mending something by hand can actually take less time than machine stitching, because hand-sewing can be so portable and even social. TLDR: Mended is best, no matter the technique! This is an older blog post I was thinking about after posting the pictures of another pair of patched jeans the other day (which haven't yet made it to that blog, oopsie!)

[worthmending]

I’m new to Tumblr so I don’t really know what fits here, but somehow these pics feel very Tumblr to me so I’m gonna go with it. Cutie lil mend on some destroyed knees. To be honest, these patches did not hold up super great to the level of wear that these jeans are subject to. But they looked great :):) I think the snag at the bottom was victim to a bike chain.

Bonus mended sock as well because I couldn't resist this impromptu "photoshoot" while Scott was trying to change a light fixture hehehe

[beggars-opera]

The Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum, Lenox, Massachusetts

[worthmending]

I watched The Cider House Rules and then joined Tumblr because of this post being indexed in a DuckDuckGo image search so I guess I should stick it up on the ol' blog for posterity

[mikkeneko]

Y'know, one of the things I like about Tumblr compared to other social media sites is that old content is still in circulation. Which means that however much AI generated content is out there, at least I can glance at a post's timestamp and conclude that the cute cat video from 2017 is unlikely to be fake

[worthmending]

Not to be dramatic again but I also joined Tumblr because of this post. And also because Tumblr blogs are indexed for outside web search if you want them to be, which is nice.

Thanks beggars-opera for posting a pic of the Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum in 2015, even though the pic is broken now I still found your blog and joined Tumblr because of that post which is pretty wild even if you don't think about it too much

[calebwittebane]

its actually crazy how much local art events and other potentially interesting stuff i completely miss out on just because the orgs all post on instagram and facebook only. two standouts among the worst fucking platforms in the world with the most egregious ui and slop saturation, so dogshit that id be unable to use them regularly even if i wanted to. stop it you all. get on tumblr or something

[calebwittebane]

even orgs and collectives that used to have proper websites of their own now just put all their updates on fb and ig. stop! stop it! youre making me feel like an old geezer! ok well old geezers nowadays are very much on facebook... an ancient geezer. youre making me feel like A Ancient Woman

[themythicalcodfish]

oh my god so it’s not just me??????

[beggars-opera]

I hate this so much!! Even small organizations that post updates that I NEED to see for deadline purposes will just throw it up on Facebook and hope the unholy algorithm feeds it to all the people who need to see it! IT'S AWFUL

[worthmending]

Sorry if this is dramatic but I joined Tumblr because of this post.

My events are [almost] always in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada but I'm sharing on behalf of my pal Sara in Colorado too xox

RSVP for our monthly Repair Cafe on kwartzlab.eventbrite.com/ Explore our amazing hidden-gem beauty community makerspace at Kwartzlab.ca Mend with me at Kwartzlab on Feb 22 [or other dates I bet, this is just my upcoming] Join Sara and pals monthly just outside of Denver CO for Mending Club

[worthmending]

Happy Imbolc, groundhog day, mid-point to spring, dear reader! Been a weird start to the year. The end of 2025 was just waaaaay too much for

This was from last week but I've had a lot of inquiries lately so I'd like to reshare it! As much as I've been trying to lay low online, it's the time of year where everyone wants to be mending. Thanks for thinking of us and we're sorry we don't have any darning looms available at the moment 🙃🥲🙃 happy mending anyway!