spares or repairs

mostly knitting, some crochet; all things that are useful or inspiring for fibre crafts

[olderthannetfic]

After scrolling through a bajillion pages of the current fad for greige 10 mohairs held together plain sweaters, I have finally found a designer worth buying patterns from! If only they had this scale pattern on a sweater!

[robotogato]

Ok. This is pretty neat. Makes me wish I knew how to knit.

[olderthannetfic]

Tragically, all the good tentacles are crocheted, not knit.

[olderthannetfic]

BTW, if anyone knows other Ravelry designers who give off similar vibes to Lavish Craft, I want their names! Or just your favorite designers in general as long as they aren’t PetiteKnit.

I’ve seen a lot of designs that are incidentally named after things from fantasy books, but the actual look of the piece wouldn’t tell you what it’s inspired by. I’m more interested in designers doing dragon scale designs or at least sweaters I can picture on a hobbit.

Fabel Knitwear has some pretty stuff, but I hear her gauge is weird af and her patterns are confusing. I have the Montmartre but haven’t made a serious attempt at it yet, so we’ll see what I think. I’m not finding the instructions bad, but I agree with all the nitpickers that her own knitting is that trendy airy bullshit where the needles are 5 sizes too big and you’re making up for it with hairy yarns. My sense is that she’s one of those designers whose shots of herself in samples are by far the best thing about the designs.

I’ve spotted a couple of things I want from Skeindeer Knits. Lots of classic looks there that I can’t easily get from a store.

[dreamerinsilico]

Norah Gaughan‘s more whimsical designs, like this one and this one, might be up your alley.  (She has a lot of really basic stuff too, including at least a couple in the vein of the trend you mentioned, but she’s also a bloody wizard with cables and other interesting design elements.)

[olderthannetfic]

Oh man! I had not realized those were by the same person! I’ve run across both separate times and found them intriguing.

[loracarol]

You may like Dragon Lore? Or any of Alexandra Davidoff’s other dragon projects?

Her other knits are a range of “normal” to “fantasy-esque”, but I think they’re neat. :)

Heavener Scarf

Azul

[olderthannetfic]

Niiiice

[sparklecryptid]

Some of Nim Teasdale’s designs give off similar vibes!

She also has a lot of lacework in some of her shawl designs but all are very pretty.

I’ve made her Goldleaf and Corozona patterns and I’ve found them easy to follow.

[morwentrouble]

May I introduce you to my knitting crush Tania Richter?

Her designs aren’t things a fantasy character would wear, necessarily, but *I* sure want to wear them as a lover of fantasy. (I haven’t sprung for any yet so I can’t speak to the pattern drafting functionality, but she seems to be popular which is a good sign.)

[olderthannetfic]

Ooh, I don’t think I’ve seen these yet.

I’m very excited about the recs you’re all giving me, especially the ones I’ve never seen.

[storiesintheashes]

When searching on ravelry, you can put a minus before a search term like so: -mohair. This will remove any patterns that identify as using mohair. This might make avoiding those kinds of patterns easier.

Here are some cool fantasy-ish pieces I’ve seen:

Olivia’s Cape by Amy Gunderson

The Seer by Ninja Chickens

Silversmith Hoodie by Meiju K-P

Dragon Scale Mitts by Colette Smith

Sekiryu Kimono Sweater by Tania Richter

Long Cardigan by Little Bunnyxx 

Firebird by Inna M (a colorwork chart)

Tahesha the dragon (ess) by Ina Wendrock (cable chart)

[olderthannetfic]

Interesting. I didn’t realize Ravelry search respected - notation like that.

Ooh, I’ve spotted Olivia’s Cape before, and I do indeed love it. Nice list here!

[kenta-rin]

do you like lace? Because I just discovered Sharon Winsauer

Imperial Dance of the Dragon & Phoenix

Running Free

The Zodiac

[epersonae]

@emi–rose

[blunderpuff]

Kulabra Designs is also great for interesting, intricate colorwork!! Obviously, your choice of yarn really matters, but Natalia Moreva does incredible colorwork. The best part? Very rarely do you ever have to break your yarn. You might think you’re gonna have to weave in a million ends, but you don’t.

(above) Royal Peacock: (Ravelry link/Website link)

(above) Dripping Ripples (Ravelry link/Website link)

(above) Taboo (Ravelry link/Website link)

(above) Squirpool (Ravelry link/Website link)

(above) Pavlin (Ravelry link/Website link)

She also has a ton of extremely detailed colorwork socks, mittens, hats, and sweaters, but these shawls/scarves allow for such big, striking motifs, I had to show them.

[heavenpureheart]

[milfsisyphus]

once you let yarn into your house it’s over. it’s like sand there will just always be be more. “oh i’ll just make something with all the scraps” - congratulations you just entered the time loop idiot.

[fatmasc]

Hey i’m a fashion design student so i have tons and tons of pdfs and docs with basic sewing techniques, pattern how-tos, and resources for fabric and trims. I’ve compiled it all into a shareable folder for anyone who wants to look into sewing and making their own clothing. I’ll be adding to this folder whenever i come across new resources

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16uhmMb8kE4P_vOSycr6XSa9zpmDijZSd?usp=sharing

[fatmasc]

Updated just now with new hand sewing resources (mainly buttonholes) and textbook pdfs on fashion history, fashion illustration, and thinking through designs!

[bosstoaster]

OP I owe you my life

[whatchamacallitz]

OP you are the greatest person currently in my life. You beautiful, thoughtful creature.

[lamignonette]

[mathysphere]

An Incomplete List of Fonts I Would Like to Digitize Someday

All from the Antique Pattern Library

This twisty one

This pleasantly-flourished simple one. it's quirky.

I have no clue how one would include backstitching in a font, but it would look so good

This Art Deco set, from a pamphlet where it shares space with both the most stunning animal illustrations you've ever seen and also the world's most baffling, hideous borders

This one has a lowercase set, too. In a modern context this reads more as a retro game font than a cross-stitch one.

these would look INSANE stitched. more of a monogram font than one for sentences, but who cares. I could figure out some lowercases and this would absolutely COOK

Love the weight of this one. Gothic, fun, but not large enough to be unwieldy.

The first twisty font is better, I think. but if I had infinite time I'd do this one too

A very respectable twist on a classic sampler font. could get a lot of mileage out of this one

hot take but I think with a good lowercase set this one would also be good for a lot of things-- party in the capitals, but keep the lowercase legible.

a very respectable font. you could file your taxes with this one.

their bulbous forms entrance me. I REALLY like that 'H'

Another set that really should only be for monograms... but some part of me wants to believe I could make a proper font around these

LOVE the 'A', like the others. really dig that the original artist included a lowercase set, too

Bonus Monograms I like:

Blue Floral | Thick Line Red Floral | Right Angles

[queer-fae-art]

some fern embroidery for spring <3

i’m going to an ostara celebration today! this is the second time that i’ve embroidered ferns, and i’m happy with how it turned out. i started with a darker green and integrated a lighter color as i got closer to the ends of the fronds to create a gradient :)

[zmpl]

Can I Please Eat In The Computer Room Tonight? by Nicole Nikolich (2025)

[hotcinnamonsunset]

The Tiger (from the poem by Nael, age 6)🐅

[fibrearts]

Starry Night Microsweater

2022 1.3" x 1.6" ~50,000 stitches, 76 stitches/inch 500+ hours in the making. Over 70 different colors of silk thread including thread combinations

[jabberwockypie]

That’s Althea Crome’s work. You’ve seen her work before if you’ve ever seen the movie Coraline because she did the teeny tiny star sweater and gloves for the stop motion puppets to wear.

She does, however, work even smaller.

[fractangle]

Sprang (noun)

This is a very old, but almost dead, textile craft called sprang. It's not exactly weaving - I'd say it's closer to braiding in that it only has warp threads, no weft. I'm using some metal rods as shed sticks, and also to keep the holes open enough to be fishnet-y.

My original goal was to make fingerless fishnet gloves/sleeves, but I think the material's going to be way too wide for that; it has a LOT of horizontal stretch. It's hard to tell exactly how much with it still tensioned, but if I'm lucky I might be able to make a short tube top of it!

For my next sprang project I won't keep the holes as open; I'd like to experiment with making a material opaque enough to have some sort of colorwork show up.

[embroiderycrafts]

Cat whisker bouquet :) by lashley214 on reddit.

[hlahlahlahlahly]

Barbara G Walker, who is responsible for so much of modern North American knitting, from her very influential book on top down sweaters, to charted patterns, to her stitch dictionary books, has died.

She was one of my foundational influences, and my knitting would not be the same without her work.

[dangerphd]

Barbara G. Walker - Wikipedia

[ancientknitter]

a number of her knitting books are available on archive.org!

[c3rvida3]

If you're gonna say your sewing tutorial is idiot-proof, you better mean it. I'll fuck a garment up in ways god couldn't foresee in heaven. I try to darn my old socks and I full on damn the poor things.

[batbetbitbotbut]

Knitting patterns: fingerless gloves with cool thumbs

"Coolness" is arbitrary but I was looking for thumb-centric construction, thumb shaping integrated into the pattern very smoothly, and other neat thumb tricks. All links are Ravelry. Feel free to add more!

Poinsettia by Sybil R also on tumblr as @sybilra and inspired this whole post

Green Thumb by Diana Foss

Zimtstern by Sybil R

Mitred Mitts by Sybil R she specialises in these, okay?

Mondrian Mitts by Galina Zapletnuka

Pieces of Eight by Sybil R (photo by cfrischknecht; the original version of this post linked to a German translation of this pattern by a different creator without realising it was a translation)

Montes by Šárka Dvořáčková

Frosted Glass by Lola Johnson

Either/Or by Lee Meredith

Kontrast by Uwe Nawratil

And I've hit the image limit but there are many short row patterns with nicely integrated thumbs such as Mixed Wave Mitts by Sybil R (again) and Ganmil by Heidrun Liegmann.

[shutyourmoustache]

[demonicae]

Jurch

[foldingfittedsheets]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more incredible. Fifteen hundred hours of love to create this masterpiece. Humans are wonderful actually.

[thepioden]

I'm developing a curiosity and interest in fiber arts, someone please stop me before it's too late

[thepioden]

Girl help the fibercrafters who live in my phone are calling out to me like the sirens of legend, entreating me to dash myself upon the rocks of Having A Yarn Stash

[elen-aranel]

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