The direwolve is back

My friend Steph is going a long long way away - whole continents and time zones! - so I made a going-away direwolf, because I express affection best through food and material goods, and I'm pretty sure U.S. customs are fussy about letting food in. It also means that if she starts to forget me, at least my image will be replaced by that of this wolf.

The tiny animals and creepy dog oven mitt are courtesy of Steph for my birthday. The tiny animals are actually rubbers, but who could ruin their tiny adorableness?

Please enjoy also the pre-detail "I have no mouth, and I must scream" version. Things which should have faces but don't are one of my favourite kinds of creepy.

The pattern is the Direwolf/Wolf Pattern, so it can be read either way, and if Game of Thrones or all of fantasy ever becomes annoying it can go back to being a standard wolf. It's very straightforward (while I was crocheting I didn't think some things would end up looking right, but I had faith, and I think they did) and I like how it turned out. I used DK cotton with a 3.75mm hook instead of a bulky yarn, and given the size this turned out I think a bulky one would have been quite huge. I sort of wish I'd measured its dimensions before I gave it away, so that I could make it seasonally appropriate costumes. Tiny Santa hat, tiny St. Patrick's mitre, tiny pumpkin... something... I just like dressing things up as other things. I'm not well, Harry.

Lieblings

The delightful Busy Mama left a comment the other day saying that she had nominated me for a Liebster Award. Her blog has a mix of craft types, as well as some daily life snapshots, both of which I enjoy a great deal. there's something very soothing about seeing instants from someone else's life. She also runs a crocheting circle reasonably near to my house which I have consistently failed to go to. On top of that, she called me funny, which is the quickest way to my heart and ego.

The award is a great way of raising the profile of other blogs. The rules are as follows:

1. Anyone nominated wins! (Isn't that lovely?)

2. You should link back to the person who nominated you.

3. You should nominate five blogs, with fewer than two hundred followers, that you like and feel deserve the award.

4. You should let nominees know by leaving a comment on their blog.

5. You should attach the little Liebster badge to your blog.

You can also ask questions of your nominees if you so choose! I'm not going to do that, y'all have things to do.

(I mean, yes, everyone winning means this is really just a chain letter of sorts, but it gave me a boost, and who doesn't like to hear their work complimented? I like giving compliments, and this is an excuse.)

I find the middle clause of rule number two quite difficult - I mostly follow biggish blogs, because they're the easiest found. I'm like an anti-hipster. I'll try to keep it to smallish ones, but I rather hope I won't cause offense by seeming like I think someone must have a smaller readership than they do. Is that something people might be offended by? Hopefully not. Anyway, my nominees are:

1. Erin Kate Archer. I've been following her blog and harbouring a crafts-crush for a few years now. She's an awfully talented lady, and works in a whole wide range of media, which I love. Keeping track of her blog is a great way to find tutorials scattered around the internet, and her own designs are just stunning. Everything is beautifully photographed, and her blog is an all-around aesthetically pleasing affair.

2. Stitchlily. A person I sort of know from real life, but who has probably forgotten me! We met when I was working at the Science Gallery's Crochet Coral Reef exhibition - she had contributed to the reef. Her blog is very enjoyable and entertaining to have on my feed, as I get to read about the range of group projects, festivals and workshops she works with, which I otherwise wouldn't hear about. She also has a brilliant mix of project types, mostly textiles-based, and anyone who can make something I can't make is essentially a wizard in my books.

3. Cornflower Blue Studio/Flower Moon. This absolutely has more than two hundred followers, but I only discovered it recently and I'm quite enamoured. Lots of short posts is a format I like quite a lot, I like the diversity of the projects, and it's great for project ideas. (I am going to make this for everyone for Christmas, but with chilli instead of cinnamon. Exciting.)

4. Everywhere Knits. If you're looking for blogs to follow, this hasn't been updated in about a year, but I always enjoyed when it was! It's written very conversationally and the photos are mostly taken by webcam, which makes it feel very friendly.

5. Shocking Blankets. This is mostly a Sherlock fanart blog, which might flout the rules if this is meant to be messy crafts, but the art is adorable, and I keep going back just to revisit the #not dead gifs because they make me giggle. Plus, the girl who runs it seems incredibly sweet.  There's nothing not to like!  I discovered this a few weeks ago via a Ravelry thread discussing Sherlock fanart, read my way through all of it, felt all fuzzy inside, and decided to start drawing again, after several years of intentions. And now I draw a non-zero amount! I feel like if you can inspire someone to take up, or take back up, a hobby, you're doing something right. (This one is a Tumblr, so I'm not sure how to leave a comment in a useful way, as I'm pretty sure anonymous asks don't allow links.  If I set up a Tumblr account it would be full of pictures of cats before I chose a username, so I feel I should delay that for as long as possible. Does Tumblr show traffic sources? Hopefully!)

And now I have to contact all these people to say hi and let them know about the nomination. I did not anticipate it when I started the post, and it is unexpectedly intimidating.

Also, this post had made me realise that I'm rather short on Irish crafting blogs, if anyone has recommendations I'd be delighted!

Cambridge!

I visited my friend Steph in Cambridge last weekend!

 

1. We nearly entered this cardboard boat race, but were hampered by not having collected cardboard and made a boat.

2. There was garden party in the Chaplain's garden. There was a cake-baking competition, and we came second with the chocolate and raspberry cake in the bottom right! I also won a notebook in a raffle, and came first with two of Steph's friends in a trivia competition. Best garden party I've ever been to.

3. There was a punt race one evening. Another team were dressed as bananas.

4. St. John's College from the back

5. Steampunk-looking tower on top of the library.

6. The Bridge of Sighs in St. John's College, the most Hogwarts-esque - and therefore best - structure in a town full of Hogwarts-esque buildings.

7. We punted down the river and had a picnic. Some ducks tried to muscle in. On the way back a duckling tried to jump into the boat. And I didn't fall off while punting!

8. Steph behind the door of the St. John's Chapel tower, like some sort of terrifying tower-goblin.

9. The chapel tower from half-way up.

10. The view from the top.

11. Fireworks at the Trinity College May Ball. It was the night before St. John's, and everyone sat on the backs and watched. I always forget how much I like fireworks.

12. The theme of the St. John's May Ball was "Ars Gratia Artis." Each court had a different theme. This was the 'street art' court (titled "Mean Streets of Cambridge").

13. Fireworks at the St. John's May Ball.

The May Ball was excellent fun, more like a black tie festival than a ball proper. I also drank more Pimms over the course of the weekend than I otherwise would in a year or several. Cambridge.

FO Friday: Gloves and triangle scarf

I found a mystery-purpose ball of Lamb's Pride Nature Spun fingering weight in my stash - I think I bought it for a commission, settled on a different yarn, and lost the receipt - so I made gloves. There is probably a more efficient way of clearing space than "turn ball of yarn into a garment, have garment take up space in a different bag until purchased", but it is apparently how I roll.

I got the stitch pattern from a book, and I like it an awful lot. On green yarn it looks like vines. The yarn is pure wool, so despite the weight it's the warmest thing ever. It's also more radioactive looking in real life. What's not to like?

I made the Blogathon Lace Triangle Scarf (Ravelry Page here) as a birthday present for my sister. (Her birthday is in June, so I'm doing well with being disgustingly organised for crafts this year.) It's a very nice pattern, which would work for just about any weight yarn. I bought this Louisa Harding Ondine before Christmas with a view to making her gloves, and made a failed start, but then she asked for different gloves which the yarn wouldn't suit. Oh Ondine gloves, you were so beautiful.

Speaking of the fact that there is a dinosaur on my shirt in that photo, I visit an asylum seekers' centre every week, and we bring arts and crafts supplies for the kids who live there. Yesterday I drew a dinosaur for one of them to colour in, which meant that the others wanted dinosaurs too. Another volunteer taught them to trace the existing dinosaurs onto new pages, which rapidly accelerated the rate of dinosaur production. Then they decided to Sellotape them together to make a dinosaur train, which, by the time we left, was twelve dinosaurs long. It's so satisfying to be shaping young minds.

Free things!

My mum somehow mentioned to a woman in her choir that I knit, and she was very excited.  Every so often my mum will come and and say that she was asking for me, do I still like the knitting, etc.  Last week she came home saying that the woman had come to her saying that she had some knitting books she hadn't any use for, and she didn't want me to feel obliged, but if I'd like them I was welcome to them.

So now I have these!

They have some cute speedy patterns, and one jumper I want to make.  (The 'casual jumper' on the cover of the one on the right.)  Dilemma:  It's a nice jumper, and the patterns recommends a brand of (machine-washable) yarn that I want to use in a project.  ~16 balls for my size though, and about seven euro a ball.  First world problems!

As deadlines loom, I knit in lectures so my hands don't go crazy.

"I'm so jealous of how productive Jen is!  You'll just be sitting in a lecture, taking notes, contributing to the discussion, making insightful points, and, like, producing a hat at the same time."

Shucks.

Words are tricky, except when they're not.

The internet's crush on Stephen Fry is perfectly understandable.  No-one, hive-minds included, shouldn't have a crush on Stephen Fry.  That said, I rather wish he hadn't said this.

I understand not caring that someone is 'offended' by gay couples existing right there in public, or by schools not being segregated, or by God being removed from the constitution (not that that's a concern in Ireland, ever.  And yet some people are concerned about the lack of Jesus in daily life!).  Like this woman.  This woman is a small person, and if I met her and she made me a cake and let me play with a puppy I wouldn't like her.  The problem is that in these cases, the word is being misappropriated, and thanks to this "I'm offended" has come to mean "I'm whining because the world isn't to my sensibilities, wah."

The word "offended" needs to exist, though, or there needs to be a word to replace it.  I know words change in meaning, but "I'm offended" is a nice, blame-shifting way of calling people out on thoughtless or plain abusive language or behaviour - an attack on their personhood, an offensive act in the "opposite of defence" sense of the word.  Needlessly thoughtful, actually, no-one says "I'm punched" after you give them a bloody nose.

The most bizarro thing is that even with the thoughtful "I" and shift in responsibility and use of a watered-down term, people go on the defensive if you suggest they've caused - performed - offense.  "I didn't mean actually retarded/I'm not racist/My gay friend laughed."  Good for you, knowing or blithely assuming that you're not a bigot.  Not everyone you meet knows that, and it's not their responsibility to give you the benefit of the doubt - you need to show it.  Not using dehumanising terms, or purely descriptive words as insults, is a bang-up start.  Otherwise, however cluelessly or unintentionally, you're attacking them.  Going on the offensive, one might say.  And then, through your actions and yours alone, they're attacked.  Offended, to use a slightly old sense of the word.

-

My feminism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit.  I read the title of this post and thought "Wow I want to tattoo that on my face put that on some form of clothing," then I read the post itself, and felt sad and squirmy.

I'm not very fussy about labels.  If I find something that describes something I already feel like, I'll adopt that, but only because it sometimes saves on wordy descriptions.  I love learning, guess I'm a nerd.  I have girl parts, guess I'm a girl.  I like making things, guess I'm a craftster.  I believe people of all gender and sexual identities are equal, guess I'm a feminist.

The feminism one has always been a little inconvenient because it's a subset of what I believe about equality.  I also believe people of all skin colours, all physical and mental capabilities, all classes are equal.  Everyone is people, all the time!  These things aren't strictly covered by the term "feminist".  But my first feminist blog was Fugitivus)which discusses feminism, race and class - perhaps more extreme than I am now, but I have a fondness for the blog and author, though sadly it seems to have fallen out of use) which led me to my first anti-racism blog ,Stuff White People Do (mainly race-based but has some elements of feminism, as WoC get it from both directions - again, no longer updated but remembered with fondness), where I came across Womanist Musings (race, gender and sexual identity, class, religion, most aspects of social justice, really).  I don't know if I'm bad at logic and assumed people who used the same label as me felt the same as me, but or if the route I took to this section of the internet led me to believe so, but I always assumed that 'feminist' really meant 'social justice-ist, including feminist'.  You don't have to act on all the issues ever, but how can you care about one and not at least see the rest to be wrong.  Then stuff like this happens:

and some people actually defend it and try to call it a feminist act.  So maybe I need a new word.

-

My little brother, who has just started studying in the same college as me, texted me today to ask if he could come heat up some food in my microwave.  When he got here, he had milk, tea, biscuits (two packets as he didn't know what kind I like), and two packets of pasta.  It made me feel all fuzzy inside.  Nice things happen too!

Fangirlism

So I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 for the very first time this weekend (I am a rubbish fan-girl, again), and this is just the sweetest scene.

Bonus: Nick Cave's voice!

This weekend, I will hopefully get to see Deathly Hallows Part 2.  Will be so disappointed if I don't get to see the last film in the cinema, since I missed the last two.

Fuzzy.

The other week, a friend and I were talking about polyamory (which I think is the most reasonable relationship system - if a friend told me I couldn't have other friends now that I had them I'd run for the hills, and, since it's occurred to me to think about it, I've never fully understood why romantic love is different.  But I'm not jealous in romance, and some people are, and it's nice to put things on a pedestal I guess, so different strokes.) Her take on it is that different partners fulfil different needs.  My working definition of romance is "like friendship, but fuzzier", so I keep drawing different conclusions.

I have some baseline level of friendship that I require in my life to feel functional.  I need to be reasonably confident that I can walk into a room and be able to talk to at least some people reasonable easily, and not have to sit by myself or feel I'm intruding or unwanted.  It's not a high bar, and once achieved I get to feel not too neurotic.  Once that threshold is crossed, the friendship becomes increasingly fuzzy, and then things get fantastic.

What is lovely in friendship is that, past my "yay people can stand me" threshold, people are creating niches, rather than filling them.  I don't strictly need someone with whom I can talk about feminism and funny things dogs do and food (hey, alliteration!), or Doctor Who and David Tennant and who would die first if this were a horror film?, or crafts and lecturers and this job, amirite?  I could go out and find people who would be happy to talk about at least one of those topics - I don't need the people who are there already.  I want them.  And I think that's wonderful, it makes people more than the sum of their parts in your interactions with them.

Being needed makes me feel useful - being optional and still wanted makes me feel fuzzy.

This does also make it hurt when people leave, or change - you still have a Sally-shaped space in your life, but Sally doesn't fit it any more, or you've both changed to a degree where you don't fit each other anymore.  And that hurts the most I think, when you haven't quite grown apart, when you still want the person's friendship but it just won't benefit either of you.  But that's okay too, it mattered enough in the first place to hurt.

"How lucky I am to have something that makes it so hard to say goodbye!"

In conclusion: friendship is nice.  Revelatory stuff.

"How many of the things you're wearing right now did you make yourself?"

The above is a pretty great way to be greeted.

(The answer was "One."  But still.)

Related: serendipitous meetings with people you haven't seen in nearly two years when you both have time to go for hot chocolate are lovely things!