@kerravonsen@mastodon.au
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kerravonsen

@kerravonsen@mastodon.au

Proudly leftist southpaw. Theist. Older than Star Trek, younger than Doctor Who. Artist. Artisan. Programmer. Occasional poet. Liable to spout random opinions and observations about Life, The Universe, and Everything.

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kerravonsen, to 3goodthings
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Three good things:

  1. Banana smoothie with nutmeg, for breakfast.
  2. I found some trousers I forgot I had; and wore them today.
  3. Ella Fitzgerald.
    @3goodthings
kerravonsen, to 3goodthings
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Three good things:

  1. Baby Cos Lettuce leaves with Creamed Cottage Cheese is unexpectedly delicious.
  2. Finishing one section of my Ruana.
  3. Hexagonal ice cubes in my iced chocolate.
    @3goodthings
kerravonsen, to random
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So it is ! I have not done much, but I have finished the second long-edge border of my first panel, yay! (Six more to go.) I'm not going to tackle the short edges until I've done the long edges on all four panels.

kerravonsen, to 3goodthings
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Three good things:

  1. Almost finished the second side of my first ruana panel (half a row to go)
  2. That I had enough self-discipline to stop working on the ruana panel even though I only had half a row to go.
    3a. Iced Chai Latte
    3b. That I can buy my groceries online, including getting a new tin of low-sugar chai powder.
    @3goodthings
kerravonsen, to 3goodthings
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Three good things:

  1. ALL FOUR of my knitted tubes are now steeked.
  2. People are still reading and giving kudos to my old fanfic.
  3. Birkenstock sandals.
    @3goodthings
kerravonsen, to 3goodthings
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The media thinks that good news is no news. Hence the negative skew on all the things they spew. Nobody gossips about good things, they aren't gossip-worthy.

So why is the 3-good-things group successful in combating doom-scrolling?

The obvious is, of course, forcing yourself to think of something positive. And the next obvious reason is that one is seeing positive things posted by others. But I don't think that's the whole of it. It's the feeling that we're in this together. That we aren't shouting into a void. That other people want to be positive too. And it's also the personalness of it; the tiny tidbits of humanity that we are sharing from our daily lives. Strangers who are not quite so faceless as before.

@3goodthings

kerravonsen, to 3goodthings
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Three good things:

  1. Drinking mocha from a pretty mug that I designed.
  2. Beautiful weather today (blue sky, puffy clouds, low twenties)
  3. I successfully steeked a tube of knitting 400 rows long. It is now a rectangle 400 rows long.
    @3goodthings
kerravonsen, to fiberarts
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Ah, it is again! I keep forgetting what day of the week it is. I'm still working on the white angora ruana; you can see the knitting machine on the left, at which I am periodically cranking away. On the right in a messy pile is more steeking tests, and also testing attachment edges, since I'm going to have to join the panels together somehow, without making a mess.
@knitting @fiberarts

kerravonsen, to crochet
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Sunday swatch-making! I am trying to figure out what yarn and stitches to use for the narrow panel(s) I am going to use to join my long knitted panels for my Ruana. The knitted panels are made with white angora yarn; I want the narrow panels to be crocheted, and to be done with an additional white yarn as well as the angora. So I'm testing both yarns and stitches.

The tricky thing is to find something which isn't too difficult and isn't too boring.
@crochet @fiberarts

Crocheted swatch of white angora yarn and white viscose yarn. The two yarns are held together while being crocheted. The stitch is called Mesh Stitch.
Crocheted swatch of white angora yarn and white silk yarn. The two yarns are held together while being crocheted. The bottom part of the swatch is done in Feather Stitch.
Crocheted swatch of white angora yarn and white bamboo yarn. This is a vertical stripe shell stitch, where the two colours alternate.

kerravonsen,
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More swatches, as I seek for Balance. I definitely want to use the shiny viscose yarn with the angora, but due to its slipperiness, it can be difficult to work with. The two yarns are also not the same thickness, so that adds problems too.

IMHO, the last swatch has great potential. The shiny yarn is added over the top afterwards, which makes things both easier and more versatile.

@crochet @fiberarts

Swatch of Tunisian Crochet, in white angora yarn, and shiny white viscose yarn, in the Three-Stitch-Gather-Stitch. Not held down, it is following its natural curl.
Swatch of crochet. The main body is white angora yarn, in the Half-Double-Crochet stitch. Over the top of this is a diagonal of stitches in a shiny white viscose yarn.

kerravonsen, to crochet
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Best Stitch name ever: "Grandma Spiked My Ripple Stitch"
(see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUUaUl9aVM4 )
@crochet

kerravonsen, to crochet
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Knitting is currently not soothing me. I realised this profoundly when I picked up one of my crochet projects and the tension just rolled off my shoulders. I guess that's a reflection of how much frustration I've had with my knitting recently.

@knitting @crochet @fiberarts

kerravonsen, to 3goodthings
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Three good things:

  1. Health check good stuff: weight steady, blood pressure good. (One not so good thing, but it was an inevitable thing.)
  2. Progress on knitting my Ruana.
  3. Pretty rainbow row-counting ring arrived (and two balls of yummy yarn).
    @3goodthings
kerravonsen, to 3goodthings
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Three good things:

  1. New beautiful SOFT yarn.
  2. Garden salad with LOTS of Fetta cheese, for lunch.
  3. Figuring out why my knit stitches are too tight.
    @3goodthings
kerravonsen, to knitting
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My new mantra while making knit stitches: "Don't touch the stitch."

While looking for advice on how to loosen up my tight knit stitches, one knitter had observed in her classes that tight knitters tended to tug on their stitches to tighten them, and that's why they were too tight. I knew I wasn't doing that, but I wondered if I was doing something else which unintentionally messed up my tension with knit (and only knit) stitches.

Guess what? I have a nervous habit of pressing my finger down on my stitches while knitting them, probably to ensure they stay on the needle. (I do it with crochet, too). So I tried to do knit stitches while NOT touching them, and, hey, they weren't as tight!

So: don't touch the stitch.
@knitting

kerravonsen, to crochet
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My yarn from Cozi Yarn has arrived. It is SO SOFT! 80% Extra Fine Merino, 20% Nylon. Fiori Sock Yarn. Hand-dyed. Tibouchina colourway.
@knitting @crochet @fiberarts n

kerravonsen, to knitting
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My favourite knitting technique? Hands down, it's Norwegian Purl. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpqAdF1vepA ) As a Continental knitter, it's a game-changer - purl stitches become a dance, rather than a stumble.
@knitting

kerravonsen, to crochet
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  1. Chinese Waves Stitch is pretty.
  2. Thank you SO MUCH to all the people who made suggestions on how to fix my purling problem.
  3. Even so, I have decided to play to my strengths and make the shawl with crochet rather than knitting.
    @knitting. @crochet

crocheted White angora yarn, Fine thickness. A five millimetre purple crochet hook lies beside it. The shape of the crochet is a 3/4 circle with five points on the edges.

kerravonsen,
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The saga continues! I wanted to give this beautiful soft maddening yarn one more try at being knitted, so I brought out my knitting machine, and knit 100 rows in the round. Yes, it came out a lot more evenly than my poor efforts. Then I... (gasp) STEEKED it. I tried two methods of reinforcement, one on each side of the steek. I think one of them is going to unravel, but the other one is holding fast. This is, of course, why we make swatches. To test things.

@knitting

kerravonsen,
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I have calculated that in order to make myself a Runa, I will need to knit myself four tubes of 400 rows, steek them, and join them together. That's a lot of rows.

However, I have A Plan.

My computer tells me to go on microbreaks of 30 seconds every five minutes. I'm taking a little more than that... because I'm stepping to the other side of the room and doing five rows on the knitting machine. (If I'm on the other computer, I'll wait until the long break every 50 minutes and do 10-30 rows)

Slow and steady wins the race.

@knitting

kerravonsen, to knitting
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So, I have this gorgeous yarn, 70% Angora, 30% Acrylic, from Ice Yarns, which I want to make a shawl from. So I've been making various swatches to try things out to see what looks nice, what does not work, what does work, and what is too difficult for my current skill level. And, of course, looking at a lot of patterns on Ravelry. Both knit and crochet.

Never before has my lack of skill at knitting been thrown into such sharp highlight! I thought I was okay, but I am dreadful! Look at the swatch: my stockinette might as well be Drop Stitch, if you look at the difference in size between the right-side knits and the wrong-side purls. What is wrong with me? By a comparison, see my other current WIP, a triangular shawl in medium weight yarn, which seems perfectly fine.

HELP.
@knitting

Swatch of knitting, 14 stitches wide, with various stitches
Close-up of swatch
WlP knitted shawl in shades of brown and orange, medium weight, single strand, 100% wool

kerravonsen, to crochet
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I have just discovered that my no-name interchangeable needles don't have long enough cables (and they are not compatible with my KnitPro (Tunisian) cables). And, like, I can't even find out whether any compatible cables exist, because they are no-name needles.

This is one more reason to get Name Brand interchangeable needles (and hooks). Guess it's time to fork out for some KnitPro interchangeable needles?

@crochet @knitting

kerravonsen, to crochet
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Hey, crocheters, why do they call it a pineapple motif when it looks like a strawberry?
@crochet

kerravonsen,
@kerravonsen@mastodon.au avatar

@eyrea Another thought... maybe it's supposed to make you think of the top of a pineapple rather than the whole thing?

kerravonsen, to 3goodthings
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Three good things:

  1. Seeing a ringtail possum on my windowsill.
  2. I successfully changed a lightbulb, and there is light.
  3. Grilled cheese, ham, and mustard, on my last two bread rolls.
    @3goodthings
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