mastodon 4.7.3Emery Q. Asterism
Doin' mountainy things. I see fnords.
She/they | ✨💛🤍💜🖤✨
I tag my art with #inkthusiasm and my fibre work with #KnittingPirate. You might also know me as cougrr/qgr or Belaset.
My primary hobby is collecting more hobbies - I draw/paint, play guitar and drums, knit/spin/crochet, snowboard in the winter and bike the rest of the year, and I sure play a mean pinball.
I don't like this paper at all, so I'm using it for practice pieces.
Okay so... I picked up another electronic knitting machine, because the one I already had *won't stop beeping*, and there's no way to make it shut up short of de-soldering the beeper from the circuit board (tempting, but I'm not sure it's fully functioning if something's making it beep like that).
I thought I'd test out the new one by making a hat. Hats are always nice, and if they're a little big or small - well, they'll fit somebody.
And check out this historic artifact that I found in the section of its memory for user uploads!
Blogpost about the new-old machine, if you're interested: https://www.knittingpirate.com/2026/04/10/in-which-the-pirate-acquires-another-knitting-machine-2/
Our library system has reciprocity agreements with the neighbouring counties, so that if you live in one you can get cards for the others. Today I was in the next county over and stopped at the library and got my THIRD library card!
The librarian was wearing a "dragons love books" shirt with a cute drawing of a dragon snoozing on a hoard of books. I complimented her on it :)
I'm working on recreating a hat that I saw in a picture. I was able to find hand-knitting instructions for the cables, but the technique for shifting stitches around on the machine isn't quite the same as doing it by hand. It's easier than I thought it would be, actually :)
This sample is knit at a tension that is too loose for the yarn, but I'm pleased to have figured out how to do the transfers.
Next up, figuring out how to do the decreases for the crown…
I didn't expect to be able to wear the sweater I just finished knitting until fall, but it's actually chilly today! Mmmm, soft new sweater and a cup of tea.
Some hand-knitting techniques translate easily to the machine, but others... not so much. I've been trying different methods for hat decreases to see which is easiest and still looks good. Details & side views at the blog:
https://www.knittingpirate.com/2026/04/12/in-which-the-pirate-learns-new-hat-decreases/
The green dishes are one of my favourite aspects of Passover.
RE: @lclarke522@gardenstate.social
I can't quote the whole article (it's excellent, and I keep finding quotable bits), but this line touches on one of my peeviest peeves about the slop:
"...one of the most pernicious things about this particular kind of bullshit is the way it casts any form of critical scrutiny as a terrible failure of sensibility."
This week's (public) post is *dog* sketches, for a change...
The place we bowl on Mondays usually opens at 5pm, but on holidays they're open at 11am. We were there at 10:50 and a good thing too, because the house filled up *fast*.
The warm sticky weather made for warm sticky floors and I had to figure out how to throw the ball without being able to slide at all. :blobdisapproval: But it all worked out okay.
Today I learned that I really shouldn't work at the knitting machine without my glasses on. :blobglare:
Nothing went wrong, thankfully, but now my eyes are all overfocused and I can't quite see *anything* clearly, even things that ought to be at the correct distance for seeing!
On the plus side, I just have to sew up a seam and another hat is done :blobclipboard:
I got so involved in charting out my idea for a hat pattern that I forgot to put the bike on the car and go to the group ride. Perhaps we'll go riding tomorrow, when it will be a more reasonable temperature.
A zissen Pesach!
(we had to do an emergency run for horseradish because my mom accidentally bought ginger instead 😂 and the first two stores didn't have any!)
@theotherbrook@sunny.garden Many happy returns of the day!
Today I learned about the *real* reason we eat cheesecake (or cheese blintzes) on Shavuot 😋
(Chag Shavuot sameach!)