Quit whining and get back to your knitting.

I admit this is petty and I feel like such a grouchy old lady but the appropriation of fast fashion and knitting has gotten ridiculous.

Fiber arts are more than hobbies, they are skilled crafts. It doesnt take talent to learn knitting or crochet, it takes learning. You have to build your skill set and understand how it works and WHY. As with any skill, there are steps that are boring and you dont want to do. Gauge swatching, weaving in ends, blocking, PURLING (the horror), they can all be avoided if you dont want to do them but you do need to know how to do them and be ok with doing them with the same care and attention you give to making your miles and miles of boring petiteknit stockinette stitches.

Also, there will be lots of unintended lessons learned and thats ok too. Ive made dozens of projects that didnt turn out. Ive spent months of hours and hundreds of dollars on a project just to have it ruined in the block in 10 minutes. Frogging isnt a failure, its a lesson. It sucks but its valuable.

Fiber arts are slow and methodic and do not fit well within the internet sphere, where everyone is trying to get as much as they can as fast as possible. They are a lesson of what you can accomplish in small increments, and also impermanence. Slow down, pay attention, and quit whining. That shortcut isnt a shortcut, its going to make your FO look like shit and make you feel like you wasted your time and you suck. You dont, you just need to shift your perspective and learn to do it right.

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u/Ok_Lets266 — 2 days ago

For the pearl clutchers

I posted last week about making a set of dreadlock extensions and I was surprised at the number of people calling me dirty and, even weirder, racist. I just want to say, wool is beautiful and it is for everyone and anyone. I love making them and wearing them. They are creative and fun and I highly recommend them to everyone. That is all, thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

Also, its really hard to take a pic of the back of your head.

u/Ok_Lets266 — 7 days ago

Does anyone make dreadlock extensions?

My latest obsession has been making a set of wool dreads, and im looking for advice. These are the prototypes ive been working on. Theyre not great but im experimenting and learning a lot.

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I want felted extensions that are textured, washable, and will last. So ive been experimenting with the blending board and rolags. These are just a batt i put on a board, made into rolags and felted between my hands. I love the lightness and flexibility from the silk that was blended in, but they are a bit thin and maybe too lightweight. Also, felting results will vary depending on fiber content of the batt.

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So Im experimenting with making a super fat corespun. First making rolags on a blending board with cheap, coarse wool, drafting them slightly, and hand felting them into dreads. Then I corespin it, wrapping it with whatever fiber I want and felt it again. This made a loc that was light and airy and fat and strong in the middle, added the pop of color i wanted, but when the fibers shrank on top they exposed the core and made it barber pole. So I think an autowrap would help keep everything in place and give more texture.

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I have a lot of ideas, but I dont know what im doing. Im sure other people do this but there arent any tutorials I can find, so any advice is welcomed.

u/Ok_Lets266 — 16 days ago

Neps

I have 18 Oz of this gorgeous Corriedale with pink and orange silk nepps that will eventually be a tweedy 3 ply. The problem Im running into is the neps are all chunking together. Id like a smooth yarn with occasional baby slubs of nep fibers dispersed throughout, but what happens during the drafting is the long fibers get drafted and then the neps are all bunched together. Instead I get smooth yarn with random big multicolored barf slubs. Pre-drafting helps some, but what might I be doing wrong and how would you draft this to blend the fibers better?

u/Ok_Lets266 — 2 months ago