u/Potential_Duck1097

do I pick up 3 or 4 connections? Where does the next stitch go?

I don't have any questions or need anything I just want to talk :)

I am 27 amab. I've never thought of myself much gender wise, but if asked I would say male cuz thats how I was raised

I'm low support needs autistic, so, growing up it was always boys play with trucks girls play with dolls and I play with rusty metal wires. I was always more emotional and artistic and less competetive or agressive. A lot of the time my friends would be girls, it always worked better for me.

fast forward to when I'm about 18-19, I'm isolated and vulnerable and its the late 2010s so I got sucked into the shitty alt right youtube content with the "there are only two genders" nonsense yada yada. I started feeling not good about my body, that I was not fit enough or lean enough. I stopped eating and started using some less than wholesome substances. I've always had a small amount of gynecomastia since puberty but it got a little worse on account of that. I felt really weird about it, but it did make me start actually having some thoughts about gender

I realized that physical sex characteristics are extremely malleable and that a lot of what I "should" be is something pushed onto my from outside. Cuz chromosomes be damned I had boobs.

I felt really insecure about it at the time, as well as having a higher pitched voice, but now I really like those things about myself

Later on I met someone who is non binary, and it seemed really great that they could just be a person, and they could wear and act in the way that felt right to them rather than choosing from the smaller box of whats expected

More recently I've been feeling some things about myself

I have a pet parakeet, and often times people refer to me as her dad. It makes me uncomfortable. One time my coworker referred to me as my bird's mom, that made me less uncomfortable. But I like being called her parront(parrot parent) the most.

my partner had a dream that we were shopping, and I tried on a yellow top "obviously meant for someone with boobs" and it didnt fit me good. And in the dream another woman came up and told me how brave I was for coming out. I joked that I would never be caught wearing yellow, but I do often feel like I want to wear things like crop tops or whatever that men aren't "supposed" to wear

My local pool has started requiring an account to buy lap swim passes, and when it asked me to select a gender I felt uncomfortable. I picked male cuz thats what I did my whole life but I felt like I made a mistake.

When I play video games, I always choose a female character and be more androgynous. I know its common for men to pick female characters, but I feel when I pick a male character its just a character but when I pick a female character its me if that makes sense

I really like when my partner calls me her partner, and I like that I can do things like being the more artistic emotional one

I shave all the hair on my body, because I hate how it makes me look. It feels too masculine to me

I don't know what if anything this means, I'm currently feeling like "you just want to feel special it means nothing" but I dunno. I do know that I want to buy clothes from the mens and womens section and paint my nails, but Im nervous because I don't want attention or people judging me

If you read all this thank you :)

Where I live is too hot for beanies, mittens, scarves, socks etc. for the entire year

I know nalbinding lends itself to warm and heavy fabrics, and knitting or sewing would be a better choice for my climate

but I really enjoy the hobby, and I would like to make things I can actually use regularly

Does anyone have any project ideas?

Thank you

I'm trying to make a climbing chalk bag with nalbinding

I'm looking for yarns that would be not fuzzy at all, because the fuzz will rub off and chalk will get stuck in it

The yarn also needs to fairly strong but also flexible enough for a drawstring bag

and it needs to come in size 6 since when nalbinding you make the stitches on your thumb, and any smaller size would make very loose stitches

the cheap acrylic yarn that michaels puts in the crochet kits that is like super smooth and strong is the sort of thing I'm looking for, but all of that is size 4 unfortunately

If anyone has an idea of what sort of yarn I could use that would be very helpful :)

This is mostly an America thing, but I hate stuff that isn't just measured in how big it is

American wire gauge is an example of supreme bullshit, its some kind of geometric series where the wire gets smaller by some factor every time. So the sizes are random and the difference between them is random. 18 gauge is like slightly larger than 1mm so I have to enlarge a 1mm hole which is a pain because a file doesn't fit in there. 16 gauge is slightly larger than 1.5mm, 10 gauge is slightly smaller than 2mm

shoe sizes are crazy, they start at some random length and then get bigger by a barleycorn(thats a third of an inch)

Yarn sizes are sorcery. You can't buy yarn based on thickness, its grouped into broad categories based on grams of yarn per 100m as far as I understand

and also trader joes sells single serve matcha packets which would be handy but you need like 3 of them for a decent latte. And they come in packs of 7. Don't sell shit in prime numbers its annoying

The two ways I've learned to start are with an overhand knot or with a slip knot, but the first 3 stitches in the chain are always random floppy loops and not oslo stitches

I have trouble maintaining tension because the loose loops from those starting methods give slack to the following stitches, and since the first few stitches just empty loops I can't join to them, so they hang off the back and get in the way

is it possible to start the chain with an actual full oslo stitch?

So, every time I do an oslo stitch, I half to twist the needle a half twist toward myself. After 10-20 stitches all that twisting has completely untwisted my yarn into loose strands. I tried twisting away from myself but that twists the yarn too much and makes a tangled mess. How do I prevent this?

I had a dream that I lived near a combination KFC and Jeep dealership called JFC. They sold the Jeep Fried Cherokee, a deep fried Jeep Grand Cherokee. It was the full car, battered with 11 herbs and spices and fried. I do not have the art skills to create this but you can imagine.

I've finally made some progress so I'm sharing some random things I figured out that helped me over the past few days

1: making the needle

your needle needs to be thin, flat and smooth so it passes under the stitches easily. Start with a small eye and keep testing it on your yarn and widening it until the yarn threads easily but still has friction on the sides. You can grab a random twig from outside and carve it with a utility knife, you can make the eye by drilling a few small holes in a line and carving out the extra.

2: yarn

start with ugly cheap yarn because you'll mangle a lot of it, and undoing it to restart is frustrating. You can use synthetic or plant yarn, but you'll need to join it differently. Get something thick and smooth so its easy to work with

tangled and cut up yarn can be used to stuff plushies, pincushions, stress balls etc.

3:stitching

doing it on the thumb does help keep loops organized but it makes very loose stitches, I started using my index finger instead and it works so much better

The loop you're supposed to stitch through is not the one you just made, but the one before it. Pulling on the working end tightens the one you just made.

Use your thumb and pinky to guide the working yarn over all the way toward your non dominant side, so that the loop you're supposed to stitch through is the one near your finger tip

you can use the tip of the needle to flick the loop off your finger

If your oslo stitch is too loose, you can do 1 and a half twists in the rear loop instead of half a twist, I'm sure this has a name I just don't know it

4:Joining

I don't use wool because I'm vegan

most people say to use a russian join, which works on most yarn but can really mangle stiff plant yarns and low ply yarns

all yarn can be knotted, I just use a square knot and pull it super duper tight and trim the excess. Fuzzy yarns hide the knot well but I don't mind it

If you knot the yarn, the knot needs to be in the part of the working yarn wrapped over your finger. If the knot is too far, it will be in the part you're pulling through and catch on stuff and ruin your tension. So, when joining with a knot, cut off all the excess working yarn so that the knot is as close to the loops as possible

I hope this helps someone who's where I was 4 days ago, I've spent a lot of time and yarn and am excited to continue!

Maybe I'm missing something here

I've managed to get a starting chain with york stitch not using my thumb but every tutorial just makes it into a loop then tutorial done?

What I want to do is add more rows of stitches so I can make a rectangle or something

also I'm doing york stitch because I couldn't figure out oslo stitch and Im using off the thumb because it comes out too loose otherwise but is that just making it harder on myself?

Go easy on me I've never worked with yarn in my life

Thank you!

What I'm working with: Fully paid off car, 2 associates degrees one in chemistry and one in kinesiology

I'm currently working as a pool lifeguard year round and a swim coach in the spring. I struggle very badly in environments that are loud and chaotic, and tend to just shut down mentally or break down crying. I also struggle to work a lot, and I usually need to be alone in a dark room for a few hours after every shift and can't do more than 2 work days in a row

I was trying to go back to school and do a bachelors degree in one of the two things I had an associates in, but I ran out of money entirely and things have gotten very bad with my mental health

I have a partner who I really love, and I hope eventually we could live together, but thats like a maybe long term future thing

I have no savings and no credit, my expenses are $1200 and I make $1400 a month

I live with my dad, and while I don't think he's ever going to kick me out, he will start charging me rent when I tell him Im not going to university and he may also just decide to move somewhere completely different and my life will be uprooted

According to my parents I was diagnosed with aspergers as a child, my dad doesn't have the paperwork so my therapist has referred me to hopefully get evaluated again. With the paperwork I could maybe get disability benefits or workplace accomodation

My current job is very hard on me mentally, it's a 30 minute drive each way and the environment is very loud and unpredictable. My schedule is also very unreliable and I don't make much

I struggle very badly to work in environments that are fast paced, loud, bright, require interacting with people or have elements of unpredictability. I also struggle with physical work, I don't know why but my back starts hurting very badly if I'm standing for more than half an hour and I feel very weak and dizzy a lot of the time.

I don't know exactly what I need, but I'm in a state where I feel lost and hopeless. So I would like suggestions on what way I could move forward. I do not want a house or children or anything. My goal is just to have enough money to survive and live with my partner eventually.

I've been looking at jobs online but there aren't many options for me

If anyone has ideas either for right now things to make life easier or long term things I would really appreciate it.

Yellow is cool, I like yellow, but every plant I've tried makes yellow

I have too many yellow swatches

Can anyone suggests some plants that make any other color than yellow?