u/Saratrooper

I've been relatively stuck immobile after I ate shiet on my bike a week ago while going to work and strained my oblique, so I decided to dopamine-knit this very distinguished chubby rat pattern to keep my spirits up.

I used worsted instead of fingering for practice (moreso the fingering body color yarn I used wasn't working out and my worsted wool is all the same brand), and realized after blocking it that its unstuffed form fits perfectly as a hat. Second pic is me contemplating whether to use my new knowledge for good or evil. (The good or evil is whether or not to add Harold's ratty features on it or not, lol).

Welp, I don't think I'll need to worry about kimono for a long, hot minute. 😅 I did my quarterly wandering onto FB marketplace, and for laughs searched up kimono. Little did I know there was someone selling off the part of their collection one town over from me. I practiced restraint and narrowed it down to a teal kimono with faux-shibori deets on pic 2 (teal never plays nice in photos ugh). I tried color correcting the best I could but argleblargleflargle.

...long story short, I went over to her place and walked away with 8 kimono (the gray one she threw in for free because it had extensive but light staining on it that I absolutely think is fixable). The price averaged out to $27/each which is absolutely worth it imo.

The purple one has this s t e l l a r design on it with a loom!! and a silver couching spot embroidery. The wedding cart one is unlined and just so fun and twee. The vertical stripe one is pleasingly subtle with orange and purple color changes, and has a wispy grass? fabric texture that shows when the light catches it.

But by far was the unassuming $10 sage hitoe iromuji. It's almost a dead match to my eye color, and has plenty of seam allowance to let out the sides some more! The mon is delicately painted on with the tiniest hint of a stencil outline. I'm assuming the mon is just a generic one.

Most, if not all, seem relatively brand new and there's lots of tailoring stay-stitching intact. It's always such a pleasant find to come across this stuff as I'm not in a major metropolitan area. 💕

I replanted the squash that are at my parent's house (see pic 2), and I believeeeee it's acorn squash (see the oops-knocked-off-bébé in pic 3). Pic 1 are the squash at my place that have just started popping off as well. I remember baking off an acorn squash a few years back, so that tracks!

Huzzah! 〜⁠(⁠꒪⁠꒳⁠꒪⁠)⁠〜

Pic 1: photo of an unhinged squash plant just growing absolutely feral out of a pot in a raised bed. There are a few other types of plants peeking out from around the photo edges.

Pic 2: 4 groupings of the same squash plant in a different location, but planted in the ground.

Pic 3: small, underdeveloped squashling I accidentally knocked off while replanting pic 2 squashes - it's dark green with very pronounced squash ribs, and a tapered end where the flower originally was. It's giving acorn squash vibes with those characteristics.

I tried typing this up earlier but then it turned into a big, dumb wall of text and ain't nobody got time for that, so. 🙃

Feeling super frustrated at work with my boss, I think some of my stupid ADHD tendencies (even with me being medicated for 15 years) always get me in way more trouble (not being able to control/realize what my facial expressions are, and rejection sensitivity, etc). That's the only time I really truly wonder if I have a touch of autism as well. Ugh.

Pic of this high protein pasta salad I've made a few times, subbed out the chicken for chickpeas because costs + fiber ftw.

My day off today was smooth brain and slow, so perfect for making granola. 🎶 Lasts me about a month? while I put it on my cashew yogurt, etc. I cleared out hemp hearts I've had in my fridge for a million years, threw in some flaxseed, and even some quinoa for the heck of it. Spices were cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, vanilla and maple extract.

Finished out the evening with making nachos a la refried beans, cheese, tomatoes from my mom's garden, red onion, cilantro, green onions, and TJ's "everything but the elote" seasoning mix. I've made freezer quesadillas minus the cheese and it makes for some bombass reheatable breakfasts. 🌮

Pic 1. Photo of a large sheet tray full of homemade granola cooling off on the stovetop. There's a sea of oats, sliced almonds, pecans, walnuts, quinoa, flaxseed, and hemp hearts.

Pic 2. Photo of a noice lil Pyrex dish full of nachos and colorful toppings. The toppings are tortilla chips, cheese, refried beans, tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, green onions, and a coating of taco seasoning-esque mix.

(I work in a Celiac-safe gluten-free microbakery) Boss-man and my other coworker made vegan pretzels last night, and they taste soooooo much better than the ones he was making out of the bagel dough rejects (that have whole milk in them). The texture was perfect, and the texture actually improves with them sitting out after baking (something gluten-free stuff can struggle with). 🥨

And a pic of my unappetizing-looking lunch of lactose-free cottage cheese buried under a chopped up apple, honey mango, and the remnants of my homemade granola. 🥣

Today is extra gonna suck because we discovered my boss, yet aGAiN, forgot to add yeast to the dough, so we have to remake the fubar ones, and we're up against the clock for finishing before the farmer's market tonight. 🙃

One of my nephews is turning 5, and my SiL told me he wanted science and nature books. These have all been sitting in my parent's house, precious but unused. I asked my brother if it was okay to go through and give them ones with his approval.

Most of the books are waaayyyy above their reading level, but I still think it's great and important to even just look at books with really interesting photos and illustrations. I'll remember to write something in them this time, I haven't been doing that with the books I've been gifting from The Library Reserves.

May thy himbos of all types be cultured and educated in all things! 🤙 Educated himbos resist bullshit and fascists!

Third full komon kimono! I made it out of a 50/50 cotton poly bedsheet I thrifted. I just barely managed to fit the whole pattern on it by adding the back horizontal seam <insert proper vocab terminology here>, and used the finished edges for the bottom hem! A mix of machine and hand sewing were done for the finishing deets. Kitsuke is a lil bit lumpy but ohwell.

I followed the instructions from my book a bit more slowly, picked up on things my brain glossed over, and made adjustments that made a whole bunch more sense from western clothing experience (mostly with the collar seam allowance and width). I faked the obi seafaring lewk by safety pinning on a width of fabric on the obi, and a separate one on the otaiko - I used my preferential tsuke obi as the base.

I hammed up the pirate day theme with my boater-style hat, one of my many wooden parrot earrings I have for my aloha/Hawaiian shirt collection, a silver hoop earring, tiny gin earrings, and a very large and gaudy wooden toucan brooch as an obidome. I managed to nab the Sou Sou sneakers on Depop in my size. :)

I won't bore people too much with Japanese kimono info, but TL;DR, I was fixing a type of pretied/shortcut obi belt that comes together in two shorter pieces, rather than fighting with a singular 3.5-4.5 meter long obi. The obi had its ties in the most bizarre locations compared to my other same type of obi, and it didn't make any sense for displaying the decorative waist details, so I fixed it myself. :)

This is Dipper (like from Gravity Falls). I would've named him Kronk if I knew just how much of a himbo he'd be. We adopted him at a local cat rescue event when he was a kitten. Was told he was the runt, and all that good stuff. He was so eepy and like a ball of playdough. Then he got home, and is now Chaos Manager with his 18lb frame. He's a tiny bit chonk, but he's still a HUGE cat (he's at least 1-2 heads taller than my other cat when they sit down side by side, and can easily reach the door knobs).

He has the loudest whiny baby sounds, and the strongest diaphragm known to mankind. He's so, so, so dumb. He's so, so, so sweet. He's so, so, so annoying. He ADORES my older cat (she *mostly* tolerates him). Here he is last night looking for his jumping spider friend that he most likely ate.

I was in another post where they were showing off their collection of "grandma skirts" they love, and I commented if I should do the same with my Hawaiian shirts, and a few people said yes! so here I am. 😂

I don't know what exactly got me collecting them, but I guess they're kinda my dopamine-dressing, but they're also just the most comfortable shirts to wear in summertime/hot weather. This is a collection that's spanned several years, so every one was bought with intention. I also love the longer sleeves, and I haven't had to worry about their sizing while I've been dealing with unexplained weight issues.

I've gotten them all by thrifting or at antique marts and try not to pay over...$20 USD? Some are from modern (bigger) chain brands, others are vintage. Most are men's cuts, some are women's cuts. There are plenty of print themes out there, but I've mostly been drawn to floral/botanical/nature stuff.

Most of the sizes out there are waaay bigger than what fit me, so that helps narrow down my finds (I could resize them, but I have enough on my plate as-is hahaha). I always pay attention to the material they're made out of, outright rebuking polyester because w h y.

Most people might probably find Hawaiian shirts super cringe or ugly, I think they're highly underutilized and just need to be jazzed up with intention (plus you can look like the cunty aunt who's always on vacation-mode). 😎✨

For context, we both share a love/appreciation for fossils/nature/etc, and this was so unexpected but so cool. 🥹 Google Translate moreorless gave me the impression that the paperwork included gives a general explanation for how the features in the fossils are formed, where it was retrieved, etc. Reverse image search showed a similar sold one that dated from the Showa Era, and the aging on the ribbon and paperwork definitely lends itself to being pretty old. The paper has that same texture and smell of my dad's old comic books from the 50s/60s, so I'd safely say it's easily 50+ years old.

&#x200B;

I love it so much. I would've never had thought a fossil would be such a cool thing to make into such a piece. 🥹❤️

Soooo I thought it'd be funny/cringe to combine one interest with another, and to make up for my general lack of fanart at my artist alley table and make a platonic animu desu uwu-ness design, hahaha. I know it's probably pretty niche, but I people in the general fandom space can tend to be craftily-inclined, so we'll see!

The eyes alone went through a few rounds of redesign, there could be a fewwwww more tweaks but it's 🎶 good ennoooouuuggghhh 🎶. I did add an iris outline in with duplicate stitch because *I wasn't gonna drive myself nutty doing dat lmao heck*.

I haven't ever made my own knitting colorwork charts, so this will be VERY interesting aka *severely stressful* trying to make sure it has everything needed, include permissions, and explicitly note to NOT FEED IT INTO AI. ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ