Amen!
I'll always remember fondly how the last person to hint at maybe it's time Froggy moved out at my mom, got my mom's rather distraught reply: 'Don't give her any ideas!' It's nice to be appreciated.
FWIW, from the parent perspective, I had a conversation much like this with my eldest kid the other night, who was concerned about being able to afford her own place after she finishes college while trying to get an art career off the ground & paying back student loans. I told her I have no problem with her staying here if she needs/wants to, and I genuinely don't. It's hard enough to get your feet under yourself when you've picked a more standard career path as it is, and it would break my heart if she gave up on art just because of that uncertainty.
This^ is how my parents are as well, and I appreciate it greatly.
Society: It's terrible that extended families have been torn apart and don't live together and care for each other any more!
Also society: Why do you still live with your parents you lazy freeloader?!
it's such a catch-22. if you're distant from your family, people think you're ungrateful. if you're close, they think you need to grow up
I think there's very little you can do that you won't get insulted for
I KNOW RIGHT?!? It makes me feel better knowing y'all understand.
Cantinites ROCK!
Heh, that's a cool thing, I never knew that existed. I never dared to crochet clothing before just because I never know if I'm not crocheting too tightly. Most be something to remember.
Yup, gauge swatches are essential for items that have to fit a certain way. Most patterns will give you instructions for how to do a swatch and what the measurements for it should be. In the case of this sweater the swatch was square 9 rows/4 inches tall and 16 stitches/4 inches wide, following the stitch instructions the pattern gave me. I personally tend to crochet too loosely and had to go down a hook size to get the correct gauge for that one.
Some patterns, like scarves, are not gauge critical, in which case the pattern will tell you so at the beginning. Most of the time they're correct, but every now and then you'll come across a designer who apparently thought the pattern was not gauge critical, but also crocheted much tighter/looser than you and you end up with a mini scarf instead of a full sized one, or a super-sized scarf instead of a normal one. That happened to me with a hat recently. Pattern said "gauge is not critical", but instead of the normal-sized beret I wanted, it ended up being the size of one of those giant dreadlock hats.
I unraveled* the whole thing and using a different pattern that gave me a gauge to follow and it turned out the right size.
*Fun fact: Unraveling/ripping out stitches is often called "frogging" because "rip it" sounds like "ribbit".
I learned the hard way while improvising a felted bag pattern that knitting shrinks more vertically than horizontally. So you can't just knit something and plan for it to shrink proportionally. What knitting stitch you use probably affects that, too.
This is why I don't intentionally felt things either, and why I admire those who are good at it, like Cobalt Jade.
Re: shrinking/felting things accidentally, my mom said that my grandaddy had a wool fishing hat once, but Grandmommy didn't know it wasn't supposed to be machine washed/dried and tossed it in the wash one day because it was getting icky. It came out so small they could have put it on a cat. Grandaddy wasn't mad, though, and just set it on top of his head and laughed.
Morning, Cantina. The new Etsy listing featuring the cowl that is now dry and no longer smells like a sheep has been posted. I'm glad I washed it even if it did take a long time to dry (and smelled funky in the process
), because it's MUCH softer now and will be more comfortable for the wearer. I didn't get a lot of writing done yesterday because my mom had an eye doctor appointment and we ended up being out of the house for most of the rest of the day, so I better shut down the internet and make up for lost time.
So far, no luck. (Also I got home at 2am, so I was definitely enjoying myself if I managed to stay awake that long.)
After I'm done with this episode, I think I'll watch something else for a little while. I have Dead Poets Society sitting here, unwatched, and a couple other movies, if memory serves. I've seen Dead Poets Society before, but it's been so long that I really only remember one scene. Hopefully this is a movie that has stood the test of time. Unlike Breakfast Club... Ack! With BC, I remembered enjoying it back in high school, but I watched it earlier this year and thought it was just shit.
