#please it's not hard | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

roboticchibitan · 1 year

Text

I see a lot of memes about refusing to knit gauge swatches and they hurt my heart a little bit. Like. I get it I've been there. But you're actively working against your own interests. Please just knit a swatch.

@tattinglacework said in the tags of my post about yarn substitution that a gauge swatch is the knitting/crochet equivalent of "measure twice cut once" and I'm stealing it forever now because it's so true. I've had to frog weeks worth of work because I needed to go up two needle sizes and I didn't do a swatch. But it was better than having a finished shawl that was way too small to be useful.

And listen, eventually if you keep refusing to do swatches and being all "teehee I'm such a rebel" about it, you're going to come to a project that you're super excited about, really looking forward to, spend time planning, maybe even buy really nice yarn for it... and you hate the finished product and never use it. Which makes all that work a waste of time.

I know it seems like knitting a swatch is a waste of time but knitting for a week only to have to frog it all is more of a waste of time than the hour I would've spent knitting a swatch. Even with cobweb lace knitting where a proper gauge swatch takes several hours (I've spent 10 hours on a gauge swatch before and I am glad I did cuz it saved my ass), it's a looooot better to knit for several hours and know the next 100 hours will not have been in vain.

A swatch can also help you see whether you like how that yarn works up, and can give you an idea of how that yarn drapes and works up. This is important if you are knitting with a different fiber yarn than what the pattern calls for. Some fibers have a lot more stretch than others. Wool is nice and stretchy but silk is not. Cotton isn't very stretchy. Acrylic stretches and drapes differently than wool or cotton. A swatch will tell you if a fiber is suitable for a pattern.

Some pattern swatches are stockinette stitch and some are in pattern, and an in pattern swatch is going to tell you a LOT about how that yarn will work with that pattern. For example: I like to buy the occasional indie dyed yarn that's got pops of color and multiple colors per skein. But those yarns are hard to find patterns for because the color change/variegation is so quick that it ends up being very busy fabric. A gauge swatch in pattern will tell me if a pattern will show well or get lost in the variegation. Indie dyed yarn is expensive and I am poor so I want to make something I actually like, is the right size, and I will actually use because looking at it doesn't make me miserable.

I'm begging you, just make a swatch. At worst you've lost a little bit of time confirming your needle and yarn choices work for the pattern. At best, you're saving yourself from spending dozens of hours on something you'll never use because it didn't turn out the way you want, doesn't fit, and you hate looking at it now.

Also this is important and I've deeply regretted not doing it before: treat your finished swatch how you're going to treat the finished object. Block it if you're going to block the finished item and then unpin it and let it rest for a while (your swatch WILL lie to you if you do not) before taking any data from it. If you're not sure how a yarn is going to survive the wash, chuck your swatch in the washing machine to see! Better to felt a swatch than a pair of socks you just spent a week knitting.

I used to be very "no gauge swatch we die like men" so I Get It. I really do. But I have also been in the "didn't swatch, spent eighteen months and 3,000 beads on a project only to block it and have it be almost exactly a foot too small" boat and let me tell you that'll change you as a person. Just knit a swatch. It takes so much less time than being wrong does.

#please it's not hard #advice for new fiber artists #v's fiber arts tag #knitting #crochet

945 notes · View notes

yamameta-inc · 4 months

Text

y’all do NOT go out next week unless you have to and wear your best masks and tape the edges down bc it’s just not worth it

#Canada is possibly worse than the US #hard to check bc our government won’t even track anymore #I wasn’t even able to report getting COVID to like anywhere #wastewater is the ONLY metric we have left #please take this seriously

18K notes · View notes

cupcakeshakesnake · 1 month

Text

Uncaring

#original art #schoolwork #comic #cartoon #bugs tw #house centipede #goes for other bugs and animals too tbh #snake's art #Maybe it's ironic that I think everything has something pleasing about it if you look hard enough #For house centipedes it's their silly little faces

15K notes · View notes

color-picked-pride-flags · 7 months

Text

Asexual flag color picked from the celibacy gif

#this was so fucking hard please appreciate my work #gifs are so fucking difficult to color pick #asexual #ace #color picked flags #mod author #celibacy

24K notes · View notes

literallyaflame · 7 months

Text

absolutely kills me when people are like “oh, but without police, who will manage the traffic?” as if traffic management requires a license to kill

#please don’t read too hard into this i’m not trying to like #this is not a comprehensive examination of this issue

21K notes · View notes

thepeacefulgarden · 9 months

Text

35K notes · View notes

clementimetodie · 8 months

Text

recently saw someone's "advice for your 30s" which included something like "never get on the floor without having an escape plan for getting back up" and um. if you are otherwise able bodied and having trouble getting up from the floor in your 30s. you are very unhealthy. yes, even, if not especially, for that age.

#obviously this does not include the physically disabled #anyway 30 year olds please stop acting like you're 60 #and please for the LOVE stop abusing your bodies omg #you should NOT have a hard time getting up from the floor in your 30s good grief

17K notes · View notes

oobbbear · 4 months

Text

I want to post this here too because I’ve seen it happen a few times

Please understand that there are cultural differences and language differences, if you see this happening let the person clarify what they meant, that person might just not be familiar with words the western side of the internet use

#bearz rambling tag #no it’s not really possible to let everyone who uses this term to change #because as far as I know this is the most common word with use on Chinese websites #I didn’t know that pairing are called ‘ship’ here #like why would I even know that #‘ship’ makes zero sense to me #it took me a while to learn the fandom language people speak here #it’s hard #give people time #shipping culture is very different too #Like on Chinese site you HAVE to clarify the Top and the Bottom of this ship in the ship name #it is very very important to them #people who like the same ship but with different Top Bottom preference will fight till no end #imagine how confused I was when I first got here #where there’s no top bottom differences #it’s not really a smut thing #it’s more a dynamic thing #AxB and BxA is very different #oh I can talk so much about the differences on fandom cultures #if ya are interested in more please feel free to ask #it’s very interesting to me #I wanna talk about it

8K notes · View notes

mwagneto · 5 months

Text

the companion will go oh god doctor who is that?? and the doctor will get all serious and somber and say listen. he's the most evil creature in the universe. he's the worst enemy i've ever faced. he's horrible and unpredictable and you can never ever let your guard down. and then the villain will walk into the room like this

#PLEASE IM LOSING MY MIND S3 FINALE I CAN'T DECIDE AND THEN THIS BACK TO BACK IS TAKING ME OUT #it was literally the perfect place to be in for my rewatch these are great episodes to follow each other #im at the part where nph busts in with confetti but i had to pause immediately coz i was laughing so hard😭#this isn't me mocking drag queens or the villains or whatever this is me saying im obsessed with campy evil rtd guys. by the way #doctor who #dw lb #14th doctor #the giggle #the toymaker #10th doctor #tensimm

9K notes · View notes

frownyalfred · 1 year

Text

“this is a compilation of all of my fics from different fandoms—”

Make them separate fics. I’m begging you. I can’t keep scrolling past that one fic with 115 fandoms and 75 chapters of one-sentence drabbles. I can’t.

#I might sound crotchety but #I can’t keep doing this #please make separate fics #trying to navigate each chapter is so hard #ao3 #archive of our own #thoughts

28K notes · View notes

im-still-watching-anime · 4 months

Text

apollo’s confidence in court: oh my god i’m the worst lawyer ever my client is going to go to JAIL because i can’t even do my JOB

apollo’s confidence outside of court: i’m the only smart one here, i’m the most normal guy in the world and NO ONE is doing it like i am, investigations are EASY, klavier gavin wants me carnally