lacewise
Embroidery, Lace, & General Chaos
The Archangel of Learning, but just call me Ether
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All repairs have been made. All ends have been trimmed. The shawl has been dragged through a ring.
This is a mostly accurate reproduction of an 1880s-1910s Shetland lace ring shawl.
I used Jamieson and Smith Shetland Supreme 1ply in natural white. This yarn was developed with Shetland Museum and Archives as part of the Shetland Fine Lace Project, and is a 100% Shetland wool reproduction of the original handspuns used.
For additional historical accuracy, I also had borderline severe anemia for this entire project without knowing what was wrong with me.
Dimensions are 5 foot 8 inches square.
Detail shots:
Bonus slow-mo gif of it in motion. You can kind of get a feel for how it tries to velcro to itself at the very end (the edging points are flipped up and stuck) which is the main reason I didn't try other methods of capturing the drape capabilities. You'll have to take my word for it that it's super drapey.
Ring shawls got their name from the fact that one of the ways to prove the authenticity and quality was to pull it through a wedding ring--provided, of course, that the diameter of the ring was half an inch or less.
I do not have wedding rings.
I have goth rings.
I dragged it through a size 5 (approx 1/2 inch diameter) coffin ring. I do not recommend this.
Tumblr seems to be objecting to me trying to post the video of this. I'll either get it in a reblog of my own post, or link the two posts together once I can upload it separately.
There is some BBC archive footage on YouTube of a reporter interviewing two lace knitters who demonstrate this at the end of the video. The reporter stated the shawl being used for this demonstration is 27 square feet.
Mine is a little over 32 square feet.
This was made particularly challenging by the fact I could NOT block it at max tension--the cotton thread that strings it up to the blocking frame sawed through part of the edging, and I had to stop at the dimensions I had. As a result, the density of this fabric is thicker than it would have been otherwise.
But I did it and I retain the bragging rights forever.
@battleblaze I'm going to beat you to the punch this time and tag @knottybliss myself. Thank you for the object lesson in "don't post pics when still in the pits of stress over blocking going horrifically wrong" lmao
@the-fibre-stuff Thanks! I made the frame, too! I think the skew in that very hasty photo is largely the angle--there's just not enough space without moving very heavy furniture to get a good head-on angle. But my crochet cotton DID saw through an edging point while I was trying to make sure that it was all perfectly even (and it's hard to get my frame to stay square) so I think there is a skew, but hey, if I'm the only one that knows, I'm chill. Glad to hear that it passes the galloping horse test, in any case.
@ghostrepeater I'll never tell. You can't make me.
@invisiblefoxfire I still think you said it best: This thing is determined to simply not exist at all, but my will is superior.
And finally (maybe) @lacewise as predicted, now that the finishing details have been completed, better pictures taken, I AM proud. Exhausted. But proud. It remains to be seen how often I allow this thing to leave the house.
Everyone else that complemented my very hasty, zero contrast, probably super eye-strainy "please send help and/or booze" quick pic--thank you. I legit never post anything, I truly am a habitual lurker. I've only ever gotten that many notes on boop day. I'd tag some more mutuals, but honestly, you're seeing it in more than one place.
#shetland lace#lace knitting#knit lace#knitblr#laceblr#lacework#historical reproduction#historical fashion#even if it never leaves the house you can look amazing and domineering/sophisticated while wearing it whenever you want#and that alone deserves a toast#incredibly difficult work incredibly beautifully done#this is incredible
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before the poll, a quick definition of terms:
"mutual" - you found this post from a mutual (on their blog or your dash)
"following" - you found this post from someone you're following, but who isn't following you
"random" - you found this by scrolling through someone's blog, who you don't follow. this includes people following you
"For You" - you found this on the For You page
"recommended" - you found this in a "Check out these blogs" popup, or a "recommended" post when looking at a different post
"other" - you found this post some other way. comment how?
"reblog ✅" - you're going to reblog, queue, or schedule this post
"reblog ❌" - you're NOT going to reblog, queue, or schedule this post
with that out of the way:
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Yknow from the second it became visible I was so stuck on the star in the center of this id pick it up and my brain would be all woah…….starfish……. absolutely enamored. Anyways, woah. Starfish.
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Also a friend wants me to add that people in the United States specifically severely underpay for food and textiles and it’s wild that’s never taken into account either
Somewhat alarming that people have bought into the breakup of the concepts “family home” and “apartment” at all
This is what happens when you treat housing as an asset
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Somewhat alarming that people have bought into the breakup of the concepts “family home” and “apartment” at all
This is what happens when you treat housing as an asset
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Turn on your timestamps though because I think I will legitimately lose my mind if I see one more news post from 2017 getting shared like it's recent or another fundraiser post from 2014 made by a deactivated blog. Seriously. Please. I'm so tired. And stop starting discourse with people on posts over comments they made 3+ years ago.
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Any understanding of class that derives from mid-20th century Britain, United States, or Canada is probably wrong. And that’s a problem because that’s where most people get their ideas about class.
If you look further back, middle housing (townhomes, condos, apartments, triplexes, quadplexes, etc) are where the middle class historically found themselves living (usually, there are exceptions). Suburbs are mostly new and they are extremely wasteful. The idea that people lived in single family homes or even semi-detached housing with large green outdoor spaces (as opposed to shared courtyards) just strikes me as very, very silly and very, very American.
A better, more honest, more accurate description of the decline of the middle class is not just the disappearance of middle housing—it’s how much middle housing has deteriorated qualitatively. We no longer consider that apartments can be big enough to raise families in. Nor do we consider that they should be well-made enough to hold up to decades of uninterrupted housing.
“Luxury” condos have nothing on early-20th brownstones of the working class. And that’s the problem.
I am having trouble reconciling the same people who rightly said that density over space are now claiming that the birthright of the middle class is the ownership of implied single family homes, presumably with spacious yards. No.
There is no class worth establishing that pines for the trappings of the rich. And there’s no need to establish it anyway, it already exists. That’s the upper middle class.
I cannot believe people are saying that waste is the only sign of being middle class that matters again. But, what’s worse, I can believe people are buying it.
Anyone who says that is no better than the TikTokers who insist that $500 Shein hauls are a necessity and excess clothing (to the point of never wearing the same outfit twice) is a human right.
#off topic#not fiber arts#politics mention#this discourse is#made as a magic shield to protect the upper middle class and their tens of thousands of unused items#bc people see upper middle class hedonism as aspirational but more within reach than riches or wealth#class dynamics#post wwii 1950s two and a half kids and a fenced yard propaganda nonsense#you guys are basically buying into house flipping culture#and are mad you don’t have the capital to buy in for real#class divide#class differences#class division
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Q+A from library visit where I read my comic about a skeleton that plays the fiddle
Kid: Is this fiction?
Me: Yeah
Kid: I kinda thought so
Me: Oh really? Why?
Kid: Because skeletons aren't real
Me: Skeletons are real. You have one!
Kid, jumping up out of his seat: Yeah but they don't move around!!
Me: Your skeleton's moving around right now!
Kid, yelling: THAT'S!! DIFFERENT!!!
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reblog if you’re a lesbian who supports bi girls, a bi girl who supports lesbians, or if you want all wlw to have a nice day
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Called myself a cursed knowledge factory and then one of my friends told me that sounds like how they would describe a character who is clearly autistic in a ya magical history fantasy novel so then I immediately stopped
And weeks later I still think about it
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The one bizarre thing to me about textiles is that warp-weighted weaving is at least 6500 years old, but our oldest knitted artifacts are only ~1000 years old, and crochet 200 years old. Even though you need less equipment to knit (two sticks) or crochet (one hook) compared to warp-weighted weaving (frame, loom weights, batting, heddles). Why the big gaps between these inventions? And why did each one appear and spread when it did?
#fashion history#we also don't really know where or when crochet was first made#'200 years ago in Europe' is just the commonly accepted location and timeframe#because they are absolutely sure it is crochet#does this bring up a ton of potential ethical issues and oversights? yes yes it does#the whole 'pics or it didn't happen' thing is v common in textile research and cultural research and sociology#and it leads to potential or actual misinformation#that I have often seen institutions (especially North American and European)#try to skate around#which is frankly uncomfortable#and frustrating#and I'm just a hobbyist!#anyway put this in the tags#because I’m not arguing with people about this
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It is extremely disturbing how many posts I see claiming that Roe v. Wade was overturned on Biden's watch and blaming him and the Democratic Party for it. It's disturbing on a number of levels.
First, it was Trump and Bush-appointed justices who handed down the Dobbs decision. This is a flagrant example of blaming Democrats for things Republicans did, and not coincidentally is one of the the most widely felt differences between the two parties. As a result, it's usually the first example Democrats and their allies point to; this misappropriation suggests a deliberate attempt to undercut that fact.
Secondly, and related to the first point, it obfuscates who the real enemy is, and I am comfortable using word "enemy" to describe the Republican Party because of the policies they advocate and enact. The truth is that states controlled by the Republican Party were where the effects of Dobbs are most severely felt, while states controlled by the Democratic Party are passing laws to protect abortion. It is important to know which party opposes abortion and which party supports it. If the Republicans gain control of the House, Senate, and White House, they will pass a national abortion ban, as they have done at the state level in several places.
Thirdly, blaming Biden for Dobbs demonstrates a very concerning lack of understanding of how the government functions. The judiciary is its own branch of government; judges are appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate. It doesn't matter who is president when a decision is handed down, it matters who was president when the justices were appointed. People sometimes react to this by moving the goalposts and claiming the real issue was a failure by Democrats to "codify" Roe v. Wade. I am not sure what "codify" means in this context, and I'm not sure they are either. One thing it does not mean is that congress can pass a law saying "abortion is legal forever." Republicans could easily repeal such a law and it the federal government cannot necessarily prevent states from restricting abortion at the state level. Roe v. Wade was a ruling stating that the constitution guaranteed a right to privacy, which included the right to have an abortion. This prevented abortion restrictions in a way federal law cannot. That doesn't mean passing federal law protecting abortion is a bad idea, but it isn't a foolproof protection. It's fair to argue that the Democratic Party and the left of center generally were complacent about abortion. The form of this complacency was not taking the courts seriously, while the right spent fifty years openly filling the courts with anti-abortion judges.
The last thing that worries me is that this is popping up phrased almost the exact same way all over the place. I am afraid that it is not merely incompetence, but intentional misinformation, that is then repeated by the incompetent who believe it.
I know some will probably dismiss this post as being from a "vote harder" liberal Biden supporter, but whatever your feelings about Biden, the Democratic Party, or the democratic process in the U.S., you should care about the truth. The truth is that Roe v. Wade was overturned by Republican-appointed judges and abortion bans are being enacted by Republican elected officials, and Joe Biden opposes these things. You can do with that information whatever you wish, but you denying it is dishonest.
#off topic#not fiber arts#us politics#misinformation#misinformation campaigns#how propaganda works#social media disinformation tactics#disinformation
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Y'all, the world is sleeping on what NASA just pulled off with Voyager 1
The probe has been sending gibberish science data back to Earth, and scientists feared it was just the probe finally dying. You know, after working for 50 GODDAMN YEARS and LEAVING THE GODDAMN SOLAR SYSTEM and STILL CHURNING OUT GODDAMN DATA.
So they analyzed the gibberish and realized that in it was a total readout of EVERYTHING ON THE PROBE. Data, the programming, hardware specs and status, everything. They realized that one of the chips was malfunctioning.
So what do you do when your probe is 22 Billion km away and needs a fix? Why, you just REPROGRAM THAT ENTIRE GODDAMN THING. Told it to avoid the bad chip, store the data elsewhere.
Sent the new code on April 18th. Got a response on April 20th - yeah, it's so far away that it took that long just to transmit.
And the probe is working again.
From a programmer's perspective, that may be the most fucking impressive thing I have ever heard.
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I never remember century things, so I'm tagging @jackironsides and @vincentbriggs because you MUST SEE IT
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writing historical fiction will make you google things like “when we’re towels invented?” “how much did a towel cost in American in 1885?” “historical average number of towels owned per household”
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i've been working on a depiction of a bufflehead in bobbin lace lately. i had some ambitious ideas about what sort of effects i would be able to create. like i'm still proud of what i've done but it doesn't look as cool as i had hoped
this is the reference image:
Picture credit: Mick Thompson
and this is what i have made so far:
i chose rose ground for the wings bc it's a cool looking stitch. problem is, it makes the wings appear spotted, like a loon. i know what stitch to use to make a loon body now though, so that's a positive. originally, i intended to just do cloth stitch all in black to create a solid mass and rose ground for the white body. i changed my mind bc i thought it was too simple and boring. should have followed the plan. oh well
the reflection of the duck in the water i did using cloth stitch; the workers (running vertically) are blue and the passives (horizontally) white. i did this to try to mimic how the rings of tiny waves kind of break up the reflection and create lateral lines in the photo. this might have worked better if i did a far closer weave (idk if there's a proper term for that). this part was supposed to go farther down the duck's body, but the workers broke :( and i had to undo a couple rows to get enough slack to make a knot :(. overall, i'm okay with how this looks, though
and the head. one of the most striking elements of the duck in the photo is its iridescent head. i'm using black workers and colorful passives to try to recreate this. the issue i have with it so far is how solid it is compared to the rose ground of the back. it makes the back seem even more spotty. i'm trying to reserve judgement on how the head looks until i've finished it. hopefully the white patch on the head will make it look more bufflehead-y than loon-y. also, i think i'll try a tally to depict the eye, which i've never done before. i've heard tallies can be difficult to tension, so it's so good i'm doing one for the first time as part of a large project lmao
another problem i've created for myself is that i'm using polyester thread. i heard i can block it by steaming it. hopefully that will hold the shape. i've added an element of danger to this project by not testing this on a smaller piece first
i still have to finish the head, do the body (idk why i left the middle piece until last), and decide if i should fill in the water or leave it empty. i'm treating this an as experiment and a learning experience. my goal is to create a bunch of imperfect bobbin lace, rather than getting stuck on one piece
i think i might make a loon next, since the rose ground seems to work so well. my lace society encourages members to enter at least one lace piece in a state or county fair each year, and i think a loon might be popular among potential judges. since it's for competition, i'll actually have to plan that one out impeccably
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ultimately the cheesecake factory menu fails to tell a queer narrative
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