intertwined | Member Posts

I switched my morning soda for tea, starting last month. I'd been intending to do this for many years, but I didn't actually like tea much, until recently. I want to say its because I made a concerted effort to acclimate to tea and gain an appreciation for it. And maybe those efforts helped a little bit, but mostly it just... happened.

Lately I've been feeling older, as if I didn't age for many years and now suddenly things are going a lot faster, and part of that is apparently existential crises about what preferences are personal choices vs quirks of biology or something else.

donutsweeper

Whoops, I completely forgot to mention in my last post that there was a Friday the 13th tattoo related flash and I wrote an Iron Triangle triple drabble for it: As Evening Slowly Slides Into Night. Summary: An evening, like many others, for the Iron Triangle. (And their shared big bed.)

The Hurt/Comfort exchange has (finally) opened! Lots of fandoms to peruse here. Authors will be revealed on the 11th. I got great Guardian art and a fic for The First Shot and, as always, there's just a ton of amazing things in the collection.

Battleship hit its signup cap within 36 hours of opening so now it's just a random prompt period for a few more days until teams are assigned and then it actually starts on the 12th I think. If you want the chance of getting stuff created (fic, art or podfic) for you, prompting is open to anyone. As prompting is a bit complicated, a few different people have written up guides on how to do it: guide #1, guide #2, and guide #3. All are tumblr posts but I checked them in a private tab and they all work when not signed into tumblr. You might not get anything, but, then again, you might so feel free to peruse the tagset (also linked in all the tumblr posts) and see if there's some fandoms and a few freeform additional tags (500+ ranging from the most E rated things to very, very G) that catch your eye and consider throwing in a prompt or two (or 50, the max).

I've only done 11 prompts so far and haven't decided if I want to do more or not. I tend to keep mine pretty simple as I find my eyes glaze over at huge walls of tags so I pick 10-20 and leave it at that with a few comments in the prompt box along with my DNWs but everyone does it differently. If you want to prompt and have any questions, I'd be happy to help.

Well into the ramp up of this year's Battleship it randomly changed its rules to no longer accept crochet art. I'd already started planning a project to fulfill the 'battlesheep' additional tag and decided to finish it anyway. Behold the 'fearsome' (major use of airquotes there) Battlesheep!! (And I now make up 12.7% of AO3's entire crochet tag between my main and birthday bash account.)

I still haven't gotten any of the links from Pocket posted to any of my research link posts, I really need to start working on that. Ugh. So much to do, so little time.

Last but not least, a single

recthething fic rec (MDZS/Untamed):

Burn with the sun, die with the sun (series). Summary: A collection of works in which Wen Xu picks Wei Wuxian off Yiling's streets and makes him an integral part of the Wen Sect. (An interesting AU series where shortly after getting his sword WWX is sort of thrown out of the Jiang/Madam Yu sends him to Yiling and tells him he can't return until he's tamed the Burial Mounds but after saving Wen Xu's life there he is taken in by the Wen, currently 3 works, 21k total)

paivansade

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Current Mood: creative

crafty_packrat

Bacon-cheese wheel, almond croissant, apricots (!!), red plums, strawberries, yellow raspberries, black raspberries, sour cherries (pie!), donut nectarines, strawberry lemonade, a gallon of herbal lemonade, brown sugar kettle corn, caramel kettle corn.

Next week I will buy red sweet cherries (for ketchup) and peaches (for salsa), and actually enter my canning in the county's agricultural fair this year.

Fun fact, red currants used to be illegal to plant in the United States -- they are the second host for white pine blister rust disease, and that is a threat to the lumber industry as white pine is very susceptible to it. This is why purple candy in the USA is grape-flavored, while in Europe purple candy is currant-flavored; we didn't *have* currants (or gooseberries) legally for almost 100 years.

althea_valara

Tunnel of Love
Journaling: The romance of summer! What do you love? Write about anything you feel sentimental about or that gets your heart pumping.

Creative: Write a love poem to anyone or anything you like

Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Uh.... +shoves her "Alisaie" tag in your direction+ For those visiting my journal and going "nani?": Alisaie is a character from Final Fantasy XIV and I love her to pieces. I've written about her extensively for the

snowflake_challenge and I *could* write about her more now, too, but I think it's time to let her twin brother Alphinaud shine.

I didn't particular like Alphinaud during A Realm Reborn. I didn't *hate* him, but his voice actor at the time played him as a self-assured know-it-all brat, and did a fantastic job at it, so it was hard to feel warm and fuzzy towards him.

That changed during Heavensward, the first expansion of the game. Alphinaud had just gone through something that was very hard on him -- I'm not saying because it's a hell of a ride and I don't want to spoil it for people who might want to play in the future -- and at first he was very dejected and wallowing in misery, but soon he finds his determination to make things right and carry on. And, well, I greatly admired him for this. When the worst happens, it's hard to pick yourself up and try again, but Alphinaud had the courage to do so.

Going back to the voice actors: Now that I've played A Realm Reborn five times (...what?), I've grown very fond of Sam Riegal's interpretation of Alphinaud. I think it was the right choice for where Alphinaud was in his journey. Sam did an amazing job, especially when the shit DID hit the fan and he had to show Alphinaud's reaction to everything. Thank you, Sam, for doing a memorable job!

When Heavensward started, they changed many of the voice actors, and that was true of Alphinaud, too: he is now played by Colin Ryan. People have talked about what a jump scare it was when Alphinaud's voice suddenly changed, and it fact, here's Colin reacting to the change himself:

Watch on YouTube

SO ADORABLE!!!!

Anyway! Colin has done an AMAZING job voicing Alphinaud, and his work is partially why I've come to grow so fond of the character. As Heavensward went on, I came to like Alphi more and more. Yes, he still can be a know-it-all. He's still very much a leader and into diplomacy and politics. But he reflects on the things he's done wrong in the past, and considers how to do different in the future. He doesn't let his past stop him (unlike me, who is always going "BUT THINGS ARE GOING TO TURN OUT EXACTLY THE SAME AS IN THE PAST AND THAT WAS AWFUL", sigh).

Alphinaud goes through some character growth during the game. There's a scene where he greets Estinien warmly, and Alisaie remarks on that--in a nutshell, she implies that Alphinaud didn't really have friends when they were younger but now has people he looks up to and admires, like Estinien. It's heartwarming to see him, well, warm up to others and consider their advice and counsel.

I have said many times that I need to get my own place again so I can have cats, and I intend to adopt a brother/sister pair and name them Alphinaud and Alisaie, because I do adore the twins so much. They are incredible characters! And I'm thankful to their VAs for doing such an amazing job.

Current Mood: enthralled

althea_valara

Challenge #1

Journaling Prompt: Light up your journal with activity this month. Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025.

Creative Prompt: Shine a light on your own creativity. Create anything you want (an image, an icon, a story, a poem, or a craft) and share it with your community.. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Okay, well, I'm a fiber artist and I *love* being a fiber artist, but the craft is S-L-O-W. I could knock out another coaster or Other Brother Darryl in about an hour, but I've done +checks Ravelry+ at least 16 of the coasters and at least 8 of Other Brother Darryl. I really don't need to make any more. So instead of crafting something for this challenge, I will talk about my crafting plans for July and beyond.

...though if you want to see crafts I've made, you can check out my Crafting Update tab to see the pretties!

Gnomes

I have two nieces and four nephews, and I started a tradition of making them something for Christmas. It started with crocheted snowflakes, but last year I did small Christmas stockings. This year, I'm planning to make them gnomes, because gnomes are popular and fun. I've bought some yarn, and have a pattern picked out. I really should get started on these NOW, because last year I spent 100 hours crafting in December and it wore me out.

Incidentally, I participate in a crafting tournament on Ravelry called Nerdopolis. We get themes to craft to each round, that we can then tie to our team's Nerdery for a chance to win a prize. Well, one of the themes this month is Orchard Fruits and cherries, which are red, are orchard fruits. I was going to use red for the nieces' gnomes, so that will work nicely. Just need to sit down and do it.

iPad Mini holder

I crocheted some phone holders for me and mom a few months back, and my older sister was admiring mom's and wanted one for her iPad Mini, so I'm going to bang it out this month. It will fit nicely in the Nerdopolis challenge on Communication, as electronic devices such as iPads can be used to communicate with others.

Sophie Scarf

I started this last month for a Nerdopolis challenge but didn't finish it. I'd like to finish in the next two months. It can be submitted to Nerdopolis' Area 51 which is for completed UFOs (UnFinished Objects).

Secret Project

IT'S A SECRET! I hope to finish this month, but since I am designing it myself, there's a lot of ripping back and redoing to get it perfect. Wish me luck!

Motion Picture Mosaic Cardi

This was supposed to be my January project, but them I effed up my shoulder and couldn't really craft for a while. I did start this in January but HAHAHAHAHA NOPE DIDN'T FINISH. It's a huge project that is taking a lot of time. I mean, not only is it a large oversized long cardigan but it's also large in general as I am a large circumference type person. Getting awfully tired of rows of plain HDC... but I do desire this cardi very much, so I'll keep working on it.

The 42 WIPs (and counting)

...yeah, I have a LOT of projects I started in the past and didn't finish. I did just go through my Ravelry projects today and marked some as completed/frogged if I knew I'd never finish them, but there's still a lot that I'd really like to do someday. So how about making a goal to do, um, I think three is a good choice? by the end of the year? I mean, technically all the ones I listed above are WIPs, but let's face it, I have some that have been hibernating for ages (my oldest WIP is from 2008, yikes) so let's pick a few and get them done.

Current Mood: busy

althea_valara

I didn't post one of these last month, because I had been working on a secret project. I intended to finish that project in June, but it was not to be, partially due to busyness but mostly due to the fact that I am designing my own thing and ran into snags. Here's hoping I can finish in July!

(Some folks around Dreamwidth know what the secret project is; I'm keeping it secret HERE though so if you comment here, please don't give it away? Thanks!)

[click pics to embiggen]

A pivot table, showing I crafted for 40 hours in May and 32 hours in June on four projects.

[Image Description: A pivot table, showing I crafted for 40 hours in May and over 32 hours in June on four projects.]

I had hoped to finish several projects in June, not only the secret one. I did manage to finish the Capybara. It's pretty big! And it was for a Nerdopolis challenge. The theme was "Rodents", and of course I chose a Capybara because there is a capybara mount in Final Fantasy XIV, so perfect nerd cred tie-in.

A crocheted capybara, done in the African Flower technique.

[Image description: a stuffed crocheted capybara, done in the African Flower technique. It is made up of different shaped motifs crocheted together. It is largely a light brown in color with creamy white on its neck, belly, and rump.]

The Mosaic Cardi is still in process. I'm on the right front now. It's kinda a weird construction, not one I have encountered before, and I can't say I'm really enjoying it because long rows of HDC are (a) LONG, (b) boring. Can't wait until I get to the mosaic part.

The Sophie Scarf was supposed to be done this month for another Nerdopolis challenge. The theme was "How do the fine folks in your Nerdery travel?" and of course I chose the chocobo, so the scarf is yellow in color. I just, you know, ran out of time. I might finish it this month, we'll see.

Current Mood: bored

paivansade

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Current Mood: bored

echan

It is possible to use your entire forearm against one of those giant sloping holds where there's basically nothing to grab its just an awkward orb bigger than your head and you're praying to the gods of friction to keep you there. You do get a lot of friction, laying an entire forearm on it! So much that, after moving your feet up, you're in a terribly awkward position with no good way to move your forearm without losing a bunch of skin or falling off the wall.

I'm better at sloper holds than I think I am, but, confidence & lack thereof adds its own difficulty.

echan

At work I have acquired two junior devs who heavily use AI when writing code. I don't mind the AI, but I do mind that they're too junior to know what good code looks like and AI accelerates their bad choices to stratospheric levels. One dev told me he that "AI couldn't fix the bugs" in his new unit test so he let AI rewrite it in a completely different test framework at four times the length and still with bugs. The other dev asked me to review 1k LOC he had not read himself that was a nightmare of bad choices and code that had no business being added to the existing service. For both, the initial review wasn't even a review, it was me eyeballing it for two minutes then bailing and telling them to rewrite it entirely.

crafty_packrat

2 quarts of yellow sweet cherries, 1 quart of blue berries, 1 pint of black raspberries, 1 pint of apricots, 1 lb of black beans, 1 lb popcorn, 1 strawberry lemonade, 1 quart of chocolate milk, bacon-gruyere wheel, almond croissant, and a lemon tart.

donutsweeper

The fifth season of Battleship is about to start. Freeform tag suggestions has closed and is being made into a final list while canon/pairing/character nominations continue. It's looking to be a huge exchange again this year, they've even put a hard cap of 280 signups in the rules. (Last year, when sign ups absolutely exploded, they debated closing early if they reached 280 but it ending up closing just shy of that which was still SO much more than earlier years. According to the AO3 profile pages-which will be vaguely but not 100% accurate for various reasons-it went from 63 signups in 2020 to 62 then 80 then 131 then 263). I'm always a little torn about Battleship, I love aspects of it, but some others are oooof. Apparently signups won't be on AO3 itself this year but via some kind of signup form and will be separate from the AO3 signup/prompt collection? But you have to do both? Or Something. IDK, hopefully it'll make more sense once it actually opens. We'll see how it goes.

Since my last post I finished the Use-Up-This-One-Stashed-Yarn afghan I'd been working on (I had to redo the border 4x to not lose at yarn chicken, but I succeeded eventually!) and made another rug. This time I tried something different with the rug and just followed a green->blue->brown order of adding new strips and didn't stress over making full rounds of any one color nor bothered to try to match up the runner with the color being knotted over it. The result was quite different, but I like it.

53”x42" give or take 'Vintage Lace' afghan

Three tshirt rug, 27” x 18” give or take

And, last but not least, 2 weeks of

recthething recs (Tumblr art for Batman, Discworld, Dungeon Meshi, Guardian, MDZS/Untamed, Sherlock Holmes-ACD, ST:TOS):

Batman (DCU)
- The Oracle’s hand (love the way the computer circuitry lines mimics spiderwebbing in this)

Discworld
- Nanny Ogg (love this art's take on her and the witches)

Delicious in Dungeon | Dungeon Meshi
- Farcille witch AU- nothing better than crafting potions with your gf (this is so cute)

Guardian
- Sleepy cats (absolutely adorable art of Da Qing sprawled over Zhao Yunlan with both sacked out, sleeping on the couch)

MDZS/The Untamed
- Lan Wanji's morning hair routine (hilarious comic)
- The Headshaker (The animation on the fan is incredible)
- I’ll settle for the ghost of you (this is jut gorgeous)
- when you’re starting to forget your soulmate’s face and there’s nothing you can do about it (oh ooof the feeling behind this one)

Sherlock Holmes- ACD
- doctor, soldier, poet, lover (wonderful set of Watson art, love the gun in the rain one in particular)

Star Trek: TOS
- Whale Song (love this ST IV: The Voyage Home art)

paivansade

So, since yesterday I am formally on leave for reasons of autistic burnout. I shall be getting some money from the social security fund this time around, since I've learned I'm actually eligible. I have been the last time as well, but no one had told me, yay... How are all adults expected to just know all the adult things? Why wasn't there a class? Are we supposed to learn them all via small talk that we're all supposed to be enjoying all our lives? Well, damn.

I am not allowed to travel abroad, but I am instructed to go strolling through the woods, so I need to look into that. Nearest strollable woods are actually reachable via public transit, and the new tram line just outside my window is due to start operating this Saturday, so maybe it will actually be a force for good. So far it's mostly been a force for noisy.

I am being inwardly dramatic over my inability to force myself to sew. Quilting has been my most major hobby perhaps in my entire life so far, and I was really banking on it being a special interest (ASD) rather than a hyperfixation (ADHD). My fabric stash is major, my tools have been costly. My entire living space has evolved around this. And now I just ...can't do it. Or I do half an hour of idle pressing, then immediately lose interest. Is it just an element of my general burnout, do I just need rest? But how have I been quilting SO MUCH while I was still working, how has it been my way to rest my head back then, but not now? Am I just really that heavily intimidated by my machine? Or did I fall out of love with the craft?

I have the sads. I fell out of love with work, reading, sewing, walking, sorting, eating, even most of my time drains in the form of games and YouTube. All the things. So yeah, quilting is probably safe overall, it's just getting a kick in the pooper from my brain going on general strike.

Also, I just learned today that my color recollection is just as bad as my facial recognition. Wayyyy off the mark. But still coordinating, so not a complete fail.

I need to piece some frankenbatting and at least make one quilt sandwich today. It's a small one, and the project has an eager recipient, so it might just be the combination to help kick me into gear, at least for an hour or two.

Current Mood: indifferent

althea_valara

So next Monday, I'm going to start a Four Job Fiesta run of Final Fantasy V, whee! Problem: I am really torn on what kind of run to do.

( putting under a cut because slight spoilers for Final Fantasy V gameplay )

Current Mood: indecisive and curious

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The intersection of fibre arts and mathematics

June 2025

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The intersection of fibre arts and mathematics

Member Posts

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It's too hot to come up with a witty title

New WIP!

Farmer's Market -- 5 July 2025 (Red Currant Day, 17th of Harvest, Year 233)

Sunshine Revival #2: What do you love? (it's totally the twins)

Sunshine Revival #1 (aka, I like journal challenges)

Crafting Update, May and June 2025

Idle and bored

something I learned at climbing today

AI is making my job worse

Farmer's Market -- 28 June 2025 (Sickle Day, 10th of Harvest, Year 233)

Battleship incoming, crafting and recs

Layers of burnout

everyone loves a poll (FFVFJF2025)

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June 2025

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