arayti – Page 1

Heart and soul of the LSG communities on Ravelry and Discord

Annotations are from Amara, June 2022

What’s going on here? We’re collecting photos and anecdotes for Jay, arayti’s husband. Anyone can jump in though you can’t comment here directly. If you’re from the LSG threads on Ravelry or the Weaponized Mango chapter on Discord, contact me privately either place with your stuff. If neither, use the “Contact Me” link at the bottom of the page.

Don’t worry that you’re duplicating information. It’s better that four people post “2 is her first circle skirt” “2 was made from a sheet she’d dyed” “2 her favorite color is purple” “2 as there were no seams, she made pockets in plackets, one of which had a hidden zipper” than expect me to remember (or laboriously hunt back through wads of text to dig it out).

You don’t have to have a snapshot to go with (say, for the kittenball run for the Tuxedo Twins). It’s a hot mess now, but will get edited together into a PDF for Jay that will be able to be downloaded from here by anybody.

People are putting together stories associated with these shots. The current plan is to create a PDF of these pages, and then spin off subset PDFs of text and whatever photographs are associated with each.

All of them will be available to download (free).

1 twirling with unrepentant joy in hand-made skirts **Blue over skirt over green skirt “ made a blue overskirt so that I can swish about DRAMATICALLY ETA: There may be embellishment later.** – TEAL SKIRT Another day, another gored skirt. This one needs handfelling and hemming, but is otherwise done. With every iteration of this, my sewing gets better. The process is a bit smoother and little details show that I am learning – like better placement of the closures so that I don’t have to add an extra placket piece behind the waistband to hide a gap. Little things that no one would really notice separately, but add up to a better looking garment in aggregate. Little things that show me that I am improving (in the beginning, “good enough to hold together” was good enough, now I am asking myself to do better because I know I can).

2 Her first skirt, cut in a circle from a sheet she dyed purple. As there were no vertical seams, the pockets were set in plackets. One had a hidden zipper. (add the photo w/line drawing)

17 ***see 1*** **“Overskirt also makes a handy cape. Or I can cosplay a Joseon-era Korean noblewomen with her ssugaechima” (CK – I ha this wrong, thinking it was her purple circle skirt)** – **made a blue overskirt so that I can swish about DRAMATICALLY ETA: There may be embellishment later.**

78 circle skirt to go with butterfly top as a set BUTTERFLY TOP NOTES”Biggest mod is my making the front edge wide enough to go around my waist so that I can close it in the back with a snap instead of using ties

195 Virginia: Layout for 71 from CK. As the back is just gathered into a waistband, you can adjust the fullness to whatever you like as long as it fits over your hips. I made a whole series of these from plaid fabric, no pattern, basically drafted to use as much fabric as strategically as possible. Super comfy

171 circular skirt – zipper sewn into pocket inside placket

175 placket pinned to WB seam allowance, hand in pocket

163 hand-sewing the interfacing in her obi

28 Astrid rocking a lace jabot inspired by Ruth Bader Ginsberg

3 first mail-order orchids and beginnings of a new hobby for plants **“I am holding Phal. Little Gem Stripes ‘Stars’ ( Taisuco Stripe x Taisuco Gem) (In Bud/In Spike) and she is even prettier than the picture.”**

4 – see image 38 **Green bag is Perpetual Jacob (you could potentially put a link to my story of processing Perpetual Jacob, she then processed it and started spinning it for Tour de Fleece one year)**

5 at Rhinebeck, having bought a whole fleece (Pebbles? not Pebbles?)

6 first orchid she was given as a gift from her neighbor. She believed she had a black thumb at this time, but was determined to keep it alive and started researching and watching Orchid Girl videos. Aka the plant that started her down the rabbit hole. “my first Phalaenopsis orchid – it was a gift, I have a black thumb and 2 cats that love to nibble plants to death, and I am so chuffed to have kept it alive for…counts… 13 days now. I even repotted it and only lost 4 buds to bud blast/transplant shock).

7 She is outfitted to do battle against the fungus gnats which were attacking her beloved plant Shaun the Lamb’s Ear. She defeated the pests but Shaun ultimately died because he was beset by other pests. So she started baby Shaun Jrs from seed and shared the extra seeds with plant loving friends “Not much crafting as today I WAGE WARDIE FUNGUS GNATS!
To paraphrase one of the most bad-ass “I am going to kick your ass” speeches ever:
I am the right hand of vengeance, and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to hell, you flying fuckers! I am Death Incarnate, and the last living thing that you are ever going to see.”

8 the amazing Sashiko sampler lap blanket that she spent months and months on, finally completed. (Didn’t this start as a placemat?) See cats lounging on it in 23-24 ***Sashiko sampler, she started and did not know what to do with it, Amara joked she could quilt it, so she did.***

9 **she started embroidering her shirts**

10 The Weaponized Mangoes unofficial theme from Tour de Fleece 2021 was wool tiaras, originally inspired by pinsandneedlesuk on the monthly thread. Arayti shows off her wool tiara.

**a10B NEW PHOTO – mango necklace to go with mango tiara**

11 **witchy detective hat! “I turned an itchy wool skirt that I accidentally shrank to oblivion into a heckin’ cute tweedy witchy deerstalker hat**

12 **Other hat – deerstalker “the ties and subsequent bow are supremely huge and extra. And made of soft soft silk. mmm**

14 at Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins in Boulder, Colorado

17 **“Overskirt also makes a handy cape. Or I can cosplay a Joseon-era Korean noblewomen with her ssugaechima”**

First post by midnghtdolphin, looking for (a) home(s) for them: Hey everyone, So, If you haven’t been following the Sideyard Kittens! thread, I found kittens in August. Mom had a litter under my house and I caught 3 of the 4 of them. Well, I caught the 4th one last night. I’m definitely going to keep 2 of them (the gray tuxedo and the tabby) and if no one wants the black and white tuxedo (Nebulon) that I’ve had in the house since late September then I’ll keep him too. But I caught the last of the kittens yesterday and (s)he got spayed (neutered?) today… I’ll find out for sure in about an hour when I pick her (him) up. So, Nebulon loves attention, but mainly when he’s on the bed. It’s his safe spot. He still gets spooked if I try to touch him other places, but he’s nowhere near as scaredy cat as he used to be. For a while I rarely saw him, now he’s downstairs and all over all the time, but the bed is still where he wants attention (nay, demands attention). I’m not sure about Astrid’s (staying with the space theme here) personality, but if someone is interested, I’m happy to work with her. The other cats got close to her when she was in the crate and she seemed to recognize at least Nebulon. She didn’t try to smack me at all when I reached in the crate to get her this morning and didn’t really hiss either. If no one’s interested, I’ll let her back outside because I am at maximum catpacity with 5 right now and really can’t add another one, as much as I don’t want to have to put her outside. So, if anyone is interested in either 1 or 2 cute as could be tuxedo kittenses who are in VA, I’m sure we can get a kittenball going.

1:22 PM]arayti’s first response: Watching this thread. I have a 16 yr old tuxedo kitty and have been contemplating adding another kitty …but I’m a bit scared of stressing out the 16 year old (he’s super chill with people, but has only ever lived with one other cat who did not get along with him so I’m not sure he knows how to act with a kitten). Also I am in NYC and have no idea how a kittenball from VA would work. But I keep looking at this thread. Because. kitty.

You all are a persuasive bunch of hoars. I went from “Maybe kitten” to “Imma talk hubby into kittens” in the space of 3 hours. ETA: ok, to be fair, I have been low-key kitten-searching for a couple of years.

[1:29 PM]Immediately followed by this: midnghtdolphin: Lol. I think it was in the space of me posting and you responding! arayti: I have been corrected. 1 fucking hour! that’s all it took. rolling_on_the_floor_laughing (edited)

[1:32 PM]And then a few posts later …. KITTENBALL IS A GO!!! Yes, both Nebulon and Astrid! Ok, so what happens now? I am perfectly willing to reimburse any kittenball runners for any expenses incurred. I can’t take them before the 18th and I think midnghtdolphin would like them picked up before April (any specific date?). Can we do it? ETA earburn! midnghtdolphin !

[1:34 PM]pickyknitter75 said in response to arayti’s “I have been corrected” post: I think that’s a new record!

[1:35 PM]And I’m pretty sure the “Kittenball is a go” post was only a few minutes after the “it only took an hour” post.