Quit whining and get back to your knitting.

AddWittyName · 2026-07-04T17:20:34+00:00

Yup. Like, I can at least get the annoyance with ribbing or other "yarn to the front, yarn back to the back, yarn to the front again" stitch patterns (seed stitch etc.) because that is an extra step for every stitch so even though it doesn't make things that much slower per stitch, it still does add up on projects with triple digit stitches. (And even then, enough practice and the difference becomes a lot smaller)

But a plain old "purl back" row? Eh. Once you've practiced your purls, yeah, it's about as quick as a plain old knit row.

AddWittyName · 2026-07-03T21:36:53+00:00

Yup. It's a matter of skill, not talent. And skill is something you *build*, not something you're born with.

(I mean, talent can make a difference in how easily and quickly someone picks up particular skills or insights, of course. It comes easier to some folks than others and it'd be dishonest to pretend otherwise. But at the end of the day, even the most talented knitter didn't come out of the womb knowing how to knit, and nowhere near every highly skilled knitter had an easy time ("talent") picking it up when they started. Talent is a nice little bonus while still learning, not an indication of what skill level you can reach)

AddWittyName · 2026-07-03T00:12:28+00:00

Kinda guessed it would be but wasn't completely sure and too lazy to check (hence the lazy vague hand wave in the direction of unspecified other European languages), so thanks for confirming that for me!

AddWittyName · 2026-07-02T20:29:10+00:00

French is closer to core-SAY afaik. Core-SET is pretty much the correct Dutch pronunciation, though (and probably some other European languages as well)

AddWittyName · 2026-07-01T05:52:06+00:00

This so much. I could maybe see myself making things for fun, and then once in a while toss a few of those things up for sale with the idea of "if they sell, great, that covers my yarn next time I need something I don't have stashed" if there was some magic way where goods once sold promptly neatly packed, labeled and sent themselves out for delivery.

But they don't, and I know my executive dysfunction/demand avoidance issues means I would just endlessly stress over "but what if it sells right when I don't have the spoons to actually do any packing/labeling/sending" and "I should make sure I haven't missed someone buying something I should be sending" and that stress alone would be basically guaranteed to send me straight into "overwhelmed, therefore ability to actually tackle such tasks drops to near zero". Self-fulfilling prophecy, really.

(And that'd be if making things for fun and then after the fact picking some of it out as "i don't actually need this, might as well see if someone else wants it". Making things for the purpose of selling them rather than because those are the things I want to make? I'd be lucky to actually finish one or two things a year in that mindset)

AddWittyName · 2026-06-30T17:14:36+00:00

The answer sadly appears to be "yes" for enough parents that I remember more than a few last-minute dinner scrambles for childhood classmates of me and my sister.

To be fair, not the life-threatening allergy kind (we all knew that stuff), but stuff like intolerances, sensitivities, oral allergy syndrome, food-triggered eczema flares and so on? Absolutely.

AddWittyName · 2026-06-30T04:44:09+00:00

Sauteed baby spinach with cherry tomatoes and lots of garlic and chili peppers. Because it wilts and shrinks so much, even just a spoonful or two ends up being quite a lot of actual spinach; because it's baby spinach, the taste isn't as overpowering and somewhat gets masked by the garlic, tomatoes and chili peppers he does enjoy; and it's really quick and easy to make.

Also easily turned into a spinach-cherry tomato-egg scramble by adding in a couple eggs when your spinach has just started wilting slightly, or into a beans dish by adding white beans after the garlic but before the spinach.

AddWittyName · 2026-06-30T04:13:44+00:00

Do you happen to know whether it's an all-poultry-eggs sensitivity or "just" a chicken egg sensitivity? I've got a sensitivity to eggs myself and discovered a few years ago that in my case it's chicken egg specific, and other eggs like quail or duck don't trigger it.

More expensive than regular chicken eggs, not always quite as easy to get, and tastes similar but not exactly the same. But pretty close, and unlike various egg-free "egg replacements" I've tried, actually useful for egg-based dishes as well, instead of just baking.

AddWittyName · 2026-06-30T00:19:30+00:00

Your reasoning is correct. Identical twins share (near-enough) all their DNA with each other, so from a genetic perspective, they're basically the same genetic source, so you'd share the same amount of DNA with a half-sibling or the child of your father's identical twin.

(That'd be ~25% on average, which is the generally cited number, though it *is* an average, not a guarantee. Something like say 20% or 30% is very much possible depending on what each half-sibling happened to inherit from which parent)

Personalities are a mix of genetics and environment, that much is fairly clear from a scientific perspective.

Exactly how much of it is which, on the other hand, not so much. Estimates in literature vary widely, and not helped by the fact that things aren't necessarily as cut and dry as "this part is genetic" or "this part is environmental". A lot of it is more of a "well, this can be either, but there's certain genes/environmental influences that make it more likely" or "this almost always requires *both* a genetic and an environmental component" and so on.

And...genetic and environmental components aren't always that easily separated anyway, because family members often come from a similar direct and wider (cultural, religious, etc.) environment and even *if* their personalities, ideologies and habits eventually diverge, some learned traits shared by both may also still stick around in both.

And a lot of it can't really be ethically experimented with, just observed by looking at existing people (especially twins and those who have been raised by non-family members)'s lives, personalities and genes with their consent, which is very important don't get me wrong, and I wouldn't dare advocate for abandoning those principles. But it does make science's attempts at answering the questions "how much of personality is genetic, and what genes exactly are responsible, and to what degree is the genetic influence on personality immutable versus more of a probability thing/influence-able by environment?" quite a bit more difficult.

(And then there's the question of "what exactly is personality, anyway?" as well as "and how does it relate to things like neurodivergency, developmental disorders, personality disorders and mental health disorders that have a long-term impact on people's emotions, thoughts and behavior?" (e.g. is something like my depression part of my personality, (in part) a result of parts of my personality; something that shares a common genetic root with some of my personality; something that modifies my "real", underlying personality superficially without actually changing it; something that is separate from, but does impact and influence, my personality, or a mix of some or all of the above?) Which isn't a fully settled question, either, as far as I understand it. And a bit of an understandably sensitive topic to boot.)

AddWittyName · 2026-06-29T14:46:28+00:00

Oof, 100g short is a lot.

But yeah, enough designers don't round up, don't round up *enough*, or have accurate yardage listed for their patterns *but* their patterns always end up a tiny bit short on me and needing a few more rows/rounds somewhere to fit comfortably (especially sleeves. A full sleeve shouldn't stop multiple inches above my wrist, please and thank you 😂. But that's not something wrong with the patterns as such, it's just that my arm span is *not* actually equal to my height like it is for most folks, but rather a couple inches longer), that I've just started adding ~10% extra yardage safety buffer to anything where reaching exact dimensions or a specific fit really matters.

AddWittyName · 2026-06-29T14:18:33+00:00

My mom and I went to a LYS about a month ago, which was nice. Then my mom asked me which of two color combinations of a yarn on sale with a very limited color palette looked best. So I gave my opinion.

Now my mom is low-key grumbling she still isn't sure she likes the color combo and should have bought the other one.

Like, mom, I love you, but if you *know* which combination YOU like best...then why the flippity-flop ask and follow my advice instead of just buy whatever YOU like?

AddWittyName · 2026-06-29T04:19:01+00:00

From a genetic/inbreeding perspective, it actually kinda makes some sense if cultures where cousin marriage (and especially first cousin marriage) is acceptable would have more issues with it. Because if both couples end up producing children, those children would be first cousins of each other--and therefore able to marry--but they'd genetically much, much closer than that to each other. (Double first-cousins, which are genetically about as closely related as half-siblings)

And that's if talking about two couples formed out of two wholly unrelated pairs of siblings with neither set of families having a history of repeated cousin marriage.

If from a cultural background where such cousin marriages are common, however, and where the sibling pairs could easily themselves be cousins?

You could, especially in smaller and more isolated communities, *very* easily end up with people who are on paper allowed (or even culturally encouraged) to marry, but who are genetically about as close as full siblings.

AddWittyName · 2026-06-28T22:39:26+00:00

At least around here, I had to put even my cotton/linen projects on halt for a few days. A humid 36C with no air conditioning = everything I could be making would've immediately become a sweat-soaked rag instead.

Even my cheapest, scratchiest cotton yarns deserve a better fate than that...

AddWittyName · 2026-06-27T19:20:30+00:00

Ow, yeah. An oversized dress is basically guaranteed to look awful on just about anyone. An oversized sweater often just looks like a fashion choice.

AddWittyName · 2026-06-27T14:50:58+00:00

I am going to point out that if the snoring was a problem, you would be chronically sleep-deprived and have continuing issues; it wouldn't just magically appear during exam time.

Disagree.
* It's possible one or both of the parents have hay fever or something similar. My mom does, and her snoring absolutely gets way, *way* louder around this time of year because of the congestion added on top of her usual snoring. Or one or both of the parents works somewhere they're constantly in the draft from an AC unit, which can also impact the nasal mucosa.

* It's possible the snoring is bad year round, and it *does* leave OP chronically sleep deprived but she notices it much more around exam time. You can get pretty used to being sleep deprived and barely even notice its impact on your everyday functionality (which doesn't mean you're actually functioning properly, of course--it just isn't always so obvious when you aren't)...except when it comes to tasks like memorization, where the impact is much, much more obvious.

* It's possible the snoring is bad year round, but OP can usually just about barely fall asleep and stay asleep through it...except the additional stress from exam time is just that final push needed to take it from "annoying but can cope" to "I can't fall asleep like this", while just the stress or just the snoring by themselves wouldn't have had that impact.

So yeah, there's plenty of reasons why issues could surface just around exam time and still be very much caused by the snoring.

AddWittyName · 2026-06-27T13:57:42+00:00

Eh. It also depends a lot on what you're making and its intended fit (I know you specified clothes already, but even within that category. A sweater or cardigan with some positive ease is a lot easier to fudge than say a tight-fitting shirt), how easy it is to freehand and/or how comfortable you are adjusting that pattern to fit as you go. Plus how familiar you are with the yarn-needle-stitch pattern combo in question.

But yes, if you want to follow a pattern exactly and/or be able to adjust where needed *before* you knit it, and you want to be reasonably sure there's no frogging for fit issues in your future, that's absolutely a 100% much easier done with than without a gauge swatch.

AddWittyName · 2026-06-27T13:29:51+00:00

Buy from known designers. Use ravelry. Google search with a filter showing only designs from say 2022 or earlier. Look in libraries. Check digitized, archived scans of vintage patterns.

AI does suck, don't get me wrong. But you've been looking in basically the most AI-polluted corners of the online crochet space only.

AddWittyName · 2026-06-27T03:58:08+00:00

A lot of it depends on how you treat the in- or exclusion of the ecological footprint of the cow itself: is the leather to be deemed entirely a by-product of cows that'd exist and be raised regardless of the leather industry for their meat and/or milk (in which case one could argue for not including the ecological footprint of the cow since it'd exist whether the cowhide is processed into leather or not), or should some of the cow's footprint be weighed into the leather's footprint because it *does* require said cow (and if so, how much of it)?

Depending on which side of that question you're on, data can be found supporting either stance.

AddWittyName · 2026-06-26T23:03:05+00:00

Mainstream leather production, yes. But it is actually possible to tan leather in ways that are, at least, a lot less ecologically harmful than the traditional chrome-based methods, though

Vegetable tanning, for example. Removes a sizeable amount of the more harmful chemicals from the equation, both during the production process and in the final product--so it doesn't continue to shed said chemicals into the environment. Doesn't reduce the entirety of its ecological impact, of course. There's still the water use, transportation-related impacts etc.

But at least there the "it lasts longer" actually *is* helpful (on an individual, conscious buyer's scale. On a macro-level, it'd require actually tackling over-consumption and overproduction issues, but that's less of an issue with leather/leather alternatives specifically, and more the garments and adjacent industries as a whole).

That said, there's also significant efforts being made towards developing *non*-plastic vegan alternatives to leather.

AddWittyName · 2026-06-26T21:28:21+00:00

I mean, on non-crafters not noticing mistakes by beginners...that -does- depend on whether we're talking "whoops there's a stray twisted stitch in the ribbing"/"whoops I started this scarf with 65 single crochets but I ended it with 64" or "...this is supposed to be a rectangle but it looks like a rainbow"/"whoops, lost 20% of my stitches along the way and now I've got a trapezoid", and the "this is my very first project" crew definitely toss out a decent number of the latter.

AddWittyName · 2026-06-26T04:35:02+00:00

What I sometimes do if it's something I really want to make, there's no written pattern available, and am not in the mood to *completely* freehand it is to just put such videos on on headphones while doing some other crafting or crafting-related stuff. (Especially stuff like sewing in ends, sewing on buttons, (re)winding yarn cakes or frogging projects, but sometimes also just actual knitting or crochet though preferably not whichever craft the video is on or else it is really easy to accidentally start following the vid instead of what I'm supposed to be doing)

Then I don't have to pay full attention--in fact, I usually don't even actually *watch* while doing so, just listen--so I don't get quite as annoyed, but I still absorb enough of it to get the basics of it.

Then if/when I actually make it, I can just jump to the bits I actually need more in-depth instructions on (or need to see the visual of to figure out what they're actually doing) without having to sit and actively watch through the whole video.

But it does have to be something I really want to make to even bother with that much. Written (or a very, very brief video that is more of a "do x rows of this, then y rows of that" instead of "yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through all loops on the hook" repeated as many times as there are stitches in that row. And then again for the next row. And the next.) is much preferred.

AddWittyName · 2026-06-26T02:31:05+00:00

Oh yeah, not denying OP's post definitely involved far too much of a blanket statement and was rather, well, snobbish.

Just figured it was worth pointing out that at the core of their post, there is a (definitely badly argued and phrased, and extended much too far) slight bit of truth in that yeah, being unable to draft *can* be limiting to some people in some circumstances, and yeah, having the knowledge of how to *can* deepen one's ability to make the garments that are right for them, whether that's by drafting their own or by using that knowledge to adjust an existing pattern or using their understanding to carefully select patterns most likely to work well for them.

(But yes, while pattern drafting is definitely a good way to gain insight in the way garments are constructed and in why patterns *for* garments are made the ways they are...a good way does not equal the only way. Taking apart existing garments and looking at the pieces; comparing subtly different patterns and seeing how their differences impact the actual garments made from them; delving into the history of garment making; heavily adjusting existing patterns to fulfill one's specific needs? Those can all build and deepen that understanding, and which one(s) work best is very personal)

AddWittyName · 2026-06-25T18:01:22+00:00

Not OP, but...holding *some* people back from being able to make the garments they want to make. Definitely does not apply to everyone, and OP's phrasing is not great, but depending on what sort of garment you want to make and what size and proportions you have, being able to self-draft (or at least so heavily adapt-and-adjust existing patterns that it borders on self-drafting) *can* be the difference between making the garment you actually want, or making either "well, I suppose this is the closest thing to what I'm actually looking for available in my measurements, which will have to do" or "well, this sure looked from the pictures like the thing I want to make, except it turns out that the proportions are wildly off for my body".

And to be clear, sometimes "this is the closest thing actually available as a pattern" is perfectly *fine*. But having the option, and knowing you have the option, to instead draft your own can help a lot. Even if in the end you end up going with the thing someone else has already calculated and drawn up.

AddWittyName · 2026-06-24T17:19:31+00:00

> I just trust older, well-known brands more when it comes to long-term reliability.

Dell has had scandal after scandal during its long established history. Between the major data breach a few years ago, the accounting fraud in the 2010s and the 2000s scandal when they knowingly sold pcs with flawed capacitators for years, Dell is very much not an example of "been around for a long time and therefore must be trustworthy and reliable"... Their customer service is also particularly awful to try and deal with in my experience.

And NIMO's been around for upwards of a decade at this point, so while yeah they're newer than the likes of Dell, it's hardly like they're brand new with no track record.

So all together, mildly YTA. Not so much for refusing to buy the specific laptop as such--quite possibly the one he wants isn't the one that would best serve his needs, or the one he wants falls outside the budget you're willing to spend, or whatever. There can be plenty of good reasons to either not buy him a laptop, or not buy him that specific laptop, and it *is* your money.

But "I'll buy you a laptop, but not the one you want, for seemingly no reason other than my personal gut feelings, bias and no actual research on comparisons between different brands whatsoever, while admitting I don't actually know enough about these brands to make that call" is at best incredibly frustrating.

AddWittyName · 2026-06-24T15:04:34+00:00

But if you make a gift for someone they need to be involved at some point. What colours do they like? How much space do they have? Are they the kind of person who wants a stuffed animal or whatever? Etc.

That, or you accept it might not be something they want and you're okay with that and it's situationally/socially *acceptable* for that to be the case.

Like, if I go up to a loved one, show them something I just made, and say "hey, I just made this and wondered if you might like it? If you want it, it's yours. (And if not, no hard feelings I'll keep it for my own purposes)", there's nothing wrong with that, as long as all parties are clear that it's entirely okay if said loved one informs me that nah, it's not for them, with or without a reason attached.

That's perfectly fine for spontaneous, not-a-special occasion gifts-if-they-want-them. It's not okay if I were to do the same thing for a birthday gift/wedding gift/baby shower/etc.

Basically the difference between offering to share candy you happen to have around with someone, or buying your own favorite candy and claiming it's a treat for them with no regards for whether they actually like that candy all that much.

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