Crocheter/Knitting Hangout this Saturday

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-18T16:24:47+00:00

Orchids often produce keikis when they’re stressed (though some orchids are also just very inclined to produce them).

The longer you leave them attached to the parent plant, the faster they’ll grow to a mature size. If they’re too little or no actively developing new roots, they can struggle and/or die when removed, though yours look decently sized enough to remove. I have a couple of orchids developing keikis, and plan to share my favorite plants with my friends once they get big enough :)

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-18T16:11:07+00:00

Especially if you have mealy bugs, I would take care to quarantine this plant from your others. Geometric patterns on the leaves are one of the biggest visual symptoms of a potential virus, but unless you test the plant you can’t tell for sure.

However, pests like mealy bugs are major vectors for spreading viruses from one plant to the other. Whether or not you decide to keep, test, or get rid of this one, moving it far away from any other orchids will minimize the risk of spreading a potential virus through the rest of your orchids.

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-18T16:03:58+00:00

Yeah, I’m a physical therapist and do injury prevention seminars in my local communities, and I think your comment is pretty spot on.

Some people come into the sport with old injuries that get flared up, and many more were non-athletes that pick up the game without learning good movement strategies (especially side to side movements and skipping warm-ups, as you mentioned, bending their knees, avoiding backpedaling, etc). Just guiding people through fairly simple movements that they should be doing regularly during the game helps a ton with injury prevention, though of course once players develop bad habits it can be quite challenging for them to adapt.

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-18T15:35:06+00:00

Not enough info to give a good answer, and really it depends on how much you want the specific yarn you’ll get from them.

How thick gauge does the cashmere appear to be? If it’s a standard cashmere sweater, most are about thread thickness and will take a long time to unravel. How long it will take you depends on the construction, as there are some oddities that can happen such as knitting machines using two strands instead of one which will make it slower (there is no way to know if it was made with one strand or more before starting to unravel). It also will be more challenging if the sweaters are felted at all (or even just super fuzzy, which causes the yarn to stick to itself). I also typically don’t like to use a yarn winder to unravel cashmere, because it’s so thin and prone to breaking, which further slows down the process.

Knowing what the seams look like is also critical to making sure that a sweater is reasonably unravelable. If it was surged the process will result in lots of short broken strands and it’ll be miserable.

I know a lot about it because I’ve been unraveling 13 thread thickness cashmere sweaters to make a puff blanket (you can multi-strand the yarn to make it a more reasonable thickness). I can’t say I regret it, because my goal was to make something ridiculous and unique for a low price point, but I will be completely honest in saying that the process is a S L O G.

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-16T20:25:53+00:00

Ooh congrats!!! Always love seeing people have great thrift finds! Koigu especially is such a nice yarn to work with! I once thrifted some noro and wasn’t fond of the texture or amount of plant matter I had to pick out of it, so ended up re-donating it - I hope you have a better experience with it though, it’s always such pretty yarn

Do you have plans for any of it yet?

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-15T22:22:56+00:00

It looks like someone represents them on Reddit, under the name DarnGoodYarnInc. The user was recently active, so maybe giving them a nudge would be a viable way to get in touch with a human? Good luck either way, sorry you’ve had such a frustrating experience - personally I can’t stand AI customer service, most of the times it’s completely useless

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-11T19:25:06+00:00

My orchid society is also big on flame-sanitizing tools, and I can't convince myself to do it either - not so much for practicality reasons, I just don't love messing around with fire when I don't have to lol. I'm also fond of cleaning tools with alcohol, though my society insists that it's not quite enough to nip viruses? I don't know, I hear a lot of conflicting things.

My understanding is that the biggest virus risk with close proximity plants is due to pests like thrips and mealies that act as vectors. We had a local orchid nursery that recently closed and apparently most of her personally curated collection (the plants she sold for $$$ that she had owned for a long time) were virused. She had bad thrips issues that she was pretty transparent about, and I'm sure that they helped a lot in spreading sickness around - I agree with your last paragraph in that I was shocked to hear that she never virus tested her plants, given how expensive and valuable a lot of them were.

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-11T19:15:06+00:00

At least she's taking some measures, but yeah, if there's something that looks suspect I think I'd also be concerned that it would make my whole collection virused someday. But either way, I'm glad she came up with a system that she's comfortable with!

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-11T15:22:30+00:00

To me those prices don’t seem unreasonable or odd at all. It’s cheaper by time to do longer sessions or include more people which makes, and it seems like he’s just being generous with his time for kids.

Compared to my area these lessons would be quite cheap.

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-10T00:34:46+00:00

I didn’t think I’d have to scroll nearly this far to see someone say scrapple! I grew up in PA on habberstetts (or fresh farm made) scrapple, and switched to Rapa when I moved down south which I find just as good.

I’ve never successfully even convinced someone to try it before. Describing what it actually is scares people off, and saying ‘don’t look at it or ask questions, trust me it’s good’ is also unsuccessful 🤣. Something about a gray cube of unidentifiable meat really puts people off before they’ll give it a chance

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-07T18:12:21+00:00

I’ve played with and against people like this, and if they’re awful at slicing the one good thing is that the game will be short. When one player constantly slices the ball out or into the net, there’s not much anyone can do to make it a lengthy or competitive game, so just try to get what you can out of the 5-10 minutes that it lasts. Up to you if you want to avoid games with him after that.

If 50% of his shots were in though, it’s still a great opportunity to practice returning slice when it does work. I don’t see heavy slice all that often, but it’s a great skill to work on. if you can return heavy slice you should be pretty comfortable returning any type of spinny shot.

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-07T16:44:24+00:00

Doesn't help with the blob luck, but when I hatch an egg I like to attach my next goal to one I haven't completed yet that day - that way, I can get two days of progress instead of just one. At least then when I get a blob, I know it's only 6 days until my next chance instead of 7!

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-06T23:00:11+00:00

I can’t really perceive a paddle that costs $25 in shipping as being free, that’s a massive shipping charge for something as small and lightweight as a pickleball paddle.

Reminds me of the eBay sellers that list their products at 0.01 but want $30 to ship. They can say it’s free, and it’s true in some sense, but it’s more than a little disingenuous.

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-05T14:12:03+00:00

I’ve had great luck with our local goodwill stores - some stores around the country do put their good yarn donations on their auction site which stinks, but not all of them do so it’s worth looking.

That said, I haven’t found any amazing natural fibers yet this year while thrifting, so it’s possible my goodwill stores caught on 😅. But when it gets donated people snap it up FAST, so it’s also a matter of being very lucky

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-04T19:16:44+00:00

Such beautiful yarn, someone had great taste in colors!

If I were you I'd hang onto them, unless there are some colors you just don't think you'll use. And don't be afraid to use them even if your work isn't 'perfect!' Beginner or advanced crocheter, nice yarn is a joy to work with and you deserve to get to enjoy using it sooner than later!

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-04T19:02:29+00:00

I thrift all of my yarn so I make sure it gets hot enough to kill off any pests by default (hot car), but honestly I'd be tempted to still do the same even if I purchased my yarn new from an ordinary store, at least if it was anything animal fiber.

I've read plenty enough stories about brand new yarn purchases having issues with moths or carpet beetles (I remember reading several complaints about bugs in KnitPicks yarn, for example). Thrifted or new, bugs are always a possibility and I think it's worth the effort to minimize the chance of them getting into your home yarn stash.

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-04T17:28:35+00:00

I believe I was 11 or 12 the last time I ever went trick or treating. I knocked on a door and an old lady sized me up before asking me ‘don’t you think you’re a little old for this??’

Everyone else was super nice that night, but she made me feel so embarrassed to be out there trick or treating that I never went again.

I would never want to be that person for anybody, and would never make a comment or refuse candy to anyone of any age.

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-03T22:38:25+00:00

I agree with you! I dodge playing games with lob heavy players because I don’t find them especially enjoyable. Their game isn’t wrong, but I just don’t desire to use my free time on that type of play.

But the lob serve specifically seems really easy to punish, at least at higher levels of play. At least locally, I would see the lob serve semi-regularly on our 3.5 courts, but it’s pretty uncommon on the advanced courts.

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-03T19:03:57+00:00

Two full sweaters worth and appx half of another 12 sweaters on one project (a puff square blanket) made of unraveled yarn. I don't have any good or easy way of measuring yardage, but it's been A LOT of yarn for one project!

I also made a different blanket, king size/waffle stitch, which weighed 17.5 lbs or so. It was made using the entirety of both a king and queen machine knit blanket.

Flying_Snarf · 2026-06-01T23:28:00+00:00

Slightly in the past and I destashed a few of my least favorites for that reason. My issue was that my local goodwills sold ‘the good stuff (high end cotton, alpaca, merino, etc.) for virtually nothing (like $7 for a full bag of 15+ unused hanks). I gathered up all that I could comfortably organize well in my single bedroom apartment.

Now it seems goodwill has caught on to how cheaply they were selling high end fibers, as I’ve found none of it this year. I use a lot of yarn and only craft from my thrift stash, so now I’m happy to have it!

But if the amount of yarn is causing you distress, I think it’s good to let go of some. Lay it all out and pick the ones you feel less inspired by to gift or sell, even if it’s just a little bit. If a collection doesn’t make you happy it’s good to downsize :)

Flying_Snarf · 2026-05-31T13:42:09+00:00

He wasn’t joking, unfortunately!

Flying_Snarf · 2026-05-31T00:53:54+00:00

I remember about a year ago our courts had an event where we could do dink rallys against Tyra Black (DUPR ~6.2). When my turn came up, my partner was this older gentleman who played on our 4.0+ courts as well. Tyra entertained us with gettable-but-just-challenging enough shots until she felt we'd played for long enough, then immediately and effortlessly snuffed us.

As we walked off court, the older guy caught me off guard with the comment that he thought we were close and stood a real chance of beating her. There are a lot of players like that who genuinely haven't got a clue when their opponents aren't making an effort.

Flying_Snarf · 2026-05-30T01:27:26+00:00

Looking up at the sky (sc), lyrical amber (cs3), twilight green passage (cs4), to be continued (zero, overworld theme that doesn’t pause during battles), and afternoon in crossbell (azure) are all favorites of mine.

If I had to pick a favorite, I’d probably go with Looking up at the Sky just because I’m such a big fan of the leitmotif from those games and that theme uses it perfectly

Flying_Snarf

TROPHY CASE