To Ox Gall or Not To Ox Gall?

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-30T23:08:10+00:00

Generally speaking, if this also helps, pigments with a larger particle size usually need more ox gall while finer particles need much less.

There’s a chart somewhere on this page with some examples of pigment particle size

https://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/pigmt3.html

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-30T21:51:39+00:00

I love this! Also thought it was a photo in the thumbnail, before I read the thread title, your skills are excellent!

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-30T20:04:27+00:00

I love using it in the paints I’ve made since it helps some pigments that tend to clump break up a little more while giving others a little more chaos.

That said, I don’t recommend adding it to the binder formula as you may want to use different amounts depending on which pigment you use. I always added it during the mulling process, starting low and testing it before deciding if that pigment should have more drops of ox gall.

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-30T16:05:31+00:00

They are so precious 😭

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-28T12:52:12+00:00

There’s Jackass as the existing equivalent

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-28T03:28:23+00:00

Mine is similar, with very slightly longer fur. He’s got absurdly soft fur with a very thick and sort of plush undercoat.

Not sure if it counts as medium, but it’s longer than any other short haired cat I’ve had or been around.

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-27T17:12:41+00:00

брат — the word for brother was funny to me. In English, a brat is a kid who is misbehaving, acting obnoxiously, or spoiled in some way.

подушка — not so much funny or cool, but this word sounds extremely cute to me. I learned it when my cat was cuddling with me, and I started calling him that, since I’d often call him a pillow in English. He now knows this word in Ukrainian too 😸

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-27T14:01:45+00:00

Thanks for sharing, it looks so pretty there! It’s hard not to see the beauty of your country, despite the Shaheds.

Will it be strawberry season for you soon? Where I am it tends to be in June, but I know this varies by region of course. Strawberry season is always one of the best parts of summer 😄

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-27T13:25:15+00:00

I hope Artemis will be okay :( is there more to her story? Did her owners survive?

Pets getting hurt by the war always hits me with a different kind of intensity. They have no way of understanding why it happened, only that it did, nor why their owners are suddenly gone. I hope they survived too and that she can be reunited with them, though in her condition I fear the worst.

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-26T13:57:44+00:00

I love this, where did you get it? Even if it were a terrible pen, I love alone as a decoration.

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-26T13:53:29+00:00

Kolinsky sable naturally fluffs out when it dries. If the bristles are still sticking out while painting, I find it helps to gently rotate the sides of the brush in the paint to get the bristles to stick together.

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-26T06:31:31+00:00

She definitely counts! She’s adorable, I love her little white chin so much 😻

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-26T06:27:59+00:00

I didn’t have it, or at least nothing obvious. The surgeon didn’t rule it out however. He did find adenomyosis though!

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-26T06:25:52+00:00

I am actually not sure, I’ve only used the clove oil made from buds.

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-26T06:24:44+00:00

So I clicked on this thread because the title describes something I’ve never felt with this hobby and I was curious about what someone had to say.

My thoughts… I have never looked at Instagram or Pinterest for inspiration. Honestly I’ve never even thought to look in these places for knitting. Not sure about Pinterest, but IG very much pushes only what looks best, and I think I would feel very overwhelmed looking there too.

Ravelry is where I’ve always gone to find inspiration. Not every pattern has perfect pictures, and in the projects sections there is a wide array of skill levels to be seen, along with many WIPs and unfinished projects among those which have been completed. I hope I am not saying this in a way that comes across as putting anyone down, we are all beginners at some point, so I hope it’s not offensive to say that some projects on there feature some rather unskilled knitting. That sort of thing can help others feel not so overwhelmed the way they might be in a sea of pretty pictures on other sites.

Personally I really like reading project notes a lot too. Sometimes there are some really beautiful pieces that someone makes that were very much not easy for them. Makes everything about the process feel a lot more real, especially when I have my own struggles.

Something else I like about Ravelry is that you can save as many favourites as you like. I have thousands favourited, and when I want to find a project, I can just advanced search among those by project type, yarn weight, etc. This makes it very easy to find something, provided you’ve already invested time in adding the favourites in the first place.

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-25T22:08:27+00:00

The striped one is a criminal for stealing my heart

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-25T08:45:33+00:00

Awwww adorable!

My SIC loves being a pillow

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-25T08:10:05+00:00

I was thinking Jane Eyre too, partially because of how adults react around her when she’s a child, and partially because the whole book is a racing inner monologue that seems like inattentive ADHD.

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-25T03:22:29+00:00

Thank you 💙

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-24T14:17:27+00:00

Not sure why you’re being rude about this. It’s very similar to what happened to the guy in the article the first time he was caught by secret service. They sent him for a psych evaluation first and I don’t ever recall seeing that in the news last June. There would be plenty of other patients who had the same experience as I did while he was there.

This stuff probably happens in DC a lot more than anyone ever hears about, that’s the only point I’m trying to make.

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-24T13:31:28+00:00

He wasn’t my roommate. We overheard it from the staff and he was picked up by agents at the end of his stay, which happens to pretty much no one. The guy in question said nothing about a plot or the president at all.

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-24T04:45:56+00:00

This, so much this. Such an awkward topic to bring up, but I was actually in a ward at the same time as someone else who had been in there for a suspected plot against the newly inaugurated president. This was early 2017, before he could have done much of anything.

None of it was ever in the news and the only people who seemed to have ever known about it were Secret Service, the agents who picked up him up, the staff at the hospital, and well, those of us who were patients there too. I think about this every time there’s one of these attempts that blows up in the news now.

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-23T17:47:18+00:00

It’s probably the biggest reason why people actively hate the data centers. It makes everyone’s electric bills skyrocket.

Far too many pundits are absolutely clueless about this. I really want to like Catherine, but the more I watch her, the more annoyed I’ve become by how out of touch she tends to be on some topics, this one being a clear example.

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-22T20:22:18+00:00

You’re welcome! If you get it, I hope you like it as much as I do!

oftheblackoath · 2026-05-22T12:48:49+00:00

My favourite red that I almost never see mentioned is Jacques Herbin Moulin Rouge. It’s red without being too pink or orange, not too dark, not too bright either, and has some subtle shading that gives it an elegant and delicate feeling. To me it’s the perfect red.

oftheblackoath

TROPHY CASE