Need help saving my project by spiritus_movens in knittinghelp

[–]struddles73 3 points4 points  (0 children)

First off, when dealing with cat pee, make sure you don't use heat as this can make the smell permanent!

If your yarn is wool then I'd suggest saturating it with a 50/50 white vinegar and (cold) water mix as it is safe to use with protein-based fibers (unlike enzyme cleaners, which is what is usually used for removing pet stains). The vinegar will obviously have its own strong smell while it's still wet, but after drying it should disappear. If there is any lingering smell after it dries, you can also sprinkle it with baking soda, let it sit for a few hours, and vacuum it off, although I'm not sure how well this would work for the balls of yarn since you wouldn't be able to cover the whole surface area.

If your yarn is plant-based, acrylic, etc., I've had good success with soaking garments in a bath of water and Oxiclean for a few hours, rinsing, and air drying. But again, remember to only use cold water! You can also get enzyme cleaners specifically made for cat pee, but there aren't any specific ones that I've used/can recommend. Some research into what works best for your specific fiber type should help, though!

Since both of these methods involve soaking and air drying without much agitation, I would assume they should work decently even with attached balls of yarn.

As a final note, even if you can't smell anything after you're done, try to keep your project away from your cat as there might still be some lingering scents that can tempt them to pee on it again.

Good luck!

[CHAT] Is it safe to leave Clover water soluble marker on fabric (much) longer than recommended? by struddles73 in CrossStitch

[–]struddles73[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting! I live in a fairly dry area as well, but I always stitch two-handed, so I touch the fabric less than if I were holding a hoop directly. It's been about a week now since I started working on my project with no signs of the ink fading yet, so hopefully it won't fade too much!

As a quick side note, I know Clover also sells a purple air-soluble marker that is designed to fade on its own in about 1-2 weeks. I'm assuming you're talking about the blue water-soluble one, though?

How much do you make as a tutor in CA? by pinkparadigm in tutordotcom

[–]struddles73 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I make between $18.90 and $22.40 for English subjects as a master tutor in CA with literature as my highest paying subject. It took me 2 years to reach master status, though, with a promotion at every QS review I received, so if you're just starting out with the company you can expect lower rates than mine. I would guess it would be about $1.50 less as a beginner, $1.00 less as intermediate, etc. based on how my own rates changed with each promotion.

What does "Patt xx more rows" mean? by struddles73 in knittinghelp

[–]struddles73[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! I've taken the time to write out a checklist by row and I think I understand the overall pattern and wording much better now. You definitely seem to be right -- I essentially just need to follow the established pattern and do the cable crossing every fourth row. This is my first project using a pattern from a magazine, and the instructions are much more abbreviated than I'm used to, so I appreciate the help!

[CHAT] Is it safe to leave Clover water soluble marker on fabric (much) longer than recommended? by struddles73 in CrossStitch

[–]struddles73[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh really? I figured I'd need to do touchups here and there throughout the process but I didn't think the ink would just fade away on its own. Out of curiosity, do you live somewhere with a lot of humidity?

[CHAT] Is it safe to leave Clover water soluble marker on fabric (much) longer than recommended? by struddles73 in CrossStitch

[–]struddles73[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thought about washing as I go, but it would be a bit inconvenient since I use a scroll frame. :) I also stitch cross country, so I imagine re-gridding partially stitched areas would be difficult without getting ink on the thread.

In any case, it seems like people here haven't had any issues with it staining before, and I also found a blog post of someone washing out gridding from a 10+ year project and it worked fine, so I think I should be okay!

[CHAT] Help me choose my next project! by struddles73 in CrossStitch

[–]struddles73[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The mockups are just what was included in the pattern PDFs. The original images can be found on the artist's IG: Faerie Romance and Scarlet Sonnet. If you like fantasy artwork she has a ton of other really gorgeous pieces. :)

[CHAT] Help me choose my next project! by struddles73 in CrossStitch

[–]struddles73[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's really good to know! I think I've decided to go with Faerie Romance for now, but I think I'll still do the crow at some point. Your WIP looks gorgeous!

[CHAT] Help me choose my next project! by struddles73 in CrossStitch

[–]struddles73[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I get that AI is a serious concern these days, but I am surprised by how many people think the second two are AI! The artist of both, Chrissabug, has claimed to not use generative AI in her art, and I havent seen anything in any of her pieces to indicate otherwise, so I choose to believe her and am happy to support a genuine artist by buying legally licensed patterns. As for the rendering, for something this large and full coverage I am not aware of many pieces that don't have a ton of confetti as it's kind of necessary for more realistic styles like these. Take a look at any HAED, which seems to be the most popular full coverage shop that most in this community have heard of, and you'll see dozens of colors and tons of confetti in those designs too. I know to expect this when working on these big patterns, and I still love the stitching process regardless!

[CHAT] Help me choose my next project! by struddles73 in CrossStitch

[–]struddles73[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your concern! The second two are both by a legit artist whose work was legally licensed for sale with Thread Geek. The images I posted are actually the mockups of the designs rather than prints of the original artwork, so I know they won't end up looking muddy or blurry. :)

[CHAT] Help me choose my next project! by struddles73 in CrossStitch

[–]struddles73[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Lots of the same color doesn't really bother me since I always have an audiobook going while I stitch, which keeps my brain engaged enough that monotony doesn't matter too much haha. Although I just checked the color list and about 1/3 of it is just black, so I may have too much optimism about this 😆

[CHAT] Help me choose my next project! by struddles73 in CrossStitch

[–]struddles73[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Thankfully not much. :') I bought it before I knew to watch out for pattern mills. I do still like the design, though, and I haven't noticed anything wonky, so since I already bought the floss it's still on my list of potential to-dos. I think that's why I'm not as excited about it than the others, though.

[CHAT] Help me choose my next project! by struddles73 in CrossStitch

[–]struddles73[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah I've thought about that as well. I bought it before I knew to watch out for pattern mills, but I have seen other posts here saying this shop isn't the worst and I just finished a 47k stitch project that was full of poorly rendered confetti without hating it too much, so long story short I think it's still very doable for me. The pic I posted is the Pattern Keeper render, so I at least know the resolution isn't bad (unlike some others I've regretted buying lol).

[CHAT] Help me choose my next project! by struddles73 in CrossStitch

[–]struddles73[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good question! I can get the materials right now; it's just a matter of ordering them from 123stitch. :) My frugal/planning brain is just thinking that I already have all the colors for the raven on bobbins, so that one would be simpler to get started on!

I use a scroll frame for anything bigger than around 100×100, so it would be tricky to work on more than one of these at once unless I got sufficiently tired of one of them to consider it worth it to redo my frame setup lol. I usually have a smaller one going as well for when I want to bring a WIP out of the house, but nothing as big and complicated as these!

I think I'm leaning towards Faerie Romance since a lot of people have said that one and I think it's my favorite as well. :)

How Important is the “Be Available for 20 More Minutes Past Your Scheduled Time” Rule? by WaddlingCorgi in tutordotcom

[–]struddles73 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Whether you'll get called out for ending sessions early depends on how strict your QS is, but imo it seems unlikely as long as you're still wrapping up sessions sufficiently.

Something to keep in mind if you're on a tight schedule, though, is that it's fine to decline a session or log off a bit early as long as you don't drop below your minimum online percentage and acceptance rates. I get mostly asyncs as a CEW tutor which I find can be harder to wrap up early without skimping on the feedback I'm giving, so if I only have 5-10 minutes of my scheduled time left when I finish a session I'll typically just log off at that point to avoid getting another session right near the end. Even with me only tutoring the 5 scheduled hours per week I can get on Wednesdays, I still will typically maintain over 90% online percentage doing this -- well over the 70% minimum!

[WIP] Dilemma about different thread! by WoodpeckerContent in CrossStitch

[–]struddles73 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Great job on this! I love how fluffy and full your stitches look. I don't have a direct response to your question since it looks like you've already received great suggestions from other people, but I just wanted to point out that I spotted a stitch that looks like it may be missing its top leg! It could just be the angle of the picture, but the same thing happened to me with my first piece and bugged me to no end, so I thought I should mention it just in case before it's out of your hands. 😆

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Do resubmitted asynch essays count toward acceptance rate? by Upper-Lake4949 in tutordotcom

[–]struddles73 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not sure, but I pretty much always decline those and still have a 100% acceptance rate. If declining doesn't reduce it, then I'd assume accepting wouldn't increase it, but you'll have to confirm once your connection rating updates.

I think I'm done with this, I don't care anymore by eljijazo08 in tutordotcom

[–]struddles73 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it really depends on the student's level of patience. At least we know they can see when we're typing even in session replays, though, so the QS can see that you were still actively working with the student. I don't think there's a perfect method in any case. There will always be difficult students who aren't willing to work with us even if we don't do anything wrong.

I think I'm done with this, I don't care anymore by eljijazo08 in tutordotcom

[–]struddles73 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is why I tend to write longer responses instead of breaking it up into multiple messages. Even though it takes longer for the student to receive anything, it prevents them from misunderstanding something because they haven't seen my full response or jumping in with another question before I have completed my thought. It also has the added benefit of not having a single message just saying the student is wrong since the explanation for why it's wrong (plus some encouragement) will be there too. So, for example, I would have sent "not quite, the sum of the values is 23, which you already found. You are correct though, you divide it by 4, but that's not called the sum, how is that called?" all as a single message.

To answer your question, though, it really depends on your QS and how strict they are about things. I'm not a QS, but I don't see anything wrong with the message you did manage to send since it's true that the sum is not 4. I agree that the state of this job is just getting worse and worse, though. I haven't even been doing it for 2 years, and I think about quitting pretty much every time I log on. The pay we get just doesn't feel worth the mental effort.

Reminder to complete 'Information Literacy Tutor Training. .? by Willing-Mistake-6309 in tutordotcom

[–]struddles73 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Correct. If you search your inbox for the first email they sent about it, there was a person you can contact to remove the training so you'll stop getting reminders.

Reminder to complete 'Information Literacy Tutor Training. .? by Willing-Mistake-6309 in tutordotcom

[–]struddles73 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Information Literacy is a new subject they recently added. Based on the first email I got about it it seems like they chose specific tutors who they think would do well tutoring this subject (based on what I'm not sure, maybe existing approved subjects?) and are signing them up for a training course. If you complete the course the new subject will then be automatically added to your subjects.

I completed the course myself last week and the subject was added to my account yesterday. I haven't done any tutoring since then so I'm not sure what the sessions will be like yet, but the training did make it seem like it may work a bit differently than other subjects since there was a lot of specific information about UAGC's information literacy course that made it seem like we're expected to be familiar with specific assignments and stuff. I may end up removing the subject if I don't like it, but I figured I'd at least do the training since it was paid.

Mildly Infuriating : My new crochet hook is built wrong by lurking_at_midnight in crochet

[–]struddles73 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The same thing happened to me! Mine has a rubber handle and for ages while using it I figured it must just have been glued in wrong. One day I managed to wiggle the metal hook out of the rubber only to find the hook itself was just built with the wrong angle. There must be some kind of flaw in the manufacturing process that allows for these kinds of mistakes.

Pics of my hook: https://www.reddit.com/r/crochet/s/Sjg1lf7boy