gina

Thanks for creating the community! I love seeing different artist’s depictions of Middle Earth. I definitely have some other favorites I can share.

She has a whole Tolkien series that is really beautiful. I have this one in my living room. People don’t realize what it is until they look closely and see the sword and the blood, haha.

That is some really beautiful yarn. I love that untangling reduces your stress levels. I can’t look at this picture too long or I might have to lie down, lol.

As someone who once put some tortillas on the griddle, turned to the fridge to get cheese, and…walked right out of the room and back to my desk, I 100% agree. I sometimes feel dumb that I am literally setting 1 or 2 minute timers, but it’s better than burning stuff. I don’t always need them, but they are really helpful during times of stress when I’m especially preoccupied with other things.

They are pretty good hiders :) I believe Europe has a couple of tarantula species as well. I want to say they have been found in Greece, but don’t quote me on that. I have read a little bit about how climate change may be pushing the range of spiders further north as well, which is both interesting and incredibly depressing.

I did a jigsaw puzzle of this painting a few years back. It was incredibly interesting to examine all those little brushstrokes one tiny square at a time and see how it all came together.

I hoped someone would do something like this with the lemmy lemming!

Thank you for posting it, though. We don’t have these where I am and I find them so charming, like the buck-toothed cousin of the Ummidia I occasionally come across following a heavy rain.

Felting hides a multitude of sins - I think it’s a great project for anybody that wants to try it out. The uppers are shaped with short rows and I’ve certainly had to start over after I zone out and lose my place, but even then I can finish the knitting over a couple of evenings in front of the tv.

Another good pattern for a first felting project is Fuzzy Feet. Those would also be a really great way for someone to learn the basics of sock knitting since the stitches are massive.

With both of those projects you have something useful in the end, and it seems to me that objects with some structure to them felt more successfully as well. I swear I saw like 9 million failed Booga Bags back around 2008 when everyone was going wild for felting. It’s a pretty simple pattern, but once felted, a lot ended up comically wide and shallow (probably some user error involved). Or they looked great initially, but after being carried around for a few days they stretched…and stretched…and stretched. I’d love to know how many of them actually got a lot of use after the photo shoot. I distinctly remember some ended up as cat beds.

And yes, my dad is definitely knitworthy. Sometimes my mom is the one to let me know he is trailing little bits of wool behind him everywhere he goes because he doesn’t want me to bother me for new slippers, but it is never a burden.

Maybe a relative of the Russian Leather Beetle (Osmoderma eremita), like Osmoderma eremicola? It’s likely going to be hard to narrow down without clear photos, though (disclaimer: I am not a beetle expert).

That’s beautiful!

My most-worn knitting project is Fiber Trends Felted Clogs and no other project is even a close second. The first pair I knit was for my dad for Christmas 2008. Since then I have replaced that pair of slippers maybe 5 or 6 times, after they are too far gone to resole or repair. He works from home and literally wears them all day, every day, although he has stopped wearing them to the mailbox to make them last a little longer.

I’ve also made adjustments over the iterations to see if I can make them more durable:

• Double-soles (so each sole is actually 4 layers instead of two).
• In addition to wet-felting I also needle felted the soles of the most recent pair to make them extra-dense. My dad also has a little needle felting kit of his own so he can keep tiny holes from growing larger. So far it seems to be working, but this reminds me that I should probably check in and see how they are doing.
• Different yarn combinations - I have tried denser yarns to see if they result in something longer-lasting, but keep going back to the Lamb’s Pride because it felts so thoroughly. I have found that if you can still see traces of stitches in the soles, you are likely to get rubbing between the layers and develop holes more quickly.

We have also considered adding a suede sole, but the pre-made don’t really come in the right size and he really likes how they feel as-is. Plus I am always genuinely delighted to knit another pair, knowing that they are appreciated. They knit up quite fast, although the assembly is kind of tedious.

Looks like it may be a Cockchafer beetle.