iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

And so, like the monster I am, I must stop holding the greyhound's paw and go do Life Things. The reproach in said greyhound's eyes will follow me, however.

A blue greyhound in a purple jumper lying on a dog bed. She's curled up in a huff and looking at the monster who, after twenty straight minutes of doing so, stopped holding her paw and telling her she's the bestest greyhound there ever was.

170

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Trying a heel flap and gusset for the first time in forever. Crossing fingers that garter stitch won't throw off the sizing cos the stitch count is whack anyway. It's way easier to put each side of the instep on a separate DPN but boy howdy does it make it impossible to store the damn thing neatly.

An in progress re-footable sock. The heel flap has been knit up in garter stitch, and stitches picked up on double pointed needles all around the instep. The sock body is half white, half green and knit with 8 ply. The sock foot is being worked in a marled green 4 ply.

040

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Been a minute since I shared this one (or touched it tbh) but it's coming along well. I see why Opus Anglicanum uses so much split stitch - it looks great when worked directionally but boy do I need more practice. Klosterstich is still kicking my arse but I'm slowly improving.

2191

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Giant fuck-off rectangles achieved. Blue book for scale (6"x4" or thereabouts), reusing some polycotton sheets that were previously used to drape me a body block. #sewing (hey look I remembered tags exist, go me)

Two sets of large pink fabric rectangles lie on a table. One set has a small blue memo book on top for scale. They are about 12 inches wide and 16 inches long.

010

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Boot polishing has experienced unexpected interruption.

Selfie of a person sitting in a plush armchair. A large brindle dog is sitting behind them and has wrapped around their left side, with his head and front paws resting on the person's lap. He is wearing a look of great suffering that there are no pats forthcoming.

140

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

And now he’s curled up on my lap in protest.

An overhead shot of someone sitting in an armchair with their arm curled around a large brindle dog. The dog is wrapped around the person’s left side and has placed his head on their knee.

120

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

In case you're ever wondering "should I bother washing vintage silk kimono and obi before I turn them into other things", I just threw my latest acquisition (a dusky pink obi with gold brocade) in the wash tub and the water immediately turned yellow, so yeah. Be a good idea to clean em, huh?

A tub full of sudsy water, soaking a silk obi. The water is tinged yellow. The obi is a dark dusky pink and has a floral/leafy gold brocade design woven into most of its length.

110

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Left is warp, right is weft. No idea what weave draft yet beyond "probably a vaguely fancy twill". Let's goooo

Two large cones of weaving yarn on a table. The left one is a light, bright pink and the right one is a medium reddish purple.

030

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

It hasn't been a particularity quick or easy process - making a thing the first time never is - but it's finally starting to look like a waistcoat. And now for a metric butt load of hand stitching all the linings in place, before I can actually finish the thing.

A partially sewn waistcoat lies on a white table. The main fabric is dark blue with yellow moons, stars and suns. Both front pieces have been partially lined with white cotton.

130

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

*sigh* guess who carefully did a wrap test on their yarn and then designed a great inkle band to be exactly the right finished width, and then warped it up and wove a couple inches, only to realise they forgot to double the thread count from the wrap test to account for the warp-faced weave?

Close up of an inkle band warped in yellow, blue and red on an inkle loom. The first 2 inches have been woven. A ruler behind the band shows that the woven area is approximately half an inch wide.

140

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Relearning how to gouache the only way I know how: shitty paint, shitty paper, and The Picture that every kid draws when they're six. But with more perspective and shading.

An in progress gouache painting in a spiral bound sketchbook. The background is washed in blue and green for sky and grass. There is the trunk of a tree in the left foreground and a partially painted cottage in the right background. Sketch lines indicate the tree's leaves and the cottages roof which are yet to be painted.

010

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Fancy new ergonomic keyboard arrived today. It is Very Fancy. But luckily also very easy to rip off all the keycaps and put them in their godgiven rightful order, which obviously is not qwerty, because why do you think I need an ergonomic keyboard in the first place?

A MoErgo split ergonomic keyboard sitting on top of its travel case. The key layout has been changed from qwerty to Dvorak.

220

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

Yes. I picked an *excellent* colour to paint all my re-enactment gear. (If this isn't actually a plausible orange for medieval wood paint it's too late, I'm doing it, all shall love me and despair.) #medieval #reenacting

A wooden folding chair that has been sanded back and primed for painting. The chair seat has started to get painted in a strong orange colour, a couple of shades darker than an aged traffic cone if it wasn't day-glo.

000

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Twenty minutes to warp 31 ends. Sewing thread is so much less fiddly than other yarns.

A close up of a warp on an English/Scottish style Inkle Loom. The warp is sewing thread in three colours - red for the background, with yellow and white accent threads.

000

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Too awake to go back to sleep after the nice tradie came and looked at the (lack of) insulation in the roof. Too tired to crawl under the floor loom and fix tie ups so the pedals are slightly lower and thus my knees happier. Backstrap project I put down for *mumbles* months it is.

A weaver's eye view of a backstrap weaving in progress. The warp is made of multiple random stripes in solid colours of white, black, green, blue, grey and purple. It's being woven in two weft colours, at 15 ends per inch, using a 16 inch rigid heddle. There is a boat shuttle holding purple weft and a stick shuttle holding pink weft resting on the woven cloth near the fell line.

A close up of the woven fabric. The purple and pink wefts are being woven in one pick repeats. The weaver's thumb is on the fabric for scale, showing that there are about twelve picks per inch in the fabric.

050

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Well shit Wheatley, way to punch me straight in the feels in the *first damn chapter*. Now I'm going to get nothing done for the rest of the day on account of *plot*. "Bastard's Honor" by Elizabeth Wheatley, first spin off from her Assassin series. #booksky

The cover of a book titled "Bastard's Honor", by Elizabeth Wheatley. The subtitle reads "A crippled knight. A widowed sorceress. A second chance at love and revenge." The cover features a large dark castle in the middle, and golden curlicues decorating the edges. There are silhouettes of rearing horses and birds in flight between the curlicues, and a sword in each bottom corner.

020

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Sure! I bought these from Kmart, but a lot of places sell them. A lot will assume you have a vacuum cleaner to suck the air out, though - I went with these ones because they come with their own hand pump.

A clear vacuum bag lies on a lino floor. It's full of balls of yarn in purples and blues, and has been sealed and the air removed. A small white hand pump lies next to it to show how the air is removed.

3160

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Doggo, *I'm* the one doing all the work of measuring and cataloguing all this fabric. Why are *you* the one looking so tired and put-upon?

A brindle dog lies on the floor with his head up on the corner of a folded out futon couch. Behind him is a large plastic tub, partly full of colourful rolls of fabric yardage. There is a large, partly folded, grey piece of fabric on the couch in front of his nose.

020

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

Your last saved meme is your moral philosophy:

A screenshot of a Tumblr post reblogged by user systlin.

User we-are-knight says: Live. Laugh. Longsword.
User rosslynpaladin replies: now THAT I'd put on my wall

010

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 13/10/2024

I'm almost done with the beekeeper's quilt that I started a decade ago and then abandoned when I learned to knit socks, so apparently now is the perfect time to learn English paper piecing. And it's possible I may have a type. Oh dear.

Two different sets of hexagons lie on a wood floor. On the left about a dozen flat, fabric hexagons are scattered loosely. They are sewn of several different fabrics in reds, browns, greens and purple.

On the right is three rows of hexagons all nestled next to each other. They are knitted in different shades of blue acrylic yarn and stuffed.

131

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 04/10/2024

I went old school with a paper tally sheet too. Usually I'm all digital so I don't lose things, so this is a new one for me. Tally marks are each individual hexie, squares are each hundred. Even with only working on it when I feel like it/until my wrist hurts, I'm flying through the cutting out.

A piece of paper covered in tally marks and crossed out times. Each set of 25 tallies is circled in black. Every four sets of circled marks is crossed out as one unit in red. There are four small squares near the top of the sheet, and one half drawn square, representing each completed set of 100.

010

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 04/10/2024

I am also being a terrible person & marking the cutting lines with a fine point permanent marker (Bic Mark-it Ultra Fine Point if anyone cares), unless the fabric is too dark. Soooo much easier than faffing about with chalk or a washable fabric pen. It'll all be hidden by the piecing/lining anyway.

A piece of brown scrap fabric with five whole and one half hexagon shape marked on it. The lines are done in a fine black marker.

100

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 04/10/2024

Despite being in the middle of packing up a 3.5 bdr house, 3.5 people, an entire garden, & 5 chickens, my brain decided that now is the perfect time to start cutting out ~650 hexagons to start a EPP project (a thing I've never tried) & make shorts (a thing I do need more of, at least). *Sigh*.

Several piles of fabric hexagons lie on a wooden table. They are separated by colour and pattern. The largest piles are plain sage green, mottled jewel blue and plain mid purple. There are two smaller piles with pale backgrounds and small flower prints, one blue with larger white flowers, one with a paisley like pattern in purple, one with cartoon zombie heads, and one with brown camo print.

210

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 22/07/2024

Myrtle would like you to know that meal worms are delicious. I don’t know why she thinks that’s useful, but she has strong opinions on the matter.

A small black chicken stands on a bright red chair near a corrugated iron fence, looking at the camera.

2110

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 12/07/2024

Judging by the state of today's sourdough, these are going to be panbread rather than the more traditional pancakes. Teaspoon included for Poof Scale.

A round fry pan holds three very tall pancakes of about 3 inches diameter. A teaspoon is being held vertically next to one, showing that the pancakes are almost as tall as the spoon section of the teaspoon.

000

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 23/06/2024

A friend brought these to sword training so in the finest @ksonney.bsky.social tradition we ate some. 1/10, way too much chilli. The only other detectable flavour is that unique two minute noodle salt. I don't want my crunchy snacks tasting like my CBF dinner.

A packet of Spicy Ramen flavoured Twisties.

000

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 22/04/2024

“Identity is something very personal, and people attach important meanings to the terms they use to describe themselves… Understanding transgender history contextualises why people use particular terms and can affirm people’s identities while acknowledging why the preferred language has evolved.” 📖

The cover of a book titled “Transgender Australia: A History Since 1910” by Noah Riseman. The words “Transgender Australia” are in the colours of the trans pride flag. The subtitle is in dark pink and the author’s name is white. The cover background is bright yellow.

010

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 20/04/2024

And now I have delicious forbidden fairy floss. This is only two loads from the combs. TWO. And it's too fat to fit in my spindle box. I will be spinning this for DAYS.

Two wool combs sit on a glass table to the left of a 12 inch long hand distaff. The distaff has been fully loaded with off white, combed alpaca fibre.

010

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 20/04/2024

And so, having played with a few different fibres to get the feel of things, it’s time to put these bad boys through their paces. A hand distaff full of alpaca should do nicely. I did a load of this while testing and got over two hour’s worth of spinning from it, a whole distaff will last a while!

Two wool combs, a hand distaff, and a small plastic bag full of beige fibre sit on a glass table.

120

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 19/04/2024

We have breached self-imposed containment and made it all the way onto the lawn. I rewarded this great display of bravery with scratch mix, and distracted Her Grumpiness so she didn’t chase them all off on principle. #chickenupdate

Four large black chickens are pecking at grain on a sunny lawn.

000

Garak's Apprentice @garaksapprentice.bsky.social · 13/04/2024

I have had my new wool combs for less than 24 hours and they have already tasted flesh. (It was entirely user error, but they didn’t miss their chance to show me who’s boss in this relationship.) It’s OK, I still love them. They’re still less violent than the chickens.

A close up of a white person's left thumb. There are two short, fresh scratches, with raised red edges, on the side. End ID.

100