OTA Mingle || Stitch & Bitch

[can_fight_ugly]

WHO: Anne
WHERE: House 53
WHEN: Forward dated to Saturday
OPEN TO: OTA - but specifically those who expressed an interest in joining Stich & Bitch
WARNINGS: Stitching & Bitching. Should be a fairly tame log but will update as needed

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Network Post Here

The first thing Anne had done was make a mental list (since she couldn't make an electronic one - or even a pen and paper one) of the kind of space she was looking for. Open floorplan, fireplace, multiple rooms, yardage. Eventually, she'd settled on House 53 - a soft yellow bungalow with three bedrooms, a fireplace, spaced farther from its neighbors than some of the other housing units, and with a sizeble plot of land behind it before it butted up against the houses in the next street over. Check.

Second, she would need chairs. She borrowed whatever furniture she could move from the surrounding empty houses, marking the underneath of each one in order to return them to their proper houses afterwards - if that was necessary.

Chairs arranged in a loose circle in the house, she went out to borrow a hatchet and go out to collect some firewood - this took the most amount of time, because she wasn't exactly built for this kind of labor. She's been working at it over a few days, though, and she knew that necessity would mold her far better than any CrossFit or Krav Maga class ever could. She spent enough time on this endeavor to ensure there'd be enough wood to last them a bit, then returned the hatchet. She'd have to ask Tony for one of her own at some point.

It doesn't matter if you're the first one here, or if things have been under way for a couple hours and you're just rolling in; Anne greets everyone as they arrive, already near the door or getting up from her chair to offer a warm handshake and introductions.

Today's inaugural session was meant to be a little more free-form, and let it grow from that organically, but at some point when a number of people have gathered Anne will stand to get their attention;

"I wanted to thank you all for coming. Unless I've somehow missed you, you know I am Anne Weying; I can teach knitting, and I would like to learn how to spin.

I know we're all from different worlds with different levels of technological advancements, but here we're all on the same footing. And that footing's about to get cold if we can't knit a sock, first. This idea was born from a practice in my world called "Stitch and Bitch", where people would gather to knit, and crochet, and generally complain about things in their lives. Here, I think it would be important if we used this time to share our skills and help each other establish a line of production in order to harvest and spin fleece and knit it into usable goods - or weave, or crochet, what-have-you.

We're definitely not in a tropical climate, and without knowing just how cold it can get here, I think it's best if we start preparing for a cold winter now."

She sits down and takes a look at each of those gathered around, "So; what can you teach, and what would you like to learn?"

Comments

[can_fight_ugly]

Maybe for some, but Anne isn't about to let someone slip away without so much as a hello. She catches him as he's headed to the door, congenial smile and a relaxed energy about her.

"Hey, didn't really find anything your speed, I take it?"

[firacrux]

And thank goodness for that, Anne. Someone had to keep Seifer from escaping without even acknowledging he'd made the attempt. Kind of. At this point he hadn't even earned the bronze star.

Finding his way barred he paused, fixing his expression into his usual hallmark scowl. Seifer didn't know how to be friendly much less how to deal with friendly. It was all very overwhelming for him.

"'Ey," It was more a startled noise than a greeting but since it could count for both he'd let it. "Y'know, it occurred to me I'm all thumbs. Probably not gonna be much good to any of you here." That's a lie Seifer didn't even know if he was all thumbs he was just chickening out due to the crowd. He wasn't exactly a people person.

[can_fight_ugly]

"Everyone is all thumbs to start; I wouldn't let that discourage you. You'd only be letting yourself down." But, she's not going to force anyone to stay if they don't want to.

"Whatever you're good at, now? I bet there was a time you stumbled in that, too."

[firacrux]

He's conflicted, but clearly curious. And far too proud to directly ask about being curious, so instead he just kind of let his gaze linger on the room. She wasn't wrong, no one started out mastering their chosen weapon class. It took a lot of work to get good. Really he'd been interested in checking out the forge but hadn't had an opportunity for that yet. He supposed it wouldn't be unreasonable to at least have a look around.

"...Gotta admit I've never even seen a sewing needle. Or knitting or whatever." He hesitated, thoughtful. "What d'you recommend for beginners?" Maybe he would try it out. Out of curiosity.

[can_fight_ugly]

"For beginners? Knitting. Equipment is more portable and, especially in this environment easier to replicate. I could lend you some of my needles and get you started; the great thing about knitting is there is so much you can do with just very basic stitching techniques. A decent scarf will run you the grand total of three steps: cast on, knit, bind off."

She smiles. "Sewing needles are smaller, sharper, and generally fussier; used to stitch fabric together. There's hand-sewing and machine-sewing, which you can get a glimpse of over there with Stephanie over there." She points out where Stephanie had gotten herself set up with a sewing machine and fabric. "Might take a bit to get an actual machine, though."

[firacrux]

Knitting huh. Yeah. Maybe he could try it. Sewing sounded a bit out of his league. As in majorly out of his league, Seifer wasn't exactly well known for creativity. Start with something that could be corrected without a lot of wasted resources in the process. "Sounds like a proper old bitty hobby to me," He smirked slightly. Yeah he's that guy. "Pretty forgiving then? Can you fix it if you mess up?" Sewing he knew a little more about from a theoretical standpoint. Patterns, fabric, all that jazz. A little harder to fix if you mess it up, which concerned him given he didn't think they had a steady supply of fabric to waste on novices.

Three steps, he could do three steps that sounded easy enough. He might go check out the sewing machine just to watch it work, curiosity and all, but he was much more interested in maybe learning to knit. "It's pretty cold, scarves might be nice to have around." He observed. Anne was quickly selling him on the at least trying it out point. Good on her!