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cassilda.bsky.social
no gauge square we die like men
@cassilda.bsky.social
93 followers 79 following 730 posts
Hi, I'm Carolyn.

I make stuff ⇒ https://www.etsy.com/shop/PurplePlaidPatterns
Free public domain fiber arts patterns ⇒ https://ko-fi.com/purpleplaid/shop/publicdomain

I'm appalling at self-promotion.
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cassilda.bsky.social
The French know what women want:
1920s black and white French magazine ad for the LIROLIT (roughly: "READ-ABED"), a book stand sort of gadget for reading in bed. Simple line art depicts a woman in a nightcap, reclining in bed with arms folded behind her head. Around her neck is a cord connected to a simple stand balanced over the blankets on her stomach. The stand holds an open book, but the drawing doesn't entirely make it clear how the whole affair works, and the stand kind of looks like it's levitating. Ad copy touts how the product allows you to read in bed in any position, hands under the (presumably warm) covers, and without tiring your arms. Available at fine shops everywhere, or send 20 francs by mail.
April 26, 2025 at 8:23 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
He will fall upon my enemies in the night.
Modern color photo of a crocheted Humpty Dumpty soft toy. Arms, legs, and about half the body are made in red yarn, while the head and hands are white. The arms and legs are short and spindly and stick straight out. A ruffled white collar separates the head from the body, and the face is embroidered with yarn in a simple design that suggests clown makeup, with high arched brows and triangular eyes. The nose is a red yarn pompom, and the mouth is a pair of straight lines that give the toy a neutral expression. It is somewhat unsettling in appearance, but nowhere near as bad as the one in the previous post.
April 17, 2025 at 10:51 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
The cursed Humpty Dumpty from 1945 *is* real and *can* hurt you.
Black and white photo, faded to sepia, of a crocheted Humpty Dumpty soft toy. It's at best sort of egg-shaped, and the the body, arms, and legs have been hand-colored red, making it look like the toy is wearing a union suit. The arms and legs are spindly and stick straight out at awkward angles, the legs appearing to dead-end without feet. It has a ruffled collar dividing body from head, and the head is embroidered with very simple features in black yarn meant to suggest clown makeup. The mouth is a straight line, the eyes are triangles, and the eyebrows are high arches coming out of a small pompom nose. The overall effect is of something that is absolutely coming for your soul if you fall asleep in the same room.
April 16, 2025 at 3:20 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
Happy Neil Banging Out the Tunes Day to all who celebrate.
Small, low-res photo of a hairless pet rat standing in front of a rat-size piano/keyboard toy with a single paw raised. Caption: Neil banging out the tunes April 13, 2006
April 13, 2025 at 4:22 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
...You have my attention.

#gits #ghostintheshell

www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2025-04...
Ghost in the Shell promo poster from Science Saru featuring the Major, with an art style and color choice very similar to the original manga.
April 12, 2025 at 1:59 AM
cassilda.bsky.social
Happy 100th birthday to THE GREAT GATSBY (and also to the phenomenon of people completely missing the point, which I can only assume occurred immediately upon publication.)

www.harkavagrant.com?id=259
3-panel comic from Kate Beaton's HARK, A VAGRANT. Title: In the Valley of Ashes. PANEL 1: Tom Buchanan and Nick Carraway are looking at a billboard that reads "Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, Oculist" and has a picture of a giant pair of disembodied eyes in spectacles. TOM: That billboard gives me the creeps. PANEL 2: TOM: It's so...judgmental. It's like the eyes of God are watching us. NICK, pointing: What about the one behind it? PANEL 3: A billboard reads "FUCK THE JAZZ AGE". TOM: Well I have no idea what that one is about.
April 10, 2025 at 4:58 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
Complaining about those darn kids and their social medias, 1864 edition.
Excerpt from the English translation of the works of Valérie Boissier, published in the August 1864 issue of Godey's Lady's Book. Text: WEARINESS FROM DAILY DETAIL. "If you ask for facts of proof, look, for instance, at our letter-writing! Formerly, when two people loved each other much, they wrote twice a month, and got on very well; now, people between whom there is little love write to each other every morning, and get on no better. Formerly, the post afforded time for reflection; one turned one's cross moods over in one's mind before giving them expression; many a sadness had been transformed into joy during the interval between one mail and the next; many difficulties had found solution. Now they write them off while they are happening."
April 9, 2025 at 3:07 AM
cassilda.bsky.social
"We are really, really excited, and very grateful for President Trump's leadership."
Famous shot of Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf ("Baghdad Bob") during one of his infamous 2003 press briefings during the US invasion, in which he would colorfully insist everything was going great for Iraq despite the fact it very very much wasn't. It has Pam Bondi's face edited in over his, with a screenshot of the US stock markets crashing in the background.
April 3, 2025 at 6:34 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
Apropos of nothing in particular and certainly not of ongoing idiotic political developments, here's some advice on mending from a c1915 book on needlework. 🧶
Book title page, oxidized with age. There is a Library of Congress LC mark embossed on the lower right. Text: "Clark's O.N.T. Book of Needlework. Sewing, crochet, darning, knitting, embroidery. Price Twenty-five cents" Text: "Mending. Though few people really enjoy patching or darning, the fact remains that most women have it to do, to a greater or lesser extent. Few girls are taught how to men, so one is sometimes inclined to think that possible the distaste for repairing of all kinds is due largely to a lack of knowledge of the correct way to set to work, rather than to an actual dislike for the task itself. In patching one may employ one or more of the plain sewing stitches, viz: Back-stitching, hemming or overhanding, but darning employs but one stitch and that stitch is for the most part worked in but one way. Where the material is too torn to stand darning it must be cut away and replaced by a new piece. In the case of underwear or cotton garments of any kind, it is advisable that the new piece should be of a lighter weight than the garment itself. Cut the patch by the line of the thread and about an inch larger each way than the hole it is to cover. Tack in the new piece so that its edge overlap the edges of the hole. The backstitching must be done on the garment itself, it being easier then to do the corners neatly. Turn the hem down onto the patch, making a little snip at each corner to prevent puckering, then hem down the folded edge." There is an illustration of the method. The patch is placed behind the hole and a dotted line shows where it's sewn to the garment. A second line shows where the edge of the garment is folded under, with a needle depicted working a hemstitch securing the fold. The illustration makes it clear that you are expected to trim the hole in the garment into a rectangle before patching. Text: "On woolen goods the edges of the hole should be left uneven and darned down to the patch, using thread of the material for the darning, whenever this is possible. Do not try to turn in the edges of the patch either, but instead darn down smoothly on to the material, taking the stitches quite close together. When only a few of the warp or woof thread are torn or missing, a darn will replace them, providing the surrounding parts are in good condition. One of the reasons why so few people darn stockings really well is because they try to keep the darn small. By so doing the threads are very apt to tear through the thin part of the stocking the first time it is washed and then the darn must be done over. If the thread is darned back and forth through the worn part surrounding the hole, being sure to leave loops at each turn allowing for shrinking in the washing, the result will be a smooth, flat darn which will wear as long as the rest of the stocking. Darning should always be done on the wrong side of the material and care must be taken that the thread is a suitable weight. Thread that is too heavy makes an ugly, clumsy darn and one which is apt to pull out, while if the thread be too fine it adds considerably to the work. [Ad copy for Clark's thread not transcribed.] Two or three strands make a sufficiently heavy thread for stockings and thin underwear, while three or even four threads may be used if the underwear is heavy. Most people find that a darning ball or gourd makes stocking darning easier; one may be purchase for a few cents from any dealer carrying needlework supplies. For fine materials, such as chiffon, lace or batiste, it is advisable to baste carefully the torn place over a piece of moderately stiff paper, so that it cannot slip out of place." A photo shows a two-strand darn in progress on a machine-knit fabric, clearly illustrating the over-under woven darning stitch and the wide margin of darning stitching around the hole to secure the mend.
April 3, 2025 at 3:30 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
Oh hey! Book page! So, not an original but probably still antique. Also, definitely an engraving, not a woodcut.

Out of "Picturesque America, or, The land we live in" v.2, William Cullen Bryant, Ed., 1872. (It's page 405.)

archive.org/details/pict...
Pg 405 of "Picturesque America", v2. Header: "The Eastern Shore." Text describes places along the Massachusetts coast, primarily Gloucester and its offshore features.
April 1, 2025 at 4:58 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
I was only after the frame for a different project, but I think this might be an actual antique woodcut. 🤔

It'd have to come out regardless because of the water damage, so we'll see.
Matted and framed hand-tinted antique woodcut (possibly) of several ocean/seashore vignettes, labeled "Portsmouth and the Isles of Shoals," which are in New Hampshire. There is water damage to the mat that doesn't appear to have reached the picture.
April 1, 2025 at 4:17 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
Women's magazine advertisement, 1896.
Sepia-tone B&W magazine ad, probably an etching. Some sort of rays beam down from a star onto Earth, where they project a message covering about half the Northern Hemisphere. Text: First message signaled from Mars. "Our ladies all want Pozzoni's Complexion Powder. Send it up."
March 31, 2025 at 4:19 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
Remember when Elon made it so you could buy a checkmark and then Tumblr made it so you could by INFINITY CHECKMARKS because this is the goddamn internet and chaos is the only truth?
Tumblr screenshot with row of 30 blue checkmarks across the top, breaking the layout of the page and causing the username to be squashed vertically to the left and the Follow and extra options links to display outside the boundaries. @carpisuns: guy.s/i saw a post that said it maxed out at 24. so i just. kept buying em. thinking eventually i would get a little message saying i had the max amoutn. but. guys. it didnt. it did nt
March 30, 2025 at 3:58 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
Good times.
"Me explaining to my mom" meme. Text: Me channeling the spirit of Greg Bear to explain several million years of backstory/My husband who made the mistake of asking me why the Covenant didn't immediately glass Earth in Halo 2
March 28, 2025 at 4:19 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
Spring outfit ideas. You need those long sleeves in case it gets chilly.
Antique magazine ad c1890, B&W oxidized to sepia. Etching of a young, pale-skinned woman in a dark A-line dress that falls just below the knee, with dark opaque stockings. She wears a shrug/gloves/cape garment shaped like bat wings with her arms spread to show it off, and has shoes with batwing bows. Her hair is in an updo, and she has either bat ears or horns secured to her head through unclear means. Text: Something for the Devotees of Terpsichore. A New, Large and Handsomely Illustrated Pamphlet, Entitled MASQUERADE AND CARNIVAL: THEIR CUSTOMS AND COSTUMES. Price, 25 Cents. Many varieties of Fancy-Dress Entertainments are suggested, and the perplexing Question, What to Wear on Each Occasion, is Satisfactorily Settled. Tableaux, Bals Masque, Carnival Sessions, and Fashionable Fancy-Dress Parties for adults and children are discussed in this Pamphlet, which is intended as a Guide to Proper Costuming and Appropriate Decorations for the Festivities named. The Débutante will find its suggestions and instructions invaluable, and the Belle of many seasons, as well as the Host and Hostess, may profit by a perusal of its pages. On receipt of 25 Cents, "MASQUERADE AND CARNIVAL" will be mailed, post-paid, to any Address in the United States, Canada or Mexico. THE BUTTERICK PUBLISHING CO. (Limited), 7,9, and 11 West 13th St., N.Y.
March 24, 2025 at 2:56 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
Cover of The Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK" single album, showing a collage of the song title and band name in ransom-letter style, clipped to a background made of a torn-up and safety-pinned back together image of a Union Jack.
March 20, 2025 at 5:01 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
He'd benefit from reading some Eliot (assuming someone explained the big words to him.)
Let me disclose the gifts reserved for age/To set a crown upon your lifetime's effort./First, the cold friction of expiring sense/Without enchantment, offering no promise/But bitter tastelessness of shadow fruit/As body and soul begin to fall asunder./Second, the conscious impotence of rage/ At human folly, and the laceration/Of laughter at what ceases to amuse./And last, the rending pain of re-enactment/Of all that you have done, and been; the shame/Of things ill done and done to others' harm/Which once you took for exercise of virtue./Then fools' approval stings, and honour stains./-T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding
March 20, 2025 at 3:52 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
Finally got around to uploading a pair of new public domain patterns over on ko-fi—1920s crochet handbag and throw rug this time.

ko-fi.com/s/db6d69fd6c
Color illustrations of circular black handbag with 2 embroidered pink flowers and sprays of leaves, and an oval rug in stripes of golden brown, blue, and black. Text: "Crochet Bag & Rug. 2 Public Domain Patterns from Early 1920s Magazine Ads. [vintage typography] Ludlow Manufacturing Associates, Boston, Mass."
March 17, 2025 at 8:57 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
You've heard of Three Hares, now get ready for...Four Hares. (Trilateral symmetry is hard on a grid, okay.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day auf Deutsch with this net darning/filet crochet pattern from FILET ARBEITEN ("Filet Work"), Marie Neidner, 1921.
Black & white photograph of a design made on a square grid for net darning. Around a central four-leaf clover, four leaping hares arranged in a square are designed so that each shares its ears with the other two nearest it. A circular border of shamrocks on a vine encloses the design. Charted diagram suitable for net darning, filet crochet, weaving, cross stitch, needlepoint, etc. Each axis of the grid is numbered and the central point indicated. Around a central four-leaf clover, four leaping hares arranged in a square are designed so that each shares its ears with the other two nearest it. The outer border is a circle of shamrocks on a vine. The design measures 119x119 squares.
March 17, 2025 at 3:32 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
I have figured out how to map text to a path and now I am unstoppable.
Digital collage. Ink sketch of woman in 1890s evening dress, holding a champagne bottle and glass and gesturing expansively. The sketch has been "colored in" with various textures, primarily rust, gold, and blue for her dress and gloves. She is surrounded on three sides by a dark blue border of ribbon and simple filigree. Above her head the fourth side is formed of an arch of text in a period typeface reading "LIFE IS MEANINGLESS".
March 16, 2025 at 9:07 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
A vintage or vintage-filtered photo of many raccoons at night, all facing the camera, starkly front-lit. Their eyes glow in the reflected light, and their figures become less and less distinct from foreground to background until they are merely a sea of fiery pinpricks in the blackness. Text: "DEATH IS COMING/EAT TRASH/BE FREE"
March 15, 2025 at 3:11 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
Found that issue of The Delineator, article is fully as rancid as you'd expect 🙃

I gotta stop reading the worst shit history has available.
AN IMPORTANT STATEMENT FROM THE AMERICAN AUTHORITY ON EUGENICS./While our magazines are filled with articles that are eagerly read on such topics as the shape of the Spring hats, the fashion in visiting-cards, the income tax, the tariff and the next President, we read very little about the danger that America shall go the way of ancient Greece and Rome through her neglect to consider the question, What manner of people will there be in this country two or three generations hence?/It is a fact that Rome was great because of her great families, and that Rome fell because these great families and all her best blood did not reproduce there, but their servants and slaves did. As surely as our successful or ambitious families—our social and intellectual leaders—fail to have their share of progeny, so surely will their grandchildren be swamped by the grandchildren of the Rumanians, Bulgarians and Turco-Greeks who are among the most prolific of our new immigrants. A demand for more social workers and larger institutions for defectives will be the first alarm of the approaching end of the old régime. And when that end comes, Presidents, tariffs, income taxes, visiting-cards and Spring hats will disappear as a well-garnished table is cleared by pulling off the cloth!/The threatened disaster may be averted in only one way: By an awakened public conscience that shall lead the scions of our best families to marry for mentally and physically strong offspring rather than for money or other personal advantage, and to rear four or five children; and that shall prevent, at any present cost, the reproduction of our animalistic, "degenerate" strains. But how shall young persons know what consorts to select to beget strong children? Aye, there's the rub! Miss Macomber's article tells of investigations that are being made which will secure and formulate the required knowledge./[signed] Chas. B. Davenport/Director, Department of Experimental Evolution, Carnegie Institution of Washington
March 14, 2025 at 9:27 PM
cassilda.bsky.social
From the "Wait, What?" Department, The Woman's Home Companion, April 1912.

The Delineator, incidentally, was a sewing magazine. Time for some digging to find out why they were publishing eugenics manifestos.
[Text ad appearing in The Woman's Home Companion, April 1912] For Engaged Couples. This is particularly for engaged couples. Near-engaged couples won't be barred. Couples who have "broken it off," but whose intentions are serous, will still be considered eligible. But no bachelors need apply. What do you think of eugenics?/What's that? You don't know what it is? You don't like these new religions? Why, bless your heart, it's a science. its founder called it "The Science of Human Improvement," and if you don't know anything about it you had better read THE DELINEATOR for April./[explanation of eye-color inheritance cut for space]/Fortune-Telling From Fact/Eugenics investigates past generations in order to insure the future. If you know some of the tendencies the child is bound to have, you can not only teach and train it more intelligently, but you can be of real service in helping a marriage that will turn out happily./Eugenic Societies are working in every civilized country comparing notes and filing records. In THE DELINEATOR for April is one of the first authoritative public statements about their work. These facts that the eugenicists are collection are going to have a great bearing some day on the paupers, the insane, and the non-producers that the State is now called on to support./If you are not a subscriber, may we say that THE DELINEATOR for April will appear in an unusually good-looking cover. On a background of amazing blue stands a tall, slender lady in a beautiful gown. In order to have more room for the beautiful lady, so that you could cut her out if you chose, the name of the magazine has been put 'way down at the bottom of the page—so don't overlook it. Inside this lovely cover you will find a lot of good reading./Just get THE DELINEATOR and see for yourself/P.S. William Hard has a new departure for which he wants your interest and enthusiasm./THE BUTTERICK PUBLISHING IN COMPANY/New York
March 14, 2025 at 12:37 AM
cassilda.bsky.social
More excellent and not at all condescending TB advice in the following month's issue:
CONSUMPTION. - The rich who suffer from consumption often seem to do all in their power to induce it. We say nothing about the vices of men, but only look for a moment at the follies of ladies. Foremost amongst them comes tight-lacing, which throws the most important organs of the body out of their proper position, and induces blushing, faintness, palpitation, shortness of breath, and all those ills which serve to fill the pockets of quack doctors, and give more than needful employment to the regular practitioner. The the way in which ladies expose themselves to the cold-taking is really marvellous. In their low dresses they will go out to evening parties, having probably taken off much of the warm underclothing they had worn through the day; they spend hours in a heated atmosphere, dance themselves warmer still, and then pass from the ball-room to their carriages, breathing the night air, without any extra covering, and cooling themselves, perhaps, at the open window, without a thought of harm. If you remonstrate, they tell you "it is so very refreshing," and present enjoyment hides from them all thought of the future. Through the day these fashionable, pleasure-loving ladies loll about upon soft chairs and sofas, and, instead of strengthening their bodies by exercise, only enervate them by luxury. Even those who are more actively disposed will stay within doors for whole days together if the sky is gloomy, or the wind cold, or the sun too warm for their liking. Need we wonder if the end of all this is—consumption?
March 4, 2025 at 12:40 AM
cassilda.bsky.social
Correlation is not causation, 19th century medical journal "gee I wonder why people who all work in the same office are getting tuberculosis" edition:
Text: The Lady's Home Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion. Philadelphia, March, 1857. THE INFLUENCE OF THE SUN'S RAYS IN CONSUMPTION - We copy the following remarks from the Boston Medical Journal, in which they are credited to Dr. Coventry, as forming a portion of an address delivered before the State Medical Society:— "There is one subject which requires a more extended notice than it has usually received from our systematic writers. I refer to the influence of the sun's rays. Every physiologist knows how absolutely necessary they are to the growth of plants, and the etiolating effect their absence or withdrawal has upon the complexion. Is it unreasonable to suppose that they may have some influence in causing or preventing tuberculosis? It seems well established, that tubercles may be produced in animals by confining them in close and dark apartments, on a meagre diet. Dr. Hall says that by this means he produced fatty degenerations in animals, which he considers analogous to, if not identical with, tuberculosis. In the city where I reside, there was an office connected with a large mercantile establishment, so situated that the sun never shone upon it. It was in the rear of the building, with a single window, and that so surrounded with building as to exclude the sun. The occupants of the office died, one after another, until the proprietors became alarmed, and had the office removed to another part of the building. One of the occupants I attended when in the last stage of his disease. He entered the office a strong, healthy man, with no hereditary tendency to the disease, and temperate and regular in his habits; but in less than two years he was carried like his predecessors, to the grave, a victim to consumption. In his case I was never able to discover any cause, unless it was occupying that fatal office, where he was bookkeeper."
March 3, 2025 at 7:04 PM