Mastodawn

Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three Jun 2

LoveMakeShare June 2: Do queer themes, identities, characters, etc. feature in your work? Any that you're particularly proud of?

When it comes to knitting I love working in pride flag colours. So far that's only been rainbow but I would like to make some future projects in other specific pride flag colours.

In my fanfiction the series I write fanfic for features queer characters in a queernormative universe (The Murderbot Diaries). Everyone in the series knows they're queer and grows up in queernormative societies where queerness is normalized and a regular part of life, but the main character manages to be queer within that universe, compared to other characters.

One fanfic I have planned for it will explore a self-discovery theme, the main ace character discovering it is interested in sex with its good friend, and the sex is queer within-universe, and this is an important factor in the character finding this out about itself.

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three Jun 3

LoveMakeShare June 3: Creative and artistic people tend to be driven by something. What is it that drives you to create?

I want to create things. The act of creation brings me joy. So does sharing my creations with others. But I would do the first without the second, I think, because I have done a fair amount of that. But sharing my creations and seeing the reactions of others is quite wonderful too. This is also why I spend some of my creative efforts on commenting on and responsing to others' creations.

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three Jun 5

LoveMakeShare June 4: Share a picture of a tool of your trade. Is there anything special about it?

I've mentioned these before, and KnitPicks isn't the only brand that makes this kind of thing, but it's what I've gone with since they're the first ones I encountered.

With a standard set of circular knitting needles you'd need to buy a set with the right size of needles and length of cable for whatever you're working on. And if you need different sizes at that cable length you buy multiple sets of circulars. I have a few sets of circulars like that. But this is much more adaptable.

I like circulars for non-circular projects as well, they can be good for particularly large or long ones, depending on your length of cable. I made an entire poncho for my roommate with items from this set. And a fairly large project can be fit into your bag too, with circular needles.

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three Jun 5

LoveMakeShare June 5: How tied to the environment is your creative work? Are there themes of environmentalism in your work?

It's not something I have particularly tied in to my work or creative process at this time, no. I generally try to do my best within my life for the environment such as one person can and I advocate for environmental concerns to various people I know and sometimes with my representative politicians, but I don't really have it tied into my creative work.

Though, I did have some environmentalist themes in my Thirsty Sword Lesbians TTRPG that I ran back in April. This was partially inspired by some of my players making characters that were attuned with local spirits and living things. Plus it fit well with the overall themes I was writing for the story.

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three Jun 9

LoveMakeShare June 6: Do you tend to practice one or more art forms? ... If many, is there one you want to focus more on?

Many! Although currently I'm only really involved with two.

Right now it's knitting and writing, but I have also done drawing and singing and (not-indigenous) hoop dancing.

I'd like to get involved in making podfic too, I've been getting plenty of practice during a fandom server's read-a-long events and I've been having a lot of fun. Live storytelling piqued my interest maybe a decade ago and podficcing/narrating fiction/voice acting/etc. seems very close in spirit to it.

I'm focusing more of my effort on writing at the moment but I have been planning my next knitting project that I'm going to try and get done as quick as possible, so that will get more attention soon.

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three

LoveMakeShare June 7: Share a single word that describes, represents, or thematically links to the project you're thinking about today.

Restart

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three Jun 9

LoveMakeShare June 8: The ocean is sometimes described as more unknown than the moon or Mars. Does the unknown excite or scare you when you are creating?

A bit of both?

It also depends on what medium I'm creating in.

Knitting I generally prefer to work within comfortable areas and patterns designed by other people. Crochet I've struck out and made up entire projects of my own without having made anything like them before. Writing I suppose I'm mostly working with the known being that it's all fanfic of a series I'm obsessed with.

I think I can be quite anxious of the unknown but I still get excited too and like to take little trips outside areas known to me.

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three Jun 10

LoveMakeShare June 9: Share a mistake you made on a current or past project. What did you learn?

So, on the rainbow peacock shawl I did for the 2024 Fasten Off Yarn-A-Long, I dropped some stitches in the process of knitting it. And I didn't notice. I'm not sure how it happened without me noticing either because my process should've caught that at least by the end of the row?

Anyways, it didn't become apparent until I was blocking the project, when a hole started opening up in the area. And I knew that hole could, and would, get bigger, as more stitches unravelled.

Fortunately it was located mostly in a single solid colour area, and I went in and fixed it with some leftover yarn in the same colour. I'd never made this kind of repair before and I was worried it would be obvious where it was.

But you can't tell where I fixed it.

I didn't know I could do that. :3

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three Jun 10

LoveMakeShare June 10: If money were no object and you could have your dream creative space, what would it be?

A room set up for all my art, both digital and handcraft. With some entertainment setup as well. Well lit.

While I'm at it, make it have enough space for two or three people to work together in there. :3

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https://archiveofourown.org/works/85651776/chapters/226321816

LoveMakeShare June 11: Shameless self-promotion day!

Okay so I don't have anything new I want to get eyes on, I'm still working on my fic, I have about a chapter to go but it might be done before the end of June, maybe?

Oh wait I have completed D's other sock, just need to weave in the ends. I'll attach a photo to this post. :3 It may look a bit big but that's just this style of sock, I made the same pattern for myself and J and they fit perfectly!

Otherwise, here's a link to my friends' fanfic that I've been helping to edit/pre-read/cheer on/rubber duck.

Recursive Systems, part 1 of the Multiplicity Protocols series. Murderbot Diaries fanfic, takes place post-canon, written pre-Platform Decay. Plural SecUnit/Murderbot, written by a plural system.

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LoveMakeShare June 12: Shameless appreciate others day. Share a post from this or another hastag game that made you think, and thank the person who posted.

Today I learned that @troodon has been making up those WritingPride hashtag questions I've seen them retooting from their writing account. I'm not writing original fiction (I haven't even been writing with OCs in my fanfic xD) but I've been enjoying seeing the prompts and their responses and I've gone into the tag a little to check out other folks' responses, because queer themes and characters and writers talking about their writing make me happy. :3

Also, thanks to @skysailor for giving me details on things I can obtain or do in order to get started making podfics myself. :DDD That was in response to one of my entries in this hashtag game a few days ago.

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LoveMakeShare June 13: Think back to around this time one year ago. Are you more or less happy with your creative output than you were back then? Why?

I'd say I'm more happy now, simply because I'm doing more creative things, and have more mental spoons to spend on doing creative things, which is also nice.

I was doing some knitting last year after getting restarted in it during the yarn-a-long six months prior, it's possible I'd started knitting socks around that point actually, which is pretty cool. I was just finishing up my peer support training school too.

Anyways, now I'm knitting socks and a hat and I'm working in peer support and volunteering, and I'm writing and editing some friends' fanfic too. :3

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LoveMakeShare June 14: If you could take a month off to work on any project, what would it be and what would you do with that month?

Well, I don't know! I'm going to read this question as if I had a month off from all things that hold me back from doing all the things I want to do. Outside of social activities, I might just dedicate all my time to writing my fanfic. It's such a huge project I've decided to take on, with the goal of writing a number of novellas/novels (depending on how long these end up being.)

I'd probably share some of that time with reading and beta reading because I enjoy both things and also they help me with m own writing.

I'm really fortunate that I get to do all of this already, though! I don't have the attention span/spoons to, say, write 500-1,000 words per day, but I have been putting out 200-300 words per day for June, and beta reading & reading. :3

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three Jun 16

LoveMakeShare June 15: Share some creative wins and losses from June thus far.

Wins: I knitted the second of my roommate's socks off the needles, and started on the pair for my owner! I finished chapter 2 of my current fanfic and started chapter 3. My friends' plural MBD fic that I beta read for has over 80 subscribers on AO3!

Losses: I haven't been able to write every morning of June, though I have done most mornings. :3 I started my owner's sock with mixed up m1r and m1l stitches and it was looking very off, fortunately I was only 10 rounds in so I frogged what I had and restarted it this afternoon with the stitches done correctly this time. Looking much better.

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three Jun 16

LoveMakeShare June 16: Is there anyone you've been meaning to create something with this month, but haven't?

Well, I found out my kumquat also likes The Murderbot Diaries and I told her I had started writing fanfiction, and she offered to beta/edit my stuff. :3 Which I was pretty excited about! She's provided me editing for more professional non-fiction things in the past.

It hasn't happened yet though, which I don't know for sure but I have a few ideas as to why that's so. However we have been chatting every few days so I will reach out and ask her about it. :3 No pressure though! I do have a few beta readers including one who provides me with more on the editing end.

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three Jun 17

LoveMakeShare June 17: It's a running joke online how often men think about the Roman Empire. What is your "Roman Empire?" What interest occupies your thoughts more often than other people would expect?

Well, I don't know if others wouldn't expect this but some areas of special interest for me include feminism, social justice, queer and trans takes on feminism, men's liberation and men in feminism, etc. I read about this sort of thing a lot, and I participate in some Discord communities and have a couple Tumblr sideblogs for these subjects.

I've enjoyed linguistics since a friend took up a more intense interest in it back in Jr. High school.

One of my special interests (though less intense than it used to be) is mythology, spirituality, religion, etc. of all kinds. For a long while I was interested in various types of polytheism and animism, and neo-paganism, and a current interest for a few years now has been Judaism.

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three Jun 18

LoveMakeShare June 18: It's Autistic Pride Day! Does your relationship with neurodivergence, your own or others', influence your work?

Oh mine definitely influences my work. And more than just my autism. I am autistic, ADHD, and bipolar with psychosis. There have been times in and recently out of episodes I couldn't focus on much more than crocheting a blanket. I'm so glad I have fibercrafts when I'm feeling that way, and when I'm feeling well.

My ADHD can make sticking with hobbies and artwork difficult and I often work in small little bursts before going and doing something else. This has been working well recently with my writing a bit most mornings in June.

Hyperfixations/special interests can direct what creative work I do, as in my current Murderbot Diaries fixation leading me to start creative writing at all, and to keep up with it. :3 And the fandom is very full of neurodivergent folks too so I'm in good company.

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three Jun 19

LoveMakeShare June 19: Does your relationship with creativity change when the weather does?

Sometimes. Not always. It depends.

Weather patterns can have an effect on my bipolar, though I've been fairly stable for several years now. I still may be more prone to depression or hypomania (and mine is not energetic+elated+grandiose either) during certain times of the year, which can make some forms of creativity harder.

It can also just get harder for me to create in the heat, my house does not have A/C and my bedroom and laptop are all on the main floor which is much warmer than the basement.

I really enjoy making knitted and crocheted projects in the winter and colder times of the year especially. I like making things I can wear right away. Earlier this year/late last year I made myself a long rainbow scarf!

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three Jun 21

LoveMakeShare June 20: Tomorrow in Canada is National Indigenous Peoples' Day! Share an indigenous person's work that has inspired you, from Canada or elsewhere in the world.

My local friend Crema/A is a fantastic illustrating artist with a widely variable style who encourages me in all my artistic endeavours including drawing, knitting, writing, etc. He hasn't updated his FA in a while but here it is:

https://www.furaffinity.net/user/marmorhaus/

He explores other forms of art too which I don't have links to currently but might one day.

ESE is Australian and someone I met in the MBD fandom who does both illustration and writing:

https://www.tumblr.com/securityunit-ese
https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecurityUnit/pseuds/ESE

ESE is constantly doing something, always creating, has many projects on the go, makes whatever ESE wants to make, encourages others to make what they want to make, runs a community and a few events, and is generally really awesome to be around. The second E is for Enthusiasm and it is very apt.

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Userpage of marmorhaus -- Fur Affinity [dot] net

Fur Affinity is the internet's largest online gallery for furry, anthro, dragon, brony art work and more!

Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three Jun 21

LoveMakeShare June 21: Share a memory of something you made with your dad or another caregiver.

So I haven't really made anything with my mother, although she paints now which is pretty cool, so maybe one day we will. I've given her painting supplies before.

My owner isn't a traditional caregiver but in a D/s and kinky way takes on that role, and while we haven't directly created things together there's been projects I have done that sie has had input into. Or little shitposts either of us have made that have resulted from the influence of one or the other. x3 Or just from something we were doing or sharing together.

I mean I have many fond memories of the modification/recreation of me. x3 But also there's things like... I was playing in a game creation program, following a guide, and sie helped me figure out some parts of it. Or I wrote a shitpost meme the other day about how many of hir critters go by it/its pronouns.

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three 6d ago

LoveMakeShare June 22: Is there a creative influence on you whose legacy has soured, or at least become complicated? What has that complication done for you?

JKR. I didn't get into the HP series when it was coming out, but I did get into it when I lived with someone who owned all the books and while I was first coming to terms with my bipolar disorder and not being able to work. I didn't like what happened with certain characters in the end so much I discovered fan fiction and AO3 for fix-its and AUs.

One of my favourite writers writes an HP fic series.

I didn't get into writing fanfic back then but knowing about AO3 would in part lead me to the MBD fandom spaces and the fanfic writing I engage in today. I'll still read some HP fanfic but I refuse to watch anything new or give any money to her empire.

I don't normally seek to no longer experience art made by creators who do or have done awful things. There are a few exceptions. She is top of that list.

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three 6d ago

As for lasting effects... well, after her and what she does, and my response, I find it a lot more difficult for me to keep enjoying the art of a creator who does or did terrible things, moving forward.

I normally prefer to still enjoy the art, and maybe make my peace via not giving them money or something. Though not everyone is, y'know, putting the money to quite the level of horrible ends as JKR is.

I wouldn't like to let her influence me even in this, and I try not to, but I develop complicated feelings about creators I looked up to turning out to do terrible things, especially if they create in mediums where engaging with their art is one way I give them money, like YouTube or Twitch. Or books, really. And I find it difficult to set that aside.

Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three 5d ago

LoveMakeShare June 23: What is fascinating you right now?

Always, still, The Murderbot Diaries. But I'll talk about aside from that.

I read and am currently re-reading The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir. "Lesbian necromancers in space." The first book Gideon the Ninth has strange old rituals, a quest to become even more powerful, mysterious deaths, and the two protagonists being in conflict/kimesis rather than in love. The series is also hilariously funny. If you've read Homestuck you will apparently get a lot of references in the first book especially, but there are meme references throughout books 1 and 2, not so much book 3.

If I weren't so fixated on TMBD I'd be obsessed with TLT.

Books aside, I started watching the new season of Taskmaster today. That show is so funny.

I've been following TangoTek on Hermitcraft this season while he builds Decked Out 3, and it's really fascinating to observe!

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three 2d ago

LoveMakeShare June 24: Is there a gap in your creative work? A missing tool, a thematic oversight, a technique you haven't learned? Is it a gap you want to or are planning to close?

So I'm very new to creative writing, and I'm currently engaged in writing my first longer story. Up to now I've only done 100-300 word long drabbles.

A skill I'm finding I need to develop is the sort of editing where you take something written okay and you make it better. I don't know if this is a gap so much as it's something I'm currently working to develop, and it's not that I'm terrible to start with it. But there's a balance I'm finding it interesting to strike.

Because if I leave my writing too long I start to think it's terrible. Then when I go back to read it I realize it's actually pretty good. But also there's places where it can be improved. Characterization. Interactions or actions. Voice. Illustration of emotions.

So that's what I'm working on. :3

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three 2d ago

LoveMakeShare June 25: Is there an artist, contemporary or historical, who you would like to collaborate with or learn from? Who or why?

I know that Martha Wells (author of TMBD) used to be involved in fanfiction and the like and it would be so fucking cool to see her involved in fanfic again, like, participating in fandom with her. Not for MBD but like maybe TLT or something else she's into that I'm also into. I dunno if I'd have the confidence to offer to beta for her xD but I like to think that just hanging out in fandom and chatting about writing and the like would be incredibly educational.

A number of friends of mine are fantastic writers, I know because I've read a number of things they've written, and while they for various reasons don't engage in writing projects much or at all these days I'm still very blessed to get to interact with them and see the fun creative things they make even when it's silly little shitposts.

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Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three 2d ago

LoveMakeShare June 26: What's something you learned this month?

I've started to knit a pair of socks for my owner and I'm using a particular yarn that is pretty and cool and has different colours arranged in a few different ways (there's gradients between colours and chunks of colour and etc.)

I've never had the project I'm working on, the actual pattern, and the yarn I'm working with, be so intimately linked before. Like the way the colours pool with this yarn are heavily affected by the type of stitches used in the pattern and I've had at least one previous attempt come out looking very messy and not great. So I have restarted this project a few times now.

It's so worth it though. <3 Finding a pattern that works well with the yarn I'm working with has been an interesting challenge. I've gone through a few! But I want this project to come out well and I've had fun finding something that will suit the yarn. :3

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Trevor Jun 19

@Bel_tamtu So fun to have a beta reader close to you.

Trevor Jun 14

@Bel_tamtu 200-300 words per day is an awesome rate, well done!

Bel Tamtu | Critter Unit Three Jun 16

@lovemakeshare Thank youuuuu

Mike McCaffrey Jun 10

@Bel_tamtu I guess I have that right now, since I'm working out in the garage while our house is having construction. However, it will quite some effort to get it "set up", and by then it will probably being unreasonably hot since it is uninsulated.

Anke Jun 13

@Bel_tamtu Same. I'm curious, though: Is there anything you'd like to take up, but can't, because you don't have the equipment (and money and space for it)?