liam and his dad are home! and someone please get rep. castro a coat!

We don’t usually get this kinda snow, the light and fluffy stuff. And considering the ice-sleet mess from last week is still here we’re pretty frozen. But I shoveled the driveway into a pile and the kiddo made a cave for the cat and we needed this moment of play. Now. Back to quilting.

Email me your receipts by 7pm central on 2/1! Boost please! [email protected] StandWithMinnesota.com Rent funds are the most immediate need. Here is one: chuffed.org/project/1671...

I’ll suggest this rent fund: it’s the end of the month. We need the help! www.gofundme.com/f/75ccxs-nei...

Help MN and maybe win these mittens! I’ll draw a name 2/1, so get me your name by 7pm central tomorrow. Every $5 you give to mutual aid and every phone call to your reps is an entry. Email a pic of your receipt/call to [email protected]

4 Black journalists have been kidnapped by the federal government

Forth Worth teacher Chanea Bond says sticking with pen and paper keeps generative artificial intelligence out of her American literature classes. n.pr/4c3cdzs

Posted on the farm IG, but moving it here also. I made a mini quilt Rebel Loon for @anniekp.bsky.social. I’m gonna make a few more + protest mini quilts to raffle away. Want one? Call your senators. More details below. +

When the group chat with your neighbors is going wild at 9:30pm because you’re all trying to figure out if that frozen-water-covered dead tree in another neighbor’s yard is gonna fall on the power line…it’s leeeeeeaning.

The most humbling part of my winter-storm-craft is that I, apparently, cannot count to three 21 times in a row to rib the top of this here sock pattern. I’ve frogged it 8 times today. I blame the magic loop. It doesn’t feel very magical. But hey, the power is still on. One more storm band to go 🤞🏻

It's the PTO moms and spreadsheet dads and other random-ass Minnesotans concerned for their neighbors. There is no one central organizing org, just a ton of people who give a shit. It's both beautiful that it's happening and laughable that anyone thinks there's some broader apparatus at work.

a non comprehensive list of things MN are doing right now legal observing in a rapid response group legal observing because they happened to be in their community and came across ICE participating in or supporting rapid response groups safety patroling their schools, businesses, daycares 1/5

We’re about to get smashed with some big winter weather. So I’ve spent most of the past two days getting the farm ready for the hit. The last task was adding some wind-breaks to the chicken cook so the girls are more cozy. We call the motif “random farm upcycled” as it’s mostly scraps and trash.

Minnesota! It’s cold! These don’t have to be pretty and they let you keep your hands in your pockets. Old sheet, old tshirt? He’ll, you could glue it if you don’t have a sewing machine.

Eli's back to talk more about recursion and chaos on Graph Time. In this episode he shows us how to make a Sierpinski triangle with recursion and randomness and then we play around with other shapes! youtu.be/2plWsAPUdR4

Now that the White House is using AI to edit photos of their political opponents to create fascist propaganda I’m wondering if anyone could have seen this use of AI coming. Okay I’m hearing lots of people did and they were forced to watch corporations smother the masses with the technology anyways

This veteran here in Fairbanks has an important message and mission.

You have another chance! I'm making another pair. Purple for Prince. Email me evidence that you're helping Minnesota at [email protected] SO many ways to help. See next skeets for how to enter to win these.

So, a giant winter storm is about to hit us. We will probably loose power for several days. Now taking recs for knitting books I can get on Libby before the storm so I can finally learn how to add/drop stitches, maybe some new stitches, and level up so I can one day knit a pair of socks.

I love that the country is inspired by MN. That’s great. Stop telling me that. We get it. Tell us what you’re doing to help. Are you organizing your community? Sending us lawyers? Pressuring your reps? Boycotting? Who and how? Donating to our very public mutual aid efforts? HELP US.

In an effort to do more creative things with my time, aka be on my phone less, I have gotten back into sewing and have been taking a few online classes. Over the weekend I finished this quilt jacket from an old bed spread. I’ve now got a comfy warm house coat for my remote work life.

If you’re not calling your reps you need to. Over the last week when I say I’m calling about defunding 🧊 the staffers have gone from, to paraphrase, “that’s nice honey, now hush” to “tell me more about why you feel this way” and that’s giving me a lil hope right now in my purple yet red state.

Hey folks! You can still win these mittens! Donate to any org doing good. Send me a picture of the receipt. DM or you can even blank out details and reply with the image here.

Well...this explains why I can't make outgoing calls at the moment... [Insert: This is fine coffee in a burning room gif]

Not here and want to help Minnesota? Read or listen to this story, and then please spread it among your networks. Then call legislators to raise hell. www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

I cannot stress how important it is that you read all of this. Spread it far and wide. Whipple is the building where people are being taken after being kidnapped in Minneapolis.

I wrote up a bit about Minneapolis right now, mostly to share with my coworkers and family, but if it works for you, you can share it, too. arbitrarilyclosecom.wordpress.com/2026/01/11/o...

We’re at $440. If you’re outside Minneapolis and you want to help, WE NEED MONEY. And maybe you’ll win sweet mittens! Suggested orgs in next skeet.

Ice sucks! Help me raise money for good things. 1. Donate to an immigrant rights org like www.ilcm.org 2. Send me a picture of the receipt. Every $5 is an entry. I knit these mittens and I will draw a name on 1/17/26 and send these to the winner. We’ve already raised $165! Can we make it to $300?

A special shout out to @aijustice.bsky.social for helping answer some of my questions today about helping a detained friend. Y’all had some great people working your hotline and have an amazingly helpful website. Thank you for all you do ❤️

A family friend was detained by ICE at a regularly scheduled USCIS appointment in FL over a month ago. I've been trying to help the family as they are abroad & do not speak English. So far I've found 95% of the phone numbers listed online for ICE/DHS facilities are disconnected or never answered

DHS tweeted this yesterday. Little more than 24 hours later, ICE agents just shot and killed a legal observer in Minneapolis.

If you are not in Minneapolis, It is important that you spread the word how bad it is. Everywhere in the city is seeing ICE. They are speeding, kicking in doors, taking people at bus stops. Yell at your electeds. They are taking daycare workers. Parents dropping kids off at school.

This.

me every single day

Needed a mindful and mindless art activity, saw this rice-map-drawing and watercolor as a #Sketchbook2026 over on IG. I think I’ll try to do all 30 w/ the kiddo. Might need to get her her own paint to keep the peace… www.instagram.com/reel/DTDS2NU... Entry 2/30: Rainbow maps

Everything is stupid. let’s do some good. On January 17, I will send these hand knit mittens to someone! Maybe you! Donate to any org in next msg or some similar org. Literally just go support some good group, and send me a pic of the receipt. Every $5 is an entry. Boosts welcome!

We were traveling over New Years, I wasn’t able to cook up the greens and black eyed peas we grew this year. Now the question is, since we’re back home: do I make black eyed peas and greens tomorrow or will that cause further disruption in the new-year-greens-ceremony?

Hmmm…

A thing I’m really glad we decided as our family vacation norms ~10years ago when we became a family of 3: Eat out 1 meal a day, sandwiches & the like for other meals. Fancy coffee & pastry afternoons. Each member of the fam gets to pick 1 adventure for the vacay. We play board games at night.

I haven’t put nearly the dent in my TBR pile as I assumed on this vacation. But I made sweet progress on this knitting project and a few other mending projects. So. That’s a win.

Yesterday the kiddo and I teamed up and tried to convince hubs that a houseplant is an acceptable vacation souvenir. He remained unconvinced because the pottery didn’t say the location. So the kid and I settled for some witchy tea from the plant/apothecary store 😂

Oh yeah! Today I unlocked “can knit and listen to an audio book” levels. Making progress on the seed knit cowl.

Had a long car ride to learn into imperfection with a new craft today. Seed stitch test swatch made with recycled yarn before I moved onto the pretty yarn for the actual craft. I have a goal of knitting a cowl before the end of winter break.

In 2019 I bought the kiddo a pair of Elmo chopsticks while in San Francisco visiting for Desmos Fellows weekend. Since then, about once a month, she’d try to use them, get frustrated, and swap back to a fork. Tonight she successfully used them while eating dumplings! Perseverance and patience 💚

Needing blue sky networking help: I am looking for someone with familiarity in Immigration Law who might be willing to talk with me and help me understand the system a bit. In particular I am in need of advocacy advice for a detained family friend. (South Florida specific would be ideal)

Looking for suggestions: If I were to find myself in need of patty paper, but wanted to avoid Am@zon, where would you send me to purchase said patty paper? I'm am building out an idea for a conference presentation on MP5 and student-choice with geometric constructions & we'll be folding things.

I’m not on here often, but saw this on a dyslexic group I’m in & wanted to share: If you hate the new iOS glass update, you can make it slightly more tolerable: Settings Accessibility Display & text size Toggle on the “reduce transparency” button. It still isn’t great, but it sucks less.

Today, the Republican leadership in the legislature failed the people of North Carolina.