I'm behind and I'm also under the weather bc the sun refuses to shine here but I promised you all a draw for customer appreciation. Congrats to our Yarnian who won a free freaking skein! Thank you all for sharing, caring & creativity. Another draw in a couple of months!!
Dr.MRO/ Axel Folio
@isasaxonists.bsky.social
Dr. MRO. Literary Historian. Public scholar, activist & small biz owner who dyes yarn inspired by Black/brwn premodern figures. WOC: product of Black & brown love. Gif lover. Racist magnet. Abolitionist. Not Eddie Murphy. She/hers www.RepublicOfYarnia.com
Yup, Yarnia has both a yarn club & a roving club. Some fiber lovers have joined both & now I have to figure out how to consolidate these for some of you bc that was unexpected. I should never ever underestimate fiber lovers. I have learned my lesson. 🧶 Anyway next month's sneak peek coming soon!
a cartoon of a tomato with the words join us on it
ALT: a cartoon of a tomato with the words join us on it
media.tenor.com
Today I learned that @isasaxonists.bsky.social offers YARN SUBSCRIPTIONS and seriously as soon as I have room in my budget I'm going to sign up!
#BHM Day 15: Black Pilgrims on the Road 🧶 The figure at the heart of this colorway is a Black knight shown mid-journey, riding with purpose rather than spectacle. He appears in the late-15th-cent travel account of Arnold von Harff’s travel account, a record of pilgrimage routes, 1/6 #yarnsky
#BHM Day 14: Warmed Earth Embrace 🧶 This is a new colorway & perfect to talk abt today as it's rooted in tenderness, freedom, & quiet intimacy. The colorway draws inspiration from Miguel Ângelo Lupi's 1879 painting depicting a formerly enslaved Black couple seated closely together. #yarnsky 1/6
Today is the last day to get your hands on Feb's monthly yarn or roving colorway: Petals & Presence. The story of our figure of inspiration was one I really enjoyed researching bc she was a little outside my area of expertise. Twas a win win bc I learned so much along the way too! 🧶 #yarnsky
#BHM Day 14: Warmed Earth Embrace 🧶 This is a new colorway & perfect to talk abt today as it's rooted in tenderness, freedom, & quiet intimacy. The colorway draws inspiration from Miguel Ângelo Lupi's 1879 painting depicting a formerly enslaved Black couple seated closely together. #yarnsky 1/6
#BHM Day 13: Tranquil Teal 🧶 This boy appears in the background of a 17th-cent French painting by François Dagobert Jouvenet, positioned behind a named European figure. The boy is left unnamed himself. This young boy w/ dark skin wears a white turban & a silver collar, & holds a green 1/8 #yarnsky
#BHM Day 13: Tranquil Teal 🧶 This boy appears in the background of a 17th-cent French painting by François Dagobert Jouvenet, positioned behind a named European figure. The boy is left unnamed himself. This young boy w/ dark skin wears a white turban & a silver collar, & holds a green 1/8 #yarnsky
#BHM Day 12: Earth and Sky Bearer🧶 What does it tell us when a Black figure appears not as an exception, but as part of the everyday visual world? This colorway is grounded in a late 15th-cent. image from Le Kalendrier des bergers (The Shepherds’ Calendar, 1493), a popular #yarnsky #yarnmarket 1/6
Working on something and am reminded of the words of revolutionary Assate Shakur: "Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them." #showmeyourknits #craftivism #yarnsky
#BHM Day 12: Earth and Sky Bearer🧶 What does it tell us when a Black figure appears not as an exception, but as part of the everyday visual world? This colorway is grounded in a late 15th-cent. image from Le Kalendrier des bergers (The Shepherds’ Calendar, 1493), a popular #yarnsky #yarnmarket 1/6
Day 11: Early Modern Black Voyagers🧶 This colorway is inspired by an anonymous Black nobleman depicted in "Merchant Receiving a Moor in the Harbour," a Dutch painting by Nicolaes Berchem (1620–1683), c. 1650. The term “Moor” in premodern Europe was not a fixed or singular identity: it #yarnsky 1/6
😍 this colorway (and history!) btw, in Spain, “moorish” (moro/mora) was applied to Romani as well, and still survives in some flamenco lyrics.
Day 11: Early Modern Black Voyagers🧶 This colorway is inspired by an anonymous Black nobleman depicted in "Merchant Receiving a Moor in the Harbour," a Dutch painting by Nicolaes Berchem (1620–1683), c. 1650. The term “Moor” in premodern Europe was not a fixed or singular identity: it #yarnsky 1/6
Day 11: Early Modern Black Voyagers🧶 This colorway is inspired by an anonymous Black nobleman depicted in "Merchant Receiving a Moor in the Harbour," a Dutch painting by Nicolaes Berchem (1620–1683), c. 1650. The term “Moor” in premodern Europe was not a fixed or singular identity: it #yarnsky 1/6
Day 10: Black Warriors in the East 🧶 The Darabname reminds us that the medieval & early modern world was vast, interconnected, & vividly imagined far beyond Europe. Produced in Mughal India in the late sixteenth century, this illustrated epic re-tells Persian heroic history 1/6
Day 10: Black Warriors in the East 🧶 The Darabname reminds us that the medieval & early modern world was vast, interconnected, & vividly imagined far beyond Europe. Produced in Mughal India in the late sixteenth century, this illustrated epic re-tells Persian heroic history 1/6
#BHM Day 9: Black Friars 🧶 Not all Black figures in medieval European art are symbolic, allegorical, or exoticized. Some are simply there bc Black people were there. In the image from Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (c. 1416), 3 Black monks appear in a scene of 1/7 #yarnsky #yarnmarket
🖤 #BlackHistoryMonth Limited Edition 🧶 The Sock Set + Bag is here, & you can choose or create your own sock set to go w/ it. Each set includes a commemorative BHM case, a sock set, & a few extra treats ✨ 15% of proceeds go to Khartoum Kitchen supporting ppl in Sudan facing genocide & starvation.
For roving lovers/spinners, look at this delicious skein from a Yarnian spinner! The roving once looked like this (on the right) and the spinnning goddess @ana.babylonpod.page has turned it into that glorious skein below. I cannot with how talented you all are. Fiber wins all around.
@isasaxonists.bsky.social just skeined up my first fleece from the roving subscription!!
#BHM Day 9: Black Friars 🧶 Not all Black figures in medieval European art are symbolic, allegorical, or exoticized. Some are simply there bc Black people were there. In the image from Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (c. 1416), 3 Black monks appear in a scene of 1/7 #yarnsky #yarnmarket
#BHM Day 8: Diego Bemba 🧶 This colorway turns to a figure whose presence in the historical record is both rare & quietly powerful: Diego Bemba, a Kongolese aristocrat from Soyo (in what is now the DRC & Angola), painted in the mid-17th century. It is exceptionally uncommon to know the 1/8 #yarnsky
#BHM Day 8: Diego Bemba 🧶 This colorway turns to a figure whose presence in the historical record is both rare & quietly powerful: Diego Bemba, a Kongolese aristocrat from Soyo (in what is now the DRC & Angola), painted in the mid-17th century. It is exceptionally uncommon to know the 1/8 #yarnsky
#BHM Day 7: Ira Aldridge 🧶 Ira Aldridge (1807–1867) was a groundbreaking Black Shakespearean actor whose career reshaped European stages in the 19th century. Born in New York, Aldridge was barred from most theatrical opportunities in the US by racist laws & customs 1/ 7 #yarnsky #handdyedyarn
Because we're consistently in the red & can't pay people back in a timely manner we've had to completely stop sending new eSims. That's devastating for the people of Gaza living through a genocide committed on our dime. #ConnectingGaza
Crips for eSIMs is still sending and topping up eSIMs for people in Gaza - the project is in the red right now (including our UK team). Please share widely - US / Canada / UK specific links in the description: chuffed.org/project/crip...
#BHM Day 7: Ira Aldridge 🧶 Ira Aldridge (1807–1867) was a groundbreaking Black Shakespearean actor whose career reshaped European stages in the 19th century. Born in New York, Aldridge was barred from most theatrical opportunities in the US by racist laws & customs 1/ 7 #yarnsky #handdyedyarn
#BHM Day 6: Black Bohemian Figure 🧶 This colorway is inspired by a Black figure depicted in an early 15th-cent Bohemian astrological ms from the court of King Wenceslaus IV. The figure is not identified as a specific historical person, but their presence is nonetheless meaningful. 1/7 #yarnsky
#BHM Day 6: Black Bohemian Figure 🧶 This colorway is inspired by a Black figure depicted in an early 15th-cent Bohemian astrological ms from the court of King Wenceslaus IV. The figure is not identified as a specific historical person, but their presence is nonetheless meaningful. 1/7 #yarnsky
#BHM Day 5: Portrait of a Young Woman 🧶 Today’s colorway is inspired by a late 18th-cent "Portrait of a Young Woman." The sitter’s name & life remain undocumented, as is often the case for Black sitters in 18th-century European portraiture. What survives instead her presence, rendered 1/5 #yarnsky
#BHM Day 5: Portrait of a Young Woman 🧶 Today’s colorway is inspired by a late 18th-cent "Portrait of a Young Woman." The sitter’s name & life remain undocumented, as is often the case for Black sitters in 18th-century European portraiture. What survives instead her presence, rendered 1/5 #yarnsky
#BHM Day 4: Maternal Rainforest This is a brand new colorway in time for #BlackHistoryMonth. It's inspired by a 17th-century allegorical image of a Black woman representing the continent of Africa, part of a series of 4 baroque murals (in Prague) personifying the known continents 🧶#yarnsky 1/7
#BHM Day 4: Maternal Rainforest This is a brand new colorway in time for #BlackHistoryMonth. It's inspired by a 17th-century allegorical image of a Black woman representing the continent of Africa, part of a series of 4 baroque murals (in Prague) personifying the known continents 🧶#yarnsky 1/7
#BHM Day 3: Young Lady with the Orange Blossom (1722/23) Titled "Portrait of a Lady Holding an Orange Blossom," the early 18th cent. painting offers a rare & striking image of a Black woman rendered with dignity, softness, & presence. The sitter is depicted with a lighter complexion, 🧶 1/6 #yarnsky
#BHM Day 3: Young Lady with the Orange Blossom (1722/23) Titled "Portrait of a Lady Holding an Orange Blossom," the early 18th cent. painting offers a rare & striking image of a Black woman rendered with dignity, softness, & presence. The sitter is depicted with a lighter complexion, 🧶 1/6 #yarnsky
Day 2: John Blanke 🧶 John Blanke was a Black trumpeter at the Tudor court, best known from the Westminster Tournament Roll of 1511, commissioned during the reign of Henry VIII. Blanke appears twice in the ms & is shown wearing the same livery 1/ #BHM #yarnsky #yarnmarket #blackhistorymonth
Day 2: John Blanke 🧶 John Blanke was a Black trumpeter at the Tudor court, best known from the Westminster Tournament Roll of 1511, commissioned during the reign of Henry VIII. Blanke appears twice in the ms & is shown wearing the same livery 1/ #BHM #yarnsky #yarnmarket #blackhistorymonth
#BHM Day 1: "Alchitrof, the Ethiopian Emperor.” 🧶 Alchitrof is said to have ruled in the 16th-cent & made contact w/ the Portuguese. Records state that he was known for his bravery & his fight against the Portuguese invasion of his territory. 1/ #yarnsky #blackhistory #handdyedyarn
#BHM Day 1: "Alchitrof, the Ethiopian Emperor.” 🧶 Alchitrof is said to have ruled in the 16th-cent & made contact w/ the Portuguese. Records state that he was known for his bravery & his fight against the Portuguese invasion of his territory. 1/ #yarnsky #blackhistory #handdyedyarn
It's #BlackHistoryMonth so you know what time it is? Time for a month long thread/post on a different figure and their colorway each day. Stay tuned, learn lots, embrace history, and happy crafting! 🧶 #yarnsky #yarnmarket #handdyedyarn
It's #BlackHistoryMonth so you know what time it is? Time for a month long thread/post on a different figure and their colorway each day. Stay tuned, learn lots, embrace history, and happy crafting! 🧶 #yarnsky #yarnmarket #handdyedyarn
ICE has been holding a disabled Black man for a year! Rodney Taylor is a double amputee who was days away from receiving new prosthetic legs when ICE took him. He’s been denied his prosthetics & placed in solitary. His health is declining. Public outrage might save his life. Say his name:
Sign the Petition
Demand the Release of Rodney Taylor from ICE Detention
change.org
Introducing February's monthly yarn club colorway: Petal & Presence. Inspired by a portrait of a beautiful Black woman in the background of an 18thc English portrait. The artist recorded her as a "sitter" so we know she was real & we've brought her to the forefront to celebrate her. 🧶 #yarnsky
Republic of Yarnia stands w/ the ppl of Minnesota ✊🏽🧶 🧵We stand in solidarity w/ communities resisting ICE, deportation regimes, & the criminalization of migration. Many who’ve taken to the streets in Minneapolis & beyond are calling not just for accountability, but 1/5 #abolishice #craftivism 🧶
What's happening w/ ICE is not isolated. Cages, occupation, militarized borders, kidnappings, & extraction are part of the same global system. People are speaking now bc it's "hitting home." That, too, is the imperial boomerang. Palestine. Sudan. Congo. Tigray. Cuba. Argentina. #globalsolidarity