Lucinda Whyte Donaldson (she/her)

A blue, white and yellow crocheted beanie hat in progress.

Decided to give stranded colour work on crochet a try. It's absolutely working out wonderfully for me 😀 A simple spiralling striped pattern, but it works!

#crochetsky #crochet #knitsky #showmeyourknits #fiberarts #wool #strandedknits

4: The article above proves it unfortunately and Travellers who are involved in activism need to stop cooperating with MSP's, Councillors and other folk who do not give a shit about us. #Indigenous #Indigenouspeoples #indigenousrights #gypsytraveller #romany #irishtravellers #scottishtravellers

3: Because so long as the system of oppression continues to benefit the flattie hantle – to the point that they will always have the final say on our existence – then our lives will not "improve" as they constantly bleat on about. Travellers who work alongside the Gov are just as gulty.

2: This is why I laugh at the Scottish Government's pathetic strategies and "improving lives" nonsense, and why I get annoyed when other Travellers are so willing to work with a Government not made for Travellers. Shit like this is why things will NEVER go forward for us.

1: Not only is this rhetoric deeply dehumanising to Traveller folk like us, but is also very offensive to cultures who's housing is often said to be substandard by white privileged folks in the West 😤 If this were any other BIPOC group, the article would be immediately removed.

Tell me, is 139 heart beats per minute climbing up a small flight of stairs in my fiances home considered normal to you? Because my Dr apparently thinks so 🤷‍♀️ He thinks my heart is absolutely fine 😒 (according to him). I suspect I have POTS tbh.

#POTS #heartcondition #tachycardia #dysautonomia

That's really handy to know! Now I can knit a bonnet using this magic ring method. Thanks for sharing 😁

A children's book section at the Kirkcaldy galleries in Fife, Scotland. It shows many different kinds of books like "the gruffalo in Scots", "three craws" and non Scots written books like "smelly louie".

Guid tae see at least some Scots at the Kirkcaldy galleries. I did laucht at the beuk wi the dug though 😆 The bairns room haed Scots sentences scrieved oan the waws which wis nice tae see. Still, allot o wirk tae dae in terms o safeguarding Scots in Fife, but it's a stert!

Another front selfie of myself wearing the blue bonnet. I have a rather serious expression to my face haha

Selfie of me wearing my Scottish blue bonnet. It sits upon my head and the brim is slightly draped.

The top side of my light blue, Scottish blue bonnet. It is a wide circled beret style hat crocheted in half double crochet at the top. It is resting on one of my fiances T-shirts.

Started at 5am (my sleep sucks), finished at the back of 8pm. My Scottish blue bonnet is done! (no pattern to share as I made it up as I went along). Just needs a wee pom-pom and it's all set 😄
#crochet #crochetsky #knitsky #knitting #fiberarts #fiberprep #showmeyourknits #beret #handmade

A light blue, round Scottish blue bonnet being made in progress, using crochet. It rests on my red tartan bed covers. The hook is above the bonnet, still attached to the hat. The colour of the hooks grip is a grass green.

Making a traditional, Scottish blue bonnet – a type of beret historically worn by Lowland men from the 16th century onwards. I couldn't find a darker shade so it's a very light blue. This hat will be for myself, as gender doesn't matter now.
#crochetsky #knitsky #showmeyourknits #knittingandcrochet

#autism #autistic #actuallyautistic #neurodivergent #audhd #disabiled #disability #sendkids #takingthepip #disabilityrights #autismrights #welfarenotwarfare #disabilitycuts

Not only do we get let down by the education system, but it is that very same education system that has denied us jobs and supporting ourselves financially. It is a brutal industry that is clearly intended to deny any neurodivergent person opportunities in life. We are just statistics in Gov's eyes.

I have no qualifications and hardly any work experience because of the very same institution that was supposed to help me achieve, but failed to do so. That was 20 years ago and nothing has changed. Autistic kids are being massively let down and are stuck on welfare because there is nothing for us.

Seeing the SEND situation in the UK doesn't surprise me at all. 20 years ago, when I was a young child/teenager, I got no help in school for being Autistic. Pressures of bullying, lack of awareness from teachers and the sheer intensity of the schooling system meant that I was forced to leave school.

#gàidhlig #scotslanguage #scotstober #seachdainnagàidhlig #minoritylanguages #indigenouslanguages #languagesky #nativespeaker #motherlanguage #languagelearner #endangeredlanguages

8: Old attitudes towards the leid is the reason for it's massive decline and Fife Council need to stop saying it will only protect Gaelic and not Scots. Scots is Fife's last surviving, vernacular language and deserves equal amount of protection like Gaelic.

7: I'm not being anti Gaelic, I'm just stating a fact that you cannot favour one language like Gaelic over Scots which hasn't had native born speakers since the 1800s. We have vernacular Scots speakers from Fife (met many to testify) who are being side-lined and ignored.

6: I'm all for Gaelic being spoken and promoted in Fife, but it's not fair to exclude Scots in favour of Gaelic which hasn't been spoken properly since the 16th to the 19th centuries.

5: It's not a bad thing, but Gaelic has been extinct in Fife since the 19th century (the last native speakers were Fisher folk in the East Neuk of Fife!) and Scots on the other hand, still has native speakers (myself included) clinging on to dear life trying to prevent the leid from dying out here.

4: And Fife Council aren't even interested in safeguarding Scots. In 2024, I did a FOI request on the language and only £26'800 pound was put in place to fund the language, and other language related stuff seems to be only for Gaelic and not for Scots.

3: And now the youth (and youth in my family) don't even speak it at all. I believe Scots in Fife is functionally extinct and I say this as someone who has lived here since 1994 and has seen a massive change in the amount of people who went from speaking it, to hardly or never speaking it at all.

2: Take the Lang Toun (Kirkcaldy, where I live), there is no Scots awareness apart from the odd Scots sign or written Scots on a billboard. Scots was once strongly spoken in Fife is now hardly ever spoken. Allot of the older generation are reluctant to speak it unless it's Scottish-English.

1: It's great to see Seachdain na Gàidhlig (Word Gaelic Week) promoting Gàidhlig and showcasing Scotland's Indigenous language. But I feel as a Scots speaker we too need our own language week, as well as more cultural initiatives in areas where Scots is severely lacking.

An old photo of a woman from Eriskay spinning with a dealgan and distaff. She is seated in a chair and holding a dealgan in her right hand, whilst drafting wool from the distaff with her left hand.

Here is a picture of a woman from Eriskay spinning with a dealgan and distaff (1890s). And yes, I was wearing Pyjama trousers last night 🤪

#handspinning #spinningwool #spinningwheel #dropspindle #dropspindlespinning #supportspindlespinning #medievalspinning #fiberarts #fiberprep #knitsky #crochet

Here is an example of spinning with a spindle and distaff. This is how my Lowland Scottish ancestors would have spun wool (not with a French spindle tho!). The last true distaff spinners that I could research in the UK were Gaelic women of Eriskay photographed in the late 19th century.

A 19th century Bulgarian distaff with white lambswool wrapped round it. It is resting on my brown leather couch. The wrap is red in colour.

Bulgarian distaff (19th century made) all floofed up with lambswool 🙂 I've just started a spinning related TikTok profile and will be posting a link once it's up and running 😁
#handspinning #distaff #medievalspinning #suspendedspindlespinning
#dropspindlespinning #spinningwool #spinningwheel

A plastic bag containing 500 grams of off white lambswool. It's rests on my brown leather sofa.

Close up of the lambswool, with myself holding some of it in my left hand.

Absolutely lush lambswool bought from World of Wool. It is so soft and squishy 😍 The item description said it would contain VM, but upon inspection it has absolutely none, which is a bonus! Doesn't say the breed unfortunately lol
#handspinning #wool #dropspindle #dropspindlespinning #supportspindle

The correct side of my tablet woven band. It is a white band with a red chevron running through it as a pattern. It is currently being woven on my inkle loom.

The wrong or incorrect side of the tablet woven band. It still shows the white and red chevron design, but it's broken up.

Tablet weaving the "wrong way" without knowing how 🤔 (warped and threaded it all correctly lol) but anyways, you can see the pattern on the correct side and it looks fabby 😁 #tabletweaving #cardweaving #bandweaving #backstrapweaving #weaving #inkleweaving #inkleweaver #inkleloom

Fury as dozens 'face eviction from their Fife village homes by new landlord' Families and other tenants have been told they must leave their homes by July

www.heraldscotland.com/news/2577906...
Forcing people in Scotland from their homes/land– not just a Highland/Island (Gàidhlig) issue btw. We in Fife suffer second homes and house building/white settler problems here as well. No jobs too and natives are leaving.
#colonialism #landreform #clearences

Front cover of my vintage Crochet book. It's titled – Introduction to Crochet (by Golden Hands). It shoes a pair of hands working on a crocheted granny square blanket. The background is green.

Picture one showing on the right page a 19th century Irish lace pouch which is white in colour, with a brown background. The left shows black and white diagrams of Crochet tensioning (gauge).

More black and white examples of patterns from the book.

A coloured page showing swatches of Tunisian crochet patterns in different colours.

Last year I was very lucky to have picked up this vintage crochet book from a charity (thrift) shop. It dates back to 1975 and it has some lovely designs/patterns.
#crochetsky #crochet #crocheting #vintagecrochet #crochetpattern #crochetdesign #crochetbook