Remote

Alison

@BritishKoalaTea@social.coop

mastodon 4.5.13

She/her, English by birth, American by choice, living in the Midwest. I'm for less shareholder value and more user value.

Fave insult: Bless your heart and the horse you rode in on. Joined Mastodon in November 2022. I work in tech, finished a master's degree in Data Science in Oct 2024. 4th degree black belt in Kenpo karate.

Header photo is a picture of the Torhouse Stone Circle in Scotland from 2025. Profile pic is me, smiling, standing in front of a stone wall. Posts delete after 6 months.

0 Followers

0 Following

25 Posts

Joined June 11, 2024

Blog:

https://www.quantumtea.com/

Codeberg:

https://codeberg.org/BritishKoalaTea

Free knitting patterns:

https://payhip.com/QuantumTea

Pixelfed:

https://pixey.org/BritishKoalaTea

Posts

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · Jun 22, 2026

Replying to @flargh@mastodon.social

@flargh@mastodon.social An excellent addition to any cabinet, and probably a Union worker too.

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · May 16, 2026

Hunter Yoda, sound asleep on the sofa. I didn't expect to see his ears like that when he was relaxed, and some claws poking out on his paws.
#Caturday #CatsOfMastondon

163

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · May 13, 2026

My purple poppy mallow is going to flower! This is the first bud of four, on a stalk the plant shot out sideways from the main plant.
#Gardening #NativePlants #BloomScrolling

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · May 12, 2026

Replying to @eliskunk@queer.group

@eliskunk@queer.group @effinbirds@mastodon.social just made a "Fuck AI Art" design with a seagull.

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · May 06, 2026

Replying to @SeaFury@aus.social

@SeaFury Metal unless the yarn is slippery, then bamboo

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · May 05, 2026

Hoping i can get past the 35th repeat on my Feather and Fan lace scarf this week. I've made mistakes and ripped back 3 times already.

I do not give any grace or mercy to myself on this piece, it's for me and I know I can get it right. It'll bug me if I find a mistake.

The Aimee Sher Comfort Linen Silk yarn took the unraveling well, it still looks good.

#Knitting #LaceKnitting #YarnBothering

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · May 02, 2026

Took my indirect warp off the warping board and got it on the loom! It's been 3 years since I warped up my loom, and this is the first indirect warp and the first solo warp I've done.

#Weaving #RigidHeddleLoom

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · May 02, 2026

Poking around with sentiment analysis on the public domain copy of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

I extracted the speech, did a strict attribution, and ran sentiment analysis for different speakers based off chunks sampled from the text.

Elizabeth is neutral with a 28% confidence level, Jane is joyful at a 57% confidence. Darcy is sad with 94% confidence and Mrs Bennet is joyful at 95% confidence.

Those aren't the emotions I get from reading the text. Again, I'm learning more about the sentiment analysis than the text.
https://www.kaggle.com/code/alisonhawke/pride-and-prejudice

#DataScience #Python #Literature #TextAnalysis #SentimentAnalysis

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · May 01, 2026

Made a new personal best at the gym today, 548lb on the leg press! That's a number I never thought was possible.

https://www.quantumtea.com/weight-lifting-personal-records/

#FediFitness #WeightLifting

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · May 01, 2026

The three plants I added this year seem to be getting along nicely. One unexpected addition is the purple coneflower I planted last year. It had been munched to the ground by a deer and I assumed it was dead. But now it's back!

All three Rattlesnake Master plants came back, one of them is now four plants and one is very small. The Rose Verbena was spreading wildly, I removed some of it to give space for the newcomers.
#Gardening #NativePlants

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · Apr 29, 2026

Switched my phone from a Pixel 8 to a Pixel 10a and it was a bumpy ride. The text message backup would not restore, data wouldn't copy across, Google Wallet won't load and didn't load on the old phone either.

The stuff that does work is the stuff I pay for, Fastmail, 1Password, and my VPN. Those are solid and reliable.

I had a way to export text messages, so nothing is lost, but the Android Switch app was useless.

#PixelPhone #Android

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · Apr 28, 2026

Replying to @venite@wandering.shop

@venite@wandering.shop Thank you! It's my favourite "looks harder than it is" lace pattern.

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · Apr 28, 2026

I'd forgotten how much I like knitting a lace scarf! Feather and Fan pattern with a 3 stitch border, yarn in Aimee Sher Makes Comfort Silk Linen, in the Forget-me-not colour.
#Knitting #LaceKnitting #YarnBothering

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · Apr 27, 2026

Went to the Midwest Fiber Festival last weekend, tried Nalbinding for the first time in a 3 hour class.

Came home and cast on for a lace scarf with new yarn, and, after 5 years of stalling, started a video class in indirect warping for my loom. It's a way to get long warps without needing the space for a direct warp and lengths of yarn that cats love to mess with.

#Knitting #Weaving #Nalbinding #YarnBothering

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · Apr 07, 2026

Moss and lichen growing on the outside windowsill of my father's nursing home room in Gloucestershire. I love the hairy look of the moss on the right.
#Mosstodon #LichenSubscribe

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · Apr 01, 2026

Replying to @sundogplanets@mastodon.social

@sundogplanets Can you mail some home instead?

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · Mar 15, 2026

Replying to @QasimRashid__dup_1936@mastodon.social

@QasimRashid@mastodon.social We have a problem with the legal immigration process being too long, complex, and expensive. Legal immigrants pay taxes, so if it was about money, the janky process is the part they'd fix

Alison @BritishKoalaTea@social.coop · Feb 18, 2026

Cardigan in progress, the pattern is Seven Tees, adapted for people with arms bigger than drinking straws, and without the stripes.

Using local Rambouillet wool from a farm I've been to, that I got at the Midwest Fiber Festival. This year the festival is April 24-26 in St Louis.

#WIPWednesday #Kniting #YarnBothering