Check-In Post December 18th 2020

[badly_knitted]

Hello to all members, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.


Today's Question: Do you have any crafting plans for the festive season?


If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

Comments

[badly_knitted]

I might try to dabble in something other than knitting arm warmers, maybe do some work on one of my sweaters.

Finished knitting one arm warmer and started its mate, 64 rows in total.

[shopfront]

Yesterdays swatch dried overnight and the final gauge was... hilariously wrong. I wish I'd thought to measure it before blocking so I knew whether it was just my tension or how water affects this yarn. But that meant today I did two more swatches for that project that are currently drying, and then decided stuff it and swatched for my next (socks) so I can run those swatches through the machine early. Also rolled yarn for my next two projects while waiting for things to dry for measuring, so all in all I've spent a lot of time with my needles but don't actually feel like I accomplished much :|

Now that my Christmas scarf is done I'm all wrapped for festive things, although I made a scarf for my wife that wasn't specifically for Christmas and is sitting waiting for me to be bothered washing it a million times because it was crocking a lot. So I'm thinking I should get a wriggle on and do that before Christmas and add it to the present pile.

[badly_knitted]

I do hope it's not the water shrinking your swatches because that doesn't bode well for whatever you make with the yarn. You don't want it shrinking! That happened with a sweater I made for my mum, it was a mohair mix yarn, machine washable, but now it's child sized >.< I don't think she ever wore it even though she bought the yarn and chose the pattern.

Hope you get your wife's scarf sorted so she can be wrapped up snugly!

[perspi]

Hi, y'all! I am knitting a little tonight, on a shawl I've got going.

As for holiday crafting, in January I'll join the 'Make Don't Break' challenge over on IG (website is here) - it's pretty low stress but a fun way to connect with fellow crafters!

[badly_knitted]

Hope the shawl is progressing well!

Thanks for sharing the link, hopefully some people from here will join in.

[moth2fic]

Sort of. I've identified some fabric in my stash that will make a nice 'runner' for our sideboard and I can then put slightly scratchy metal ornaments on it... But I have a bad back and will have to wait for husband to get the sewing machine out for me. Also considering a leaf arrangement for a Christmas sparkly vase holder I just unearthed. We have plenty of holly and ivy. Will photograph if these materialise. I finished baking shortbread and making lemon curd (from our own lemons from the land we own in Portugal) for presents (plus some for us).

[badly_knitted]

Those sound like lovely ideas, and the homemade lemon curd and shortbread... YUM! How wonderful to have your own lemons!

Hope your back will improve soon. You don't need back trouble on top of everything else this year has thrown at us all.

[moth2fic]

Back still agonising. But I've made the runner which looks lovely - will photograph when the ivy etc, is done! While I was sewing, I had one of those eureka moments and realised the gorgeous fabric which I bought on impulse but had no ideas about would make great place mats. So... I will definitely have two done for our Christmas dinner but the other four I can get from the piece will maybe wait till we might have visitors!!

[badly_knitted]

How wonderful! You're certainly busy, but the runner and the place mats are useful as well as decorative items. Great that you found a good use for your impulse buy!

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Mmm. Homemade lemon curd sounds good!

[moth2fic]

It's much better than the shop variety! More lemony if that makes sense. It's dead easy, too. I make a couple of jars at a time and do it in the microwave. It does have to be kept in the fridge. I tried orange one year but wasn't impressed - it doesn't have the same tang.

[badly_knitted]

It does. Lemon is my favourite flavour, the more lemony the better!

I wonder if oranges and lemons used together would produce an acceptable tang...

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Answer: my last festive craft is paper Saint Basil's. I did two more steps on it yesterday (and used a binder clip which helped so thanks for the suggestion).

Also do jigsaw puzzles count as a craft? If so I am working on a Christmas puzzle, which I hope to finish this weekend.

[badly_knitted]

Wheee! Your construction work is progressing well!

If they don't then maybe they should. I love jigsaws, I just don't have anywhere to do one at present.

[moth2fic]

If you love jigsaws and don't have room, try jigsawplanet.com
You choose the number of pieces and whether or not the pieces should be rotated. The highest number is 300 which sounds like an easy jigsaw but on a screen, that's quite hard to handle. I find it quite addictive.

[badly_knitted]

Thank you, I'll do that! I used to do jigsaws on my computer all the time, often 1000 piece ones, but that was before I started writing fanfic and I was using a different computer back then. No idea what happened to the program I used to use. Smaller is probably better for me these days, now that I don't have time top spend a week on a jigsaw.