Check-In Post June 25th 2022

[badly_knitted]

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, 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: No question today.


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]

Despite an occasional very light drizzle, I got out in the garden today and cleared the worst of the bits of twigs and stuff off the mound of soil covering the stretch of path beneath the conifer. Under the pile of branches I'd also discovered old compost bags with more bags and old garden fleece crammed in them, so I started emptying them out. One had chewed up black plastic in it so was clearly a mouse or rat nest at some point. I had a job trying to collect as much of the plastic as I could. The bags are also very spidery, and I find spiders very creepy, so I still have several bags to deal with. Hoping no spiders went in the dustbin, but if there are I'll have to prop the lid open so they can get out.

Good progress has been made though. Hopefully I can start shovelling the soil back onto the banking soon.

[wiseheart]

That is a lot of hard work! What do your bones say to it?

[badly_knitted]

My old bones are whimpering quietly. They know the real work is yet to come, moving all the soil and rocks. There are at least two under the soil...

[wiseheart]

HUGS!

[badly_knitted]

Thank you!

[yarnofariadne]

Sounds like a very gross job today :( you are mightier than I would be!

[badly_knitted]

Not the most delightful task, that's for sure. I had to dispossess a couple of spiders from their homes, hoping I didn't hurt them. I don't want them near me but I don't wish them any harm.

[darkcedars]

Great progress again! I hope the soil dries out enough that it's easier.

[badly_knitted]

Thanks. That would be helpful but I'm not counting on it. I know there's rain forecast off and on over the next couple of weeks. I think it's about 8 inches at its deepest, so there's not much chance of it drying right the way through, unless it's the rocks making it that deep.

[sister_raphael]

You really are making fantastic progress! Compost is so good for the garden, and spiders do take care of a lot of bugs, so not all bad!

[badly_knitted]

The bags are empty except for other bags, spiders, and rubbish. I used to use the bags as planters for marrows and squash when I ran out of big enough pots - a few holes punched in the bottom, some small rocks for drainage, fold down the top to a suitable height, fill with soil or compost, and bung a plant in. These have had it though, they're ripped and crumbling. Only place they're going is the dustbin, once the spiders are evicted.

Behold the Fish Singers!

[wiseheart]

Aka my felt fish, singing opera arias:



They are named after the King's Singers, only that their singing is actually inaudible. It is very soothing, honestly. *g*

The dark blue with the orange scales and the yellow with the red scales already have a home. The rest will follow soon, I'm sure.

Other than that, I almost finished the tea cups for the match-the-colour page. The worse half of the Velcro job is done and only two out of six tea cups need to be stitched to the page base. Then I have to do the other half of the Velcro job - the matching little circles in the same colours - and it will be done. Yay!

Re: Behold the Fish Singers!

[yarnofariadne]

They're adorable!

Re: Behold the Fish Singers!

[wiseheart]

Thanks! They were great fun to make - I like their expressions. *g*

Re: Behold the Fish Singers!

[smallhobbit]

Brilliant fishes!

Re: Behold the Fish Singers!

[wiseheart]

They are a cheerful bunch. *g*

Re: Behold the Fish Singers!

[badly_knitted]

Yay, fishies! They are very smiley and toothy! And they sing divinely.

Well done on progress with the teacup page

Re: Behold the Fish Singers!

[wiseheart]

The fishes are full of mischief, but we love them, yesss, Precioussss.

Re: Behold the Fish Singers!

[darkcedars]

They're so great!

Re: Behold the Fish Singers!

[wiseheart]

Thank you. :)

Re: Behold the Fish Singers!

[sister_raphael]

OH MY GOODNESS they are the cutest things!!!You've done a great job!

Re: Behold the Fish Singers!

[wiseheart]

Considering that I never actually intended to make them in the first place, I'm quite pleased with the outcome. ;))

[yarnofariadne]

Attempts at fixing the scarf made it worse so we're starting over and paying more attention to what we're doing this time XD

[wiseheart]

Attempts at fixing the scarf made it worse

Gah, that is so often the case! Good luck with the second attempt!

[yarnofariadne]

I'm sure someday I'll get the hang of fixing things rather than starting over but I'm not terribly surprised to not be there just yet!

[darkcedars]

Yeah, you'll get to the point you can just fudge a little bit and get back on track. :D

[smallhobbit]

Good luck with the second attempt :)

[badly_knitted]

Sometimes starting over is the best option. Good luck with Take Two.

[sister_raphael]

Argh! I tried to fix a thing and had to repaint over it so I feel your pain. You can reuse the wool hopefully?

[yarnofariadne]

That's such a bummer, I'm so sorry. I hope you're able to fix it! And yes, I'm reusing the same wool, it seems pretty resilient :)

[darkcedars]

Worked on the baby afghan some, I am almost to the end of skein 2 already.

Two little bursts of tidying in the yard has a nice stack of dry sticks for the fire and a pile of green to be dealt with later. Burned some of the littler stuff while I organized. I was specifically cleaning up this area because we will be putting in a clothesline this week.

[badly_knitted]

The afghan is coming along very quickly now!

Ah, dry sticks! Such a wonderful thing to have =)

Clotheslines are also very handy. Hope you got your designated area cleared!

[darkcedars]

On these 100F days I have been pulling my hair that I couldn't hang out jeans and towels. Soon!

[badly_knitted]

There's nothing better than bringing air-dried laundry in from the garden. It smells so good!

[sister_raphael]

Making progress on the baby thing! And sticks for a fire is brilliant!

[darkcedars]

Hopefully this fall will be nice for having a little fire in the evenings. We skipped over that part in the spring.

[sister_raphael]

Finished painting the bentwood box lid. There's a catch up blog post also with a nice, big picture.
I've also finished the background of the shield and got the second to last coat of gold paint on it. One more coat and it's finished too!

[badly_knitted]

Good luck with finishing the shield! Looking forward to seeing it.

[darkcedars]

It looks great! Good luck finishing up the shield.