Check-In Post October 6th 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]

Not much time today for crafting, getting the fire ready to be lit sometime next week takes a lot of work. All the removable parts have to be scrubbed down with a wire brush, and the interior of the fire has to have the dried on gunk scraped off, or as much as will come off. So, an hour this morning doing that, and I'll probably have to work on it every morning for a few more days, my hands and back are hurting now. Later on my friend and I did all the scrubbing of the parts, 16 of them. I missed the throat plate so that still needs doing.


I did manage to knit three meece bodies, so I only have to knit 5 more.

[yarnofariadne]

That sounds like a lot of difficult work.

[badly_knitted]

It is, and at my age it just gets harder every year. Crawling around on the floor does me in.

[wiseheart]

Oh dear, that sounds exhausting!

[badly_knitted]

It always is =(

[darkcedars]

Oh that is a ton of work.

[badly_knitted]

Yes, it really is *sigh*

[yarnofariadne]

Finally got around to painting my new dice tray! I bought the smallest paintbrush I could find and it's still not quite small enough. Once this first layer of paint dries, I'm going to try a bit harder to get into the corners with the brush I've got and we'll see how I manage.

[badly_knitted]

Hope the second coat will do the trick!

[darkcedars]

Oh so annoying. You might try a toothpick or something else hard to get the corner.

[yarnofariadne]

Hmm I don't have any toothpicks on hand but I'll see what I can scrounge up of the same size. Thank you for the idea!

[wiseheart]

No crafts today because I was busy with other things, but I did a great deal of crafting yesterday. The Christmas tree page has developed quite nicely, although there are a few embellishments to add later. And I also chose the next motif, so there will be continuity. Yay! Continuity is good!

[yarnofariadne]

Hooray continuity!

[darkcedars]

Looking forward to it!

[wiseheart]

There will be pictures of the recent craft projects when I finally get my iPad back.

[badly_knitted]

Continuity is very good, and well done with your progress!

[darkcedars]

Today's "crafting" was painting the back steps. They were unpainted wood in a shady area and grow green slippery slime. I had my husband power wash them a few days ago. I did the first coat this morning with sand mixed in for the treads (1 part sand to 4 parts paint as per Bob Vila). This is supposed to help with traction. In about an hour I can do the second coat (no sand).

It's matte medium gray. The choices for porch & stair paint are: gray, different gray, brown. Unless you want to spend more on the can that can be custom colored. Maybe next time it needs painted.

[darkcedars]

Also the dog continues to improve. She ate both meals from her bowl today. I had often been needing to offer her food a few tidbits at a time, this took ages.

[badly_knitted]

Glad to hear the dog's progressing well.

[badly_knitted]

That sounds like a tough job, hope the sand helps the steps be less slippy. At least you get rid of the green slime. Grey might not be exciting, but when there's not much choice...

[darkcedars]

I finished the second coat earlier. I think it looks good and I used less paint than expected, I'll have enough for a second project.

[badly_knitted]

That's great!

[althea_valara]

copy/paste from Discord:

up, breakfast, made a snowflake, started going through items for the fair and attaching Care Instruction/price tags on them, lunch, finish going through fair stuff (it took HOURS), got my Square magstripe reader and tested it with mom's card, starched snowflakes

made price signs for craft fair, made commission sheets for snowflakes/gnome ornaments (i'll take commissions for them if they sell out), packed all supplies up, now putting charms/hangers on snowflakes

So, a very busy day! I'm pretty much all set for the fair. Tomorrow I'll just have to put charms/hangers on the snowflakes I starched today and pack those up. I'm also planning on bringing yarn along to work on more gnomes/bookmarks while I wait for customers, so I'll need to pack that as well. I plan on making gnomes for a good portion of the day tomorrow.

The fair is Saturday, and I got my table assignments and instructions this morning. PLUS: my table is located along a wall! This means there's electricity there, too, in case I need to charge my phone. MINUS: it's also near the kitchen. I'm not very familiar with the venue so I didn't know there was a kitchen on site. It *should* be fine, but if they are cooking during the fair, that might be an issue. I went to a previous fair to scope it out and they were cooking something foul-smelling in their kitchen. I'm sensitive to strong smells, so I had to leave that fair early. Fingers crossed there's no unpleasant odors on Saturday!

I was greatly relieved to find out my mom is going to sit with me the whole time. I was worried about bathroom breaks. Now I don't have to worry.

[badly_knitted]

Preparations seem to be going great! You sound very organized.

Good luck with the fair, and I hope there are no strong smells. As someone with chemical sensitivities, I can empathise. Still, with luck the kitchen won't be in use. For future fairs though, it might be worth asking the organisers if you can be located away from potential sources of strong odours like kitchens, or stalls selling fragranced items. I'm sure they'll want stallholders to be comfortable.

Good that you'll have your mum there to help out. I always had mine with me at the fairs I did, although they were mostly a lot less professional than the one you're doing.

[althea_valara]

although they were mostly a lot less professional than the one you're doing.

Hee! I'm laughing because I'm making this a lot more professional than it needs to be! I just want to make sure I have everything covered, and I think treating it seriously might is a good thing. I mean, I'm sure there's plenty of people doing the fair that haven't thought to buy carbonless sales invoices, but I did because I felt it would be Proper to give my buyers a receipt. TBH, I probably spent TOO much in preparation for this, but at least most of it was a one-time cost so if I do this again I'll be set in the future.

[badly_knitted]

Kudos to you then for doing everything so professionally. It bodes well for future fairs, since you'll have everything needed already and that will make getting ready less stressful in future. Hopefully, anyway.

[darkcedars]

Good luck! Sounds like you're all ready. I hope the kitchen isn't an issue.