Check-In Post February 24th 2023

[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]

I have attached the plum sweater's sleeves! All I have left to do now is sew up the side and sleeve seams =D

[wiseheart]

Congratulations! :)

[badly_knitted]

Thank you! Not quite finished, but almost...

[darkcedars]

Yay!

[badly_knitted]

Yay indeed! Thanks =D

[wiseheart]

Today I started my craft project early, in the naive hope that I can finish that particular page for all three baby books. Well... I have (mostly) finished one of them. Not exactly stellar results, but there are so many little details that needed to be done that time simply flown away from me. As I mentioned before, I don't have access to all those shiny, ready-made tags, pics and other embellishments YouTube professionals simply take out of a package.

At least I've made a lot of small embellishments in advance, so that hopefully will speed up the process in the immediate future. Hope dies last, right?

[badly_knitted]

I being mostly finished is better than none! You'll get there.

[wiseheart]

Eventually, yes. I just don't like working with such a close deadline.

[badly_knitted]

Deadlines are stressful.

[darkcedars]

I'm sure you'll get them done, just at a certain point it will get extra frustrating.

[wiseheart]

Yes, I'm quite sure, too, that I'll get them done. I'd just prefer to have more time. There are so many tiny details, and making everything more or less free hand instead of just popping it out from some kind of perforated paper pad takes forever.

[darkcedars]

I didn't get back to the mittens today, but I did repack most of the craft tool box. Had a brainwave to use an extra weekly pill organizer (one cell broke) for my small collection of buttons.

I may need to buy a bulk container of suet. They have torn through the second block, because bigger birds have discovered it now. Have seen red bellied woodpecker, northern flicker, robin and starlings eating from it.

[badly_knitted]

Great idea for something that is no longer suitable for its original use.

Birds do love their suet! I have suet balls, half coconuts filled with suet, and suet pellets, plus occasional suet blocks (a squirrel chewed through my previous holder so I've had to get a new one and I haven't put it up yet).

[darkcedars]

I'm especially happy to see a robin routinely in my yard now. I had a very beautiful female (kind of tawny apricot with flecks) that lived in the yard at the previous house, and while I saw them around here none lived here. I'm hoping this one stays.

[badly_knitted]

Fingers crossed your robin will hang around.

British robins are very different from the ones you get, but they're among my favourite garden birds.

[althea_valara]

I have started yet another felted bag, following my usual recipe for them. They are mindless (all knit stitch) and I definitely need something like that right now. I don't feel up to explaining why here, but let's just say that life threw one heck of a curve ball at me this week.

Because I was working on the bag away from home, I now have a row counter app installed on my phone. I haven't played with it too much yet but it looks quite promising - it appears to have vocal commands if you want to use them!

[badly_knitted]

Good luck with your bag. Sometimes mindless knitting is just the thing.

Let us n-know how the row counter app works out.

[darkcedars]

Definitely a week for mindless knitting. I never use row counters but the voice commands sound interesting.

[wiseheart]

Sorry to hear that you're having a tough time. Some mindless work can be relaxing, I guess.

Just a question: I thought a felted bag was made of... well, felt</>? How is it knitted? I know I'm an ignorant fool when it comes to knitting; the only felting I've ever made (all that single time) was done with felting needles.

[althea_valara]

Felted bags are made with 100% wool! NON-SUPERWASH - if you're unfamiliar with the superwash treatment, it basically removes the scales from wool yarn so that the yarn won't felt. But if you use a 100%, regular, non-superwash wool, you knit the bag at a loose gauge (I'm using US 10.5 needles with worsted weight yarn), then when the knitting is done you chuck it into the washing machine on HOT with some jeans or towels. The fibers will rub against each other and felt. Technically, this process is called "fulling" not felting, but I just call it felting because the end result is basically, well, thick felted fabric!

Here's one of my Ravelry project pages for a previous bag I did, with a picture of the finished bag. Sadly I don't have a "before" picture but I assure you it just looked like regular knitted fabric before chucking it in the wash: https://ravel.me/xnera/gfb

If you or anyone else wants the recipe I use for knitting these bags, I'd be glad to share it!

[badly_knitted]

It's a fabulous bag, and an interesting technique. What colour is the one you're making now?

[althea_valara]

It's using Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Wool!" Natural, so it's a natural sheepy brown color. Not much choices for wool at big box craft stores.

[badly_knitted]

Sheepy brown sounds a good colour for a felted bag.

[celli]

I am having trouble with my Pluto project AND I think I'm missing a stitch at the end of each row in my crochet project, which is [mumblety] rows in. I've had better crafting days, sigh.

[badly_knitted]

Ugh, hope you can get both projects to work out. Crafting is fun, but there are days it can drive us up the wall.

[darkcedars]

Ugh, good luck working it out.

[wiseheart]

Oh, that is so annoying! Hopefully you can fix it.