Check-In Post May 6th 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]

So sleepy this evening I'm having trouble focusing.
Didn't do much today, had the coronation on TV all morning as it's unlikely I'll ever get another chance to see one. Interesting to see the crown jewels being used instead of locked away in the tower, but I wouldn't want to wear one of those crowns, or the heavy robes.


This afternoon I wrote most of a fic. That's it. It's been raining on and off all day, so gardening would have been out of the question anyway.

[wiseheart]

I was thinking of you while watching the coronation. :)

[badly_knitted]

I thought of you too =)

[darkcedars]

I figured you were watching it. Writing sounds good for a rainy day.

[badly_knitted]

Kind of felt I needed to. Now maybe I'll believe we have a king instead of our queen. It still seems weird.

[darkcedars]

I didn't look at much, but someone showed a Welsh artist who has made a Charles image using marmite on pieces of toast. It was quite impressive!

[badly_knitted]

That does sound impressive!

[house_wren]

I just bought a book about how to make clothes by hand. As in, not with a machine, but with needle & thread. I know how to sew & I have a machine. I even know how to draft a pattern. But I rarely enjoy using equipment. For me it's a barrier.

I'm the same about using pens. I would rather use a dip pen than a fountain pen. I gave my fountain pens away because I hated the process of filling them & cleaning them. Plus, something always went wrong...the bladder broke or the nip bent or I used the wrong ink. Ugh.

A dip pen is so simple! & inexpensive. Plus, I can use walnut ink that I made from the black walnuts that fall to the ground every fall. Gouache is also good in a dip pen.

The only equipment I liked using was a loom. I've had big ones & small ones & no matter how complex, I still liked them. I no longer weave & only have 2 little table looms that I inherited. I use them to display dust now.

[badly_knitted]

Ooh, good luck with that! I've always been terrible at sewing, machines do not like me, and I don't have the patience to hand sew except for minor repairs, buttons, or cross stitch *grins*

I have a dip pen, but I could never get the hang of using it. Not that I handwrite much of anything, my arthritis makes my fingers lock up if I hold a pen for long. Thank goodness for computer keyboards! I can actually read my writing on a computer! My handwriting is dire.

I have a couple of small looms, but I've never used them. They're ones my late mother picked up somewhere. Maybe I'll have a go with one someday, but it's a case of too many things to do and not enough time.

[house_wren]

Ugh, arthritis. My sympathies. I have RA & I've not used my ink pens for quite a while because of it. My fingers are swollen & painful. It's supposed to get better when (when or if) the meds begin to work.

I have switched from touch typing to hunt & peck typing, so I only use the fingers that are happy. It's slow, but I'm just glad I can do it at all.

[badly_knitted]

I have OA, I think RA is worse. I hope the meds will help.

I'm a one-finger typist, never learned to type properly although my mum could. I'm quite fast for one finger but I have to watch the keyboard and I often hir two keys at once. Still, I prefer using my computer to write. Less painful and more legible.

[darkcedars]

Be interested to see you make ink later! I had a dip pen as a child, I used it for special stuff like birthday cards.

I need to do some sewing as well, though mine is pillowcases.

[house_wren]

Walnut Ink: the lazy method:

Gather black walnuts in fall. Pick them off the ground when they are wet and disgusting. Use the ones with the big lumpy hulls.
Put walnuts in a bucket. Make sure they are wet.
Forget about them.
One day, find the bucket in the shed & wonder what is in it.
Remember it's walnuts.
Strain the liquid.
Throw the walnut solids back into the field.
Strain the liquid again.
Use it for ink with a dip pen or brush.

Warning: it's not waterproof & will stain any clothing it touches.

[darkcedars]

Oh I have processed black walnuts before. One year I was dark brown to my elbows. I haven't had any in ages. I may get some from the farmers market this fall.

[house_wren]

"...dark brown to my elbows" immediately gave me a vision of long opera gloves. Then I went down a rabbit hole of fairy tale illustration & envisioned a character who used black walnut juice to dye her arms up to her elbows so she could be fancy enough for a ball (Cinderella's?)

Obviously my solitary life & the endless sound of guns from our triggerhappy neighbor has sent me over the edge of reality & into an imaginary place of comfort.

[badly_knitted]

Escape into your imagination as much as you can. It's why I write, it's comforting and therapeutic to escape into another world. You should write your fairy tale.

[badly_knitted]

That is so cool! Also disgusting *grins*

[wiseheart]

I did some sewing: 7 Wichtel are now finished, sans the balls that I still don't have. And I've just typed up the existing parts of Chapter 9 to "A Stitch in Time", so the day wasn't completely wasted, after all.

[badly_knitted]

You did well!

I'm glad there isn't a coronation every week, it disrupted my routine completely! Still glad I watched though, the choirs were lovely.

[darkcedars]

Sounds pretty good for the day!

[darkcedars]

I've been gardening a lot the last few days, so today I decided I was just doing a few regular chores. Now I'm going back and forth between crochet dishcloths and reading.

[badly_knitted]

Sounds a great way to spend the day. Sometimes a break from gardening is good.

[darkcedars]

Also it was 95F already today, and so windy.

[badly_knitted]

That's hot! It might reach 20C today, then drop down to 15C (60F) again. So much rain coming though...

[celli]

I've been AWOL again, sorry (work has been SO STRESSFUL), but I did do some embroidery on a photograph today! It was mostly a trial run, and I learned a lot to help with the next one.

[badly_knitted]

How intriguing!

Sorry work has been so stressful, hope that will improve soon. Stress is not good.