Check-In Post August 25th 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

[spiralicious]

It's been awhile because of irl stuff and I hit several major knitting conundrums at the same time:

1. I played yarn chicken and lost with the last not-a-baby-blanket. I only had 4 rows and the bottom border left and ran out of yarn. When I went to the store I got that yarn from, I found that in the week since I had been in last, they had moved the yarn to the electronics department and they stopped carrying that color. I bought something of the same brand and size, but a different line to finish things off. Both yarns are multicolored and share some of the same colors. The only big difference is that the new one has light grey and the old one has brown. They blend together well and it's not glaringly obvious.

2. The full sized baby blanket I started needs to yarns and the store I got that from moved the yarn from art supplies to home repair and had one yarn I needed, but didn't have the other in stock. In it's spot they had shoved a whole display of yarn in the same color, but different size, weight, brand, and price point. But on my road trip to buy exotic luxuries such as shoes and socks, I found comparable yarn in a better color in a jumbo sized skein.

3. The large blanket I am working on is seven colors and I realized I am probably going to need a second skein of one color. The store I got the yarn from (the one that moved yarn to electronics) still carries the line, but ONLY IN WHITE. That I can probably order online if I really need it though.

4. I was gifted a partial skein of pretty mystery yarn that is shades of lavender in some lighting but blue in others. I was at a loss what I was going to do with it as I had no clue how much yarn was there. I've been making a drop stich shawl with it that is just "repeat the pattern until you like the size".

Wednesday - There was the latest book workshop. We built watercolor travel journals.

Today was supposed to be fiber group, but it got cancelled.

The short version of the irl stuff is there were several family medical emergencies at the same time; my father came close to getting evicted from the building he runs his business out of, his home, and his storage unit this month; and we have a new fire that's closer. We aren't in it's direct path, but it's giving us smoke, it closed the only road that goes inland (which effects goods coming in, mail, and access to medical care), and they had to preemptively turn off the power to the town south of us for their safety until further notice, which effects a lot of things up here as well. And the internet is constantly going out multiple times a day, which is somehow related.

[badly_knitted]

My goodness, what a nightmare you're going through right now! *hugs* Keeping my fingers crossed that you and you loved ones stay safe and not-evicted from anywhere. Scary stuff!

So annoying that all the yarns you need are out of stock or not being stocked anymore. It really does pay to get everything needed for a project at the same time, but I know with the cost of yarn these days that's not always possible. Yarn stores should offer a layaway plan where they put all the yarn you'll need somewhere out of the way and you can pay for a skein a week or something.

The travel journals sound fun at least.

Good luck with your ongoing projects!

[spiralicious]

*hugs* thanks.

The bad part is, with the not-a-baby-blanket and the 7 color blanket, I really did think I had bought enough yarn ahead of time. Yes, yarn stores should totally do that. It would be very helpful.

The journal was fun and it's nice to have a project that was completed in one session and immediately useful.

Thanks!

[badly_knitted]

It can be hard to judge how much you need for a project, unfortunately.

Used to be a yarn store near me that did layaway like that, but it closed like 20 years ago.

[spiralicious]

This is very true.

Awww.

[badly_knitted]

Most of the stores from back then are gone now. I shopped there for about 20 years.

[spiralicious]

That's too bad :( It's always sad to see a shop that served it's community so long go

[badly_knitted]

A lot has changed in my area since I was a kid, and the pandemic hit businesses hard too.

[syderia]

Yay for progress on multiple projects!
I hope the personal difficulties will be resolved quickly.

[spiralicious]

Thanks :)