Check-In Post October 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 decided if I make Christmas cards, they'll be simple ones, so I dug out some cute card toppers. Christmas pictures featuring penguins, hedgehogs, west highland terriers, snowmen, and teddy bears. I'll leave the penguins at present because I have fewer of each picture with those. The others I have 4 of each, and 9 of some. Plenty of variety anyway. Anything Christmassy will have to wait until after Halloween now though, as I need to get all the Halloween treats sorted, pick out a selection of spiders and meeces, bag up the candy, maybe blow up balloons? Haven't decided about that though.

And, as promised, the front of the finished 90th birthday card. I think it turned out quite well.

[wiseheart]

The card is amazingly beautiful! And simple Christmas cards are always a good idea. :)

[badly_knitted]

Thank you, I was pleased with the result. The birthday is on Friday, so I just need to wrap the chocolates I got her and write the card, which I will probably do tomorrow.

[wiseheart]

I'm sure she'll be delighted. :)

[badly_knitted]

I hope so. I've known her since I was about 5 or 6. It was so strange to transition from calling her Mrs to using her first name. I went to school with her daughter for several years, but then we went to different schools at the age of 11.

[althea_valara]

It looks lovely!

[badly_knitted]

Thank you!

[spiralicious]

The potential Christmas cards sound like they will be adorable.

Yay for Halloween treats! Blow up balloons should be fine, if you want to do them, as long as your trick or treaters don't skew on the very young side.

The birthday card turned out great! :D

[badly_knitted]

Thanks, we shall see if I get any done.

I used to do balloons every year for the kids to take, but I stopped due to covid and haven't started again.

I hope she'll like it. I nearly put 60 on it instead of 90!

[spiralicious]

:)

Ah, I see. That makes sense.

LOL. At least you caught yourself in time. I'm sure she'll like it :)

[badly_knitted]

I hope so. It's her birthday tomorrow!

[spiralicious]

I hope it went well!

[badly_knitted]

Well, I delivered everything and she was pleased. Hopefully she's ben enjoying her surprise party today.

[spiralicious]

:D

The battle of boxes

[wiseheart]

... is nearly won! This morning I covered as many as 46 (!!!) toilet rolls with leftover Christmas paper that I had cut to the right size yesterday. I still have some of those pieces, but I've run out of toilet rolls... for the time being. So, the boxes are as good as done, all I need to do is to fold them and fill them. Yay! That was tedious work, especially as the wet glue flagon was very belligerent and refused to let out the glue several times by each box, but I emerged victorious in the end. Hah!

Those are the small victories of my life. But better small ones than no ones, right?

Afterwards, I worked a bit more on the felt songbook, sewing on some more background elements. Not as much as I hoped to, but it was a hectic day.

Re: The battle of boxes

[badly_knitted]

Yay! That's a LOT of boxes!

Glue can be a pain. Either it doesn't come out when you want it to, or too much comes out and goes everywhere.

Well done on songbook progress.

Re: The battle of boxes

[wiseheart]

For some reason I set my heart on going up as far as 100. Another colleague promised me more toilet rolls. Let's see if I can get to that number. *g*

And yeah, glue is always a pain, no matter what kind you are using. They cause very different problems, but no one of them is without a catch-

Re: The battle of boxes

[badly_knitted]

100 would be a good, round number if you can get up to that many.

So true.

Re: The battle of boxes

[spiralicious]

That is a lot of boxes! Well done! You battled well :)

Hurray work working in some song book work time.

Re: The battle of boxes

[wiseheart]

So much to do, so little time to actually do it. *sigh*
But I'm content with today's achievements.

Re: The battle of boxes

[spiralicious]

Feels like it's always the way, doesn't it?

:)

[althea_valara]

I hope everyone is having a better month than I have. I haven't been around lately because my mom has been in the hospital most of this month. She's getting excellent care but it's been A Lot, especially since we lost my dad earlier this year. 2023 is SO fired!

I still am crafting, but on easy things. I finished my Stephen West shawl (one of his more simpler patterns: Glacier Sweep) and now I'm working on a dead easy garter stitch crescent shawl. Because all I am doing is sitting around hospitals, and there's only so much of staring at Mom I can do.

[badly_knitted]

*hugs* So sorry for your earlier loss, and my thoughts are with you and your mom.

Well done on finishing one shawl despite everything, and starting another. Having something to do with your hands helps when sitting around in hospitals

[spiralicious]

*hugs* Sorry things are a lot right now and sorry for your loss earlier in the year.

Well done on the shawls. Sometimes you really need something to keep your hands busy.

[wiseheart]

I'm so sorry for your bad news! *prayers/good thoughts (whichever you prefer) go to your Mum*
Small, easy things can be very helpful in situations like this. While your hands are working, your mind can rest, and that is very important.

[tielan]

Started another binding.

[badly_knitted]

You're storming through binding your quilts! How many more do you have to finish?

[tielan]

...at least 6. Probably more.

[badly_knitted]

So many quilts! I am in awe!

[spiralicious]

Woohoo! You're really zipping along. :D

[spiralicious]

Today I got up early and was going to do all the things. I did some of the things XD

I updated some trackers I've been neglecting.

I did some writing with mixed results. My bingo prompts, I made some decent headway on. My spook me fic and my horror synopsis fic, I made basically no progress, but I tried.

I knitted a little on the mitten.

In the evening, I attended a much anticipated gore workshop at the library. A couple of the library staff members are also theater techs and they taught techniques on doing different kind of blood effects for the stage (or haunted house or Halloween costumes) and we got to try them out. It was a messy good time and surprisingly well attended. And the person leading it actually hoped I would be there, which surprised me, but also felt nice.

When I got home, I worked on this year's scratch art mask while dinner was cooking. It's a precut Frankenstein's monster mask and I scratched a design into it.

I spent a fair amount of the day worried about the cat. There isn't anything wrong in particular, but she's old for a cat and she's aged a lot in the last couple months, and she wasn't doing great today. It's mostly the weather change, I know, she clearly has arthritis, but I just wish I could make her more comfortable.

[badly_knitted]

Well done on all your achievements! Sounds like you did a lot. I have decided that knitted mittens are now knittens, because that's how my brain read it this morning.

The gore workshop sounds like loads of fun, ideal for pre-Halloween, and it's great they wanted you there =D

Poor cat. I have some arthritis myself, it's not fun.

[spiralicious]

Thanks! Lol, I like that. Knittens it is!

I was so much fun! And so delightfully messy.

Yeah. Moved one of her water dishes last night to make it easier to get to. It normally sits on a bench that's in the bathtub and she climbs up on the edge of the tub to drink from it. Every time we have moved it to the floor to make it easier to get to, she has protested. Today, she has drank out of it with no complaints about it being on the floor. Feels very telling.

[badly_knitted]

Keep on with the knittens!

Sounds like it! Halloween in your area is going to be a bloody affair *grins*

Aw! Maybe she's realising she's not a kitten anymore.

[spiralicious]

Thanks!

Quite possibly ;)

I think so :(

[badly_knitted]

We all get older, even cats.

[spiralicious]

Sadly, yes.

[wiseheart]

That was a busy day and no mistake, as Sam Gamgee would say!

Poor cat. Alas, there is no medicine against old age.

[spiralicious]

Indeed!

Sadly, very true. She's doing better today, but it was also warmer.