Check-In Post December 10th 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]

50 rows on the second of the shorter red arm warmers, only 20 rows to go. But my hands got tired so I stopped.

[wiseheart]

That was very reasonable of you. No need to over-extend your hands. Besides, 50 rows still are a lot!

[badly_knitted]

It was quite a lot. Besides, I wanted to concentrate on the dance off.

[yarnofariadne]

Definitely a good idea to stop when you're tired. Excellent progress!

[badly_knitted]

Thank you!

[darkcedars]

50 is great progress. Glad you stopped when you were tired too.

[badly_knitted]

My thumb was being a bit annoying, and knitting was making me hot, so I didn't see the point of pushing myself to finish the arm warmer. It's not going anywhere.

[otpcutie]

Arm warmers sound fun!! Well done. Rest sounds like a good plan <3

[badly_knitted]

They're very simple to make if you can knit, and very useful in winter.

[wiseheart]

I decorated approximately 8 or 9 trays of Christmas biscuits today (I've lost count somewhere along the process). Then I packed everything in their boxes and packed the boxes meant to be presents.

I've found two forgotten toilet rolls on the bottom of my paper scrap bag and made another two surprise boxes. I also wrote an inventory and price list of all my wares for the fair on Thursday. That will come in handy... I hope.

[yarnofariadne]

Fantastic! It sounds like the inventory and price list will come in handy.

[wiseheart]

It does, doesn't it?

[badly_knitted]

Ooh, well done! Hope you're keeping some biscuits for yourselves!

And yay for more surprise boxes! Looks like you've got everything organised for the fair, so you'll be ready Thursday. Hope the fair goes off without any problems.

[wiseheart]

Amen to that. And yes, we're definitely keeping some biscuits for ourselves. :)

[badly_knitted]

Good, you and your mum deserve to enjoy them too.

[darkcedars]

Drifts of cookies instead of drifts of snow.

Sounds like you're all ready for the fair now!

[wiseheart]

Oh, we did have snow in the recent days all right!

[yarnofariadne]

I did another row on the beach cover-up!!!!!

A friend announced she's expecting in April, and the motivation to make her a baby blanket has finally got me into gear on finishing the cover-up. Going to do my best to get this done before I get started on the blanket.

[badly_knitted]

WOOOHOOOHOOOO! Well done! Good luck finishing the cover-up so you can get on with the baby blanket.

[darkcedars]

That's great motivation - finish the last bit to move on to the baby blanket.

[wiseheart]

Motivation can carry you far. Good luck!

[annofowlshire]

The Good: Pictures of the jumper I finished the other night:



The Annoying: Finally got to cozy down in front of the fire with my cross stitch and an audiobook, only to realize after a while I'd miscounted and been stitching down the wrong line. (Sigh.) So basically tore out 90% of the stitches I managed to do tonight.

I think that this will sadly not be a cozy project. This is going to have to be a "sit at the table underneath the lighted magnifying glass" project which drops the chances I'll ever pick it up again to basically zero.

I'm looking forward to baby blanket yarn arriving.

[darkcedars]

Ah, so annoying to have to rip it all out.

[wiseheart]

Very annoying indeed! *commiserates*
But the jumper looks great.

[badly_knitted]

The jumper looks great, and very warm!

Boo for the cross stitch, it's always so infuriating to realise you've gone wrong and have to undo a bunch. Been there way too many times. Maybe wait until there's more daylight before picking it up again. Daylight makes all the difference.

Hope the yarn arrives soon. Knitting is the best craft for winter.

[otpcutie]

Your jumper looks so soft and comfy!!

[althea_valara]

So I did start the poinsettia last night, but I tried a 0.90 mm hook. It DID work but it was fussy and I kept losing the thread off the needle, which was very annoying, especially with the taller stitches. So this morning I started over with a 1.75mm hook. I wanted a 1.5mm but don't have one. The 1.75 is going MUCH better. A teensy bit loose, but not too bad, really. I have finished the first petal and am about to do another one.

I just came back from a run to Joann to pick up the thread for the leaves. They don't have Size 3 thread in a medium/deep green, so I bought size 10 instead and will hold it double. I think that should work... fingers crossed!

I also stopped at the dollar store, where I found:
* a large gift bag suitable for holding the finished plant
* a card for younger sister, so I can give her a "coupon" for a plant
* a card for mom, for ditto reasons, as I really don't think I can do 3 plants by the 23rd
* three small metal red buckets which will work great as pots
* a small bag of rocks to weight one bucket down (I'll buy more later!)
* three floral foams that fit perfectly in the buckets
* four 3 ounce bags of cinnamon scented pinecones

So: bucket->foam->rocks->pinecones->finished crocheted plant. Should work well!

Therefore, I'm pretty much all set for supplies, except I will probably go somewhere to get better floral sticks. I do have thin rigid floral wire, but I think it is TOO thin for this purpose. I'm also not sure my floral tape is sticky enough, so might have to buy new tape. But yeah, otherwise I'm good. All hail the dollar store!

[wiseheart]

That was a good trip to the dollar store!

[badly_knitted]

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished poinsettia! You've got everything well thought out, and nearly everything you need for the project, so I hope it goes smoothly from here on! Also hope you can get the other things you need without too much expense. Store like your dollar store are awesome.

[otpcutie]

I did some sewing yesterday but it’s a low spoons kind of day today I think I will just play around with my journal a bit (still getting used to it all, I’m enjoying it so far tho!) and hopefully start editing a fic I finished recently🧚

[badly_knitted]

Well done with the sewing!

Good luck with your journal and the fic editing.

[otpcutie]

Tysm🥰 I didn’t end up editing yesterday but perhaps today!

[badly_knitted]

You'll get it done eventually, I'm sure.

[otpcutie]

Ty my goal is by the end of the year *fingers crossed* :3 I hope you’re having a good day btw!

[badly_knitted]

You'll make it, there's still plenty of time if you ignore the seasonal festivities getting in the way

Thanks. So far it's better than yesterday *sigh*

[otpcutie]

True!! Ofc, hopefully just gets better <3

[badly_knitted]

Things kinda went a bit downhill, mostly 'cause I'm an idiot, lol!