Check-In Post December 19th 2023

[falkner]

Hello, lovely crafters! Welcome to our daily check-in post, where you can tell everybody all about your most recent progress (or lack thereof). Feel free to also chat with other members and generally enjoy yourself!

Check-in is not compulsory, you decide if and when to take part in these posts.

And for the optional questions, I will recycle the ones I used three years ago, and see how the answers have changed!

How much planning do you put in your projects? Do you immediately get started when inspiration strikes? Or you do meticulously plan everything in advance instead?

If you have questions or suggestions about the community, requests for tags, or want to host the daily check-in posts, head over to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment there.

Comments

[yarnofariadne]

Again no crafting today, but this week we're watching movies in the afternoon so I'm going to bring my knitting to school tomorrow and see if I can't get some done while the kids are distracted with Chicken Run, lol.

I plan as much as I can! I'm still relatively new to knitting so I always end up learning as I go to some extent, but I try to do all the prepwork I know to do.

[badly_knitted]

Good luck with knitting while movie watching!

[wiseheart]

Good luck. My knitting always fails on the need to count the dratted rows and stitches. My head just isn't made for that.

[spiralicious]

Good luck with knitting while the movies are going. May the kids be thoroughly distracted.

[annofowlshire]

I took this photo of Emergency Baby Blanket last night.



I've managed to add a couple of more stripes today.

I've got 10 days to go. I'm sure it'll be fine.

(It's going to be fine, right?)

[badly_knitted]

More than fine, I'm sure! It looks amazing.

[wiseheart]

Oh, it already look so lovely!

[althea_valara]

OOOOH!!! I love the colors! Cheering you on - you can do it!

[spiralicious]

It's gorgeous. (And it's going to be fine)

[falkner]

That looks so good already!

[badly_knitted]

I got 40 rows done last night on the arm warmers.

Had hoped to do the last 40 rows today, but I phoned to order logs this morning thinking they'd hopefully be able to deliver after Christmas, and the guy says, How about this afternoon? He was going to be in my area for deliveries and there was a free slot on the delivery lorry. So I had a load of logs delivered at 2.45 which took me until after 4pm to move. Now I hurt from head to foot, and my hands ache, so finishing the arm warmers probably won't happen. But I have plenty of logs for the fire, so there's that.

Planning... really depends on what I'm making. I like to gather all the materials together before I start, if I can, but mostly it's a case of finding a pattern or making one up, then getting stuck in.

[spiralicious]

Logs are important! Hopefully, you will be less achy tomorrow.

[badly_knitted]

Mostly I'm just exhausted.

[wiseheart]

But at least it means you'll be warm in the foreseeable future, yes?

[badly_knitted]

Hoping the logs will last at least until the end of February.

[spiralicious]

:(

[falkner]

I know the (literal!) pain of moving a truckload of logs by yourself, good job on that! You definitely deserve all the rest.

[badly_knitted]

Thanks, I have to do it maybe 3 times a year, and I'm doing it by hand because I stocked up on coal over summer when the price went down, shoved a load in bags and buckets into the shed, and foolishly blocked my wheelbarrow in *headdesk* I couldn't even wheel the logs around the back of the house to pack them in where they'll stay dry, had to carry them all. I'm such an idiot, should have moved the wheelbarrow to the garage.

Hoping to finish knitting the arm warmer tonight.

[wiseheart]

I continued working on the new front page of the Christmas quiet book. Did the last bit of Velcro work, have sewn on the big star and snowflake ornaments and glued together the two parts of the rocking horse. I'm still not sure I'll manage to get Santa down the chimney, but we'll see. Lots to do until that part comes around. I still have to make the tiny stockings, the inside of the fireplace and so on before I can start on the fireplace itself.

As for planning... as BK said, it really depends on what I'm making. With small felt ornaments, I select the materials and then go for it. When I'm making a baby book or a felt quiet book, though, that needs lost of research and meticulous planning. I've got notebooks where I make detailed plans for the individual pages, in colour, to get an idea what they're going to look like. Especially the felt books mean 4-6 months of detailed work, so I have to know what I'm going to do in each phase.

[badly_knitted]

Great progress on the quiet book, and well done finishing the Velcro work.

Some of the things you make do require a lot of planning. You sound very organised with it.

[wiseheart]

I have to! Make a whole book is an insanely complex project; I'd be lost otherwise.

[spiralicious]

You're doing great! I'm sure you'll figure out how to get Santa down the chimney when the time comes.

That is an impressive bit of planning!

[wiseheart]

I hope so, too. *g*
And planning is important with these projects, or else they'd never get done.

[althea_valara]

I started a response yesterday but then accidentally hit a key combination that wiped it out, grr. So first, let me answer yesterday's question: I mostly craft in the afternoon, as I am most alert then. Sometimes this will get extended into the evenings. Mornings? I'm NOT a morning person, but will craft in the mornings if I'm under a deadline, like I am right now.

Since I don't work, I can craft when I want, and TBH one of the things that makes me hesitate regarding returning to work is that my whole schedule will change in huge ways...

Yesterday I got done just one petal for the poinsettia. I had therapy in the afternoon, and afterwards was busy processing things so didn't have the brainpower for crafting.

Today so far, I've finished one petal. That was the last of Petal B to do! Left: 2.5 Petal As and the leaves. I have one leaf done; hoping for 7 total but I'll go with however many I manage to do before Stitch Club on Thursday.

I am much more of a spontaneous crafter. I see a pattern I like, I start it NOW if I really want it and have the materials at hand. My "planning" phase is just "buy yarn for this particular pattern". I don't really do any meticulous planning, unless I am working on my Final Fantasy double-knit blanket - since I am designing much of it myself, that takes some playing around in Stitch Fiddle.

Even when I've designed patterns, I often go by the seat of my pants and write down what I'm doing as I do it, rather than plan ahead on what I will do.

Okay! off I go for more crochet! Hoping to finish the Petal As today, at least.

[badly_knitted]

Good luck with your petals, I hope you get them finished today.

Crafting is better when it's spontaneous. Like with writing, if I think too much about something before I start, I lose interest in making it.

[althea_valara]

I did indeed get the petals done today! That means ALL the petals are DONE! Tomorrow will be spent making leaves, and then I will assemble on Thursday.

...yeah, I think I'm a pretty spontaneous person. I know I have gotten utterly bored with routine tasks at my jobs in the past, and lately it's been like pulling teeth to get me to score Nerdopolis. The fun part is reading the threads to find everyone's submissions. Actually clicking drop-downs and entering data? Boring. I still manage to get the scoring done before the deadline, but I used to do it on the 1st and now it's more like the 6th (deadline is the 8th).

[badly_knitted]

Woohoo! Well done!

Routine stuff is soooo boring, hard to find the motivation to do it. I'm always putting things off until later. At least you get things done eventually!

[spiralicious]

good luck with your petals!

[falkner]

Ah! I'm very much a morning person, which for me means I usually don't do crafts in the morning on my days off, since I prefer to use it for more intense activities if I need. It's interesting to see a different perspective on it!

[spiralicious]

Today went slightly better? It was one of those I worked on things all day and don't actually have anything to show for it kind of days. I think my biggest accomplishment all day was keeping the fire going long enough to heat the house enough so that I could wash my hair. I also knitted a bit on the hat, plotted card making and went through the supplies that came with me, and contemplated baking. Space is a bit of an issue and I am not totally sure I have what I need tool wise.

As for the optional question, how much planning I do in advance depends on the project, but there is always some. It can take some plotting to figure out how to make my idea work with the supplies and tools I have, especially as there are some major restraints on getting more. Also, until very recently, I was constantly house-sitting (like by the last year I was doing it full time, I was spending maybe 2 nights a month at home, and not consecutively), so I had to take everything I would need for a project with me, which requires some definite planning. That being said, meticulous planning does not happen and things tend to change drastically from the planning stage to the finished product.

[badly_knitted]

You got things done though! Some days that's a major achievement, so kudos.

I hope you can manage with the tools you have available.

[spiralicious]

Thank you x2

[wiseheart]

There are always changes, no matter how meticulously one does the planning. ;)

[spiralicious]

indeed!