Check-In Post January 3rd 2024

[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.


This Week's Question: Do you have any crafting resolutions for 2024?


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]

Crafting is frustratingly going nowhere. This morning I knitted row 5 on my sweater, started row 6, and immediately had to unpick back to the end of row 4 again. I cannot figure out why this is being so difficult. I've knitted more complicated patterns, but this one simply refuses to go right. I'm getting to the point where I'd be better off finding another pattern, but I hate being beaten, especially by something I should be able to do.


Spent some time outside baling water off the lawn and pouring it down the drain. Not that it's made the slightest bit of difference.

[wiseheart]

That must be very frustrating indeed! *commiserates*

[badly_knitted]

It really is. I thought I'd be well on my way with this sweater by now =(

[yarnofariadne]

I'm so sorry for all the frustration in your life right now.

[badly_knitted]

Thanks. The year hasn't started off as well as I'd hoped =/

[celli]

Frustrating all around! :(

[badly_knitted]

Extremely.

Thankfully, the flooding has gone down a bit overnight and the next few days look dryish... Fingers crossed.

[wiseheart]

I've practiced culinary crafting today. Behold my couronne!



I think it's pretty enough to be called a craft project, even though the two sides aren't of the same thickness. And it is yummy, too!

[badly_knitted]

That looks delicious!

[wiseheart]

And it tastes delicious, too. :)

[badly_knitted]

Glad to hear it!

[yarnofariadne]

That's beautiful!

[wiseheart]

Thank you. Love your icon, BTW. :)

[yarnofariadne]

Thanks! :D

[shaddyr]

Mmm, that looks delightful.

[wiseheart]

It turned out very well. I'm pleased with it.

[celli]

Looks amazing!

[wiseheart]

I was careful with the angle from which I took the photo, to conceal the fact that it doesn't have the same width on both sides. ;))

[obstinatecondolement]

Did a bit more work on my sock and started the heel flap. I had a nail biting half hour where I tried to fix something I'd done wrong and then caused about 50 new problems, but I think it's sorted now.

[badly_knitted]

I know that feeling! Well done sorting your sock out!

[obstinatecondolement]

Yeah, I'm glad I was able to get it fixed again! I trying to fix a very trivial problem that would never be seen with solutions that ended up causing some very visible issues, so a lot of tinking and ripping and saving dropped stitches with a crochet hook had to happen.

[badly_knitted]

Crochet hooks are one of the most useful tools a knitter can have.

[yarnofariadne]

I'm glad you got it sorted!

[obstinatecondolement]

Thank you! I would have been very sad if I had made a trivial problem that wasn't really noticeable into a much worse and more visible problem, haha.

[celli]

Yay for sorted!

[obstinatecondolement]

Yay indeed! Thank you :D

[althea_valara]

Today I was scheduled to work on the Nordic Stripes blanket. Well, it's currently tangled up with some other projects. I spent about an hour this morning on untangling them, and did make progress but not yet free.

And after being VERY productive yesterday, I am having a case of the "don't wannas" today. At least I did some untangling? but right now, don't want to do much of anything besides refresh websites.

[badly_knitted]

Untangling is time consuming and a nuisance, so getting some of that done should count for today's progress. Some days it's best not to force things.

[celli]

Untangling is good! Even if not finished.

[wiseheart]

Sometimes a beak is necessary, especially after a very busy period. Take your time.

[yarnofariadne]

Two more rows on the infinity scarf - not an appreciable width increase, but every row counts!

[badly_knitted]

Of course it does! Well done =)

[celli]

Yay!

[wiseheart]

Go you! Let's hope that the infinity scarf doesn't deserve its name... *g*

[shaddyr]

I just put this on my goals list for the year!

I'd like to crochet a shirt or sweater. As a fat person, it is always a challenge, since I find that scaled up patterns rarely fit fat bodies - they tend to just be bigger versions, so there will be a learning curve in how to accurately modify a piece to fit and actually look nice. We shall see what happens.

Also, I'd like to make my son a messenger bag. I got stuck waiting for him to pick a fabric. Foolish of me - I need to just pick one and do it.

[badly_knitted]

Good luck with your shirt or sweater, whichever you end up doing. Modifying patterns can be tricky, but the effort will be worthwhile.

I'm sure your son will be happy with whatever you choose, especially since it'll mean he doesn't have to decide. ;)

[shaddyr]

I'm sure your son will be happy with whatever you choose, especially since it'll mean he doesn't have to decide. ;)

I think you are correct about that!

[althea_valara]

Hiya! Fat person here who has crocheted tops and sweaters for herself!

So, the first one I made was Tall Latte, by Doris Chan. I called my project "Grande Mocha", and my project page is here: https://ravel.me/xnera/tl

Alas, I no longer wear it because I've gained even more weight, but it's a delightful sweater, and Doris' instructions are good! I was working off a free copy of the pattern that was once posted online; parts of the instructions were missing, so I guessed at it a bit, but it still turned out nicely. I'd definitely recommend buying her book Everyday Crochet: Wearable Designs Just for You because there are a lot of cute patterns in it!

The second thing I made was the Orchid Top, by Lily Go. This pattern *should* work for any size, because she has you take your measurements and figure out your gauge, do a bit of math, and then BOOM! you have a pattern! Alas, something about the way she wrote the shoulders/yoke/arm separation didn't make sense to me, and I could never get it to work even though I tried 3 times. I was determined to make this beautiful top, though, so I started over, using what I learned from the Tall Latte, and did the yoke as raglan increases with chains at the arm separations. That worked much better, and my resulting top turned out beautiful! My project page is here: https://ravel.me/xnera/ot2

My third crocheted top was the Gansey Sweater by Natasha Robarge. This one's worked side-to-side, and it's imperative you get row gauge. I, alas, did not, so mine turned out wider. I fudged the neckline to tighten things up there, and ended up with a wearable sweater. It's a nice pattern but I don't recommend it to a new garment maker. My project page is here: https://ravel.me/xnera/gs

My fourth crocheted top was Soft Serve, also from Doris Chan in the same book as mentioned above. This worked up really quick and came out very nice! I love mine. Here's my project page: https://ravel.me/xnera/ss2

My fifth attempted crocheted sweater was the Aspen Hooded Sweater by Stacey Tallman. I do NOT recommend this pattern - the designer doesn't understand grading! It was fine in the body, but the shoulders... dear gods, the shoulders were HUGE. Way, way, way too big. You can read my woes about this pattern here: https://ravel.me/xnera/ahs

If you're on Ravelry, I recommend joining the Crochet Clothing Crochet-Along group. They are wonderful, and always have an ongoing CAL. Plus, their threads there never "close"; feel free to bump a thread for a past CAL, no matter how old it is. Here's a link to that group:

https://www.ravelry.com/groups/crochet-clothing-crochet-along

Cheering you on! You can do this! Feel free to ask me any questions you might have.

[shaddyr]

Cool! Thanks for all the links and recs - I joined the CAL group.

Cheering you on! You can do this! Feel free to ask me any questions you might have.

Yay! Thanks for the offer! I have a dear friend who is quite crafty, but she's primarily a knitter and has been stumped on a few of my crochet questions.

[celli]

Those are great goals! I'm contemplating a sweater with the same issue here, so best of luck to us both. :)

[shaddyr]

Ooh, excellent! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

[celli]

My big project today was picking a background stitch for my embroidery project - it's done except for the background and re-outlining it, maybe a couple of tweaks here or there. I picked the herringbone ladder stitch - it doesn't depend on filling every single square and lets me play with multiple colors.

[badly_knitted]

Cute stitch, looks like a good way to fill in background for a more subtle effect.

[wiseheart]

Folks who can do cross-stich have my deepest respect!