Check-In Post January 5th 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]

Zero crafting today, just didn't have the concentration required after I did my daily writing.


In other news, most of the pools of water on the lawn and path have drained away. There might be some rain tonight, but even if there is, it shouldn't cause the return of flooding.

[wiseheart]

Well, that's good news, at least. Let's hope your crafting mojo will return, eventually. Until then, a break can be nice, too.

[darkcedars]

Glad the water drained away. I heard there's been trouble.

[spiralicious]

That's great news about the lawn draining!

[wiseheart]

Only very little work on the songbook. Still, I can hope that tomorrow I'll be able to sew the last page to the back cover. That leaves me with two finished pages, the first and the last; I'll "only" have to complete the six pages in-between. And to bind the book. At least I don't have to hem the pages; they're simply edged with blanket stitch.

Still haven't decided how to bind the finished Christmas book, though.

[badly_knitted]

That's still a huge amount of work to do. You'll get there though.

[spiralicious]

A little progress is still progress. That nice that you don't have to hem the edges though.

[malurette]

Hello, I'm new~ I've decided that 2024 will be the year that I learn to knit a top-down in-the-round jumper!
I've actually started during the last days of December but I only did the neck and I guess shoulders? and stopped before I would separate the sleeves from the torso. I've left my work at my parents' with the promise that I would pick it up and hopefully finish it on the next holiday?

[badly_knitted]

Hello and welcome!

I've never tried knitting a sweater from the top down, I suspect it would quickly become quite heavy. Congratulations on getting as far as you have, and I hope it won't be too long before the next holiday so you can work on it some more.

[darkcedars]

Hello! And good sweater luck for the future.

[yarnofariadne]

Welcome, and best of luck with the jumper!

[althea_valara]

Welcome!

Oooh, a sweater! I have made top-down in-the-round sweaters, both crocheted and knitted. They are fun! They *can* get heavy though; when it comes to work the sleeves, I've heard people put the body in a pillowcase for ease of maneuvering around.

but I only did the neck and I guess shoulders?

I have terminology for you! Feel free to skip if you already know it or aren't interested.

"Yoke" is the technical term for the top of the sweater, from neck to sleeve separation. Many, many top-down in-the-round sweaters are raglan style; if you have four increase points (usually with 2 increases at each point), then yeah, that's a raglan. I like them because they're pretty easy to make!

There's also top-down round-yoke sweaters which, if I understand correctly, have more increases per round, but I've never made one so I don't know for sure.

Good luck with your sweater! I hope it comes out beautifully for whoever it's for. <3

[shaddyr]

I'm new~ I've decided that 2024 will be the year that I learn to knit a top-down in-the-round jumper!

Good for you! I'm trying to make a sweater for the first time as well - may we both figure it out with a minimum of frogging required!

[spiralicious]

Hi! Fancy seeing you here!

Good luck with your sweater! (The people here are very friendly and helpful.)

[alexcat]

Learned a new stitch on Yourube - the love knot or Solomon's knot. Looks like a mesh when done.

[darkcedars]

Oh nice. Did you do it just to learn the stitch or do you have a specific project in mind?

[badly_knitted]

That's so cool!

[spiralicious]

Very cool!

[yarnofariadne]

Cast off the infinity scarf! I'll deal with my old nemesis weaving in the ends tomorrow.

[darkcedars]

Congrats on finishing!

[darkcedars]

Snowing again today. Starched the couple final snowflakes (it feels like this took a million years).

Usually I do some sort of "craft spring cleaning" early in the year. It's probably going to need to be sewing related. I'm most behind on mending etc.

[yarnofariadne]

Congrats on finishing the snowflakes! I hope the spring cleaning goes well.

[celli]

I got just a few stitches in today but I think I'm set for my decorative stitch! Unless I change my mind and do it all in one color instead of two contrasting colors. Ahhh.

[badly_knitted]

You'll figure it out. And even a few stitches is still progress!

[althea_valara]

LOOK AT MY NEW ICON! It was made by one of the snowflake_challenge participants! I <3 it.

My day started bright and early, because I hit Joann's right when they opened. I had to wait about 5 minutes for them to unlock the door, and once I walked in, I poked my head around a corner to ask an employee if they were, indeed, open, because the store was still a mess. Oof. I feel sorry for them. Places are still short-staffed here!

I bought all the yarn needed for the stockings. I did guess at how much white and red I would need, but I think I should have enough... actually, probably have plenty. I neglected to buy the necessary felt though, oops. I will just have to go back to Joann's some time--oh, darn.

I also bought some washi tape and stickers for my bullet journal! I'm trying to be a lot more organized and productive this year, and part of that is using said journal. Now I have stuff to pretty it up! I did this in a separate transaction though, as I am going to send the receipt for the yarn to the patron for reimbursement.

Today, I had scheduled to work on the poinsettia for mom. I got done two of the smallest petals. I'll take it! That was about 50-55 minutes of work, so about hitting my crafting goal time for the day.

I also typed up the pattern for the stockings. The patron had bought a vintage scan off Etsy (the copyright lover in me is shuddering) and it was a bit hard to read, so now I have a spreadsheet that's much easier to follow.

That's probably all the crafting I'm doing today. But I'm going to do some writing later - well, more like copying text, with some embellishments from me. I'm documenting the Final Fantasy XIV story, and for Shadowbringers expansion, going into a LOT of detail. I have scheduled myself to work on that on Fridays, so I get it done this year.

[badly_knitted]

Such a great icon!

Glad you managed to get the yarn for the stockings even though you forgot the felt. Is going back to a craft store again really so terrible though? *grins* Poking around to see what there is can be fun, although it can also get expensive...

Sounds like you got a lot done today. Good luck with prettying your journal and documenting your game. That's quite a task you've set yourself!

[shaddyr]

I made myself a crochet icon.

Also, I have started making the this pattern since it comes in all the sizes. We shall see how it works out.

[spiralicious]

Your icon looks great :)

Good luck with your sweater.

[spiralicious]

I'm back home & no longer house sitting. The adjustment has been more awkward than expected.

Sort of stretching the limits of the term crafting here, but at work, I turned several boxes of new pieces of electronics into a functioning POS system and I created December's bookkeeping records. I don't know if I have mentioned it here, but both the cash register and the book keeping computer died the same week in mid-November. The computer was replaced pretty quickly, but I haven't been able to get into the banking records since, which makes it very difficult to keep the books up-to-date. I was finally deemed worthy of print outs from the bank today to fill in the missing bits and reconcile what I had. The replacement for the cash register only arrived on Wednesday and instead of the basic register that was asked for, something that belongs on the space station was ordered instead. But I think, I've got it to where the store manager can use it now.

In more traditional crafting, I gave the 2024 divider page in my bullet journal a decorative background; grey curved stripes done with a highlighter and I covered the pre-printed dating banner that's across the top of the page with some of the new washi tape I got from someone at holiday_wishes.

I also finally got back to knitting on the hat I've been working on. It didn't get worked on at all the weeks I was house-sitting. I was a little afraid I had forgotten how.

[yarnofariadne]

I'm always so worried about picking up a project after it's been sitting for a while - when I got back to the beach cover-up I was convinced I couldn't remember how to do a stitch at all 😂 Well done on all your hard work!