Daily Check-in Post 1st March 2021

[pensnest]

Hello everyone, and welcome to the regular daily check-in post, for this week hosted by me, pensnest. 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: How/why did you take up your craft? (Answer for as many crafts as you like!)

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 post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

Comments

[smallhobbit]

I've done a little cross stitch and a row of my hat, but time seems to have walked out on me today!

I learnt to knit from my mother, then took it up again in my thirties, knitted for the kids, stopped again and restarted this summer just past. I started cross stitch when four years ago I decided I needed to do some new things, I got my flist to suggest various things to try, so I did one new thing per month for a year. Cross stitch was one of those new things, I loved doing it, and have been cross stitching regularly ever since.

[pensnest]

I love the idea of doing something new every month for a year! I wonder what I'd learn...

My first usable sweater was knitted for my daughter (she was five). I don't think I've stopped knitting since then.

[badly_knitted]

Knitting is addictive.

[smallhobbit]

It was a really interesting experiment, which I was very glad I'd done. Some things I wouldn't do again, others I really enjoyed.

[badly_knitted]

It's all progress!

I came to cross stitch through a friend who stitched.

[smallhobbit]

Definitely!

[pensnest]

I've never taken up cross stitch, but I had a 'tapestry' phase, where 'tapestry' means sewing rather than weaving. Was inspired to do my biggest picture by my mother-in-law, who bought a *gigantic* base - about five feet wide - and took me to the shop where she got it. Of course I found a picture I liked....

[badly_knitted]

That sounds like a massive tapestry! I've done small sewn tapestries but I prefer cross stitch, lighter and easier than a weighty tapestry.

[pensnest]

It's enormous! I designed her a border for it, so the whole thing is massive. It took her years, because she wasn't very strong, and was sometimes pulling the needle through with pliers! She was a bit dismayed when she saw what I was doing with my picture, because I'd decided to go a lot more free-form with it, and not make the whole thing half-cross-stitch. So I have long horizontal stitches for water, and long verticalish stitches for trees and reeds, which makes for a much more realistic result. I think she'd have gone for the same style, but that she had already done several inches from the top when she saw mine.

[badly_knitted]

Ah, you used longstitch. That can be very effective.

Pliers can come in handy for a lot of things, I've found!

[medievalrosalie]

Cross stitch is really wonderful! And the results are so great!

[smallhobbit]

I really enjoy doing it.