Check-In Post May 1st 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: We all make mistakes - what's your most memorable crafting disaster?


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]

I have finished the tulip Delft tile design! All I have left to do of this set is the daffodil one, which has a couple of small windmills incorporated into the border. Planning to start that tomorrow. It's the only one with a border I probably won't use again.

Finally, have pics of my sister's birthday card, and the last three Tropical Flowers designs.

[darkcedars]

That's great! I peeked in at just the right time.

[badly_knitted]

Thank you. Excellent timing!

[althea_valara]

Oooh, so pretty! Well done!

[badly_knitted]

Thank you! They're a lot neater than my current projects, lo!

[illariy]

Congratulations on a new finished tile!

The birthday card and finished tiles are beautiful. So colourful! Puts me in a right mood for spring. :D Thank you for sharing the pics!

[badly_knitted]

Thank you! Hopefully there will be pictures of the finished tiles early next week. I'll be glad to get the last one done, I much prefer working with one strand of thread instead of the two needed on the current project.

[illariy]

Oh, two strands of thread at once? That sounds difficult to handle. I hope the last one goes by quickly, am looking forward to the pics of the finished tiles whenever you are ready. :-)

[badly_knitted]

That's the norm for cross stitch, since the standard fabric is 14 hpi (holes per inch), and two strands are needed to give good coverage. I'm stitching on 16 hpi at present, where two strands are often used, but is does mean getting through the holes can be a bit tight. My preference is for stitching on 18, 20, or 22 hpi with only one strand, but those fabrics are harder to come by, and usually more expensive..

A lot of people stitch really neatly with two strands, but I'm not one of them. I get impatient and the threads get twisted so they don't lie flat, hence my preference with one thread, lol! I can stitch quick and neat that way. Yesterday's pics were all single strand.

[illariy]

Oh, that is good to know! Makes sense that the finer fabrics are more expensive and harder to find but a pity nonetheless. I hope you can have more projects with the higher hpi fabrics.

My only time doing cross stitch was in primary school and I don't even remember how many strands it was but it was a fabric with large holes so probably at least 2, if not more.

How is your embroidery going today? I hope you're having a good time as well as plenty of time for crafting this weekend. :-)

[badly_knitted]

My first cross stitch was in what was called infants school here when I was a kid. That would have been 8 hpi fabric, and I think we used wool to stitch with rather than embroidery thread. I have some 11 hpi fabric I got in a job lot and not sure what to do with that, although I have some thicker thread that might work...

It's been going well today, might finish the last of this set tomorrow. Next time I stitch on 16 hpi, I'm going to try using one strand. Getting 8 strands altogether through one hole when they're close together has been a bit trying...

[illariy]

Wow, you started young, then! How cool that you are still doing cross stitch now.

Hope you can finish that set this weekend. How is it going?

[badly_knitted]

I didn't take cross stitch up again until I was in my 40s, lol! I fiddled with a lot of things, then knitting took over in my late teens and I just knitted for years. Didn't start cross stitching properly until a friend sent me a kit as a gift. I've been stitching off and on since then.

I did get that set finished yesterday, and started another project today =) No pictures yet though.

[wiseheart]

They are beautiful! Well done!

[badly_knitted]

Thank you!

[wiseheart]

I've finished Page 3 of the baby book. Here you can see both the closed and the open versions:



The colours do look a bit different than before, even though I used the same paper pad; perhaps the illumination was different, I don't know. I also managed to glue on the "Milestones" tag on the back of the card instead of the front, so that the text within is now upside down, but I'll pretend that it's an artistic step and not my stupid mistake. ;))

In the terms of further crafting I started with the little teddy bear key rings for the Christmas fair by using thin straps of felt I couldn't otherwise use to make the hangings of the actual key rings. Twelve down, eight more to go. I know it's ridiculously early for Christmassy stuff, but these are the small, easy - and utterly boring - parts that I like to have out of my hair in advance. Besides, my fingers are still too kaputt for working on the songbook, so I needed something light for them to do.

[badly_knitted]

Really pretty, well done!

Definitely a good idea to let your fingers do something easy before tackling the song book again.

[wiseheart]

Thanks. :) The fingers were grateful for the easy task.

[darkcedars]

Doing your fair projects make total sense between the bigger things.

[wiseheart]

It takes off me a lot of stress later. *g*

[illariy]

Wow, it looks gorgeous.

Wow, yeah, you truly are early for Christmas but the early bird catches the worm and all that. Hope your fingers are recovering nicely.

[wiseheart]

Fingers are still in a sorry shape; and annoyingly enough, I seem to have done... something to the index finger of my other hand, too. That doesn't make things easier.

[illariy]

Ouch! I hope the rest helps all your fingers.

[wiseheart]

Thanks. No idea what I did that hurt my other hand, but, well, the fingers aren't as young as they used to be... just like the rest of me.

[darkcedars]

Happy May Day! When I was a kid, we would have made paper flowers or picked flowers to wrap in paper cones to take around to neighbors.

I have not been able to craft. Buried under house projects and trying to keep up with the regular chores too. I just went outside and planted a few flower seeds though. Sunflowers and blue disc daisies.

[illariy]

Happy May Day to you, too! That custom sounds beautiful.

Yeah, I am buried under other tasks, too. Much sympathy on that front. Planting some flowers sounds wonderful, though. I love sunflowers especially. Hope you get some time for crafting soon.

[wiseheart]

Chores are sooo time consuming... not to mention exhausting! At least you got to plant some flowers, which counts as crafting, too

[badly_knitted]

Happy May Day! That sounds like a sweet tradition. We never had anything like that here.

Sorry you haven't had time to craft. You've been busy though! Hope your seeds come up.

[althea_valara]

April crafting log in my journal, here: https://althea-valara.dreamwidth.org/1188546.html

I got a lot done in April, hooray! But there's still a lot left to do, and right now I am a bit overwhelmed.

I have made an executive decision to leave out one of the shades of green in niece's blanket. That's because as written, the pattern makes a really LARGE adult blanket, but my gauge is off so it's coming out even larger. The width is 60" / 152 cm! WOWZERS. So, I'm aiming for a more square than rectangular blanket. I'm just fussing with numbers right now, so I can be sure I do the color changes at the right place AND end the pattern at the proper row.

[illariy]

Wow, that is an impressive output for April for sure! So happy to see your Starfish pillow. It is een more beautiful than I had imagined. ♥

152 cm is a wide blanket for sure especially for a kid. Wowzers indeed. Hope your size adjustments go well. May your May be as produktive as April but hopefully not stressful. :-)

[wiseheart]

You've done a lot indeed! The starfish pillow looks particularly lovely.

[badly_knitted]

Brilliant! Such a busy and productive month for you.

Good plan with the blanket, hopefully that will make it more manageable.

[malurette]

I've started the wrist ribs for that jumper sleeve. It doesn't look very good at the moment, but as I'm knitting an ugly for-time-off-only jumper anyway, as long as it's not too noticeably different from the other sleeve I'll say I'm good?
Also did a few rows on a scarf.

[illariy]

Warm jumper and no noticeable difference sounds great to me. Hope your jumper and scarf continue to go well. :-)

[badly_knitted]

It might look better once it's done. We all ned a few slobbing around jumpers.

And scarf work too! Busy as a beaver =)

[tielan]

I am actually MAKING BINDING, yo!

[badly_knitted]

Yay! Well done!