Daily Check-In Post 7th 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: Are you (in Normal Times) part of any groups that craft together? eg knit & natter, pottery class etc. What do you get out of it? Will you go back to it once the pandemic is no longer a threat? Have you been able to keep it up on Zoom?

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

[pensnest]

Ah, well done! 50 rows is a *lot*. I've been working on a mini blanket, and get bored after not very much.

I used to have a fun arrangement with some friends who, like me, had given up on our local amdram group - we'd meet every couple of weeks for tea and knitting. It was nice. Walking in to a group of people you don't know is a lot harder to do.

[badly_knitted]

It can get boring doing something straight and ordinary, but when I'm glued to the TV I can knit more or less on autopilot as long as it's something straightforward. I'll probably leave finishing the two tone arm warmers until next Sunday, which is the Dancing on Ice final. I really need to sew up the completed arm warmers, and maybe decide on my next big project.

I still have two black sweaters to complete, but the evenings aren't light enough yet for figuring out where I am on those. Also got the white blobby sweater to complete, but I have to work out the neck shaping. Got the arm bands to do on the summer top so I should finish that, shouldn't take too much work. The red sweater I was working on though... thinking of abandoning it, undoing all I've done, and starting over with a different pattern.

I have social anxiety among other things, so getting together with strangers would be too fraught.

[pensnest]

I've never *quite* been able to knit without looking. I can manage a few stitches, but have to keep checking.

Knitting in black is a bit of a trial in the winter months, but it sounds as though you have plenty to keep you busy. Personally I hate the 'sewing up' stage of knitting, so these days pretty much everything I knit is seamless, which makes me much happier!

[badly_knitted]

I can on stocking stitch and purl rows, mostly on rib with an occasional glance to make sure I'm not purling knit stitches and knitting purl stitches - it can happen. Have to watch what I'm doing on pattern rows.

I don't love sewing up, but many years ago I learned the technique of invisible seams which is easier and quicker than regular sewing up and means I can get away without blocking and pressing anything, it's just that I don't have good sewing up needles at the moment. I lost mine when my sister insisted on taking back the needle case she made in school. Never mind that she chucked it out forty years ago and I'd been using it since then, it was hers so she wanted it. I have no idea where I put my needles. Been looking for them ever since.

[pensnest]

Ooh, how infuriating - it's so irritating to *have* the tool you need but not have access to it right when you need it. Invisible seams - does that mean something like Kitchener stitch? or actual sewing, with added cunning?

[badly_knitted]

It's actual sewing, but done from the right side of the work. But to do it you have to knit all your pieces a specific way, slipping the first stitch knitwise, and knitting the last stitch. On most patterns that means casting on two extra stitches so there are edge stitches that aren't part of the pattern. It leaves a row of knobbles along both edges which, if matched up right, will result in an invisible seam.