Check-In Post June 26th 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 like to finish one project at a time or do you prefer having several on the go?


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]

More work outside, accompanied by my robin friend who today almost landed on my foot. I still haven't completely cleared the patch I'm working on, but that's because it's in full sun so I had to take refuge in the shade whenever the clouds wandered off, which was a lot of the time. There weren't many clouds and they were all intent on heading somewhere else. Had another snail adventure this morning. One dropped into my boot. Not at all comfortable. Snails are hard and lumpy.


Sheep number seven is coming along well. It just needs the white bits and its head, plus the flower tucked behind its ear. Very pretty little sheep =) Hoping to do some more stitching shortly.

[wiseheart]

Hoho, that sheep sounds really cute! :)

You seem to attract snails somehow. I wonder what the reason might be.

[badly_knitted]

It is, but the face didn't go well =(

My garden is overgrown, the snails like to be up high, and when I brush past, they fall off.

[wiseheart]

Awww, shade about the face! Are you sure you can't fix it?

[badly_knitted]

I would have to cut some stitches as they won't pull out. I might try at some point, but not just now. This sheep is supposed to look cute, not like it's pulling weird faces.

[sister_raphael]

Very cute sounding sheep!

[badly_knitted]

Unfortunately the face went wrong and I don't think I can undo it =(

[spiralicious]

You are making good progress on the garden and with the sheep. The snails are just coming for you, aren't they?

[badly_knitted]

I'm getting somewhere with the garden, just not sure where... Only one sheep left to stitch!

That's the thanks I get for rescuing so many snails from the bin, I guess...

[spiralicious]

If you end up in the Shire, do let us know ;) Yay for only one sheep left! But also a little sad the sheep saga is almost over.

Perhaps.

[badly_knitted]

I will *grins*

I will be happy to work on something else, all the grey and white is getting a bit boring. Later on though, there could be dragons, or dinosaurs, or Highland Coos (cows).

[spiralicious]

*\o/*

[badly_knitted]

I finished the sheeps and have been working on sunny windowsills =)

[wiseheart]

I was out and around in the midday heat all morning and early afternoon, and since that means temperatures over 30°C, with intermittent downpours (that resulted in high humidity) I wasn't really fit to do anything else than take a nap afterwards. :(

[badly_knitted]

Heat is draining, especially when you have to be active. The nap was essential.

[wiseheart]

It was a life-saver, especially as the night before was so short.

[sister_raphael]

napping is good :)

[spiralicious]

That sounds horribly unpleasant. The nap was necessary.

[illariy]

Wow, that sounds exhausting especially with the high humidity and the length of the errands/excursions. Naps are restorative and much needed. Hope the next few days could be cooler or at least less outdoorsy time so more crafting energy.

It is hot and comparatively humid here in Germany, too, and AC in private flats is very, very rare. Next few days are forecast as much cooler, though, so I am enjoying the heat while it lasts and quitely sweating at my computer in a shaded room, hehe. 28.4°C in here according to my thermometre.

[wiseheart]

Yeah, we are forced to let the blinds down from the late morning on, as our flat gets a lot of sunshine. So we're sitting in the darkness for the greater part of the day, which is no fun at all!

[althea_valara]

Still trying to come up with cute/cool names for my crafting classes I'm gonna be teaching! Anyone have any ideas? Contenders so far:

A friend suggested:
* Needling Fun
* Stitches and Giggles
* Knit One, Purl Together

I suggested the following:
* Yarn Yurt... (I like alliteration and Yurt is a fun word-though I probably won't use this as I doubt tweens will know what a yurt is!)
* Crafting Corner
* Strings and Things

Then I said: I should just look at a list of Local Yarn Shops, they are great with fun names
here, a quick web search found this: https://www.soocial.com/craft-business-names/

from that list, these jumped out at me:
* The Craft Squad
* Artisanal Arcade
* Stitchery Studio
* Creative Expressions

My brain is still out to lunch from the excitement. I'm restless but don't want to do anything. I picked up some knitting but didn't even finish a row before I put it back down. Perhaps I will try some crochet, or investigate friendship bracelet braiding...

[badly_knitted]

Your brain will come back online eventually. Just do whatever you feel like.

The trouble with using names of yarn shops is that people might assume your class is associated with the shop, so keep that in mind.

[althea_valara]

Oh, that's a very good point! I'll stay away from the more well-known names then.

[badly_knitted]

Just thought it was something you should consider.

[sister_raphael]

All good names, bu yes, stay away from things that sound like shops.

[spiralicious]

Stitches and Giggles sounds fun

[wiseheart]

That would be my choice, too. :)

[illariy]

My fave so far is Stitches and Giggles! That sounds enticing, I would drop by. :D

Second fave is Crafting Corner.

I have no other ideas, am on a study break and it is 28.4°C in my room and my brain is saying it's too hot to do anything, hehe. I used to enjoy this heat a lot but now that I am quite fat, not so much, ugh.

Oooh, would be cool to see you get into friendship bracelets! I used to do those, both the plaited ones and the knotted ones. I wanna get back into them but no oomph, oops. It is fun and the projects are very portable, though!

[sister_raphael]

I had to cut a large number of eyelets off the front of a kirtle I'm making and that was very sad. :(

[spiralicious]

That sounds very sad indeed

[badly_knitted]

Oh no! *weeps for you* It's such a lovely colour too.

[wiseheart]

What a shame!

[spiralicious]

This week has been stressful and i'm a bit more sleep deprived than usual. I also have a bit of cleaning I've been procrastinating on I need to do because I think my stay with Charlie and Mimi will come to an end tomorrow.

Today was the monthly art book workshop at the library. This month's project was putting spackling (like from the hardware store) on tissue paper, using stencils. We also dyed some of the spackling using food coloring. It was a deceptively simple project. At a later class, we are going to learn how to transfer the spackling designs onto paper.

Tuesday I poked at the writing prompts I have that have due dates coming up. I'm happy to have written some words, but I'm not confident any of them are going to be done on time.

Monday was card making with Lynne. All things considered, the card went okay. With this week's design being almost entirely stickers, I had worried, but she remembered how stickers worked this time. The only real issue we had was impatience over having to share supplies and her questioning every instruction I gave as though I was lying. I also got the next card making kit made with a minimal amount of fuss. We'll see how it goes when it happens.

[badly_knitted]

That does sound a very stressful week, but yay for getting some writing done!

Glad the card-making session went reasonably well and you managed to get the next kit sorted.

The spackling project sounds intriguing!

[spiralicious]

There are just too many things going on at once XD Thanks :D

Thanks. Yeah. I think I've said this before, but I wish I knew a better way/knew how to make a project that would be good for her. Maybe what I'm doing is good for her. I don't know XD

It was. Just spackle from the hardware store slapped on with a old gift card as a spreader over a plastic stencil. Pull up the stencil and boom, 3d pattern. and it doesn't take long to dry. The trick was not being too rough with the tissue paper, or if it was dyed spackle, not have it be too wet.

[badly_knitted]

Maybe it is. You can only hope.

Sounds fun, if a bit messy. Why did it need to be on tissue paper though? That's so fragile.

[wiseheart]

Why did it need to be on tissue paper though?

I was wondering about that myself.

[spiralicious]

In this case in particular, we are going to be transferring the 3d bits on to other pages later - all the things we have been making all year will be part of a big collage book later - and the tissue disappears as part of the transfer, leaving the spackle bits behind. If you weren't doing the transfer bit, there is no reason to not just do it on sturdier paper to start with.

[spiralicious]

Yeah.

I this particular case, it had to be on tissue paper because we will at some later date be transferring our creations on to other papers and the process either turns the tissue into a clear adhesive or dissolves it, I'm not sure. Maybe both. But there is no reason you couldn't just do it on sturdier paper to start with.

[badly_knitted]

Ah, interesting! Looking forward to finding out what you end up doing with the results!