Check-In Post March 13th 2021

[badly_knitted]

Hello to all members, 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.


Today's Question: No question today.


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]

Sewn up my prettiest pair of arm warmers today, the long, pale pink fuzzy ones. They're so lovely and soft that my next big project is going to a pale pink brushed double knit sweater. Similar yarn to the arm warmers, brought forever ago. I want it to wear over a black shirt so it'll be a lacy pattern.

Anyway, I've got the last pink pair of arm warmers prepared for sewing up but it's the Dancing on Ice final tomorrow night so I'll be knitting instead.

[smallhobbit]

Those arm warmers sound very pretty. And I'm sure the sweater will be lovely!

[badly_knitted]

Thank you!

I hope it will, I picked the pattern out months ago. Diamond lace, if I'm remembering right.

[medievalrosalie]

Ha ha next project planned before you've finished the current one! The jumper sounds lovely!

[badly_knitted]

Not forgetting the four other unfinished projects - two black sweaters, a white summer top, and the white sweater with black and grey blobs that I don't have a pattern for. Plus the red one I plan to undo. So much time wasted on that.

[annofowlshire]

Sound like lovely projects!

[badly_knitted]

Thanks! I'm hoping so.

[smallhobbit]

I finished bee three in time to take them when I went to see my mum. She was very pleased with them, although I'd put them in a little bag and selotaped the ribbon to the corner of her card (Mother's Day) and she couldn't open it, so I suggested she get one of the carers to help her.

And speaking of Mother's Day - the daughter has sent a parcel (arriving sometime next week) which includes wool because she'd like a hat, please!

[badly_knitted]

Glad your mum liked the bees!

That's a bit cheeky isn't it? I'll send mum some wool for Mother's Day so she can knit me a hat...

[smallhobbit]

That's about the usual standard for the daughter - after all, she knows I enjoy knitting, so is just providing the opportunity!

[medievalrosalie]

Sounds like a nice day all round!

[m_findlow]

Aw, that's lovely that you made some bees for your mum and gave them as a gift on mother's day. I'm sure she was delighted with them.

[medievalrosalie]

Today I'm having a quiet day at home on the couch trying to get rid of this sore throat before I have my Covid Vaccine tomorrow.

I'm still working on a silk hood for me with embroidered decoration taken from a beautiful ivory, carved mirror back dated in the 14th century. I'm couching, which has become my favourite thing since I learned how to get it to look nice.

I wasn't too sure which side I wanted to be out, but since I have an outfit the blue, I went with silver on the outside and blue silk thread for the decoration.

I'm now sewing the lining into the outer and in between naps, that should get the bottom seam done. I'm just tacking it together so I can flip in inside out and sew it down properly.

[annofowlshire]

I’d be excited to see some photos of these things when you are ready for that. I still need to get my “basic peasant dress.” I found what seemed like the perfect place to get them, but I realized as I was checking out their in Germany and with shipping and the total unknown that is customs right now post-Brexit, I decided to wait.

But I think my local Shire will be starting to have outdoor picnics in a couple of months....

[m_findlow]

Yay for getting your vaccine tomorrow - you must be right up there in the queue. Even my cousin hasn't had one yet and she's a nurse. Hope it all goes well and your hood sounds gorgeous.

[badly_knitted]

Sore throats are no fun. Hope it's gone before your vaccination.

So you're couching on the couch? *grins* How appropriate!

Sounds like the hood will be lovely once it's finished. Silver and blue look so good together.

[annofowlshire]

I did a bit of time at my spinning wheel last night after the child went to sleep (I’m not yet ready to try spinning with him in the room, he’s way too interested in the spinning wheel). It’s making a bit of a knocking noise when I treadle, so I emailed the lady I bought it from (who said I could email her if I had questions) to see if it was a problem she was familiar with.

I’m about halfway done with the first ply now (it’s planned to be a 3 ply yarn).

Then my Mr wanted to watch some TV with me, so I did more work on the socks—have finished the cuff, now on to the heel flap.

In craft-cooking, I made a lamb hot pot for dinner. (Also called Lancashire Hot Pot.) I received my parcel with 40 different types of seeds in it! But the child is still quite sick, so it’s been an indoor kind of weekend.

Musing about crafting:

I’ve currently looking at UK suppliers of handdyed (variegated) wool, as my own stocks are quite lean and picked over. The color aesthetics here is much different than it was in the States XD (UK handdyers tend to be a bit more subtle, while we American dyers tended to go for rather LOUD color schemes.) It does make me wonder sometimes if there’s room in the market for me over here. I used to run a handdyed spinning wool/handspun yarn business when I lived in the States, but packed it in when I moved to the UK for various reasons. (About 1/5 of my business came from the UK, so there’s clearly interest here in the louder colorways.) I had been thinking about restarting it again now that we’ve moved to the countryside and I have space for it and the child is getter nearer and nearer to school aged, but then I unexpectedly got a job in my other love (writing) a couple of months ago so I think fiber arts will stay a hobby for now. One should have a hobby.

The Mr bought me a blending board for Christmas that I haven’t even assembled yet. I think I may use it to blend some solid dyed wool I have (once I can find it... it’s in a box somewhere in the stables which is where all the garage/loft things ended up from the old house), and I think I may also use it to make blended batts of natural dyed wool once I get to that.

Speaking of which, I’ve also started researching doing natural dyeing with garden/foraged plants, because goodness, why not? XD

[smallhobbit]

Natural dyeing would be interesting. Would you need a lot of plants to make a small amount of dye?

[m_findlow]

Gosh you have a lot of kit! I hope you have a good go of it because it sounds like you've got all the skills to make it work.

[badly_knitted]

You have so many exciting projects to look forward to! I hope there will be pictuires. I have no idea what a blending board is or what it does, but it sounds intriguing.

I'm sure there would be a market over here for the louder colour mixes in hand-dyed yarn. I like variregated yarns myself, and while I do think the subtle colours are pretty, sometimes I just want something brighter and more eye-catching that makes a statement. Not that I can afford hand-dyed, handspun yarns, but I like to look and admire. I should use up all the yarn I've already got.

So true, we all need hobbies, they're relaxing and keep us from getting bored.

[medievalrosalie]

So many exciting things going on here! Hooray for spinning and hooray for seeds!

Absolutely do some natural dying because there are a ton of really great forage plants which will give you great colours! It sounds like you won't be stepping on toes for business anyway, so that's a plus! I have made friends with some incredible dyers through facebook and re-enactment even though my own efforts are small and mainly for my own amusement.

[m_findlow]

I haven't done anything all week I must confess. It's been a long week at work and most of this weekend was spent frittering about putting music on my phone to have some white noise in the background at work.
Also wasted a whole day consolidating photos from my camera, tablet and phone to one spot after debris4spike put me onto PhotoCrowd (after connecting on photo_scavenger) so I submitted a few photos over there and fiddled with them on some free editing software. They're definitely not professional or amazing like most the submissions but I like trying to find pictures I've taken that fit the challenges, and hopefully able to get out and about again soon with my camera with the new challenges as they crop up.

[annofowlshire]

Most weeks I get hardly any crafting in XD It tends to be fits and starts.

[badly_knitted]

Ah, but music is important, so that wasn't a waste of time, and neither was organising your photos. It's good to have them all where you can find them.

Enjoy the challenges!

[medievalrosalie]

It's nice to spend a day sorting photos, so that's never time wasted. I like joining in on some of the Instagram photo challenges where there's a theme for the month and a list of topics in the theme (one for each day of the month) and we share our theme for each day. This month it's #womeninlivinghistory. I seriously envy the people playing in Europe as they have such great photos for "cold" and "home" such as snow and castles which I can only dream of. What kind of challenges do you do? And what kind of photography is your favourite?