Check-In Post - February 16th 2025

[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: What kind of crafting supplies can you never resist buying?


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 think I've knitted 4 pattern repeats today, which is way less than it sounds because the number of stitches has gone down on ever row. I only have a third of what I had to start with.

[wiseheart]

It is still progress. :)

[badly_knitted]

It's a huge amount of progress, 32 rows with an ever decreasing number of stitches. No more than 8 rows left to do on the back. =D

[nagi_schwarz]

Still excellent progress!

[badly_knitted]

I'm only a few rows from finishing the back, so it's a LOT of progress, just fewer stitches than when I was doing one or two pattern repeats a day, before the raglan decreases began.

[yarnofariadne]

Great progress!

[badly_knitted]

Thank you! The back is very nearly finished =D

[peaceful_sands]

You’re doing well . I hope things continue well.

[badly_knitted]

Thank you! I'm very happy with progress!

[yarnofariadne]

Blanket is off the needles! Still needs blocking but then it's done.

[wiseheart]

Congratulations!

[marinarusalka]

Yay!

[badly_knitted]

YAY! Congratulations!

[althea_valara]

YAY BLANKET!!!

[nagi_schwarz]

Woohoo! Way to go! That's so awesome!

[peaceful_sands]

Fantastic- good luck with the next stage

[wiseheart]

I've finished Emma the baby elephant. Actually, she's a tattoophant, as she has black lines across her left side because I was stupid enough to draw the outline on the patterned side of the fabric first. When I realized my mistake and re-did it on the other side, the lines didn't match, of course. But I decided that she's a rebellious little elephant who secretly visited a tattoo studio; that's my story and I stick to it. *g*

Behold the entire herd now. From top to bottom: Fanny and Flora (I rechristened Fleur), Ellie and Lola, Lilly and Emma.



Since I've run out of the nice, strong floral fabric, there won't be any more elephants for a while. Unless another old dress of Grandma shows up, which is unlikely. From the remaining scraps I'll make lavender sachets for the Christmas fair again.

Speaking of which, I got a brilliant (???) idea about how to recycle old lavener sachets that have lost their scent. I emptied them into an air-tight plastic box, mixed in two packages of freshly dried lavender flowers and will keep them there for a while until the entire amount gets scented again. I hope it works; if it does, it will enable me to make a great many sachets. Even some of the little sacks can be reused, which would save me a lot of work. *fingers crossed*

[marinarusalka]

These are lovely!

[wiseheart]

Thank you! :)

[badly_knitted]

Your herd of elephants look wonderful!

I hope your plan for the lavender works!

[wiseheart]

I really hope it will. So far, I mixed two packages of freshly dried lavender with one package of old flowers that lost their scent; perhaps adding a few drops of lavender oil (if I find it anywhere) will speed up the process.

[badly_knitted]

It might, if you can find some. The local health food store sells it over here, so if you have somewhere similar it might be worth looking there.

[nagi_schwarz]

Your herd is just lovely! Thank you so much for sharing! I love it. They all look adorable.

I hope your plan to re-scent the sachets works!

[wiseheart]

I wish I could send one of them to you, but postal prices have gone through the roof over here. Perhaps I'll make a really flat one and send it in a letter one day. :)

[yarnofariadne]

Oh I love the tattoophant :D They all look so cute!

I hope your idea works on the sachets!

[wiseheart]

The tattoophant and her twin sister have just found a new home. They're still with me but will move, soon.

[peaceful_sands]

What a gorgeous herd they are - complete with their little rebel. Good luck with the lavender - I hope your ideas works well.

[wiseheart]

I hope so, too. That would take care of a good chunk of my charity fair stuff.

[spiralicious]

What a beautiful herd!

[wiseheart]

Thank you. :)

[althea_valara]

Did a repeat on the legwarmers.

Made an executive decision: there was no way I'd finish an Emotional Support Chicken this month, so I did a crocheted chicken coaster from a popular pattern. I should not have had problems with it, and yet, I did--I ended up with too few stitches on a row, and decided to just fudge the rest. Go figure. So I do not have a perfect chicken, but it's good enough. I just need to find some yellow yarn for the beak and weave in ends.

Why was I making a chicken, after all? It's for Nerdopolis' "Sidekicks and Pets" challenge. There's a character in Final Fantasy XIV who's a bit of a sidekick himself, and he has a bright green chicken as a pet. So obviously, I had to make a bright green chicken for this challenge.

Glad my shoulder allowed this much--probably about an hour and a half of crafting. I'll take it!

What kind of crafting supplies can you never resist buying?

Mostly yarn. I am probably going to hit up Joann tomorrow and see if they have started clearance sales yet. I also am a sucker for washi tape and journaling supplies, which I don't actually USE all that much, oops. But they're so fun to shop for!

[badly_knitted]

You will get the emotional support chicken finished eventually. Well done for working on the leg warmer and making the caster. Glad your shoulder cooperated.

I am definitely with you on the yarn. I have a shelves packed with yarn, really shouldn't get more, but I bought enough Aran for three projects, then recently bought enough for two more, even though I haven't finished the back of the first one yet... I am a bad person, lol!

Journaling supplies are so tempting.

[nagi_schwarz]

Oooh, washi tape and journaling supplies are a lot of fun, it's true! I do love stationery. When back to school sales begin, I can't be trusted around all the fresh notebooks and journals and pretty pens...

I am glad your shoulder let you craft some! You made awesome progress!

[yarnofariadne]

An imperfect chicken can still be a lovely thing :D

[peaceful_sands]

Hope you recover soon. Well done on your accomplishments

[nagi_schwarz]

I am on the final row of my star blanket, and tonight I started on my wool-washing adventure. It's rather time-consuming, with multiple washes and rinses, and I'm only doing a bit of wool since I am not capable of hauling an entire five-gallon bucket full of water and wool by myself (although to be fair I doubt I'd be capable of that even if I weren't 34 weeks pregnant lol), but I am trying the process and excited to see how it goes! Will need to do a lot of wool picking for reals...

Progress is being made! Wrists are hurting a bit, possibly from excessive crocheting, so I might try another project tomorrow once I finish the blanket. It'll need the ends sewn in and then to be washed, and then I can send it to a good home!

[yarnofariadne]

Well done on the blanket, and I hope you can take care of yourself!

[badly_knitted]

Well done on the blanket! Hoping to see a picture when it's finished =)

Five gallons of wet wool and water would be hellishly heavy, and you really don't want to overdo things at this stage o_O It will take a lot of washing to get the oils out of the wool though... sheep are sort of designed to be waterproof.

Yes, do something else for a bit to let your wrists rest, you don't need an RSI or an inflamed median nerve (been there, do NOT recommend).

[peaceful_sands]

Well done on all your achievements. Rest your wrists and recover now

[wiseheart]

That sounds like a lot of work. Just be careful!

[peaceful_sands]

I started a new Cross stitch pattern yesterday but haven’t got far with it yet. It was easier to fit in my luggage than the rug kit which is what I’d like to be working on but I can go back to that when I get home again. Unfortunately the lighting here isn’t great for cross stitching either. Still I’m about to try and do a bit more and this could well be the last time spent on it until I’m able to go home, depending on how I feel post-op.

I’m trying not to succumb to temptation now for any more crafting supplies until I’ve run down all I have stockpiled. It’s too easy to get side tracked. The current temptation is to buy tapestry wools for the second dolphin tapestry but I want to try and get through some of the paint kits, crochet projects and cross-stitch kits that I already have.

[badly_knitted]

Yay for cross stitch! Much as I love knitti9ng, I want it to get light enough again for cross stitching.

Don't push yourself post-op, just take things easy. Hopefully you'll soon be back to crafting, and home to your rug so you can work on that.

Crafting supplies, kits, etc. are fiendishly tempting! Good luck resisting.

Wishing you well for your op!

[wiseheart]

Wishing you a speedy and complete post-op recovery!