Check-In Post - March 15th 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: Do you remember the first thing you made in school?


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]

It stayed dry for us to sit outside and knit, but it was colder than we'd expected and after a little over an hour and a half we were all do cold that we called it a day, although we have tentative plans to do it again when the weather is a bit better. There was supposed to be light cloud and a light breeze, but there was a lot of cloud and a brisk, cold breeze. It was nice when the sun came out for a bit, but it didn't last.


I knitted two pattern on the front of my jacket, and one pocket lining, which I decided I needed to get done so I could see how much of the front to knit before adding the pocket. The pattern I'm using has two lengths, jacket and cardigan. The jacket has pockets and the cardigan doesn't, but I want pockets in my cardigan, so I have to figure out for myself where they should go.

[darkcedars]

You definitely need pockets.

Glad you have fun even if it was cold.

[badly_knitted]

Thank you!

So few things have pockets these days.

[wiseheart]

Pockets are important. It always annoys me that so many female clothes don't have any pockets. Not everybody likes to carry a bag with her just to have somewhere to put the hankies!

[badly_knitted]

I agree, that's why I wanted a new cardigan with pockets.

[peaceful_sands]

Shame it was too cold to stay outside as long as you hoped but an hour and half was good going. I went for a walk for a friend and not only was it cold, it briefly started to hail on us!

Well done on all that you accomplished. I hope you manage to adjust the pattern to suit you with the pockets. I'm a big fan of pockets myself.

[badly_knitted]

Ugh, hail is not fun!

I think I should be able to. It's not the first time I've done pockets.

[badly_knitted]

Ugh, hail is awful to be out in!

Thanks. I should be able to manage, I've done pockets before.

[nagi_schwarz]

Glad you were able to knit outside, if only for a little while. Excellent progress on your jacket! Good luck sorting out pockets. I've never made them before, and am curious to see how they turn out!

[badly_knitted]

They're really not difficult. I'm just not good at explaining how it works. I can show, but not tell, lol!

[darkcedars]

I've made part of a dishcloth, and cracked and picked 2 cups worth of black walnuts.

As far as something made in school, I keep thinking of a flower made out of cotton balls colored with markers, glued to construction paper. I kept that thing for years.

[wiseheart]

Cracking walnuts is hard work! But the results are really pleasant. :)

[peaceful_sands]

Well done on your progress. The flower sounds like fun that you made in school.

[badly_knitted]

Well done on both endeavours!

Aw, that sounds cute!

[nagi_schwarz]

Wow! Way to go with all those walnuts! And nice progress on the dishcloth.

[wiseheart]

So, I worked some more on the kitty bedroom: I've made and sewn on the bedside table (it looks nice, if I say so myself) and gave the lace curtain a try, which failed spectacularly. I'll have to think of a different design; I had to undo this one because it looked terrible. Of course, the fact that I can't do anything in a proper, straight line could have to do something with the failure... *sigh*

[peaceful_sands]

Well done on the bedside table and good luck with figuring out the curtain - I hope you come up with something - will you share photos once you're done?

[wiseheart]

Of course! You know how much I love to show off my work - even if it's a bit crooked. *g*

[badly_knitted]

Well done with progress, even if the curtain didn't work out. Better luck next time.

[nagi_schwarz]

Sounds like excellent progress on the kitty bedroom! Sorry it didn't go well with the lace curtain, though.

[peaceful_sands]

The hat was finished last night. I did some more painting when I got back from my appointments earlier today. I then went looking for my next yarn project. I can't find the blanket that I have underway - or rather I found part of the original ones that I was going to make but where the designs didn't come up in the right sizes (there was a different pattern for each square and some of them no matter what size hook I used the pattern still came out way too big, I couldn't scale back the pattern to do it smaller) - now I can't find the patterns for that or the one I decided to make using the yarn - I think I know where they are but that either involves moving furniture (not an option right now) or climbing into the loft (equally not an option right now).

So instead I've found the yarn and the pattern for a sweater that I planned to make but I'm struggling with the pattern and haven't managed to get past the first row successfully yet. There is where the whole mostly taught myself to crochet shows up the weaknesses.

The first thing I have to crochet are 'welts' - I've never come across this term before - has anyone else here come across it? It's a bit of an odd pattern as from what I can see I'm going to have to make some square motifs, and then crochet the front with gaps that I then sew the motifs into (I see so much potential for this to go wrong with gaps and motif squares not being exactly the same size!).

I then can't get the right number of stitches - it's telling me to do 1 double crochet (UK DC rather than US) into the 3rd chain from the hook, but I've looked online and what both I and the internet seem to agree is the third chain from the hook is giving me the wrong number of stitches when I do that. Guess I'll just have to make extra chains to get the right number.

Part of me wonders whether I'd be better to try and find another pattern that uses the same amount of yarn and try to make that instead as I think this is too difficult for me.

[wiseheart]

There's nothing wrong with choosing the easier way. It can spare you a lot of frustration.

[badly_knitted]

How frustrating for you! At least you know where to look when you're healed enough.

I believe the welts are the same sort of thing as the ribbed bottom edge and cuffs on a knitted sweater, but the term isn't used as much these days.

I really hate patterns that don't make sense! You could try to find a pattern that doesn't tie your brain in knots. It depends how badly you want to knit this particular design, and whether you feel up to the amount of concentration and fiddling involved. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

[peaceful_sands]

I've spent the evening browsing lovecraft.com for a crochet pattern that might fit the amount of yarn I've got for this project - I think I've found one and so I'm just going to start the online free version of it and if it's working for me then I'll buy the pdf version to make it easier to work on. Someone was telling me about local knitting classes - I wish there was an equivalent for crochet!

[badly_knitted]

Good luck with the new pattern, I hope it works for you!

There are never enough knitting classes. Or craft classes of any description.

[nagi_schwarz]

Yay for finishing the hat! Sorry about the pattern frustration. I am unfamiliar with welts in crocheting, and I've been at it for almost three decades now. Maybe trying a different pattern will be more fun and enjoyable for you. One time I got hit with what I genuinely believe was an AI-generated pattern, and the frustration from it just not making sense made me a bit crazy before I finally gave in and just engineered the thing to completion myself.

[nagi_schwarz]

I spent a very frustrating nearly an hour unpicking all of ten stitches, but unpicking stitches in a closed ring in tatting is nearly impossible, and despite everyone making it look so easy in YouTube tutorials, this marks only the second or third time in my life I've pulled it off (and I've been shuttle tatting for almost a decade now). I managed three pattern repeats on this handkerchief edging. The instructions clearly show leaving two holes between each attachment to the handkerchief, but this is making the edging ripple in a way I don't like, so I'm going to switch to three, but it's basically impossible to go back and undo the previous pattern repeats, so they'll just have to stay as they are, and I'll continue on cognizant of what I've learned (and I will remember for next time if I use this edging pattern again). Still, progress is progress! I have till the beginning of May to get this done, which seems like plenty of time but we are T-3 days till Three arrives, so who knows how much time and energy I'll have for crafting after that...

[badly_knitted]

That sounds a nightmare, kudos for succeeding!

So nearly time! Hope you can regain your energy in time to complete the project.