Check-In Post - April 5th 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 change crafts with the season or stick to the same crafts year round?


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]

No knitting today, my hands hurt because I spent the afternoon clearing soil and roots off the steps up to mu little patio area. Took over two hours to clear what amounts to one and a half steps because the first step is only small. So many bramble roots everywhere... *sigh*


I swept the path as well, so that looks nice-ish. Still got to deal with the brambles growing out of the retaining wall and between the paving slabs.

[darkcedars]

Not surprised your hands hurt! It's chilly again today so I did only indoor tasks.

[badly_knitted]

Wrestling roots is hell on the hands, and chipping away at rock hard soil doesn't help either. Still, it needed doing while it was dry, and I still have the top step and the patio area to clear.

Sorry you're having chilly weather again. It was about 14C here today, but it's already dropped to 6 and is supposed to get even lower overnight. Nights are still quite cold, sometimes almost down to freezing.

[nagi_schwarz]

Sorry about the sore hands, but yay for more garden progress!

[badly_knitted]

The hands will hopefully recover, but I worked them hard today and might do the same tomorrow on the top step, which is likely to be the hardest one as it's close to the hedge so there are more roots than ever.

[nagi_schwarz]

You can do it!

[badly_knitted]

Thanks, I sort of have because, because if I don't, no one else will

[marinarusalka]

Sorry about your hands, but it seems like you're getting a whole lot done anyway, even without the knitting.

[badly_knitted]

Thanks. I'm making slow progress in the garden, so at least something is getting done.

[peaceful_sands]

Urgh! Brambles! I have brambles on the other side of the garden wall and they grow over the wall and also keep rooting in my garden in bits where it's next to impossible to get them out again. I haven't managed to find a pair of women's gardening gloves that are enough to stand up to the prickles and always end up having to spend the evening plucking them out of my sore fingers - so you really do have my sympathy.

[badly_knitted]

Brambles are a menace, and they're all over my garden, a lot of them rooted where I can't get the roots out. I'm going to try a method that supposedly works to kill ivy, a mixture of apple cider vinegar and salt painted on the leaves, see if that will kill the brambles, ivy, bindweed, anything coming up where the roots can't be dealt with.

The trick is to get hold of the stems between prickles, but sometimes that's hard to do.

[peaceful_sands]

Let me know how the apple cider vinegar and salt goes - I'm looking for something to get rid of both bramble and bindweed too and have found things mostly pretty ineffectual. Not sure whether it's the bramble variety that I've got growing but there isn't really much of a gap on the stems between the prickles so it tends to be a vicious struggle when I try to tackle them. I sometimes try wearing a pair of men's gloves that seem to be a bit more resilient but they're so big on my hands that I'm even more clumsy and unco-ordinated in trying to get hold of things.

[badly_knitted]

I will, when I find the time to try it, and a brush to apply it with.

Ugh, some brambles are ultra-prickly. Have you tried using a wooden clothes peg to grip with? That avoids having to touch the spiky stems.

I'm the same, I have tiny hands, and even ladies small gardening gloves are usually too big on me. Plus they're usually thin cotton, so no defence against brambles and roses. It's like the manufacturers don't think women do the touch gardening. We're supposed to do a bit of light weeding, and dead-head the flowers. Today I wrestled three metres of bramble out of the holly tree. Mostly I used my secateurs to grip with.

[darkcedars]

I finalized pattern & thread selection for the next small doily.

This one is medium blue. I am starting momentarily.

[badly_knitted]

Yay! Good luck, hope you enjoy making it!

[nagi_schwarz]

A blue doily sounds lovely! Wishing you many stitches.

[peaceful_sands]

Sounds good, I hope you enjoyed your time spent with the next doily.

[nagi_schwarz]

Managed to finish the bobbin, refill, and join new threads on the hankie, and also do a few rows on the sweater scarf while I listened to an audiobook.

[badly_knitted]

Wow, well done! Will this be the last bobbin fill on the hankie border, do you think?

[nagi_schwarz]

I estimate at least four more bobbin refills, since I’m only about a third of the way along side three of the hanky, and I still need to tackle corner four and side four.

[badly_knitted]

Oh, I though you were on the last side! My bad. I can't count 🙃

[darkcedars]

Oh still past halfway. :)

[peaceful_sands]

Well done, it sounds like you made good progress. I hope the book is a good one and you're enjoying it. (I love having an audiobook on when I'm crafting).

[marinarusalka]

Finished Chart 3 on the blanket, and did the first 5 rows of Chart 4. Pretty pleased with my progress, since Chart 3 is the biggest and most complicated part of the pattern. The design is really coming together now, here's a progress photo.

[badly_knitted]

It's looking really fabulous! Great progress.

[darkcedars]

That's cute!

[peaceful_sands]

You're doing really well. It's going to look fantastic when you are done.

[peaceful_sands]

I've spent the past couple of days focusing on the writing and sticking into the book. The particularly good part of that is that I've got the year's writing count up to 2700+ words. Progress on the cushion wasn't going well, so I turned my attention back to that this evening and got two rows done.

[badly_knitted]

Well done with your words and your journal!

All progress on the cushion is good.

[malurette]

I'm done with the raglan and I'm knitting the few centimeters before I separate torso and sleeves. Go me!

[badly_knitted]

Go you indeed! That's great progress!