Check-In Post - May 1st 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]

It's hot and humid and thundery, but no rain yet. Hoping to get some.


Killed around 130 caterpillars, cut up some ivy, cleared more dead leaves and stuff, started collecting surplus stones because I don't want them ending up on the compost heap. Started sweeping some of the souil ftom the concrete and I think I have a rough idea of where the edge of the concrete should be. The soil is overlapping it by about 20 inches., and there's a piece of flowering currant growing there so I'm hoping I can pot that up and clear the rest. Then the salvaged piece can be planted somewhere more suitable.

[wiseheart]

I set aside the unfinished pincushions because, frankly, I was bored by them to the death, and decided to make these penguin pencil holders instead. Aren't they adorable? I still might have to do something about the upper rand, perhaps trimming it a bit, but otherwise I'm very proud of the outcome. The sticking-out wings are a new addition to the design; I believe, though, they'd have looked even cuter with a little heart in the place of their beaks, like here. Ah, well, there's always a next time; we eat lots of canned veggies, after all.

Of course, I intend to make some Santa-shaped pencil holders, too...

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I managed to pot up the basils before it started sprinkling again.

[darkcedars]

Today I blocked both of the small doilies I've made recently, wove in ends on dishcloths, etc.

[viskozni_varhanik]

Had a bit of a lull in cross-stitching as i focused on finishing a bigger drawing first, but I am now back at the sprite thingies.

Finished the first one of the trio, actually!! Cutting it out was nerve-wracking, but it's the spikiest one i'll do so I've got the worst behind me. All the finish touches (perhaps apart from a knot above the beads so they don't move up as well, but whatever) turned out to work exactly how I wanted them to, so i'm ridiculously happy about the whole thing. Got an entire month to finish the other two so I'm excited that I might actually get to submit them as possible prizes.

Paid another visit to the specialty store, only to find out they only had a single skein of non-DMC white (look, i don't need precise colors and why should I pay premium when there's a local company making perfectly good floss). So I landed one white and several of something they call 'marshmallow'. Thankfully, one of the sprites is going to be Flareon, so I'm going to use the slightly warmer white on it to keep the pure white for Vaporeon with its blues. They also had 0 plastic canvases of any higher count. Put an order in for some they have up on their website, but it honestly looks more like a grid for something with much thicker fiber. We'll see if it works when it arrives, and if not, i'll have to dig up the order I made for my current plastic canvas and try the online-only shop i got that from and eat the shipping fee.

[tielan]

Nothing is being done, I'm too busy prepping for Australian Election Day tomorrow.

Indicators are good broadly-speaking (ie. we won't get the Awful Party, just the Not Great Party) but I've been volunteering for my local member of parliament, so there's a bit of a personal horse in the race...

[peaceful_sands]

I'm making a bit of progress with the second cushion cover but my disappointment continues - more things to complain about with the latest kit (thank goodness I did the other one first or I'd have been completely put off) - some of the packs of wool are flat and super thin - no body to them at all so I'm worried that in some spots the cover is going to look patchy (if I have any bits left at the end I may have to work my way through changing out some of the worst patches for whatever I have left at the end. Also two colours were completely missing from the kit - fortunately I had something that would work for both left over from the previous 2 kits so I've been able to keep going - it may end up a game of chicken towards the end as I'm hoping I have enough of each for all its occurrences. I will be more selective in my picking next time and go for ones from the same maker/supplier as the first two and avoid ones by this maker/supplier like the waste of money it is by comparison.

I managed a little gardening on Tuesday - not much but I'm still struggling a bit with my recovery and had already done my walking and had worked for most of a day (my return to work is supposed to be staggered! Ha ha!). I spent my time pulling weeds - a bunch from the ground and then some from in some of the pots when bending down was beginning to strain too much. Some of my pots are at higher levels, so didn't involve any bending.

Looking at doing some online training courses which may put a real damper on my crafting endeavours (there's about 31 modules that are about 2 hours long and 8 modules that are 6 hours long - so a bit of a commitment - I don't have to do all of them, but then part of me thinks if I'm self-funding then I should do as much as I can in the cost - but they're also all in my own time. Trying to think whether to try and timetable it so I commit to a couple of hours maybe twice a week and the rest of the week is mine to do with as I wish).

[nagi_schwarz]

Only managed a bit of crocheting first thing in the morning before people awoke. Today was pretty non-stop.

[innitmarvellous]

This is my first time posting in this community and I don't know if it's fine to just hop onto these posts, so apologies in advance. ^^'



Anyway, this is my latest crochet stuff. I'm almost done with one scarf in a rather ugly colour scheme (unfortunately I noticed how bad it looks when it was way too late, so I didn't want to frog it haha), and then I'm going to work on another scarf. Well, I'll try. I don't really like the pattern, but my mother said it would be a waste to frog it...so I'm going to try it for a bit longer.

[readera]

On the knitting front, I finished the knitting portion of my poppy the chicken. I did the body and the two wings. I still need to get or make stuffing. We don't have good craft stores in town so I may end up ordering some online. If I make some, it will probably be fabric & yarn scraps.

So I want to start a new project or pick up an old one so I have something to knit.


I'm also having a big urge to do spring cleaning. I started a new job a few months ago and I have been slacking on cleaning in favor of cooking, cleaning immediate messes & sleep. I may try to take a day off work so I have the energy and time to do a proper deep clean.