Check-In Post - July 3rd 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 do you like to listen to / watch while crafting?


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]

Finished stitching the shell and all the backstitch on the fourth design and started the fifth. Only one more after this one, then I can pick out another set to stitch.


Had some drama earlier. The lawn is very long, my friend tried to cut it, and smoke started coming out of the electric mower. So, guess it's time for a new one. This one is over 20 years old, it's served me well, but I think I might look for something less bulky that I might be able to use myself. I can't even get this one out of the shed, it's so heavy.

[nagi_schwarz]

Yikes on the lawnmower! But wow yes it did give you many good years of service. Glad the lawn didn’t catch fire!

And way to go on stitching progress.

[badly_knitted]

Yes, especially since my friend didn't notice the smoke and has NO sense of smell whatsoever. And I have just ordered a new, smaller Flymo. Hopefully it will do the job for me.

Thank you!

[wiseheart]

Good luck with the new mower!

[badly_knitted]

Thank you! Hopefully the new one won't threaten to burst into flames!

[nagi_schwarz]

I also have no sense of smell. I would have been no help...

[badly_knitted]

He didn't even see the smoke though!

[darkcedars]

Yikes! It has a good run though.

My electric lawnmower is very light, but it's the type with a cord not a battery.

[badly_knitted]

Mine is corded too, so will the new one be. Recharging batteries is a nuisance. I have a circuit breaker to use in conjunction with it, because my friend who does the mowing occasionally manages to cut the cable.

[nagi_schwarz]

I finished the blanket finally!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DLoZzHHM_P_/?igsh=czVvaHp1d3R5MHJy

And also blessedly I apparently did buy enough for the second blanket so I’m excited to get started on that.

[badly_knitted]

Pretty! It does look complicated though. I hope the other one will go more easily!

[althea_valara]

Oooh, pretty! And it always feels good to finish something, doesn't it?

[nagi_schwarz]

It does feel so good for reals. Thank you!

[wiseheart]

It looks lovely!

[nagi_schwarz]

Thank you!

[darkcedars]

It looks great. I love center-out patterns like that.

[nagi_schwarz]

Thank you. Me too! Maybe because I started off crocheting a lot of doilies.

[pensnest]

I occasionally listen to a book on tape or a BBC podcast, but more often I watch a police procedural or something of the kind. I went through the complete set of DVDs of 'Elementary' recently, but I've used up most of the 'cosies', which is a shame! I like to have something on that I don't necessarily have to watch, I can just listen to a lot of it.

[badly_knitted]

Yes, having to watch something can be too distracting. I tried having DVDs on while cross stitching and it really didn't work, I kept wanting to look at the screen.

I do love Elementary!

[darkcedars]

I watched some of that when it was first on, I should try it out again.

[althea_valara]

I started an iPad Mini pillow for my older sister today. Kitchen cotton + D hook (3.25mm) = ouch. I only did 2 rounds and then my hands said NO MORE. I will have to work on this slowly over the course of the month.

I also tweaked my Twitch stream some. I've set up automatic closed captions to make it more accessible, and added PNG avatar to my PlayStation 5 streams. That latter took a little bit of figuring out. Usually, I just put my avatar in the upper left corner, but on Final Fantasy XIV, I wanted the avatar over the chat box to hide it from view. Avatar usually has a transparent background, though, so first I had to figure out how to get a solid background, and then I had to figure out a separate profile so I could move the avatar to the right place. I think I figured out something that will work - the program I use for the avatar, veadotube mini, lets you save avatar files so I just saved the different placements under different names, and I'll have to remember to load the correct one when I stream the different games.

The avatar I use? Why, my knitted doll of my streaming alt in Final Fantasy XIV. Her name is Windy Storm, and here is the doll:



I just plopped her in an image editor, traced the outline to get rid of the background, and then drew open/closed mouths and open/closed eyes for her using the pencil/paint tools. It works!

It's only 2:37pm so I plan more crafting today. I need to do some more on the gnome, and I'd better score Nerdopolis before it gets any later in the month. Would also like to work on the cardi while listening to more Murderbot, but we'll see if I poop out, I'm kinda a bit tired.

[badly_knitted]

Ooof, good luck with the iPad mini pillow. Slow and steady will get you there.

Well done on sorting your avatar. I don't understand much of what you did, but if it works, yay!

Enjoy whatever other crafting you do today!

[darkcedars]

I usually use H with kitchen cotton for dishcloths. If you need it to be tight, I think F would do the trick without being horrid. :P

[darkcedars]

I finished the trivet the other night and started a new one earlier. Center complete, going to see how far I can get. Fireworks are really ramping up here and I need to find something to watch and ignore it.

(Tomorrow is Independence Day)

[badly_knitted]

Well done with the triveting!

Good luck with blocking out the fireworks. Gets annoying with them going off all the time.

Done!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Today we hooked up the new hose, which is the flat tape kind. It is super light and completely flexible. But the "non-kinking" feature is a total lie; it is the most kink-prone hose I have ever used. Getting it to straighten out and dispense water was like wrestling Jormungandr. However, the multifunction nozzle is the best one I've ever used. It has like 10 settings, of which I favor shower and flat.

Anyhow, the septic garden, new picnic table garden, old picnic table garden, patio plants, and a few things around the house yard have all been thoroughly watered. I hope that I soak the hell out of things, I'll only have to wrestle the hose once or twice a week, instead of hauling the watering can every day. I'll still have to hand-water things north of the driveway, but that is a lot less.

Re: Done!

[badly_knitted]

We had one of the flat hoses and never had it kink. Sounds like you've got a dud. I liked that hose. Not that I've used a hose much in recent years. There's not much at the moment that's worth watering, so it's watering cans only. Plus, we've had a bit of a drought lately and been asked not to use hoses.

The nozzle sounds great though.