Check-In Post - July 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: 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]

Made progress on the 5th seashell design. Most of the yellow part of the border is now done, just one small area and a swirly sunburst to stitch, then onto the shell in the centre.

[wiseheart]

You are truly on the roll!

[badly_knitted]

I want to get this set finished and start a new set of designs! 6 of the same kind of thing is a bit much...

[peaceful_sands]

Sounds like you are making good progress.

[badly_knitted]

I'll be glad to finish this set. Not that I've disliked stitching them, but I would like to work with some other colours...

[peaceful_sands]

I understand the feeling - sometimes it's nicer to be able to see things progressing as you change colours to build the picture.

[badly_knitted]

These are three shades of blue, three shades of yellow, brown for the inner border, cream and three pinkish shades for the shells. They look good, but it's a rather restricted mix of colours. I'll pick something brighter next.

[wiseheart]

I brought up the energy to sew a 15th lavender sachet. It wasn't really necessary, but I didn't want to push around the plastic box with the remaining lavender (which was little enough) until next year. So that's out of my hair, too. Invigorated by the success, I also cut out the necessary parts for two more pencil holders, one penguin and one Santa. The penguin will look like these and the Santa like the one in the lover right corner. Unless I mess up something hopelessly, which is always a possibility.

[badly_knitted]

Well done! Sounds like you made a fair bit of progress despite the heatwave.

[peaceful_sands]

Well done on the lavender sachets - that's an excellent amount to have completed. Sounds like you are doing well with preparations for the pencil holders too.

Done!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I made my post for the sunshine_revival.

Re: Done!

[badly_knitted]

Well done!

Re: Done!

[peaceful_sands]

Well done

[peaceful_sands]

I've been away from posting for longer than I thought. I've not had much to say as my progress has been small - I had a week off work and rather than making progress on crafting, I tackled some significant cleaning and decluttering projects. Since returning to work, I've been busy/too tired to get anything significant done. I hope to get a little bit more cardigan done tonight.

In answer to your question about what I listen/watch while crafting, it depends on what type of crafting I'm doing - if it's painting, it tends to be listening to either an audio book or some music. Sewing/crocheting tends to depends on my mood - sometimes I'll watch a series or a movie on the TV as I work, sometimes I'll listen to an audio book. When I'm writing, it tends to be music. The music for any craft depends on my mood and can be anything from Bo Hansson to John Barrowman to The Hu or Green Day - anything from the 60s onwards really - depending on how closely I need to concentrate and whether singing along will ruin my concentration.

[badly_knitted]

Well done with the cleaning and decluttering, that's hard work! Hope you do get to work on your cardigan a bit.

Something for every mood and every task by the sound of it. I like me some John Barrowman, not familiar with the others though (I'm on an Asleep at the Wheel kick this evening, which makes typing difficult. I can't sit still, dancing in my chair). I can't listen to music or anything else while writing, it's too distracting. I end up typing what I'm hearing instead of what I'm thinking.

[peaceful_sands]

I find with the music and writing, it very much depends on my mood/what I'm writing - I have a bunch of instrumental for when I'm likely to be distracted by words but sometimes I can ignore the words and the beat/feel of the music fits the vibe of what I'm writing. The Bo Hansson that I listen to most often is an instrumental inspired by The Lord of The Rings by Tolkien - an uncle loaned me his LP of it when I was reading the Lord of the Rings in the 80s as a teen. The Hu is a Mongolian folk rock band (depending on where you look them up, the genre is described in various ways but that's not a bad description). They use traditional Mongolian instruments (horsehead fiddle, mouth harp etc) along with throat singing to support a modern rock style - for anyone curious, I recommend looking up 'The Gereg' on Youtube.

[badly_knitted]

I'll check those out, they sound intriguing.

I love instrumental music, but my tastes at the moment tend towards bluegrass, which is NOT conducive to writing, because I tend to get lost in the instrumentation, and the musicians. I'll sit there with my eyes closed, through an 8+ minute piece just marvelling at the skill of people with more talent in one finger than I have in my whole body. I always wanted to play, but I'm hopeless.