Check-In Post - July 7th 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]

Still playing audiocassettes for background noise while crafting, but two tapes have proven unplayable. Well, I managed to get through one side of one of them, but they were crinkling up and the sound fading out. Other tapes before and after have played fine, so it's the tapes themselves, the only two Memorex tapes I've ever had. So glad I mostly stuck with Sony cassettes.


Anyway, despite interruptions to deal with the cassette tape issues, I've started the final seashell design, done the yellow part of the border and made good progress with the blue sections.

[wiseheart]

Audio - and video - tapes tend to do that, unfortunately.

Good progress with the seashell design!

[badly_knitted]

They can, but this is one brand, the others all seem fine thankfully. It's not the tape player, even running a cleaning tape through it didn't help, but as soon as I put a different tape in, it was fine.

Thanks.

[yarnandglue]

Aww, that's a bummer about those cassettes. I've switched to collecting CDs/DVDs after a few too many sad cassettes :(

[badly_knitted]

These are all tapes I recorded off the radio back in the 80s and 90s, not pre-recorded, so what's on many of them is irreplaceable, which sucks. I have close to 300 of them, but so far it's only been the two Memorex tales that can't be played, and one Sony tape I'm still trying to repair because the tape came detached from the spool. It's fixable, but I need a smaller screwdriver before I take it apart again.

[yarnandglue]

Oh no, that stinks! I'm so sorry. I'm glad most of them seem to still be working.

[badly_knitted]

Lots of interviews, concerts, dedications going out to me and my mum, even the night I sat in on the show at the radio station. Other studio guests, the local radio DJ who was a friend of ours rambling on and giggling in the background when he started playing a record at the wrong speed... So many memories I'd hate to lose. I'm just glad the other brands of tape seem okay. What possessed me to buy Memorex, I don't know. Crap tapes. Good thing I only had two of them.

[yarnandglue]

As a side note, if you ever feel inclined to digitize them I'm sure the people on the Internet Archive would LOVE to hear them. There's a big interest in home recorded media, especially if there's anything from announcers, DJs, or ads :)

[badly_knitted]

There are a TON of ads, I've been snickering over those, plus news, football results, jingles, because I kept forgetting to pause the tape. But there are also a lot of song tracks played on the country shows mum and I used to listen to on local radio. I had everything catalogued, so I knew which songs I liked, which records I needed to get for the tracks I wanted. I have a vast record collection as a result. Need to get the old music system reassembled so I can listen to them. In the meantime, I'm tracking a lot down on youtube.

[yarnandglue]

Oh man, that's so cool!! What a treasure!

[badly_knitted]

It is fun listening to everything again so many years later. Heard myself announced as a competition winner recently. A competition I won in the 80s it's true, and I still have the 4 track EP, but it was nice to be reminded. So much great music too.

[wiseheart]

I've made the promised picture of the pencil holders, to look at them:



Today was writing day; no actual crafting got done.

[badly_knitted]

Oh they're adorable! Well done.

[wiseheart]

Thank you! :)

[yarnandglue]

Aww, how cute! I love the penguin's toes :D

[wiseheart]

At first I wanted to give him webbed feet, which would have been more correct, anatomically, but wouldn't look so cute.

[fadingfootsteps]

I'm chillin, likely for a while. Might wrap up that succulent cushion eventually but atm I'm doing more cranes at a pace previously only known to snails.

[badly_knitted]

Chill away, and enjoy the slow crane progress!