Check-In Post - Aug 20th 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: Share your favourite crafting tip, if you have one.


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]

I have knitted the bodies of 6 black and yellow bees, and crocheted 9 pairs of wings in white 3-ply. I keep trying slightly different ideas for the wings, to see what works best, but they're all similar and based on the meece ears, just with more rows. I don't have a favourite version yet.


Also knitted two more pumpkins, which uses up the first 100g ball of orange DK. I'm going to knit a few more using the darker orange I found in a charity shop last week. Not sure how many I have so far, and I still need to knit all the stalks before sewing up and stuffing the pumpkins.

[nagi_schwarz]

Wow! So many cute projects! Way to go knitting the bees! Those sound like they'll be adorable.

[badly_knitted]

I hope the bees will be acceptable. They're commissioned by the shop that took some of my meeces to sell. If they're happy about the bees (a customer asked about the possibility), I might make a bit more money. All the meeces sold.

[nagi_schwarz]

Second baby blanket for the twins (now already a month old >.<) finished!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DNcIdIyMWNk/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

And on to the next baby blanket, a totally different pattern. Strangely for this pattern the diagram is easier to follow than the written pattern, but there you go.

[badly_knitted]

Pretty! Well done!

I hope the arrival of the next baby isn't imminent so you might have time to get the next blanket completed!

[fadingfootsteps]

The words have pretty thoroughly killed me.
More to edit, massive headache/migraine. Row 22ish of the doily, ibuprofen.

[badly_knitted]

So sorry all the wording has resulted in a migraine. Hope the painkillers will help.

Great progress on the doily!

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Today is NOT sweltering so I hope to get some irises planted that arrived yesterday.


>> This Week's Question: Share your favourite crafting tip, if you have one. <<

Craft seasonally. It's cheaper and gives you fresh inspiration.

Method 1: Buy craft supplies when they go on sale after a holiday. Generic things (like thematically colored yarn) can be used anytime; holiday-specific materials may be saved for next year.

Corollary 1: Always shop your craft stash for a project before buying anything new.

Method 2: Look for seasonally available craft materials in nature such as flowers, leaves, nuts, seedpods, etc. A few of these will keep but most are best used immediately.

Corollary 2: If you have a garden, plant things with crafts in mind. In addition to the many plants grown for fancy flowers or leaves, there are also herbs for scent, dye plants, some with interesting seedpods or twisted stems, trees that drop cool nuts or bark, etc. We are approaching fall planting season for spring-blooming flowers and for bare-root tree or shrub seedlings, so now is a good time to think of this.

Re: Thoughts

[badly_knitted]

Good luck with planting the irises, and thanks for the tips!

[malurette]

I've been home almost a week and no crafting happened yet--curse that two-week unpaid internship that eats up all my time & energy--but I checked: as I thought the green wool I got during my vacation is the right hue but the blue one is too dark; they had the one I needed too but only sold this one by bags of 10 balls and I only wanted a couple so I took my pick among what they had loose. It's still ok, I planned on doing horizontal stripes in different colours anyway.

[badly_knitted]

Good that the blue will work even though it's not the right shade.

Sorry to hear that you haven't had the time and energy for crafting, but hopefully once you finish the internship you'll be able to get back to being crafty.