Check-In Post - Oct 4th 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 (courtesy of ysabetwordsmith): For those of us who do yarn crafts, what kinds of yarn do you prefer working with and why?


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

[wiseheart]

Good grief, I managed to submerge for days again, didn't I? To my defence, there wasn't much to report, unfortunately.

Today I did a tiny bit of crafting - no actual progress, as I simply got another idea about another detail that I added to the dressing room page, so basically I'm still where I was days ago. *sigh*

[badly_knitted]

I kept thinking today was Sunday and yesterday was Saturday *headdesk* I'm a day ahead of myself. So confused.

Little details can be important!

[nagi_schwarz]

I don't know that you need to defend yourself. Sometimes life is busy!

Bet the dressing room page is turning out nicely!

[wiseheart]

Life isn't any busier than at any other time - I just seem to need more time for everything nowadays. :(

[badly_knitted]

Apologies for the late post. My days are all mixed up this week, I've been a day ahead of myself and getting totally confused. 😶


Anyway, got a bit of crafting done. Cast off an arm warmer and pinned it for sewing up. I'm 30 rows into its mate (done while watching Strictly). Also stitched faces on 10 pumpkins. They're not the best, but I hope they'll be okay.


Trying to get back into the routine with the fire. Always takes a few days.

[nagi_schwarz]

Good luck getting back into the routine with the fire!

Way to go with arm warmer progress and on the pumpkins!

[badly_knitted]

Thank you! The first 8 pumpkins don't have eyebrows so I'll have to remember to fix that.

The fire is a drain on time and energy, so I'll probably have less crafting time.

[wiseheart]

You pay a high price for your warmth. *hugs*

Pumpkins with eyebrows, now that sounds like a good thing!

[badly_knitted]

I do, it's a lot of time and effort, and the coal is expensive too. I only managed to get one load while it was at a lower price over summer.

Eyebrows are definitely needed. Makes them look more evil.

[nagi_schwarz]

I finished the first hat and all the decorations for it but need to sew those on still. Got started on the second hat but cannot finish it till I make some of the decorations for it, so I need to run to the craft store and acquire the appropriately-colored felt (and NOT buy anything else). But progress is being made! I also worked a bit on that circle shawl I started last year, because it's getting cooler and it might be nice to wear it finally.

[badly_knitted]

You have been a busy bee! Good luck with hat number two and the shawl! Cosy shawls are very welcome in cold weather.

[wiseheart]

Yep, a shawl that you can actually wear does sound practical. *g*

[sister_raphael]

Had a brilliant afternoon yesterday at a museum event (photos on my page), so not crafting done, but today some brass discs arrived which I hope to polish up to a mirror finish and use to make a medieval mirror for my display. I bought a couple as I wasn't to confident that I wasn't going to wreck them. I've got a few different polishing things, but if anyone has a recommendation for brass, I'd be keen to hear.

[badly_knitted]

Glad you enjoyed the museum!

Good luck with the brass mirror.

[pensnest]

Oh, I lovelovelove the fancy yarns. I've knitted with more everyday ones—and recommend the WI Aran, which feels quite silky, has great definition, and is a pleasure to knit with—but the ones I really cannot resist are the strokable yarns which feel as though they should be displayed in a kind of petting arena. Yak. Silk. Yak and silk. Baby camel and silk (was my first ever Beautiful Yarn, and it was *so* pettable).

I try to restrain myself from buying too much yarn (note the qualifiers there, because it doesn't altogether work) in between Norfolk Yarn Festivals, but at this annual spring event I generally come home with a fair haul of really nice, small-business-made, fancy yarn. Occasionally it does not work out. Once, I spent a while looking for some bluebell-coloured yarn for a scarf, and found some in the perfect colour, but it was... hmm, something viscose-y, I think? I hated knitting with it, for it felt sorta plasticky and seemed not to bend very well, which is awkward when you want a bit of drape.

But really, anything involving some proportion of silk is usually a winner. Except 100%, because if it's pure silk I procrastinate so hard about using it because it has to be the perfect pattern and I have to knit it perfectly and... it's just a bit too intimidating.

[badly_knitted]

Oof, yes, the fancier or more special the yarn, the harder it is to use it because you don't want to waste it on something that isn't the PERFECT pattern. I don't buy particularly fancy yarns, but if its a colour I love and there's only so much... It just sits around unused forever, because it has to be RIGHT.

Those yarns do sound deliciously silky.

[malurette]

I started on yet another scarf, in red, black, white and green.

[badly_knitted]

Ooh, nice combination!