Check-In Post - Dec 15th 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: Does anyone have any plans for making Christmas gifts or cards?


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 did take photos today, but they came out impossibly blurry so I'll have to try again.


I have, however, knitted some more big bee bodies. I got three knitted last night while watching TV, and another four today.

[artificialsatellite]

Yes! Get those bees!

[badly_knitted]

Doing my best! Not sure whether to make them in batches of 10 or 20...

I just hope the next attempt at photographing will work better. I think I got in too close, plus the light wasn't good so the shutter speed was slower than usual. Ah well, I'll get there eventually

[spiralicious]

Hurray for bees!

[badly_knitted]

Thanks! Trying to decide whether to make them in batches of 10 or 20.

[spiralicious]

That is a tough one.

[badly_knitted]

At the moment I have 12... *rolls eyes at self*

[artificialsatellite]

Progress is being made on the Murder She Wrote cross stitch. Slowly but surely.

[badly_knitted]

It's already looking great! Well done!

[artificialsatellite]

Thank you! I'm enjoying it.

[badly_knitted]

That's always the most important part. Crafting should be fun.

[spiralicious]

Well done!

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Saturday's plan to visit a holiday market got wiped out by copious snow. :(

Yesterday's creative activity was "Butternut Squash Soup with Apples and Onions."

Re: Thoughts

[badly_knitted]

Sad that snow is always spoiling your fun at the moment.

Sounds great!

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Yeah, that is the second major holiday market we missed due to snow this year. >_< I drowned my frustration in a batch of brownies.

Re: Thoughts

[badly_knitted]

Wise move. Brownies are excellent consolation.

Re: Thoughts

[spiralicious]

Sorry about the snow.

The soup sounds delicious.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

The soup is a new favorite this year. It tastes like autumn. :D

Re: Thoughts

[spiralicious]

Awesome :D

[spiralicious]

I feel like I am always saying things are being a bit nuts right now, but things are being a bit nuts right now. On the crafting side of things though:

Saturday, I had another glass tile mosaic workshop. This time I made a star from Mario. Other pattern choices were snowmen or snowflakes, original designs of the guy leading the workshop. It needs to be cut out of the wood block it's assembled on and I should be able to pick it up this coming Saturday.

Sunday, I added a few more rows to the garter slip stitch scarf. As an experiment, I tried the "take a break ever 20 minutes of knitting to do these stretches" thing from the workbook. I am not sure if it made a difference. I also wove/sewed in 15 more ends on the striped scarf.

Today, Lynne and I made cards. Last week, I speed ran through designing a bunch of Christmas cards and we made five of those together today. She liked the cards. We had some odd, very minor problems, but it was storming today and she had a lot going on non-stop last week, so I think she was just tired. She did kind of throw a major fit when I brought out the box of self adhesive gems to add bling to cards when we were done. Her favorite part is usually adding her own blingy twist to things when we're done, so I don't know why it was an issue today. It was alright in the end though.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>As an experiment, I tried the "take a break ever 20 minutes of knitting to do these stretches" thing from the workbook. I am not sure if it made a difference.<<

Give it a week or two. A friend with carpal tunnel syndrome found some exercises that worked, and it took several days to make obvious improvement.

Some folks prefer exercise balls. My favorite has tiny lenticular beads inside, and nothing else has quite the same effect for me.

Re: Thoughts

[spiralicious]

Yeah, these things definitely take time.

I hadn't thought about exercise balls. Thanks for the tip.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

There are a lot of different exercise balls, and some people find that only certain kinds work for their needs. I've seen them filled with soft beads like mine, hard beads, large or small beads, sand, clay, foam rubber, solid gel, and liquid gel. I wouldn't recommend anything that would make a mess if it popped, though. It's worth experimenting with different styles. I was surprised by how much of a difference the texture of filling makes.

Exercise balls typically give two benefits: 1) Moving your hand in different ways eases some of the stress from repetitive motions. 2) Pressing on different parts of your hand has a massage effect.

I just keep a couple on my desk to squeeze if my hands start to lock up.

There are also other types of materials for hand exercises such as thinking putty and Chinese chime balls. Some folks find heat or pressure helpful, and there are gloves for both. Others swear by copper in bracelets or gloves, which I suspect has to do with electromagnetic energy field issues.

Re: Thoughts

[badly_knitted]

I have several sets of chime balls, I love them.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

I love the sound, whether tiny ones or larger ones. It's just so magical. :D With the larger ones, the weight and manipulating two at once can make a big difference. But even with the tiny ones, there's a strong urge to play with them, and that gets your fingers and hands moving in different ways.

Re: Thoughts

[badly_knitted]

I've got tiny hands so the larger ones can be a bit of a struggle. I've got small ones as well. I really need to dig out a set. I think I have 5 or 6 sets. They might help my arthritis. I can play with them while reading or watching TV.

Okay, went looking, found 8 sets and I know there's one more somewhere because I have a tiny set I haven't found yet. Two large plain metal sets, three medium metal sets, one medium stone set, possibly marble, not sure, one lathe enamelled set with butterflies, one medium enamel yin/yang set. I'm keeping out a medium metal set, been playing with them already.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>I've got tiny hands so the larger ones can be a bit of a struggle. <<

Same here. I think the biggest I actually bought is enamel and about racquetball size, and the tiny ones are more like 3/4 inch.

>> I really need to dig out a set. I think I have 5 or 6 sets. They might help my arthritis. I can play with them while reading or watching TV.<<

Excellent idea.

>> Okay, went looking, found 8 sets and I know there's one more somewhere because I have a tiny set I haven't found yet. <<

That is quite a collection!

Re: Thoughts

[badly_knitted]

It is! Some of them were my mum's

I found my tiny ones. 3/4 inch sounds about right. Ironically, I found them while trying to find my gold and silver pens to write in some handmade Christmas cards that I'd made with dark green card. I managed to find a silver pen that worked, but the gold one didn't. They weren't even the ones I was looking for. *sigh*

The chime balls I'm using are about 1 1/2 inch.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Ironically, I found them while trying to find my gold and silver pens to write in some handmade Christmas cards <<

Yeah, I love metallic pens for holiday cards.

>>The chime balls I'm using are about 1 1/2 inch.<<

Mine are probably 1 1/2 to 2 inches. The bigger ones I've seen are more like 2 1/2 to 3 inches which is too big for me.

Re: Thoughts

[badly_knitted]

They're great, if they work. Most of mine are quite old now though, and I don't know where they are anyway. I looked in the craft storage thing I thought they were in, but they weren't there.

My largest I think are 2 inches, a bit big for my hands but I still like them. the smaller ones are more comfortable though.

Re: Thoughts

[spiralicious]

Thank you. This has given me a lot to think about.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm happy I could help.

Re: Thoughts

[spiralicious]

:D

[badly_knitted]

This time of year is nuts anyway. Hang in there!

Great progress on your scarves, the sewing in of ends is tedious but you'll get there.

The glass tile mosaic sounds pretty!

Glad the card-making went reasonably well. Maybe Lynne just wasn't feeling the sparkle. Glad it worked out in the end though.

[spiralicious]

Doing my best!

Thanks. Sometimes I swear it sprouts more when I'm not looking.

Thanks! My fingers are crossed I glued it down well enough to survive the sawing process.

That could be. I also wonder if a tiny bit of it was I was encouraging her to decorate her cards, instead of her "subverting" my designs by making them her own with her own little touches. It could also have just been too many choices after an exhausting week. Thanks :)

[badly_knitted]

Wouldn't surprise me. Sometimes you think you're done with ends and then, oh no, there's another one!

Crossing my fingers to.

Sometimes too many choices are too much for any of us.

[spiralicious]

Indeed.

Thanks.

So true!