Check-In Post - April 19th 2026

[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 your crafting change with the seasons, certain crafts at certain times of the year?


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 completed 4 mustard yellow bees. Sewn up, stuffed, wings attached, eyes stitched. Still got 8 to finish.

[yarnofariadne]

Had a 7-hour migraine and missed knitting club :(

[badly_knitted]

Oh no! *hugs* So sorry! Hope you feel better now.

[yarnofariadne]

*hugs* Still feeling a bit fragile but I'm okay. Was considering doing some knitting this evening but I'm just exhausted.

[yarnofariadne]

Yay for bees!

[wiseheart]

I'm sure they are very pretty. :)

[wiseheart]

Oh, poor you, that sounds horrible!

[wiseheart]

I'm back - sort of. Sorry for the absence. I had a rather chaotic week, what with waiting for the results of the elections and the first stage of the big monthly cleaning, but yeah. I've survived.

There was even a little bit of crafting. So, the numbers are:
- three out of four pot holders finished (save for the hangings);
- five out of twelve mini scarves finished (save for the fringe that I might or might not add; we'll see).

Not much, I know, but I'm surprised that I've actually managed this much, so I'm not complaining.

[yarnofariadne]

Thank you ♥️ I have chronic migraine but this was the worst one I've had in months. Really disappointing, I was so looking forward to knitting club!

[yarnofariadne]

With a chaotic week that's an impressive amount of crafting!

[badly_knitted]

Thanks! They turned out very well!

[badly_knitted]

Migraines really knock the stuffing out of sufferers. *hugs* Get some rest.

[badly_knitted]

I took photos. One of these days I might even post them...

[badly_knitted]

Oof, sounds busy, but yay for getting some crafting time.

[althea_valara]

Today I pretty much worked on the Sylvan Tee, napped, and let the dog in and out.

So the tee starts at the middle back of neck with a provisional cast on. You work a cable stripe to the left, placing a marker when you get to where the neck edge for the front will be. Then you work the stripe a bit more.

Next you undo the provisional cast-on and work towards the right. You again place a marker where the neck edge for the front will be, then work the rest of the stripe. With me so far?

All my instincts tell me the two markers should be equidistant from the center cast-on. MAYBE off by one row. Yet they are not. I have measured a few times, and I have 5" from center to marker in one direction, and 4" from the other.

I've reread the pattern numerous times. I am sure I am following it correctly. The ONLY thing I can think of is that I started this last year, and my row gauge may have changed in the meantime. But by an inch difference? That seems a lot.

Anyway, I have put it away for the night to sleep on it. I'll look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow afternoon. Gotta work in the morning.

In happier news: I decided to splurge and spend some of my dogsitting money on a Chiaogoo interchangeables set. Let's hope I like them! I adore Chiaogoo fixed needles so I should like them, but you never know. I'm having them sent to dogsitting house and they were shipped this morning, from a yarn store a few suburbs over so should arrive quickly.

[elwendell]

The great bee-athon buzzes on.

[elwendell]

Owie! That does not sound fun. I hope you feel much better by now.

[yarnofariadne]

Thank you, after a good night's sleep I'm feeling much better!

[elwendell]

I work that way with projects too. If I hit a part where I can't work out what's wrong, I set it aside until my brain no longer hurts. I hope sleeping on the problem worked for you.

[badly_knitted]

That sounds so annoying. Never having knitted anything that way, I have no suggestions. It sounds very odd. One the other hand, shouldn't the front of the neck be lower than the back of the neck? Could that account for discrepancies? Just an idea. Probably complete nonsense, lol!

I hope the needles will be everything you want them to be!

[badly_knitted]

I have a couple of other colours I want to make bees in, shades or orange and yellow, so there will likely be a few more.

[ripplestitch]

I’m here for the first time since 2022! I don’t remember what happened to lead to me dropping dreamwidth since I was having fun and the vibes were very pleasant here. Suspect a long episode of illness.

The vibes still feel good! Hi!

I’m knitting a hat (Amelia Earhart cap on Rav) to keep my head warm when I have migraines, because they make my head feel icy cold. I’m making it out of Noro Kureyon so that I feel colourful when I wear it with my dark glasses and fuzzy slippers.

I’m also making some Izzy Bears at my mum’s request. She and her knitting group are getting as many as they can for their local children’s center to hand out to toddlers who attend the Feelings class which sounds adorable.

[althea_valara]

It certainly is a unique design! It's a modified drop shoulder with short rows. It starts with a cable stripe that goes along the entire top back, then stitches are picked up from the bottom of the stripe and the back is worked downwards to where you'd join the body. Then you pick up stitches along the top of the cable stripe for left and right fronts, work those, then join everything.

So, I did sleep on it and studied what I did, and AFAICT, I placed the first marker in the wrong position, placing it too late. The second marker is placed correctly. HOWEVER, my calculations say the back neck opening should be 8" (20cm), and if I rip back and place the first marker where it should be, I'd only have 7" (~17.75 cm) only. That is too small for me!

So I have made an executive decision to fudge the pattern some. I'm going to continue to knit the second half of the cable stripe and place the second marker so it matches where I placed the first. That should give me about 8" to 8.5" inches for the neck opening.

Also according to my calculations, my cable stripe is too short. It should be 25" in total, so half should be 12.5". My half is only 11". Gonna knit it longer.

This means I'll have to take careful notes of where I leave off in the cable pattern for continuing the sleeves since mine won't match the pattern, but I think this should work. I hope it works! We'll see. If not: rip and redo.

[badly_knitted]

What a strange design! Good luck with your alterations, I hope it works!

Definitely need a neck big enough to get over your head. I messed up once and the neck was far too small. Couldn't even get the top of my head through. Lesson learned.

[badly_knitted]

Hi! Welcome back, good to see you again!

The hat sounds both fun and useful, I hope it helps. Migraines suck so much, and they affect everyone in different ways.

The bears sound like a wonderful idea, I hope they will go down well with the toddlers.

[malurette]

No crafting happened at all last week; all I did is a second attempt on elder cuttings yesterday as I'm afraid last weekend's won't take. And my sunflower seeds have started sprouting!

[badly_knitted]

Good luck with your cuttings! Also, yay for sunflowers!