Check-In Post June 1st 2021

[badly_knitted]

Hello to all members, 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.


Today's Question: No question today.


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]

20 rows of rib on the second sleeve. Wheee!

[smallhobbit]

That's great progress - is that the whole of the rib? And well done for finishing the first sleeve yesterday.

[badly_knitted]

No, I still have another 10 rows (including the increase row) but I have a throat infection so I'm not up to doing too much of anything.

Thanks! =)

[wiseheart]

Go you!

[badly_knitted]

Thank you!

[darkcedars]

wooo hooo second sleeve.

[badly_knitted]

Making progress slowly but surely!

[smallhobbit]

Knitted a bit more of the first square of my throw. And the wool I'd ordered arrived. The first square uses the wool I had left from making my hat (as per icon) and I've bought more wool in further shades of green and yellow, which should make it very spring-like and cheerful.

[wiseheart]

Spring-like and cheerful is something we all could use right now. Good colour choices!

[smallhobbit]

Thank you!

[badly_knitted]

Yay for progress and wool delivery. Your throw will look very cheery, I'm sure!

[smallhobbit]

Thank you.

[darkcedars]

That sounds great. Usually by now it is summer here, but has been cool and rainy.

[smallhobbit]

It's hot here at the moment. I shall use the throw more in the winter months so spring colours will be cheering. Not that it will be completed for quite some time.

[wiseheart]

I went through my bag of craft paper rests today because I thought I would still have some scraps of a sheet patterned with cooking motifs. I was wrong, but searching my hoard cost me most of my time. So, no progress with the project today. :(

[smallhobbit]

I suspect we've all spent far too long searching through hoards of one thing or another!

[badly_knitted]

On the other hand, now you have a better idea of what you've got!

[wiseheart]

Not really. In two days' time I'll have already forgotten it. :)

[badly_knitted]

Your memory sounds like mine! I turn on my modem, then a minute later I can't remember if I turned it on or not. =/

[darkcedars]

Usually by the time I've failed to find something I'm to the "wait, what was I doing?" part. :D

[darkcedars]

Finished the baby blanket yesterday, washed it and dried it. "wrapped" it in a brown grocery sack tied with ribbon. I liked both the Mandala yarn and the pattern. More images on project post if you wish.



Prospective house inspection is tomorrow. Mr is driving me nuts with all his maybes and ifs. I got him to put some bigger stuff we don't want anymore up for sale, and had him help declutter the kitchen cabinets. Even if this house doesn't work out and we keep looking, those things still need done!

[smallhobbit]

Your blanket is very pretty.

[badly_knitted]

The finished blanket looks fabulous, I'm sure it will be loved.

Good luck with the house inspection and the decluttering!

[wiseheart]

Oh, what a pretty blanket!
And yeah, decluttering cabinets is sometimes a way of survival.

[althea_valara]

Hiya! I discovered this community via the site statistics page, and was intrigued. I knit and crochet. Usually a lot, because (a) I'm unemployed (b) I'm captain of a competitive crafting team.

May, though, got away from me. I did do a few rows on a blanket, but otherwise chose to spend my time playing my favorite video game. I'm okay with this since it was a break month in my crafting tournament, but I'd really like to get back into the swing of things this month, as one of my current projects has a July deadline.

Today I:

* crocheted 7 rows on the start of a Seraphina shawl
* swatched a knitted scarf in a leaf pattern
* finished a row on the blanket
* determined what other projects I'd like to do for my tournament this month

It should be a busy month crafting, but I'll be away from home house/dog sitting, so it's the perfect chance to work on projects without distractions.

[smallhobbit]

Hello and welcome! Between us we have a wide selection of crafts. What is competitive crafting? The closest I get is 'I will get this pattern correct!'

[althea_valara]

I knew that would pique someone's interest!

It's a group on Ravelry, called Nerdopolis. Each team is devoted to some kind of Nerdery - my team is all about games, both board games and video games. Each tournament lasts three months long, and each month of the tournament has six challenges to do something for. Four of those challenges are meant to be filled by what we consider our core crafts: knitting, crochet, weaving, spinning, felting, or dyeing. A fifth challenge is about donating to charity, and the sixth is for non-core crafts such as drawing, painting, baking, jewelry making, wood working, origami... You name it, if it's a craft and creates a tangible object it counts.

When you submit to a challenge, you need to tie your project to the challenge theme somehow. This earns you points for your team, which are used to determine which team wins the round.

Then, optionally, you can also tie your submission to your team’s scope. Doing so earns you Nerd Cred, which enters you into the drawing for prizes.

For an example: Say we had a challenge relating to architecture. I choose to knit a pink arch lace bookmark. I first tie it to the challenge by saying the lace in my bookmark looks like the St. Louis arch, then I get Nerd Cred by saying the pink color of my bookmark reminds me of the Aurore armor set from Final Fantasy XI, which is also pink. Since I play on Team Co-op which is related to games of all sorts, Final Fantasy XI (a video game) is part of my team’s scope.

It's fun! And I make stuff anyway so I might as well get points for it and perhaps win something, right? Last tournament my team came in first for our division! You don't get anything if your team wins, just bragging rights, but for me that's part of the fun. I know this kind of competition wouldn't fit everyone but for me, it works quite well as a motivator to finish my projects.

[smallhobbit]

Fascinating. Definitely not for me, but I can see why it could appeal.

[badly_knitted]

Wow! It sounds fun but complicated and time consuming. Who knows, maybe it will inspire some people from here to give it a try. Not me though, writing and gardening take up too much of my time so my crafting has to be squeezed into spare moments. Plus I'm not a gamer *grins* That kind of rules me out.

[wiseheart]

Me, too. I won't be able to handle the pressure. It does sound fascinating, though.

[althea_valara]

It IS fun, and only as time-consuming as you make it. I make a point to tell me team that we love you even if life gets in the way and you don't have time to craft anything. But like I said above, I realize this kind of challenge isn't for everyone; for every person who feels inspired by the challenges, there's someone who would feel pressured or constrained, and that's okay!

But in case there ARE others reading along who might be interested in playing, here's the team list for the current tournament:

* 1 More Page - book lovers
* 221b - Sherlock Holmes fans
* Co-op - Fans of Games of all kinds
* Fraggle - Jim Henson fans
* Once Upon A Time - TV shows and movies about fairy tales and magic
* Paranormal Investigations - pretty much what it says, fans of the X-Files and similar shows
* Precious - Lord of the Rings fans
* Rangers - Babylon 5 fans
* Shady Cels - fans of animation and anime
* Space Alliance - fans of shows/movies set in space or featuring aliens (Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, etc)
* TARDIS - Doctor Who fans
* Task Force - fans of all things Mystery - especially Mystery Writers, like Castle and Murder She Wrote - all things Squinty - evidence based Police Procedurals like Bones, NCIS, CSI, Blue Bloods, Longmire, and Quincy, ME - and the TV series Psych
* UU - fans of Terry Pratchett

[badly_knitted]

I could qualify for at least half of those teams, but I'm not going to. I have OCD, and if I joined in I'd be going all out, I know what I'm like, super-competitive and easily stressed. I never do anything by halves.

I wish you and your team luck in the coming tournament, and I hope you'll stick around and share with us how you're getting on with your various projects so we can cheer you to victory!

(Plus, if any other team members are interested, they're welcome to join us here. We're always happy to welcome new people).

[badly_knitted]

Welcome to the community!

I had no idea there was such a thing as competitive craft tournaments, it sounds fascinating! I'd be interested to learn more about it.

You have some lovely projects on the go, I hope we'll get to see some pictures at some point.

Sometimes even the most avid crafters among us need to take a break and do something else we enjoy. It's refreshing and we come back to what we were doing with more enthusiasm.

Hope you'll enjoy yourself here!