July 3, 2020 @ 9:00 am

Episode 56 - Social Network

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 56 – social network.

My name is Fay and this is my audio and video podcast for those that love fibre crafts, particularly crochet. It’s a community for people that like to support their fellow humans regardless of race, gender, sexuality, ability, size or age. I hope you feel the welcome embrace and love of the Crochet Clan. Come on in and stay awhile.

In this episode, I cover: Old Dog New Tricks; Final Destination; En Route; Quick News Beats and Big Up.

This podcast is sponsored by Provenance Craft Co.

Image text: White background with PROVENANCE craft co in mustard lettering. The 'o' of co is a four-holed button.

Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile. Episode 56 is here (link).

If you would like to support the podcast, you can now do that through my new Ko-fi account, just click on the image, or follow this link: https://ko-fi.com/crochetcirclepodcast

Image text: long blue logo with a white coffee mug and a red heart on it to the left and then "Support me on Ko-fi" to the right.

1 – Old Dog New Tricks

I have two for you today. This first is a great podcast hack for YouTube. Some of you watching me may struggle to deal with my soft Scottish accent and the speed that I talk. I discovered that you can change the speed setting of videos on YouTube. If you hover your mouse done at the bottom of the video, a settings cog will appear. Click on that, click ‘Playback Speed’ and then choose whether you want to speed the video up or slow it down.

There are a few podcaster’s whose content I love, but their delivery is just to slow for me to enjoy. By bumping them up to 1.25, the podcast is delivered at a rate that I enjoy and I can get through more podcasts.

I’ll take you through my second new trick in FOs.

2 – Final Destination

I finished my Zig-Zag-Zummer top (link) by Sandra at Nomad Stitches (link), using my Rowan Pure Linen stash which is 130m/50g. I used 250g in total to make a size 3 with modified sleeve caps and I am really pleased with the result.

Image text 1: Wooden floorboards with my finished Zig Zag Zummer top on them. The back of the top is up to show the back V is lower then the front neckline V. The top has plain rows of Htr (hdc) at the top and a filet crochet zig-zag pattern from the bust down. The yarn is pure linen and dark olive green.

Image text 2: A close up of the armhole of the top showing my addition of dc2tog, rows to pull in the gape that occurred at the bottom of the armhole, above the bust.

Image text 3: Upper part of my torso stood in my kitchen. I am wearing the top to show the left armhole which is gaping and the right armhole which I have made the dc2tog adjustments to and has a lot less gape.

Usually, I would upload my FOs as a project to Ravelry, but I’m not going to do that anymore. I will be talking about that during Quick News Beats and sharing details of what I’m working on instead.

I found that when I had finished the top, there was a fair bit of gape at the front at the top of my chest. I think I have a way of dealing with this during the actual crocheting of a top like this next time. I didn’t know it was going to gape until I had sewn it all up, so needed a quick solution for reducing it.

Attaching my yarn to the bottom of the yarn holes, I just did a series did 2 dc2tog, dc, ss, turn 4 dc 2 tog, dc, ss, turn and continued working in rows in this pattern until I had decreased the armhole gape to my satisfaction. This only worked because I had spec in the armhole to build up extra rows – had I not, I would have had to rip back and worked a different solution.

My second FO is a stone! I have been looking to make a paper/pattern weight for when I am working outside and cutting out sewing fabric. I wanted something pretty that would look ornamental even when not in use. So, crocheted cotton over a stone. The pattern is from ‘Making’ magazine, Issue no.4 – Lines. I have been eyeing up this pattern for some time…

Image text: Very pale pink background with a collection of brown, terracotta, grey and white pebbles. One large pebble is in the middle of them all and is has been covered in light blue cotton with crochet. A double teardrop shape runs down the centre with surrounding rounds of dc (sc) and htrs (hdc). To the left of the pebbles are three balls fo cotton - the blue used on the stone, a pale greyish pink and a dark grey.

What I would say is that it is probably better to have a collection of stones that you can try to fit the crochet to. I can see me creating a collection of these for various different uses.

3 – En Route

My one en route this month is the Belladere Bobble Pillow from the Modern Crochet book by Debrosse (link). I am using Rowan Big Wool in a now discontinued colour (shade 068) and a 10mm hook. I am creating a specific size to fit around some of our living room cushions.

Image text 1: White background with a piece of crocheted fabric, a ball of chunky wool and a 10mm bamboo crochet hook. The crochet os being worked up in bobble stitches so has a lot of texture. On each row, the bobbles alternate spaces so it is building up a honeycomb pattern which is perfect for the mustard wool.

Image text 2: Pale pink background with the Modern Crochet book front cover showing. The book has a black binding band and a picture of a white and wood rocking chair with a white sheep rug and a white textured cushion on it. It's the same cushion I am crocheting. The top of the book has " MODERN CROCHET" in bold black print.

These are the projects I am going to work on during my Pod Holiday:

1 – Encanto Wrap by Claudia – Crochet Luna (link)

2 – Textures Tee V2 by Tina - Tigers Eye Handmade (link)

Image text 1: A photo of smiley Claudia wearing her first-ever design, the Encanto Wrap is on the left and on the right is her wrap on a mannequin wearing a black dress. The wrap shows a central purple, pink and black panel in a more solid crochet stitch and open crochet stitches for the left and right panels which are in purple and bright green.

Image text 2: Tina is stood outside a house with long dark, wavy hair and hands-on-hips to show off the details of her crocheted top. The top is a light grey colour and looks like it is made on the vertical for the top of the torso and horizontally for the waste band. The crochet has lacy details.

4 – Feeding the Habit

I don’t have any yarn to share with you this month. I am still very much trying to work through some of my oldest stash and I do have rather a lot due from John Arbon Textiles. On that note, I know that quite a few of you bought Another Friday Night at their Open Weekend. I would love to know what you are going to make with it.

Image text: Mercahndise from Lady Dye Yarns on a pale pink background. A bleached cotton drawstring bag with "badass crocheter ladydyeyarns.com" and a skull with crochet hooks for cross-bones is being hugged by the sleeve of a raglan long-sleeved t-shirt. The raglan portion is a dark denim blue and the mani body is a light blue/grey. It has the same wording and emblem screen-printed on the front.

What I did receive were some goodies from Claudia in the form of a ‘badass crocheter bag and top’ from Lady Dye Yarns (link). I love them!

This also means that I have a top-up of Claudia’s button badges which I will be adding to the shop next week.

Image text 1: Five skeins of mohair are piled up on a light background. The mohair is characteristically showing flyaway fibres and a beautiful lustre and the nettle dye stock with iron modifier has created a steely green colour that is really difficult to describe!

Image text 2: Five skeins of merino-silk 4 ply yarn on a light background. The middle skein is a darker green and was dyed with dock roots, all of the outer skeins were dyed with dock leaves and are semi-tonal sage greens.

I have also been naturally dyeing some mohair with nettles adn iron modifier and merino/silk using dock leaves/roots and an iron modifier. I didn't get the colours I expected but with the addition of iron sulphate as a modifier, I got some beautiful greens.

7 – Quick News Beats

1 - Global Hook Up – The July hook ups are on:

Saturday 25th at 8pm BST and Sunday 26th at 9am BST.

The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here: https://www.zoom.us/join

If you are joining on your phone or tablet you will likely need to download the software in advance. If you are joining from a PC or Mac, you can join via the link above. Everyone needs to use the same ID number to get into the session.

2 – I am going to take a Podcast Holiday in August. I have to reasons for doing this, the first is that I am absolutely shattered and don’t feel like I am bringing my best work to the table at the moment. The second is that viewer and listener numbers dip in August because people are off outside doing other things – all power to you.

This makes it the best time for me to have a month, recharge, do a load of podmin and come back as energised as ever in September. I will still be on Instagram and other places, but there will be no Global Hook Up in August.

3 – Let’s talk Ravelry. I’m sure you are aware of the utter debacle that has been Ravelry’s bizarre process to move to a new-look website. This has caused lots of issues, making many people ill with headaches, migraines and seizures.

As ever, I like to focus on positive actions. Hand in hand with the Ravelry changes being poorly executed is that fact that I really hate the forums function and consequently, never want to go in there. That means that I’m not properly interacting with all of you and that’s not on.

So, myself and a small core of the Crochet Clan have been testing other web/app options for ways that crocheters can congregate and chat together, show off FOs, WIPs – basically all the things that occur in the Ravelry Group.

We think we have found a really neat solution in the form of Mighty Networks. It’s free to join, very intuitive and much more fun to use. If you want to come and take a look, just follow this link: https://crochet-clan.mn.co/share/qXbA1tZnaHSae3Ek?utm_source=manual You will have to sign up to Mighty Network but it is free of charge, is available as a mobile device app and a webpage. You can give me feedback in that community forum or email me directly (fay@provenancecraft.com). So far so good on the usability but I don’t want to move the forums from one problematic site to another, so your feedback is needed.

Needless to say, part of my Pod Holiday will be spent over at Crochet Clan on Mighty Network to make sure that it works. When I say I have looked at many other options, believe me, that I have spent the last two and a half days trying to find a viable Ravelry alternative. My fingers are crossed that we have something that is better.

4 – My patterns are still up on Ravelry and will most likely remain there. However, I will be putting renewed emphasis into patterns on my website and am also looking at Folksy as an option because Etsy feels like a waste of my time because I am UK based.

You may find that your favourites designers have disappeared from Ravelry or won’t be adding new patterns. Many are either setting up their own sites or using platforms like Payhip to creates simple sales pages. I already had my patterns over at Provenance Craft Co. (link) so won’t be adding Payhip to my list of sales options for the time being.

8 - Big Up

This one has to go out to the core of people that have been giving up their time to help test out Crochet Clan forum options. You know who you are – it has really made the option of stepping away from Ravelry a lot less daunting. I am truly excited that we can create something brilliant from a very cruddy situation.

I’ll be back on 4^th September.

Fay x

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June 5, 2020 @ 7:45 am

Episode 55 - Harder than you think

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 55 – Harder Than you Think.

In this episode, I cover: Old Dog New Tricks; Final Destination; En Route; Designs in Progress; Quick News Beats; Big Up and J'adore.

This podcast is sponsored by Provenance Craft Co.

If you would like to support the podcast, you can now do that through my new Ko-fi account, just click on the image, or follow this link: https://ko-fi.com/crochetcirclepodcast

1 – General Update

I am stood at my desk as I type this and it’s really difficult to find the ‘right’ words. I’m not even sure there are ‘right’ words. The world seems to be on fire. People are being killed, simply because of their skin colour.

This episode was nearly called “Inconsequential” because that is how I felt about podcasting over the last few days – who cares about a crochet podcast when people are being killed, simply because of their skin colour.

This crochet podcast is also a platform for morals, beliefs, community and showing solidarity.

So, instead, it is called “Harder Than You Think”. Besides being the title for my favourite Public Enemy song (because it has lyrics that speak volumes to me (link)), it is also a reminder that life is harder than you think.

It’s particularly hard on people that face oppression, brutality, racism and inequality on a daily basis. That is what hard looks like.

So, if you want to be part of the change, to support your fellow humans then know that there is hard work ahead and it will be harder than you think. You will most likely take a step back at some point and think about your former actions and words and feel disgusted with yourself for not having done better. You will make mistakes that you can learn from.

I put three actions on Instagram (link). Three simple things that can be your starting point if you are now ready to be part of the change:

1 – Listen to the experiences of others and get angry about the injustices that they are made to suffer day after day and do something positive with that anger without being performative or centring it around you.

2 – Talk to your friends and family about diversity and inclusivity. Keep having the conversations. Keep pushing for solidarity over oppression.

3 – Your money makes a difference. Donate money to organisations that make a difference such as ROTA in the UK (link) or National Bail Out in the US (link). These are just two examples, there are many great organisations out there that you can donate to.

Let’s be part of the change. Complacency is not an option.

2 – Old Dog New Tricks

I just have a quick one for you this month because time is utterly against me this week. You may have the same issues I have when I go above a 5.5mm crochet hook. I find that the hook gets too heavy and it can be difficult to manoeuvre and ultimately make your hands or wrist hurt.

I have some large plastic hooks in my hook case but I really don’t enjoy working with them and I find it difficult to get my tension right. Instead, have a try with bamboo hooks. They are lightweight, slippy enough to tension with and I find them comfortable to work with.

So, if you have previously been put off working on larger gauge projects because of the hooks you, why not try a bamboo.

3 – Final Destination

I have finished things!

Scrapvent Blanket is finished and I love it! I’ll be writing up this pattern shortly. My lovely friend Bec is working up a DK version with an advent yarn calendar she got last year. I have never been that fussed about crocheting blankets, but I think the flood gates may have been opened. I definitely prefer thin fabric without holes.

Image text: The left side of my bone coloured linen sofa has blue cushions and my Scravent Blanket draped over the arm. A medley of 24 different coloured yarns with a peachy cream border.

Matthew called my Scrapvent Blanket “fugly” – how rude! So, to get my revenge I used loads of the yarns craps from the blanket in a pair of Fugly Socks that he has to wear. The truth is that I didn’t want to add a load of little yarn scraps back into my stash and I used up all the remnants of nine of my blanket colours in his socks. I will use some of the other scraps to also make myself a pair of Fugly Socks.

Image text: A pair of scrappy, hand-knitted socks in stripes of forest green, acid green, teal, navy, grey and aqua. The socks are placed on bone coloured linen sofa seat pad.

Last month I showed off some slubby/thick and thin yarn that my friend Claudia sent me from Germany. I crocheted it into a cushion cover using a 10mm (bamboo) hook and linen stitch. I chose linen stitch because it makes a nice flat fabric which has a decent amount of stretch which you need in a cushion cover. Eventually, the cushion will go into my Stash Palace, but for now, Matthew is using it on his stool when her delivers training. Who knew that metals stool seats aren’t that comfortable?!?

Image text: A close up of my bone coloured linen sofa has blue cushions and my new slubby crocheted cushion cover at the front. It has a light sky blue, olive green, spring green and white running through it and is nobbly because of the slubby yarn.

I have also been trying out wood whittling, and I love it. I have concentrated on shawl sticks so far.

Image text: Five hand whittled shawl sticks are placed on bone coloured linen sofa seat pad. The sticks have a skeletal quality about them because of the blonde wood and finger-like quality of their shape.

4 – En Route

It is time to think about crocheting summer tops! This has been on my to-do list for weeks now and I finally found time at the weekend to search for the right top.

I was specifically looking for a top that had been designed by a BIPOC/BAME designer and was size-inclusive (up to a 60” bust).

So, where do you start? Well, you go to the BIPOC in Fiber website (link) because it is an amazing resource that is easy to navigate and gives the details and links of BIPOC/BAME in all sorts of categories such as crochet designers, hand-knit designers, yarn retailers, photographers, podcasters – basically every element of our fibre community is covered and categorised, ready for you to search.

There were three pages of crochet designers for me to go to and they all link to website or Ravelry pages where I could see their full designs line-up.

Because I was looking for a size-inclusive garment, that narrowed the field but I enjoyed going through all of the designer profiles, many of which I was familiar with because of the work that Claudia from Crochet Luna vlog cast had been doing.

So, I settled on the Zig-Zag-Zummer top (link) by Sandra at Nomad Stitches (link). You definitely will have seen Sandra’s work before. She is the designer behind the Taroko and Aztec Sweaters.

Image text: 1 - Boen coloured linen seat pad with a ball of olive green yarn to the right, the very beginnings of a top and an orange crochet hook. The yarn has a sheen to it because it is pure linen. Image 2 - White wall with Sandra's torso showing. She is wearing her Zi-Zag-Zummer crocheted top which has filet zig zags at the bottom, working up to a plain v-neck top. The top is a mid-dusky rose pink.

Image text: Dusky pink background with a white polaroid cut out and Sandra from Nomad Stitches as he photo held up with clear washi tape. Sandra has mid-length brown hair and is wearing a crocheted top with love hearts at the bottom. She is also wearing a big smile.

I plan on using my Rowan Pure Linen stash which is 130m/50g because it will ake for a nice cool summer top.

I haven’t really made much progress on the top because life, but have a deadline of the 1^st July because I am joining in the @promised.fiber (link) Make IT Inclusive MAL (link).

If you fancy joining in too, it is open to crocheters, knitters and sewers. Wouldn’t it be amazing if lots of Crochet Clan people searched out a BIPOC/BAME designer from the BIPOC in Fiber website and joined in?

I also wanted to highlight a couple of other sources:

1 – Lisa (LisaRaspCrochet on Ravelry) has made a bundle which has 133 different size-inclusive garments.

2 – Yelley (Yelley on Ravelry) also has a bundle with 158 size-inclusive crocheted garments.

Find the person on Ravelry, click onto their favourites and then you can search their ‘bundles’.

5 – Designs in Progress

I have finished all of my Positivity Spiral samples and have updated the pattern. If you have already bought it or buy it in the future, it now gives options form heavy laceweight up to bulky/chunky weight. I have added in estimated circumference and depth measurements so that you can choose how many stitch repeats you do to get the measurements you want.

The updated version will be going out next week.

I also have the rights back for Omni and that has already been uploaded onto my website and Ravelry. Again, that works in all weights between heavy laceweight and aran/worsted.

6 – Feeding the Habit

There is no Feeding the Habit this month. I have been buying sewing books, but no yarn.

This will not last for long because this weekend is the John Arbon Textiles Mill Open Weekend. I should have been vending and instead we are doing it all virtually from Friday through to Sunday.

I know I am going to buy yarn. Especially because I got to design my own colour. More on that in J’adore.

As part of the Virtual Mill Open Weekend, we are having an online crafting session – much like the Global Hook Up. Do come and join us on Sunday 7^th June at 2pm on Zoom (same joining details as below for Global Hook Ups). It will be some of the Mill Folk form John Arbon, Katie Green, me and hopefully, lost of friendly faces joining us.

7 – Quick News Beats

1 - Global Hook Up – The June hook ups are on:

Saturday 27th at 8pm BST and Sunday 28th at 9am BST.

The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here: https://www.zoom.us/join

2 – Lots of yarn shows are moving to virtual events. Obviously it is nice to meet face to face, but the beauty of a virtual event is that you can o to ones that were previously out of your reach. Look out for Woolfest, Yarndale and others in the UK.

8 - Big Up

This one has to go out to the BIPOC in Fiber team. The website that has been created is a wonderful resource. You may not be aware, but the person behind the website development is actually Alyson from the Keep Calm and Carry Yarn podcast. Alyson has and continues to do an amazing job on the site.

7 – J’adore

My love affair with John Arbon Textiles continues. When I first started crocheting and getting into really lovely wool and yarns, I dreamt about having my own yarn colours.

I was asked to design my own for the Virtual Mill Open Weekend in their Yarnadelic range which is my current favourite wool of theirs.

Image text: Image split into two but features the same yarn, Another Friday Night. The yarn is dark, dusky blue with slivers of silver through it. It’s like the night sky when the starts just start twinkling but not all the light has disappeared. In the left picture, skeins of the yarn are on a table with a chair tucked underneath. On the right, the yarn is wound on colourful plastic cones and bundled inside a large white industrial bag.

Obviously, I was tempted to do a mustard but they already have an amazing mustard in that range. Instead, I went for a dark, dusky blue with slivers of silver through it. It’s like the night sky when the starts just start twinkling but not all the light has disappeared. I LOVE IT. If you want some too, be quick (link).

I’ll be back on the 3^rd July.

Fay x

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May 1, 2020 @ 8:03 am

Episode 54 - Simple, Soothing Stitches

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 54 – Simple, Soothing Stitches.

In this episode, I cover General Update; Old Dog New Tricks; Final Destination; Designs on Progress; Quick News Beats and Big Up.

This podcast is sponsored by Provenance Craft Co.

If you would like to support the podcast, you can now do that through my new Ko-fi account, just click on the image, or follow this link: https://ko-fi.com/crochetcirclepodcast

1 – General Update

I know that globally, we are all on different states of stay at home/lockdown. However, the reality is most likely a little like eat, sleep, distance repeat. I’m used to working from home and probably only go at a handful of times a week anyway. I’m a bit of an introvert, so although I am very happy in my little home bubble, I am starting to miss my people. It would have been Wonderwool Wales this weekend. It’s easily my favourite show of the year. I get to catch up with lots of my yarn buddies, many of which I won’t have seen since the end of September. It’s a chance to check-in and hug your friends. So, I’m missing all of that.

I can only imagine that if you are a social butterfly this must be really tough for you.

I know that many of you are being directly affected by the virus and have family members that are ill or have sadly died. I am sending tender love and hugs.

2 – Old Dog New Tricks

This month’s top Crochet Clan tip is from Caroline (Soltra on Ravelry). Her tip is to regularly push yourself to try something new with crafting. It could be a new technique, a new type of craft, just something that keeps pushing you forward. Caroline references the fact that when she learned to do Tunisian Crochet, she made blanket after blanket and sickened herself by only doing blankets for 18 months. It was only when she joined in with a Tunisian CAL that was all about skill-building that she really moved on with her Tunisian crochet skills and has worked her way through 13+ projects.

It’s really easy to stick to what you know and feels comfortable. And I know that I have called this episode Simple Soothing Stitches because I don’t currently have the mental capacity to work on really complicated things, but new techniques and skills don’t have to be complicated.

I don’t know how many times I have told myself “oh, I’m not good enough to try that technique out yet”. It’s folly to think that way because you are just holding yourself back. Dive in, if it works first time – great, if it needs a bit of extra practice then that’s also great because you are really getting to grips with the new thing. If it doesn’t work then maybe it’s not for you. Often, that’s my favourite outcome because I can cross it off my list and move onto the next technique. You will never see me do crocheted cables. I hated doing. It’s just not for me, but because I now know that, I’m never swayed to those projects and I let something else pique my interest instead.

3 – Final Destination

Let me introduce you to Heulwen. It’s a laceweight shawl using Garthenor wool (link) and is in this month’s Inside Crochet (Issue 125 (link)). Heulwen means sunshine in Welsh which is very apt given the design and that Garthenor is a Welsh-based wool company.

Heulwen is made from 2 x 50g of Gathenor’s Number 1 Laceweight Wool which is undyed Shetland (link) and 1 x 50g of their plyed laceweight, Pennine, in colour Tilia (link).

The entire thing weighs about 120g and although it’s lightweight, it’s nice and cosy.

Image text: Image 1 - An undeyed grey, Shetland wool shawl is displayed along a wooden fence post with bright yellow oilseed rape flowers and woodland in the field behind and cow parsley in bloom in the verge in front. The shell has details of the sun in the same yellow as the oilseed rape. A semi-circle for the sun with beams of yellow coming off in fan stitches. Image 2 - a close up of the shawl showing how fine the lace wool is with the yellow fan/sunbeam details. Oilseed rape flowers and a blueish sky are visible behind.

I have been hooking up many Positivity Spirals (link to Ravelry, link to my website, link to Etsy). This month I have made one from:

John Arbon Textiles Exmoor Sock 4 ply, 50g/200m, Mackerel Sky (link).

John Arbon Textiles Knit By Numbers DK, 100g/250m, KBN111 (link).

John Arbon Textiles Harvest Hues light Aran/worsted, 100g/200m, Bracken (link).

Gathernor Number 5, Chunky, 100g/70-100m, Pewter Jacob (link).

Image description: Four different versions of Positivity Spiral Cowl lying over each other. L-R is an undyed Jacob, chunky version in a Pewter Grey, Then a rusty orange Aran weight version, an aquamarine 4 ply version and a long thin DK version in lovely dirty mustard colour.

I have one more to do and then I can update the pattern giving options for a wider range of yarn weights. If you have already bought Positivity Spiral, as soon as it has been updated, you will receive a new copy with all of the weights on it.

I also set myself a design challenge last month to get a design, knit and publish a pattern inside of seven days. I managed it by the skin of my teeth and it was intense! I created a stranded colourwork knitted hat called the Coho Beanie (link to Ravelry, link to my website, link to Etsy). I also used it as a chance to document my design process, the tools I use and the amount of time that is involved. If you are interested in seeing that process, head over to my design Instagram account @faydhdesigns (link) and look for the videos.

I used John Arbon Textiles Yarnadlic 25g/83m Minis (link) in colours Indigo Dust, Of my Hand, Woman in Blue and Ordinary Joe for the four-colour blue version and Harmonium, English Sparrows and Ordinary Joe for the three-colour green version.

Image description: Image 1 - me with my long brown hair down looking back over my shoulder beside a large pool of water. I am wearing the M/L, four-coloured, knitted Coho Beanie which ranges from dark teal through to a warm cream and has feature scallops in stranded colourwork.

Image 2 - The five different size version of the hat laid out on a large mossy trunk, surrounded by nettles. L-R they go from L/XL adult (green), M/L (teals), S (teals), XS/Child (teals) and toddler (green) sizes. The green version is three-colours, ranging from a mid-forest green to bright spring green to the same warm cream. Some of the hats have pom poms on them.

Me being me, I knitted it up in five different sizes, so it’s available from toddlers up to a L/XL adult.

So whilst I haven’t yet managed to whittle any wood – that’s my challenge for this weekend – I have managed to sew my first ever garment. I managed to get some organic cotton from Fabworks (link) and used the Elise Tee from Fine Motor Skills (link) which is a free sewing pattern. I really enjoyed this as a first attempt and I’m happy to be wearing it as I record. I even regraded the pattern to make it a little bigger because it only goes from S-L. Plop! There I go down the sewing rabbit hole.

My Nana used to sew all of her own clothes. Don’t think tea dresses, think fine tailoring pinstripe suits with satin and chiffon blouses. Elaine Dashper was a woman with very defined tastes and standards! I am hoping I have inherited some of her sewing DNA.

4 – Designs in Progress

I have almost finished my Scrapvent Blanket. Lots of work has gone into this month because although I am trying to set myself challenges to keep focussed, I am also really drawn to simple soothing stitches. I just don’t want my crochet time to be challenging too and the blanket has been perfect for that.

Image description: Cream background with my Scrapvent Blanket coming in from the right having been artistically 'dumped'. It has a cream border and 24 different stripes (6 rows per colour stripe) ranging from peachy creams to mustard, greens, teals and finally, dark plummy purple.

Why not head to your stash and see if you have 24 x 20g leftovers or minis in 4 ply and 100g for a border? Get them bagged up and put away for 1^st December 2020.

I’m so pleased with the way that the blanket is coming together. There are a couple in there that I maybe would swap out in hindsight, but as soon as I attached the border, it really helped to bring the whole piece together. For me, it was well worth pulling together the 24 colour sequence. Even if I did think I was drunk when I added the acid green in that I now rather like!

This will be finished next month, with a pattern to follow shortly.

I was working on a laceweight version of Positivity Spiral with Organically Farmed Merino, 50g/650m, natural white (link) but I just can’t do it. It’s too fine and I’m not enjoying it. Given what I said in Old Dog New Tricks, I definitely know that cobweb lace is a step too far for me.

I know that I keep on saying I don’t like laceweight, but clearly I must like it a little bit because I keep on going back to it.

So, my alternative laceweight version of Positivity Spiral is in Garthenor’s Number 1 laceweight in Smoke, which is undyed Shetland, 50g/350 (link).

Image description: Image 1 - cream background with a cake of fine undyed, grey laceweight wool to the top left and a bundle of barely started crocheted rounds in the middle. A pink metal crochet hook lyes to the right. Image 2 - School green background with a photo of Jonny and Sally from Garthenor Organic. Jonny with his arm around his Mum, Sally, as they stand in front of Niagara Falls.

5 – Feeding the Habit

I am a very fortunate person. I had three parcels turn up from lovely Crochet Clan folk. Each parcel arrived just when I needed a little boost!

I received some beautiful seaweed yarn and skeins of hemp from Rachael. She has also requested that I do a bit of a feature on vegan yarns. I have one planned and have lots of yarns to go through but don’t quite know when I’m going to get to it – someday!

Three skeins of hemp yarn in an acid green, rusty brown/orange a dark lavender blue/purple lye diagi=onally beside a card with a crocheted hexagon and cake of seaweed yarn.

Rica sent me through loads of German marzipan ( I even let Matthew have some) and yarn from her global travels. So, I now have yarns from Germany, Iran, India, Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Peru and Bolivia in my stash. I need to spend some proper time looking at the construction of the wools to see if there are differences from country to country.

Image description: cream background with lots of different yarns from around the world. Fluffy blue mohair from India, perfectly spun pecahy brown wool from Bolivia, loosely spun green wool from Iran. The different plying methods from different countries is evident.

Claudia also sent loads of marzipan from Germany. If you have never tried marzipan with calvados, you are missing out! I have a new favourite. My parcel from Claudia was full of all sorts of lovely goodies including some amazing art yarn which I think I am going to make into a cushion, using the mustard coloured buttons that she popped in the parcel.

Image description: A large hank of art yarn that goes from thick to thin and ranges from sky blue to bring green and a slurry green /brown.

I can’t show you any marzipan because we have eaten it all! Nom, nom, nom.

Given that I was buying design wool from Garthenor, I also treated myself to a little set of 10g mini skeins from their little shop update. Often small companies have small updates that go out to newsletter subscribers first. That’s what Garthenor and RiverKnits do. John Arbon Textiles do their Mill Membership for special access. It’s definitely worth subscribing to your favourite small businesses.

Image description: Five mini skeins fo wool, each bound in the centre with a kraft paper label. The skeins are different types of wool and move from light grey/brown through to a dark chocolate, peaty colour.

6 – Quick News Beats

1 - Global Hook Up – The May hook ups are on:

Saturday 23rd at 8pm BST and Sunday 24th at 9am BST.

The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here: https://www.zoom.us/join

7 – J’adore

Going back to the premise of simple and soothing, I have been going back to gardening and growing more of our own food. The current pandemic has given me a bit of a jolt to look again at my environmental impact and what is important to me.

My plan is to grow and make even more of our own food (we already do a fair bit) and to really work towards a handmade capsule wardrobe.

I don’t think I’m the only one using this strange time to reassess what they want from this one life.

I have also been looking backwards through “The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady” by Edith Holden. It’s an illustrated nature journal, documenting what Edith saw in the English countryside month by month. I grew up with this book and bought my own second-hand copy at the beginning of the year. Every month, I go to it and look at Edith’s writing and illustrations for that month. One of May’s mottoes is “Shear your sheep in May and shear them all away”.

Image description: The book is open at pages for May with beautiful handwriting on the left page and a delicate illustration of May flowers on the right.

I‘m basically taking pleasure from the simple things. I hope you are too.

I’ll be back on 5^th June.

Fay x

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April 3, 2020 @ 8:57 am

Episode 53 - Rainbows & silver linings

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 53 – Rainbows and silver linings.

In this episode, I cover General Update; Old Dog New Tricks; Final Destination; Designs on Progress; Quick News Beats and Big Up.

This podcast is sponsored by Provenance Craft Co.

If you would like to support the podcast, you can now do that through my new Ko-fi account, just click on the image, or follow this link: https://ko-fi.com/crochetcirclepodcast

1 – General Update

Things are a little strange just now. We are in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic, UK residents have been told to stay at home and life is more than a little up in the air!

So, I am really hoping that you are all safe and well. I am sending lots of love to you all. Extra love and hugs to those of you that are frontline staff and key workers. You are keeping the country going and we are all hugely appreciative for the hard work and effort you are putting in.

2 – Old Dog New Tricks

This month’s top Crochet Clan tip is from Rachel (thepulledstitch on Ravelry and has a blog on called Pulled Stitch (link)). Rachel’s top tip came via Susan of Peppergoose Design (link).

It’s all about how you set up your slip knot, ready for your starting chain. If you have your tail end to the right and working yarn to the left to make your slip knot, pulling the working yarn will tighten your knot and pulling the tail end will loosen it.

If you reverse this out to that the tail end is on your left when you make your slip knot and the working yarn is on your right, the tail end will tighten the knot and the working yarn will loosen it.

This means that once you have worked into your starting chain or completed your foundation row/round, you can gently pull on the tail end to neaten up your work.

My top tip is to point you towards a blog post I wrote a couple of years back. I have noticed on Instagram that many people are using their ‘Stay at Home/Lockdown’ time to finish up projects.

Whilst the post is called “Ideas on Blocking and Finishing Garments” (link), there is a wealth of information in that post – I really went all out! So, if you are trying to make the most of some enforced home time, grab a cuppa and give the blog post a read.

3 – Final Destination

I have two crocheted FOs and two knitted ones. The first, knitted one is a Hay jumper (link) which is from Laine knitting magazine, Issue 3. I used my precious John Arbon Textiles Yarnadelic in colour Badi Da (link). The yarn was bought in January specifically for this project and I really love it. I think it’s my favourite knitted jumper to date.

Image text: A finished jumper on a dark wooden floor. The jumper is a mixture of a petrol teal and brown/copper melange. There are two lace work panels that go from the rib, up and over the shoulder.

If you want to know more about this yarn, I wrote a review a couple of months back (link).

My second FO is a pair of socks for a friend. I promised her a hand-knitted pair some time ago as a birthday present. Katie is currently quarantined at home because she is on the at-risk list and so I thought that hand-knitted socks would be nice to receive in a parcel – possibly with some chocolate.

The main yarn is a very old skein that was unlabelled and the pink contrast heels and toes are some yarn I had left from crocheting socks in Kathryn’s (Crafternoon Treats) yarn (link).

Image text: A pair of very bright knitted socks with spiraling strips of turquoise, red, purple and slightly more subtle green and orange. The heels and toes are in bright pink.

My third and very bright finished object is a rainbow that I plan to hang from my front door. We have a lot of families that walk up the lane by our house and I thought it would be nice to add a bit of colour and something for them to look for. If time allows, I will keep on adding to it to create a bit of a landscape. The pattern was from adapted from The Cookie Snob (link) and I just followed the four-row increase repeat, changing colour every three rows.

The yarns are all a mixture of cotton in different weights and from different manufacturers.

Image text: A crocheted rainbow on a blue background. The rainbow is on the dirty end of the rainbow shade rather than the unicorn or need sunglasses to look at it end.

My final FO is a version of my Positivity Spiral Cowl, crocheted with a special 4 ply skein from Ishrat at Fruitful Fusion (link). I love how this combination of yarn colour and pattern has worked up together. Ishrat is a crocheter too, and has beautiful yarns!

Image 1 text: A crocheted cowl with obvious spirals of a slanted stitch and filet crochet. It's made using a lightly variegated yarn in sea blues, purples and turquoises.

Image 2: The same yarn but shown in an unopened skein to show the subtle colour changes.

Image 3: A blue background with text and an arrow to say that the photo is of Ishrat from Fruitful Fusion. Ishrat is in her garden holding brightly coloured yarn aloft in her left hand. She has a warm smile, is wearing glasses and a light grey hijab.

4 – Designs in Progress

Work continues on my Scrapvent Blanket and I am almost halfway through my little brown bags of yarn scraps. It’s a really lovely, relaxing make that I have been working on in the evenings. I’ll keep on showing it to you every month until it is a FO.

Why not head to your stash and see if you have 24 x 20g leftovers or minis in 4 ply and 100g for a border? Get them bagged up and put away for 1^st December 2020.

Image text: A close up if the crocheted Scrapvent Blanket. It has 12 colours in it from soft pastel pinks and creams to dar green and sprout type greens. Each colour is in a block of six rows.

5 – Feeding the Habit

Just in case we go into a higher level of lockdown in the UK, I wanted to purchase the next set of design yarns I needed. So, I went straight to John Arbon Textiles and got all the weights and colours I needed.

Here’s what I got for the laceweight (grrr), 4ply and worsted versions of my Positivity Spiral Pattern.

I also got some Yarnadelic mini skeins in a range of four colours. I have plans to give myself a knitted design challenge next week. I want to knit a colourwork hat and if possible, get the pattern written up, tech edited and published inside of seven days. The plan is to show the thinking and process that goes into creating a pattern. It will all be documented over on Instagram under @faydhdesigns if you fancy following me over there.

Image text: A blu/grey background with three skeins of yarn. Centre is a folded over skein of Merino laceweight in warm white. To the left is a rusty orange skein that is a light ran weight and resting on top of that is a skein of 4 ply that is in a soft sea green/ aquamarine colour.

Laceweight Organically Farmed Merino, 50g/650m, natural white (link).

Exmoor Sock 4 ply, 50g/200m, Mackerel Sky (link).

Harvest Hues light aran/worsted, 100g/200m, Bracken (link).

Image 1: Four mini skeins of Yarnadelic yarn are lined up. L-R they go from a dark teal blue to a turquoise teal, to aquamarine blue, to warm cream.

Image 2: A blue background with text and an arrow to say that the photo is of John and Juliet fo John Arbon Textiles. They are sat beside each other in the mill. Juliet to the left has her trademark curly hair tied back in a plait, a checked dress and cardi on. John has a navy t-shirt and mill-standard brown dungarees on. They are both smiling at the camera.

Yarnadelic mini skeins (link) 25g/83m, in shades Indigo Dust, Of My Hands, Woman in Blue and Ordinary Joe.

Before I came out to record, I also dunked into a wood whittling rabbit hole. I’m not joking. Let’s see what that brings to next month’s podcast!

6 – Quick News Beats

1 - Global Hook Up – The April hookups are on:

Saturday 25th at 8pm BST and Sunday 26th at 9am BST.

There will also be some more impromptu ones which will be posted up in advance on Instagram Stories @crochet_circle_podcast

The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here: https://www.zoom.us/join

2 – You raised £385 for ROTA by purchasing my Positivity Spiral cowl. I am blown away by the response to this and it feels really good to be raising this money for such a great initiative.

3 – Inside Crochet (link to be able to buy digital and hard copies of the mag) – I have a pattern and an article in Issue 124 of Inside Crochet this month. The pattern is called Omni and can be worked in laceweight up to aran/worsted as a one skein shawl.

4 – JAT Annual Issue 2 (link) – has a crochet pattern by me called Broad Oak Hill. The Annual is now out on pre-order and also has three knitting patterns and all sorts of other goodies in it.

Image 1: Three copies of The Annual Issue 2 are open on wooden floorboards. They show the front page, yarns and one of the knitting patterns. Text on the image says that the Annual is coming soon and available for pre-order.

Image 2: Frankie and Juliet are up on Exmoor with brown bracken behind them. Frankie is to the left wearing a black top and the grey ombre version of the Broad Oak Hill crocheted cowl. Juliet is on the right wearing green top and the green ombre version doubled over to make a snuggly cowl.

5 – Fun Things to do online – here’s a load of suggestions that the #CrochetClan has been sending in (link). It is also available as a thread on Ravelry within the Crochet Circle Podcast Group. That’s the best place to add suggestions.

6 - How to set up a Zoom Meeting – here’s a blog and PDF I pulled together to help you (link).

7 – BluePrint (previously known as Craftsy) have listed all of their classes as free until the 9^th of April 2020 (link). So, if you want to learn a new skill and are lacking funds just now, head there to see what you can learn. There are 53 different crochet classes you could access.

I have my eye on the Geometry Embroidery class by Natalie Chanin, Fixing Crochet Mistakes and Sew the Fremont Bag. Hmm, zero housework is being done this weekend!

7 – Big Up

There can only be one this month and it has to go out to all of the key and frontline workers out there that are helping to keep our healthcare systems and supply chains running.

I’ll be back on 1st of May.

Fay x

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March 6, 2020 @ 10:03 am

Episode 52 - Radical Kindness

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 52 – Radical Kindness.

In this episode, I cover Old Dog New Tricks; Final Destination; Designs on Progress; Quick News Beats and Big Up.

This podcast is sponsored by Provenance Craft Co.

If you would like to support the podcast, you can now do that through my new Ko-fi account, just click on the image, or follow this link: https://ko-fi.com/crochetcirclepodcast

1 – Old Dog New Tricks

This month’s top Crochet Clan tip is from Rica (woolroundtheworld on Ravelry and @woolaroundtheworld on Instagram). Rica has highlighted how stitches can look completely different worked in the round, compared to in rows.

Examples given show Lemon Peel Stitch in rows and rounds and the same for Feather Stitch. The textures and final looks are really quite different.

Even the simplest of stitches like double crochet, look different in the round form in rows.

Image 1: Two examples of Lemon Peel stitch, on the left it has been crocheted in rows and on the right in rounds. It looks neater in rounds and the stitch definition is better.

Image 2: Two examples of Feather stitch, on the left it has been crocheted in rows and on the right in rounds. It has more stitch detail in rows and presents more of a slanted stitch in rounds.

Image 3: Herringbone htr are shown on the left which creates a left and right slanting diagonal pattern in the work because it's worked in rows. On the right Herringbone tr are shown worked in the round, so all of the stitches are slanting to the left.

So, if you have stitch dictionaries or are looking to start some of your own designs, have a think about whether you could create something that looks completely different. I have a few stitch dictionaries and I find them really helpful for my work.

I thought I would share two of my absolute favourites with you:

1 – The Crochet Stitch Bible by Betty Barnden

ISBN-10: 0785830480
ISBN-13: 978-0785830481

2 – Crochet Every Way Stitch Dictionary Dora Ohrenstein

ISBN-10: 1419732919
ISBN-13: 978-1419732911

2 – Final Destination

I have one FO and it’s another garment! It’s the Adelong jumper pattern (link)

Image: My mustard coloured Adelong jumper is lying on dark wood floorboards. The top of the bust upwards, including the sleeves, is ribbed by working back loop only and from the rib downwards it's all half trebles, giving two distinct sections of stitch definition.

The yarn is Erika Knight British Blue 100 which is a DK weight yarn (link). It’s 100% British Bluefaced Leicester, 220m per 100g and I am using shade Mrs. Dalloway.

The pattern is by Deanne from Addydae Designs (link to IG account) and it’s a top-down construction, creating the sleeves and neckline at the same time. I crocheted up a size medium so that there is less positive ease and also changed the ribbing a little so that it was shorter and joined from front to back and I added a couple of rounds of dc to the sleeves to pull them in a little and finish them off.

Image 1: shows the hem of my finished Adelong jumper. The hem is the same length front and back with a 4 stitch join so that the two ribs are joined. The jumper is in a proper mustard colour.

Image 2: The sleeve of my Adelong jumper shows the neat short-row shaping that forms from the neckline all the way down the top of the arm and the two rounds of dc (SC US) I did to pull the sleeve in a little.

3 – Designs in Progress

I finally have some designs in progress that I can show you that aren’t for commissions! In fact, there are three!

First up is Positivity Spiral. This design will be launched on March 15^th in support of Operation Social Justice Warrior. I want to be able to support positive ways for our fibre community to be inclusive and this feels like a good way forward.

If you would like to know more about Operation Social Justice, please go and have a look at Angie at Gamercrafting’s information, because she is the one putting all the hard work into organising it (link).

Positivity Spiral is a one skein cowl pattern that can be made as long or short as you like. It can be worked up in any weight of yarn too. Because the deadline is quite tight for this pattern, the initial pattern release will have three cowl examples (light DK, sportweight and 4ply). For anyone that buys the pattern through Ravelry, Etsy or my website, as soon as I have finished the details with the other weights, a pattern update will be sent to everyone that already purchased it.

100% of the profits are going to ROTA (link) for any pattern sales from 15^th March to the end of the month. Race on the Agenda (ROTA) is one of Britain's leading social policy think-tanks focusing on issues that affect Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities. Originally set up in 1984, ROTA aims to increase the capacity of BAME organisations and strengthen the voice of BAME communities through increased civic engagement and participation in society.

So, if you would like to buy the pattern from 15^th onwards, you can do so on Ravelry, Etsy or my own website. Remember that my pattern prices are scaled on my website, so you can access them from £2 to £6 depending on your budget.

What is doubly exciting is that I am hoping to crochet the 4 ply sample with a special skein from Ishrat at Fruitful Fusion (link).

What is also amazing is that my very lovely friend and Tech Editor, Deb from Find me Knitting (link) has offered to tech edit for free. This is no small thing because that means the money I would have spent now goes straight to ROTA because it isn’t being deducted from design expenses. Thanks Deb!

The examples shown were in Blue Sky Alpacas Metalico (light DK) and John Arbon Textiles Alpaca Supreme sportweight.

Image: Two cowls on a light pink background with a bow-tie of yarn and a blue crochet hook. The smaller cowl is resting on top of the other and it's a silver colour. The other is a caramel/fawn brown. Both have the same stitch pattern with Herringbone tr slanting to the left and the filet crochet also slants to the left.

My second design is very much in its infancy, but it combines two lovely yarns – both from RiverKnits. Using the solid Bluefaced Leicester 4ply as a background colour, it allows the different colours of the Chimera yarn to really show off.

I am just at the beginning of the first hand warmer, so there is still a fair way to go on this design, especially as I want to make mittens, a cowl and a hat from it! So, it will be a while before you see this as a finished set of designs.

Image: white background with the beginnings of a hand warmer. The main colour is navy and ears of barley type corn are worked up in puff stitches. The puff stitches are worked up in Chimera yarn which is spun with mustard, white, teal and blue.

Design number three is a blanket. I have never really designed a blanket before and this one is inspired by all of the lovely mini yarn advent calendars that people were showing off at the end of 2019.

It got me thinking about my stash, using what I’ve got and offering a solution for folk that can’t afford yar advents but would really love one.

If like me, you have lots of half-used cakes of 4 ply yarn, then this is something that you can do now and put away, ready for the 1^st December to unwrap your own yarn advent.

I went to my stash and pulled out 24 cakes of 4 ply yarn that had 20g or more in them. As I had lost to choose from, I also chose the 24 that I thought worked best together.

The next part is up to you. You can either bag them up in any old order, or you can do what I did and create a colour sequence that won’t make your inner-pedant scream.

I then numbered 24 brown bags and popped each of my 20g+ yarn cakes into a bag and popped them all into one big bag. Come 1^st December 2020, you will not remember what you had in those bags and you will have a lovely yarn advent that cost you the sum total of 24 brown paper bags.

The pattern I am designing is called the Scrapvent Blanket and it’s designed to make the yarn go as far as possible. I’m using Herringbone half Treble because it creates such a beautiful fabric that isn’t very holey. My plan is to finish the blanket off with a solid cream border – also from stash.

Image: pale pink background with a cream/ light teal project bag and a multi-coloured blanket spilling out of it. The blanket shows six-row repeats in different yarns and the lastest colour, a dark green yarn is caked up and ready to go. To the right is a pink crochet hook, an empty brown paper bag and a full paper bag with scrap yarn 10 in it, ready to be added to the blanket.

So, I’ll continue to work away on the blanket over the coming months and the pattern will be ready well in advance of the 1^st December.

Why not head to your stash and see if you have 24 x 20g leftovers or minis in 4 ply and 100g for a border? Get them bagged up and put away for 1^st December 2020.

4 – Quick News Beats

1 - Global Hook Up – The March hook ups are on:

Saturday 21st at 8pm (GMT) and Sunday 22nd at 9am GMT.

The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here: https://www.zoom.us/join

2 – As this goes live on the 6^th March, I will be vending at the RiverKnits Open Day tomorrow 7^th March and then the next places you can find me are Wonderwool Wales (link) on 25th and 26^th April, Knit and Stitch Show at the Reghed Centre in Cumbria (link) on 2^nd and 3^rd May, Yarningham in Birmingham (link) on 11^th and 12^th July. There are lots of other events during the year, but these are the ones I’m allowed to tell you about so far!

5 – Big Up

The moon. Okay, I’m going to go a bit woo here. I don’t understand why it has taken me nearly 43 years to understand the impact that the lunar cycle has on me.

In case you are also a creative soul, here is what it does to me. A few days before and after the new moon I am bone-tired and need to take naps. I feel drained, down-hearted about everything and generally meh!

At the opposite end of the scale in the days leading up to and after a full moon, I am full of energy, and the creative ideas just flow out of my head uncontrollably – there is literally no stopping me.

Now that I understand this rhythm, I can plan my design work around the cycle. When I need new designs, I wait until the full moon is due and then I use that more relaxed time of the new moon to actually work on the new designs and products.

It’s actually the perfect balance because I can’t keep at full-pelt all the time, much as I think I can. With my new-found understanding, I now track what is going on and allow myself a bit of a break when it’s new moon time.

I know it sounds a bit woo, but honestly, this realisation has completely changed the way I structure my months and creative output. The proof is in the number of new designs I have on the go!

If any of you are interested in tracking the lunar cycle, I have been using an app on my phone called Moon Pro and it also gives you sunrise and sunset times which is really handy.

I’ll be back on 3^rd April.

Fay x

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Hello and welcome to the Crochet Circle Podcast. I’m Fay, and this is my monthly crochet podcast with a little bit of knitting on the side.

You can catch the audio version of the podcast on A cast, Apple Podcasts, Podbean, Stitcher, Spotify and more. The video version is available on YouTube. Each podcast has full, linked show notes which can be found at www.thecrochetcircle.podbean.com or follow me on Instagram crochet_circle_podcast and get the links to all aspects of the podcast from there.

Welcome into the Crochet Clan and our amazing community.

February 6, 2020 @ 11:03 pm

Episode 51 - Light

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 51 – Light.

In this episode, I cover Old Dog New Tricks; Yarn review; Final Destination; En Route; Quick News Beats; Big Up and J’adore.

This podcast is sponsored by Provenance Craft Co.

If you would like to support the podcast, you can now do that through my new Ko-fi account, just click on the image, or follow this link: https://ko-fi.com/crochetcirclepodcast

1 – Old Dog New Tricks

This month’s top Crochet Clan tip is from Stasia (Stasiacrochet on Ravelry and Instagram). Stasia has been on a real crocheted garment journey. She managed to make 13 last year and is already on her second of 2020.

We both struggle to make tops fit because we have actual boobs to fit into a garment. Stasia’s top tip is to rearrange some of the stitches from your back to your front. For example, if you are making a top-down raglan and you are supposed to have a starting chain with 40 chains for the front and for the back, you may have 38 for the back (-2) and 42 for the front (+2). I sometimes deduct 5!
If you are working top-down in the round then you need to do this before splitting for the sleeves and not from the beginning.

Designers usually say that your back and front are the same width but mine are about 13cm different.

This is a great tip if you aren’t a fan of the boxy sweater which tends to just hang straight off us big boobed people like a tent. You can make a smaller size, tailor it for your bust and create something more flattering. You just need to keep an eye on the arm length and bicep circumference though.

My top tip is to know what you are looking for when you are choosing a garment pattern. For instance, there are patterns on Ravelry that go up to 60” bust but are listed as a 4XL, there are also 5XL patterns listed that also go to 60”. It is always better to go by your measurements rather than a size option.

2 – Yarn review

I have written a full review for Yarnadelic by John Arbon Textiles (link) over at Provenance Craft Co. (link). It’s absolutely beautiful.

Image text: soft grey background with three skeins of squishy Yarnadelic wool. It has a base of blue with dark fawn brown heathered throughout the yarn. It shows quite a high twist in the strands and a beautiful blend of the colours.

3 – Final Destination

I have one little crochet FO from January. Needless to say, I have lots of stuff bubbling away that I will be able to share with you in the future. I am doing submitting some designs to magazines, partly because I really like working with an extended team and partly because it gives me a very firm deadline to work to, which is how I work best.

The quickly whipped up this mitten pattern to be able to review the Yarnadelic yarn. I’m not going to write up a pattern for them, but the knowledge gained will be used in one of my next designs, so you will see a similar-ish pattern from me in the future.

Image text: grey background showing on the right, a full mitten with rib and starting rows in Yarnadelic colourway 'Black Gold of the Sun' transitioning through some simple colourwork into the rusty orange colour that is Bracken from the Harvest Hues range. To the left is my hand, showing how the fingerless mitten fits.

I did finish my Dad’s knitted Icelandic jumper. I posted it on the Wednesday morning and he phoned me on Thursday night to tell me how much he loved it. He is a step closer to becoming Icelandic!

Image text: Double image. On the left is my white-haired Dad wearing his new Jon jumper with his hands crossed to show the details on the sleeves. On the right is the jumper on my mannequin. The main body is dark grey with colourwork at the bottom of the sleeves and the yoke in a gradient of greys into ash white.

The design is called Jon (link) and is by Hulda Hakonardottir. I knitted it using Lettlopi (link) in four shades of grey.

Before I sent it to my Dad, I asked Matthew to try it on to see what the shaping was like. He got his fingers about 3cm into the body of the jumper before he recoiled and refused to put it on. Matthew is at the other end of the wool softness scale to me. He loves lambswool, merino and Bluefaced Leicester and that’s about it. Luckily, I make up for it with my love of characterful wool.

4 – En Route

I have one crocheted WIP on the go and it’s another garment! I was given the Adelong jumper pattern (link) as a present by lovely Claudia Dingle and I happened to have just the right amount of yarn for it from my Christmas pressies. Of course, it’s mustard coloured.

I am using the Erika Knight British Blue 100 which is a DK weight yarn (link). It’s 100% British Bluefaced Leicester, 220m per 100g and I am using shade Mrs. Dalloway.

Image text: grey background with the beginnings of a mustard wool jumper. My hand is holding the remains of a cake of yarn on the jumper and a crochet hook can be seen in the top right of the photo. The jumper is ribbed and the back panel from the collar down is finished, ready to start the front panel from the collar down.

This is a really lovely, soft wool to use and it is crocheting up a dream. The pattern is by Deanne from Addydae Designs (link to IG account) and as you can expect from her patterns, it’s really well written and broken into bite-sized chunks.

Image text: yellow background with a washi-taped photo of Deanne wearing her version of her Adelong jumper in a steel grey. Deanne has on hand on her hip and is looking to her left, with mid-length dark blond hair falling down the front.

I am loving the top-down construction of this jumper. As mentioned in Old Dog, New Tricks, boxy jumpers don’t really suit my shape, so I am crocheting up a size medium so that there is less positive ease and I can make the most of my assets!

5 - Feeding the Habit

I obviously bought more of the Yarnadelic yarn because I am in love with it! I have six skeins and am currently knitting a jumper with it. I also got some mini skeins during a jolly to see Ewe & Ply's new shop in Oswestry (link). There was also some incoming new yarn from RiverKnits (link) which is destined for my next crochet designs.

Image text: Image 1 - grey background with a skein of Chimera yarn from RiverKnits which is a marl of blues and yellow, lying on top of a dark navy skein. In the middle is a hardback copy of Vanishing Fleece by Clara Parkes which has a bright green cover with a hand-drawn big sheep and a very small person riding on its back with a lasso. To the right of the book are three skeins of Yarnadelic yarn in colour Badi Da (mid steel blue/grey with a blend of mid-brown). To the top of the book is a bundle of mini skeins in pastel, sugared almond colours.

Image 2 - yellow background with a washi-taped photo of Becci and Markus from RiverKnits wearing their dye aprons. Bothe have glasses on and are smiling as they look straight at the camera.

5 – Quick News Beats

1 - Global Hook Up – The February hook ups are on:

Saturday 22^nd at 8pm (GMT) and Sunday 23^rd at 9am GMT.

The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here: https://www.zoom.us/join

2 – I will be vending at the RiverKnits Open Day on the 7^th March. It’s held at their dye studio in Weedon, Northants. All the details can be found here (link). There are even more vendors than last year, including Katie Green, Garthenor, Fruitful Fusion and many others.

3 - International crocheters. If you are interested in being on a list that I can pass out to dyers, yarn shop owners etc. that need test crocheters, then please email me: fay@provenancecraft.com

6 - J’adore

I have just listened to Clara Parkes’ book Vanishing Fleece. It was wonderful and gave me a real insight into the wool industry in the US and where the concerns and issues are. It is a book worth reading if you are interested in how wool is processed and where the pressure points are.

I’ll be back on March 6th. Have a fab festive season!

Fay x

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January 3, 2020 @ 8:19 am

Episode 50 - Woohoo

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 50 – Woohoo!

In this episode, I cover Old Dog New Tricks; WIP RIP 2019; Final Destination; En Route; Quick News Beats; Big Up and J’adore.

This podcast is sponsored by:

If you would like to support the podcast, you can now do that through my new Ko-fi account, just click on the image, or follow this link: https://ko-fi.com/crochetcirclepodcast

1 – Old Dog New Tricks

Last month, I said I was also going to start sharing your top tips in this section. This fist Crochet Clan tip comes from two folk – Trina (browneyedgirlGB on Ravelry and @browneyedgirl on Instagram) and Andrea (woolwoman2k8 on Ravelry, @woolwomank2k8 on Instagram and Woollen Yarns Blog). The tips are all about using stitch markers. Andrea uses them to mark the right side of her work, making it easier to find where you are in a pattern. Trina uses them to mark the first stitch of each row.

I really like the bulb safety pins and stitch markers with the lever back arch because they are easy to attach and lock in place.

Using stitch markers may seem like a bit of a faff, but it can honestly save you hours of work and help you to keep your row and round counts accurate.

I’m working on a blog post which answers your questions on blocking. You still have time to ask me specific questions on blocking, if you have any. One of the questions was about how to block hats. If you are lucky enough to have a bowl that has the same circumference as the recipient, then you can use that. However, if the bowl is too deep, you run the risk of the hat brim being stretched too widely.

I wanted to create a hat blocker that was bespoke to the circumference of my head, so I made one with papier mache and a balloon. Here is how to do it:

1 – Measured the circumference of your head. I measured 58cm across my forehead, over my ears and around the nape of my neck.

2 – Blow up a balloon and deflated it until it has a circumference of 2cm less than your measurement at the widest point and tie it off. Note that you reduce the circumference by 2cm so that the hat will block slightly smaller than your head and will be a good fit.

3 – Make a ‘glue’ from ½ cup of flour and 2.5 cups of water, heat on the hob and whisk until it creates a thick paste. Allow it to cool. This was enough to create two hat blocking moulds.

4 – Tear a few pages of newspaper into strips.

5 – Using a pastry brush (or similar), spread some of the paste over the balloon and press strips of newspaper over the balloon. Cover most of the balloon in an initial layer. Use a mug to stand the balloon on. Keep on building up paste and newspaper layers over the balloon. I added three layers of newspaper and three layers of tissue paper. You will need at least five layers to create a thick enough mould that will retain its shape when the balloon has deflated.

6 – Leave the mould to dry thoroughly.

7 – Coat the mould with three layers of clear varnish, allowing it to dry between coats. This will help to harden the mould and stop create a waterproof barrier between your wet damp hat and the paper.

ALT TEXT : Photo 1 - cream background with two blown up balloons covered in newspaper and brown tissue paper.

Photo 2: a newspaper/tissue covered balloon is sat on a mug on top of newspaper. A tin of interior clear wood varnish and a brush lie beside the mug.

If you make hats for other people too, you may as well make two hat blockers at the same time. I also made a smaller one that fits my nieces head.

To wet block your hat, soak it in wool wash, squeeze out the excess water and place it on the hat blocker (you may want to stand it on a mug). The shape of the mould should mean that the brim of your hat is at a point with a smaller circumference. This means that the brim will block to a smaller size from the main body of your hat and help to keep it on your head.

ALT TEXT: Papier mache balloon mould is in a mug and has an orange and green knitted hat blocking on it.

2 – CAL Updates

#wiprip2019

You did so well with the #wiprip2019. So many projects were finished up before the 31^{st of} December.

I managed to pass into 2020 with the following WIPs:

1 – a knitted jumper for my Dad

2 – a crocheted shawl design (30% done)

3 – a new crocheted shawl design (about 10% done)

Basically, no personal WIPs, which is exactly what I was aiming for.

3 – Final Destination

I have finished a lot of items in the last month. Some of them were things that needed to be sorted and others were designs or samples.

Here is what has been finished off:

My Bark Sweater by Sidsel Sangild (link) needed a remedy for the bottom because it was curling up. I have added two rounds of dc (US sc) and although it is curling a little, I haven’t yet blocked it and I think it will work.
My Strandir knitted jumper (link) by Hulda Hakonardottir needed to be lengthened. I picked up stitches from the bottom, cut off the original ribbing and knitted a new 2 x 2 rib to make the jumper my desired length.
I finished off my laceweight design shawl. I thought I would be able to show them all to you in this podcast, but I am entering them into a design competition that Unravel Yarn Festival is running. I’ll let you know how I get on!
I finally finished my Verity Vest – it has only been about 18 months. It was designed by Dawn at The Almond Snug (link) and I crocheted it in Aruancania Ranco (link) in the colour – turquoise. I haven’t blocked the vest because it’s for my friend and she may want to add more length to it.
I was also taking part in The Craft Bank, Gift along. I had chosen to sew for my gift partner and so made matching large and small project bags because she was teaching her granddaughter to knit. Whilst I was making the bags for my gift partner, I made some for me too. I’m trying to use up some of my fabric stash…
Over the festive season, I made another bag, but this time, I added embroidery to one side and embroidery applique to the other. This will be used as a shop sample to show what you can make from some of the books I sell. I really enjoyed doing these embroideries. Sometimes working on a different craft can create a welcome break.

ALT TEXT Photo 1 - waist rubbing of Strandir jumper showing the cut off the old rib and newly finished 2 x 2 rib.

ALT TEXT Photo 2 - finished Strandir jumper on black background. The jumper is a snowy white colour with tabs of a midnight blue at the yoke and cuffs.

ALT TEXT Photo 3 - cream background with mottled turquoise coloured Verity Vest. The top is sleeveless and is worked in diagonal rows the form in the centre. Eyelet rows give it more features.

ALT TEXT Photo 4 - front of a cream, linen handmade project bag. Three detailed black and yellow bees have been embroidered onto the bag and loo as though they are flying upwards.

ALT TEXT Photo 5 - back of the same cream, linen bag has mustard and green leaves appliqued onto it with woollen threads in an oval wreath with additional foliage embroidery.

ALT TEXT Photo 6 - Two, one skein handmade bags on top of a cream background. The bag on the left is a French blue colour with white clouds dumping snowflakes. The bag on the right has a cream background and a light teal motif that looks like a knit stitch/cat head. Both bags have two poppers to close them and sage green tabs as a small handle.

4 – En Route

I have two WIPs on the go. The first is a jumper for my Dad and it’s a design called Jon (link) and is by the same designer as my Strandir Jumper – Hulda Hakonardottir. I’m knitting it using Lettlopi (link) in four shades of grey. I’m trying to make this quickly so that my Dad can get some use out of it this winter.

I’m also about to start on the marsupial pouches to send to WIRE in Australia. I plan to make three of them, with cotton liners, before the end of January.

Crocheted pouch patterns – https://www.facebook.com/rubylovesbrains/photos/pcb.10159191872638032/10159191871513032/?type=3&theater

Knitted pouch pattern – https://www.wires.org.au/wildlife-info/wildlife-factsheets/making-possum-pouches

Sewn cotton liners – https://www.wires.org.au/wildlife-info/wildlife-factsheets/making-possum-pouches

Birds’ nest pattern - https://www.wires.org.au/wildlife-info/wildlife-factsheets/making-wildlife-nests

If you are unable to create something but want to help in some way, donations are also being accepted by WIRES (Wildlife Rescue (link)).

All donated items should be sent to Jacqui Fink, who is matching items up with the volunteers animal carers and organisations who need them. Her details are:

Jacqui Fink
PO Box 126,
Balgowlah NSW 2093
Australia

ARRINGAH MALL

NSW 2100

5 – Feeding the Habit

I have managed my six months of no yarn buying (this excludes yarn that I needed to buy for designs and the yarn dyeing workshop that I did). I was giving myself until the beginning of January to see if any yarn took my fancy, but I haven’t seen anything. That said, I was given three sets from Matthew for Christmas. I do have my eye on some yarn, but it isn’t available until the end of January, so my plan is to start another six-month yarn ban from the beginning of February.

Here are my Christmas pressies.

Three skeins of Autumn in colour Narcissus from Freehold Yarn Company (link). I asked for this because I already had a skein of the mustard and a skein of the grey in my stash and wanted more to make a jumper – also, it was 40% off. It’s a fingering weight yarn (385m per 100g) and a blend of 25% Gotland and 75% Bluefaced Leicester.

ALT TEXT: cream background with three skeins of sunshine, mustard coloured yarn and white label.

Eight skeins of Tuku Wool (link) in colour H22 Valo. It’s a fingering weight yarn (195m per 50g) and 100% Finish wool. This was also from Freehold Yarn Company and was 40%.

ALT TEXT: cream background with seven, 50g skeins of greeny mustard lying vertically and one skein lying on top diagonally. The yarn looks woolly and is heathered with green and mustard colours.

Six skeins of Erika Knight British Blue 100 (link) which is a DK weight yarn ( 220m per 100g) and 100% British grown and spun Bluefaced Leicester. The colourway is called Mrs Dalloway. This was a last-minute addition because a local garden centre was selling off their Erika Knight stocks at 50% off, so £6.50 per skein. More skeins were bought to make Matthew a jumper too.

ALT TEXT: cream background with two skeins of plum – proper mustard, squishy wool with a kraft paper label.

I also received a skein of variegated yarn as a present from my friend Charlie. It is the colourway Exposed Steel by Gilly at Fjord Fibres (link). I really love crocheting and knitting with Gilly’s yarn – it’s really plump and warm. 80% Norwegian wool and 20% nylon – 350m per 100g.

ALT TEXT - cream background with a variegated skein of plump yarn. It is green, grey, yellow, brown, orange and utterly gorgeous.

6 - Ask me anything

As we are at Episode 50 of the podcast (woohoo) and I said that if you had any questions to ask, then I would answer them, so here you are:

Ally asked - I know you left your job to start your business but what made you decide to design as well as running the business? Did you do any training/reading/workshops, etc before doing your first pattern?

Pretty much as soon as I picked up a hook, I was designing my own items, even if it was just crocheting a cowl with a stitch pattern. It sounds a bit cheesy, but it was like I finally found my creative calling. Prior to crocheting, I wouldn’t have called myself a creative person at all. Crochet is what helped me understand that creativity isn’t just about being and to draw or write or play an instrument. Crafting opened up a whole new part of my life and creativity just keeps on pouring in.

Fiona asked - When it is suggested you alternate skeins of hand-dyed yarn does it mean every 2 rows or how many? Does that mean extra ends to sew in too?

Personally, if it was something worked in rows then I would do alternate every two rows so that there were no extra ends to weave in. If I was working in rounds, I would change every round to really blend the skeins.

Claudia asked:

What is your goal - where do you see your business in five years time?

I would love my designs to have more prominence. It’s really hard to get your designs seen and to become well known in the world of crochet and knitting.

I would also like to be in a position to support other new designers. This is something that I am working towards now, but I think one of my skills is in pulling people together to move crochet forward as a craft.

Do you think that Brexit will have an impact on your business and if so - in which way?

Most of my customers are UK based and I try to buy in as much stock as possible from the UK or make it myself, so I’m not seeing a massive impact at the moment. I know that there has been an increase in some of my raw materials that come from the EU which isn’t great. I suspect that there is a tightening of belts for UK citizens which isn’t great for our economy in general. However, there is an increase in the number of people crafting because it’s a skills-based hobby that is seen as useful and value for money. Interest in crochet, in particular, is on the up.

Do you have many friends in your local area you can meet up with and knit/crochet together?

Do you know that saying “if you want something doing, ask a busy person”? Well, I also run a fortnightly craft group called Woolgathering Sandbach. It has been going for four years now and we have a lovely group that meets up.

I’m also beginning to work on another crafting meet-up with my friend Bec. The plan is to offer a meet up just south of Manchester a few times a year so that we can increase the number fo crafters meeting up in our part of the UK.

Let’s not forget the Global Hook Ups too, where I et to meet with crafters from Russia, Australia, Germany, France, Scotland…

Why did you leave Scotland and would you ever like to move back and live there?

I had to leave to get a job associated with my degree. The expectation was that I would have to do voluntary work to be able to get a conservation job in Scotland and I couldn’t see why after five years of further education, I shouldn’t be paid for my expertise. I moved to England to have a job interview and became the Compost Development Officer for Oxfordshire County Council.

I don’t ever imagine going back to Scotland. I suspect that our next move will be to North Devon!

What other things - aside from yarn - are you passionate about? Which of your other talents would you like to develop more in future?

Cooking! I love food and finding new ingredients. At one point, I was actually working towards running a charcuterie company. Then I started crocheting and decided it was a safer bet than charcuterie. I love the idea of crocheting a garment from shearing to hook and also learning to weave. I basically want to learn all the crafts.

Corrine asked - What’s your naughtiest yarn-based project/ story?!

I think I would probably have to hark back to a time when we had a fair bit more money coming into our household. Matthew had bandmates staying to write and record an entire album in one weekend.

I was basically banished to the bedroom whenever I was in the house and by Sunday lunchtime, I had had enough. I basically surfed all the big yarn websites and pulled together a very large basket of goodies. The more frustrated I got, the better the yarns got. Needless to say, I have some very lovely cashmere in my stash that Matthew bought me to ease my pain over that weekend!

7 – Quick News Beats

1 - Global Hook Up – The January hook ups are on:

Saturday 25^th at 8 pm (GMT) and Sunday 26^th at 9 am GMT.

The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here: https://www.zoom.us/join

2 – I have had my first ever pattern printed in a crochet magazine! Basalt has been printed in Inside Crochet. I really like the team at Inside Crochet, so it wasn’t exactly a hard decision when they asked if they could use the pattern for the magazine. It’s in issue 121, which came out on the 19^{th of} December.

3 – My company name has changed from KNIT IT – HOOK IT – CRAFT IT to Provenance Craft Co. You may have seen some of my details change over on Instagram and across other social media. This is what the new logo looks like:

I’ll be back on February 7th 2020. Have a fab festive season!

Fay x

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December 6, 2019 @ 10:17 am

Episode 49 - My kind of rainbow

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 49 – My kind of rainbow

In this episode, I cover Old Dog New Tricks; WIP RIP 2019; Final Destination; En Route; Quick News Beats; Big Up and J’adore.

This podcast is sponsored by

KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT

If you would like to support the podcast, you can now do that through my new Ko-fi account, just click on the image, or follow this link: https://ko-fi.com/crochetcirclepodcast

1 – Old Dog New Tricks

I have a couple of things for you this month.

The first is a great way of getting accurate charts for your colourwork crochet designs. This trick came about because Claudia mentioned in a Global Hook Up that she wanted to be able to take motifs and recreate them in crochet. By inputting your swatch gauge into this website (link) you can get gauge specific graph paper which you can then colour in with your motif. This will help to ensure that your motif will easily convert to crochet stitches and look great when you have hooked it up.

The second one comes from a really good discussion in the Saturday night Global Hook Up on size inclusivity. When uploading garment projects onto Ravelry, I have been guilty of just adding ‘me’ to the box about who it is being made for. It hadn’t dawned on me that it would actually be helpful to give my measurements so that other makers could assess the size I made against my measurements.

I’m not a massive fan of having my photo taken, so I’m going to get over myself and start uploading more photos of me in my FOs so that others can see how the size I made looks on my body shape. If you are also making garments, I encourage you to do this too if you can. I often refer back to other people’s projects to see what the sizing and fit are like.

One of the things I would like to introduce in 2020 is tips from the Crochet Clan. Beyond continuing to share what I have learned in the previous month, I would also like to share your top crochet or yarn tips. Because these are a bit more involved it would be easier for me to get these via Ravelry or my email address. So, I have started a new thread on Ravelry called Old Dog New Tricks and you can add your tips to that thread. If you prefer, you can email me (fay@knitit-hookit-craftit.com).

Each month, I will feature a tip from a member of our community so that we are all learning from each other and we continue the Crochet Clan spirit that our podcast is known for.

2 – CAL Updates

#wiprip2019

The #wiprip2019 I am co-hosting with Sophie from A Spring Snowflake Podcast (link) is in full swing.

You have from now until midnight on the 31^st December to finish up or rip out some or all of your WIPs so that you go into the New Year with fewer projects.

On Instagram, you can use #wiprip2019 for chatter and #wiprip2019FO to show off your finished or frogged projects.

Go to Sophie’s Ravelry group for chatter and the Crochet Circle Podcast group for the FO thread.

Come and join us and together, let’s carry fewer projects into 2020.

One Skein Wonderland CAL

I was asked whether we were doing the One Skein Wonderland CAL again and I figured why not? My plan is to make this very informal and just a lovely way of us all connecting together during the festive season and throughout January.

You can start any, one skein crafting project from the 24^th December onwards.

3 – Final Destination

I have finished my Bark Sweater by Sidsel Sangild (link). I’m used a 5mm hook and a sportweight Romney/Merino d’Arles blend from John Arbon Textiles. This wool was a show special and is no longer available.

It was really quick to work up because of the hook size and use of chains to create a sort of lace pattern. I made some changes to the pattern and have added these details to my project page on Ravelry. Look for a pattern called “Romney Bark Jumper”. What I would say is that this isn’t a size-inclusive pattern by any stretch of the imagination. It covers small and large. However, because of the pattern repeats, you can make it bigger or smaller, but you would have to do the maths yourself.

I have also finished three shawls for my latest design. But, more on that in the future, other than to show you how the different weights are working up.

ALT TEXT: Black background with the corners of four shawls coming in from the left. The bottom is a duck egg light blue version on heavy laceweight, the next up is a salmon pink version in 4ply, then a mid-blue version in DK and finally a biscuit brown version in Aran. With each shawl, you can see a defined stitch pattern and the use of filet crochet to create latticed areas. Each of the four yarns is from John Arbon Textiles (link).

4 – En Route

I am slap-bang in the middle of a laceweight version of my latest design, so that’s taking a while! You can see it in the photo above.

I do have a project that I am just about to start though. I was alerted to the plight of the animals that have been affected by the huge expanses of land that have been burning in Australia. The fires have particularly affected Koala habitats and crocheted pouches are needed for joeys, possums and wombats.

Podcast friend Mara, has created a PDF pattern on how to crochet up pouches. You can also knit them and the wildlife charities are also in desperate need of sewn cotton liners for inside the pouches. Don’t worry if you think that it will take you a while to crochet up some pouches. There is an ongoing need for crocheted or knitted pouches, liners and birds’ nests. They do need natural fibres such as wool or cotton to be used. No acrylics and no blends because they aren’t breathable and so can’t be used.

I was looking for a charity that I could make for during the festive season and I hope to crochet quite a few pouches. For each pouch, I also want to make 6 cotton liners because they get changed regularly throughout the day.

Crocheted pouch patterns – https://www.facebook.com/rubylovesbrains/photos/pcb.10159191872638032/10159191871513032/?type=3&theater

Knitted pouch pattern – https://www.wires.org.au/wildlife-info/wildlife-factsheets/making-possum-pouches

Sewn cotton liners – https://www.wires.org.au/wildlife-info/wildlife-factsheets/making-possum-pouches

Birds’ nest pattern - https://www.wires.org.au/wildlife-info/wildlife-factsheets/making-wildlife-nests

If you are unable to create something but want to help in some way, donations are also being accepted by WIRES (Wildlife Rescue (link)).

All donated items should be sent to Jacqui Fink, who is matching items up with the volunteers animal carers and organisations who need them. Her details are:

Jacqui Fink
PO Box 126,
Balgowlah NSW 2093
Australia

ARRINGAH MALL

NSW 2100

I have also been working on a knitted jumper called Strandir by Hulda Hákonardóttir (link). I am using Icelandic yarn from Alafoss. The 'Light Ash' coloured Plotulopi wool comes in plates (link) and I am using Einband wool that was naturally dyed by Hespa for the contrast (link) and is a blue/green colour.

ALT TEXT: Black background with my folded up version of Strandir jumper. The main body is in a very light heathered grey colour and it has contrast bubbles at the cuffs and neckline in a blue/grey. To the right is a leftover plate of Plotulopi with a broken strand to show how friable the wool roving is.

5 – Feeding the Habit

I have some yarn to share with you! For the first time ever, I found indie acid-dyed yarn in Iceland. By chance, I came across a yarn shop in Selfoss and there was a small amount of yarn from ‘From the Shire’ yarns (link). I bought a couple of skeins of a colourway that reminded me of my trip – basically snow, yellow snow poles and tarmac. These skeins are destined to become part of a design. The colourway is Betri Helmingurinn and it’s 75% SW Merino and 25% nylon 100g/425m.

Last weekend I was haring around the country doing various yarny things. On Saturday I went down to an event in Bristol called Flock. It is arranged by the husband and wife team that is Claire and Jonathan of BirdStreetUK/Mr. b yarns (link).

It’s a lovely gathering of knitters and crocheters in a community hall. People go there to craft together and purchase from the pop-up shops. You can usually buy Mr.b yarns there and Claire’s project bags and they invite another company from the yarn industry to come and join them for a trunk show. This time, Rachael from Cat and Sparrow Yarns (link) was there.

I bought two skeins if her Sweater Weather DK wool in colourway Grape. It’s a gorgeous blend of 75% BFL and 25% Masham. I have used this blend before in a 4 ply weight and it’s beautiful to crochet with. The yarn is 240m/100g and really squishy.

ALT TEXT: Black background with the bottom of two skeins of very plump and squishy wool. The skeins are both a semi-solid purple colour with a very obvious and lovely twist to the yarn.

On Sunday I headed over to the RiverKnits studio (link) for a yarn dyeing workshop. I had so much fun! The workshop was all about mixing colours and having a rainbow of 12 mini skeins at the end of it. Of course, I wanted a dirty rainbow – I am definitely not of the pastels persuasion! We had a really lovely group of five of us and all came out with different strengths of rainbow minis.

ALT TEXT: A group of five women proudly show off their rainbow mini skeins. Each is different, ranging from extremely bright to mucky rainbows and almost everything in-between. We are all wearing lots of woollies because it was chilly.

ALT TEXT: Black background with a rainbow of twelve mini skeins hanging from a twig. From L-R the colours are bluey purple, indigo blue, teal, jade green, moss green, poppy lime green, dirty mustard, orangey-brown, rusty fox, warm red, pinky-red and pinky purple.

I am very pleased with mine, especially the Rusty Fox colour that I was determined to create. I’m not sure what I am going to design with it yet, but they are going to be paired with a stormy grey to make a crochet design.

The workshop was a little treat for another year of podcasting, running the shop and designing. I already had a healthy level of respect for the dyers that I consider to be true artists. After the workshop, that respect increased massively – it’s really difficult to get to the colours you have in your head.

Becci and Markus will be running more workshops in 2020, so if you are interested in going to one, sign up to the newsletter on their website because that is where you will hear about it first.

6 – Quick News Beats

1 - Global Hook Up – There will be more than two Hook Ups in December:

Saturday 14^th at 8 pm (GMT) and Sunday 15^th at 9 am GMT.

Wednesday 25^th December from 11 am until 2 pm (GMT) and Thursday 26^th from 9 am until 12 pm (GMT).

The Christmas Day and Boxing Day sessions have been added because I know that some of you are looking forward to a festive Hook Up. I will be there at the start of the session and then might dip in and out. Each session will go on for three hours and other folks will likely come in and out during that time.

The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here: https://www.zoom.us/join

2 – The next podcast is episode 50! I am delighted to have been podcasting for this long and to have consistently put a podcast out on the first Friday for that long.

To mark the fact that it’s episode 50, I wondered about introducing a new topic just for this podcast. The idea is that you can ask me any questions and I will give you the answer in Episode 50. If you like the idea and want to ask a question, you can leave a question in the YouTube dropdown box or in Podbean, or leave a question in the Instagram grid story for Episode 49 (this is easier for me to find than you sending me a dm).

It doesn’t matter if there aren’t any questions, I will be recording a podcast anyway.

3 – I have now added all of my electronic patterns (crochet UK terminology, crochet US terminology and knitting) to my Etsy shop FayDHDesigns (link). This means that all of my patterns are now available on Ravelry (link), Etsy and from my shop website (link).

7 - J’adore

This can only really be about my trip to Iceland. I had a great time with my Dad. We stayed in four different locations and did a lot of travelling, moving from the SW corner all the way to the East and then up to the North and back again for our flight back.

You can see snapshots of my trip on the grid on Instagram as I crocheted my way across the island.

Iceland is an amazing country to visit and if you are thinking about going there, I thoroughly encourage you to go to some of the places that are beyond the usual Golden Circle tourist route – there is so much more to the country.

I particularly enjoyed when we happened across a herd of reindeer up in the mountain pass as we were driving north. They were magical to watch, as were the moonrises and sunsets.

Also, my Dad has asked me to knit him an Icelandic yoked jumper. He chose the wool while we were out there and I have already made a start on it. I’ll show it off more in the January podcast.

I’ll be back on January 3^rd 2020. Have a fab festive season!

Fay x

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November 1, 2019 @ 9:12 am

Episode 48 - Barking up the right tree

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 48 – Barking up the Right Tree

In this episode, I cover Losing your Cro-jo; WIP RIP 2019; Final Destination; En Route; Quick News Beats; Big Up and J’adore.

This podcast is sponsored by

KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT

If you would like to support the podcast, you can now do that through my new Ko-fi account, just click on the image, or follow this link: https://ko-fi.com/crochetcirclepodcast

This podcast is also a supporter of BIPOC in Fibre, a group of amazing people that set up a crowdfunding project to create a website/project to "become a vital, interactive resource that will increase the profiles of all the BIPOC makers listed and show the true diversity that exists in our community." If you would also like to support the project, you can do so by clicking here.

1 – Cro-jo

I popped some questions up onto a post on Instagram. I was curious to know what made people lose their crochet mojo and what they have done to get it back.

I deliberately asked the question in October because I suspected that the pressure of making crocheted/crafted presents for a Christmas deadline would be one of the main reasons. I wasn’t wrong.

Thank you to everyone that came back to tell me their stories. I have compiled them into categories and listed them out below. If you want to read some wider thinking around this topic, I created a ‘Lost your crojo’ blog post on it (link).

The main reasons for people losing their love of crochet or crafting were:

Current skill levels don’t match what they want the finished object to look like or stops them from tackling next level patterns.
Deadline crocheting – particularly for Christmas or teacher presents.
Summer months – either too hot or you are off doing other things because of the daylight.
Too many WIPs.
Big life changes such as births, deaths, weddings, house moves, relationship issues, country moves.
Projects that are in the naughty corner because something needs to be fixed, there are long, boring sections or the project just overall feels like a chore!
Being new to the craft and not yet knowing what you like to make.

Here are some of the suggestions for how to get your crojo back:

If you are on Instagram, look up crochet related hashtags to get inspiration and see what others are up making. Try searching for crochet in different languages such as 'haken' so that you see what is popular in different parts of the world.
Choose a really quick project that you can finish in one sitting. The dopamine hit that you get from finishing a project shouldn't be underestimated.
Look back at your Ravelry project pages or go through your handmade wardrobe. Remind your self of all the beautiful things you have made and how far you have developed your skills.
Have a selection of WIPs. One for quiet times that needs a bit of concentration, one for watching the TV or reading that requires very little concentration and one the will fly off your hook so that your brain gets that dopamine hit.
Do just a couple of rows. Even one stitch is one stitch further...

In the blog post, I also talk through my Worthy Decision Ladder which helps me work through who I spend my precious making time on.

2 – CAL Updates

The #wiprip2019 I am co-hosting with Sophie from A Spring Snowflake Podcast (link) is in full swing.

You have from now until midnight on the 31^st December to finish up or rip out some or all of your WIPs so that you go into the New Year with fewer projects.

On Instagram, you can use #wiprip2019 for chatter and #wiprip2019FO to show off your finished or frogged projects.

Go to Sophie’s Ravelry group for chatter and the Crochet Circle Podcast group for the FO thread.

Come and join us and let’s carry fewer projects into 2020.

3 – Final Destination

My monogamous crafting is continuing! Whilst it means that I don’t have as much to talk about on the podcast month by month, what it actually means is that I get projects finished and I’m not building up piles of WIPs.

I have a couple of finished objects to show off. The first was a really quick make – a crocheted headband, ready for my impending trip to Iceland. The pattern is by Ami from Hook of Love (link to Ravelry and link to her website) and it’s called “Minta Hat Headband Earwarmer”.

It needed just 35g of an aran/worsted weight yarn and a 6mm hook. I chose some Brigantia Luxury Aran from my stash in colourway 4c4. It’s 100% British wool, spun in Yorkshire and 140m/100g. Sadly, Brigantia wool is no longer available to buy.

ALT TEXT Photo 1: grey background with a folded piece of checked woven cashmere top left, a cake of aran weight wool top right, pink 6mm crochet hook and a crocheted headband showing back loop only dc (sc in US) squish. The wool and headband are in a scarlet/cranberry red colour.

Photo 2: Blue background with a photo of a crocheted tank top design with open ace work in a green/yellow under a blue and white checked shirt. To the right is the slide title "Another of Ami's designs" in a bold white font.

My second thing off the hook is my Mya Shawl by Helda Penagary (link). The yarn is ‘Pisces’ Yak Single Ply by Cosmic Strings (the dyers are Phu and Bea (link)) as the main skein and some Rico mohair as the dark grey background colour. I extended the width of the shawl, changed the row count and blocked it aggressively to get the width that I wanted. If you want to see what I did, full details are in my “Sythermort Shawl” project notes on Ravelry. I am also entering it into Clarisabeth’s (Crochet Cakes podcast) Mischief Managed CAL (link) which finished on 31^st October.

ALT TEXT: Two photos on one slide showing the same version of the Mya Shawl. The shawl is on a mannequin and is crocheted using a dark grey laceweight mohair with alternating stripes of a bright teal/turquoise 4 ply yarn. The stripes are quite thin and there are 50 in total, shown off nicely in the triangular-shaped shawl.

4 – En Route

In just four short days I have managed to progress really well with my Bark Sweater by Sidsel Sangild (link). I’m using a 5mm hook and a sportweight Romney/Corriedale blend from John Arbon Textiles. This wool was a show special for Edinburgh Yarn Festival and is no longer available.

It’s really quick to work up because of the hook size and use of chains to create a sort of lace pattern. I suspect this will be finished by the end of this weekend and will be going straight into my suitcase for Iceland.

ALT TEXT Photo 1: Dark grey background with the beginnings of my Bark Sweater laid out with the 5mm hook and cake of wool. The wool is a natural brown/grey colour and the pattern and texture of the crochet pattern is very obvious. The use of front post treble stitches and chains create an ovate leaf shape throughout the jumper.

Photo 2: Blue background with a photo of the designer Sidsel Sangild. Sidsel is in front of a dusky pink wall wearing a grey v-neck jumper and holding her right hand up in the air. To the right is the slide title "This is Sidsel" in a bold white font.

I have made some changes to the pattern (I can’t help myself) and will be adding these details to my project page on Ravelry. Look for a pattern called “Romney Bark Jumper”. What I would say is that this isn’t a size-inclusive pattern by any stretch of the imagination. It covers small and large. However, because of the pattern repeats, you can make it bigger or smaller, but you would have to do the maths yourself (I have added some guidance on this).

In my project notes I have also added how you can create an invisible round join and new round start. In the picture below you would be hard pushed to see where the rounds end and start.

ALT TEXT: close up of my Bark jumper showing off how invisible the round joins and starts are.

5 – Feeding the Habit

I have nothing to show you under Feeding the Habit. Matthew has bought me wool for my Christmas present but that has already gone into hiding and I will share it with you in the January 2020 podcast.

6 – Quick News Beats

1 - Global Hook Up – I have set the dates for the next few months and will stick to the 8 pm GMT/BST on a Saturday night and 9 am GMT on a Sunday morning.

The details for the next sessions are already up in the Ravelry thread, can also be found below and will be put out on Instagram in advance.

The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here: https://www.zoom.us/join

November - Saturday 23^rd and Sunday 24^th

December - Saturday 14^th and Sunday 15^th

2 – I had three kilted bear pins from Bernie at Bear in Sheep’s Clothing (link). These pins are made in the UK and I love them.

The winners are:

Instagram – theartsypescatarian

Podbean – marikaisa01

YouTube – Ana Bernardino

7 - J’adore

I have been beavering away on my knitted sock designs and needed something on in the background to keep me company. I love the Great British Bake Off and a friend introduced me to the Great Australian Bake Off. I am loving it.

The bakers are so talented and I really enjoy the Australian sense of humour too. They are even allowed to swear – you didn’t get that with the BBC!

Do other countries get their own version of Bake Off? I need to know because I am fast running out of GABO episodes to consume.

8 – Big Up

Much love to everyone that took the time to answer my questions on crojo over on Instagram. The input from the Crochet Clan can’t be underestimated because learning from your experiences allows me to gain greater knowledge and pull together better-informed blog posts to share with the wider community.

I had to recently attribute some words to what I think my role is with this podcast and I chose “thought leader”. I know that sounds a bit business and jargon-heavy, but what I’m trying to create is a podcast that is hopefully fun and informative. I would love new crocheters to come across the podcast in 10 or 20 years time and for it to still bring value to them. So thank you for being part of that process!

I’ll be back on December 6^th.

Fay x

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October 4, 2019 @ 9:01 am

Episode 47 - Tardy

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 47 – Tardy

In this episode, I cover Old Dog New Tricks; Final Destination; En Route; Feeding the habit; Quick News Beats; Big Up and J’adore.

This podcast is sponsored by

KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT

If you would like to support the podcast, you can now do that through my new Ko-fi account, just click on the image, or follow this link: https://ko-fi.com/crochetcirclepodcast

1 – Old Dog New Tricks

I have a quick Ravelry tip for you this month. This feature has always existed, but the good folk at Ravelry have now spruced up the feature a little to make the suggestions more prominent.

If you have a favourite designer that you like and a favourite design of theirs, click into that pattern page and on the right-hand side, at the bottom of the page you will see thumbnails of suggestions for other, similar patterns and a link for “More that people also like…” which takes you through to lots of other pattern suggestions.

I think this is a really great way to search for patterns and come across new, smaller designers that may struggle to get known.

Photo: Shows the Ravelry screen having searched for my Criss-cross pattern.

Photo: At the bottom right-hand side some thumbnails will appear showing alternative patterns.

Photo: By clicking through to more suggestions, you will see a page of other suggested patterns that have been favourited.

2 – CAL Updates

This podcast is titled “Tardy” because that is what I have been! If you aren’t familiar with the word, it means delaying or delayed beyond the right or expected time. About 12 months ago I was running the #sockalong2018 and 11 months ago I should have drawn for prizes from Instagram and the FO thread that was hosted in Kathryn from Crafternoon Treats podcast group on Ravelry.

About three months ago I found the prizes in my Stash Palace and figured I may as well wait and mark the occasion a full tardy twelve months later!

So, if you have won a prize, I have already been in touch with you. On Instagram, the winners were @yarn.adventurous and @fizzcrail. Over on Ravelry, the random number generator picked Woolwoman2k8, NinaCamilleri and Stasiacrochet.

Sorry, it has taken me this long to do the prize draw, it very much speaks to the reason why I haven’t been doing CALs this year.

That said, I am co-hosting a #wiprip2019 with Sophie from A Spring Snowflake Podcast (link) albeit, Sophie is doing most of the work because she is hosting the chatter thread over on her Ravelry Group Page.

The whole idea is that you have from now until midnight on the 31^st December to finish up or rip out some or all of your WIPs so that you go into the New Year with fewer projects.

On Instagram, you can use #wiprip2019 for chatter and #wiprip2019FO to show off your finished or frogged projects.

Go to Sophie’s Ravelry group for chatter and I will open and host the FO thread.

From my end, these are the projects that I will be finishing up:

1 – Chapman Socks (knitted)

2 – Verity Vest (crochet)

3 – Anything else I have started and need to finish

I have less to go through because I have been trying to be quite a monogamous crafter over the last few months, but there may be projects lurking that need to be sorted out!

Come and join us and let’s carry fewer projects into 2020.

3 – Final Destination

Okay, so whilst I don’t have any finished crochet objects that I can show you, I do actually have some knitted ones. This month I finished off two commission projects for a yarn company, but I won’t be able to show them off properly until well into next year.

However, I have been finishing up a load of knitted socks. I quite often have a sock on the go because I leave them in yarn bowls when I am at shows to show off their potential and also to talk through my sock patterns.

Now, instead of three single socks, I have three pairs all finished and ready to wear this winter.

ALT TEXT: Three socks on a grey background. Left is a striped sock in light grey, forest green, bright green, purple, steel blue and hot pink. The middle sock is also striped and is a dark rusty copper and dark verdigris colour. The sock on the right is cream with blips of brown, yellow, peach and blue. This sock has a contrast cuff, heel and toe in soft peachy pink.

The colourful striped socks are in John Arbon Textiles Exmoor Sock Yarn (link). I was using up the ends from my Kinbaine shawl (link) and Acanthium Mittens (link). The pattern is my own and it’s called Mini Mania (link).

The copper and green Mini Mania socks are also in John Arbon Textiles Exmoor Sock Yarn but were dyed up by RiverKnits and the colours are no longer available.

The beautiful speckled pastel socks are the Pebbles and Pathways pattern by Marceline Smith (link). In the pattern, Marce encourages you to go your own way and add your own elements and I definitely did that – mine are cuff down and I added all sorts of extra bits! The main colour is ‘Orchard’ by Bernie at Bear in Sheep’s Clothing (link) and is 100% Corriedale with no nylon or superwash. I will be reporting back on how well these wear. The contrast colour was an unnamed mini by Desiree at Abercairn Yarns (link) and I think is 75% Merino and 25% nylon.

I also attended an eco-printing workshop at my local Weavers, Spinners and Dyers Guild. You place leaves and flowers on pre-mordanted material, roll it up and steam it. This sets the vegetation print onto the material with varying results and takes a lot of trial and error. The below photos show some of the results I got.

If you are interested in the subject of Eco-Printing and creating plant-based inks, I have just listed a book in my shop by Babs Behan called "Botanical Inks" (link).

ALT TEXT: Collage of three photos. Left - a square of undyed silk with Japanese Maple, ferns and purple Heuchera leaves and flower stems laid out on a table. Below the silk is the broom handle that he silk will be rolled onto for steaming. Top right - cream wool fabric after steaming. Eucalyptus leaves have left a rust orange print from the eco-printing process. Bottom right - another sheet of silk with Japanese Maple and fern. The second half of the silk has been placed on top to create a 'ghost' print.

4 – En Route

The only project on my hook is the Mya Shawl by Helda Panagary (link). This is my entry into #RhineBIPOCSweater K/CAL – I can’t link to the bundle within Ravelry, but you can get details via Lady Dye’s Instagram post (link).

After a bit of fiddling around with hook sizes and the number of rows, I settled on using ‘Pisces’ by Cosmic Strings (the dyers are Phu and Bea (link)) as the main skein and some Rico mohair as the sort of background colour.

I had been hoping to finish this up and be wearing the shawl as I listened to Helda do her talk on ‘Being a Crochet Designer’ at Yarndale on Saturday. I didn’t quite manage it and settled instead for crocheting on it whilst she talked.

Had I just stuck to the pattern and not fiddled (I will never learn), then I would have had an FO. However, because I am doing 4 rows of mohair laceweight (100m per 100g) to 2 rows of 4ply, it’s taking a little longer. My plan is to use up all of the mohair, which I suspect will leave me with a little bit of the Cosmic Strings teal.

My reason for fiddling is a good one though. The pattern makes quite a deep, but short shawl and I have quite wide shoulders. By changing the number of row repeats, I am able to make a bigger shawl that will better fit my body shape.

I am calling it my Slythermort shawl and also entering it into Clarisabeth’s (Crochet Cakes podcast) Mischief Managed CAL (link). I have until the 31^st October to get this finished!

ALT TEXT: Image shows a dark background with a cake of a dark/dirty teal coloured yarn to the left and a flattened mohair cake of stormy grey yarn to the right. At the fore are a blue metal crochet hook and a striped shawl in the yarn.

5 – Feeding the Habit

Did I got to Yarndale and manage to not buy any yarn? Yup, yes I did! This is totally aided by the fact that I picked up two loads of yarn from vendors which is yarn support for my patterns.

So, what did I buy instead of yarn? I bought a knitted pattern book by Jimi Knits (link), some pin badges from Bear in Sheep's Clothing (link) and Nerdbird Makery (link) and a small sewn project bag by Border Tart (link).

ALT TEXT: grey background with Jimi Knits A4 pattern book to the left, linen project bag with sewn scraps of blue fabric overlapping the book. To the right are folds of soft cashmere tweed and in the fore are two pins on cards, one is the back of a polar bear wearing a kilt and the other is head and of a BIPOC knitter with yarn and knitting needles in her hair.

I’m not really missing buying yarn. I have so much in my stash and I am really enjoying shopping in my own Stash Palace and using up deep stash in particular.

6 – Quick News Beats

1 - Global Hook Up – I have set the dates for the next few months and will stick to the 8 pm GMT/BST on a Saturday night and 9 am GMT/BST on a Sunday morning.

The details for the next sessions are already up in the Ravelry thread, can also be found below and will be put out on Instagram in advance.

The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here: https://www.zoom.us/join

October - Saturday 19^th and Sunday 20^th

November - Saturday 23^rd and Sunday 24^th

December - Saturday 14^th and Sunday 15^th

2 – I promised in the last podcast that I would write a quick blog on what apps and podcasts I use to help to run my business. You can find that blogpost on my website (link).

3 – I had three copies of Eilidh’s print (link) to giveaway and the winners are:

Instagram – @craftybritabroad (Amy)

Podbean – Marce (BrownBerry Podcast)

YouTube – Patty Crochets

Well done everyone.

4 – I did the catwalk at Perth Festival of Yarn! It was a lot of fun and definitely showcased crocheted garments. However, I had an epic fail on getting photos or video footage. It was a lot of fun and luckily, Laura from The Lonely Knitter Podcast recorded it all, so you can see all of the lovely crocheted and knitted items that went down the Gala Dinner catwalk (link).

To celebrate the fact that I managed to finish my Blurred Lines jumper in time, I bought three kilted bear pins from Bernie at Bear in Sheep’s Clothing. These pins are made in the UK and I love them. I already own one that Bernie gave me at Perth and I thought some of you may want to try to win one too!

If you would like to be in with a chance of winning, leave a comment on the threads of this episode of YouTube, Podbean and/or Instagram. It’s open to everyone across the globe. I will draw winners just before I record the November podcast. Start your comment with “bare bear” so that I know you are entering to win. Why bare bear? Bears are true Scots – no knickers!

7 - J’adore

I had an absolute ball at Yarndale. I went with a bunch of friends, we laughed, wore pyjamas for most of the weekend, drank gin and generally had a great time.

I met lots of my lovely yarn colleagues and friends and made new friends. Plans have been hatched, new business ideas have formed and 2020 is shaping up rather nicely.

My sleeves are bulging with all of the ideas, projects, interviews and designs that I want to do in the coming months.

8 – Big Up

I already mentioned that I went to see Helda give her talk at Yarndale on being a crochet designer. Before she started her talk, she was nervous and had no reason to be. Her talk was genuine, from the heart and fab! Big Up Helda you were great!

Fay x

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