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

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; Feeding the habit; Quick News Beats; Big Up and J’adore.

This podcast is sponsored by

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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.

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

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.

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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September 6, 2019 @ 7:39 am

Episode 46 - Tipsy Crocheting

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 46 – Tipsy Crocheting!

In this episode, I cover Old Dog new tricks; Final Destination; En Route; Feeding the habit; Quick News Beats 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 two quickie tricks for you this month:

1 – Here is a neat little trick I learned from watching yarn dyers at work. Have ever popped a skein of yarn onto a swift to cake up and as you start to form the cake, it snags, isn’t as smooth as it is should be and create a tighter tension in your cake than needed? There is a very simple way around this and it involves what I can only describe as ‘snapping’ your yarn.

Once you have opened up the skein and ensured that the strands are flowing the right way, put both hands into the skein, using your upright thumbs to keep the skein on your hand, ‘snap’ the skein outwards. This will help to realign the strands back to the way they were initially wound back in the factory. This realignment makes it easy to get the skein onto your swift and should lead to tangle-free, even tension cakes of yarn.

2 – If you find yourself short of a locking stitch marker and desperately need to hold a stitch, check your hair. I found myself in desperate need of a cable needle the other evening and really could not be bothered to go downstairs for it. Instead, I used a Kirby grip/bobby pin that was in my hair. It did the job perfectly and is great for securing stitches and being lazy!

2 – Final Destination

Sound the trumpets! I have finished my Blurred Lines by Deanne at Addydae Designs (link). As I record this podcast, it is Wednesday the 4^th September and I am due to wear the jumper down the runway at Perth Festival of Yarn on Saturday (I will pop some pics up on Instagram Stories (@crochet_circle_podcast) if you want to see what goes down).

I have added full project notes on Ravelry, so you can see any changes I have made. I just need to add some final photos.

ALT TEXT: Fay stands in her dining room, in front of an open fireplace with a small table and lamp to the left. She is looking down with hands in pockets, wearing jeans and her newly finished Blurred Lines Jumper which is a grey/teal blue main colour (top and bottom) with a middle variegated section in cream/pink with little pops of yellow, teal and blue.

I also have a couple of little things that I have crocheted up. These are samples for the online shop and for shows. I have started selling craft books, but only wish to sell ones that I have worked from personally and can therefore recommend. It’s not about fads, it’s about well-written books and patterns.

I finally managed to make something from my Crocheted Succulents book by Emma Varnam (link). I had this book on pre-order last year but just couldn’t find a window of time to make something from it. I crocheted up a Mexican Snowball succulent using 50g of Rowan cotton glace that I had in my stash. It was really easy to make, and the instructions were lovely and clean. It took me about 5 hours in total and I can see many more cacti and succulents in my future because I struggle to keep house plants alive!

ALT TEXT: Corner of the Crocheted Succulents book by Emma Varnam is in the bottom left. In the middle sits a white pottery reused candle holder with a sage green crocheted succulent (Mexican Snowball) on top. At the bottom of the pot lies a pink crochet hook, little worm of the left over sage green cotton and a pair of snips shaped and decorated to look like a crocodile.

Another book that has been sitting on my crafting shelves waiting for some attention is Laly Lalas Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies book (link). Of all of the gorgeous little creatures in this book, I chose to hook up a moth! I was working on the basis that this is the only moth that is actually allowed anywhere near my yarn! This took me about 7 hours to make and used up lots of little odds and ends of cotton from my stash.

ALT TEXT: Two images - both with very dark grey backgrounds. Image one shows the Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies book by Laly Lala. The front cover shows lots of crocheted bugs as examples and to the right of the book is the front of a moth I have crocheted up from the book. The moth has detachable wings and har with antennae. Image two is the back of the moth, which shows clearly that the top of the wings are off-white edged with grey cotton and the bottom is blue. The main moth body is a green/yellow and the hat id a mustard yellow.

It was really nice being able to quickly plough through a couple of crochet projects, even if they are small.

3 – My Life

This is not going to be a regular segment, but I thought I would just offer up a little slice of what this year has been like so far and how I dearly want the last three months to unfold.

Most of 2019 has been spent bombing up and down the UK road and ferry network, attending yarn shows all over the place. It had been a busy year so far which I love because I get to see so many of you Crochet Clanfolk and it really helps to put my business on the map!

The downside though is the impact that it has. I. Don’t. Stop.

If you have ever met me in real life, when you watch my face, you can literally see the cogs turning. Most conversations make neurons ping in my brain and the ideas flow immediately. My brain is always on, it is never quiet.

As you listen and watch this podcast I will be up at the Perth Festival of Yarn – my last yarn show of 2019! I am really excited to be vending at this show but if truthful, I am just as excited about life calming down a little. I am planning on having a relaxing week, next week after I have counted the stock back into the shop.

Relaxation for me means audiobooks or courses and sitting with my feet up, crafting. I may even set myself a little crochet goal. See what I mean? I have already set myself a goal for my time off! There is just no hope for me.

When you are driving and sitting on ferries you get a lot of time to think. My main focus for this year was ‘structure’ and I have done a lot around that for the business, podcast and design work this year which has really helped to streamline my work focus.

My recent motorway mile shave given me time to think about what I need to concentrate on in 2020. It feels like it will be a big year, even if it’s just because of the repetition of the numbers! My focus for 2020 is going to be around the word ‘centre’. It is ‘centre’ because “no” or “selfish” just felt too negative! So, my focus is about saying no to things that other people want me to do for them, so that I can say yes to the things that I need to do for myself. My problem is that I want to be helpful and supportive and therefore take on too much because I hate letting people down. So, by saying no and centring back to what I need for my business, my family and me personally.

Saying to something is never saying yes to just one thing because there are always mini-tasks that lead to that final completed yes. My theory is that saying no to one thing is actually more like saying no to ten mini-tasks, which frees up ten things that I can then do for me or my business. It’s not all about saying no, it’s also about focussing some time back to me and creating a strong personal core from which to work.

Would anyone find it useful for me to write a blog post on what software I use to help with this and what podcasts I listen to for business/creative inspiration? Ping me a message if it would be useful and I will pull something together.

So, if you need me in October, November, December 2019, I will be chilling a little, drinking more tea and hopefully doing a lot more crafting and designing.

4 – En Route

As I record this podcast, I have no crocheted project on the go. However, I have two that I want to start:

The first is the Mya Shawl by Helda Panagary (link). This is going to be 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). As for the yarn that I want to use, I think I am going to crochet the shawl with ‘Orion’ by Cosmic Strings (the dyers are Phu and Bea (link)) as the main skein. As you know, I am on a yarn ban until 21^st December, so I can’t buy any mohair which is what the pattern calls for. Instead, I took to my stash (deeeeep stash) and found some Rico mohair that I can use instead. Whilst this isn’t strictly within the parameters of the CAL, I’m not going to break my yarn ban when I already own something suitable!

ALT TEXT: Image one shows crochet designer, Helda Panagary standing side on in front of cream tiles, holding a ball of dark arn in her left hand and a crochet hook in her right. Helda looks beautiful long dark hair that curls at the bottom. Image two shows a dark background with a skein of a dark/dirty teal coloured yarn to the left (ball band reads 'Cosmic Strings' and two flattened mohair cakes of yarn piled to the right. These are is a very stormy grey colour.

ALT TEXT: Image three shows the same model twice, (Back and front), showing off Helda's Mya Shawl. It is triangular and shows subtle stripes in pinks where different yarn blends have been used. Each corner has a corresponding tastle.

I am off to Yarndale the last week of September and have a ticket to see Helda talk on Saturday afternoon. I would love to be wearing my version of Helda’s Mya Shawl when I sit and listen to her talk on life as a crochet designer.

The second is the Bark Sweater by Sidsel Sangild (link). I will be using John Arbon Textiles British Breeds 80% Romney/20% Corriedale blend and a 5mm hook. I can’t link to the wool because it was a special and only available to Mill Members on their website. I have a ridiculous self-imposed goal that maybe I could be wearing this at Yarndale too…

If I whizz through that, then I will also try to work up Claudia’s Encanto Wrap (link) which is her first-ever design!

ALT TEXT - A split image showing a very smiley Claudia from Crochet Luna on the left, wearing her first design around her neck. The textured wrap shows stripes fo bright green and purple leading up to her neck and a more solid purple around her neck. The second side of teh image shows the wrap on a mannequin that has a black dress on.

5 – Feeding the Habit

Still no stash additions and my Solstice to Solstice yarn ban is going well. I am still tempted by things but have managed to just say no!

There have been other things though:

Last month I showed off a lovely print that I received in the post from Lorna (@neveratalooseend). It was done by her daughter Eilidh (@by.eilidh on Instagram) and I love her style. I contacted Eilidh to say that I wanted to buy some prints from her to pass to friends and unbeknown to me, some more just arrived in the post! Needless to say, when I see Lorna at Perth Festival of Yarn, I will be passing her money to pass to Eilidh so that I can properly purchase the prints. More on this in Quick Newsbeats.

I have started selling Yael’s crocheted necklaces in my online shop and at shows (link). Her work is beautiful and I want to be able to support a fellow crafter. Because Yael is naughty, she snuck a notions pouch into my order – and it’s beautiful. Yael also makes beautiful linen project bags and I encourage you to check out her Etsy shop (link).

ALT TEXT: Black background with a patchwork linen notions pouch in grey/browns, pink and a navy with white dashed fabric and pastel yellow zip to the top left. Colourful print to the right in purples and corals, saying "All wool is yarn but not all yarn is wool" on a scarf that is wrapped around fibre giving animals (bison/Alpaca/goat/sheep/rabbit). Two large paper clips with material covered tops to the bottom left. One has a black and white cat on the fabric and the other has the head of a sheep.

While I was vending at Yarnfolk in Northern Ireland, I met Jean and not only did she bring me a can of pop to keep me going in the afternoon, she also gave me two large fabric button clips. One has a sheep on it and the other a black cat – not unlike Pom! These are perfect for marking which page you are on in a pattern!

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

September - Saturday 14^th and Sunday 15^th – NOTE THAT THIS IS A DATE CHANGE!

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 – Over on Instagram, I was showing off a vegan soup I was making on Stories and some of you asked for the recipe. I have created a blog post for it (link) and it’s a really hearty spicy tomato soup that is made mainly from store cupboard ingredients.

3 – I have three copies of Eilidh’s print (link) that I want to give away. It looks beautiful framed (I have one up on my studio wall). To enter, simply respond on YouTube, comment in Podbean or on Instagram. I will draw one winner from each platform and get in touch with you to say that you have won.

4 – I still have an unclaimed prize of one of Deanne’s patterns. Angee Stitch 78 from YouTube, you were a winner but haven’t responded, so could you please get in touch to claim your prize.

5 – I always provide links within the show notes, but sometimes people struggle to find them. From this month onwards, anything that I talk about and provide a link for, just look for “link)” and that is where to click to get to the relevant web page.

7 - J’adore

There is a very definite Autumnal nip in the air. I can feel my hibernation senses tingling and I am excited about woolly socks, fires, endless cups of tea and lots of crafting.

As I said earlier, it has been a very long year so far and it’s time to take life down a few notches and recharge my batteries.

I love the excuse to snuggle up under a blanket with an audiobook and my crochet. Also, the colours of Autumn are my jam – I am so inspired by these few months of all things earthy!

I will be back on Friday the 4th of October.

Fay x

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August 2, 2019 @ 8:48 pm

Episode 45 - None (Yarn) Shall Pass

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 45 – None (Yarn) Shall Pass.

In this episode, I cover Old Dog new tricks; Perth Project Runway update; Final Destination; En Route; Feeding the habit; Quick News Beats 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 top on how to satiate that thirst to start a new project when you still have a bit to go on an existing project. Before you have finished the existing project, do the swatching and wet blocking for your new project. That way, if you have to play about with gauge, you have time to do that and hopefully be ready to start your new project the moment you have finished the other one.

2 – Perth Project Runway update

Progress is going really well on my Blurred Lines by Deanne at Addydae Designs. This is one of the best patterns I have ever worked from and the fit is really good, even though I came down to a 3mm hook.

I have been keeping my project notes up to date on Ravelry, so you can see any changes I have made.

I am currently working on the sleeves even though I haven’t yet finished the main body. I have chosen to do this because I have now finished using the contrast colour on the main body, which freed up the yarn to do the sleeves. I find it bulky and cumbersome to add sleeves when you have the near full weight of a jumper and you are constantly moving it about to complete the short rounds of the sleeves. So, I am doing the sleeves before I finish the rest of the body. This also means that I won’t be stranded on sleeve island!

The other thing I would like to highlight and encourage you to do is swatch with your different cakes of the same yarn. Even is the same colourway is from the same batch, there can still be differences. By swatching with all of them, you will quickly see if there is a difference and whether you need to alternate skeins in your project. This is particularly applicable to garment making.

As I mentioned in the podcast. there is a slight but noticeable difference between two of my contrast colour skeins and it seems very likely I will have to rip back about 350m of crochet.

Will this be finished for Perth Festival of Yarn? Hell yeah!

ALT TEXT: Blurred Lines jumper progress is shown on an old mannequin Semi tonal blue yarn with a real halo to it and it’s called ‘Sprucey Bonus’ because it is the colour of the underside of a Spruce Tree. It is paired with a yarn called ‘Sulk’ and is on an ecru pink base with small patches of teal blue, acid yellow, sea green and plummy purples. You can see the difference betweek the two variegated skeins.

Remember that there is a very informal MAL. You have from now until 7^th September to make or finish off a garment. WIPs are allowed, it can be in any craft and any garment pattern, you just need to use the #crochetcirclemal and I have also opened a Ravelry thread for you to add to.

3 – Final Destination

I only have one FO to show you. By the time you hear and see this podcast, I will be busy setting up my stand ay Yarnfolk festival in Northern Ireland. I was fortunate enough to be asked to create a crochet design for the festival and came up with Kinbaine. I talked about it in Episode 43 and showed off the saturated colour version.

I wanted to make a second version using just two colours and used a collaboration yarn between John Arbon Textiles and RiverKnits. This yarn has now sold out and the shawl is with Becci and Markus at RiverKnits, but I can at least show you the shawl and the yarn colours caked up.

ALT TEXT: White background with a vintage mannequin covered in the Kinbaine shawl. The shawl is thick stripes, using two different semi-variegated colours. The main colour is copper and the contrast is green with hints of teal and brown.

Kinbaine is now live on Ravelry and up on my website. It’s the standard price on Ravelry and I have the pay what you can option on my website.

4 – En Route

Monogamous me means that I am just working on the Blurred Lines jumper at the moment as a personal project, but taking my own words of advice, I have swatched for a new crocheted garment – the Bark Sweater by Sidsel Sangild.

I tested out the John Arbon Textiles British Breeds 80% Romney/20% Corriedale blend on a 6mm and a 5mm hook to see which gave the best stitch definition and gauge for the project. I definitely preferred the 5mm hook stitch definition and also as a size of hook I my hand. The 6mm just felt a bit cumbersome and slow.

The swatch is now dry and now I can work out what size of Bark Sweater I need to make and whether I want to make any alterations.

ALT TEXT: Black background with a ball of wool top right in a mushroom brown colour. In the foreground is a crocheted swatch showing lines of front post treble crochet and chains that make up a bark pattern. This is the swatch for my Bark Sweater.

5 – Feeding the Habit

My Solstice to Solstice yarn ban is going well. I have been tempted by things but have given myself a good talking to and remembered why I am doing this! I have enough yarn! I actually feel a little overwhelmed by how much yarn I have and all the things I want to make with it.

So, there have been no stash additions this month and I am clearly working my way through some of the garment quantities that I have bought recently, which is great.

Whenever I see something that I *must have, I pop it into a list and if I still feel that way about it on 21^st December 2019, then it may be a contender for my first skein after six months of no yarn.

So whilst I haven’t bought anything, I did receive a lovely print through the post from Lorna (@neveratalooseend). It was done by her daughter Eilidh (@by.eilidh on Instagram) and I love her style. I suggest checking out both of their accounts. Lorna also has a blog which is jam-packed, full of the many, many crafts she does. I am hoping to see Lorna when I am at Perth Festival of Yarn.

ALT TEXT: Black background with a pink, coral and purple print featuring goats, sheep, alpacas and rabbits. Text is placed over the animals saying “all wool is yarn but not all yarn is wool”.

I was also given a lovely watercolour painting by Charlie (@love.charlie) for my birthday present. It's a particulat view that I love - Glencoe.

ALT TEXT: Framed painting in soft greens and blues. Deep sides of a grassy glen with a road and a small cottage. Clouds in a blue sky.

6 – Quick News Beats

1 - Global Hook Up – I have set the dates for the next six 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

August - Saturday 17^th and Sunday 18th

September - Saturday 21^st and Sunday 22^nd

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 – The ‘Healthy Crochet’ interview with Lyndsey from Phoenix Occupational Health is now live. I have been getting great feedback from people on it – so thank you for that. Video version is here and the audio version is here.

3 – I have a giveaway for two tickets for the Southern Wool Show on the 31^st August and the 1^st September at Newbury Raceground. If you want to be in with a chance of winning, leave me a comment in the show notes or on YouTube starting with the words Southern Wool Show. I will pick a random winner on the 9^th August. I will also be vending at the show, so do come and see me for a hug if you are coming.

7 – Big UP

There is an amazing collaboration between Lady Dye Yarns (Diane will be vending at Perth Festival of Yarn) and Jasmin from the Knitmore Girls. To create some proper inclusion at Rhinebeck (New York Sheep and Wool Festival) they have devised the #RhineBIPOCsweater CAL/KAL. There is a massive bundle of designs to choose from in a Ravelry bundle. You can filter that bundle to show just crocheted designs and every single design has been created by a BIPOC designer. You use or buy yarn from a BIPOC dyer/ producer and ideally in the following colours: purple, green, blue, golden yellow, and black.

Use the #RhineBIPOCSweater and show off your make and support for inclusivity with pride!

I will be crocheting up some form of garment and looking to my stash to promote BIPOC/BAME dyers that I have already purchased from. The festival is on the 19^th and 20^th October, so although the dates of the CAL/KAL haven’t been nailed down yet, but working towards the 19^th of October is a good call.

Our friend Claudia from the Crochet Luna podcast has started a twitch channel. Twitch is an interactive platform and you can interact with Claudia when she is on her twitch channel doing crochet. You can send her messages and links and she can respond live. The sessions stay online, so if you wanted to join her or go back to old videos and have somebody crochet alongside you, then it’s perfect.

I didn’t have to set up an account, I could just go straight into twitch and search for Crochet Luna. It’s never a bad thing to sit and spend time with Claudia!

I will be back on Friday the 6th of September.

Fay x

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July 23, 2019 @ 12:30 pm

Healthy Crochet Interview with Lyndsey from Phoenix Occupational Health

Hello!

It has been a while since I released an interview episode and I think this one is really helpful. I had great fun chatting with Lyndsey outside in my back garden. That does mean that there are some background noises (breeze, birds tweeting, and aggressive magpie and a small child singing down the lane). Nonetheless, this interview is full of great tips on how to keep your self healthy while you crochet and craft.

PLEASE NOTE

The information contained within this interview is intended for your general knowledge only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for specific medical conditions.

Here are the links to the resources Lyndsey (https://www.phoenixoh.uk/) spoke of:

Hand and wrist exercises.. https://www.summitmedicalgroup.com/library/adult_health/sma_wrist_tendonitis_exercises/

https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/muscle-bone-and-joints/exercises/exercises-for-wrist-hand-and-finger-problems

http://www.relievus.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Hand-and-Wrist-Exercises.pdf

https://ahpsuffolk.co.uk/Portals/1/Documents/Exercise%20Sheets/Wrist%20and%20Hand%20Pain.pdf

Exercises to manage all sorts of pains
https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/managing-symptoms/exercise/exercises-to-manage-pain/

Exercises for lower back
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/lower-back-pain-exercises/

Lovely viewer Claudia watched this interveiw and recommended the follwoing: "I find it very helpful and relaxing to use gel frio relax from Naturales Canarias.... a gel which cools, relax the muscles and helps against pain and inflammation with aloe, arnica, devil‘s claw , camphor and menthol. The devil‘s claw is very good against arthritis. We all use it in the family when we feel a bit stiff or have neck and shoulder pain."

So, you may want to give Naturales Canarias a try.

Fay x

July 5, 2019 @ 8:59 am

Episode 44 - Go Garment Go

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 44 – Go Garment Go.

In this episode, I cover Old Dog new tricks; Perth Project Runway update; Final Destination; En Route; Feeding the habit; Quick News Beats 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

Have you ever looked to buy a skein of variegated yarn and struggled to see how it might look crocheted up? I know that work has been done on how stocking stitch knits up and it’s because of SpaceCadet’s brilliant blogpost that I am doing this work for crochet.

Many yarn dyers have samples of their yarns knitted up but fewer do that same for crochet. I am pleased to report though that this is changing and more crochet is being sighted as swatches and samples at the yarn shows I am attending. We are having a positive impact!

Reading a skein of variegated could really help you to work out whether it is going to work for you or not. I have done some of the work for you, but if you really want an accurate gauge, you need to do some swatching too! I have written and illustrated this for you in a blog post: 'How to read a skein of variegated yarn for crochet'.

As a rough guide, here is how many centimetres each stitch takes in 4 ply and DK, my favourite two weights of yarn:

4 ply/light fingering weight dc (US sc) uses about 3 - 3.5cm per stitch using a 3mm hook

4 ply/light fingering weight htr (US hdc) uses about 4.5 - 5cm per stitch using a 3mm hook

4 ply/light fingering weight tr (US dc) uses about 6 – 6.5cm per stitch using a 3mm hook

DK dc (US sc) uses about 5cm per stitch using a 4.5mm hook.

DK htr (US hdc) uses about 7cm per stitch using a 4.5mm hook.

DK tr (US dc) uses about 9cm per stitch using a 4.5mm hook.

So, next time you are thinking about buying a variegated yarn in person, you can measure the length of each colour change (you will need to take a little measuring tape with you) to see whether the colour changes are right for you.

As a general rule, I prefer variegated yarns with quick colour changes for crochet. I think that it leads to a nicer looking, more cohesive finished project. You may prefer otherwise, and either way, it’s good to understand where your preference lies so that you buy yarn that you are more likely to want to use.

Please don’t just walk into a yarn shop or to a yarn vendor at a show and start opening out their skeins of yarn. If you ask them nicely, they will most likely be happy for you un-skein the yarn and take a look at it. Often there are hidden colours inside anyway that you may not see when it is all twisted up.

2 – Perth Project Runway update

The votes are now closed on the five garments that I short-listed (I have kept the list below in case you want to take another look at them). The top that won by one vote (between Instagram and Ravelry votes counted at midnight on Thursday 13^th June) was Blurred Lines by Deanne at Addydae Designs. This was a pattern that was suggested time and time again by many of you and so I am unsurprised that it came out as the favourite. The Citizen Pullover by Kabila Sri Punnusamy (Tunisian crochet) was the next favourite.

ALT TEXT: Blurred Line jumper is being worn outside. It is a light grey with a

faded core down the trunk and arms of a light grey/teal variegated yarn.

ALT TEXT: Citizen Pullover is being worn outside beside a city building. It is a light grey with coral pink stripes running on diagonals. Quite a long pullover with short sleeves.

1 – Citizen Pullover by Kabila Sri Ponnusamy

2 – Liza Pullover by Yuliya Tkacheva

3 – Blurred Lines by Addydae Designs

4 – Bark Sweater by Sidsel Sangild

5 – Bruni Top by Elven Handmade

On the Friday of Woollinn Festival of Yarn I scooted over the marquee to see Bernie at Bear in Sheep's Clothing to choose a variegated yarn to go with the teal blue that she had custom dyed for me. This was the day that Bernie was launching this new base which is called Corrie Halo (50% Corriedale and 50% Mohair).

ALT TEXT: Semi tonal blue yarn with a real halo to it and it’s called ‘Sprucey Bonus’ because it is the colour

of the underside of a Spruce Tree. It is paired with a yarn called ‘Sulk’ and is on an ecru pink

base with small patches of teal blue, acid yellow, sea green and plummy purples.

I know that when Stasia made her version of Blurred Lines, it took three weeks and she was working on it almost constantly. Although I have until the 6^th September to get this jumper crocheted, it’s still going to be a tall order with all of the other things I have going on at the moment.

The lovely Catherine asked whether I was going to host a make along for this project. I wasn’t but I am now! It’s all very informal and you have from now until 7^th September to make or finish off a garment. WIPs are allowed, it can be in any craft and any garment pattern, you just need to use the #crochetcirclemal and I have also opened a Ravelry thread for you to add to.

3 – Final Destination

I only have one FO to show you, my latest version of the Arria shawl. I finally finished this just before I headed up to Cumbria to vend at Woolfest last weekend.

This version is in John Arbon Textiles Harvest Hues (4ply/light fingering 400m/100g) in shades Russet and Blue Spruce and I am loving the shawl in solid colours.

ALT TEXT: White background with a vintage mannequin covered in the Arria shawl. It has a deep V front with dark petrol blue triangle segments running in a spine up the centre of the shawl. The rest of the shawl is in a russet brown/orange colour.

4 – En Route

Monogamous me means that I am just working on the Blurred Lines jumper at the moment as a personal project. There is a design project on the go at the moment but I will show you that in a future episode.

So, for the next couple of episodes, it may just be all about Blurred Lines because it needs up to 600g of 4 ply yarn - that’s 2,400m of yarn to crochet!

So, here’s my progress so far. I have completed the neck ribbing and the second round of increases. I keep on trying the project on to make sure it fits nicely. If you are interested in making one of these, I am making notes for each stage that I pass through in my Ravelry project. If you want to take a look, simply search for ‘Perth Project Runway Blurred Lines’ under projects. I will also be adding updates to Ravelry.

ALT TEXT: The collar and beginnings of a yolk in a mid teal blue sit on a grey background. To the right is

a small ball of the same coloured yarn and above is a cake of the variegated pinky/ecru yarn which is the contrast colour.

I am hoping to get to the contrast colour in the next couple of days and am intrigued to see how the variegated skein will work up.

Deanne, the designer of Blurred Lines is an absolute star and has offered up some free patterns. To be in with a chance of winning one of her brilliantly written patterns, simply leave a comment in YouTube, Ravelry (there is a specific thread called Garment Make Along in time for Perth Festival of Yarn) or on the Instagram post for Episode 44 over @crochet_circle_podcast

5 – Feeding the Habit

Oooh, it has been a bit of a month and all of my purchases probably seem ridiculous, but I have plans, oh yes, I have plans!! Mwahahahahahahaaaa!

My biggest plan of all is that I have signed up to a solstice to solstice yarn ban with a friend. So, design yarn aside, I won’t be buying any yarn until the winter solstice on the 21^st December. In 2017 I only bought design yarn, so know that I can manage 6 months. It is time to work through some of my stash!

ALT TEXT: Two handmade bags on a grey background. The one on the left has a deep brown base and the top is bold autumnal coloured flowers and seed heads with a drawstring. Little balls of different coloured fibres are spilling out of the top and some ocean-inspired stitch markers are nearby. The bag to the right has a material handle and is cream with shop fronts of cafes and coffee shops.

These two bags were lovely gifts from friends. Marceline and I agreed way back at Edinburgh Yarn Festival to do a bag swap as we both aim to improve our machine sewing skills. The date was set for when she was over vlogging Woollinn Festival of Yarn. You can catch up with Marce’s trip to Dublin and the festival from her YouTube Channel. While I was vending at this festival – one of the friendliest I have ever been to – I was also given a bag by Sophie from A Spring Snowflake Podcast. I am so spoiled!

Then there is some yarn! I have been at the John Arbon Open Mill Weekend, Woollinn Festival of Yarn and Woolfest in the last month. Here is what has come in. The John Arbon wool is a mill special; before the open weekend they spin various colours together, so they are one-offs and sometimes move into a bit of a fade. I bought a jumper’s worth of this in a 4 ply and it will fade from a blue and cream into teal and cream. I also have a jumper’s quantity of the undyed Romney that I initially bought for my knitted Canisp jumper. I finished Canisp and the shape didn’t look right on me but looked fab on Juliet and she insisted on replacing the finished jumper with the means for me to make myself another. The Romney Sportweight is now destined to become a Bark Sweater which will be my next crocheted garment after I have finished Blurred Lines.

ALT TEXT: Four skeins of marled yarn on a grey background. The skeins are all marled with a grey/cream but fade from teal to blue.

ALT TEXT: THree skeins of a mushroom brown wool lie on a grey background. The labels have sheep on them and sat Romney. The twist of the yarn is obvious and squishy.

At Woollinn I picked up a couple of skeins for a one-skein shawl design that I am working on. The first is a beautiful blend of Alpaca and silk from Tara at Irish Artisan Yarns. I love that Tara is inspired by the colours of her home turf of the Antrim Coast in Northern Ireland. The second is a skein of Alpa-Si-Li (50% Alpaca, 25% silk, 25% linen) in colourway Passion, by Dye Dye Done. I was vending along from both of these lovely vendors at Woollinn which was an absolute delight. Dye Dye Done is a husband and wife team. Hanna is an extremely talented knitwear designer and Daniel is the yarn dyer – what a duo! They also have vegan yarns.

ALT TEXT: Grey background with a skein of pale, delicate and luxurious yarn at the front from Irish Artisan Yarns. It is pink, purple and grey.

Behind it sits a ball of yarn with the tail pulled forward. It's plummy purple/scarlet with silver slivers running through it.

On our way up to Woolfest in Cumbria, we stopped off at Blackwell Arts and Crafts House. It is a stunning example of arts and crafts architecture and interior design and well worth a visit. It’s right beside Lake Windermere. While I was there, I picked up a Japanese book on embroidery called ‘Simply Stitched’ by Yumiko Higuchi which is stuffed full of beautiful projects that you can use odds and ends of wool and cotton for.

ALT TEXT: Grey background with the 'Simply Stitched' book lying flat. The front cover shows

examples of embroidery motifs (trees, flowers, a chicken), all sewn with wool thread.

6 – Quick News Beats

1 - Global Hook Up – I have set the dates for the next six 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

July – Saturday 20^th and Sunday 21^st

August - Saturday 17^th and Sunday 18th

September - Saturday 21^st and Sunday 22^nd

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 – The good folk behind The Craft Bank on Ravelry, Lisa and Sophie are hosting a gift-along. You just need to go to The Craft Bank Group on Ravelry and fill in the very quick online survey that is linked and then you will be paired up with a partner. I have already signed up, so some lucky, lucky soul will be getting a dodgy project bag from me…

3 – I have a handful of yarn shows left that I am vending at in 2019 and the next one to let you know about is Yarnfolk in Northern Ireland on Saturday 3^rd of August. It’s a one-day show in Whitehead (accessible via train from Belfast) and is such a friendly show. This will be my third year vending there, which says a lot really.

7 – J’adore

While I was up in the Lake District with my friend Annabel, our lovely hosts Sarian and Andrew took us for a picnic to Derwent Water. It was a cracking evening by the lakeshore and I went swimming! In the lake!

ALT TEXT: A lake with mountains in the background. Some stones are in the foreground with various people

out swimming and a man and his dog on a paddle board. I am one of the swimmers!

I am now a little obsessed with the idea of wild swimming. It wasn’t as cold as you might think! My very lovely Papa Bear has asked me to go to Iceland with him in November, so I see a lot of trips to geothermal plunge pools and outdoor pools in my future.

I will be back on Friday the 2^nd of August.

Fay x

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June 6, 2019 @ 11:52 pm

Episode 43 - Monogamous Me

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 43 – Monogamous Me.

In this episode, I cover Old Dog new tricks; Perth Project Runway update; 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 recently been on a frogging spree. I had a few things in my wardrobe (crocheted and knitted) that I just wasn’t wearing and I know I can put the yarn to better use. So, I frogged a cowl and a top.

When you do this, the resulting yarn has kinks in it. These kinks are the memory that was crocheted in – and it tends to remain in the yarn. From experience, it is much better to freshen the yarn up before you use it again. I once knitted a pair of socks from a sock blank and even though they have been worn and washed many times, the fabric still shows the kinks and I’m not that fond of them because of it.

So, to get around that, here is what I suggest you do with your frogged yarn:

1 – Re-skein it. I use the back of two dining chairs to create the circular loops that make up a skein. You could also use an umbrella swift if you have one, but I find it just as easy to use chairs.

2 – Make sure you tie your skein ends together and place a tie in at least one other place around the skein to stop it getting tangled.

3 – Submerge your skein in water. I would usually add a wool wash to this so that I am giving the yarn a clean at the same time. After about 20 minutes, take the skein out of the water and squeeze out as much excess yarn as possible.

4 – Hang your skein out to dry. This is best done outside because it will drip. I pop the skein onto an s-hook and hang it from my washing line.

5 – To get all of the kinks out, attach something heavy to the bottom of the skein with another s-hook. I used one of our camping torches as a weight.

I tested two skeins in this manner, one with a weight and one without. The skein without the weight still had some little kinks in it – but it was linen which I often find has kinks in it. The skein that was weighed down is lovely and kink-free.

Here’s a link to a tutorial video from HueLoco on how she re-skeins and ties her yarn.

I have another quick trick for you. It seems that many, many, many of us didn’t know about the little cone that can be detached from Gutterman thread bobbins. If you look at the bobbin, you will see that there is an extra bit at one end. That end can be twisted off and inside you can store your needle and thread or trap down the loose end! I know. It’s actual magic!

2 – Perth Project Runway update

Thank you to everyone that gave suggestions for a garment that I could crochet for Perth Festival of Yarn and the catwalk. The suggestions were fantastic and I have pulled them all into a bundle on Ravelry for you to look at.

I looked at all of them and created a shortlist of five:

1 – Citizen Pullover by Kabila Sri Ponnusamy

2 – Liza Pullover by Yuliya Tkacheva

3 – Blurred Lines by Addydae Designs

4 – Bark Sweater by Sidsel Sangild

5 – Bruni Top by Elven Handmade

ALT TEXT: Photos L-R show the five different Designs

1 - Citizen Pullover has a main colour of light grey with diagonal stripes in both directions in a dark coral. Short sleeves.

2 - Liza Pullover - all in grey with a grid like/basket weave construction and short sleeves.

3 - Blurred Lines has main colour at the top and bottom in a light grey and fades into a central yarn of variegated teal and grey through bust, waist and arms.

4 - Bark Sweater is in a light grey and has clear open/ lace sections that are leaf shaped.

5 - Bruni Top is in a dusky pink and is lacy all over with a hollow at the base of the back and ties at the base.

Now we are ready for the next stage – you get to vote which garment wins. I have created a thread in Ravelry and will pop a poll up on Instagram during the weekend. Whichever pattern is chosen, that is the pattern I will crochet for the show. So, get voting! It’s a short vote because I will be getting the yarn from Bernie at Bear in Sheep's Clothing when I see her at Woollinn Yarn Festival on the 14^th of June.

3 – Final Destination

I have been a monogamous crafter of late. My work-life is pretty full on at the moment and I know that having lots of WIPs fogs my mind, so I have been trying to only have one crochet and one knitting project on that go at any one time. It’s amazing how quickly you get through projects when you just concentrate on them one at a time!

Part of what spurred me on with this is that it has taken me eight (!) months to complete my Fallen Leaves socks and I have quite a lot of guilt attached to that.

ALT TEXT: A pair of socks on a grey background. They are crocheted from the same pattern which has a waffle type effect. The sock on the left is a light blue with pops of green and grey. The sock on the right is a bright raspberry pink and some striping can be seen where the skein has slightly darker patches.

The pattern is by Vicki Brown and I used two different yarns from Kathryn at Crafternoon Treats. The pink is called Darkly Raspberry and it’s a non-superwash blend of 80% Corriedale and 20% nylon. The blue speckled one is called Forest Skies and is Superwash, 80% Corriedale and 20% nylon. I deliberately did the other sock in the same pattern but using a different base from Kathryn so that I could investigate any differences with superwash and non-superwash and durability. I have enough yarn in both colours left to knit a pair of socks (also different colours) so that I can test the yarn for knitted socks too.

I am always on the lookout for yarns that are suitable for socks and aren’t super-wash or have a reduced nylon content.

The second item I finished was the latest version of Doppio Colosseum in the birthday yarn colourway ‘The Moor’ that RiverKnits dyed up for Kate at Northern Yarn in Lancashire. This is proper woolly wool – it’s a Poll Dorset breed (Jennett 4 ply is Poll Dorset Lambswool) and it has a real plumpy squish to it and because of that, I moved up to a 3.5mm hook so that the fabric didn’t become dense and rigid. This shawl will be heading up to Northern Yarn next week or so, so if you are ever in there, you will be able to give it a squish.

My final FO is a new shawl design that I have been working on. This will be my third year vending at Yarnfolk in Whitehead Northern Ireland. Louse runs the show and also has a gorgeous yarn shop – Lighthouse Yarns, in the middle of town.

ALT TEXT: The tip of a striped shawl in three colours (dark stormy blue, raspberry pink and seaweed green).

At the end of each colour stripe is a point, representing a rooftop.

At the end of the festival last year, Louise got talking about crochet designs for the 2019 festival and she asked whether I would like to do one. Well, I have never known so many crocheters as there are in Whitehead (far more crocheters than knitters in fact), so it is a complete honour to be able to create a pattern for the festival.

I decided on a shawl because almost every crocheter I know loves a shawl, but I also wanted to represent the town of Whitehead in some way. Whitehead is a Victorian seaside town and has pretty coloured houses along the shorefront – that is absolutely perfect for pulling into a shawl design.

On the same timeline, John Arbon Textiles released their new sock yarn – Exmoor Sock and the range of colours is fabulous. They come in 50g skeins, which makes them perfect for adding colour to shawls without having to break the bank. Et voila, Kinbane (Gaelic for Whitehead) was dreamt up as three colour striped shawl with pointed rooftop edges based on the shorefront houses of the town. I didn’t think that naming the shawl after a spot was a good idea 😉

The shawl uses 150g of the main colour and 50g each of two other colours, so has real potential to be a stash buster. I can see this being worked up with variegated yarns too.

The stitch used is a Half treble herringbone stitch (half double in the US) and it creates a lovely thin fabric that is perfect for shawls. I was also consciously trying to create a shawl that is gender neutral, which I think I have achieved?

If you are coming to the festival (Saturday 3^rd August), Whitehead, Northern Ireland, then you will receive a download code for the pattern in the event programme. John and Juliet will also be bringing Exmoor Sock with them, so you can look at all of the colours and ask me for colour combinations.

After the show, the pattern will go live on Ravelry, on my website and hard copies will be available too, but I will let you know all about that in the August podcast.

4 – En Route

I only have one crochet thing on the go at the moment – see – I’m being monogamous. Because I am ridiculous, I thought I could quickly crochet up another sample of my Arria shawl before I head down to vend at the John Arbon Open Weekend on Friday. It’s not going to be finished on time but will at least be there for folk to squish and see even more crocheted items in their lovely yarns. I also love standing and crocheting as I talk to customers, so that’s what I will be working on this weekend.

ALT TEXT: Grey background with the beginnings of a triangular shawl and three cakes of yarn at the top.

The main colour is russet brown and the small triangles making up the spine of the shawl are in a deep teal colour.

This sample is in Harvest Hues (4ply/light fingering 400m/100g) in shades Russet and Blue Spruce.

5 – Feeding the Habit

It has been a very quiet month for purchases, mainly because I’m off to the mill weekend and we all know I will be incapable of coming back without wool from there, and also, I am vending at Woollinn the week after and pick up the yarn from Bernie for the Perth Runway. So, I curbed my will to buy all the things this month.

That said, I did receive some yarn through the post from Kim at Town End Yarns. I was talking to her at Yarndale back in September about sock yarn no, or reduced nylon but using alpaca for strength instead. Kim specialises in Alpaca based yarns and also knows a thing or two about socks.

She sent me two cakes of her Cumbria Sock Yarn natural and pink. The blend is 47% British Alpaca, 43% Bluefaced Leicester which is local to her and 10% nylon and it’s all made in the UK.

I plan to knit these up so that I can test out the durability of a reduced nylon blend of sock yarn. It is beautiful to touch.

I want to get to a point where I can test out lots of different reduced/no nylon yarns to see how they perform. I generally stand up all day long, so I know I can put them through some hard work.

6 – Quick News Beats

1 - Global Hook Up – I have had to change the date of the June Global Hook Up because I am now vending that weekend. The new dates and times are Saturday 22^nd June at 8 pm (BST) and Sunday 23^rd June at 9 am BST.

2 – Thank you to those that are taking me up on my ‘Pay what you can pattern pricing’. It’s available on my website for electronic versions and if you are unable to pay the lowest amount of £2 then please get in touch with me using the details given in The Craft Bank group on Ravelry and I will send you the electronic pattern for free, no questions asked.

3 – The carpet moths are back in my living room. We haven’t used that room for months, so these are very likely moth eggs that were lying dormant all winter until the rise in temperature. Just a quick reminder on how to protect your stash from the moth larvae.

Put your yarn into a sealable bag.
Freeze the bag for five days.
Take the bag out of the freezer for five days but leave the yarn sealed inside.
Freeze the bag for a further five days.

The initial freeze should kill off the larvae. If there are some particularly hardy ones, they will survive the freeze and come to life during the defrosting period, and then be killed off during the second freeze. Then choose to either store your yarn in those bags or in a moth free room of your home.

My Stash Palace is 100% moth free which is why I freeze all yarns before they go in there.

7 – Big Up

This month’s Big Up goes to Lyndsey from Phoenix Occupational Health. Lyndsey gave up her time to come and be interviewed and answer all of your questions on how to craft and look after your bodies.

She is great fun and very knowledgeable. We spent a very enjoyable couple of hours out in my garden talking about crochet.

Lyndsey has just started cooking curries and as a thank you from us to her, I used some of the money that you have kindly added to the Kofi account to buy her three, second hand (of course) curry recipe books from my favourite Indian recipe write, Anjum Anand.

It was also Claudia’s birthday this week – happy birthday my friend!

8 – J’adore

My laser cutter! I got a proper kick up the backside when I realised that I have had it for a year and not produced half the things I wanted to. I have learned a lot with this machine and really love the quality of goods I am getting as a result. This weeks’ efforts have centred around needle and hook gauges and Kitchener and crochet stitch reckoners. I am trying to produce things that are practical, functional and look good. Watch this space for more things to come.

Even better, do you have any suggestions for tools that would be useful? Sock blockers are a given!

I will be back on Friday the 5^{th of} July.

Fay x

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May 3, 2019 @ 9:25 am

Episode 42 - The Craft Bank

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 42 – The Craft Bank.

In this episode I cover: Update review of KnitPro ball winder; Craft Inclusivity; Perth Project Runway; Final Destination; En Route; Feeding the habit; Quick News Beats 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 – Review

Last month I reviewed my super-duper snazzy new KnitPro wooden ball winder and I thought that a month on, I should give you a bit of an update. Put simply – I love it even more than I did last month.

I have now tested out how big a cake it can wind and the answer is big! I managed to wind 350g of 4 ply before the cake went wonky and created its own planetary rings.

On the downside, at one point, the bearing cone came off. I think that is my fault for caking up anti-clockwise rather than clockwise.

ALT TEXT: A massive cake of yarn (350g of 4 ply in a light bluey grey colour with mid blue neps) on a grey background with standard cake of 100g yarn for contrast.

2 – Craft inclusivity

Update on the open letter and resources to yarn dyers, yarn shops and vendors – this piece of work is ongoing and something that I will sound you out on in the next podcast. I don’t want to go out with the open letter until I have the resources ready and available. I’m not trying to bash people with a crochet stick, I genuinely want to be part force for change for crochet to be given the respect it is due. More to come on this.

I am also really proud to tell you about a group that my friend Lisa (@lisa_raspberrycrochet on Instagram) has pulled together on Ravelry. The inclusivity discussions on Instagram have moved into the realm of pattern and yarn prices and how as dyers and designers, we can make those goods readily available for all.

Lisa has created a group in Ravelry called The Craft Bank. The premise is a simple one. If you have yarn that you are destashing, you can offer it up for free or an affordable price. The idea is that the yarn can be passed on to someone that will use it and is unlikely to be able to afford to purchase it otherwise.

There is a second thread in the group whereby, crafters are offering to buy patterns for crafters and designers are offering up their patterns for free.

By the end of this bank holiday weekend I will have done the following to ensure that I am contributing positively to this:

1 – For all of my electronic patterns on my website, I will have incorporated a payment scale for patterns. They generally sell for £4 per pattern and there will be a scale of £2 - £6 for each pattern. The concept is that you pay what you can afford and would genuinely like to see people on lesser incomes, taking me up on this offer.

2 - I will have added to give-away patterns to The Craft Bank Thread (crochet and knit).

3 – I will have added some destash yarns to the yarn thread and will probably keep on adding some little and often. Due to the cost of postage, this will be open to UK residents only – sorry.

So, if you have a yarn stash that you want to decrease or want to know that you are directly supporting fellow crafters, I encourage you to go to The Craft Bank Group on Ravelry and see what support you can lend.

3 - Perth Project Runway

I have something very exciting to tell you. Not only am I vending at Perth Festival of Yarn with my company, KNIT IT – HOOK IT – CRAFT IT, but I am also looking to create some crochet gorgeousness to send down their runway!

On the Saturday night, there is a Gala Dinner and as part of that dinner, they have a runway fashion show of knitted and crocheted items. Eva heads up the Perth Festival of Yarn team and we have been in conversation about more crochet representation at the show and she asked whether I might be able to crochet a garment for the runway.

Ehm, yeah I’ll do that! The thing is though, that I would like the Crochet Clan to be part of it too.

So, here’s what I would love your help with. I need to find a suitable jumper/seater/top pattern. You know what my style is and ultimately this needs to be something that I will want to wear after the event.

I am looking for something really contemporary. They yarn that I am going to use is a new base that Bernie from Bear in Sheeps Clothing is launching at Woollinn this year. It’s a 4 ply (395m per 100g, light fingering weight) yarn and a blend of 50% Corriedale and 50% Mohair – so, think soft, silky, drapey with a fluffy halo! I can stretch to 6 x 100g of 4 ply, but I would prefer something around the 4-500g mark.

Let’s talk about granny stitch and granny squares. I know lots of you love them, but I just don’t and that isn’t the image that I want to portray for contemporary crochet going down the Perth Festival of Yarn Runway. So, without being rude, please don’t send me ideas of crocheted garments that have these elements. I really want to show how crochet is moving on from what people already perceive it to be.

So, here’s what to do if you want to be part of Perth Project Runway:

1 – Respond with YouTube comment or Podbean comment or DM me @crochet_circle_podcast (on Instagram).

2 – Let me know what the garment is called and who the designer is.

3 – Don’t worry if the design is for DK or worsted weight rather than 4 ply. I can make changes to the pattern to make it fit and be able to use Bernie’s yarn.

In next month’s podcast, I will have looked at all the options sent to me and whittled it down to 3-5 patterns that I would be happy to make and wear. You then get to vote on the final pattern choice and your decision is final, not mine!

I will make a bundle of all of your suggestions in Ravelry so that you can easily see all of the suggestions in one place.

I will pick up the yarn from Bernie in June (it will likely be a custom dye lot) and then get hooking away from mid-June, ready for Perth Festival of Yarn on the 7^th & 8^th September.

Festival tickets went on sale last weekend and it is looking like a fantastic show. I think there is still a handful of tickets for the Gala evening – it would be lovely to have some Crochet Clan folk there if you fancy it?

It’s all very exciting!

4 – Final Destination

This is my one and only FO this month and I finished it at the beginning of the month when I was in Scotland! I was vending at two, weekend shows, which has taken up most of my time.

I don’t seem to like this jumper until I put it on and then I like it. I seriously considered ripping it all out this morning and then I put it on to record the podcast and though “you’re not so bad!”

ALT TEXT a flat lay of my Esja Sweater on a wooden floor. The sweater is crocheted using a mid-blue grey yarn as the main colour and a speckled mid-blue, teal and rust yarn for the crocheted brioche areas of the yolk.

5 – En Route

I don’t have much to show here either – sorry. I am just about to finish off another Doppio Colosseum that I have crocheted for Kate at Northern Yarn in Lancaster. She is keen to have more crochet in her shop and as part of her 3^rd Birthday celebrations this Friday, she has had some of her Poll Dorset lambswool custom dyed by an indie dyer. Two skeins of the wool were passed to me to crochet Doppio Colosseum. The colours and indie dyer are under wraps until Friday night, so I won’t be able to share it with you until then. Needless to say, I will show it off as an FO in the June podcast and post about it on Instagram this weekend.

I have also made a start on my Canisp jumper using the Romney/Corriedale yarn that I showed off in last month’s podcast. It’s just rounds of knitted stripes for now, and so I won’t show you that until I am a bit further in. The Romney/Corriedale is working up a treat though and I plan to have this off the needles, ready for the John Arbon Textiles Open Weekend at the beginning of June. If you fancy coming to that, just follow the link above – it’s a great day trip out, but you have to book.

6 – Feeding the habit

I’m trying to slow down on my wool purchases. My Stash Palace is bulging at the moment and it’s starting to make me feel a little uneasy. That said, I still have some Feeding the habit for you this month, but a fair amount of it was given to me as presents.

If you watch my Instagram stories, you will know that I was at the New Lanark Mill in Scotland at the beginning of April. I first went there as a Conservation student, about 23 years ago. If you want to know more about the mill, follow this link. It’s a very interesting place and happens to now spin Scottish wool on their original machinery.

ALT TEXT: New Lanark Mill in the sunrise/set, nestled by the river at the bottom of a steep valley. Lots of mill buildings glowing orange with green trees surrounding the site.

ALT TEXT: Inside New Lanark Mill with arched windows and vintage macjinery the length of the long hall. Old tiled floor and a worker keeping the machinery going.

I had promised myself a jumper’s quantity of wool from there are my birthday jumper wool this year. What I didn’t expect was to find such an utter bargain. There was a random hank of 4 ply yarn that was labelled up as £22.50. I asked them to check whether that was right, because it seemed like a lot of wool for such little money, and I was assure that it was correct. When I got it home, I discovered that it was a 450g hank! So, this is destined to be some form of colour-work birthday jumper – probably knitted because of the low twist on it. See photo from ball winder cakes for New Lanark wool purchased (Donegal Silk Tweed 4 ply ‘Light Limestone’ 90% wool/10% silk)

I also had a very good discussion with them about crochet and crocheted samples. They don’t have any out in their shop, but I am going to design something in their yarn – probably next year. Think – thistle based colour-work shawl and you will be spot-on.

When I was vending at Wonderwool Wales last weekend, my stand neighbour was a lovely lady called Helen from Nellie and Eve. We share the same environmental ideals and Helen’s naturally dyed British breed yarns quite honestly took my breath away.

ALT TEXT: Photo 1 is of Helen at her stand surrounded by lovely skeins of pastel, soft wools.

Photo 2 is a close up of the two skeins of 4ply British wool I bought from Helen. The light siege green skeins lie on a grey background with white skein bands.

Helen is keen to have crocheted samples on her stand and I want to help her achieve that. So, I bought two skeins of wool (75% BFL/25% Masham in a 4 ply) from her and the ideas for them are starting to filter through. It may be next year before any of these designs come to fruition, but I am happy to be able to support companies that really want to have crochet as part of their offering.

I also received some very lovely, surprise gifts through the post from Tania and Edwyn.

ALT TEXT: Photo 1 - three skeins of creamy Dorest Down wool. One lies on top of the other two, with white/green labels and the black TJ Frog logo.

Photo 2 - Grey background with a linen, zippered bag with a print of large Dorest Buttons on oranges, browns and black. Green TJ Frog tag lies to the left.

Photo 3 - grey background with a "crochet Workshop' book by James Walters.

7 - Quick News Beats

1 – Winners of 3 year podiversary were announced and I have been in touch with everyone. Thank you for entering and giving so many great comments on what crafts you would like to master in 2019.

2 – Thank you to everyone that is supporting me through the Ko-fi account. I was really quite bowled over by the response. During the course of the weekend I promise to go and grab a coffee on you and sit in my local town, crocheting and chilling out.

Thank you also for leaving comments, tagging me on Instragram, following me. It all makes a massive difference to the algorithm and helps to wide our community.

3 – May Global Hook Ups are on Saturday 11^th May at 8pm BST and the 12^th May at 9am BST. Everyone is welcome.

4 – I am recording the interview with Lyndsey from Phoenix Occupational Health in a couple of weeks, so you still have time to get some questions in. The interview will likely come out in July because of other time pressures.

5 – Happy 50^th Birthday to Katherine- you know, the one with all the cats on Instagram!

8 – J’adore

I have a new to me podcast for you - Quirky Monday Craftcast by Caleisha AKA @nadiratani

Caleisha is based in Florida and is primarily a crocheter but dabbles in lots of other crafts too. She is bright, positive and full of energy! Go watch her, she will most definitely help to top up your positivity batteries.

I will be back on Friday the 7^th June.

Fay x

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April 5, 2019 @ 5:03 am

Episode 41 - Three Years Old

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 41 – Three Years Old.

In this episode I cover: Review of KnitPro ball winder; Crochet Inclusivity; Final Destination; En Route; Designs in Progress; Feeding the habit; Quick News Beats 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 – Review

When I first started my yarn journey, I bought myself a cheap, plastic ball winder because I didn’t know then that crochet and all things yarn would literally take over my life!

ALT TEXT: Grey background and close up of cream and red crappy plastic ball winder with broken metal finger.

Over the last couple of months, I have tried a couple of different KnitPro wooden ball winders to see whether they would be a better option for me. Well, the proof is that I now own one.

ALT TEXT: Grey background with wooden ball winder and orange/grey wool scattered around it.

Given that I can be caking up yarn every other day, I thought it was a wise decision. So, here’s what I hate about my old ball winder and love about the new one:

1 – OLD: it creates a very tight cake which means that my yarn is being held under tension.

NEW: the cakes are taller and wider, so the yarn is not under the same amount of tension and pressure.

2 – OLD: it’s mainly made of plastic and is flimsy.

NEW: It’s predominantly made of wood with a little plastic and some metal. It feels very substantial and durable.

3 – OLD: the metal finger that your yarn is placed through stopped standing on its own after about the third use.

NEW: The metal finger is very firmly in place and does not move as part of the ball winder set-up.

4 – OLD: the cakes almost always get tangled at the bottom of the spinner towards the end of the skein wind. I have had t o cut my yarn before now, to release it.

NEW: The wooden base that the yarn caked up from is much bigger and can more than cope with the job.

5 – OLD: The ball winder struggles to create neat mini cakes.

NEW: The cakes are neat and seem to be staying in place. I need to test whether they work well or not though.

6 – OLD: It’s really difficult to get a nice centre pulled ball that doesn’t get knotted up.

NEW: There is a space big enough to get your fingers into to pull the centre yarn from. The cake seems to have more space in the core, so I am hopeful that the centre pull will be easy and not tangled.

The KnitPro ball winder also makes really pretty looking cakes – I know this isn’t really important, but when you have to photograph yarn as part of your living, it does factor in.

ALT TEXT: two photos, both with grey backgrounds. First shows two cakes of identical yarn, the left was wound with the plastic crappy winder and is shorter, denser and messier and the second cake is taller and prettier. Photo two shows 3 mini skeins (2 pink and a marroon), a green with neon colour pop cake and the brown tweed one from the first photo.

The wooden ball winder is clearly much bigger than the plastic one, so you will need more space to operate it, but the proof is in the pudding.

If you are often caking up yarn, then I wholeheartedly recommend this bit of kit. I bought mine from Nikki at Ewe Felty Thing and it arrived within a week. It’s not a cheap option at £105 + P&P, however, this is a piece of essential equipment for my hobby and job and I expect to be using this until the day I die. Caking yarn is now a joy and not a task, especially when they come out in such a pretty shape!

2 – Crochet inclusivity

Last month, I said that I was only going to purchase yarns from vendors that had crochet samples out. I spent much of Edinburgh Yarn Festival diligently asking whether yarn dyers and vendors had crochet samples that I could see. I got mixed reactions! Some stall holders had some crochet, but the vast majority did not. That isn’t specific to EYF, I find that to be the case at most yarn festivals.

Beyond the snobby reactions that I sometimes receive around crochet, there is a fundamental lack of understanding around our craft. That may be because the vendors don’t crochet or they did it years ago and associate it with blankets, acrylic yarn and clashing colours.

There are also the urban myths that surround crochet – such as it’s yarn hungry; done by grannies, or that there are no contemporary crochet designs coming through! In the podcast I reference a piece of research I did on knitting v crochet for grams used. You can access that research via my blog post here.

With most things in life, I am more carrot than stick. I am willing to put the work in to help educate people on crochet as a craft. My plan is to do this by writing an open letter to yarn shops, indie dyers, yarn vendors, yarn festival organisers that don’t currently give consideration to crocheters.

As part of the open letter, I will point them towards resources that dispel the urban myths and showcase the fantastic contemporary crochet that we have. In the long-term, I plan to pull together a Crochet Collective whereby, yarn shops etc. can call upon a list of crochet designers that have beautiful crochet patterns that have been fully tech edited and deserve space and attention in yarn shops, at shows and on Instagram.

Needless to say, this is all going to take time, so watch this space. I always say to Matthew that “if I haven’t helped to change the face of crochet by the time I die, I simply didn’t work hard enough!”

3 – Final Destination

I can finally share my secret projects with you! Before Christmas, I started working on a shawl called Drucilla. It was kept a secret because it is one of the patterns in the new John Arbon Textiles publication, The Annual. There are three knitting patterns in The Annual and my crochet pattern.

ALT TEXT for four clsutered photos: Top left has a grey background with some beach pebbles placed to the left of The Annual front cover. with skeins of yarn on a wooden table, mill bobbins on the floor. Top right is a blue wall with a dusky mauve shawl with a marroon border on a mannequin. Bottom left has a grey background with The Annual opened at a page with a triangular version of the shale in a marroon colour and dark browny/black border. Modelled out on Exmoor by a young female. Bottom right is the same but the shawl is now shown as a C2C version in a very light grey/blue laceweight yarn.

All yarns are from John Arbon Textiles. Top right used 2 x 100g skeins of Knit By Numbers DK KBN90 and 1 x mini skein DK in KBN75

Bottom left used 2 x Devonia 4ply in colourway 'Bleeding Heart' and 1 x colourway 'Cinder Glow'.

Bottom right used 2 x 100g skeins of Alpaca 2-3 ply (heavy laceweight) in colourway 'Sea Spray'.

Drucilla is a great all-rounder shawl, using V stitch. You can do it with one or two skeins, keep it as a triangular shawl or make it into a C2C shawl as I did with the heavy lace version. I have also just finished off a DK weight version to show that it can be crocheted from laceweight up to DK.

If you want to get your hands on the pattern, The Annual can be purchased via the John Arbon website. It costs £5 plus P&P. The whole thing is packed full of information and fun elements, like a spot the difference game!

I have also finished off some knitted socks. A pair for my best friend, Jenny and a pair for my Dad.

ALT TEXT: Two photos both with a grey background. The first shows a charcoal grey pair of socks with hot pink stripes, heels and toes. The second is a plain tealy/ blue pair of socks.

Striped socks are in Dragon Hill Studio 4 ply 'Metro Pinstripe'. Second pair is in Lang Jawoll, colourway 'Peacock'.

4 – En Route

The saga of my Esja jumper continues! I had hoped to be showing you how to work the sleeves as part of the podcast, but I ran out of yarn! We are heading up to Scotland on Friday, so I will pop into Blacksheep Wools on the way and pick up an extra skein and hopefully finish it off in the car on the way to Ben Nevis.

Next month, I WILL be wearing my Esja jumper!

5 – Designs in Progress

Last month I showed off a Barcelona inspired long cowl that I had been working on. It now has a name – Rocamora, after the family that lived in the building of the same name that inspired the cowl. I have actually submitted the design into a newish online magazine called Yarn People. I really like the inclusive nature of the magazine and the fact that they aren’t fussed about whether the pattern has already been published or talked about within the yarn community.

Whilst I wait to hear whether the submission was successful or not, I am busy working up another version of it that is much short and only uses three colours. There may be a third example in the offing which is a fade option too…

ALT TEXT: Grey background with wooden ball winder at top with mid grey yarn sat, balled up on it, foxy orange yarn in a skein to the left, a partial cake of dark grey yarn and a work in progress ribbed cowl with a green metal crochet hook.

6 – Feeding the habit

My friend Nic was in Australia, visiting family. We agreed to do a yarn swap whereby, she brought me back some lovely yarns from that side of the world, and I brought her back yarns form Edinburgh Yarn Festival. I failed to bring anything back for her that was suitable but will work on it when I vend at Spring Into Wool next weekend, but Nic brought me back two amazing yarns. One from White Gum Wool in Tasmania and one from Great Ocean Road Mill in Australia. They are so lovely and squishy!

I spent a lovely day over at Ewe Felty Thing in Llandudno, North Wales, helping Nikki celebrate her shop’s 1^st birthday. There was a lot of yarn to squish (and buy). I came away with a skein of the special birthday colourway that Nikki had dyed and some minis from Abercairn that will become sock toes, heels and cuffs (and already have in one case). I also pre-ordered my ball winder when I was there.

Obviously, I brought stuff back from EYF too, but because of my point about not buying from stands that don’t have crocheted samples, I didn’t buy as much as I could have. That said, I did buy four balls of wool from Jamieson’s. I was having an interesting discussion with one of their team and plan to recreate one of their classic Fair Isle patterns in crochet to really make that point that crochet can be beautiful and just sticking to marketing to knitters doesn’t need to be the way forward.

Mainly, I got yarn from John Arbon Textiles. My love of their wool continues, and I wasn’t really up for buying any indie dyed yarn. So, I bought the yarns that they had created as show specials. There is the Cocktail Yarn in colourway Dark & Stormy which is destined to be a trial for a new, simple design that I want to create (perfect for yarn shops and vendors to show off crochet with) and then a jumper’s quantity of their breed special yarns. I bought the Romney breed because I really love how squishy it is and the soft colours that I bought.

One of the real highlights of EYF for me was the Make::Wool event on the Sunday. I didn’t get much time in sales area because I was off listening to a couple of talks. I did, however, make a beeline for Shilasdair Yarns. Kirsty and Simon are due to open their version of the Shilasdair Yarn Shop on the Isle of Skye this Easter. They are still using traditional natural dyeing methods and I am very pleased to say that they have converted to using British breed yarns. I am excited to see how they develop the company and watch with eager anticipation!

ALT TEXT: Seven different photos all on bright yellow backgrounds, showing each of the yarn makers, dyers or designers. 1 - Kirsty from Shilasdair smiling and holding a massive cone of wool outside a shed. 2 - Nikkie from Ewe Felty Thing (yarn shop) behind a wall of indie dyed yarn. 3 - John and Juliet Arbon sitting in front of some of their mill machinary. 4 - Emily K Williams from Flutterby Knits stood at the edge of a loch, showing off her latest striped knitted jumper pattern - Canisp Sweater. 5 - Desiree from Abercairn Yarns stood on a porch, sporting her latest finished object - a purple jumper. 6 - Katie Green has long brown hair and is stood in a woodlend sporting a light brown knitted shawl. 7 - Sharon from Dragon Hill Studio is out in her garden wearing a black top, with glasses on a shortish brown hair, with her dog (cream and tan coloured).

ALT TEXT - a flat lay of many yarns with numbers atteched to each of the companies and listed below.

1 - 2 x mini skeins from Abercairn Yarn, bought at Ewe Felty Thing

2 - 4 skeins of British Breeds 'Romney' from John Arbon Textiles. These were an EYF special and aren't on the website, but may make an appearance at Wonderwool Wales.

Also, two skeins of Cocktail blend in colourway 'Dark & Stormy' which was also an EYF special.

3 - Three balls of Shetland Spindrift wool from Jamiesons of Shetland in colours Storm, Camel and Tan Green.

4 - 2 x 50g skeins (dyed with INdigi and Meadowsweet) and 3 x mini skeins from Shilasdair Yarns - dye stuff not identified.

5 - 50% Camel, 50% silk blend skein of yarn from Nikki at Ewe Felty Thing called 'Confetti in the Rain' which was a special for her shop's 1st birthday.

6 - Great Ocean Road Mill, La Bella yarn (Merino and alpaca mix) in colourway Salt & Pepper.

7 - White Gum Wool, 4 ply Fingering in colourway Quarrystone - 100% Merino

7 - Quick News Beats

1 – Here are some new hashtags/accounts for you to follow under inclusivity:

#disabledmakers is run by Eve and Anna, they are doing a grand job of showing off makes from lots of differently abled crafters.

@fatestknits is an account that has been set up specifically to work towards size inclusivity. Designers can have their patterns featured to find test crocheters and knitters. If you are smaller or bigger than the average body size, then this may be a great resource for finding patterns that you like and designers that actually care about catering from different sizes.

2 – When I was Edinburgh Yarn Festival, I attended a panel discussion on Diversity and Inclusion in the Fibre Space – Where do we go from here? It was an interesting discussion, with generally helpful questions from the audience. The panel discussion was recorded and as soon as the video is available, I will sign post you to it.

3 – I have been invited to come and do pop-ups at a couple of yarn shops. You can find me at Northern Yarn on 3^rd May between 6.30pm and 10pm. Kate is celebrating the shop’s 3^rd birthday and I will be there selling crochet patterns and notions.

I will also be at the RiverKnits open day on the 4^th March between 1aam and 5pm. Becci and Markus now have a dye studio and they are having a grand opening. Lost of other vendors will be there too, such as Ewe & Ply, Travelknitter, Garthenor Organic, Third Vault Yarns and RiverKnits of course. It’s going to be a fab day with demonstrations, stuff to buy and a lovely atmosphere where you get to talk to the vendors.

These are just two of the ten events that I will be vending at this year. If you want to know where else I am going to be, take a look at this blog post.

4 – I have set up a Ko-fi account. I have long thought about creating a way that you can support the podcast – if you would like to. I am not comfortable with Patreon as an option and when I came across Ko-fi, that felt like the right fit for me. Basically, there is a website page that is for The Crochet Circle Podcast. Within that page, you can buy me a coffee. In reality, this is making a donation towards the running of the podcast or may actually encourage me to leave the house, buy a coffee and take a break in a café. However, many of you have asked how you can support the podcast and the in-depth work that I do for it. I am very grateful to those that buy from my online shop, come to see me at shows, or buy my patterns, but some of you may prefer to support me through Ko-fi.

I love doing this podcast. But here is some of what it takes to create it:

$108 a year for the Podbean hosting platform

£12 a month for Zoom so that I can host the Global Hook Ups

On average, three full days of my time to pull the podcast together (recording, editing, photography, show notes)

Any extra time that I chose to spend on reviews, testing yarns, patterns etc.

There are also things you can do to support that podcast for free:

Leave comments and give it a thumbs up on YouTube - this puts the podcast in front of other people and increases awareness of its existence, making our community larger and stronger.

Talk about it on Instagram. If you like what I do, tag me when you are crocheting. It may seem like a little thing, but it makes a big difference.

All of these things also apply to any other podcasters that you watch. I am sure that they would also love extra comments, likes and tags. It really makes a difference to us and helps to make our experience of creating a podcast much more fun!

8 – J’adore

The podcast is three years old! The first episode went out on audio only back on 1^st April 2016. It is an absolute pleasure to put this podcast out and connect with our Crochet Clan. To celebrate, there will be a pattern giveaway. Sandra from the Cherry Heart podcast has kindly offered a copy of her Ziggy Interrupted scarf to one lucky winner, and I will do some pattern giveaways too. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment on YouTube or Podbean (underneath these show notes) and tell me what crafting technique you would like to conquer in 2019.

Here’s to another three years!

I will be back on Friday the 3^rd May.

Fay x

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March 1, 2019 @ 10:00 am

Episode 40 - When in Barcelona

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 40 – When in Barcelona.

In this episode I cover: Inclusivity; Final Destination; En Route; Designs in Progress; Feeding the habit; Quick News Beats and Big Up.

This podcast is sponsored by

KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT

If you woudl like to support the podcast, you can now do that through my new Ko-fi account, just click on the image. Thank you :-)

1 – Inclusivity

Following on from last month’s podcast and the actions I said I was going to take to increase inclusivity within our fibre community, here is what I have been working on:

Claudia from the Crochet Luna Vlogcast has been putting in the hard miles, pulling together a list of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) crochet designers. She has created a permanent list in her Instagram ‘BIPOC Crochet Designers’ Highlights. From that list, I have created a ‘BIPOC Crochet Designers’ blog post giving you the designers names, Instagram handles, Ravelry Designer names and other selling platforms. If the designers have a podcast, website or Etsy shop, these have also been listed.
If you are looking for a decent article on the topic of inclusivity in the fibre community, I encourage you to read this one: The Knitting Community is Reckoning with Racism by Jay Saxena. If for whatever reason, you have been in the fringe of the conversation or come to it late, this article gives a very good breakdown of what has been going on. I meant to talk about this article in the podcast and through lack of organisation on my part, it slipped through the net.
You will notice from the show notes below and video podcast (if you watch rather than listen) that I have started to show the makers behind the goods that I am buying. My intention is to create a greater connection between the makers and those watching the podcast and/or reading the show notes. I want to show case the faces that put all the hard work into the fibre community whether they are designers, spinners, dyers or yarn shop owners.
I continue to use ALT text on my Instagram posts and within the show notes. My intention is to also expand this out to my website photos and blog posts (which I have started the process of).

2 – Old Dog New Tricks

I want to touch briefly on gut instinct and using that to shape your colour choices and pattern following.

You know that feeling when you have pulled colours together for a project, but your gut is bubbling, telling you that something isn’t quite right? I have had that quite a bit recently. I tend to think I am pretty good at choosing colours but of late, I have been asking for second opinions, mainly because I knew they weren’t right.

The same can be said for a part of the pattern design within my Esja jumper. I could see that the short row shaping was creating a different look within my jumper but I persevered with the pattern. My gut told me I was wrong to do so but I ignored it – I won’t do that again.

Here’s a quick trick for testing your gut feeling on something. Using colour choice as an example; you have two choices, grey and yellow or grey and pink. You assign each choice with a side of the coin. Toss the coin high in the air and before you move your hand to reveal which choice has been made, listen to the voice that is telling you which one you are actually hoping for. That is your gut reaction and the one you should actually listen to, regardless of what the coin toss actually tells you.

I use this for all sorts of decisions that I make. It’s a surprisingly easy way to make decisions and stop procrastinating!

3 – Final Destination

I have some quite varied finished objects this month.

I finished off my latest version of Doppio Colosseum in ‘Worn Denim’ (4ply 50% Merino/50% Silk) by The Wool Kitchen. It was a great reminder of how much I enjoyed designing this pattern and wearing it.

ALT TEXT: Mannequin against a white and teal painted wall. The shawl draped over the shoulders of the mannequin is in denim blue colours and you can just make out some of the lace lines of the pattern.

Did I mention I was in Barcelona? Whilst I was there, I was completely taken with an amazing building on Passeig de Gracia – Rocamora Houses. There is a ceramic turret that inspired my latest design. I wanted to capture the colours of the turret and the transition between them.

ALT TEXT: Roof top of Rocamore Houses, Passeig die Gracia, Barcelona. Bright blue sky with three ceramic tiled turrets showing on the skyline. The tiels are in earthy shades of brown, orange, yallow and cream.

ALT TEXT: White surface with crocheted cowl doubled over . A wooden carved crochet hook lying on a nest of egg yolk yellow yarn in the froefront. The cowl is in a gradient fo four colours from cinnamon brown, to cantelope melon orange, to egg yolk yellow to a pinky cream colour.

I visited All You Knit is Love, a yarn shop in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona run by Jennifer and Miquel, and bought some of their K2tog yarn which is 70% wool and 30% milk. It’s beautifully soft and they had the perfect colours for the design.

I suspect that the design is going to be called Rocamora.

Finally, I have been on a bag sewing mission. I only meant to make one and ended up with 12. I used a couple of different YouTube tutorials for these and consider myself to be a novice sewer:

ALT TEXT: Cream surface with three machine sewn project bags. Top bag has a tear drop coral shape and turquoise, charcoal and grey details. Bottom right bag had a navy background with pairs of cats facing each other in pinks, corals, mustards and greens. Left hand bag is woven grey wool fabric with a light mustard coloured zip and it's a boxy baggy.

4 – En Route

My Esja jumper (to be made with yarn dyed by my friend Bec of Black Horse Yarns and Socks Yeah! in the colour 'Chryso'. I am now on sleeve island and am desperate to finish this for Edinburgh Yarn Festival.

Pattern: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/esja-sweater

Main Colour Yarn: https://coopknits.bigcartel.com/product/coop-knits-socks-yeah-yarn

Contrast Yarn: https://www.instagram.com/blackhorseyarn/

ALT TEXT: Light blue jumper yolk with a variegated detail with blobs of orange and teal. The stranded texture from brioche crochet is visible.

5 – Designs in Progress

The one crochet design that I have on the go at the moment is the Rocamora Cowl. I want to make it again using some other chunky yarn so that I can test the theory that it can be made with any yarn and almost any quantity.

ALT TEXT: Cream background with the same four coloutrred cowl at the top left. Three chunky, loose skeins of yarn are at the bottom of the photo. L-R they are a mid grey, dark grey and a fox orange. They look springy and full of character.

The next version will be a short cowl using some number 2 yarn that I bought from Die Mercerie in Munich. It’s a Bavarian yarn of some description…

February 1, 2019 @ 10:04 am

Episode 39 - Call me Crozelda

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 39 – Call me Crozelda

In this episode I cover: Inclusivity in the fibre community; Old Dog New Tricks; CAL Updates; Final Destination; En Route; Feeding the habit; Quick News Beats and J’adore?

This podcast is sponsored by

KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT

1 – Inclusivity in the fibre community and beyond

Given the importance of this topic, I felt that it needed to be the first thing I covered. I don’t usually script exactly what I say, but because of the importance of inclusivity within the fibre community, I don’t want to ramble or use the wrong wording because of the pressure of recording and trying to get my thoughts across.

I am fairly sure that everyone listening and watching this podcast is aware of the conversations that have been ongoing for much of January. The discussions are on inclusivity and diversity in the fibre community and beyond. These are conversations that are long overdue and conversations that need to become actions.

This podcast at its very heart is about welcoming everyone with one exception. If you are watching or listening to this and have even a hint of an eye roll or a “uh, this again, just talk about crochet”, then this is probably not the podcast for you.

Now, if you are the kind of human that likes to support your fellow humans, to build them up, rather than knock them down, to offer them the handshake of crafting kindness, and to take that handshake beyond the crafting community to every aspect of your life, then come on in, stay a while. I hope you feel the welcome embrace and love of the Crochet Clan.

I would like to specify what I mean by inclusivity. For me and this podcast, that means creating an inclusive space for Black and Indigenous and/or People of Colour (BI/PoC), for people with differing abilities, for people within the LGBTQ community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer) for people of all sizes for people that identify as binary or non-binary . An inclusive space where racism, and discrimination of your fellow humans cannot and will not be tolerated.

I spoke about the need for actions as well as conversations. So, what I would like to do is take you through the changes that I am making to the podcast to make it an even more inclusive space:

Logos – I am in going to change the logo for the podcast and have one created for the Global Hook Ups. It struck me that the current logo does absolutely nothing to say “everyone is welcome here”. So, in true Crochet Clan spirit I looked within to see who was part of our community that I could ask to take on logo commissions. I am really chuffed to say that Claudia from the Crochet Lune podcast is going to work up the new logos. If she comes up with different design options. Then my plan is to throw it out to you to see which logos speak most clearly to you of inclusivity.

Recognition of makers/dyers – my plan is to seek permission from makers and dyers to show a picture of them within the video podcast and show notes. Websites and Instagram handles don’t necessarily show the diversity within our community. I also know that when I have seen somebody’s face, it creates more of a connection with that dyer/maker and somehow cements them in my mind. I am also keen to do this from a business perspective because to me, seeing the face behind a small indie business is a very good for me to support them over big multi-national companies. Let me be clear, that this is not about tokenism. No matter who you are, if I am showing your product or yarn on the podcast and you’re are a small indie maker or dyer, I will be asking to show a photo of you in the video podcast and show notes. You have every right to decline and a photo will only appear if I have your permission.

Increasing diversity in my Instagram feed – I thought that my feed was already pretty diverse. I have a general policy of following people back unless their account is set to private. So, I am not an account that has thousands of followers (I don’t anyway) and only follows a handful back. That means that my account is full of lots of lovely diverse folk.

However, it wasn’t until I started following #blackcrocheter #blackcrocheters #blackcraftersofinstagram #diversknitty #spooniecrafts #lgbtqcrafts #lgbtcrafts #that my feed really became diverse. I encourage you all to do that same. Following hashtags is a great way of finding new people on Instagram, introducing yourself and making new connections. If you have suggestions for any other hashtags to follow, please let me know.

Highlighting under-represented groups – Back in November 2018 , Jeanette Sloan was asking the fibre community to point her towards BIPoC designers. She has done a lot of time consuming work to pull together a list from the details she was given. A similar piece of work is being done by Marceline from the Hey BrownBerry Podcast and she has highlighted BIPoC dyers and yarn makers.

Claudia from Crochet Luna podcast has been beavering away pulling together a list of BIPoC crochet designers. She is going through the painstaking work of communicating with the designers to ask whether they are happy to be featured. I am hoping to help Claudia to pull this list together in whatever way I can. The list of BIPoC crochet designers is going to be on my blog over at KNIT IT – HOOK IT – CRAFT IT – because Claudia has asked me to host it there.

My hope is that in time, this will also feature dyers and makers form other under-represented groups. However, this needs to be looked at in a sensitive manner and only undertaken with the backing and permission of the people within these underrepresented groups.

If you would like to be added to the work that Claudia and I are doing, then I would be really interested in having a discussion with you about what the parameters should be.

Creating a more accessible podcast and Instagram accounts – I have had some very helpful and interesting Instagram discussions with Sarah from @SarahDawnDesigns. She has been brilliant at pointing me towards ways that I can make changes to the podcast to make it more accessible for people with hearing or visual impairments.

If you have a hearing impairment, I always try to face the camera and not show things in front of my face, in the hope that people are able to read my lips. I always create show notes, and link to them from the dropdown box on YouTube. If you are watching the video, the section place markers correlate to the different sections in the show notes which can always be found at www.thecrochetcircle.podbean.com and I believe are in a suitable format as a text transcript.

If you have a visual impairment, I try to be very descriptive with textures and colours. Again, I believe that the show notes are in a format that are suitable for assistive technology. In addition to the written part of the show notes, I will start adding descriptions to each photo and the caption will start with Photo: I have also started using ALT text within my Instagram feed. I have gone back through the posts from the last month and added ALT text to those posts, but from now on, anything I post on @crochet_circle_podcast, @knitithookit or @faydhdesigns, will have ALT text attached to each of the images.

The final thing I would like to add is that twice a month there is the Global Hook up. I run it on a Saturday night and then again on the Sunday morning (both GMT/BST) so that the crafting session is available to different time zones. Everyone is welcome in the Global Hook Ups.

If you just want to check out what happens, you can join the crafting session and put something over your camera. You also have the option to mute your microphone. It’s really up to you how much you join in, which hopefully makes it a great crafting space for people that may be nervous about joining in. For some people, they started out by just sitting and listening and moved onto joining the conversations in the next session. It’s free to join, you just need a decent wifi connection.

2 – Old Dog New Tricks

It feels like many people are working on crocheted garments, or plan to in 2019. One of the factors that you may come across is wording like “increase/decrease by 12 stitches evenly across round/row”. In my opinion this is a little unfair of a designer to leave it at that. It isn’t hard to work out how you increase or decrease stitches, but if you haven’t done it before, then you should be getting more guidance within the pattern.

I am going to use one of my en route projects as an example. I have deliberately stopped this project where it is so that I can show you how I am going to tackle the bust decreases that I want to add in. This isn’t a feature of this pattern, it is one that I am adding in to give some shaping to the finished piece. That said, when the pattern did call for increases it didn’t give the calculations required…

I would like to think that if I ever design a garment for crochet or knitting, this is the kind of detail that I would add.

If you want to see this is video form, take a look at this video from Very Pink Knits – she is one of my favourites for giving simple hint and tips video tutorials.

Rather than using Very Pink Knits numbers, I want to use my jumper as the example piece. I have crocheted down to just below the bust area and now I want to decrease the overall number of stitches to pull the jumper inn and give some definition.

I have 269 stitches which gives me a circumference of 116cm. I want to get down to a circumference of 104cm for under the bust so need to do an initial calculation:

269 stitches/116cm means that I have approximately 2.32 stitches per cm.

I want the circumference to be 105cm, so I need 244 stitches (105cm x 2.32 stitches). My pattern requires an odd number of stitches, so I am actually going to decrease down to 243 stitches (because I rounded up to 244 in the first place).

Overall, I need to reduce my number of round stitches by 26 from 269 to 243.

So, my next calculation is to work out how I can decrease 26 stitches evenly across my round.

I start with my existing total stitch count (269) and divide it by the number that I need to decrease by (26):

269/26 = 10.35

Again, I am going to round that number down so that I will use 10 as my answer. Had the answer been 10.5, I would have rounded up to 11.

So, next I need to multiply the number of stitches to be decreased (26) by the number of decreases (10):

26 x 10 = 260 which leaves a remainder of 9 stitches

Because I would be decreasing two stitches together, those two stitches have to be factored in as part of the two stitch decrease every 10 stitches. This means that I will crochet 8 stitches and decrease over the last 2 stitches – giving one decrease over every 10 stitches. The remaining 9 stitches are simply crocheted at the end.

You may find it easier to attach a stitch marker at the beginning of every decrease section. This can help to make sure that you got your maths right and keep you on the stratight and narrow when you are counting and decreasing.

PHOTO: Esja Jumper (crocheted) in pale blue (main colour) and pale blue

variegarted with rust and teal as a contrast. Around the bottom of the jumper,

each decrease section has been marked with a black bulb pin.

Now, life isn’t that easy for me because my Esja sweater is in linen stitch which is a two stitch pattern repeat of 1dc and 1ch. That makes the calculation a little more difficult.

But here is how I have done it:

269 stitches need to be reduced by 26 down to 243 stitches.

To create an even decrease across the fabric without getting holes in the decrease area, I want to decrease in the following way:

Hook through first ch-sp, yrh, pull up a loop, hook through next ch-sp, yrh, pull up a loop, yrh, pull through all three loops. This action adds a bit more yarn bulk to the area and makes the decrease look less obvious. In doing so, you are using three stitches to decrease down to one.

So, I started looking for the number of stitches required per decrease section, remembering that each decrease will reduce the round by two stitches, not one.

So, here is where I started:

269 stitches / by 18 stitches gives 15 decrease sections and when you multiply that by the actual number of stitches per decrease section after the decrease has been made, 16, then you would be left with approximately 240 stitches with a remainder of 3 stitches which would simply be worked at the end of the round. You are basically looking for the division that will give you the least number of remainder stitches.

Here is how a linen stitch decrease will work for me over 18 sts:

Ch1, hook through first ch-sp, yrh, pull up a loop, hook through next ch-sp, yrh, pull up a loop, yrh, pull through all three loops, *ch1, skip 1 st, 1dc in next ch-sp; rep from * six (6) more times. (16 sts)

I would repeat the sequence 14 more times and finish off with ch1, skip 1 st, 1dc in next ch-sp ch1 as the stitch sequence for the remaining three stitches.

Clear as mud?

After the podcast, I will attempt to add some progress photos so that you can see how I have marked the shawl out every 18 stitches and worked the first decrease section.

3 – CAL Updates

The #ChristmasEveCAL is done and dusted! Once again, I had very little time to respond to the hashtags on IG. I want to be able to, but life is crammed. I am making some huge steps with the businesses this year and a lot of my time energy has to be on that.

So, I’m going to take a little break from running CALs – mainly because I know I won’t have the time and I won’t be doing you the justice you deserve. Things may shift by the end of the year, but for now I will try to concentrate on promoting the CALs that my fellow crafters and podcasters are running.

4 – Final Destination

I only have one proper finished object, because I don’t think I can legitimately show 1.5 socks as an FO!

Last year I started a bag and my intention was to add to every January with my ‘Word of the Year’. When I have previously seen people talk about their word of the year, I have dismissed it as a load of old tosh! Having lived with ‘Clarity’ as my 2018 word, I can now say that it definitely gave me grounding point throughout the year and gave me a flag to keep on coming back to.

Clarity was meant as a word for me to stick to my core goals and not stray. To keep on the path that I had set for the year. Given that it was so helpful for 2018, I have now added ‘STRUCTURE’ to me bag as my word for 2019.

This is the year when I hope to move KNIT IT – HOOK IT - CRAFT IT and Fay Dashper-Hughes Designs up a few notches and to do that I need to put more structure in place.

So now, I think about clarity and how I can structure my work flow to achieve what I want to achieve in 2019 and beyond.

Here’s what my bag looks like now. Every year I will add to it in a Scrabble format.

PHOTO: Ecru coloured linen bag with dark grey ribbon tie lying on a dark grey surface.The word CLARITY has been embroidered across the bag horizontally and STRUCTURE, embroidered vertically as if a game os Scrabble has just been started. Three bows of linen are at the base of the bag, in a dark grey, light fawn/grey and dark mustard

The bag was made from Scottish linen that I use in some of my products. I thin just draw around a wooden Scrabble tile to get the right size for each letter. Using a 3 ply linen thread from Namolio https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/237661664/linen-yarn-thread-25-grams-3-ply?ref=shop_home_active_1

5 – En Route

I have finished one of my Fallen Leaves socks and am ready to turn the heel on the other. I will show them off properly in the next podcast…

Pattern: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fallen-leaves-socks

My Esja jumper (to be made with yarn dyed by my friend Bec of Black Horse Yarns and Socks Yeah! in the colour 'Chryso'. This has been really quick to crochet up so far and I only stopped to be able to use the jumper as an example in this month’s Old Dog New Tricks.

Pattern: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/esja-sweater

Main Colour Yarn: https://coopknits.bigcartel.com/product/coop-knits-socks-yeah-yarn

Contrast Yarn: https://www.instagram.com/blackhorseyarn/

PHOTO: Esja jumper (crocheted) as a close up to show the slight distinction in colours made between the main colour (light blue) and contrast colour (light blue with rust and teal). The contrast between the two yarns in the brioche section is very subtle.

I am also working on another Doppio Colosseum shawl. Originally, I used a yarn that Helen from The Wool Kitchen no longer dyes and she kindly gave me two skeins of yarn to make a new sample with. The yarn is 4ply (light fingering weight), 50% Merino and 50% silk and it is beautiful to work with. The sheen and drape are just incredible. By the time I podcast again, I hope to have this finished so that Helen can use it on her stand at her next two festivals (Unravel and Edinburgh Yarn Festival). It’s great to see another yarn dyer that wants to fly the crochet flag.

Pattern: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/doppio-colosseum

Yarn: https://www.thewoolkitchen.com/collections/4ply-merino-silk/products/worn-denim-merino-silk-4ply

PHOTO: Dark back background, flat lay of a started crocheted shawl in linen stitch. To the left is a skein of Worn Denim by The Wool Kitchen (light blue/grey with blotches of dark denim blue), to the right is a cake of the same yarn and below is the curled beginnings of a Doppio Colosseum shawl.

6 – Feeding the habit

I truly believed that I was going to severely restrict the amount of yarn that I was going to buy in 2019. The difficulty comes when I enter yarn shops. I want to be able to support Bricks and Mortar shops by purchasing from them and highlighting them on the podcast.

So, this month I have been a bit naughty. I went over to visit the Laxton’s spinning mill in West Yorkshire and on the way back, I ‘popped’ in to see the good folk at Black Sheep Wools. It’s probably my most local yarn shop (about 45 minutes away) and I always like having a good natter with Sara and the others.

When I was there, I picked up some of the ‘Pip Colourworks’ from Baa Ram Ewe. I had a little mini skein of this given to me as a test skein and couldn’t really do it justice with 10g. I have since knitted another Curlew hat with it and plan on hooking something up with it too, so that I can do a proper yarn review on it for the podcast.

PHOTO: Dark background with a blurred foreground of a dark dusky rose ball of yarn. At the back from left to right is the same Pip Colourwork yarn from Baa Ram Ewe, bit in a light green, dark forest green, grey sky blue and mustard. Just fo camera to the right is the brim of a knitted Curlew hat in the same colours.

PHOTO: Dark grey background with a close up of Reggia Nautic Color sock yarn. Self striping in a white and mid blue. The ball band is yellow and shows a white sock with thin blue stripes.

I also came across and had to buy the latest Regia sock yarn called Nautic Colour, which creates sailor striped socks. I am an absolute sucker for sailor striped anything!

Local Yarn Shop: https://www.blacksheepwools.com/knitting-yarn/baa-ram-ewe-pip-colourwork.html

Yarn – Pip Colourwork: https://baaramewe.co.uk/products/pipcolourwork?variant=1440591249416

Yarn – Regia: https://www.blacksheepwools.com/knitting-yarn/regia-nautic-color.html

Later that week, I snuck up to Lancaster to see Kate from Northern Yarn in her new shop location in the city centre. It’s a really beautiful shop that is easy to get to. Kate works really hard at developing both the shop and her relationships with local shepherds and shepherdesses. She only sells British yarns and many of them are local. That is definitely something worth supporting in my opinion.

PHOTO: Five balls of wool all in a horizontal row on a dark background and each with a cream "Jamiesons Shetland Spindrift" ball band. The colours from left to right are: a vibrant mid green, rusty red, rusty orange, bright rusty mustard and a bright mid blue.

Whilst there, I picked up some Jamiesons Sheltand Spindrift 2 ply to make into a hat from this book that I also got.

Local Yarn Shop: https://www.northernyarn.co.uk/jamiesons-of-shetland

Yarn: https://www.jamiesonsofshetland.co.uk/spindrift-1-c.asp

Book: https://www.shopkdd.com/books/milarrochy-heids

Hmm, it doesn’t stop there. Last week, I hopped on the train a went to Llandudno on the North Wales Coast. Nikki runs Ewe Felty Thing, a yarn shop just a few minutes away from the train station. It has the most impressive wall of indie dyed yarn from 16 different dyers.

PHOTO: Dark grey background showing top right, a skein of yarn from Abercairn. It's a skinny single plyed yarn in a blend of merino and silk and has a beautiful sheen. The variegated skein has pinks, purples, teals, greens and blues in it - just like the Grampian mountains. Underneath the skein are two mini skeins, one in a deep dusky pink and one in a bright aubergine purple. In the bottom corner there is a bit of a purple/pink mohair skein.

Of course I came home with yarn. Of course one of them was mohair! I bought a new to me indie dyer called Abercairn Yarns.

Local Yarn Shop: https://ewefeltything.co.uk/

Yarns: https://ewefeltything.co.uk/product-category/handdyedyarns/yarns-by-dyer/abercairn-yarns/4ply-fingering/page/2/

https://www.instagram.com/abercairn_yarns/?hl=en

I was also vending at Waltham Abbey Wool Show this month, and it was a great show! My bestie, Jenny turned up as a surprise in the afternoon and helped on the stand. As a thank you, she got to pick which yarn she liked best from Dragon Hill Studios. Andrew and Sharon run the company and I really love the way they cake up their yarn. I have been meaning to buy some of their yarn for a while and Waltham Abbey was the ideal time. I have a deal going with Jenny that if I am making socks with a yarn she likes, she can have a pair too. I can get two pairs of knitted socks out of a 100g skein of 4 ply (light fingering weight) yarn with contrast toes, heels and cuffs.

PHOTO:Dark background with a cake of yarn and a white circular tag from Dragon Hill Studios with a paired back green curled up dragon for a logo. The yarn is dark grey with bright pink stripes and they cleverly cake up the yarn, wrapping the last few lengths over the top and bottom of the cake to show off the ratio of self striping colours which is more dark grey and a pop of pink.

Yarn show: http://www.walthamabbeywoolshow.co.uk/

Yarn: https://www.dragonhillstudio.co.uk/

7 - Quick News Beats

1 - Global Hook Ups – I have had to change the date of the February hook up:

February – 16^th Saturday (night) and 17^th (morning) GMT

The other dates for the first half of 2019 are in the Ravelry thread.

2 – I am now heading to Edinburgh for all four days of the festival. I will be in the show on Thursday working on a stand (more on that to come), and back at the show for the Saturday and Sunday. This wasn’t what was planned, but it’s now happening!

Edinburgh Yarn Festival: http://www.edinyarnfest.com/

3 – I have also booked to go to Woolinn Festival, just outside of Dublin in June. I am landing at the airport on the Saturday morning and leave on the Sunday night. So, if you are coming over and fancy a meet up either at the festival or on the Saturday night in Dublin city centre – let me know!

Woolinn Festival: http://woollinn.com/

4 – Sean, you can never have too many shawls!

8 - J’adore

I am loving that January has really felt like a new start. I have reset the button, good changes have been made and 2019 is looking like a good one.

I am also off to Barcelona shortly with Matthewkins. We really need some time out and I am looking forward to soaking up some Spanish atmosphere and being inspired by the gothic architecture.

I will be back on Friday the 1st March!

Fay x

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