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A crochet podcast with a little bit of knitting on the side
Episodes
Friday May 07, 2021
Thursday Apr 15, 2021
Friday Apr 02, 2021
Friday Apr 02, 2021
Because I was a bit of a numpty, I saved Episode 63 in the wrong audio file and so it didn't migrate to all the podcast platforms. I am adding it again as an MP3 so that it will now appear on Spotify etc.
Show notes for Episode 63 can be found here.
Friday Apr 02, 2021
Friday Apr 02, 2021
Because I was a bit of a numpty, I saved Episode 62 in the wrong audio file and so it didn't migrate to all the podcast platforms. I am adding it again as an MP3 so that it will now appear on Spotify etc.
Click for Episode 62 show notes.
Friday Apr 02, 2021
Friday Apr 02, 2021
Because I was a bit of a numpty, I saved Episode 62 in the wrong audio file and so it didn't migrate to all the podcast platforms. I am adding it again as an MP3 so that it will now appear on Spotify etc.
Click for Episode 62 show notes.
Friday Apr 02, 2021
Friday Mar 05, 2021
Friday Feb 05, 2021
Thursday Feb 04, 2021
Thursday Feb 04, 2021
I encourage you to go and look at the Moorit Magazine website (link), follow it on Instagram (link) and to go to the Kickstarter campaign page and pledge of you can (link). Even though the funds have been pledged for Issue 1, extra funding gives Alyson the backing of the crochet community and the confidence to plough ahead with ideas for Issue 2.
I am SO excited that the crochet community has backed Moorit so wholeheartedly.
You can find me here:
Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast
Instagram: provenance.craft.co
Instagram: FayDHDesigns
YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast
Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite
Friday Jan 01, 2021
Friday Dec 04, 2020
Friday Nov 06, 2020
Friday Nov 06, 2020
Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 59 – Face the frog
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: Life; Old Dog New Tricks; En Route; Feeding the Habit, Quick News Beats, Big Up and J’adore.
This podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co.
Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, Amazon, 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 do that through Patreon:
1 – Life
So, since February this year, we have been getting our house ready to put on the market. It went up the day before lockdown in March and we accepted an offer when we came out of lockdown.
I honestly believed I would be recording this new podcast from the new house. For those that are watching, that clearly hasn’t happened and I am still here in my lovely studio which I am really going to miss.
I can’t complain in the grand scheme of a pandemic and world politics, but all the same, I am utterly frustrated.
You know when you keep on looking at the photos of the house you are moving to and you just want to be there, unpack and enjoy your new space? That’s where we are right now.
The worst bit is that I don’t have ready access to my stash. I miss it and the ability to just dip into it and be enthused by wool.
I put several things on hold while we dealt with the move and at the weekend I decided that life can’t really go on hold anymore and that I just need to crack on with things.
One of those things is to try out some new podcast equipment. I am using audio, lighting and visual equipment today, and I would love to know what you think.
I’m trying to use less kit, so save space and also create better light to get over the Winter gloom in my studio.
I already have my podcast space worked out in the new house and it is all flooded with light, so will be much brighter at some point in the future. My fingers, toes and legs are crossed.
Please bear with me a little longer if I’m not about so much on social media and have fewer projects to show off. I promise to be back to full volume as soon as I can, but moving house takes priority over all else until we have moved.
I don’t recommend trying to move house in a pandemic – it adds a whole new level of crap to an already crappy situation.
2 – Old Dog New Tricks
I have two old dog new tricks for you today.
The first is to show that you can make your own yarn colour blend. I have been working on my Color Pop Sweater and unfortunately ran out of yarn.
Not wanting to try to match the third colour to fade in via online shopping, I started playing around with twisting two 4ply yarns together to make a DK weight yarn in the right colour. Amazingly, it worked rather well.
It’s easy to blend two strands together to get an idea of whether the colours will work or not. I used a solid yarn and a heavily variegated yarn, testing a couple of variegated colours to see what would work best.
I even worked the samples into my project to see whether they would fade well with the existing yarn.
My one word of caution would be to try to get a blend that creates a similar fabric to the work you are trying to match to. If not, you might create something that is stiffer and doesn’t drape so well or kicks out slightly at the ends because the combined yarn is thicker, or pulls in because the combined yarn is thinner.
The second en route is a quick and neat way of frogging projects. Roll the project you want to frog into a sausage, leaving the ‘live’ end towards you, and start to frog.
You have a much smaller surface area to contend with and won’t do half as much yanking at the yarn to get it to come loose. It also means that you can keep on moving your hand down the yarn sausage as you frog.
3 – Final Destination
I literally have nothing that I can show you. I have finished so many things, but they are all commissions.
At some point in the future, I will be able to show you the four shawls, hat, mittens and baubles that I designed – just not yet!
4 – En Route
I have made some decent progress on my Color Pop Sweater by Julme Conradie (link) who is on Instagram as @mysquarehat (link).
I had 4 skeins of DK variegated yarn that I wanted to use as a mirrored fade front and back and because this design is worked vertically from side to side, I thought it would work a treat with my yarn choice. And it did until I ran out of yarn!
The jumper has a really interesting construction where you work up the sleeve in rounds and then create a chain length from your underarm to whatever length you want for your jumper and then you work down the chain, around the sleeve and back up the chain before you turn to do the next row.
This helps to make it a really speedy make that is easy to customize.
That said, I am about to frog my initial version because:
- I have run out of yarn, even with the extra that I added in as my new blended colour.
- When you have sewn the two back panels up you can try it on and I hadn’t made the shoulder to neck piece long enough.
- I also didn’t make the overall piece long enough, even though I was aiming for a cropped jumper.
- I brought the front neckline down too far.
- I honestly think I would get more wear out of a self-coloured version. I was pushing myself with these colours and it was a mistake.
This is an extra top tip for you. If you are going to rework an entire jumper in new yarn because you didn’t like the fit of what you did the first time, don’t frog the initial one until you have made the second one. That way you have it as a frame of reference for all the things you want to change and can assess them side by side.
Also, if you’re not that keen on what you are making, you probably won’t wear it so you may as well frog it.
It's called frogging because you ”rip it/ribbit” out.
I am also working on a Tower of Strength Skirt by JimiKnits (link) @jimiknits on Instagram. The pattern can be found here as an individual pattern (Ravelry link) or as part of her design collection Jimi Knits Volume One (link). It is only sized from XS to 1XL, but I am still making it because, it is honestly, the easiest project to change the size on and Jimi gives information on that within the pattern.
Before I packed up the stash, I went stash shopping for a soft, but hopefully hard-wearing wool and came out with some wool that I bought in New Zealand a few years back.
It’s Ashford Tekapo 8 ply (link) and although it is labelled as a DK, at 200m per 100g it’s more of an Aran/Worsted weight. This is the same Ashford that makes spinning wheels and looms.
The wool is a blend of Corriedale, which is soft, and Perendale which gives a bit more structure and bounce and should lend some durability to the fabric, stopping it from pilling of felting when I sit down.
I am using Shade 227 Slate (link to UK shop selling this wool) and Shade 207 Natural (link to UK shop selling this wool).
The third wool I am using is a random skein from my stash. It has no label but the colours were good and it felt like the right weight of yarn in my fingers!
I’m taking my time with this make. I deliberately kept it back as a project to work on during the house move shenanigans because I knew that the pattern would be easy to memorise and I could keep on knitting until I ran out of yarn and got my desired length. A good pick-up and put-down project.
5 – Feeding the Habit
As part of the destash sale I did last month, I did a yarn swap with my friend Lisa and got a skein of Studio Donegal ‘Darnie’ (shade 8808 link) in a bright turquoise shade with mustard coloured flecks.
I have some other Studio Donegal yarn that I am hoping to mix this with and suspect it will make some rather lovely new cushions or seat pads for the new house.
It’s 100% lambswool and a 4 ply at 410m per 100g.
6 – Quick News Beats
1 - Global Hook Up – The November hook ups are scheduled for:
Saturday 21st at 8pm GMT and Sunday 22nd at 9am GMT.
The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here: https://www.zoom.us/join if a password is required, it is WOOL.
If you are joining on your phone or tablet you will likely need to download the software in advance. If you are joining from a PC or Mac, you can join via the link above. Everyone needs to use the same ID number to get into the session.
2 – Thanks to the folk that got in touch regarding Evernote not working for them either. I have tried to fix it but am struggling to find what the problem is and to create a solution. I will keep on plugging away with it. It matters less for this month given that I have no FOs to share with you and therefore, no project pages to create…
3 – Thank you for supporting me on Patreon. I cannot tell you what a difference it makes to me and my ability to deliver this podcast. If you want to investigate becoming a Patron, you can see what it means via this link. At the moment, I am pooling all of the Patron money and will add it to the money I generated from my yarn and craft supply destash. In the new year, it will all go towards buying a second-hand Mac which will allow me to have my own place to edit the podcast. Since I started the video part of the podcast, I have only ever been able to edit on Matthew’s Mac when he isn’t using t for work. This usually means starting editing on a weeknight after 8pm and continuing into the early hours so that it can upload while we sleep. Having my own Mac will give us both a lot more flexibility and allow me to do more with the podcast.
7 – Big UP
I am going to give a massive shoutout to Claudia, @sunbirdcrochet
She is a huge part of the Crochet Clan, is always upbeat and working on some crafty magic somewhere. If you don’t already follow her on Instagram, I encourage you to seek her out. Claudia is a multi-crafter and can turn her hand to pretty much anything.
She also created a crochet colourwork cowl pattern and called it the Fay Cowl! As a child, I was always dismayed that I could never find keyrings or fridge magnets with my name on them and if I found one, it was ALWAYS Faye with an E on the end! So, for Claudia to have created a cowl and call it Fay is really special. I will be making one, just as soon as I can get into my stash, which currently looks like this:
Claudia has also started podcasting about her makes and you can see them on Youtube (link). As if she isn’t busy enough, she has also been designing a load of colourwork crochet patterns and has been adding them into the Crochet Clan Mighty Network where you can download them for free!
8 – J’adore
This is just a quick one to say that as the Pandemic rumbles on I have noticed a general trend within the Crochet Clan of people saying that they aren’t doing the things that they routinely used to do that made them happy and was for them rather than family or friends.
So, if you need somebody to tell you to look after yourself and out time into you, I am here to do that. Supporting others is tiring and energy-sapping and you can only do that if your own foundation is solid.
Go for a run, have a long bath, eat your naughty food, start all the projects. Do whatever brings you joy, tops you up and strengthens your foundations. It’s not selfish, it’s essential.
You have been told! 😊
I’ll be back on 4th December.
Fay x
Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast
Instagram: provenance.craft.co
Instagram: FayDHDesigns
YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast
Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite
Friday Oct 02, 2020
Friday Oct 02, 2020
Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 58 – Declutter, Destash & Simplify!
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; Yarn Review; Final Destination; En Route; feeding the Habit; Quick News Beats and J’adore.
This podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co.
Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, Amazon, 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 do that through Patreon:
1 – Old Dog New Tricks
I have been having a good old sort out these last few weeks. One of the rooms to be sorted was my Stash Palace…
It is the smallest room in our house but it is absolutely crammed full of all my crafting materials and equipment. These have mainly been collected in the last six years and my tastes have changed. They haven’t changed drastically ‘cause British breeds and proper woolly wool have always been part of my crafting DNA, but I have things in my stash that I know I’m never going to use.
If you are in a similar position, the chances are that you have spent hard-earned money on those items and you would quite like to get some value back for them.
So here are some ways that you can deal with your stash based on three levels of stash love:
1 – You bought it/were given it and you aren’t that fussed about trying to get money back for it.
This is ideal for passing on to charity shops. All of my local ones love having crafting things passed to them so long as they are good quality. They don’t want ratty balls of tangled yarn. They may also be interested in partial projects, so long as the pattern/instructions are in the bundle and ideally the equipment required too.
I have also just passed a load of my commercial wool onto a friend. Her daughter crochets blankets for charity and is going to make good use of that bag of yarn to help keep someone warm in Manchester.
2 – You want to at least try to get some value from these mid-range items if you can.
This is the kind of thing that I try to sell on Ebay. Lots of commercial yarn is sold on Ebay and it’s a great platform for selling it on because the chances are that the buyer already has a knowledge of that yarn brand, so have the confidence to buy from that platform.
3 – These stash babies can’t be given away, you really need to try to recoup some of the money you spent on them.
This is the level where you are best off going to a specific platform to sell it. Whilst I see more hand-dyed skeins of yarn appearing on Ebay, I still think that Instagram or Facebook Groups are a better option for resale.
If you have a large enough following, doing a destash on stories can be a great way of selling your unwanted yarn and equipment.
Your other option is to join some of the many Facebook groups for reselling yarn. They can be country-specific, so if you don’t want to pay high postage costs, try to find a group in your country. I am a member of the Yarn Snobs – hand-dyed yarns FSOT group on Facebook. It is mainly made up of UK folk and it’s easy to work out whether the yarn is available from the UK or elsewhere.
In non-COVID times, I would also recommend hosting a yarn swap at your local crafting group. I usually hold one twice a year at Woolgathering Sandbach and it gives you the chance to refresh what is in your stash without spending a penny.
Having sorted through all of my stash in the last few days and moved a lot of it into the three categories above, I feel a lot better. The sheer amount of ‘stuff’ was weighing heavy. To be fair, we have been decluttering the entire house and so unless an item is useful, beautiful, or sentimental, it has been moved on to a new home and it feels REALLY good.
So on that note, I will be having a bit of a destash sale on Instagram on Sunday the 4th October. I will be listing books, yarn and material, so if you fancy seeing what is on offer, come and see from 12pm onwards (BST).
2 – Yarn Review
The good folks at John Arbon asked if I wanted to have a play with their new Alpaca Supreme yarn. It has been given a bit of an update with some delicate new colours to complement the existing neutral palette.
I’m on a bit of an alpaca kick at the moment and so it was an obvious yes, please!
I asked Sonja to surprise me with the colour and I’m very pleased that she sent me Morganite. It’s a proper dusky, old rose pink. I’m not a massive pink fan, but this has such a lovely vintage vibe to it and I love it.
The blend is 40% Superfine Alpaca (UK grown), 40% Organic Falklands Merino and 20% A1 Mulberry Silk.
Alpaca fibre is generally graded into six different categories and depending on which website you are looking at, Superfine Alpaca is either grade 2 or 3, so right up there at the lux end. Here is a link to the suggested six grades for alpaca fibre (link).
A1 Mulberry Silk is basically the highest quality you can get for yarn. Mulberry has an extremely high lustre to it and the A1 refers to the fibre length and lack of neps from the cocoon.
If you have ever used their Knit By Numbers, you already know how gloriously soft their Organic Falklands Merino is.
I am crocheting up a Positivity Spiral with this skein and it is super soft and luxurious to work with. I’m using a 3.75mm hook and the fabric I am getting has a gorgeous drape and a fluidity to it. I actually keep stroking my face with it, it’s that soft.
If you are after a really special skein of yarn for a project then I thoroughly recommend Alpaca Supreme. It’s sportweight/heavy 4 ply, so 333m per 100g. That’s enough to make a one skein shawl with, or a hat or mittens. It would also make a really beautiful shawl.
I want to make mittens, a hat, bed socks and a drapey cropped cardigan with this yarn. All the lux things.
Here are my five words for Alpaca Supreme:
lux, shiny, delicate, super-soft & drapey
3 – Final Destination
I have a few finished bits this month. First up is my Encanto Not Wrap. I used Claudia’s Encanto Wrap pattern (link) to create a cowl and since I finished it, I have barely taken it off.
I used some gorgeously soft Brenel Alpacas 100% alpaca yarn (link) that I bought in a yarn shop in Aukland, New Zealand.
Claudia’s pattern is fab and it’s really easy to make it bigger or smaller, depending on what you want to make and how much yarn you have.
I also had two designs in Inside Crochet this month. The Jewel Office Set is made from Erika Knight Gossypium Cotton (DK) and has a pattern for a desk tidy, coaster, pen pot and set of three bowls. It’s made with a mixture of intarsia and tapestry crochet.
Photo from Inside Crochet
My final finished object is called the Igam Wrap. It’s made with naturally dyed yarn from Helen of Nellie and Eve (link). Helen lives on the side of a mountain in Wales and forages locally for the plant items she uses as dye stock and even uses mountain spring water for dyeing with. She has a lovely Instagram account (link) if you fancy getting to know a bit more about her natural dyeing process.
Photo from Inside Crochet
The wrap is sized from a small to a 5XL and the size I’m showing used just under 200g of 4 ply (400m/100g) yarn. It’s a blend of 75% Bluefaced Leicester and 25% Masham. The colour is called Juniper and it’s a beautifully soft, blue/steel grey colour.
What I really love about this wrap is how versatile it is. It has a double button band so that it can be worn as a cowl, wrap, poncho or twisted wrap.
I also have a pair of knitted socks. I really lost my crafting mojo for a few days. It’s unusual for me to not pick up a hook, needles or thread at some point every day and after six days of no crafting passed, I knew it was time to kickstart it somehow.
Off to my Stash Palace I popped and found my already caked Indian Giant Squirrel by RiverKnits. This yarn has all of the autumnal colours in one and it was just what I needed to get my mojo back. I knitted my good old plain socks so that the yarn wasn’t competing with a pattern. They make me smile and they brought my mojo back.
4 – En Route
This is a bit of a cheaty one because I haven’t actually started the project yet, but I have printed off the pattern and chosen my wool. I’m going to crochet the Colour Pop Sweater by Julme Conradie (link) who is on Instagram as @mysquarehat (link).
I really love Julme’s designs and her pattern writing is good. I have 4 skeins of DK variegated yarn that I want to use as a mirrored fade front and back and because this design is worked vertically from side to side it will work a treat with my yarn choice.
It’s also in linen stitch which I love. After finishing my Esja Sweater, I swore to never do another long jumper that had a horizontal linen stitch body because I don’t think it has enough integral structure to it for the weight of the yarn.
My suspicion is that a vertical stitched, cropped version will be fine, and we are going to find out aren’t we!
One of the beauties of side to side vertical construction is that I can put colours that I wouldn’t want right at my face, into the arms instead. I have a deep orange/red that I wouldn’t normally wear in a jumper. I love the colour, I just don’t think it does anything with my pink complexion.
The other thing to say about the Pop Colour Sweater is that of course, I am going to fiddle with it. I’m going to knit the ribbing rather than crochet it, which means adding all of it at the end and therefore playing around with the pattern a little. You would expect nothing less of me!
So, more actual progress on that jumper next month. Even though it’s DK, there is no way it will be finished.
4 – Feeding the Habit
I am fresh back from a lovely weekend away with a couple of my yarny friends. We couldn’t get our money back for our Yarndale weekend, so still went to Skipton and had a weekend of watching movies, eating good food and crafting.
We took along yarn that we didn’t want anymore and swapped with each other for things we would use.
So, I have three new skeins of yarn in my stash that I didn’t really pay for and have decluttered some of the yarn that I know I won’t use. Result!
The yarns are John Arbon Textiles Exmoor Zwartbles in a DK (link), Lain 'Amouree 100% Merino (link) and a skein of unknown goodness!
5 – Quick News Beats
1 - Global Hook Up – The October hook ups are on:
Saturday 17th at 8pm BST and Sunday 18th at 9am BST.
The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here: https://www.zoom.us/join if a password is required, it is WOOL.
If you are joining on your phone or tablet you will likely need to download the software in advance. If you are joining from a PC or Mac, you can join via the link above. Everyone needs to use the same ID number to get into the session.
2 – A group of amazing crocheters and I are part of a Vogue Knitting Live panel on the 8th October called “Crochet in the UK”. It’s part of Vogue Knitting Live form the 8th – 11th October (link).
We will be chatting for an hour about how the UK is pushing crochet forward and hopefully showing off contemporary crochet and why it isn’t second fiddle and deserves its own seat at the crafting table.
As I get more details on how to join, I will add them to the show notes and get them out on Instagram.
All of this is being pushed by Claudia from Crochet Luna podcast. The panel was her idea and she has brought together a fabulous group to represent the UK crochet scene.
3 – Somebody got in touch to say that they were having issues getting into my project notes in Evernote. If anyone else has had issues can you please let me know? Equally, if you managed to get into the notes can you let me know?
4 – Thank you, thank you, thank you for supporting me on Patreon. I cannot tell you what a difference it makes to me and my ability to deliver this podcast. If you want to investigate becoming a Patron, you can see what it means via this link.
5 – Just a bit of a heads up that I may not be around much this coming month. Have no fear, I will be back next month but it may be a bit of an amalgamation podcast as I am going to have to record bits and pieces as I can throughout the month.
There is rather a lot going on at Chez Dashper-Hughes at the moment, so I am going to have to squeeze things in when I can.
6 – J’adore
I have a new to me podcast to recommend for you today and it isn’t specifically about crochet, but there is a connection. I am really interested in where my food and resources come from, how it is produced and the people behind the production. I should imagine that is fairly obvious from this podcast.
Through my friend and stockist Maria or Dodgson Wood, I came across an audio podcast called Rock and Roll Farming (link). Will is a beef, arable and egg farmer in North Wales and has been delivering a weekly podcast since April 2017, with well over 100 episodes to listen to.
I know this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but here in the UK, small scale farming is integral to our landscape, food chain and textiles industry and Will offers a broad overview of the UK farming scene through his podcast. I promised you will be interested in some if not all of it.
If you want to dip your toe in gently, start with the Herdy Shepherd interviews (part 1 & part 2). If you were ever of the opinion that farmers and agrics weren’t impressive folk, think again.
I’ll be back on 6th November in some form or not – possibly a hologram.
Fay x
Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast
Instagram: provenance.craft.co
Instagram: FayDHDesigns
YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast
Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite
Friday Jul 03, 2020
Friday Jul 03, 2020
Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 56 – social network.
My name is Fay and this is my audio and video podcast for those that love fibre crafts, particularly crochet. It’s a community for people that like to support their fellow humans regardless of race, gender, sexuality, ability, size or age. I hope you feel the welcome embrace and love of the Crochet Clan. Come on in and stay awhile.
In this episode, I cover: Old Dog New Tricks; Final Destination; En Route; Quick News Beats and Big Up.
This podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co.
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 do that through Patreon:
1 – Old Dog New Tricks
I have two for you today. This first is a great podcast hack for YouTube. Some of you watching me may struggle to deal with my soft Scottish accent and the speed that I talk. I discovered that you can change the speed setting of videos on YouTube. If you hover your mouse done at the bottom of the video, a settings cog will appear. Click on that, click ‘Playback Speed’ and then choose whether you want to speed the video up or slow it down.
There are a few podcaster’s whose content I love, but their delivery is just to slow for me to enjoy. By bumping them up to 1.25, the podcast is delivered at a rate that I enjoy and I can get through more podcasts.
I’ll take you through my second new trick in FOs.
2 – Final Destination
I finished my Zig-Zag-Zummer top (link) by Sandra at Nomad Stitches (link), using my Rowan Pure Linen stash which is 130m/50g. I used 250g in total to make a size 3 with modified sleeve caps and I am really pleased with the result.
Image text 1: Wooden floorboards with my finished Zig Zag Zummer top on them. The back of the top is up to show the back V is lower then the front neckline V. The top has plain rows of Htr (hdc) at the top and a filet crochet zig-zag pattern from the bust down. The yarn is pure linen and dark olive green.
Image text 2: A close up of the armhole of the top showing my addition of dc2tog, rows to pull in the gape that occurred at the bottom of the armhole, above the bust.
Image text 3: Upper part of my torso stood in my kitchen. I am wearing the top to show the left armhole which is gaping and the right armhole which I have made the dc2tog adjustments to and has a lot less gape.
Usually, I would upload my FOs as a project to Ravelry, but I’m not going to do that anymore. I will be talking about that during Quick News Beats and sharing details of what I’m working on instead.
I found that when I had finished the top, there was a fair bit of gape at the front at the top of my chest. I think I have a way of dealing with this during the actual crocheting of a top like this next time. I didn’t know it was going to gape until I had sewn it all up, so needed a quick solution for reducing it.
Attaching my yarn to the bottom of the yarn holes, I just did a series did 2 dc2tog, dc, ss, turn 4 dc 2 tog, dc, ss, turn and continued working in rows in this pattern until I had decreased the armhole gape to my satisfaction. This only worked because I had spec in the armhole to build up extra rows – had I not, I would have had to rip back and worked a different solution.
My second FO is a stone! I have been looking to make a paper/pattern weight for when I am working outside and cutting out sewing fabric. I wanted something pretty that would look ornamental even when not in use. So, crocheted cotton over a stone. The pattern is from ‘Making’ magazine, Issue no.4 – Lines. I have been eyeing up this pattern for some time…
Image text: Very pale pink background with a collection of brown, terracotta, grey and white pebbles. One large pebble is in the middle of them all and is has been covered in light blue cotton with crochet. A double teardrop shape runs down the centre with surrounding rounds of dc (sc) and htrs (hdc). To the left of the pebbles are three balls fo cotton - the blue used on the stone, a pale greyish pink and a dark grey.
What I would say is that it is probably better to have a collection of stones that you can try to fit the crochet to. I can see me creating a collection of these for various different uses.
3 – En Route
My one en route this month is the Belladere Bobble Pillow from the Modern Crochet book by Debrosse (link). I am using Rowan Big Wool in a now-discontinued colour (shade 068) and a 10mm hook. I am creating a specific size to fit around some of our living room cushions.
Image text 1: White background with a piece of crocheted fabric, a ball of chunky wool and a 10mm bamboo crochet hook. The crochet os being worked up in bobble stitches so has a lot of texture. On each row, the bobbles alternate spaces so it is building up a honeycomb pattern which is perfect for the mustard wool.
Image text 2: Pale pink background with the Modern Crochet book front cover showing. The book has a black binding band and a picture of a white and wood rocking chair with a white sheep rug and a white textured cushion on it. It's the same cushion I am crocheting. The top of the book has " MODERN CROCHET" in bold black print.
These are the projects I am going to work on during my Pod Holiday:
1 – Encanto Wrap by Claudia – Crochet Luna (link)
2 – Textures Tee V2 by Tina - Tigers Eye Handmade (link)
Image text 1: A photo of smiley Claudia wearing her first-ever design, the Encanto Wrap is on the left and on the right is her wrap on a mannequin wearing a black dress. The wrap shows a central purple, pink and black panel in a more solid crochet stitch and open crochet stitches for the left and right panels which are in purple and bright green.
Image text 2: Tina is stood outside a house with long dark, wavy hair and hands-on-hips to show off the details of her crocheted top. The top is a light grey colour and looks like it is made on the vertical for the top of the torso and horizontally for the waste band. The crochet has lacy details.
4 – Feeding the Habit
I don’t have any yarn to share with you this month. I am still very much trying to work through some of my oldest stash and I do have rather a lot due from John Arbon Textiles. On that note, I know that quite a few of you bought Another Friday Night at their Open Weekend. I would love to know what you are going to make with it.
Image text: Mercahndise from Lady Dye Yarns on a pale pink background. A bleached cotton drawstring bag with "badass crocheter ladydyeyarns.com" and a skull with crochet hooks for cross-bones is being hugged by the sleeve of a raglan long-sleeved t-shirt. The raglan portion is a dark denim blue and the mani body is a light blue/grey. It has the same wording and emblem screen-printed on the front.
What I did receive were some goodies from Claudia in the form of a ‘badass crocheter bag and top’ from Lady Dye Yarns (link). I love them!
This also means that I have a top-up of Claudia’s button badges which I will be adding to the shop next week.
Image text 1: Five skeins of mohair are piled up on a light background. The mohair is characteristically showing flyaway fibres and a beautiful lustre and the nettle dye stock with iron modifier has created a steely green colour that is really difficult to describe!
Image text 2: Five skeins of merino-silk 4 ply yarn on a light background. The middle skein is a darker green and was dyed with dock roots, all of the outer skeins were dyed with dock leaves and are semi-tonal sage greens.
I have also been naturally dyeing some mohair with nettles adn iron modifier and merino/silk using dock leaves/roots and an iron modifier. I didn't get the colours I expected but with the addition of iron sulphate as a modifier, I got some beautiful greens.
7 – Quick News Beats
1 - Global Hook Up – The July hook ups are on:
Saturday 25th at 8pm BST and Sunday 26th at 9am BST.
The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here: https://www.zoom.us/join
If you are joining on your phone or tablet you will likely need to download the software in advance. If you are joining from a PC or Mac, you can join via the link above. Everyone needs to use the same ID number to get into the session.
2 – I am going to take a Podcast Holiday in August. I have to reasons for doing this, the first is that I am absolutely shattered and don’t feel like I am bringing my best work to the table at the moment. The second is that viewer and listener numbers dip in August because people are off outside doing other things – all power to you.
This makes it the best time for me to have a month, recharge, do a load of podmin and come back as energised as ever in September. I will still be on Instagram and other places, but there will be no Global Hook Up in August.
3 – Let’s talk Ravelry. I’m sure you are aware of the utter debacle that has been Ravelry’s bizarre process to move to a new-look website. This has caused lots of issues, making many people ill with headaches, migraines and seizures.
As ever, I like to focus on positive actions. Hand in hand with the Ravelry changes being poorly executed is that fact that I really hate the forums function and consequently, never want to go in there. That means that I’m not properly interacting with all of you and that’s not on.
So, myself and a small core of the Crochet Clan have been testing other web/app options for ways that crocheters can congregate and chat together, show off FOs, WIPs – basically all the things that occur in the Ravelry Group.
We think we have found a really neat solution in the form of Mighty Networks. It’s free to join, very intuitive and much more fun to use. If you want to come and take a look, just follow this link: https://crochet-clan.mn.co/share/qXbA1tZnaHSae3Ek?utm_source=manual You will have to sign up to Mighty Network but it is free of charge, is available as a mobile device app and a webpage. You can give me feedback in that community forum or email me directly (fay@provenancecraft.com). So far so good on the usability but I don’t want to move the forums from one problematic site to another, so your feedback is needed.
Needless to say, part of my Pod Holiday will be spent over at Crochet Clan on Mighty Network to make sure that it works. When I say I have looked at many other options, believe me, that I have spent the last two and a half days trying to find a viable Ravelry alternative. My fingers are crossed that we have something that is better.
4 – My patterns are still up on Ravelry and will most likely remain there. However, I will be putting renewed emphasis into patterns on my website and am also looking at Folksy as an option because Etsy feels like a waste of my time because I am UK based.
You may find that your favourites designers have disappeared from Ravelry or won’t be adding new patterns. Many are either setting up their own sites or using platforms like Payhip to creates simple sales pages. I already had my patterns over at Provenance Craft Co. (link) so won’t be adding Payhip to my list of sales options for the time being.
8 - Big Up
This one has to go out to the core of people that have been giving up their time to help test out Crochet Clan forum options. You know who you are – it has really made the option of stepping away from Ravelry a lot less daunting. I am truly excited that we can create something brilliant from a very cruddy situation.
I’ll be back on 4th September.
Fay x
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Friday Jun 05, 2020
Friday Jun 05, 2020
Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 55 – Harder Than you Think.
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; Designs in Progress; Quick News Beats; Big Up and J'adore.
This podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co.
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 do that through Patreon:
1 – General Update
I am stood at my desk as I type this and it’s really difficult to find the ‘right’ words. I’m not even sure there are ‘right’ words. The world seems to be on fire. People are being killed, simply because of their skin colour.
This episode was nearly called “Inconsequential” because that is how I felt about podcasting over the last few days – who cares about a crochet podcast when people are being killed, simply because of their skin colour.
This crochet podcast is also a platform for morals, beliefs, community and showing solidarity.
So, instead, it is called “Harder Than You Think”. Besides being the title for my favourite Public Enemy song (because it has lyrics that speak volumes to me (link)), it is also a reminder that life is harder than you think.
It’s particularly hard on people that face oppression, brutality, racism and inequality on a daily basis. That is what hard looks like.
So, if you want to be part of the change, to support your fellow humans then know that there is hard work ahead and it will be harder than you think. You will most likely take a step back at some point and think about your former actions and words and feel disgusted with yourself for not having done better. You will make mistakes that you can learn from.
I put three actions on Instagram (link). Three simple things that can be your starting point if you are now ready to be part of the change:
1 – Listen to the experiences of others and get angry about the injustices that they are made to suffer day after day and do something positive with that anger without being performative or centring it around you.
2 – Talk to your friends and family about diversity and inclusivity. Keep having the conversations. Keep pushing for solidarity over oppression.
3 – Your money makes a difference. Donate money to organisations that make a difference such as ROTA in the UK (link) or National Bail Out in the US (link). These are just two examples, there are many great organisations out there that you can donate to.
Let’s be part of the change. Complacency is not an option.
2 – Old Dog New Tricks
I just have a quick one for you this month because time is utterly against me this week. You may have the same issues I have when I go above a 5.5mm crochet hook. I find that the hook gets too heavy and it can be difficult to manoeuvre and ultimately make your hands or wrist hurt.
I have some large plastic hooks in my hook case but I really don’t enjoy working with them and I find it difficult to get my tension right. Instead, have a try with bamboo hooks. They are lightweight, slippy enough to tension with and I find them comfortable to work with.
So, if you have previously been put off working on larger gauge projects because of the hooks you, why not try a bamboo.
3 – Final Destination
I have finished things!
Scrapvent Blanket is finished and I love it! I’ll be writing up this pattern shortly. My lovely friend Bec is working up a DK version with an advent yarn calendar she got last year. I have never been that fussed about crocheting blankets, but I think the flood gates may have been opened. I definitely prefer thin fabric without holes.
Image text: The left side of my bone coloured linen sofa has blue cushions and my Scravent Blanket draped over the arm. A medley of 24 different coloured yarns with a peachy cream border.
Matthew called my Scrapvent Blanket “fugly” – how rude! So, to get my revenge I used loads of the yarns craps from the blanket in a pair of Fugly Socks that he has to wear. The truth is that I didn’t want to add a load of little yarn scraps back into my stash and I used up all the remnants of nine of my blanket colours in his socks. I will use some of the other scraps to also make myself a pair of Fugly Socks.
Image text: A pair of scrappy, hand-knitted socks in stripes of forest green, acid green, teal, navy, grey and aqua. The socks are placed on bone coloured linen sofa seat pad.
Last month I showed off some slubby/thick and thin yarn that my friend Claudia sent me from Germany. I crocheted it into a cushion cover using a 10mm (bamboo) hook and linen stitch. I chose linen stitch because it makes a nice flat fabric which has a decent amount of stretch which you need in a cushion cover. Eventually, the cushion will go into my Stash Palace, but for now, Matthew is using it on his stool when her delivers training. Who knew that metals stool seats aren’t that comfortable?!?
Image text: A close up of my bone coloured linen sofa has blue cushions and my new slubby crocheted cushion cover at the front. It has a light sky blue, olive green, spring green and white running through it and is nobbly because of the slubby yarn.
I have also been trying out wood whittling, and I love it. I have concentrated on shawl sticks so far.
Image text: Five hand whittled shawl sticks are placed on bone coloured linen sofa seat pad. The sticks have a skeletal quality about them because of the blonde wood and finger-like quality of their shape.
4 – En Route
It is time to think about crocheting summer tops! This has been on my to-do list for weeks now and I finally found time at the weekend to search for the right top.
I was specifically looking for a top that had been designed by a BIPOC/BAME designer and was size-inclusive (up to a 60” bust).
So, where do you start? Well, you go to the BIPOC in Fiber website (link) because it is an amazing resource that is easy to navigate and gives the details and links of BIPOC/BAME in all sorts of categories such as crochet designers, hand-knit designers, yarn retailers, photographers, podcasters – basically every element of our fibre community is covered and categorised, ready for you to search.
There were three pages of crochet designers for me to go to and they all link to website or Ravelry pages where I could see their full designs line-up.
Because I was looking for a size-inclusive garment, that narrowed the field but I enjoyed going through all of the designer profiles, many of which I was familiar with because of the work that Claudia from Crochet Luna vlog cast had been doing.
So, I settled on the Zig-Zag-Zummer top (link) by Sandra at Nomad Stitches (link). You definitely will have seen Sandra’s work before. She is the designer behind the Taroko and Aztec Sweaters.
Image text: 1 - Boen coloured linen seat pad with a ball of olive green yarn to the right, the very beginnings of a top and an orange crochet hook. The yarn has a sheen to it because it is pure linen. Image 2 - White wall with Sandra's torso showing. She is wearing her Zi-Zag-Zummer crocheted top which has filet zig zags at the bottom, working up to a plain v-neck top. The top is a mid-dusky rose pink.
Image text: Dusky pink background with a white polaroid cut out and Sandra from Nomad Stitches as he photo held up with clear washi tape. Sandra has mid-length brown hair and is wearing a crocheted top with love hearts at the bottom. She is also wearing a big smile.
I plan on using my Rowan Pure Linen stash which is 130m/50g because it will ake for a nice cool summer top.
I haven’t really made much progress on the top because life, but have a deadline of the 1st July because I am joining in the @promised.fiber (link) Make IT Inclusive MAL (link).
If you fancy joining in too, it is open to crocheters, knitters and sewers. Wouldn’t it be amazing if lots of Crochet Clan people searched out a BIPOC/BAME designer from the BIPOC in Fiber website and joined in?
I also wanted to highlight a couple of other sources:
1 – Lisa (LisaRaspCrochet on Ravelry) has made a bundle which has 133 different size-inclusive garments.
2 – Yelley (Yelley on Ravelry) also has a bundle with 158 size-inclusive crocheted garments.
Find the person on Ravelry, click onto their favourites and then you can search their ‘bundles’.
5 – Designs in Progress
I have finished all of my Positivity Spiral samples and have updated the pattern. If you have already bought it or buy it in the future, it now gives options form heavy laceweight up to bulky/chunky weight. I have added in estimated circumference and depth measurements so that you can choose how many stitch repeats you do to get the measurements you want.
The updated version will be going out next week.
I also have the rights back for Omni and that has already been uploaded onto my website and Ravelry. Again, that works in all weights between heavy laceweight and aran/worsted.
6 – Feeding the Habit
There is no Feeding the Habit this month. I have been buying sewing books, but no yarn.
This will not last for long because this weekend is the John Arbon Textiles Mill Open Weekend. I should have been vending and instead, we are doing it all virtually from Friday through to Sunday.
I know I am going to buy yarn. Especially because I got to design my own colour. More on that in J’adore.
As part of the Virtual Mill Open Weekend, we are having an online crafting session – much like the Global Hook Up. Do come and join us on Sunday 7th June at 2pm on Zoom (same joining details as below for Global Hook Ups). It will be some of the Mill Folk form John Arbon, Katie Green, me and hopefully, lost of friendly faces joining us.
7 – Quick News Beats
1 - Global Hook Up – The June hook ups are on:
Saturday 27th at 8pm BST and Sunday 28th at 9am BST.
The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here: https://www.zoom.us/join
If you are joining on your phone or tablet you will likely need to download the software in advance. If you are joining from a PC or Mac, you can join via the link above. Everyone needs to use the same ID number to get into the session.
2 – Lots of yarn shows are moving to virtual events. Obviously it is nice to meet face to face, but the beauty of a virtual event is that you can o to ones that were previously out of your reach. Look out for Woolfest, Yarndale and others in the UK.
8 - Big Up
This one has to go out to the BIPOC in Fiber team. The website that has been created is a wonderful resource. You may not be aware, but the person behind the website development is actually Alyson from the Keep Calm and Carry Yarn podcast. Alyson has and continues to do an amazing job on the site.
7 – J’adore
My love affair with John Arbon Textiles continues. When I first started crocheting and getting into really lovely wool and yarns, I dreamt about having my own yarn colours.
I was asked to design my own for the Virtual Mill Open Weekend in their Yarnadelic range which is my current favourite wool of theirs.
Image text: Image split into two but features the same yarn, Another Friday Night. The yarn is dark, dusky blue with slivers of silver through it. It’s like the night sky when the starts just start twinkling but not all the light has disappeared. In the left picture, skeins of the yarn are on a table with a chair tucked underneath. On the right, the yarn is wound on colourful plastic cones and bundled inside a large white industrial bag.
Obviously, I was tempted to do a mustard but they already have an amazing mustard in that range. Instead, I went for a dark, dusky blue with slivers of silver through it. It’s like the night sky when the starts just start twinkling but not all the light has disappeared. I LOVE IT. If you want some too, be quick (link).
I’ll be back on the 3rd July.
Fay x
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