The Crochet Circle

This isn't a standard episode because instead of all the normal stuff I reflect on the year that was 2017 and what I want to achieve in 2018 with the podcast, my company KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT and with my designing under Fay Dashper-Hughes Designs. I have kept the show notes to a minimum and provided all of the links from the bits and bobs that I talked about in the episode.    Clarity I have never done a 'word of the year' before, in part because that isn't something that usually motivates me.  On New Year's Day, Matthew and I headed off to have our annual review - we are very business focussed in our household. This involves pitching up at the Yourkshire Sculpture Park with our laptops, eating good local food and going for a walk around the grounds and deciding what we want more and less of in the following year. In the weeks leading to the end of the year, I did A LOT of work on what I want to get out of the the podcast, my business and designing in 2018.  A couple of days before we headed to Yorkshire, one word was popping up everywhere - CLARITY. So, who am I to ignore something that keeps on presenting itself to me?  Clarity is my word for 2018. To me it means the following: 1 - Being clear about what I want from the three elements of my business. 2 - Spending my time wisely/  More doing, less faffing. 3 - Planning what I think is acheivable in a year - 12 podcasts, 12 designs, more of my own manufacturing. 4 - Being better at communicating with the crafting community. 5 - Improving my photography skills. 6 - Being creative for the sake of being creative and not always for the end goal of creating patterns or products. 7- Having a colour palette that is attractive to me and works across all three areas of my working life (podcast, online shop and designing) bringing clarity and consistency.  This is a massive step forward for me and helps me to understand that not liking rainbows, unicorns and pastels is actually acceptable. You would not believe the hours spent wondering why rainbows and unicorns leave me cold and even irritated at times.   By writing all of these things down and talking about them in Episode 25 I feel like I have kicked of the process of approaching 2018 with clarity.  I have told you what I am up to and now I feel accountable.  That would scare some people, but I am self employed and work from home, I have no other way of making myself accountable.  You are my team. So, to highlight the colour palette things, here are a couple of photos.  The first shows a lot of the yarn that I will be designing with this year.  The second shows the same yarn with the Autumn colour palette on top.  I bought/ received all of these yarns well in advance of gaining any understanding of the colour psychology seasons.  Hmmm, I seem to really like the Autumn colour palette...     Links to information So, here is what I have been reading, listening to, possibly even taking in through osmosis. Things that have helped me get focussed for 2018 and beyond: 1 - Sara Tasker from 'Me & Orla' has a beautiful instagram account, is a Social Media Influencer and I really like her down to earth approach.  2 - Sara also does the Hashtag Authentic podcast which has been invaluable to me so far and will continue to be this year. 3 - There are a few guests that Sara has had on that have really hit home for me, starting with Fiona Humberstone from The Brand Stylist.  The podcast that I linked in number 2 will take you to that interview.  Here's the page on the Psychology of Colour.  There is just enough detail here to get your teeth into and you can buy Fiona's book if you need to know more.  I am an Autumn person.  I knew thsi already but reading this information and looking at the colour palette really helped to cement this for me. 4 - Tara Swiger, is very au fait with the yarn community and helps crafting and other businesses to move to the next level.  I haven't delved into lots of Tara's information yet, but I will be. 5 - Jen Carrington also did a great interview on 'The Glorification of Being Busy' which is worth a listen too. 6 - Photography course with Shaw Academy - I am currently doing the free introduction to photography which is online.  I have also previously done the online course from Making Light and they currently have a free tatser course running. Here are most of my finished objects from 2017.  I crocheted and knitted just over 10kg of yarn, most of which was crocheted.    I think that is enough for now. In February you will get my normal podcast and less talk of clarity and focus. Fay x   Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  Instagram: Knitithookit Instagram: Faydhdesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry Group: Search for The Crochet Circle Podcast in Groups

Welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 24 – Giddy Kipper. In this episode I cover: Quick news beats; Old dog, new tricks; FOs; WIPs;  Feeding the habit, Designs in progress and What's good? This episode is sponsored by KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT Thanks to everyone who tunes in to the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile.   1 - Quick news beats Global Hook Up – I am aiming for 3rd of February for our first proper Global Hook Up. Details will be up on the Ravelry thread nearer the time. One Skein Wonderland CAL – There are so many lovely projects in the Ravelry thread and on #oneskeinwonderlandcal on Instagram. The CAL runs until 31st January, so there is still plenty of time to get cracking with a project or two! Winners will be announced on Ravelry and Instagram.   2 - Old dog, new tricks Over-dyeing - A while ago, I bought a bargainous cashmere cowl from TK Maxx that was from memory reduced from £50 to £10. The only problem was that it was light blue, which really doesn’t suit me.  It took a while for the old cogs to turn before I hade the light bulb flicker that I could just dye it to a colour that I liked. So, with an overnight soak, followed by plonking it in a dye bath of the soaking water, 100ml of vinegar and 3g of Wilton’s Teal icing colourant, I have a lovely teal cashmere cowl that I now use a lot.          Before dyeing                   During dyeing                       After dyeing You may have a jumper hiding at the back o your wardrobe or a shawl that you just don’t like the colour of. Why not just simply over-dye it? The same applies to skeins of yarn. Icing colourants only work on animal fibres, but here is a blog post that I pulled together on dyeing with acid, natural and icing colourants if you need some pointers: Dabbling with dyeing. Instagram – I think that some people are put off Instagram because it’s yet another social media channel or they don’t think their photography skills are up to scratch.  Instagram is for everyone. You don’t have to post photos, you don’t even have to engage, you can just use it to see what others are up to. I think that it is a really welcoming, engaging and positive space. What really makes a difference now is that you can follow a # as well as an individual. There are lots of crochet related hashtags on Instagram, so it’s now even easier to find crochet content and be inspired by others.    If we all start using and following #crochetcirclepodcast then we have an even better way of connecting our community on this platform. As for your photographic skills? Practice is what makes you better at it.    This also makes the potential for seeing what we are all up to during #globalhookup even greater…   3 - Finished Objects Given the amount of time spent on The Cardigan of Doom (see WIPs section), I haven’t been able to do much other crafting.   That said, I still have a couple of FOs. First up is the Calm Cowl by Suzana Davidovik. The pattern is very popular and is on Ravelry as a free download. I have already uploaded a project page to Ravelry called Ice Flow Calm Cowl so that you can see my final notes and changes to the pattern. I used every last scrap of my Fjord Fibres Trollfjord sock yarn in the colourway Ice Flow. Check out those pops of turquoise and jade – I love it!   My second FO is a pair of knitted socks, also in Fjord Fibres Trollfjord sock yarn but in Gilly’s Moroccan Tagine colourway. These socks are dense. I fully expect these to be the warmest socks I have ever made. Given that I have now crocheted and knitted with Gilly’s Trollfjord sock yarn, I want to do a full review on them. Before I can do that, both things need to be properly road tested. The socks and cowl will be used on my upcoming Snowdon descent, so I’ll let you know how I get on after that.   4 - Works in progress The Cardigan of Doom isn’t finished, despite my best efforts. I actually hate it. I have never hated a project before, but I hate this one. If it wasn’t for a friend, I would honestly frog it. The pattern is fine, the yarn is nice, it is just taking FOREVER! Moving on to more positive things… I am working on my third version of the Criss-cross shawl. The CAL started on 1st January and runs until 23rd February, so you have plenty of time to join in. If you check the hashtags #olannandcrisscrosscal #faydhdesigns and #crisscross you will see lots of lovely versions being crocheted up and shown on Instagram. There is also a lot of chatter in the CAL thread over in the Olann and group on Ravelry. I am in there on a daily basis checking in on progress.  This version is Rowan’s Alpaca Colour DK, sadly, a discontinued yarn. I am using the Emerald colourway which is appropriate given that Olann and is Irealnd’s Fibre and Craft Magazine. You can get the pattern free of charge from Olann and. It is available to download as a PDF in both UK and US terminology and there is a YouTube tutorial to help you through the slightly trickier elements, but that said, this is a pattern for competent beginners and up.   5 - Feeding the habit  Christmas means yarny goodness. Christmas means a Christmas Eve hook on. Christmas means I have set a new rule called ‘Fay must get a skein of yarn from Matthew every year for Christmas’. I like my new rule! Aside of the Fjord Fibres skein, I snuck in a set of mini skeins from RiverKnits. They were part of a festive charity, raising £5 from every set for Medecins Sans Frontieres. My colourway choice was Mouse King and so far I have made one sock with the set. I also bought a set of mini skeins from my visit to The Little Grey Sheep’s farm near Basingstoke. The colourway is ‘Back on the Map’ and is a really lovely blend of Gotland, Shetland and Merino, all from their own farm.  Gorgeous, soft wool. And here's the lovely yarn and bag from Gilly at Fjord Fibres.  In a future CAL I will have a skein of her yarn and a variation of this bag to giveaway.  Gilly has been spoiling us all.    6 – Designs in progress The Mouse King colour way socks (see above) are going to be developed into a pattern called ‘Mini Mania Striped Socks’. Quite a bit of technical thinking went into making these socks and so I figured I may as well write up the pattern and make it available on Ravelry. Some months ago I showed a cowl and hat set that I designed using colour work crochet and was inspired by the Jon jumper by Istex. In December I finally got around to emailing to ask whether they minded me releasing the patterns that I had created, given that their pattern was my inspiration point. They emailed back immediately and said it was no problem but they would like to see the designs in Lopi wool. Istex photo taken from Ravelry So, here is where I am up to. There will be separate patterns for the cowl, hat and mittens (same pattern will cover open and closed mittens) and each pattern will give different stitch numbers for DK and 4 ply versions. The pattern is about to head off to Lisa and Jo for test crocheting and I hope to release the pattern in February. Again, I will be road testing these items up Snowdon, so will be able to give you frank feedback on how the wool and patterns performed in harsh climates.   6 - What's Good I used just under 10kg of yarn in 2017! That is a huge amount. I crocheted 6.74kg and knitted 2.62kg. I have also spent a fair bit of time in the last few weeks, preparing for the beginning of a new year. I know it’s just another day, but I think the 1st day of a new year is a good opportunity to press the reset button, assess what you want to do more of, what you want to do less of, and what you want start. 2018 is going to be a good year. We are going to have fun together!   Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  Instagram: Knitithookit Instagram: Faydhdesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry Group: Search for The Crochet Circle Podcast in Groups  

Welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 23 - I blinked and it was December. In this episode I cover: Quick news beats; Old dog, new tricks; FOs; WIPs; Feeding the habit and What's good? This episode is sponsored by KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT Thanks to everyone who tunes in to the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile.   1 - Quick news beats #Fridayisdyeday - It was great to see people dyeing on #Fridayisdyeday.  If you are interested in having a go, take a look at the blog post that I pulled together.  #Fridayisdyeday takes place over on Instagram on the last Friday of every month.   If you fancy having a go, it would be great to have you on board.  You don't need to dye, you can simply show off what you are making with indie dyed yarn - it's all about celebrating hand dyed. We even have a theme tune.  Lyndsey's husband Alan thought he would be cheeky and sing a song all about it and Lyndsey's love of wool.  I have added the video to the end of the podcast. Global Hook Up - a quick update on this one.  The platform that I was hoping to use was Google Hangouts but it isn't fit for purpose.  I need to find a platform whereby there can be a certain level of interaction and as many people as want to can join in and see what is going on. I'm not quite back to the drawing board on this one because we (Matthew has been in his office doing test calls to me on my laptop in the dining room) have looked at so many platforms.  Some are clunky, some don't do what they promise and some simply can’t offer what they are advertising.  We are now looking at an app called Zoom.  Whilst you do have to download it, it's pretty user friendly and Grace from Babbles travelling yarn podcast is using it for Virtual Knit Nights. My plan is to work this up over the festive period and when I am ready to do a test session, I will pop a thread up in Ravelry giving you all the details for those that want to help with that session. My sincerest apologies for those of you that were waiting in YouTube for a live broadcast on Saturday 25th November.  I had cancelled it but YouTube had other ideas.   CALs for 2018 - Thank you for all the fab ideas so far.  Keep them coming in.  In the January podcast I will announce what the CALs will be for 2018.  Christmas Eve CAL - Charlie from Love Charlie podcast and I are teaming up together to host the One Skein Wonderland CAL.  You can hook on at 00.01 on the 24th December.  The idea is to look out that special skein of yarn (100g) or maybe you have one coming as a present on the 25th? I have mine already and I am allowed it on the 24th! Woohoo.  Feel free to make a project up with mini skeins if that is what you want to do.  We aren't going to be really strict.  It's more about having a special skein to work from and a quick project that you can fly through during the holidays. There is a thread on Ravelry so that you can suggest one skein projects.  Thank you for all the suggestions so far.  If you go to The Crochet Circle Group (not forum) in Ravelry, you will see bundles on the right-hand side.  I have added a load of others too, from hats and shawls to toys and market bags.  Any new suggestions to the thread will also be added to the bundle. We have three prizes for this CAL.  A lovely project bag from Emya handmade, The Accessories Project Book One (signed by Kat and Joanne) and an icing dye kit from Charlie. Special Skein Competition - I have a quick turnaround competition for you this month.  Gilly from Fjord Fibres has kindly donated a skein of her Norwegian wool blend yarn - it's lush.   The deadline for the competition is going to be Friday 8th December at 12pm, so that I can get the prize into the post early the next week and hopefully the recipient has it for the Christmas Eve hook on. To enter you must do one of two things but feel free to go for a double entry and do both: 1 - Go to Ravelry and in the thread, say which of Gilly's colourways you would most like to work with and why. 2 - Go to Instagram search for my post on the competition (it will be published at some point on the Friday), make sure you are following Gilly, Charlie and me and comment on what you would make with the skein that is up for grabs.   I will draw a winner through random number generation on Saturday 9th December.  Good luck. Gilly is also offereing readers a 20% discount code in her Etsy store, you just type in CCP20 at check out.   Festive Shoutouts Episode - I hear from a lot of listeners and watchers that the people they live with, be it friends, parents, partners, they have to put up with your love of podcasts.  To give something back, I want to do an extra podcast that will go live on Christmas Eve where I give shoutouts with your messages.  I have run this past a couple of people already and the answer was that this would be well received and a bit of fun. If you would like me to read something (it can be funny - nicknames are 100% encouraged) out to someone special in your life then go to the Ravelry thread.  I will then record the messages in advance and press publish on Christmas Eve.  I will not be wearing a Christmas outfit, but may have a Christmas decoration up, a mince pie in one handy and a cheeky Amaretto in the other.   2 - Old dog, new tricks I have a couple of quickies for you this month. The first may be known by some of you but I happened across it when I was scrolling through Ravelry the other day.  Quite a while ago Ravelry started asking whether your pattern was in US or UK terminology when you uploaded a new one.  The first time this happened I emailed Ravelry and asked whether they planned to start filtering projects out on terminology.  They said they may do at some point but there were no plans in the near future. Now, if you start using the filters down the left-hand side when you are searching for patterns, there is a filter quite far down for Crochet Terminology and it is split into UK, US and unknown.  I know that many people struggle with knowing which terminology a pattern is in.  I'm not saying this is fail-safe, but it may help some of you.  The second is all about socks again - I may be obsessed!  I have a load of shop bought wool and silk blend socks.  They are threadbare on the soles, toes and back of the heel but the calf and top of the foot is fine.  I hate throwing things out that still have some life in them through a bit of reuse and creative thinking.  I am the kind of girl that will eat a previously unopened yoghurt even if it's a month out of date.  If it smells alright, eat it! I currently have eight pairs of socks that have worn through and I'm not willing to just pop them in my compost bin.  Instead I have turned them inside-out and machine sewn them across the bottom of the calf area.  I then cut below the sew line (make sure you cut towards the heel and not towards the cuff).  Turn the sock back out.  Et voila you have a perfect sized pouch for a 100g cake of yarn.  If you do a centre pull cake, you will have a lovely little protective pouch around your yarn that saves it from being dragged along the floor, picking up dust, getting tangled...    It takes just a few minutes to make these up and they are amazing for yarn management and storage in your project bag.  I'll come back to you next month with whatever scheme I dreamt up for the remaining part of my socks.  Now where's that yoghurt?    3 - Finished Objects  I was vending at Nottingham Yarn Expo in November and the preparation and aftermath of that has really impacted on my crafting times.  I have still managed to whip through some bits and pieces though. The biggie is my Homebody Sweater designed by Megan Shaimes.  I have added project notes giving all of my measurements, row and stitch counts.  Just go to my projects (MaDashper) and you will see it in there).  I am so chuffed with this jumper.  I fiddled around with the yarn, using 4 ply rather than bulky and came down to a 4.5mm instead of a 6.5mm hook so that I could get a tighter fitted jumper.  I love the way my hand dyed wool turned out.  I was aiming for a proper 80s stone washed denim affect and am really pleased with the outcome.  The jumper only took 281g so I have 210g left over and plan to make a big squishy cowl with it because the Bluefaced Leicester (BFL)/Masham mix is light, airy and oh so warm.  Next up was a very quick make.  Off the back of finishing a jumper and having a deadline cardigan to knit, I wanted a project that I could tackle in a morning.  This mini hot water bottle cover was featured in Issue 21 of Crochet Now and was designed by my friend Helen Eccles. I crocheted it using a beautiful skein of The Little Grey Sheep's Hampshire DK.  It's lovely wool, quite full for a DK and the tonal shifts in the skein are beautiful.  You think it's a solid colour and then you see a little patch of seaweed greeny/brown. All in, this took me about 4 hours to make and it required about 47g of DK using a 4mm hook. The final bits I have been working on are hand embroidery.  I have started selling embroidery bag kits in the shop which means that I have to make some up to show off.  I really loved choosing which colours would go where.  For me, I got the relaxation of adult colouring with a useful project bag at the end of it.     4 - Works in progress I have one major WIP on the go at the moment - a knitted cardigan.  I've not got much further than the rib and I have to have it finished for Christmas Day... ...hmmmm.  I have worked out that I need to be averaging about 10 rows a day throughout December to hit the deadline.  A knit row take about 10 minutes and a purl is 15.  On the upside, the sleeves can be started now rather than when I am at the end of the body parts, so I can at least break up the monotony of purl rows with more knit rows.  I sincerely hope my friend Frazer appreciates this.  He is one of less than a handful of people I would make this much effort for and it is the only one he is ever going to receive from me. 5 - Feeding the habit  So, it looks like a lot, but I only bought one skein - I promise. Glacier and Moroccan Tagine - both by Fjord Fibres (Glacier is my Christmas skein from Matthew and Gilly sent me Moroccan Tagine as a treat - I am very lucky). Bear in Sheep’s Clothing - Killadoon. Bernie and I did swapsies at Nottingham Yarn Expo.  She got a bear bag embroidery kit (of course) and I got wool (of course).   North Ronaldsay Wool - I didn't buy this from Brit Yarn for a specific design but there is a design purpose behind it.  I want to get to know our British breeds a little better and Louise at Knit British is running  something called Wool exploration in 2018 with a new breed being reviewed and discussed each month.  First up is North Ronaldsay, then it's Gotland, Ryeland and Jacob (all of which I already have in my stash).  My plan is to report back each month and let you know how I get on and build up something - possibly a blanket, but mainly my knowledge of how British breeds handle and which are best suited to the types of crochet I design. As for these goodies, my pin was a gift from the ever-lovely Claudia at Crochet Luna podcast.  I tried to buy one and I wasn't allowed!  The crochet hooks are rather special too.  I commissioned them from Hayley of Fireweed Fibres.  Not only does she dye yarn, she also goes stick foraging.  These amazingly ergonomic and tactile crochet hooks are individually chosen as a branch by Hayley before prep, whittling, sanding, varnishing and pyrography.  I cannot tell you how lovely these are as things of beauty and as crafting tools. If you would like something similar, just drop Hayley a line, she is very lovely.  My Dad was on a trip to Iceland and this little lot turned up this morning.  It's a new to me yarn from from a new Icelandic producer, Einrum and is an 80:20 mix of Icelandic wool and Mulberry Silk from Thailand.  I have a design in mind for this, I just need the time to get my hook out!   6 - What's Good My brain is starting to filter through what I want 2018 to look like. At the beginning of every new year we sit down and write a list of all the things we want to achieve in the following 12 months.  It can be silly stuff or major goals to be achieved. As part of the January podcast I want to review my 2017 craft goals, set new ones for 2018 and give you a bit of a run down for what I want to achieve personally, professionally and with the podcast.  Not wishing to get all business like, but this way of thinking gives me clarity and means that I deliver an interesting (hopefully) podcast every month.       Until 2018 - I cannot believe that I have just typed that. Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  Instagram: Knitithookit YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry Group: Search for The Crochet Circle Podcast in Groups  

Welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 22 - The Secret's Out... In this episode I cover: Quick news beats; Old dog, new tricks; FOs; WIPs; DIPs; Feeding the habit; Setting up a craft group; Big up and What's good? This episode is sponsored by KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT Thanks to everyone who tunes in to the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement is really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile.   1 - Quick news beats #Fridayisdyeday - On the 27th October I hosted the first #Fridayisdyeday, showing how different yarns can be dyed using professional (acid), icing colourant and natural dyes.  If you are interested in having a go, take a look at the blog post that I pulled together.  The plan is to do a #Fridayisdyeday over on Instagram on the last Friday of every month.  I might be dyeing again, showing what I am making with my own hand dyed yarns or highlighting what I am making with some of those special hand dyed skeins that are residing in the Stash Palace!   If you fancy having a go, it would be great to have you on board.  The blog post has lots of links to further information on dyeing yarn and here are my results from Friday:   Ravelry moderators - the keen eyed amongst you will have noticed that I have added three more moderators to the group.  Anna, Jo and Lisa are always in there welcoming people in and responding and generally being a bunch of lovelies and making our Rav group a lovely sharing place to be.  They agreed to be moderators for us all.  We have never had to kick anybody out or edit what is in the group which is amazing and the job of moedrating is more about welcoming people to the group and keeping the chat going.  Tamara and Helen were already in there as moderators and I am hoping that they will stay on even after the #BackToSchoolSweaterCAL.   Global Hook Up - A wee while ago (... quite a few months ago) I mentioned that I wanted to start hosting Global Crafting gatherings online.  You then heard nothing more on the subject but in the background I have been researching the best way to bring this to you.  The sessions are going to be on a Saturday night (GMT) so that as many people as possible can join in.  A handful of people will be able to interact on an audio and visual basis and as many people as want (I believe) can join in by seeing what is going on.  You can also use #GlobalHookUp on Instagram to track what is going on with the session and interact and show off your crafting. The initial test Global Hook Up is going to be on Saturday 25th November.  The exact time is to be anounced and the details will be added to a Ravelry thread and on Instagram. The idea is to use the first hook up to see how it works for everyone and iron out any niggles, ready for the next one in December CALs for 2018 - Over the next couple of months I would like to ask you to tell me what CALs you would like me to run in 2018.  I have a few ideas but would like to get you involved in the process.  I have opened a thread on Ravelry so please do let me know what ideas you have. Christmas Eve CAL - We had so much fun with last year's Christmas Eve CAL, that it's going ahead this year too.  Charlie from Love Charlie podcast and I are teaming up together to host the One Skein Wonderland CAL.  You can hook on at 00.01 on the 24th December.  More details to follow on this but the idea is to look out that special skein of yarn (100g) or maybe you have one coming as a present on the 25th?    There is a thread on Ravelry so that you can suggest one skein projects that I can add to a bundle for everyone to see.    2 - Old dog, new tricks This month it's all about upping the odds of winning at yarn chicken (that game you play when you really, really hope you have enough yarn to finish off a row or round).   I tested out three different yarn weights (4 ply, DK and chunky) to see if there was any real difference in the amount of yarn needed.   After a couple of rows of dc to settle my tension on each swatch I then crocheted three rows of dc, three of half treble and three rows of treble crochet.  This allowed me to take an average length of yarn required over three rows.    Here are the results: 4 ply (400m per 100g) dc requires 9 times the length of your row/round htr requires 11 times the length of your row/round tr requires 14 times the length of your row/round   Double Knitting (DK - 200m per 100g) dc requires 9 x the length of your row/round htr requires 12 x times the length of your row/round tr requires 14 x the length of your row/round   Chunky (100m per 100g) dc requires 9 x the length of your row/round htr requires 12 x the length of your row/round tr requires 14 x the length of your row/round I have since tested this on the Homebody Sweater that I am crocheting.  It's in rows of htr and I am using a 4ply yarn and a 4.5mm hook, so very different from what I tested above.  Guess what?  Yup, it took just under 12 x the length of the row.  My final nugget of yarn had 10 lengths and so I managed to save myself some time and just started a new ball instead.   3 - Finished Objects  I didn't think I had much to show this month but it turns out I do.  First up is my Sicily jumper which is a free of charge Rowan pattern.  Although it calls for 4ply cotton, I used a 4 ply wool blend instead (Shilasdair luxury 4 ply in shade Hawthorn).  The wool has a lot more stretch than the cotton and the sample on the model seemed quite bulky so I opted to make the smallest size and it is my best fitting handmade garment to date.   It has been really lovely to be part of the Back To School Sweater CAL with Helen and Tamara.  So much so that I have started a second jumper. As part of another along, I took part in the Fibre Friends Podcast North Bound Knitting Along which meant knitting any of Lisa Mutch's patterns.  I chose to do Auspice using up the 100g skein of skinny Merino that I had hand dyed with blackberries.  The yarn has faded from a soft purple colour to a silver grey and I really like it. I also had a day out in London with four lovely friends (Flic, Corrine, Helen and Charlie) and we made our way to i Knit and Loop.  Whilst in Loop I purchased a hot off the press copy of Making Winter by Emma Mitchell (Silverpebble2 on IG).  It has some lovely crochet patterns in it as well as recipes and lots of other crafty makes.  I suspect that this is going to be a firm favourite with lots of people and I know that it is already on a few Christmas lists.  I have made the Hawthorn mittens and although I could have stuck to the one colour version in the book, I had to fiddle and add some of my Hawthorn inspired Shilasdair yarn for the actual hawthorn berries and some brown wool that I did a test icing colour dye on in advance of #Fridayisdyeday  It is so cold in my office that I have had these on all day!  You can also see a scrap yarn garland that I have made ready to be part of my exhibition stand.  This is a free pattern from Little Conkers.  My final FO is a pair of socks.  I have been trying a different heel construction this time and I have to say I really like working the after thought heel and am in love with the colour.  You can see the sock/yarn blank in the photo and the subsequent socks.  4 - Works in progress I only have a couple of WIPs on the go at the moment.  The first is my second version of Criss-cross using Gym Nut from Green Elephant Yarns.  This is a CAL with Olann and which will start in January (it was going to be November but we are now going for January).  If you fancy joining in, you need a 2 x 100g of 4ply with at least 350m per 100g.  More details will follow on Ravelry and Instagram. Progress is fairly slow on this one becasue I am recording a tutorial for the pattern as I crochet along.   The second is a new jumper using some Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) and Masham blend (4 ply and using a 4mm hook) which is really light and airy but oh so warm.  The pattern is Homebody Sweater by Megan Shaimes and it is available as a free download.  I liked the idea of having a slouchy, kick around the house crocheted jumper and had already dyed up the wool during #Fridayisdyeday knowing that I wanted a stone-washed denim look.     5 - Designs in Progress Thank you to everyone that responded to my call for test croheters and product reviewers.  My plan is to keep with this segment whenever I have something to say. This month I have something massive to tell you!  The reason I have been quiet of Ravelry and IG is because I have been designing crocheted items for Erika Knight.   That's it, the secret really is out now.  I have been sitting on this information for just over two months and have a series of four shawls that I have designed in Erika's fab new British Blue 100 range (8 shades in gorgeous 100% British BFL).  There are some other designs as well, one finished and some in the pipeline.  I have been working with Erika and Bella to design a set of four shawls that increase in complexity as you move from one to the next.  All four are based on the same basic pattern repeat and shape but a change of stitch or addition of lace rows leads to four very different shawls. When I started crocheting and knitting three years ago, I naturally gravitated towards Erika's patterns and yarns because I am always drawn to elegant simplicity.  If you haven't already, please check her out - there are 10 pages of patterns on Ravelry to look at and a massive back catalogue of books too (I think I own almost all of them). In the Stash Palace I have two shelves that are dedicted to specific yarn brands.  One is Erika Knight and the other is John Arbon Textiles.  I think you all know what that means.  The love is strong. I still keep on having to pinch myself because I cannot quite believe that this has happened.  I have the upmost respect for what Erika and Bella achieve - they are incredibly hard working, lovely people. The patterns will be released next year and I will of course shout about it from the roof tops and show them off to you when I can.   I am so, so happy! :-) And the this arrived through the post and that's my Doppio Colosseum on the front!   6 - Feeding the habit Bags from EMYA Handmade (AKA the very lovely Emmie and Yael).  Not only did they send me these bags as a surprise (one of which is going to become a podcast prize) but they are also offering a 20% discount code on their shop www.emyahandmade.com you just need to use the code EMYA20.  They have a great range of items, including reusable make up remover pads and panty liners (one of my biggest concerns of non biodegradeable waste). Making Winter from Emma Mitchell is priced at £14.99 Indigo dyed yarn and natural undyed yarn from Border Tart.   7 - Setting up a craft group I promised to go through how I set up Woolgethering Sandbach and it turned out to be quite lengthy so it became a blog post as well as the detail that I gave in the podcast.     8 - Big up I'm going a little left field this month with an audio book(ish) and a film podcast: I love listening to audiobooks, especially since I started working from home on my own.  It's very easy to feel like your brain is turning to mush and there is a lack of intellectual content because you are missing out on office situations where dialogue and debates occur everyday.    Audiobooks mean that I continue to learn really interesting stuff as I design or crochet or catch up on emails.  My latest is a series of lectures called The Great Courses and I chose to listen to the lectures on The Vikings.  It is extremely indepth and brilliantly delivered by Prof. Harl - not at all dry and boring.  It was just one credit on Audible and I had 18 hours of amazing content.  There are many subjects to choose from in The Great Courses and they're well worth taking a look at. Every Friday night Matthew and I sit down to listen to the Empire Podcast.  We love watching films and really enjoy this film review podast.  It's silly, quite sweary and great Friday night entertainment.   9 - What's Good 2018 is shaping up to be a pretty good year.  I feel like I set the standard for what I want to achieve in 2017 and feel ready to take 2018 on as a crochet designer and podcaster.  Watch out world!    Until December. Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  Instagram: Knitithookit YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry Group: Search for The Crochet Circle Podcast in Groups

Hello my lovelies! Welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes from Episode 21 - For the love of socks. In this episode I cover: Old dog, new tricks; FOs; WIPs; DIPs; Review of Step Into Crochet; Feeding the habit; Big up and What's good? This episode is sponsored by: KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT Thanks to everyone who tunes in to the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement is really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special.   1 - Quick news beats Crochet Cakes - I am very pleased and relieved to say the Clarisabeth and Caroline (and family) are well.  They live in Puerto Rico which was hard hit by Hurricane Maria. The news came via Alyson from the Keep Calm and Carry Yarn podcast. I have just donated money to the Alianza Somos fund because they are concentrating on areas such as power and communications, two things that will help to get infrastructure back up which should make general aid relief easier. It may be some time before we hear from Clarisabeth again, and it is just great to know that they are well. Logging your projects - I am often asked how I log my designs and projects and at long last I have pulled together a 'How I log my designs, WIPs and FOs' blog in case you are interested too. Setting up a craft group - I asked the good folk of Instagram if they were interested in finding out how I set up and run Woolgathering Sandbach.  The answer was yes, so in the November podcast I will go through how I went about getting it of the ground, how it has evolved and how much time it takes me to manage the group. Vicki Brown giveaway - I finally got to meet Vicki face to face at Yarndale and she passed me a lucky bag for a lucky listener.  It has a temporary tattoo, gauge, wool needle, mini skein and 10% discount code.  If you want to win, head to the Ravelry thread 'Vicki Brown giveaway' and let me know what your favourite colourway is from her range. #FridayisDyeDay - if you fancy getting involved on Instagram, a few of us are going to have a Dye Day on Friday 27th October.  Either use the # or follow it to see what dye creations have been made across the globe.  I am going to do some natural dyeling using conker husks/ shells and probably some professional acid dyeing too.  Claudia (Crochet Luna podcast) is going to use acid dyes, Charlie (Love Charlie podcast) is doing natural dyeling with avocado stones and skins.  You can even use food colourants, so you really don't have to go out and buy specialist equipment.  If you don't have undyed yarn, you can over dye exisiting yarn that you aren't that fond of.   A quick internet search will give you lots of ideas and thoughts on how to dye your yarn.  I will also be pulling together a blog post in advance to give details on how you can get involved. 2 - Old dog, new tricks It's amazing where you can glean information on crochet techniques from.  This month's Old Dog New Tricks is all about a little trick that I picked up from a pass away comment somebody made on Instagram.  It's a neat little way of increasing stitches without it being as obvious.  It doesn't make a huge amount of difference to your finished object but I do think it is a little less obvious. Instead of crocheting two stitches into one, crochet one on the front loop only and the second in the back loop only. Give it a try and let me know what you think.    3 - Finished Objects  The sock theme has continued well into September as I pull together the review of 'Step Into Crochet' by Rohn Strong. I would love to say that I now have three pairs of finished socks but actually I have one pair and three singles.  The book review explains why...  I have been working on lots of other design projects that I am hoping to share with you shortly. In the meantime, this is my other FO for September.  This gorgeous little cardi is called Crumpet and was designed by Erika Knight.  This is my new go-to baby cardigan; it's really quick to work up and the 6-12 month version took just over 100g of DK yarn.   There were two purposes to this cardigan.  The first was to have a crocheted item to send to Knit for Peace with the card to explain what Crochet Circlers had been up to during the summer with Festival of Finishing and helping me to raise funds.  The second was to show the journey of recording, washing, blocking, sewing seams and choosing trims as part of my Blog Hop for the Back to School Sweater CAL.   Last month I had made a start on my Basket Weave Cushion Cover by Jo Janes (AKA Jojotwinkletoes) and now it is an FO!  I was doing more stash diving and using up odds and sods.  This is Aurancania Milidon (no longer available) and was actually a shawl that I never wore and so frogged to reuse the yarn.  I really love the final effect and Autumnal feel of the cushion. It's going to be used outside when I am sitting crocheting and need extra squish and back support.  Thanks for a great pattern Jo, I definitely feel like I now have a good understanding of front and back post trebles! 4 - Works in progress I have one WIP on the go this month and it is a whopper!  It's my #BackToSchoolSweaterCAL.  I went all round the houses with this project - incapable of deciding what I was going to make.  I finally decided on the Aberdeen Castle Cable Sweater and after about seven rows I realised that I just wasn't enjoying the cabling process.  Back to the drawing board and a pattern that I have had queued up for a long time - Sicily.  It's a free pattern by Rowan and can be downloaded straight from Ravelry.  Although the pattern calls for a 4 ply cotton, I am using Shilasdair 4ply (lambswool, angora, cashmere) and it is working up very nicely.  It is light, warm and by the end of the jumper I suspect that I will have only used 350g of yarn.   Future WIP is going to be my second version of Criss-cross using Gym Nut from Green Elephant Yarns.  This is a CAL with Olann and which will start in November.  If you fancy joining in, you need a 2 x 100g of 4ply with at least 375m per 100g.  More details will follow on Ravelry and Instagram.   5 - Designs in Progress There are designs that I can't show you yet because they are for yarn brands and then there are ones that I put out for myself under Fay Dashper-Hughes Designs.   Whilst I always aim within the podcast not to bombard you with KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT shop updates, it occurs to me that you may actually be interested in the design process and how it moves on from one month to the next.  So, this month I am going to show you a design in progress and you can let me know whether this is something that interests you or not.    This design came to me at Yarndale when I bought the yarn from River Knits Yarns.  Their colours are just fabulous and instantly knew how I was going to use the colours in a cowl, mittens and possibly hat too.  I had put the puff stitch into a shawl that I was designing and it just wasn't right, so it got logged away for a couple of weeks, waiting for the right yarn/stitch combo to pop up.   I love how this pattern is working up.  It's going to be called 'Barley' and should be out later this year if all goes well.   6 - Review of Step Into Crochet and £5 discount code I am loving the fact that crocheted socks are getting more air time with more people making them and appreciating the warmth of crocheted socks on their feet.  I received Step Into Crochet as a gift from Claudia of the Crochetluna podcast.  She is a lovely! So, here are a few caveats before I get into the review proper: I have long, thin, pointy feet and thin ankles.  This makes hand crocheted and knitted sock fitting a bit harder.  Standard patterns don't fit me as well and I usually have to make changes to get something that fits well. I have an aversion to using anything below a 3mm hook. If you are starting a new crocheted or knitted sock pattern, be prepared to have a sacrificial first sock that is either going to be wonky or frogged. The three points given above have to be taken into account when you read the review because they are issues that I have to work around when making socks. The book is very deatiled - which I love.  There are sections on understanding sock construction, the differences in sock yarn and working out your foot measurements.  This information is incredibly helpful, especially if you have never crocheted or knitted socks before.   There are 16 sock patterns in the book and two of those have been provided as cuff-down and toe-up options, so really there 18 patterns in total.  These patterns build up really nicely from plain one colour patterns through to cables, lace, stripes etc.  What I particulalry liked was that different toe, heel and cuff patterns were given too, so you could learn different techniques and see what works best for your feet.  If you have a high instep for instance, you may need to swap out for a different heel type that gives more stitches.   If you want to get to the point of having really good fitting handmade socks, it usually takes a few pairs and some chopping and changing of costruction before you get there and that needs to be taken into account when you are working from sock pattern books. I chose to work up three separate patterns from the book so that I could review it well and test out different sock yarns at the same time.    Gorman Toe-up was worked up over three socks and two different yarns.  On each occassion I used a 3mm hook and because of that I had to rework the pattern over 40 sts rather than the smallest size provided which was 44 sts.  This wasn't a difficult task.   Things I loved about the book: The detail given on construction, sizing etc. The stitch guide for each pattern is given at the top of each pattern so you don't have to flick to a glossary at the back. The designs fit really well and are easy to adapt to your preferred length of cuff etc. Good photography which helps to understand the construction of the socks. Lots of ankle socks so you get patterns that can take you through more seasons.    Issues I had with the book: At times, small parts of the pattern were missing.  In Mordecai, the stitch guide for foundation double chain crochet (US) is incomplete.  If you didn't know that, you would struggle to get the sock started.  In the Azalea pattern the written instructions are incorrect.  It says to repeat rnd 6 to complete rnd 7 but that is incorrect and I only know that because I read the accompanying chart.  These aren't big issues because I have used these techniques enough times but a first timer coming to these patterns with less confidence may struggle.  It feels like a more thorogh tech edit was required to check and double check the patterns and provide better instructions in some areas.  Again, I managed work arounds and could understand where the problems were but only because I have knitted and crocheted quite a few pairs of socks now.     Would I recommend this book to others?  Even with the issues that I have outlined above, I would still recommend the book.  I would just encourage people to read through the pattern thoroughly, be prepared to frog or have an initial wonky sock until the perfect length, stitch count etc is reached.  It may also be worth heading to project pages on Ravelry where people like me have put up notes explaining changes and pattern work arounds.   There are currently no errata links for this book on Interweave's website or Ravelry. In the UK the book retails for £16.99 and I think this is good value for money.  Eighteen patterns, loads of upfront information before you even start and loads of techniques to learm.  You just have to have the confidence to know when something probably isn't quite right and be able to work around that. In the UK the book retails for £16.99 and I think this is good value for money. Eighteen patterns, loads of upfront information before you even start and loads of techniques to learn. You just have to have the confidence to know when something probably isn't quite right and be able to work. FW Media have offered people in the UK a £5 discount code and free P&P, bringing the cost down to £11.99. All you have to do is call 01206 255777 and use code KHC117. The discount is available until the 15th December 2017.   7 - Feeding the habit Here are some of the things that I aquired at Yarndale:   1 - Yarn from Black Horse Yarns 2 - Dorset Button kit from Tania at TJ Frog 3 - Amazing yarnyness from RiverKnits 4 - More buttons from Textile Garden 5 - Vintage scissors from Eliza Conway 6 - Some paper yarn to play with.   That RiverKnits yarn in the middle is called Indian Giant Squirrel - just look at it unskeined and the the actual beast below! And here is my amazing prize from Vivian and Alyson from the Keep Calm and Carry Yarn podcast.  This is an exceptionally well made bag form Vivian via her Pearl and Plum shop.    8 - Big up I have a couple of podcasts for you to take a look at. Both are on YouTube. Deanne from Addydae Designs is very well known for her crochet designs such as the Blurre shawl, but she has a podcast too.  She lives in Australia which gives it a different twist for me and is very open about her design process and sharing with the audience.  The second is the Thread the Love podcast on YouTube.  Amber has a couple of episodes out so far.  She is a crochet designer and so far her episodes are both under 30 minutes.   9 - What's Good Clarisabeth and Caroline are well - it is worth reiterating that this is very good news.  I am loving that Charlie from the Love Charlie podcast is local to me.  It is really nice to have a podcaster just down the road.      I have just interviewed Becci and Markus from RiverKnits.  I really enjoyed doing the interview with them and it reminded me how much I enjoy the process, so I need to get out ont he road and get interviewing people again!  You can hear the interview or watch it.   See you all in November. Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  Instagram: Knitithookit YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry Group: Search for The Crochet Circle Podcast in Groups  

Whist visiting Yarndale 2017 (Yorkshire based yarn show), I was ushered towards RiverKnits by my friend Bec.  I was instantly in awe of their yarns, colours and dyeing techniques. I discovered that they live and dye (see what I did there!) on a narrow boat that was moored up less than a mile from my house.  It was such a golden opportunity to interview a dyeing duo on their boat that I coudln't pass it up. What you will hear is an interview that was conducted as we sat outside on the narrow boat.  There are knocks and bangs and engines noises.  I deliberately wanted this as part of the interview so that you got a feel for life on the boat.  At the end there are soem lovely tunes played by Becci and Markus, so keep on listening. The interview is also available as a video file on YouTube.  Unfortunately, the footage is over exposed (my baf for not sorting out hte wite balance better) but I felt it was still okay to put out and the interview is just so nice that I coudln't not be seen. Rather than write lots about the interview, I just want to show you some photos below that punctaute the interview.   You can buy RiverKnits yarns from www.riverknits.co.uk and follow them on Instagram and Facebook.  They also have a Facebook page for their folk band Das Boaty McBoatface.      Some RiverKnits colourways   The most amazing 'Indian Giant Squirrel' colourway   The actual Indian Giant Squirrel.   My latest design 'Barley', which uses 100g of Splenidferous Sock in 'Stoke' and 5 x mini skeins of your choice.   One of Becci's favourite dyers is Victoria from Eden Cottage - you can see why!   Some examples of colourways inspired by life on the canal.   Goregous leather project bags made by Nu Shearman.  Nu uses British leather and has an Etsy shop.     Thanks for listening and thanks to Becci and Markus for letting me come and interview them. Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  Instagram: Knitithookit YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry Group: Search for The Crochet Circle Podcast in Groups

Hello my lovelies! Welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes from Episode Twenty - Flappy Socks. In this episode I cover: Old dog, new tricks; FOs; WIPs; Festival of Finishing CrAL; #BackToSchoolSweaterCAL; Feeding the habit; Big up and What's good?   This episode is sponsored by: KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT   Thanks to everyone who tunes in to the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement is really appreciated and makes running a podcast veryspecial.   1 - Old dog, new tricks Having heard lots of radio adverts for the magazine app 'Readly' I was intrigued to see what it was all about.  This was also hot on the heals of me learning from Alyson at the Keep Calm and Carry Yarn Podcast that her local library (Edinburgh) has free subscriptions to libraries through a different app (I have looked into this and very few UK libraries actually offer this service). Already a subscriber to Spotify, I figured that Readly woulld work in the same way - it doesn't!  You can sign up five more friends or family members to the service and they don't appear to need to live at the same address.  I have offered this out around Woolgathering and my friend Jenny also has one of my five subscription spots. CAVEAT - Having recorded the podcast I went to downlaod the latest Simply Crochet magazine and it wasn't there.  Nor was Mollie Makes...   I emailed Readly and they say that those publications are no longer available but that they have lots of other craft titles.  They seem to have started doing Crochet Now instead which is good news but still means that what has gone out in the podcast is a) inaccurate and b) annoying.  I will still subscribe to this because there are so many titles to download, especially if you enable lots of different countries as you can then get magazines form there too.   2 - Finished Objects  There is a bit of a sock theme this month.  Had you noticed?  I have really enjoyed making the Socks Yeah! (shade is 102 Ammolite) version of the Gorman Street Toe Up Socks from Step Into Crochet.  I can't say the same for the Regia version which is why I have only made one of them.  This yarn split with almost every stitch.  I liek the end prodct, the sock is squishy and warm but the process very frustrating.  I have previously knitted and crocheted socks with a different Regia 4 ply yarn and didn't have these problems.  Tonight I was at Wollgathering sandbach (the crafting group that I run) and Sam had just finished knitting a pair using Regia 4 ply and had the same issues.     In advance of a full book review on Step Into Crochet next month, I wanted to set out the rib changes that I made: Larger ankles - stick to the pattern and keep a turning chain at the top of the rib - this is what I did with the Regia sock on the left and you can see that it is 'flappy' Medium ankles - try only doing the turing chain on every other rib at teh top.  This leads to a tighter rib with good elasticity (see the middle sock) but it was still too loose for me. Thin ankles - don't do a turning chain at the top of the rib at all.  This is how I got a good fit at the top of my socks (see third sock). I also finshed off my Rambling Friends Socks from my Fibre Friends Podcast kit.  The yarn was dyed by Adrienne (Old Oak Yarns), the pattern was craeted by Louise (Louise Patterson on Ravelry) and I kept it all in my Evertote bag made by Caroline and Kathy.  THese were lovely to work on - the yarn was squishy and vibrant, the pattern was great (I loved the simple lace detail at the back) and my project bag had mustard and teal birds on it, a winning combination. My final FO is a crocheted shawl of my own design.  It's called Basalt and is 100% inspired by the hexagonal geological features taht you get throughout the world.  This version is crocheted with John Arbon Textiles Knit By Numbers 4 ply (2 x 100g skeins and one mini skein).  The pattern is on Ravelry now and if you use the cde TCC50% between 1st and 30th September 2017 you will get 50% off making it £1.75.   The pattern covers crocheting this both bottom up and top down and has a private YouTube tutorial that is only available to those that have purchased the pattern.   3 - Works in progress I only have one WIP this month.  I have been pattern testing a cushion cover for Jo jo Twinkletoes.  I haven't previously tried the basket weave stitch and this was the perfect project for it.  The pattern will be free of charge and go live on Jo's blog the second weekend of September and I should be able to show it off as an FO in the next episode.     I also talked about the future WIPs that I will be workingon in the coming month.  More socks, in the form of the Mordecai Socks from Step Into Crochet but this time using West Yorjshire Spinners Signature 4 Ply and Lang Yarns Jawoll (with the reinforcement thread because the socks won't last very long without it).    4 - Festival of Finishing The response to the CrAL has been fabtastic.  As I type out these notes it is 00:19 on the 1st September and I know that we reached the target of 150 FOs about an hour ago and there are more FOs to be added to the Ravelry thread.  I am so proud of the fact that between us all we have rasied a load of money for Knit for Peace.  I will be able to gve you a total number of projects and £ raised inthe next podcast.Thank you. x I finally finished my Uncia shawl, knitted in John Arbon's Harvest Hues in colourway Blue Spruce.  It was a bit of an effort to get this finished but the sheepy smell of the wool kept me going.  I have just washed and blocked this and it is beautiful and still smells sheepy - lush.        5 - Back to School Sweater CAL We have lift off on the CAL.   I have finally decided on the garment that I am going to start with.  It's the Aberdeen Castle Cable Sweater by Noelle Stiles and I am using Shilasdair Luxury 4 ply for it which has been naturally dyed with Hawthorn berries.   6 - Feeding the habit I have very little for you this month, just some 4 ply from Green Elephant in colourway Gym Nut.  I love this yarn from Fiona and will be using it in a second version of the Criss-cross shawl which will be a CAL with Olann and magazine later in the year.   7 - Big up I have a couple of new podcasts for you to take a look at.  Both are on YouTube. Charlie has a blog and a new crochet podcast.  She's a designer and seems to be pretty much yarn obsessed with a stash that looks like it could start to rival mine... The second is Grace from Babbles Travelling Yarn Podcast.  She is great fun to watch even if you aren't a knitter - one of those dafties that can always cheer you up. 8 - What's Good At the beginning of the month I was vending at Yarnfolk Festival in Whitehead, Northern Ireland.  What a day!  I was up very early in the morning to catch the ferry from close to my Mum and Dad's house in Scotland and talked crochet and crafting all day long with the friendliest people. I didn't manage to take a single photo while I was there but luckily Lora from Olann and magazine has created a really good vlog of the day showing off the exhibitors.   See you all in October. Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  Instagram: Knitithookit YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry Group: Search for The Crochet Circle Podcast in Groups    

Hello my lovelies! Welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes from Episode Nineteen - Sweater, socks & woolly wool. In this episode I cover: Old dog, new tricks; FOs; WIPs; Review of The Crochet Sock Collection; Festival of Finishing CrAL; #BackToSchoolSweaterCAL; Feeding the habit; Big up and What's good?   This episode is sponsored by: KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT   Thanks to everyone who tunes in to the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement is really appreciated and makes running a podcast veryspecial.   1 - Old dog, new tricks I know that you should really swatch for each project, but if the meterage to weight ratio is the same or only slightly different then I tend not to and that's a mistake. I have now made the Hove Beach Bag in two different yarns. The first is Erika Knight's Gossypium Cotton which is 100% cotton and 50g/ 100m.  The second is Yarn and Colours Charming which is 68% cotton/ 32% acrylic and 50g/ 102.5m. On face value, they are very similar yarns but when crocheted into a fabric, they are very different.  The Gossypium Cotton has very little give to it and so doesn't really condense down when crocheted.  In contrast, the cotton/ acrylic mix does and this makes for a denser fabric and therefore, smaller finished object.   The 100% cotton had 18.5 sts and 21 rows over 10cm whereas the cotton/ acrylic mix was 21 sts and 24 rows over 10cm.   From now on in I vow to look at the make-up of my yarn as well as the weight/ meterage ratio, particularly if one of the substitute yarns is a blend.   2 - Finished Objects  I have a handful of large-ish FOs this month.  I showed the beginnings of my Fronds Shawl by Joanne Scrace using Touch Yarns Possum/ Silk / Merino in last month's podcast and I worked on it furiousy on the journey back from our holiday, finishing it off as we were driving down the side of Loch Lomond.   The pattern is easy to memorise and grows very quickly. Whilst the yarn was lovely to work with - it is very, very soft - the colours just aren't for me and so my friend Jenny will be the recipient of this shawl.  This also marks bag five of six of my Stash Bingo project, so I am very happy that I am using up some of my older stash in projects. I also managed to finally finish of some things for the Festival of Finishing!  The TARDIS cross stitch was finished just before we went away and then I made it up into a cushion when we got back.  I learned a few new skills in making the cushion (mitred corners and piping) and was using YouTube videos for tutorials. The TARDIS cross stitch is by StellarSpaceCraft on Etsy and I used DMC thread 311.   I was encouraged by Crochet Cavalier to rescue my dog tapestries from the charity shop pile and do something with them.  After an hour or so of pondering, I finally fell on the idea of making pin cushions.   I cut up two tapestries to make five pin cushions that will be sent out to lovely freinds that will put them to good use.     3 - Works in progress Last month I talked about doing a yarn comparison on the Evesham socks because I have already crocheted one pair. What I have discovered is that my tension has changed since I made my initial pair and so I have frogged the little that I had done.   Instead, I am going to make four pairs from Step into Crochet by Rohn Strong.  The four pairs will come from two separate patterns, one toe up and one cuff down and they will all compare yarns to see whether there is a difference. This will also allow me to give you a decent review of Rohn's book in a couple of months and assess the yarns that I have used.  So far, I have a sombrero for a very small teddy bear!   4 - Book Review - The Sock Collection by Vicki Brown Two very lovely listeners, Anna and Hayley have become a little sock obsessed.  They have both independently crocheted every one of the six patterns in The Sock Collection book by Vicki Brown. Here's a quick run down of what they had to say about the collection and you can read their full reviews in the Crochet Book Reviews thread for this podcast group on Ravelry.   Both gave the book an overall 5/5, and 5/5 for value for money and would recommend to friends. They loved that each pair had a different construction and that no two socks were the same!   Here are Hayley and Anna's six pairs of socks:        5 - Festival of Finishing CrAL The ongoing response to this CrAL is fantastic!  I wanted to point you towards somebody that has been vlogging their Festival of Finishing journey.  His name is David and he has been putting vlogs up on his Boy Who Knits YouTube channel, coming to you from Brisbane, Australia. David has a lovely sunny nature and is a crocheter and knitter.  When I was watching his videos earlier, I was shattered and had just managed to delete the initial version of these show notes.  Tears nearly happened!  I watched David and was reenergised and happier.  Thanks David for unknowingly cheering me up!    I would love you to get involved with the CrAL and share what you are up to within the Ravelry thread in The Crochet Circle Podcast Group or by using #FestivalOfFinishing on Instagram.   As an additional element, via my company KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT , Claudia at Crochet Luna podcast and Carloine (also fo the Fibre Friends Podcast) and Kathy at Evertote, each FO you have under the Festival Of Finisihng is now worth about £2.37. TheThe charity that will benefit from the money is Knit for Peace.     5 - #BackToSchoolSweaterCAL Here are the latest details on the swaeter CAL. Helen and Tamara are doing a great job pulling all of this together and you can check out the CAL through vtheir blogs and the thread within the Crochet Circle Podcast group on Ravelry:   Feeding the habit Hmmm, 'nuff said.   1 - Border Leicester keyring from Imogen Louise 2 - DK wool from The Little Grey Sheep 3 - Naturally dyed yarn from Shilasdair 4 - Storm Grey and Peaty Brown from The Birlinn Yarn Company 5 - Harris Tweed buttons bought at the Kildonan Musuem on South Uist 6 - Hebridean and Gansey wool from Yasin at Island on the Edge   My lovely goodies from Fibre Friends Podcast folk. Destined to become part of a jumper or two - my haul from Uist Wool.   6 - Big up Caroline from Fibre Friends Podcast is now also doing a solo podcast all about her cross-stitch projects.  I love Caroline and her energy, so go and check her out at Off The Grid Needlearts. I also came across a new magazine called Reloved.  It's a UK based publication and costs £4.99.  I initially picked it up because there was information on doing modern macrame, which is easily going to become a new obsession. Having now had a better flick through the magazine, I really like lots of the projects and the ideas for upcycling through crafting. There are great photo tutorials throughout the magazine and the projects are stylish not frumpy!   7 - What's Good I have been on holiday in the Outer Hebrides off the West coast of Scotland.  It was AMAZING!  I clearly bought lots of wool, walked on the beach and generally had a great time chilling out. The house we were staying in looked straight out to sea and I loved sitting crocheting watching the tide roll in and out.  It really was bliss.    See you all in September. Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  Instagram: Knitithookit YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry Group: Search for The Crochet Circle Podcast in Groups

Hola Crochet Circlers! Welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes from Episode Eighteen - Shear Joy. In this episode I cover: Old dog, new tricks; FOs; WIPs; Festival of Finishing CrAL; Feeding the habit; Big up and What's good?   This episode is sponsored by: KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT   Thanks to everyone who tunes in to the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement is really appreciated and makes running a podcast really special.   1 - Old dog, new tricks I have spent the last two and a half years winding cakes of yarn wrongly because I didn't read the instructions or the wording on my ball winder. That would be nearly three years  of rubbish yarns cakes giving me yarn barf.  Well, no longer.  I now wind my yarn anti-clockwise and get beautiful cakes to make up for my inability to read instructions! Try it - you may also have been winding yarn the wrong way... Loose is clockwise and actually gives a tight cake of yarn(!). Fasten is anti-clockwise and gives a squidgy but structured cake of yarn.   2 - Finished Objects  I have a few finished objects thsi month, even though the squares below don't look like FOs, they definitely are.  These squares and rectangles are heading off to Yael for the Blanket of Love and Hope It was a very cactus based episode!  Cynthia was a free kit in Simply Crochet Issue 59. Kipper socks from Pom Pom Quarterly Issue 1 re-release using Life in the Long Grass sock yarn in club colourway Chlorophyl. Hove Purse by me (Fay Dashper-Hughes Designs) which is a free pattern to help you test out your intarsia crochet skills, crocheted in Erika Knight Gossypium Cotton (Mouse, Iced Gem and Pretty) & Netherton Pullover also from Pom Pom Quarterly Issue 1 re-release using Artesano SW Merino DK (no longer available). The Hove Beach Bag will be released on the 10th July and available as free of charge pattern from the 10th - 31st July to celebrate my 40th birthday!  Just search for Hove Beach Bag on Ravelry.    3 - Works in progress I have a few WIPs on the go but am mainly concentrating on my Festival of Finishing cross sticth and starting off soem easy 'in the car' type crochet projects for our epic road trip to the Outer Hebrides.    The TARDIS cross stitch is by StellarSpaceCraft on Etsy and I used DMC thread 311 & Evesham Socks by Joanne Scrace using Regia 4 Colour. Fronds Shawl by Joanne Scrace using Touch Yarns Possum/ Silk / Merino and the wet felting that Jenny and I did at the Fleece to Felt Day by Good Day Out.   4 - Festival of Finishing CrAL The response to this CrAL has been fantastic!  I love that so many of you have been ruthlessly going through your craftung cupboards and using this as an opportunity to frog, donate, salvage and finish. Some of you didn't think you had any long-term WIPs and still foudn projects to finish off!     If you are just hearing about #FestivalOfFinishing for the first time I suggest that you start by takinf a look at this blog post 'Why you don't finish projects and what you can do about it'.   I would love you to get involved with the CrAL and share what you are up to within the Ravelry thread in The Crochet Circle Podcast Group or by using #FestivalOfFinishing on Instagram. A pile each for: finish, frog, salvage or donate will really help you to work out what you could do with each project.   As an additional element, via my company KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT , Claudia at Crochet Luna podcast and Carloine (also fo the Fibre Friends Podcast) and Kathy at Evertote, each FO you have under the Festival Of Finisihng is now worth about £2.37. TheThe charity that will benefit from the money is Knit for Peace.     5 - Feeding the habit See the sewing bobbins bag with Fronds shawl photo in WIPs.  This is by Sarah Hazell - she is also an amazing crochet designer.     1 - Various woven fabrics from Jan Beadle at Thw Wool Clip 2 - Lovely prints of textile pictures from Bright Seed Textiles 3 - Procion Dyes and a sock blank from DT Crafts 4 - Second hand book called Finishing Techniques for Crochet by Pauline Turner 5 - My gorgeous silver crochet hook by Lyn Roberts Designs with it's leather case 6 - Vintage glass and plastic pineapple buttons bought from Brimstone Buttons and Buckles (no website, you just need to try to find them at a wool festival).   I was the very lucky recipient of this gorgeous haul thanks to Claudia from Crochet Luna podcast!  Needless to say, the socks went on straight away, I have picked out the first pair of socks that I am going to crochet and the amazing Amercian yarn is going to become something very special.  The soap bar has a goats milk base which helps to repel midges, so that has already been packed for our holiday in Scotland! The yarns are from Anzula Luxury Fibres and Trendsetter Yarns - I am a very lucky lady. 6 - Big up Rosina has the Zeens and Roger podcast on YouTube and also a blog.  She has a lovely relaxed style and is good fun! Two of my favourite ladies, Helen from Making at Number 14 Blog and Tamara from Craftyescapism blog have come together to create the Back to School Sweater CAL.  Here is what Helen and Tamara are up to: A blog hop and CAL to celebrate crochet garment making and encourage lots of people to get making their own garments. We will be launching details on our blogs and in a thread on the Crochet Circle Podcast Rav group on 29 July. The blog hop will start on 26th August featuring posts from a range of bloggers looking at different elements of crochet garment construction. The CAL will run from 16th Sept to 17th Nov 2017. There will be prizes and discounts. If anyone wants to offer prizes please can they get in touch! Tamara is planning a physical CAL at her local yarn store in Houston, Texas! It would be great to have you all join in.  The blog hop has lots of great contributors in it and I may have aready chosen my garment  - I like to get ahead of the game and be well prepared! ;-)   7 - What's Good I seem to have been here, there and everywhere since I last recorded.  I love being busy and learning new things.  In the last five weeks I have been to the John Arbon Mill Open Weekend, helped out at Winkie's school fete in Lancing, visited Woolfest in Cumbria, done a raku ceramics day at my pottery (amazing fun), seen Elbow (one of my all time favourite bands) play at Delamere Forest in Cheshire (I have never seen so many pots of hummus and camping chairs at a gig) and learned how to shear sheep.   That is quite a diverse collection of things to do and long may it continue!    The Good Day Out Fleece to Fibre experience of shearing Welsh Mountain ewes was fantastic. See you all in August. Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  Instagram: Knitithookit YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry Group: Search for The Crochet Circle Podcast in Groups

Hello Crochet Circlers, Welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes from Episode Seventeen - Festival of Finishing. In this episode I cover: Wolf woman of Cheshire; Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2018; Old dog, new tricks; Festival of Finishing CrAL; FOs; WIPs; Feeding the habit; Big up and What's good?   This episode is sponsored by: KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT   Thanks to everyone who tunes in to the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement is really appreciated and makes running a podcast really special.   1 - Old dog, new tricks On the back of the 'standing crcohet stitch' tip that Claudia from the Crochet Luna Podcast gave me.     Eleanor kindly passed on links for the 'starting crochet stitch' which gives a new technique for starting a new row or possibly round in the same colour. Please ignore that fact that I referred to 'standing' crochet during the podcast, I meant 'starting' crochet.    Eleanor's link was to a blog by Tamara Kelly from Moggly.com: Starting dc (tr in UK terminology)   A little further investigation brought me to this site by Jessie at Home which also gives details for starting dc (sc in US) and starting htc (hdc in US).     I have investigated the differences when you use this technique in rows but want to do more to see how it can be used in the round, if at all.   I have pulled together a blog post on using the standing dc to show how to do it and the results that you get compared to the standard turning chain method.    2 - Festival of Finishing CrAL Our latest along is the Festival of Finishing Craft Along.  The idea is that through the months of June, July and August you work with some of your crafting WIPs.  I now have two (cross stitch and knitting) that I want to work on and one to salvage.     The graphic for the CrAL looks like this, and you will see it on Ravelry and Instagram.   I have been thinking long and hard on the reasons that projects become long-term WIPs and why we consequently get hung up about them and can even begin to feel some level of guilt.    Rather than add all of the detail into the show notes, I wrote a detailed blog about it instead.  It's full of pointers and will hopefully help you to view your long-term WIPs in a positive and re-energised way.   Grab a cuppa and take a look at 'Why you don't finish projects and what you can do about it'.   I would love you to get involved with the CrAL and share what you are up to within the Ravelry thread in The Crochet Circle Podcast Group or by using #FestivalOfFinishing on Instagram.   A pile each for: finish, frog, salvage or donate will really help you to work out what you could do with each project.  Three of my WIPs are now going to be heading off to the Blanket of Love and Hope project in Sweden to be sewn into a larger blanket and distributed to women that need a woolly hug - thanks Yael for telling me about the wonderful project that you, Emmie and Hedvig do.     As an additional element, via my company KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT I am going to donate £1 for every finished object (that was previously a long-term WIP) that is added to Instagram using #FestivalOfFinishing, or added to the Ravelry thread.   The amount will be capped at £150 and I would LOVE to reach that target.  The charity that will benefit from the money is Knit for Peace.  Here is what they do:   Our policy is to encourage people to give, whether it is time or money. So we set about finding outlets. We now distribute regularly to over 200 outlets, including hospitals, women’s refuges, refugee drop in centres, prisons, community groups, and hospices as well as to developing countries. We send the knitting (and crochet) to where it’s needed. We also pass on donations of yarn and needles to enable people on low incomes to knit. The operation has grown organically, and we estimate we have over 15,000 knitters. Send your knitting to us and we will make sure that it goes to a good home.   If together we finish 150 long-term WIPs, the £150 that I will donate will help to deliver over 750 woollen items to people that really need them.   Feel free to also join in with the charitable donations and give £1 or more for every WIP you have that becomes a finished object.   Here is the 69 year old WIP that Ros's Mum kindly let me photograph.     As I was pulling together the information for the show Jojotwinkletoes put this up on Instgram and it sums up beautifully (well maybe not) what I intend do do after my long-term WIPS have become finished object.      3 - Finished Objects  Once again, I didn't think I had much to show for myself, and once again I was wrong! 1 - Another version of Doppio Colosseum but this time in John Arbon Devonia 4 ply in 'Pollen Gold'. 2 - A pair of charity socks for the Sock Line by Winwick Mum. 3 - A first attempt at a cotton dishcloth by Jo at Feather and Thread.  Check Jo's patterns out and see her photo of them below - they are much nicer than my attempt (partial blame to the fact that I was gripped by Broadchaurch whilst crocheting it).     4 - I was shown this pattern for face pads by Lisa and they are fantastic!  The pattern is by Designs byZula and gives a lovely squishy pad for washing your face and taking off make up.   I have also been working on a couple of designs: Versa is the second complete bag in the range that I am working towards and is being tech edited as I type, along with the below shawl. I discovered post-crocheting it that the shawl seems to be very heavily influenced by a cottage that I owned (pre Matthew) in Chirk, North Wales. Clearly, the gothic windows that dominated the estate worker's cottages stayed with me: My final FO for the month was the Miso shawl by Ambah O'Brien using Tia Merino in The Mysterious Cities of Gold colourway by Countess Ablaze.  I knitted this shawl as part of a KAL with my favourite new knitting podcast Fibre Friends. I wasn't initially sure about a single ply yarn for this shawl but the result is beautifully squishy:     4 - Works in progress There is only one WIP this month and that is a grey cotton bag - the next in the range.  You can see it in the photo for the 'starting dc crochet' rows above - there really isn't much much to show you with that design yet.   5 - Feeding the habit Only one thing to show here and that is a gorgeous citrus bag by Ann from Busy Pottering: It came with a lovely notions pouch and some stitch markers - I love them!   6 - Big up There are some great new crochet podcasts out there: Hannah from Florida has The Cozy Cottage Podcast on YouTube Lindsey from Lottie and Albert is also on YouTube Alyson and Vivian have a lovely Mum and daughter audio podcast that airs on YouTube called Keep Calm and Carry Yarn There is a new thread in the Ravelry group for people to add in any CALs/KALs that they know about.   7 - What's Good 10th June is World Knit (and crochet) in Public Day. I am holding a small event in Sandbach at The Old Hall between 11am and 3pm if anyone is local and fancies joining in?   I have been listening to the amazing Norse Mythology audio book, written and narrated by Neil Gaiman.  I will listen to this agian in the not too distant future!  Matthew has been on gardening leave and is currently working on what happens next... It has been lovely to be able to spend more time with him as the pressures of his old employment cease to exist!  We have a lovely summer ahead of us and I am searching for coastal areas that we could live in.  Watch this space. Until July folks.   Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  INstagram: Knitithookit YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry Group: Search for The Crochet Circle Podcast in Groups  

Hello my lovelies, Welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes from Episode Sixteen - Common Thread. In this episode I cover: Old dog, new tricks; Tunisian CAL; Review of The Shawl Project Book Three; FOs; WIPs; Feeding the Habit; Big Up and What's Good? This Episode is sponsored by: Knit It - Hook It - Craft It Thanks to everyone who tunes in to the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement is really appreciated and makes running a podcast really special.   1 - Old dog, new tricks This month I was given a great tip by Claudia from the Crochet Luna Podcast.  She asked whether I had ever come across a standing dc (US terminology) and I hadn't.  So, I did what I always do and took to Google to see what it was all about and came across these YouTube videos by Tamara Kelly from Moggly.com: Standing dc (tr in UK terminology) Standing hdc (htr in UK terminology) Standing sc (dc in UK terminology)   I haven't had lots of time to test this technique out fully but I love the reults that I got on the coaster that I crocheted.  I did one using the standard chain method for starting the new round in the new colour and one using a standing tr (Uk terminology).  I think that the use of a standing stitch makes the join look much neater and helps to avoid the gap that often appears.  The stitch look smore like a tr and is also bulkier, which means that my eye isn't automatically drawn to an area that looks 'different'.     Tamara's videos are very good and I suspect that once you have tried this technique, you won't go back to using a chain to start a new round off in a new colour. What I want to investigate next is whether this technique can also be used when you are starting a new round in the same colour.  More on that next month...      2 - Tunisian CAL update This CAL started on the 3rd March and ran until the 16th April.  Check out the CAL FOs thread on Ravelry (under The Crochet Circle Podcast Group) or on Instagram to see posts under #tccTunisianCAL. The projects have been great and lots of poeple can now do Tunisian crochet. Well done everyone!  I have pulled together the video for YouTube to announce the winners and show off all of the FOs.  Thanks to everyone that took part, it was great fun. Our next A Long is going to be a a CrAL called the Festival of Finishing.  The idea is that through the months of June, July and August you work with some of your crafting WIPs.  I have three (crochet, cross stitch and knitting) that I want to work on and then I won't have any projects that are in hibernation anymore - oh the release!  I am trying to get to a place where I can scoot through projects and don't have my crafting resources tied up elsewhere being unloved.   The graphic for the CrAL looks like this, and you will see it on Ravelry and Instagram.     So why not look your WIPs out now and assess what you want to do with them?  In the next episode I will cover some of the things that you can do with your WIPs, how to frog your projects, give you some stash buster patterns for those frogged WIPs and pass on some advice on donating projects to charity shops.   3 - Review of The Shawl Project Book Three   Jo (jojotwinkletoes on Ravelry and Instagram) kindly agreed to review The Shawl Project Book Three for us. She has already made two of the five shawls and plans to make the other three too!  Rather than post all of the information here, I have created a new thread on Ravelry within The Crochet Circle Podcast group. The Shawl Project Book Three can be bought direct from The Crochet Project website, or through Ravelry.   This is Jo and and her Fog Break shawl:     Here are the photos (thanks to Kat and Joanne for providing them) of each of the shawls from the book:       4 - Finished Objects (FOs) Once again, I didn't think I had too much to show but I am clearly busier than I think with crafting!   My FOs are a new bag that I have been designing and thanks to everyone that helped me to choose the colour combination on Instagram.  I'm not sure when this bag pattern will be released because I think it will now be a series of bags rather than a single pattern.   There is my version of the Ocaso shawl by Sol Rencoret.  I really loved doing this Tunisian crochet shawl and working with some different colour combinations that have pushed my boundaries. I have made a knitted version of my Colum Cowl using Debbie Bliss Rialto DK and Hedgehog Fibres DK in colourway 'Dragonfly'.  The combination of these two yarns has created a very snuggly cowl. I also managed to finish off another pair of socks using some of the yarn that I received from Racheal my FibreShare partner.  I love the colours and how they have striped and pooled in the knitted sock.  I started a new pair last night to use the rest of the yarn and they wil be donated to Winwick Mum's sock line at Yarndale later in the year. I nearly forgot to add one of my favourite FOs from this month - my gorgeous new project bag based on the #herbembroiderysal that Chrissie from Chrissie Crafts has been running: Even if you haven't tried embroidery before, I would recommend giving it a go.  Chrissie has brilliant tutorials on her YouTube channel and the design is lovely.   5 - Works in Progress (WIPs) I only have one WIP and that will be finished very shortly, so I am adding a very near future WIP to the pile. My actual WIP is a second bag design that I am working on as part of the 'KIHICI Bag' series.  This is a very simple pattern that comes with a few variations so that you can truly make it to your own taste.  It looks like a bit of a canoe in this picture but it is a really lovely bag (I actually finished it late last night!) and is most likely going to be called 'Versa'. The second photo shows my yarn choices for the Hotel of Bees shawl, allbeit I am not actually going to do the shawl because I am not really a fan of large open lace sections and I do love a cowl... So, having bought the pattern, I am going to use the blocks of stitches that I do like and I am going to recreate the Hotel of Bees as a large squishy cowl instead.  Not quite sure how it will turn out but I will be turning my attention to it this weekend.   6 - Feeding the Habit Whilst in Amsterdam I visited the yarn shop which is run by Stephen West and Malia Mather, called Stephen & Penelope.  It is a really lovely shop as you can see from the photo below.  I took some nice video footage of it and will add that to my Amsterdam trip vlog which will be up on YouTube shortly. I bought some bespoke colourways from there and a few other things for designs.  If you are lucky enough to win a prize for the #tccTunisianCAL then you will be getting some buttons that I bought from there.   I also recieved a lovely parcel from Yael at Handmade by Yael which was full of gorgeous nuggets of Ullcentrum wool which is one of my absolute favourites (see my Linus on the Lines shawl project on Ravelry if you want to see how it knits up).  I have been wearing my lovely handmade necklace a lot and received LOTS of very nice comments on it.  I was a very happy recipient - thanks Yael!  I recieved an unexpected parcel from Tania at TJ Frog with some beautiful Dorset Button stitch markers and a notions bag in her lovely fabric.  Tania is a woman after my own heart and likes to know the different steps of manufacturing in the items that she sells.  This parcel arrived right in the middle of my preparation for Wonderwool Wales when I could barely keep my eyes open.  Needless to say, it made me very happy indeed. Ahem, there seems to be rather a lot of stuff below!  It is all for designs, I promise.  Now that Wonderwool Wales is over, I have had designs flying through my mind and the below are all acocunted for.  You will see that I had to sneak in all that was left of the 'Nightshade' Devonia because that design is now finished (the Versa bag) and I only got the wool the week before!   1 - John Arbon Textiles Knit by Numbers DK is going to be a large gradient pashmina.  KBN now comes in a whopping 97 shades. 2 - Onion is a new to me yarn brand and I picked out their nettle range to work with (70% wool and 30% nettle fibre).  It is supposedly good for making socks with which I can believe because nettle fibre is extremely strong.  I really wish I had bought more to test this out with socks but it will have to be next year instead!  They have a range of interesting yarns at Onion and although there are no UK stockists, they are widely stocked elsewhere. 3 - Laura from Bellica Yarns was my vending neighbour at Wonderwool Wales.  She was and absolute joy to meet and her yarns are beautiful and VERY reasonably priced at only £12 per 100g.  Here is the link to Laura's Etsy shop - Bellica Yarns.  The one that I bought will become a cowl design for Jenny as a thank you for helping me out during that weekend. 4 - Undercover Otter are in the process of moving thier selling platform, but the www will be the same.  You can buy the bespoke Stephen & Penelope colourways online, ignore what I said in the podcast and Undercover Otter will be opening their shop up soon.  These two beauties will be a shawl and although I wouldn't usually do a pastel shade, it really works with the dark teal (always one of my go to colours). 5 - A tiny little nugget of Devonia 'Nightshade from John Arbon Textiles.  This is a very special wool given that it is 100% grown and spun in Devon, England. The composition is 50% Exmoor Blueface / 30% Devon Bluefaced Leicester / 20% Devon Wensleydale and is is lovely to work with.  Sturdy and soft with a beautiful sheen from the Wensleydale.  They have just released a DK range too. 6 - My lovely Dorset Button pouch and stitch markers from Tania at TJ Frog.  Tania also has an audio podcast which is delightful!     7 - Big Up I have a couple of podcasts for you and some new yarn: Crochet Luna Podcast with Claudia is a YouTube podcast all about crochet!  Claudia is lovely and her enthusiasm for crochet oozes through the screen!  Claudia is Crochet Luna on Instagram. Fiber Friends Podcast with Adrienne, Louise and Caroline is a YouTube podcast about knitting, bags, yarn, ding, patterns - everything basically.  They have a great friendhip and make me laugh a lot. Adrienne - dyes yarn as Old Oak Yarns and has an Etsy shop here. Louise - is also on Instagram and is a knitting designer and teacher. Carloine - is also on Instagram and makes bags for her shop on Etsy which is called Evertote. Poly Jane Yarns has a new range out called the Inca Collection which she sells alongside her own hand-dyed and other well known brands.  If you were a fan of Atresano yarns, then you will be pleased to hear about the Inca Collection:     8 - What's Good The John Arbon Mill Open weekend is on on the 10th & 11th of June and I am hoping to get there!  It's free to attend, you just need to book in which slot you want to go to on the Saturday or Sunday.  The mill is at South Molton in Devon and is well worth a visit. I am heading to Woolfest and I'm not sure which day yet.  If anyone fancies meeting up for a coffee, let me know and that will help to set my mind on which day I head there.  Woolfest is on the 23rd & 24th June up in Cockermouth in Cumbria.   Until June my lovelies.  Remember to get your WIPs out and see what you want to work on in June, July and August. Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast   YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry Group: Search for The Crochet Circle Podcast in Groups  

Hello folks, come on into The Crochet Circle Podcast. Here are the show notes from Episode Fifteen - Old dog, new tricks In this episode I cover: Old dog, new tricks; Tunisian CAL; FOs; WIPs; Feeding the Habit; Big Up and What's Good? This Episode is sponsored by: Knit It - Hook It - Craft It   Thanks to everyone who tunes in to the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement is really appreciated.    1 - Old dog, new tricks I have changed the name of this feature because it is now more about what I have learned in the last month and whether I can offer those learnings as something useful to listeners and viewers. This month I have been learning how to do continental knitting (holding the yarn in your left hand whcih means a different way of scooping the yarn up for a knit stitch and a completely different way to purl).  I was eager to do this one day workshop so that I had the technique under my belt and also to train my left hand to accept yarn and regulte the tension of the yarn. Up until now I have always crocheted with both the hook and yarn in my right hand but it is a slower process.  I can now do both, which is proving to be very helpful!   2 - Tunisian CAL update This CAL started on the 3rd March and runs until the 16th April.  Check out the CAL thread on Ravelry (under The Crochet Circle Podcast Group) or on Instagram you can see posts under #tccTunisianCAL. The projects so far are fantastic and a lot of amazing progress has been made in understanding Tunisian crochet techniques.  Well done everyone!   3 - WIPs I only have a couple to show this month because of my mammoth pile of FOs!!!   The first is my Ocaso shawl for the Tunisian CAL.  Unsurprisingly I did change my mind on the colours and decided to go bright or go home:   The yarns are a sock club skein from Life in the Long Grass and Aurancania Botany Lace.  I have to say that I rather love this colour combination and I have to remember that what you see in a skein looks completely different caked up and crocheted/knitted. My second WIP is a bag that I am designing with John Arbon's Devonia.  I will post a picture when I have completed more of the bag, as there really sin't much to see yet! 4 - FOs I hope you have a cuppa in front of you because I have ten FOs to show you!  I am a crafting ninja.   This rug was my own simple design, using a massive stash (1.8kg) of British wool that I had.  I have written up the pattern and it is available free of charge on my blog.   This is the Marshmallow Hot Chocolate Shawl which I did as part of a KAL with Lora and Deirdre from Olann and Magazine and podcast (links are below in Big Up).  The KAL is running until the 14th of May 2017 so there is still plenty of time to join in and try this extremely quick knit.  If you look at my projects on Ravelry you will see all of my notes for this pattern (I am MaDashper on Ravelry).  I used a dark purple Donegal Tweed in an aran weight and the lighter yarn is a Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed in Aran (shade 281117). The first pair of socks use Socks Yeah! in shade Sphene as the main colour, Lang Jawoll for the cream and Life in the Long Grass for the speckled yarn which was another sock club colourway.   The second pair uses the beautiful, naturally dyed yarn given to me by Clarisbeth of the Crochetcakes podcast.  She dyed it using avocado stones.  To make sure I coudl get a pair of socks from the 50g skein, I paired it with soem West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply in shade Poppyseed. This is a new design that I have been working on, based on the stained glass windows in the churches on Iona.  It takes less than 50g of each colour, so is a great stash buster. I will remake this agian with other yarns and also create a knitted version. This is my other #tccTunisianCAL project - Cobbled Streets, using the 4ply fingering 50% Merino/50% Silk from The Wool Kitchen:   And this is Stream by Isabel Kraemer.  Her designs are amazing and I thoroughly recommend them. And finally, the hat that I knitted during the continental knitting workshop and the hat and mitten pattern that I have been working on recently:     5 - Feeding the habit Considering I have been at a yarn festival, I have very little to show for it!  The yarns that I have are (top left to moving clockwise):  1 - John Arbon Textiles new yarn is called Devonia and I am in love.  It will be available on the website shortly which means that I can't yet show you the full range of colours... 2 - Iona Wool - all sourced from the island on the west coast of Scotland. 3 - The new Shorelines and Strata yarn from Tania at TJ Frog and I managed to get one of her very lovely bags. 4 - A mini skein of Scottish Thistle from Kathryn at Crafternoon Treats (Etsy shop and podcast is on YouTube). 5 - A 50g skein of yarn from Clarisabeth of the Crochetcakes podcast - been there, knitted that!   6 - Big Up Here are some very cool people that you may want to check out: Lora and Deirdre's fabulous 'Olann and' which is an Irish Fibre and Craft magazine which is an amazing free of charge online resource.  The ladies also have an accompanying podcast on YouTube which is great fun! Tania of TJ Frog has a very lovely new podcast.  She has two episodes so far and you to listen to her talk about crafting and interviewing crafters on the Isle of Skye where she now lives.  Chrissie Crafts on YouTube talking about her #herbembroiderySAL which I am going to take part in - want to join me?   7 - What's good? A team of gardeners have buzzed around our garden and made it into a garden again.  The Winterley jungle tourist attraction is now closed for business.  I can once again enjoy our outside space.   Until May! Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast   YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry Group: Search for The Crochet Circle Podcast in Groups  

Hello folks, come on into The Crochet Circle Podcast. Here are the show notes from Episode Fourteen - Unchained Meolody? In this episode I cover: Yay Crochet or Nay Crochet; FOs; WIPs; Feeding the Habit; Tunisian CAL; Festivals; Big Up and What's Good? This Episode is sponsored by: Knit It - Hook It - Craft It   Thanks to everyone who tunes in to the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement is really appreciated.    1 - Yay crochet, yay crochet, yay crochet and a wee bit more yay crochet! I love to learn, and so when I come across a new technique I like to dive in and understand its pros and cons rather than just accept that is naturally better.   I was coming across comments on Instagram about how many people preferred to start their projects with a chainless foundation, rather than the traditional chained foundation because it was quicker and they preferred the finished effect.  Hmm, time to get my hook out and investigate. The below photo shows you the times, sizes, pros and cons that I found between chained and chainless foundations.      Bella Coco has a great YouTube tutorial on how to do a chainless foundation.   2 - Finished Objects I always get through more projects that I think.  Through the guise of #StashBingo I have been using some really lovely yarns that otherwise would have remained at the back of the Stash Palace.  I have really loved working with the Jamieson & Smiths Shetland wool and it comes in a fantasic range of colours.   1 - J&S 2 ply Jumper Weight (100% Shetland wool): Blue is shade FC41, dark green is shade 65, light green is FC62 and the fawn is actually J&S 3 ply jumper weight in undyed shade 2008/Katmollet.  I was testing out whether the 3ply was better for the beginning of the cowl because the colour work strands mean that the patterened areas are heavier and contain more yarn.  My conclusion is that it is best to double up on the 2ply where needed rather than use the 3 ply. 2 - J&S 2 ply Jumper Weight (100% Shetland wool)  Cream is shade 1A, orange is shade 125 and the dark red is shade FC62.  I have been working on these projects as part of #StashBingo but also to design projects that can use up yarn straggles and look good.   I also did a bit of investigating on the best place to buy Jamieson & Smith wool from and the cheapest source was Purlesence.  They offer free UK and EU postage for orders over £25 and I believe that thier non EU shipping is also very reasonable.  25g of J&S 2 ply is only £2.90.     3 - This was a Corriedale pencil roving that I bought from Queen of Purls in Glasgow, but it doesn't seem to be listed on their website anymore.  I used it to crochet a hat for my neice Darcie, which you can see below. If you like the look of this yarn then you may want to try Erika Knight for John Lewis XXL which is a slightly chunkier version or Drops Eskimo.  The pattern is Super Chunky Bobble Hat by Jo Janes on Ravelry.    4 - Wolle Rodel Sport and Strumpfwolle in shade 16915  75% wool and 25% polyamide. 5 - Regia 4 ply 75% wool and 25% polyamide in Ocean (06629).  I think this is what the yarn is...   The pink yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply, 75% wool (35% is Bluefaced Leicester) and 25% nylon in shade 545 Sarsaparilla.   To share the love with listeners and watchers of the podcast, I want to test giving out a 50% discount code for my patterns.  I am starting this off with my latest pattern Doppio Colosseum and so between 3rd and the 17th March (midnight GMT) you can get 50% off the pattern in Ravelry by using code DOPPIO50%. This is what Doppio Colosseum looks like and it requires 200g/800m of a 4ply fingering weight yarn.         3 - Work in Progress I have two main WIPs on the go at the moment, one crochet and one knitted.  From now on in the podcast I am only going to talk about my knitting projects when they have become finished objects.  I want to make sure that the podcast remains predominantly about crochet but I still need to be able to reflect on the other things that I craft because they also give me inspiration for my crochet makes.   Here is my second #StashBingo project (project bag number 4).  This is some really course British wool that I picked up at Wonderwool Wales almost two years ago with the thought of making housewares with it.  I then dyed up some of the wool when I ran the dyeing workshop last September.  There was no real though to how I dyed it, I was just helping to exhaust some of the wool in Gill's dye pot. The result is lovely with a shift in the depth of colour as you get to the outer parts of the skein because the dye couldn't penetrate the inner part of the yarn cake as readily. I am holding two strands of wool together to make this rug, starting with two strands of undyed.  When the first cake of undyed had been crocheted, I added the lightest of my dyed wool in and continued to crochet with two strands - one undyed and one dyed.  This is adding a really nice sense of balance to the rug because the undyed yarn is visible throughout the whole piece.  I have then moved onto the next darkest skein of dyed yarn, and so on and so on.  I love it! This will be an FO come the next podcast.     Here is my knitting WIP.  It is Stream by Isabel Kramer and I am using one of my sock club skeins from Life in the Long Grass and Socks Yeah! in Sphene (104) the mustard colour and Sugilite (112) the plum colour.      4 - Feeding the habit I am still being good.  I have bought Top Down Crochet Sweaters by Dora Ohrenstein and my subscription of Pom Pom Quarterly has turned up and here is a link to the Hanbira cardigan. I continue to focus on the MANY gorgeous yarns in my stash.   5 - Tunisian CAL is GO GO GO! This new CAL started on the 3rd March and runs until the 16th April.  We are being expertly guided by Sol through this CAL as she already teaches Tunisian crochet, has tutorials on her blog and is providing patterns for the CAL. Tamara (long-term listener and group member) has also pulled together her top Ten Tunisian Crochet Tips as a blog post, so give that a read too. There are three categories: 1 - Sol's Cobbled Streets Cowl which is a free of charge pattern and needs one skein (400m) of 4 ply yarn, a 4mm (G6) hook and a 30cm cable, though you may be abel to use a long shafted hook instead. 2 - Sol's Ocaso shawl which is a paid for pattern and needs three (1 x Yarn A and 2 x Yarn B) skeins of 4 ply yarn with about 380m per skein.  You will need a 4mm hook (G6) and an 80cm cable.  Use code TCCPODCAST to get 50% off this pattern in Ravelry. 3 -  Anything goes.  The pattern of your choice, it just has to be Tunisian crochet. A ravelry thread has already been opened and you can use #tccTunisianCAL on Instagram.   If you are loooking at joining in under category three, then you may be interested in a couple of new patterns: 1 - Zoe Halstead has a Tunisian shawl in Inside Crochet issue 87. 2 - The Crochet Project have a new Shawl book coming out and there is a Tunisian Crochet shawl in that.     Here are the yarns that I am thinking about using:     The one on the left is Denim 4ply (50% Merino/50% silk) 100g/400m by The Wool Kitchen and this is definietly going to become a Cobbled Streets cowl.   The second two yarns are another sock club skein from Life in the Long Grass 100g/400m and some Araucania Yarns Ranco 100g/344m (PT 2109) but the jury is out on these colours as I may change my mind.  Again.   6 - Festivals I didn't make it to Unravel but Helen did and has added a review to the thread in our group in Ravelry and also to het new blog - thank Helen!   I am heading up to Edinburgh Yarn Festival on the 11th March and will be pulling together a vlog on my antics.   I will also be vending at Wonderwool Wales on the 22nd and 23rd of April and you can find me at stall H2.  Come and say hello!     I also went along to the CSHI Stitches show to see some of my suppliers and see what was new.  Here are some photos from the show:          7 - Big Up Here are some blogs and podcasts that you may want to check out:   Helen's making blog Making at Number 14 Chrissie Crafts on YouTube talking about her crochet and embroidery projects. Crochetcakes on YouTube talking about her life in Puerto Rico, crochet and knitting.     8 - What's good?   I am back in the room and that is what's good!      Until next month. Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast   YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry Group: Search for The Crochet Circle Podcast in Groups Pinterest: Crochet_Circle   Twitter: Crochet_Circle        

Hello folks, come on in to The Crochet Circle Podcast. Here are the show notes from Episode Thirteen - Stash Bingo. In this episode I cover: Yay Crochet or Nay Crochet; CALs; FOs; WIPs; Feeding the Habit; Quod the Rav and the final segment What's Good? This Episode is sponsored by: Knit It - Hook It - Craft It   Thanks to everyone that tunes in to the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement is really appreciated.  If you are missing Lynne, she is now doing audio recordings of her blog. The are available whenever she updates a new blog and are generally a lot shorter than podcasts, so you can dip in.   1 - Yay crochet or nay crochet I am very aware that it is always a yay crochet.  I am a glass half full kind of a girl, so maybe that is why? It is all about Tunisian crochet.  Although I already crochet, I feel like I am learning a new genre of craft by getting to grips with Tunisian crochet.  I haven't done a lot yet, but it is all leading towards me spiralling down yet another rabbit hole...     2 - CALs The Christmas CAL started on teh 24th December and concluded on the 31st January.  The enthusiasm, support and skill shown within this CAL has been fantastic.   I have pulled together a 'TCC Christmas CAL' video montage to show all of the finished objects, the crafters behind them and the prize winners (drawn using a random number generator).   You can also view the finsihed projects by checking #tccChristmasCAL on Instagram or looking at the 'Christmas CAL FOs' thread within The Crochet Circle POdcast group on Ravelry.  You will see lots of beautiful projects. The running of our first CAL has definitely helped to define how the next CAL is going to be managed.   Tunisian CAL This new CAL will start on the 3rd March and run until the 16th April.  We are being expertly guided by Sol through this CAL as she already teaches Tunisian crochet, has tutorials on her blog and is providing patterns for the CAL. As with the Christmas CAL, there will be three categories: 1 - Sol's Cobbled Streets Cowl which is a free of charge pattern and needs one skein (400m) of 4 ply yarn, a 4mm (G6) hook and a 30cm cable, though you may be abel to use a long shafted hook instead. 2 - Sol's Ocaso shawl which is a paid for pattern and needs three (1 x Yarn A and 2 x Yarn B) skeins of 4 ply yarn with about 380m per skein.  You will need a 4mm hook (G6) and an 80cm cable. 3 -  Anything goes.  The pattern of your choice, it just has to be Tunisian crochet. A ravelry thread has already been opened and you can use #tccTunisianCAL on Instagram.     Roll on March 3rd.   3 - Finished Objects Many FOs are in my midst!  I have managed to get some major projects finished.  During the last podcast I promised that I would have my  Leigh Tee finished, and I had also started the Riveret crochet top, so here they both are:     I also finished off the redesign of Colosseum to make it into a two skein shawl.  I am currently writing the new pattern up and it will be available to purchase from Ravelry and my website shortly but I will also be sending it as a free pattern to people that have already bought a copy of Take Two.     My final FO was a pair of knitted Delilah socks from The Sock Drawer.  I also used these for a bit of test on sock blockers:   Here is the link to the differences in yarn usage between some knitted and crocheted stitches.  If you have any burnung questions on similar topics, let me know via Ravelry and I will see if I can investigate. 4 - WIPs Hmmm, I want to start all of the things, but let's start with the thing that is not my best friend at the moment, my second Uncia shawl.  I had to work so hard to knit Juliet's Uncia for the self-imposed deadline that the thought of picking up my Uncia to finish it is filling me with dread.  I have 95 rows left to knit, about 25 hours worth of knitting maybe?  I just can't face it at the moment. Maybe next week. I wanted to start a knitted garment at the back end of 2016 but was enticed into more Christmas CAL crochet and so made a start on a Leigh top on the 1st January 2017 instead.   This is really quick to knit up and I am using the yarn that the pattern called for - Rowan Cocoon (shade Crag).  This is gorgeous to work with and there is a very strong sheepy smell coming off the yarn (80% wool and 20% Mohair) which just makes me want to knit on it all day long. I also seem to have started another crocheted garment!  The pattern is Riveret by Merrian Holland from Pom Pom Quarterley's Spring 2016 issue.  I liked the look of this pattern when I first got my copy through the door but I wasn't convinced that it would suit me.  I then saw the sample at Yarnporium in London and realised how big it was on the model and just how elegant it was.  I have done very little on this but it should receive some more love before the next podcast!     5 - Feeding the habit I have been very good.  Whilst I have bought yarn for designs and present crafting, I have bought NO personal yarn!   Instead, I bought books:   1 - Around the Corner Crochet Borders 2 - The New Tunisian Crochet   6 - Quod the Rav If you have some yarn that you want to use but you don't know what to makwe with it, then here are some simple ways of filtering through Ravelry to drill down to some suitable pojects:     So much easier to search through 85 projects than 614,000+.     What's good?   We are heading into yarn festival season once more.  The fist that I will be attending is Edinburgh Yarn Festival on the 11th March so if anyone fancies meeting up, let me know.  I will also be vending at Wonderwool Wales on the 23rd and 24th April and who knows where else I will end up this year...   Until next month. Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle    Pinterest: Crochet_Circle   Twitter: Crochet_Circle   YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry Group: Search for The Crochet Circle Podcast in Groups

Hello folks, come on in to The Crochet Circle Podcast. Here are the show notes from Episode Twelve - Who you gonna call?  Stash Buster!  In this episode I will cover: Yay Crochet or Nay Crochet; Setting the Scene for 2017; FOs; WIPs; Feeding the Habit; Quod the Rav and the final segment What's Good? This Episode is sponsored by: Knit It - Hook It - Craft It Hello to Happyhound11, Thell and Snotestine (Shannon) from Ravelry.  Happy birthday to DianneB (Dianne) whose birthday is on publish day! Thanks to everyone that tunes in to the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement is really appreciated.    1 - Yay crochet or nay crochet It can ony be a yay because if the response to the Crochet Circle Christmas Crochet Along.  The response has been fanstastic!   I am so impressed with the number of things that people have made, the fact that people are learning new skills and techniques or using new yarns.  Best of all, you can still get hooking!  I am starting a third project in the next couple of days and have so far finished a pair of socks and a shawl which you can see in more detail under FOs.  You can check out the FO thread on Ravelry under the group - The Crochet Circle Podcast or by searching #tccChristmasCAL on Instagram. This makes me wonder if you would like to do a Spring CAL too?  Let me know.  The Christmas CAL goes on until the 31st January so there s still plenty of time to start a project.   2 - Setting the scene for 2017 During the last podcast I started to talk about some of my crafting goals for 2017.  I have opened up a thread on Ravelry so that you can add yours in too, as many already have. It's great to be able to see your lists, although I keep on adding some of your ideas into mine... So, here is what I am working towards in 2017: Yarn: 1 - Not buy any if I can possibly help it. The caveat to this is that I may need specific yarns for design work in which case I will have to buy it. I have a rather large stash (you may get to see it in Episode 12). I am hoping to stick to this for the whole year so that I can really appreciate the beautiful stash that I have and use some of it. 2 - To try to log all of my stash on Ravelry so that I have easy access to it when I am looking at patterns. Crochet: 3 - To do more crochet colour work. I really enjoyed doing a colour work hat recently and can see many applications for it. 4 - Explore more crochet stitches to see how I can combine them and/or work with them to bring texture and more interest to my projects. 5 - Use more British breeds for my crochet projects. 6 - Crochet more garments. FOs: 7 - Finish the three large projects that I have on the go (TARDIS cushion, Shorelines blanket and Uncia number two).  8 - Log more of my FOs on Ravelry. Knitting:  9 - Knit some garments.  Other: 10 - Sew a garment to wear possibly as part of #memademay. 11 - Be more focussed about sketching out designs when they come to me. 12 - Learn to bake bread - I have been meaning to do this for a while so I may as well add it to the list!    Join in.  Add your details to the thread and share what you want to work on in 2017. 3 - Finished Objects I have had fingers of fire recently.  This is in part due to me doing some gift crafting, partly because of the Christmas CAL and partly beause I didn't cover FOs in the last podcast.   I knitted Christmas socks for Jenny and her two boys - all gratefully received.  Our friends have also just had a baby boy and so I designed and crocheted up a pram blanket for Theodore!  I was keen to design a blanket that would use as much of the four skeins as possible and have as few ends to weave in as possible.     I really love the finished blanket and it only has seven ends to weave in!  I used a 6mm (J/10) hook for the blanket but moved up to an 8mm (L/11) hook for the slip stitch border. I have two FOs from the Christmas CAL, so far!  My first were the Winter Wonder socks by Vicki Brown.  She very kindly offered a 50% discount on the sock pattern for the CAL, just use the code CCCAL when you are checking out on Ravelry. I used a 3mm hook (C/2) and Zealana Cozi (15% Brushtail Possum, 58% Merino, 5% baby Alpaca and 22% nylon) in shade Peppermint. I deliberately went a little more luxurious with this yarn because these are socks for wearing in the house when my feet are very cold and also for inside my wellies.  The pattern is really easy to follow and memorise with a new to me toe construction.  I struggled with the sizing to begin with but got there by making the small size and a 3mm hook for most of the sock, moving to a 4mm (G/6) hook to do the heel, moving back to the 3mm when starting in rounds again.   I would recommend both yarn and pattern, though you may want to make sure that you are comfortable with using Possum before you make your yarn purchase.  I am a trained conservationist and so using Possum isn't an issue for me personally.  Although I bought my two balls in Munich, you can also buy it from Hulu Crafts in the UK or check the Zealana website for stockists. These are my best fitting crocheted socks to date. I also managed to finish my version of Spun Gold by Kat Goldin and used some Jeanette Sloan Baby Alpaca 4 ply in shade Olive (50g/200m).  Sadly, this yarn is no longer available which is one of the reasons that I used it for this project.  I had already used the yarn for my crocheted Liala top and so had two and a bit balls left.  Spun Gold is one of those patterns where you crochet increases until you have used half of your yarn and then start decreasing.  All in I had 140g and used 133g to make this shawl.   You can also see my pair of Solar socks by Gill Slater which is free pattern on Ravelry.  I knitted thsee using 2.5mm/9 inch circular needles and Socks Yeah! yarn in shade Malachite. I nearly forgot about the Uncia for Juliet!  I finished it, she loves it, I still have mine to finish...   4 - WIPs Hmmm, I want to start all of the things, but let's start with the thing that is not my best friend at the moment, my second Uncia shawl.  I had to work so hard to knit Juliet's Uncia for the self-imposed deadline that the thought of picking up my Uncia to finish it is filling me with dread.  I have 95 rows left to knit, about 25 hours worth of knitting maybe?  I just can't face it at the moment. Maybe next week. I wanted to start a knitted garment at the back end of 2016 but was enticed into more Christmas CAL crochet and so made a start on a Leigh top on the 1st January 2017 instead.   This is really quick to knit up and I am using the yarn that the pattern called for - Rowan Cocoon (shade Crag).  This is gorgeous to work with and there is a very strong sheepy smell coming off the yarn (80% wool and 20% Mohair) which just makes me want to knit on it all day long. I also seem to have started another crocheted garment!  The pattern is Riveret by Merrian Holland from Pom Pom Quarterley's Spring 2016 issue.  I liked the look of this pattern when I first got my copy through the door but I wasn't convinced that it would suit me.  I then saw the sample at Yarnporium in London and realised how big it was on the model and just how elegant it was.  I have done very little on this but it should receive some more love before the next podcast!     5 - Feeding the habit In 2017 I am going to try my very best to not buy yarn.  Having gone through my stash during December, I bolstered the areas that I knew were lacking such as sock yarn.  I have A LOT of yarn and it is time to use some of it up. My plan is to to log all of the weights and metrage of yarn that I use in 2017 so that I can record what a dent I am making.  There does have to be one caveat though.  For yarn specific projects (one of which is a man's cardigan which is a present and has to be in a very specific colour that I don't currently have or for designs that I need to work on) I iwll most likley have to buy yarns, the same applies to new designs that I don't have the correct yarn for.    I am also going to put some of my older stash into six different bags.  Each bag will be assigned a number and by using a random number generator that will dictate the next bag of yarn that I have to work with and find a pattern for - Stash Bingo! There will be some feeding the habit as I am sure that I will be buying patterns and books to find great projects to use with my stash.  I also intend on attending workshops to increase my skill base.   1 - Regia sock yarn   2 - The Bavarian yarn that I bought from Die Mercerie is by Hofer Schafwolle  3 - Metallico by Blue Sky Alpacas             4 - Wolle Rodel sock yarn  5 - Vicki Brown skeins of lovliness!  6 - Merino/Silk 4 ply from The Wool Kitchen  7 - Lang Yarns Jawoll sock yarn 8 - Life in the Long Grass - no more words are required!  9 - Socks Yeah! by Rachel Coopey   6 - Quod the Rav Not so long ago, a lovely person on Ravelry sent me a message to suggest that I start using some of the useful functions when I was adding to discussion threads.  This is called Magic Linking.  Yes the information for it popped up every time I pressed the 'Reply to thread' button, but no I didn't read it or act upon it!   Here is how to do it: Magically link to Ravelry by typing some text in brackets and a type of thing in parentheses. At the moment, you can link to a yarn, person, pattern, project, book or group. [Somewhat Cowl](pattern) [casey](person) [Malabrigo](yarn) [mayarn's chuppah](project)  [Canadian Knitter](group) [Favorite Socks](book) This is a really helpful tool to use when you are participating in forums because it allows you to quickly and easily use the backend database of Ravelry to provide useful links within your comments.   For instance, if I was going to add an FO to a thread I would use the Magic Link function to show what pattern and yarn I had used or if I wanted to point people to my project for that pattern then I might give project and yarn links instead. This is a really quick and effective way of sharing your knowledge with people and stops annoying people like me aksing what pattern and yarn you used! A top tip from me is to have a little written note for your pattern/project/yarn at the ready so that you know execatly what it is called.  This can save you the annoyance of trying to find it mid-forum response and potentially losing your draft comments so far. The other way around this is to have two Ravelry tabs open, one for checking details and one for adding comments to.  I find it immensley helpful when people use the magic link function as I love to see what yarn and patterns people have used for projects and I can't be the only one...   What's good? I have had some time off in Munich and with our friends Jenny and Frazer and it has been wonderful. Whilst in Munich, I manged to visit three yarn shops and have a firm favourite - Die Mercerie.  It was such a beautiful space with very tastefully curated items and great displays.  If you find yourself in Munich, you will not be disappointed with a walk out to visit this shop!     Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle    Pinterest: Crochet_Circle   Twitter: Crochet_Circle   YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry Group: Search for The Crochet Circle Podcast in Groups