Podcasts about edinburgh yarn festival

Technology troubles meant you almost didn’t get to hear this episode. But here we are! Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of  our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com Come join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. This episode was recorded back on October 29 and is just now getting published due to Kelly's ancient Macbook finally showing its age. Learning a new audio software on a different computer platform meant little editing and a long delay in getting this out to you. We know you'll forgive our recording imperfections so we wanted to get this out to you! Marsha’s Projects I'm continuing on Shared Rib cowl by Anne Hanson .  Old Maiden Aunt fingering that in the colorway Crimson Lips that I bought at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival. I'm also working on Daphne’s Skull designed by Ellen Sibelius owner of Wooly Wonders. To hear more about her designs check out Episode 109. My progress has slowed way down because I got sick with a cold and the teeth have turned out to be very fiddly. It won't be finished in time for Halloween. I'm thinking of my next sweater project: Atlas by Jared Flood Snow Flower Heidi Kirrmeier Calder Pullover Rebecca Blair A shawl using Two Ewes Replenish Rambouillet Kelly’s Projects I finished Seabrook Socks out of Little Fish Stitches yarn in the Seabrook Sunset colorway. I started Wooly Wonders Sugar Skull. (This has since been finished) Sonny Bono Jacket is back in active status. I’m working on the sleeves.  Events Fibershed Wool and Fine Fiber Symposium, November 16th, 9-5 at Point Reyes Station Winter Weave Along--Started October 15 in the Two Ewes Ravelry Group. This weave along goes until the end of March so you have plenty of time for weaving projects.  Fix it or Nix It--Starts November 1st and goes through January 1. Join the planning on the Ravelry group discussion board. 

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 48 – Barking up the Right Tree     My name is Fay and this is my audio and video podcast for those that love fibre crafts, particularly crochet.  It’s a community for people that like to support their fellow humans regardless of race, gender, sexuality, ability, size or age. I hope you feel the welcome embrace and love of the Crochet Clan.  Come on in and stay awhile.     In this episode, I cover Losing your Cro-jo; WIP RIP 2019; Final Destination; En Route; Quick News Beats; Big Up and J’adore.   This podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co.  Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile.    If you would like to support the podcast, you can do that through Patreon:   This podcast is also a supporter of BIPOC in Fibre, a group of amazing people that set up a crowdfunding project to create a website/project to "become a vital, interactive resource that will increase the profiles of all the BIPOC makers listed and show the true diversity that exists in our community."  If you would also like to support the project, you can do so by clicking here.    1 – Cro-jo I popped some questions up onto a post on Instagram.  I was curious to know what made people lose their crochet mojo and what they have done to get it back.   I deliberately asked the question in October because I suspected that the pressure of making crocheted/crafted presents for a Christmas deadline would be one of the main reasons.  I wasn’t wrong. Thank you to everyone that came back to tell me their stories.  I have compiled them into categories and listed them out below.  If you want to read some wider thinking around this topic, I created a ‘Lost your crojo’ blog post on it (link).   The main reasons for people losing their love of crochet or crafting were: Current skill levels don’t match what they want the finished object to look like or stops them from tackling next level patterns. Deadline crocheting – particularly for Christmas or teacher presents. Summer months – either too hot or you are off doing other things because of the daylight. Too many WIPs. Big life changes such as births, deaths, weddings, house moves, relationship issues, country moves. Projects that are in the naughty corner because something needs to be fixed, there are long, boring sections or the project just overall feels like a chore! Being new to the craft and not yet knowing what you like to make.   Here are some of the suggestions for how to get your crojo back: If you are on Instagram, look up crochet related hashtags to get inspiration and see what others are up making.  Try searching for crochet in different languages such as 'haken' so that you see what is popular in different parts of the world. Choose a really quick project that you can finish in one sitting.  The dopamine hit that you get from finishing a project shouldn't be underestimated. Look back at your Ravelry project pages or go through your handmade wardrobe.  Remind your self of all the beautiful things you have made and how far you have developed your skills. Have a selection of WIPs.  One for quiet times that needs a bit of concentration, one for watching the TV or reading that requires very little concentration and one the will fly off your hook so that your brain gets that dopamine hit. Do just a couple of rows.  Even one stitch is one stitch further...   In the blog post, I also talk through my Worthy Decision Ladder which helps me work through who I spend my precious making time on.   2 – CAL Updates The #wiprip2019 I am co-hosting with Sophie from A Spring Snowflake Podcast (link) is in full swing. You have from now until midnight on the 31st December to finish up or rip out some or all of your WIPs so that you go into the New Year with fewer projects. On Instagram, you can use #wiprip2019 for chatter and #wiprip2019FO to show off your finished or frogged projects.  Go to Sophie’s Ravelry group for chatter and the Crochet Circle Podcast group for the FO thread.  Come and join us and let’s carry fewer projects into 2020.   3 – Final Destination My monogamous crafting is continuing!  Whilst it means that I don’t have as much to talk about on the podcast month by month, what it actually means is that I get projects finished and I’m not building up piles of WIPs. I have a couple of finished objects to show off.   The first was a really quick make – a crocheted headband, ready for my impending trip to Iceland.  The pattern is by Ami from Hook of Love (link to Ravelry and link to her website) and it’s called “Minta Hat Headband Earwarmer”. It needed just 35g of an aran/worsted weight yarn and a 6mm hook.  I chose some Brigantia Luxury Aran from my stash in colourway 4c4.  It’s 100% British wool, spun in Yorkshire and 140m/100g.  Sadly, Brigantia wool is no longer available to buy.        ALT TEXT Photo 1: grey background with a folded piece of checked woven cashmere top left, a cake of aran weight wool top right, pink 6mm crochet hook and a crocheted headband showing back loop only dc (sc in US) squish.  The wool and headband are in a scarlet/cranberry red colour. Photo 2: Blue background with a photo of a crocheted tank top design with open ace work in a green/yellow under a blue and white checked shirt.  To the right is the slide title "Another of Ami's designs" in a bold white font.    My second thing off the hook is my Mya Shawl by Helda Penagary (link).  The yarn is ‘Pisces’ Yak Single Ply by Cosmic Strings (the dyers are Phu and Bea (link)) as the main skein and some Rico mohair as the dark grey background colour.   I extended the width of the shawl, changed the row count and blocked it aggressively to get the width that I wanted.  If you want to see what I did, full details are in my “Sythermort Shawl” project notes on Ravelry.   I am also entering it into Clarisabeth’s (Crochet Cakes podcast) Mischief Managed CAL (link) which finished on 31st October.   ALT TEXT: Two photos on one slide showing the same version of the Mya Shawl.  The shawl is on a mannequin and is crocheted using a dark grey laceweight mohair with alternating stripes of a bright teal/turquoise 4 ply yarn.  The stripes are quite thin and there are 50 in total, shown off nicely in the triangular-shaped shawl.   4 – En Route In just four short days I have managed to progress really well with my Bark Sweater by Sidsel Sangild (link).  I’m using a 5mm hook and a sportweight Romney/Corriedale blend from John Arbon Textiles.  This wool was a show special for Edinburgh Yarn Festival and is no longer available.    It’s really quick to work up because of the hook size and use of chains to create a sort of lace pattern.  I suspect this will be finished by the end of this weekend and will be going straight into my suitcase for Iceland.     ALT TEXT Photo 1: Dark grey background with the beginnings of my Bark Sweater laid out with the 5mm hook and cake of wool.  The wool is a natural brown/grey colour and the pattern and texture of the crochet pattern is very obvious.  The use of front post treble stitches and chains create an ovate leaf shape throughout the jumper. Photo 2: Blue background with a photo of the designer Sidsel Sangild.  Sidsel is in front of a dusky pink wall wearing a grey v-neck jumper and holding her right hand up in the air.  To the right is the slide title "This is Sidsel" in a bold white font.    I have made some changes to the pattern (I can’t help myself) and will be adding these details to my project page on Ravelry.  Look for a pattern called “Romney Bark Jumper”.  What I would say is that this isn’t a size-inclusive pattern by any stretch of the imagination.  It covers small and large.  However, because of the pattern repeats, you can make it bigger or smaller, but you would have to do the maths yourself (I have added some guidance on this).   In my project notes I have also added how you can create an invisible round join and new round start.  In the picture below you would be hard pushed to see where the rounds end and start.   ALT TEXT: close up of my Bark jumper showing off how invisible the round joins and starts are.      5 – Feeding the Habit I have nothing to show you under Feeding the Habit.  Matthew has bought me wool for my Christmas present but that has already gone into hiding and I will share it with you in the January 2020 podcast.     6 – Quick News Beats 1 - Global Hook Up – I have set the dates for the next few months and will stick to the 8 pm GMT/BST on a Saturday night and 9 am GMT on a Sunday morning. The details for the next sessions are already up in the Ravelry thread, can also be found below and will be put out on Instagram in advance. The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here:  https://www.zoom.us/join If you are joining on your phone or tablet you will likely need to download the software in advance.  If you are joining from a PC or Mac, you can join via the link above.  Everyone needs to use the same ID number to get into the session.  November - Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th   December - Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th   2 – I had three kilted bear pins from Bernie at Bear in Sheep’s Clothing (link).  These pins are made in the UK and I love them.  The winners are: Instagram – theartsypescatarian Podbean – marikaisa01 YouTube – Ana Bernardino   7 - J’adore I have been beavering away on my knitted sock designs and needed something on in the background to keep me company.  I love the Great British Bake Off and a friend introduced me to the Great Australian Bake Off.  I am loving it. The bakers are so talented and I really enjoy the Australian sense of humour too.  They are even allowed to swear – you didn’t get that with the BBC!  Do other countries get their own version of Bake Off?  I need to know because I am fast running out of GABO episodes to consume.   8 – Big Up Much love to everyone that took the time to answer my questions on crojo over on Instagram.  The input from the Crochet Clan can’t be underestimated because learning from your experiences allows me to gain greater knowledge and pull together better-informed blog posts to share with the wider community.  I had to recently attribute some words to what I think my role is with this podcast and I chose “thought leader”.  I know that sounds a bit business and jargon-heavy, but what I’m trying to create is a podcast that is hopefully fun and informative.  I would love new crocheters to come across the podcast in 10 or 20 years time and for it to still bring value to them.   So thank you for being part of that process!   I’ll be back on December 6th. Fay x   Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  Instagram: provenance.craft.co   Instagram: FayDHDesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite  

Troubleshooting a tricky pattern, productive struggle, and planning to Fix It or Nix It are the topics for this week. Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of  our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com Come join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Marsha’s Projects I finished 1898 Hat by Kristine Byrnes with worsted weight.  Leading Men Fiber Arts Box Office Worsted in the colorway Wild Goose Chase. The pattern is available for free on the Seamen’s Church Institute: Christmas at Sea website.  I restarted Shared Rib by Anne Hanson as a cowl. I'm using Old Maiden Aunt fingering that in the colorway Crimson Lips that I bought at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival. I also started Daphne’s Skull designed by Ellen Sibelius owner of Wooly Wonders. To hear more about her designs check out Episode 109. Keep your fingers crossed I finished this by Halloween. ;-) Kelly’s Projects My only project is the pair of Seabrook Socks out of Little Fish Stitches yarn in the Seabrook Sunset colorway exclusive to String Theory Yarn and Fiber. Using a pattern of traveling purl stitches inspired by Hermione’s Everyday Sock pattern. I moved the spinning wheel into the bedroom but still haven’t done any spinning.  Exciting Shop news The Ewes have several new bases coming soon to the shop. Besides the fingering weight Replenish Rambouillet, the show will also have a sport weight and a worsted weight. In addition, there will be two small-batch yarns available--one Romney and another Corriedale x Romeldale. We’ll keep you posted about a coming shop update.  Events Fibershed Wool and Fine Fiber Symposium, November 16th, 9-5 at Point Reyes Station Winter Weave Along--Started October 15 in the Two Ewes Ravelry Group. This weave along goes until the end of March so you have plenty of time for weaving projects. Fix it or Nix It--Starts November 1st and goes through January 1. Join the planning on teh Ravelry group discussion board. 

Reviewing the WA Coast Meetup, a fiber mill, inspirations to cure a knitting funk, weaving plans and patron appreciation prizes round out this episode. Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of  our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com Come join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Thank you to Jean Chambers at  String Theory Yarn and Fiber for helping us put on the Washington Coast Meetup! We had a great time meeting new fiber friends who felt like old friends right away. The unexpected theme of the meetup was dogs! All the attendees were dog owners, the shop has a new puppy, Marsha brought Enzo, and two of the attendees also had their dogs with them. So a beach run with the dogs was a highlight of Saturday afternoon. On our way to Seabrook we stopped by Olympic Yarn and Fiber Mill for a tour by the owner Lynn Lipski. She is also the creator of Lina Yarns. We toured her current mill and had a sneak peak at the new fiber spinning mill that she is opening in Cosmopolis, WA. Her operation is very impressive and her vision for providing a mill for local fiber and helping to build the fiber supply chain is definitely infectious.  Marsha’s Projects I finished Lounging Top by Joji Locatelli. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Juliet.  I also finished the first sock with  Schahenmayr Regia Design Line by Arne & Carlos. I’m using  Knitted Wit Smarties for the toes and heels. Note: 45-yard mini skein is enough for heel and toe of one sock. I’m making another 1898 Hat by Kristine Byrnes with worsted weight. This time using Leading Men Fiber Arts Box Office Worsted in the colorway Wild Goose Chase. The pattern is available for free on the Seamen’s Church Institute: Christmas at Sea website.  Marsha’s Plans I started Shared Rib by Anne Hanson back in February. The pattern is for a scarf, cowl, or infinity cowl. I’ve knit about 4” of the scarf but think I’m going to rip out and knit the cowl instead. The yarn is from Old Maiden Aunt fingering that in the colorway Crimson Lips that I bought at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival. Halloween is coming! I'm thinking about making the Daphne’s Skull designed by Ellen Sibelius owner of Wooly Wonders. To hear more about her designs check out Episode 109. Kelly’s Projects I’m participating in the Oh Gnome You Didn’t MKAL by Sara Shira. I was keeping up with the clues until I went off to Washington for the meetup. The clue that week involved stuffing the gnome so I put the project on pause for the trip and I haven’t picked it back up. The mystery KAL is now over so I know how the gnomes look and they’re very cute. I’ll finish my two in time for Christmas and add a couple more traditional looking gnomes to the bunch, but  right now I’m not in the mood for small pieces, stuffing or sewing.  I did start a pair of socks at the meetup. They are out of Little Fish Stitches yarn in the Seabrook Sunset colorway that is exclusive to String Theory Yarn and Fiber. It’s a very pretty orange and purple combination.  Other than that, my knitting has hit a stall. I'm in a funk. Maybe that’s for the best since it’s almost time for the 19-20 Winter Weave Along! It will start on October 15th and go until March 15th. For handouts from the last two years, go to the pages section of our Ravelry Group. Third Quarter Patron Appreciation drawing! We so appreciate all of our generous patrons who support us with monthly contributions through our Two Ewes Patreon page. We have patron tiers starting at $3 per month. The money is used to help pay our hosting fees, as well as to pay for the purchase and shipping of podcast prizes. While we always appreciate prize donations, we also like to support makers and purchase their wares as prizes for our giveaways. Patron support contributes to our ability to do that. Thank you so much for your support! We announce two winners in the patron appreciation drawing!  We also appreciate the support we receive from listeners in the form of podcast recommendations to others, prizes, donations, and participation in our community on Ravelry!

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 44 – Go Garment Go.    My name is Fay and this is my audio and video podcast for those that love fibre crafts, particularly crochet.  It’s a community for people that like to support their fellow humans regardless of race, gender, sexuality, ability, size or age. I hope you feel the welcome embrace and love of the Crochet Clan.  Come on in and stay awhile.    In this episode, I cover Old Dog new tricks; Perth Project Runway update; Final Destination; En Route; Feeding the habit; Quick News Beats and J’adore.   This podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co.  Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile.    If you would like to support the podcast, you can do that through Patreon: 1 – Old Dog New Tricks Have you ever looked to buy a skein of variegated yarn and struggled to see how it might look crocheted up?  I know that work has been done on how stocking stitch knits up and it’s because of SpaceCadet’s brilliant blogpost that I am doing this work for crochet.   Many yarn dyers have samples of their yarns knitted up but fewer do that same for crochet.  I am pleased to report though that this is changing and more crochet is being sighted as swatches and samples at the yarn shows I am attending.  We are having a positive impact! Reading a skein of variegated could really help you to work out whether it is going to work for you or not.  I have done some of the work for you, but if you really want an accurate gauge, you need to do some swatching too!  I have written and illustrated this for you in a blog post: 'How to read a skein of variegated yarn for crochet'.   As a rough guide, here is how many centimetres each stitch takes in 4 ply and DK, my favourite two weights of yarn: 4 ply/light fingering weight dc (US sc) uses about 3 - 3.5cm per stitch using a 3mm hook 4 ply/light fingering weight htr (US hdc) uses about 4.5 - 5cm per stitch using a 3mm hook 4 ply/light fingering weight tr (US dc) uses about 6 – 6.5cm per stitch using a 3mm hook DK dc (US sc) uses about 5cm per stitch using a 4.5mm hook. DK htr (US hdc) uses about 7cm per stitch using a 4.5mm hook. DK tr (US dc) uses about 9cm per stitch using a 4.5mm hook. So, next time you are thinking about buying a variegated yarn in person, you can measure the length of each colour change (you will need to take a little measuring tape with you) to see whether the colour changes are right for you.   As a general rule, I prefer variegated yarns with quick colour changes for crochet.  I think that it leads to a nicer looking, more cohesive finished project.  You may prefer otherwise, and either way, it’s good to understand where your preference lies so that you buy yarn that you are more likely to want to use.    Please don’t just walk into a yarn shop or to a yarn vendor at a show and start opening out their skeins of yarn.  If you ask them nicely, they will most likely be happy for you un-skein the yarn and take a look at it.  Often there are hidden colours inside anyway that you may not see when it is all twisted up.    2 – Perth Project Runway update The votes are now closed on the five garments that I short-listed (I have kept the list below in case you want to take another look at them).  The top that won by one vote (between Instagram and Ravelry votes counted at midnight on Thursday 13th June) was Blurred Lines by Deanne at Addydae Designs.  This was a pattern that was suggested time and time again by many of you and so I am unsurprised that it came out as the favourite.  The Citizen Pullover by Kabila Sri Punnusamy (Tunisian crochet) was the next favourite.   ALT TEXT: Blurred Line jumper is being worn outside.  It is a light grey with a faded core down the trunk and arms of a light grey/teal variegated yarn.   ALT TEXT: Citizen Pullover is being worn outside beside a city building.  It is a light grey with coral pink stripes running on diagonals.  Quite a long pullover with short sleeves.   1 – Citizen Pullover by Kabila Sri Ponnusamy 2 – Liza Pullover by Yuliya Tkacheva 3 – Blurred Lines by Addydae Designs 4 – Bark Sweater by Sidsel Sangild 5 – Bruni Top by Elven Handmade   On the Friday of Woollinn Festival of Yarn I scooted over the marquee to see Bernie at Bear in Sheep's Clothing to choose a variegated yarn to go with the teal blue that she had custom dyed for me.  This was the day that Bernie was launching this new base which is called Corrie Halo (50% Corriedale and 50% Mohair).      ALT TEXT: Semi tonal blue yarn with a real halo to it and it’s called ‘Sprucey Bonus’ because it is the colour of the underside of a Spruce Tree.  It is paired with a yarn called ‘Sulk’ and is on an ecru pink base with small patches of teal blue, acid yellow, sea green and plummy purples.      I know that when Stasia made her version of Blurred Lines, it took three weeks and she was working on it almost constantly.  Although I have until the 6th September to get this jumper crocheted, it’s still going to be a tall order with all of the other things I have going on at the moment.   The lovely Catherine asked whether I was going to host a make along for this project.  I wasn’t but I am now!  It’s all very informal and you have from now until 7th September to make or finish off a garment.  WIPs are allowed, it can be in any craft and any garment pattern, you just need to use the #crochetcirclemal and I have also opened a Ravelry thread for you to add to.   3 – Final Destination I only have one FO to show you, my latest version of the Arria shawl.  I finally finished this just before I headed up to Cumbria to vend at Woolfest last weekend.    This version is in John Arbon Textiles Harvest Hues (4ply/light fingering 400m/100g) in shades Russet and Blue Spruce and I am loving the shawl in solid colours.   ALT TEXT:  White background with a vintage mannequin covered in the Arria shawl.  It has a deep V front with dark petrol blue triangle segments running in a spine up the centre of the shawl.  The rest of the shawl is in a russet brown/orange colour.    4 – En Route Monogamous me means that I am just working on the Blurred Lines jumper at the moment as a personal project.  There is a design project on the go at the moment but I will show you that in a future episode.  So, for the next couple of episodes, it may just be all about Blurred Lines because it needs up to 600g of 4 ply yarn  - that’s 2,400m of yarn to crochet!    So, here’s my progress so far.  I have completed the neck ribbing and the second round of increases.  I keep on trying the project on to make sure it fits nicely.  If you are interested in making one of these, I am making notes for each stage that I pass through in my Ravelry project.  If you want to take a look, simply search for ‘Perth Project Runway Blurred Lines’ under projects.  I will also be adding updates to Ravelry.   ALT TEXT: The collar and beginnings of a yolk in a mid teal blue sit on a grey background.  To the right is  a small ball of the same coloured yarn and above is a cake of the variegated pinky/ecru yarn which is the contrast colour.   I am hoping to get to the contrast colour in the next couple of days and am intrigued to see how the variegated skein will work up.   Deanne, the designer of Blurred Lines is an absolute star and has offered up some free patterns.  To be in with a chance of winning one of her brilliantly written patterns, simply leave a comment in YouTube, Ravelry (there is a specific thread called Garment Make Along in time for Perth Festival of Yarn) or on the Instagram post for Episode 44 over @crochet_circle_podcast   5 – Feeding the Habit Oooh, it has been a bit of a month and all of my purchases probably seem ridiculous, but I have plans, oh yes, I have plans!! Mwahahahahahahaaaa!   My biggest plan of all is that I have signed up to a solstice to solstice yarn ban with a friend.  So, design yarn aside, I won’t be buying any yarn until the winter solstice on the 21st December.    In 2017 I only bought design yarn, so know that I can manage 6 months.  It is time to work through some of my stash!   ALT TEXT: Two handmade bags on a grey background.  The one on the left has a deep brown base and the top is bold autumnal coloured flowers and seed heads with a drawstring.  Little balls of different coloured fibres are spilling out of the top and some ocean-inspired stitch markers are nearby.  The bag to the right has a material handle and is cream with shop fronts of cafes and coffee shops.   These two bags were lovely gifts from friends.  Marceline and I agreed way back at Edinburgh Yarn Festival to do a bag swap as we both aim to improve our machine sewing skills.  The date was set for when she was over vlogging Woollinn Festival of Yarn. You can catch up with Marce’s trip to Dublin and the festival from her YouTube Channel.  While I was vending at this festival – one of the friendliest I have ever been to – I was also given a bag by Sophie from A Spring Snowflake Podcast.  I am so spoiled!   Then there is some yarn!  I have been at the John Arbon Open Mill Weekend, Woollinn Festival of Yarn and Woolfest in the last month.  Here is what has come in.  The John Arbon wool is a mill special; before the open weekend they spin various colours together, so they are one-offs and sometimes move into a bit of a fade.  I bought a jumper’s worth of this in a 4 ply and it will fade from a blue and cream into teal and cream. I also have a jumper’s quantity of the undyed Romney that I initially bought for my knitted Canisp jumper.  I finished Canisp and the shape didn’t look right on me but looked fab on Juliet and she insisted on replacing the finished jumper with the means for me to make myself another. The Romney Sportweight is now destined to become a Bark Sweater which will be my next crocheted garment after I have finished Blurred Lines.    ALT TEXT: Four skeins of marled yarn on a grey background.  The skeins are all marled with a grey/cream but fade from teal to blue.   ALT TEXT: THree skeins of a mushroom brown wool lie on a grey background.  The labels have sheep on them and sat Romney.  The twist of the yarn is obvious and squishy.   At Woollinn I picked up a couple of skeins for a one-skein shawl design that I am working on.  The first is a beautiful blend of Alpaca and silk from Tara at Irish Artisan Yarns.  I love that Tara is inspired by the colours of her home turf of the Antrim Coast in Northern Ireland.  The second is a skein of Alpa-Si-Li (50% Alpaca, 25% silk, 25% linen) in colourway Passion, by Dye Dye Done.  I was vending along from both of these lovely vendors at Woollinn which was an absolute delight.  Dye Dye Done is a husband and wife team.  Hanna is an extremely talented knitwear designer and Daniel is the yarn dyer – what a duo!  They also have vegan yarns.     ALT TEXT: Grey background with a skein of pale, delicate and luxurious yarn at the front from Irish Artisan Yarns.  It is pink, purple and grey.  Behind it sits a ball of yarn with the tail pulled forward.  It's plummy purple/scarlet with silver slivers running through it.   On our way up to Woolfest in Cumbria, we stopped off at Blackwell Arts and Crafts House.  It is a stunning example of arts and crafts architecture and interior design and well worth a visit.  It’s right beside Lake Windermere.  While I was there, I picked up a Japanese book on embroidery called ‘Simply Stitched’ by Yumiko Higuchi which is stuffed full of beautiful projects that you can use odds and ends of wool and cotton for.    ALT TEXT: Grey background with the 'Simply Stitched' book lying flat.  The front cover shows examples of embroidery motifs (trees, flowers, a chicken), all sewn with wool thread.    6 – Quick News Beats 1 - Global Hook Up – I have set the dates for the next six months and will stick to the 8 pm GMT/BST on a Saturday night and 9 am GMT/BST on a Sunday morning. The details for the next sessions are already up in the Ravelry thread, can also be found below and will be put out on Instagram in advance. The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here:  https://www.zoom.us/join If you are joining on your phone or tablet you will likely need to download the software in advance.  If you are joining from a PC or Mac, you can join via the link above.  Everyone needs to use the same ID number to get into the session.  July – Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st August - Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th September - Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd   October - Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th   November - Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th   December - Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th   2 – The good folk behind The Craft Bank on Ravelry, Lisa and Sophie are hosting a gift-along.  You just need to go to The Craft Bank Group on Ravelry and fill in the very quick online survey that is linked and then you will be paired up with a partner.  I have already signed up, so some lucky, lucky soul will be getting a dodgy project bag from me… 3 –  I have a handful of yarn shows left that I am vending at in 2019 and the next one to let you know about is Yarnfolk in Northern Ireland on Saturday 3rd of August.  It’s a one-day show in Whitehead (accessible via train from Belfast) and is such a friendly show.  This will be my third year vending there, which says a lot really.   7 – J’adore While I was up in the Lake District with my friend Annabel, our lovely hosts Sarian and Andrew took us for a picnic to Derwent Water.  It was a cracking evening by the lakeshore and I went swimming! In the lake!   ALT TEXT: A lake with mountains in the background.  Some stones are in the foreground with various people out swimming and a man and his dog on a paddle board.  I am one of the swimmers!   I am now a little obsessed with the idea of wild swimming.  It wasn’t as cold as you might think!  My very lovely Papa Bear has asked me to go to Iceland with him in November, so I see a lot of trips to geothermal plunge pools and outdoor pools in my future.    I will be back on Friday the 2nd of August. Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  Instagram: provenance.craft.co   Instagram: FayDHDesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite    

Includes an interview with Kirsty of Shilasdair, Skye post Make:Wool

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 41 – Three Years Old. My name is Fay and this is my audio and video podcast for those that love fibre crafts, particularly crochet.  It’s a community for people that like to support their fellow humans regardless of race, gender, sexuality, ability, size or age. I hope you feel the welcome embrace and love of the Crochet Clan.  Come on in and stay awhile.    In this episode, I cover: Review of KnitPro ball winder; Crochet Inclusivity; Final Destination; En Route; Designs in Progress; Feeding the habit; Quick News Beats and J’adore.   This podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co.  Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile.    If you would like to support the podcast, you can do that through Patreon:   1 – Review When I first started my yarn journey, I bought myself a cheap, plastic ball winder because I didn’t know then that crochet and all things yarn would literally take over my life!      ALT TEXT: Grey background and close up of cream and red crappy plastic ball winder with a broken metal finger.   Over the last couple of months, I have tried a couple of different KnitPro wooden ball winders to see whether they would be a better option for me.  Well, the proof is that I now own one.    ALT TEXT: Grey background with wooden ball winder and orange/grey wool scattered around it.   Given that I can be caking up yarn every other day, I thought it was a wise decision. So, here’s what I hate about my old ball winder and love about the new one: 1 – OLD: it creates a very tight cake which means that my yarn is being held under tension. NEW: the cakes are taller and wider, so the yarn is not under the same amount of tension and pressure. 2 – OLD: it’s mainly made of plastic and is flimsy. NEW: It’s predominantly made of wood with a little plastic and some metal.  It feels very substantial and durable. 3 – OLD: the metal finger that your yarn is placed through stopped standing on its own after about the third use. NEW: The metal finger is very firmly in place and does not move as part of the ball winder set-up. 4 – OLD: the cakes almost always get tangled at the bottom of the spinner towards the end of the skein wind.  I have had t o cut my yarn before now, to release it. NEW: The wooden base that the yarn caked up from is much bigger and can more than cope with the job. 5 – OLD: The ball winder struggles to create neat mini cakes. NEW: The cakes are neat and seem to be staying in place.  I need to test whether they work well or not though. 6 – OLD: It’s really difficult to get a nice centre pulled ball that doesn’t get knotted up. NEW: There is a space big enough to get your fingers into to pull the centre yarn from.  The cake seems to have more space in the core, so I am hopeful that the centre pull will be easy and not tangled. The KnitPro ball winder also makes really pretty looking cakes – I know this isn’t really important, but when you have to photograph yarn as part of your living, it does factor in.     ALT TEXT: two photos, both with grey backgrounds.  First shows two cakes of identical yarn, the left was wound with the plastic crappy winder and is shorter, denser and messier and the second cake is taller and prettier.  Photo two shows 3 mini skeins (2 pink and a maroon), a green with neon colour pop cake and the brown tweed one from the first photo.   The wooden ball winder is clearly much bigger than the plastic one, so you will need more space to operate it, but the proof is in the pudding. If you are often caking up yarn, then I wholeheartedly recommend this bit of kit.  I bought mine from Nikki at Ewe Felty Thing and it arrived within a week.  It’s not a cheap option at £105 + P&P, however, this is a piece of essential equipment for my hobby and job and I expect to be using this until the day I die.  Caking yarn is now a joy and not a task, especially when they come out in such a pretty shape!    2 – Crochet inclusivity Last month, I said that I was only going to purchase yarns from vendors that had crochet samples out.  I spent much of Edinburgh Yarn Festival diligently asking whether yarn dyers and vendors had crochet samples that I could see.  I got mixed reactions!  Some stallholders had some crochet, but the vast majority did not.  That isn’t specific to EYF, I find that to be the case at most yarn festivals.   Beyond the snobby reactions that I sometimes receive around crochet, there is a fundamental lack of understanding around our craft.  That may be because the vendors don’t crochet or they did it years ago and associate it with blankets, acrylic yarn and clashing colours.   There are also the urban myths that surround crochet – such as it’s yarn hungry; done by grannies, or that there are no contemporary crochet designs coming through!  In the podcast, I reference a piece of research I did on knitting v crochet for grams used.  You can access that research via my blog post here.     With most things in life, I am more carrot than stick.  I am willing to put the work in to help educate people on crochet as a craft.  My plan is to do this by writing an open letter to yarn shops, indie dyers, yarn vendors, yarn festival organisers that don’t currently give consideration to crocheters.   As part of the open letter, I will point them towards resources that dispel the urban myths and showcase the fantastic contemporary crochet that we have.  In the long-term, I plan to pull together a Crochet Collective whereby, yarn shops etc. can call upon a list of crochet designers that have beautiful crochet patterns that have been fully tech edited and deserve space and attention in yarn shops, at shows and on Instagram.    Needless to say, this is all going to take time, so watch this space.  I always say to Matthew that “if I haven’t helped to change the face of crochet by the time I die, I simply didn’t work hard enough!”        3 – Final Destination I can finally share my secret projects with you!  Before Christmas, I started working on a shawl called Drucilla.  It was kept a secret because it is one of the patterns in the new John Arbon Textiles publication, The Annual.  There are three knitting patterns in The Annual and my crochet pattern.       ALT TEXT for four clustered photos: Top left has a  grey background with some beach pebbles placed to the left of The Annual front cover. with skeins of yarn on a wooden table, mill bobbins on the floor.  Top right is a blue wall with a dusky mauve shawl with a maroon border on a mannequin.  Bottom left has a grey background with The Annual opened at a page with a triangular version of the shale in a maroon colour and dark browny/black border.  Modelled out on Exmoor by a young female.  Bottom right is the same but the shawl is now shown as a C2C version in a very light grey/blue laceweight yarn.   All yarns are from John Arbon Textiles.  Top right used 2 x 100g skeins of Knit By Numbers DK KBN90 and 1 x mini skein DK in  KBN75 Bottom left used 2 x Devonia 4ply in colourway 'Bleeding Heart' and 1 x colourway 'Cinder Glow'.   Bottom right used 2 x 100g skeins of Alpaca 2-3 ply (heavy laceweight) in colourway 'Sea Spray'.   Drucilla is a great all-rounder shawl, using V stitch.  You can do it with one or two skeins, keep it as a triangular shawl or make it into a C2C shawl as I did with the heavy lace version.  I have also just finished off a DK weight version to show that it can be crocheted from laceweight up to DK.    If you want to get your hands on the pattern, The Annual can be purchased via the John Arbon website.  It costs £5 plus P&P.  The whole thing is packed full of information and fun elements, like a spot the difference game!    I have also finished off some knitted socks.  A pair for my best friend, Jenny and a pair for my Dad.     ALT TEXT:  Two photos both with a grey background.  The first shows a charcoal grey pair of socks with hot pink stripes, heels and toes.  The second is a plain tealy/ blue pair of socks. Striped socks are in Dragon Hill Studio 4 ply 'Metro Pinstripe'. The second pair is in Lang Jawoll, colourway 'Peacock'.   4 – En Route The saga of my Esja jumper continues! I had hoped to be showing you how to work the sleeves as part of the podcast, but I ran out of yarn!  We are heading up to Scotland on Friday, so I will pop into Blacksheep Wools on the way and pick up an extra skein and hopefully finish it off in the car on the way to Ben Nevis.    Next month, I WILL be wearing my Esja jumper!   5 – Designs in Progress Last month I showed off a Barcelona inspired long cowl that I had been working on.  It now has a name – Rocamora, after the family that lived in the building of the same name that inspired the cowl.  I have actually submitted the design into a newish online magazine called Yarn People.  I really like the inclusive nature of the magazine and the fact that they aren’t fussed about whether the pattern has already been published or talked about within the yarn community.    Whilst I wait to hear whether the submission was successful or not, I am busy working up another version of it that is much short and only uses three colours.  There may be a third example in the offing which is a fade option too…   ALT TEXT: Grey background with wooden ball winder at the top with mid grey yarn sat, balled up on it, foxy orange yarn in a skein to the left, a partial cake of dark grey yarn and a work in progress ribbed cowl with a green metal crochet hook.   6 – Feeding the habit My friend Nic was in Australia, visiting family.  We agreed to do a yarn swap whereby, she brought me back some lovely yarns from that side of the world, and I brought her back yarns form Edinburgh Yarn Festival.  I failed to bring anything back for her that was suitable but will work on it when I vend at Spring Into Wool next weekend, but Nic brought me back two amazing yarns.  One from White Gum Wool in Tasmania and one from Great Ocean Road Mill in Australia.  They are so lovely and squishy!   I spent a lovely day over at Ewe Felty Thing in Llandudno, North Wales, helping Nikki celebrate her shop’s 1st birthday.  There was a lot of yarn to squish (and buy).  I came away with a skein of the special birthday colourway that Nikki had dyed and some minis from Abercairn that will become sock toes, heels and cuffs (and already have in one case). I also pre-ordered my ball winder when I was there.   Obviously, I brought stuff back from EYF too, but because of my point about not buying from stands that don’t have crocheted samples, I didn’t buy as much as I could have. That said, I did buy four balls of wool from Jamieson’s.  I was having an interesting discussion with one of their team and plan to recreate one of their classic Fair Isle patterns in crochet to really make that point that crochet can be beautiful and just sticking to marketing to knitters doesn’t need to be the way forward.    Mainly, I got yarn from John Arbon Textiles.  My love of their wool continues, and I wasn’t really up for buying any indie dyed yarn.  So, I bought the yarns that they had created as show specials.  There is the Cocktail Yarn in colourway Dark & Stormy which is destined to be a trial for a new, simple design that I want to create (perfect for yarn shops and vendors to show off crochet with) and then a jumper’s quantity of their breed special yarns.  I bought the Romney breed because I really love how squishy it is and the soft colours that I bought.    One of the real highlights of EYF for me was the Make::Wool event on the Sunday.  I didn’t get much time in sales area because I was off listening to a couple of talks.  I did, however, make a beeline for Shilasdair Yarns.  Kirsty and Simon are due to open their version of the Shilasdair Yarn Shop on the Isle of Skye this Easter.  They are still using traditional natural dyeing methods and I am very pleased to say that they have converted to using British breed yarns.  I am excited to see how they develop the company and watch with eager anticipation!         ALT TEXT: Seven different photos all on bright yellow backgrounds, showing each of the yarn makers, dyers or designers. 1 - Kirsty from Shilasdair smiling and holding a massive cone of wool outside a shed.  2 - Nikkie from Ewe Felty Thing (yarn shop) behind a wall of indie dyed yarn.  3 - John and Juliet Arbon sitting in front of some of their mill machinary.  4 - Emily K Williams from Flutterby Knits stood at the edge of a loch, showing off her latest striped knitted jumper pattern - Canisp Sweater.  5 - Desiree from Abercairn Yarns stood on a porch, sporting her latest finished object - a purple jumper.  6 - Katie Green has long brown hair and is stood in a woodlend sporting a light brown knitted shawl.  7 - Sharon from Dragon Hill Studio is out in her garden wearing a black top, with glasses on a shortish brown hair, with her dog (cream and tan coloured).       ALT TEXT - a flat lay of many yarns with numbers atteched to each of the companies and listed below.   1 - 2 x mini skeins from Abercairn Yarn, bought at Ewe Felty Thing 2 - 4 skeins of British Breeds 'Romney' from John Arbon Textiles.  These were an EYF special and aren't on the website, but may make an appearance at Wonderwool Wales. Also, two skeins of Cocktail blend in colourway 'Dark & Stormy' which was also an EYF special. 3 - Three balls of Shetland Spindrift wool from Jamiesons of Shetland in colours Storm, Camel and Tan Green. 4 - 2 x 50g skeins (dyed with INdigi and Meadowsweet) and 3 x mini skeins from Shilasdair Yarns  - dye stuff not identified.  5 - 50% Camel, 50% silk blend skein of yarn from Nikki at Ewe Felty Thing called 'Confetti in the Rain' which was a special for her shop's 1st birthday. 6 - Great Ocean Road Mill, La Bella yarn (Merino and alpaca mix) in colourway Salt & Pepper. 7 - White Gum Wool, 4 ply Fingering in colourway Quarrystone - 100% Merino   7 - Quick News Beats  1 – Here are some new hashtags/accounts for you to follow under inclusivity: #disabledmakers is run by Eve and Anna, they are doing a grand job of showing off makes from lots of differently-abled crafters.    @fatestknits is an account that has been set up specifically to work towards size inclusivity.  Designers can have their patterns featured to find test crocheters and knitters.  If you are smaller or bigger than the average body size, then this may be a great resource for finding patterns that you like and designers that actually care about catering from different sizes. 2 – When I was Edinburgh Yarn Festival, I attended a panel discussion on Diversity and Inclusion in the Fibre Space – Where do we go from here?  It was an interesting discussion, with generally helpful questions from the audience.  The panel discussion was recorded and as soon as the video is available, I will signpost you to it - link 3 – I have been invited to come and do pop-ups at a couple of yarn shops.  You can find me at Northern Yarn on 3rd May between 6.30pm and 10pm.  Kate is celebrating the shop’s 3rd birthday and I will be there selling crochet patterns and notions.   I will also be at the RiverKnits open day on the 4th March between 1aam and 5pm.  Becci and Markus now have a dye studio and they are having a grand opening.  Lost of other vendors will be there too, such as Ewe & Ply, Travelknitter, Garthenor Organic, Third Vault Yarns and RiverKnits of course.  It’s going to be a fab day with demonstrations, stuff to buy and a lovely atmosphere where you get to talk to the vendors.      These are just two of the ten events that I will be vending at this year.  If you want to know where else I am going to be, take a look at this blog post.   4 – I have set up a Ko-fi account.  I have long thought about creating a way that you can support the podcast – if you would like to.  I am not comfortable with Patreon as an option and when I came across Ko-fi, that felt like the right fit for me.  Basically, there is a website page that is for The Crochet Circle Podcast.  Within that page, you can buy me a coffee.  In reality, this is making a donation towards the running of the podcast or may actually encourage me to leave the house, buy a coffee and take a break in a café.  However, many of you have asked how you can support the podcast and the in-depth work that I do for it.  I am very grateful to those that buy from my online shop, come to see me at shows, or buy my patterns, but some of you may prefer to support me through Ko-fi.    I love doing this podcast.  But here is some of what it takes to create it: $108 a year for the Podbean hosting platform £12 a month for Zoom so that I can host the Global Hook Ups On average, three full days of my time to pull the podcast together (recording, editing, photography, show notes) Any extra time that I chose to spend on reviews, testing yarns, patterns etc.    There are also things you can do to support that podcast for free: Leave comments and give it a thumbs up on YouTube  - this puts the podcast in front of other people and increases awareness of its existence, making our community larger and stronger. Talk about it on Instagram.  If you like what I do, tag me when you are crocheting.  It may seem like a little thing, but it makes a big difference.    All of these things also apply to any other podcasters that you watch.  I am sure that they would also love extra comments, likes and tags.  It really makes a difference to us and helps to make our experience of creating a podcast much more fun!   8 – J’adore The podcast is three years old!  The first episode went out on audio-only back on 1st April 2016.  It is an absolute pleasure to put this podcast out and connect with our Crochet Clan.  To celebrate, there will be a pattern giveaway.  Sandra from the Cherry Heart podcast has kindly offered a copy of her Ziggy Interrupted scarf to one lucky winner, and I will do some pattern giveaways too.  All you need to do to enter is leave a comment on YouTube or Podbean (underneath these show notes) and tell me what crafting technique you would like to conquer in 2019.    Here’s to another three years!   I will be back on Friday the 3rd May. Fay x   Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  Instagram: provenance.craft.co   Instagram: FayDHDesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite    

It's all in the title, really. We've got WIPs, we've got FOs, and we've got a whole lot of chat about Vivian's trip to Scotland! We're sharing our thoughts from the Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2019, our experiences of the show and people we met. And be warned; we might make you green with envy with our stash acquisitions ;) And if you don't like to hear about beautiful Scottish scenery, cover your ears because we're also recapping our trip to the Isle of Skye! Happy listening, everyone :) Quiz: https://bit.ly/2TWenFJ Sheep Mittens: https://bit.ly/2SRu3Jv Colorwork KCAL Start Date: Feb 9, 2019 End Date: Apr 26, 2019 Rules: WIPS allowed, colorwork knitting or crochet projects ------------------------- INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/kcacypodcast ETSY: http://pearlandplum.etsy.com WEBSITE: http://kcacypodcast.wordpress.com RAVELRY: http://bit.ly/2mirMdK Theme music: Carpe Diem Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License https://bit.ly/1b8Hyff

Återberättelse om min resa till Edinburgh för Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2019

This episode we chat aaaallllll about Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2019! Shownotes available at https://tipsyknitspodcast.wordpress.com

Today on the Curious Handmade Podcast I can finally reveal the two secret designs I’ve created as collaborations for Edinburgh Yarn Festival. I’m on my way to EYF right now, and I’m so excited to see everyone: there are two designated meetup points, but I also hope for lots of serendipitous meetings out and about […]

Includes an interview with Kirsty of Shilasdair, Skye prior to Make:Wool

I am counting down the days to EYF! I know a lot of my listeners are too, and other are counting on podcasts and social media to help them live vicariously, so today I’m doing a bit of daydreaming about some of the vendors I am particularly looking forward to visiting this year. I also […]

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 40 – When in Barcelona.   My name is Fay and this is my audio and video podcast for those that love fibre crafts, particularly crochet.  It’s a community for people that like to support their fellow humans regardless of race, gender, sexuality, ability, size or age. I hope you feel the welcome embrace and love of the Crochet Clan.  Come on in and stay awhile.    In this episode, I cover: Inclusivity; Final Destination; En Route; Designs in Progress; Feeding the habit; Quick News Beats and Big Up.   This podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co.  Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile.    If you would like to support the podcast, you can do that through Patreon:   1 – Inclusivity Following on from last month’s podcast and the actions I said I was going to take to increase inclusivity within our fibre community, here is what I have been working on:  Claudia from the Crochet Luna Vlogcast has been putting in the hard miles, pulling together a list of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) crochet designers. She has created a permanent list in her Instagram ‘BIPOC Crochet Designers’ Highlights.  From that list, I have created a ‘BIPOC Crochet Designers’ blog post giving you the designers names, Instagram handles, Ravelry Designer names and other selling platforms.  If the designers have a podcast, website or Etsy shop, these have also been listed. If you are looking for a decent article on the topic of inclusivity in the fibre community, I encourage you to read this one: The Knitting Community is Reckoning with Racism by Jay Saxena.  If for whatever reason, you have been in the fringe of the conversation or come to it late, this article gives a very good breakdown of what has been going on.  I meant to talk about this article in the podcast and through lack of organisation on my part, it slipped through the net.  You will notice from the show notes below and video podcast (if you watch rather than listen) that I have started to show the makers behind the goods that I am buying. My intention is to create a greater connection between the makers and those watching the podcast and/or reading the show notes.  I want to showcase the faces that put all the hard work into the fibre community whether they are designers, spinners, dyers or yarn shop owners.  I continue to use ALT text on my Instagram posts and within the show notes. My intention is to also expand this out to my website photos and blog posts (which I have started the process of).    2 – Old Dog New Tricks I want to touch briefly on gut instinct and using that to shape your colour choices and pattern following.    You know that feeling when you have pulled colours together for a project, but your gut is bubbling, telling you that something isn’t quite right?  I have had that quite a bit recently.  I tend to think I am pretty good at choosing colours but of late, I have been asking for second opinions, mainly because I knew they weren’t right.    The same can be said for a part of the pattern design within my Esja jumper.  I could see that the short row shaping was creating a different look within my jumper but I persevered with the pattern.  My gut told me I was wrong to do so but I ignored it – I won’t do that again.   Here’s a quick trick for testing your gut feeling on something.  Using colour choice as an example; you have two choices, grey and yellow or grey and pink.  You assign each choice with a side of the coin.  Toss the coin high in the air and before you move your hand to reveal which choice has been made, listen to the voice that is telling you which one you are actually hoping for.  That is your gut reaction and the one you should actually listen to, regardless of what the coin toss actually tells you.   I use this for all sorts of decisions that I make.  It’s a surprisingly easy way to make decisions and stop procrastinating!   3 – Final Destination I have some quite varied finished objects this month.  I finished off my latest version of Doppio Colosseum in ‘Worn Denim’ (4ply 50% Merino/50% Silk) by The Wool Kitchen.  It was a great reminder of how much I enjoyed designing this pattern and wearing it.     ALT TEXT: Mannequin against a white and teal painted wall.  The shawl draped over the shoulders of the mannequin is in denim blue colours and you can just make out some of the lace lines of the pattern.   Did I mention I was in Barcelona?  Whilst I was there, I was completely taken with an amazing building on Passeig de Gracia – Rocamora Houses.  There is a ceramic turret that inspired my latest design.  I wanted to capture the colours of the turret and the transition between them.      ALT TEXT: Rooftop of Rocamore Houses, Passeig die Gracia, Barcelona.  Bright blue sky with three ceramic tiled turrets showing on the skyline.  The tiles are in earthy shades of brown, orange, yellow and cream.     ALT TEXT: White surface with crocheted cowl doubled over. A wooden carved crochet hook lying on a nest of egg yolk yellow yarn in the forefront.  The cowl is in a gradient fo four colours from cinnamon brown to cantelope melon orange, to egg yolk yellow to a pinky cream colour.   I visited All You Knit is Love, a yarn shop in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona run by Jennifer and Miquel, and bought some of their K2tog yarn which is 70% wool and 30% milk.  It’s beautifully soft and they had the perfect colours for the design.   I suspect that the design is going to be called Rocamora.    Finally, I have been on a bag sewing mission.  I only meant to make one and ended up with 12.  I used a couple of different YouTube tutorials for these and consider myself to be a novice sewer: Zippered box pouch Double drawstring bag    ALT TEXT: Cream surface with three machine sewn project bags.  The top bag has a teardrop coral shape and turquoise, charcoal and grey details.  The bottom right bag had a navy background with pairs of cats facing each other in pinks, corals, mustards and greens.  The left hand bag is woven grey wool fabric with a light mustard coloured zip and it's a boxy baggy.    4 – En Route My Esja jumper (to be made with yarn dyed by my friend Bec of Black Horse Yarns and Socks Yeah! in the colour 'Chryso'.  I am now on sleeve island and am desperate to finish this for Edinburgh Yarn Festival.    Pattern: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/esja-sweater   Main Colour Yarn: https://coopknits.bigcartel.com/product/coop-knits-socks-yeah-yarn Contrast Yarn: https://www.instagram.com/blackhorseyarn/       ALT TEXT: Light blue jumper yolk with a variegated detail with blobs of orange and teal.  The stranded texture from brioche crochet is visible.   5 – Designs in Progress The one crochet design that I have on the go at the moment is the Rocamora Cowl.  I want to make it again using some other chunky yarn so that I can test the theory that it can be made with any yarn and almost any quantity.       ALT TEXT: Cream background with the same four coloured cowl at the top left.  Three chunky, loose skeins of yarn are at the bottom of the photo.  L-R they are a mid-grey, dark grey and a fox orange.  They look springy and full of character.   The next version will be a short cowl using some number 2 yarn that I bought from Die Mercerie in Munich.  It’s a Bavarian yarn of some description…    More on this next month hopefully.   6 – Feeding the habit Hmmmm, there is quite a bit and not all of it is mine. First up, the things I brought back from Barcelona. All You Knit is Love shop is run by Jennifer and Miquel.  They have their own yarn label (K2tog and others) and Jennifer also dyes her own yarn called Mur.       ALT TEXT: Blue background with a photo of Jennifer and Miquel from All You Knit is Love yarn shop, sitting on their sofa, knitting.   K2tog in shades Cinnamon Toast, Cantaloupe, Egg Yolk and Yellow Jade. 70% wool and 30% milk 105m/100g     ALT TEXT: Dark grey background with four skeins of yarn at the top.  The chunky, soft yarns are in a cinnamon brown, cantaloupe orange, egg yolk yellow, and pinky cream colours.  Ay=t the bottom of the photo lies a fifth skein in gentle variegated colours of teal, green, mustard and a mid purple is dominant.   Murmur in colourway ‘Guide’.  75% Merino and 25% Cashmere, 400m/100g.   Lalanalu shop is run by Eva and Kiara and they had lots of crochet and yarn from some local yarn dyers.       ALT TEXT: Blue background with a photo of Eva and Kiara from Lalanalu yarn shop, stood side by sde with wool int eh background.  They are smiling straight at the camera and wearing knitted and crocheted shawls.     Ovejita Be! – in shade Greenery and Les Retrouvailles (the mini didn’t had a shade)  75% wool, 25% nylon, 425m/100g.   ALT TEXT: Blue background with a photo of Teresa the yarn dyer of Ovejita Be!  She is sitting on a sofa with a multicoloured crochet blanket over the back of it.  Teresa is looking down at three balls of yarn in her hands.   Soc Una Troca – in shades Ratafia, Golden Hour and Oberon. 75% Merino, 25% Nylon 420m/100g.      ALT TEXT: Blue background with a photo of Laia the yarn dyer of Soc Una Troca!  She is stood in front of her wooden company sign, wearing a green top and smiling.  To her right is a hook with some skeins of yarn dangling down.   I also came across an amazing fabric shop called Nunoya and bougtht this amazing selection:    ALT TEXT: Lots of different coloured fabrics arranged into a swirl.  There are cat , moon, bear, bat, sock, llama, cherry, umbrella, raindrop and bee patterns.     At Unravel I bought these bits and pieces:  Frida Kahlo by Helen at The Wool Kitchen,  75% BFL, 25% Nylon, 400m/100g.      ALT TEXT: Blue background with a photo of Helen the yarn dyer of The Wool Kitchen. She is stood taking a selfie with her phone and a Frida Kahlo phone case.  Helen is wearing a purple checked shirt and a purple hat that she had=s just finished knitting.      ALT TEXT: Cream background with a single skein of Thw Wool Kitchen yarn, called Frida Kahlo.  It is a mallard green base with "zips" of colour at one end of the skein in luminous yellow, pink, orange, green and turquoise.   John Arbon Textiles new Exmoor Sock Yarn in shades Blooth and Hemel.  60% Exmoor Blueface, 20% Corriedale, 10% Zwartbles, 10% Nylon,  200m/50g.  I will be pairing this up shade Mizzle which I already had in my grubby little hands.  These are going to be made into Acanthium Mittens by Katie Green and hopefully, ready for Edinburgh Yarn Festival.    ALT TEXT: Blue background with a photo of John and Juliet Arbon.  They are sat down with their mill machinery in the background.  Both are facing forward and smiling.  John is in fawn dungarees and Juliet's curly dark hair is in pigtails.      ALT TEXT: Cream background with a photo of two skeins of Exmoor Sock Yarn.  One is a dark forest green and the other is an aubergine purple.  Both have a white skein band with yellow bubbles and an old fashioned sheep drawing.    I also came across a new to me dyer, Tara, from Irish Artisan Yarns.  I love that her yarn dying is inspired by the landscape of Northern Ireland.  I bought a Carrick-a-Rede inspired colourway from her, 75% Merino, 25% Nylon, 400m/100g.  And she kindly gave me a mini in a little goody bag.         ALT TEXT: Cream background with a photo of a full skein of Irish Artisan Yarn in subtle blue and greens.  Above it is a mini skein in all the denim blues.  Both have white skein tags with "IAY" on them.   7 - Quick News Beats  1 - Global Hook Ups – The next dates are Saturday 9th March 1t 8pm GMT and Sunday 10th March at 9am GMT.  The links for the sessions are all available over on the Ravelry thread. 2 – If you are anywhere North Wales, Nikki from Ewe Felty Thing is having a party on Saturday 16th March to celebrate the first birthday of her yarn store. I will be there from about 12 – 5pm and would love to see you there. 3 - I am heading to Edinburgh Yarn Festival on the Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.  On the Thursday I will be on Tanya’s stand – TJ Frog.  Please do pop along for all things Dorset Button, Dorset breed wools and generally lovely goods.   8 – Big Up If you are looking for a non-crafty podcast, I heartily recommend David Tennant Does a Podcast With…   He basically interviews his friends and it is very funny and also sweary, so not for everyone.   I have also been relishing The Great British Sewing Bee – an hour of sewing escapism every week and just the nudge I needed to get my sewing machine out again.   I will be back on Friday the 5th April! Fay x   Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  Instagram: provenance.craft.co   Instagram: FayDHDesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite    

Today on the podcast I have some hints to share about two very special shawl projects I’ve been working on, which will both be launched at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival later this month. I also have a little bit of recent stash acquisition to talk about, including skeins of scrumptious sock yarn from two amazing, […]

Despite the noises and interruptions the yarn talk continues! Through downpours, laundry, head shaving, a neighbor coming by and odd thumping in the background, the show goes on.  Hear the Ewes respond to the Fiberuary Challenge and Yarn Love Challenge prompts. Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.  Join the community on Ravelry  or email us with your thoughts. twoewes@twoewesfiberadventures.com is our email address or click contact us on our website. Project Updates Marsha finished her cardigan Cloud Cover by Heidi Kirrmaier and loves it. Marsha double checked the label on her fleece and it is Wensleydale x Cormo x Merino fleece. After our last episode Marsha ordered another skein of worsted yarn from Thirteen Mile Lamb and Wool to have extra for dyeing for the colorwork pullover, Snowflower by Heidi Kirrmaier. She is still in the planning stage for dyeing the yarn. Plus she wants to take a colorwork class. Marsha is almost done with Slack Tide Scarf by Poststitch that she is making for her brother and she cast on a scarf for herself called Shared Rib by Anne Hanson using Old Maiden Aunt Yarns fingering weight that she bought last March at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival. She also cast on a pullover Mountain High by Heidi Kirrmaier (again!) using The Croft Shetland Tweed by West Yorkshire Spinners that she bought at the The Yarn Cake in Glasgow. Kelly finished the  Mystery Knit Along with Cozy Up Knits using the Two Ewes Replenish Rambouillet.  It will be one of her Stitches garments if it gets blocked in time. Kelly has started the Koru by Aroha Knits. She’s using Dance Rustic Silk from Dragonfly Fibers. News The Solidarity Swap on Ravelry is a pattern and/or yarn swap celebrating designers and dyers who are people of color or from underrepresented groups. The group has a designer bundle listing a variety of designers and  Indie dyers that you might not have seen before. Another resource for finding designers, dyers, and other makers of color is Jeanette Sloan’s site POC Designers and Crafters. AllFreeKnitting has added the Two Ewes to its updated list of the top 10 knitting podcasts. Upcoming Events Stitches West Northwest Regional Spinners Association Whidbey Weavers Guild Black Sheep Gathering

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 39 – Call me Crozelda   In this episode, I cover: Inclusivity in the fibre community; Old Dog New Tricks; CAL Updates; Final Destination; En Route; Feeding the habit; Quick News Beats and J’adore?   This podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co.  Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile.    If you would like to support the podcast, you can do that through Patreon:   1 – Inclusivity in the fibre community and beyond Given the importance of this topic, I felt that it needed to be the first thing I covered.  I don’t usually script exactly what I say, but because of the importance of inclusivity within the fibre community, I don’t want to ramble or use the wrong wording because of the pressure of recording and trying to get my thoughts across.   I am fairly sure that everyone listening and watching this podcast is aware of the conversations that have been ongoing for much of January.  The discussions are on inclusivity and diversity in the fibre community and beyond.  These are conversations that are long overdue and conversations that need to become actions.    This podcast at its very heart is about welcoming everyone with one exception.  If you are watching or listening to this and have even a hint of an eye roll or a “uh, this again, just talk about crochet”, then this is not the podcast for you.    Now, if you are the kind of human that likes to support your fellow humans, to build them up, rather than knock them down, to offer them the handshake of crafting kindness, and to take that handshake beyond the crafting community to every aspect of your life, then come on in, stay awhile.  I hope you feel the welcome embrace and love of the Crochet Clan.   I would like to specify what I mean by inclusivity.  For me and this podcast, that means creating an inclusive space for Black and Indigenous and/or People of Colour (BI/PoC), for people with differing abilities, for people within the LGBTQ community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer) for people of all sizes for people that identify as binary or non-binary.  An inclusive space where racism and discrimination of your fellow humans cannot and will not be tolerated.    I spoke about the need for actions as well as conversations.  So, what I would like to do is take you through the changes that I am making to the podcast to make it an even more inclusive space: Logos – I am in going to change the logo for the podcast and have one created for the Global Hook Ups.  It struck me that the current logo does absolutely nothing to say “everyone is welcome here”.  So, in true Crochet Clan spirit, I looked within to see who was part of our community that I could ask to take on logo commissions.  I am really chuffed to say that Claudia from the Crochet Lune podcast is going to work up the new logos.  If she comes up with different design options. Then my plan is to throw it out to you to see which logos speak most clearly to you of inclusivity.   Recognition of makers/dyers – my plan is to seek permission from makers and dyers to show a picture of them within the video podcast and show notes.  Websites and Instagram handles don’t necessarily show the diversity within our community.  I also know that when I have seen somebody’s face, it creates more of a connection with that dyer/maker and somehow cements them in my mind.  I am also keen to do this from a business perspective because to me, seeing the face behind a small indie business is a very good way for me to support them over big multi-national companies.  Let me be clear, that this is not about tokenism.  No matter who you are, if I am showing your product or yarn on the podcast and you’re are a small indie maker or dyer, I will be asking to show a photo of you in the video podcast and show notes.  You have every right to decline and a photo will only appear if I have your permission.   Increasing diversity in my Instagram feed – I thought that my feed was already pretty diverse.  I have a general policy of following people back unless their account is set to private.  So, I am not an account that has thousands of followers (I don’t anyway) and only follows a handful back.  That means that my account is full of lots of lovely diverse folk.  However, it wasn’t until I started following #blackcrocheter #blackcrocheters #blackcraftersofinstagram #diversknitty #spooniecrafts #lgbtqcrafts #lgbtcrafts #that my feed really became diverse.  I encourage you all to do that same.  Following hashtags is a great way of finding new people on Instagram, introducing yourself and making new connections.  If you have suggestions for any other hashtags to follow, please let me know.   Highlighting under-represented groups – Back in November 2018 , Jeanette Sloan was asking the fibre community to point her towards BIPoC designers.  She has done a lot of time consuming work to pull together a list from the details she was given.  A similar piece of work is being done by Marceline from the Hey BrownBerry Podcast and she has highlighted BIPoC dyers and yarn makers.   Claudia from Crochet Luna podcast has been beavering away pulling together a list of BIPoC crochet designers.   She is going through the painstaking work of communicating with the designers to ask whether they are happy to be featured.  I am hoping to help Claudia to pull this list together in whatever way I can.  The list of BIPoC crochet designers is going to be on my blog over at KNIT IT – HOOK IT – CRAFT IT – because Claudia has asked me to host it there.    My hope is that in time, this will also feature dyers and makers from other under-represented groups.  However, this needs to be looked at in a sensitive manner and only undertaken with the backing and permission of the people within these underrepresented groups.    If you would like to be added to the work that Claudia and I are doing, then I would be really interested in having a discussion with you about what the parameters should be.   Creating a more accessible podcast and Instagram accounts – I have had some very helpful and interesting Instagram discussions with Sarah from @SarahDawnDesigns.  She has been brilliant at pointing me towards ways that I can make changes to the podcast to make it more accessible for people with hearing or visual impairments.    If you have a hearing impairment, I always try to face the camera and not show things in front of my face, in the hope that people are able to read my lips.  I always create show notes and link to them from the dropdown box on YouTube.  If you are watching the video, the section place markers correlate to the different sections in the show notes which can always be found at www.thecrochetcircle.podbean.com  and I believe are in a suitable format as a text transcript.    If you have a visual impairment, I try to be very descriptive with textures and colours.  Again, I believe that the show notes are in a format that is suitable for assistive technology.  In addition to the written part of the show notes, I will start adding descriptions to each photo and the caption will start with Photo:   I have also started using ALT text within my Instagram feed.  I have gone back through the posts from the last month and added ALT text to those posts, but from now on, anything I post on @crochet_circle_podcast, @knitithookit or @faydhdesigns, will have ALT text attached to each of the images.   The final thing I would like to add is that twice a month there is the Global Hook up.  I run it on a Saturday night and then again on the Sunday morning (both GMT/BST) so that the crafting session is available to different time zones.  Everyone is welcome in the Global Hook Ups.    If you just want to check out what happens, you can join the crafting session and put something over your camera.  You also have the option to mute your microphone.  It’s really up to you how much you join in, which hopefully makes it a great crafting space for people that may be nervous about joining in.  For some people, they started out by just sitting and listening and moved onto joining the conversations in the next session.  It’s free to join, you just need a decent wifi connection.       2 – Old Dog New Tricks It feels like many people are working on crocheted garments, or plan to in 2019.  One of the factors that you may come across is wording like “increase/decrease by 12 stitches evenly across round/row”.  In my opinion, this is a little unfair of a designer to leave it at that.  It isn’t hard to work out how you increase or decrease stitches, but if you haven’t done it before, then you should be getting more guidance within the pattern.   I am going to use one of my en route projects as an example.  I have deliberately stopped this project where it is so that I can show you how I am going to tackle the bust decreases that I want to add in.  This isn’t a feature of this pattern, it is one that I am adding in to give some shaping to the finished piece.  That said when the pattern did call for increases it didn’t give the calculations required…   I would like to think that if I ever design a garment for crochet or knitting, this is the kind of detail that I would add.    If you want to see this in video form, take a look at this video from Very Pink Knits – she is one of my favourites for giving simple hint and tips video tutorials.    Rather than using Very Pink Knits numbers, I want to use my jumper as the example piece.  I have crocheted down to just below the bust area and now I want to decrease the overall number of stitches to pull the jumper inn and give some definition.    I have 269 stitches which gives me a circumference of 116cm.  I want to get down to a circumference of 104cm for under the bust so need to do an initial calculation:  269 stitches/116cm means that I have approximately 2.32 stitches per cm.  I want the circumference to be 105cm, so I need 244 stitches (105cm x 2.32 stitches).  My pattern requires an odd number of stitches, so I am actually going to decrease down to 243 stitches (because I rounded up to 244 in the first place). Overall, I need to reduce my number of round stitches by 26 from 269 to 243.  So, my next calculation is to work out how I can decrease 26 stitches evenly across my round.      I start with my existing total stitch count (269) and divide it by the number that I need to decrease by (26): 269/26 = 10.35  Again, I am going to round that number down so that I will use 10 as my answer.  Had the answer been 10.5, I would have rounded up to 11. So, next I need to multiply the number of stitches to be decreased (26) by the number of decreases (10): 26 x 10 = 260 which leaves a remainder of 9 stitches Because I would be decreasing two stitches together, those two stitches have to be factored in as part of the two stitch decrease every 10 stitches.  This means that I will crochet 8 stitches and decrease over the last 2 stitches – giving one decrease over every 10 stitches.  The remaining 9 stitches are simply crocheted at the end.  You may find it easier to attach a stitch marker at the beginning of every decrease section.  This can help to make sure that you got your maths right and keep you on the straight and narrow when you are counting and decreasing.     PHOTO: Esja Jumper (crocheted) in pale blue (main colour) and pale blue variegarted with rust and teal as a contrast.  Around the bottom of the jumper, each decrease section has been marked with a black bulb pin.   Now, life isn’t that easy for me because my Esja sweater is in linen stitch which is a two stitch pattern repeat of 1dc and 1ch.  That makes the calculation a little more difficult.    But here is how I have done it: 269 stitches need to be reduced by 26 down to 243 stitches. To create an even decrease across the fabric without getting holes in the decrease area, I want to decrease in the following way:  Hook through first ch-sp, yrh, pull up a loop, hook through next ch-sp, yrh, pull up a loop, yrh, pull through all three loops.  This action adds a bit more yarn bulk to the area and makes the decrease look less obvious.  In doing so, you are using three stitches to decrease down to one.   So, I started looking for the number of stitches required per decrease section, remembering that each decrease will reduce the round by two stitches, not one.       So, here is where I started: 269 stitches / by 18 stitches gives 15 decrease sections and when you multiply that by the actual number of stitches per decrease section after the decrease has been made, 16, then you would be left with approximately 240 stitches with a remainder of 3 stitches which would simply be worked at the end of the round.  You are basically looking for the division that will give you the least number of remainder stitches.  Here is how a linen stitch decrease will work for me over 18 sts: Ch1,  hook through first ch-sp, yrh, pull up a loop, hook through next ch-sp, yrh, pull up a loop, yrh, pull through all three loops, *ch1, skip 1 st, 1dc in next ch-sp; rep from * six (6) more times. (16 sts) I would repeat the sequence 14 more times and finish off with ch1, skip 1 st, 1dc in next ch-sp ch1 as the stitch sequence for the remaining three stitches.   Clear as mud? After the podcast, I will attempt to add some progress photos so that you can see how I have marked the shawl out every 18 stitches and worked the first decrease section.    3 – CAL Updates  The #ChristmasEveCAL is done and dusted! Once again, I had very little time to respond to the hashtags on IG.  I want to be able to, but life is crammed.  I am making some huge steps with the businesses this year and a lot of my time energy has to be on that.   So, I’m going to take a little break from running CALs – mainly because I know I won’t have the time and I won’t be doing you the justice you deserve.  Things may shift by the end of the year, but for now I will try to concentrate on promoting the CALs that my fellow crafters and podcasters are running.    4 – Final Destination I only have one proper finished object, because I don’t think I can legitimately show 1.5 socks as an FO! Last year I started a bag and my intention was to add to every January with my ‘Word of the Year’.  When I have previously seen people talk about their word of the year, I have dismissed it as a load of old tosh!  Having lived with ‘Clarity’ as my 2018 word, I can now say that it definitely gave me grounding point throughout the year and gave me a flag to keep on coming back to.    Clarity was meant as a word for me to stick to my core goals and not stray.  To keep on the path that I had set for the year.  Given that it was so helpful for 2018, I have now added ‘STRUCTURE’ to me bag as my word for 2019.   This is the year when I hope to move KNIT IT – HOOK IT - CRAFT IT and Fay Dashper-Hughes Designs up a few notches and to do that I need to put more structure in place.   So now, I think about clarity and how I can structure my work flow to achieve what I want to achieve in 2019 and beyond.  Here’s what my bag looks like now.  Every year I will add to it in a Scrabble format.   PHOTO: Ecru coloured linen bag with dark grey ribbon tie lying on a dark grey surface.The word CLARITY has been embroidered across the bag horizontally and STRUCTURE, embroidered vertically as if a game os Scrabble has just been started.  Three bows of linen are at the base of the bag, in a dark grey, light fawn/grey and dark mustard . The bag was made from Scottish linen that I use in some of my products.  I thin just draw around a wooden Scrabble tile to get the right size for each letter.  Using a 3 ply linen thread from Namolio https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/237661664/linen-yarn-thread-25-grams-3-ply?ref=shop_home_active_1   5 – En Route I have finished one of my Fallen Leaves socks and am ready to turn the heel on the other.  I will show them off properly in the next podcast… Pattern: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fallen-leaves-socks My Esja jumper (to be made with yarn dyed by my friend Bec of Black Horse Yarns and Socks Yeah! in the colour 'Chryso'.  This has been really quick to crochet up so far and I only stopped to be able to use the jumper as an example in this month’s Old Dog New Tricks. Pattern: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/esja-sweater   Main Colour Yarn: https://coopknits.bigcartel.com/product/coop-knits-socks-yeah-yarn Contrast Yarn: https://www.instagram.com/blackhorseyarn/     PHOTO: Esja jumper (crocheted) as a close up to show the slight distinction in colours made between the main colour (light blue) and contrast colour (light blue with rust and teal).  The contrast between the two yarns in the brioche section is very subtle.   I am also working on another Doppio Colosseum shawl.  Originally, I used a yarn that Helen from The Wool Kitchen no longer dyes and she kindly gave me two skeins of yarn to make a new sample with.  The yarn is 4ply (light fingering weight), 50% Merino and 50% silk and it is beautiful to work with.  The sheen and drape are just incredible.    By the time I podcast again, I hope to have this finished so that Helen can use it on her stand at her next two festivals (Unravel and Edinburgh Yarn Festival).  It’s great to see another yarn dyer that wants to fly the crochet flag.   Pattern: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/doppio-colosseum Yarn: https://www.thewoolkitchen.com/collections/4ply-merino-silk/products/worn-denim-merino-silk-4ply   PHOTO: Dark back background, flat lay of a started crocheted shawl in linen stitch.  To the left is a skein of Worn Denim by The Wool Kitchen (light blue/grey with blotches of dark denim blue), to the right is a cake of the same yarn and below is the curled beginnings of a Doppio Colosseum shawl.   6 – Feeding the habit I truly believed that I was going to severely restrict the amount of yarn that I was going to buy in 2019.  The difficulty comes when I enter yarn shops.  I want to be able to support Bricks and Mortar shops by purchasing from them and highlighting them on the podcast.    So, this month I have been a bit naughty.  I went over to visit the Laxton’s spinning mill in West Yorkshire and on the way back, I ‘popped’ in to see the good folk at Black Sheep Wools.  It’s probably my most local yarn shop (about 45 minutes away) and I always like having a good natter with Sara and the others.    When I was there, I picked up some of the ‘Pip Colourworks’ from Baa Ram Ewe.  I had a little mini skein of this given to me as a test skein and couldn’t really do it justice with 10g.  I have since knitted another Curlew hat with it and plan on hooking something up with it too, so that I can do a proper yarn review on it for the podcast.   PHOTO: Dark background with a blurred foreground of a dark dusky rose ball of yarn.  At the back from left to right is the same Pip Colourwork yarn from Baa Ram Ewe, but in a light green, dark forest green, grey sky blue and mustard.  Just fo camera to the right is the brim of a knitted Curlew hat in the same colours. PHOTO: Dark grey background with a close up of Reggia Nautic Color sock yarn.  Self striping in a white and mid blue.  The ball band is yellow and shows a white sock with thin blue stripes.   I also came across and had to buy the latest Regia sock yarn called Nautic Colour, which creates sailor striped socks.  I am an absolute sucker for sailor striped anything!    Local Yarn Shop: https://www.blacksheepwools.com/knitting-yarn/baa-ram-ewe-pip-colourwork.html Yarn – Pip Colourwork: https://baaramewe.co.uk/products/pipcolourwork?variant=1440591249416 Yarn – Regia: https://www.blacksheepwools.com/knitting-yarn/regia-nautic-color.html    Later that week, I snuck up to Lancaster to see Kate from Northern Yarn in her new shop location in the city centre.  It’s a really beautiful shop that is easy to get to.  Kate works really hard at developing both the shop and her relationships with local shepherds and shepherdesses.  She only sells British yarns and many of them are local.  That is definitely something worth supporting in my opinion.   PHOTO: Five balls of wool all in a horizontal row on a dark background and each with a cream "Jamiesons Shetland Spindrift" ball band.  The colours from left to right are:  a vibrant mid green, rusty red, rusty orange, bright rusty mustard and a bright mid blue.   Whilst there, I picked up some Jamiesons Sheltand Spindrift 2 ply to make into a hat from this book that I also got.    Local Yarn Shop: https://www.northernyarn.co.uk/jamiesons-of-shetland Yarn: https://www.jamiesonsofshetland.co.uk/spindrift-1-c.asp Book: https://www.shopkdd.com/books/milarrochy-heids   Hmm, it doesn’t stop there.  Last week, I hopped on the train a went to Llandudno on the North Wales Coast.  Nikki runs Ewe Felty Thing, a yarn shop just a few minutes away from the train station.  It has the most impressive wall of indie dyed yarn from 16 different dyers.    PHOTO: Dark grey background showing top right, a skein of yarn from Abercairn.  It's a skinny single plyed yarn in a blend of merino and silk and has a beautiful sheen.  The variegated skein has pinks, purples, teals, greens and blues in it - just like the Grampian mountains. Underneath the skein are two mini skeins, one in a deep dusky pink and one in a bright aubergine purple.  In the bottom corner, there is a bit of a purple/pink mohair skein.   Of course, I came home with yarn.  Of course one of them was mohair!  I bought a new to me indie dyer called Abercairn Yarns.    Local Yarn Shop: https://ewefeltything.co.uk/ Yarns:  https://ewefeltything.co.uk/product-category/handdyedyarns/yarns-by-dyer/abercairn-yarns/4ply-fingering/page/2/     https://www.instagram.com/abercairn_yarns/?hl=en   I was also vending at Waltham Abbey Wool Show this month, and it was a great show!  My bestie, Jenny turned up as a surprise in the afternoon and helped on the stand.  As a thank you, she got to pick which yarn she liked best from Dragon Hill Studios.  Andrew and Sharon run the company and I really love the way they cake up their yarn.  I have been meaning to buy some of their yarn for a while and Waltham Abbey was the ideal time.  I have a deal going with Jenny that if I am making socks with a yarn she likes, she can have a pair too.  I can get two pairs of knitted socks out of a 100g skein of 4 ply (light fingering weight) yarn with contrast toes, heels and cuffs.    PHOTO: Dark background with a cake of yarn and a white circular tag from Dragon Hill Studios with a paired back green curled up a dragon for a logo.  The yarn is dark grey with bright pink stripes and they cleverly cake up the yarn, wrapping the last few lengths over the top and bottom of the cake to show off the ratio of self-striping colours which is more dark grey and a pop of pink.     Yarn show: http://www.walthamabbeywoolshow.co.uk/ Yarn: https://www.dragonhillstudio.co.uk/   7 - Quick News Beats  1 - Global Hook Ups – I have had to change the date of the February hook up: February – 16th Saturday (night) and 17th (morning) GMT The other dates for the first half of 2019 are in the Ravelry thread.     2 – I am now heading to Edinburgh for all four days of the festival.  I will be in the show on Thursday working on a stand (more on that to come), and back at the show for the Saturday and Sunday.  This wasn’t what was planned, but it’s now happening! Edinburgh Yarn Festival: http://www.edinyarnfest.com/   3 – I have also booked to go to Woolinn Festival, just outside of Dublin in June.  I am landing at the airport on the Saturday morning and leave on the Sunday night.  So, if you are coming over and fancy a meetup either at the festival or on the Saturday night in Dublin city centre – let me know!   Woolinn Festival: http://woollinn.com/   4 – Sean, you can never have too many shawls!   8 - J’adore  I am loving that January has really felt like a new start.  I have reset the button, good changes have been made and 2019 is looking like a good one.     I am also off to Barcelona shortly with Matthewkins.  We really need some time out and I am looking forward to soaking up some Spanish atmosphere and being inspired by the gothic architecture.       I will be back on Friday the 1st March!   Fay x   Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  Instagram: provenance.craft.co   Instagram: FayDHDesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite    

We are super excited to be chatting with you today as we have another interview that we recorded during our time at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival last month. Nancy Marchant joins us as our special guest today to talk to us about tuck stitches, texture, and of course brioche too! Announcements: First up, a shout out to Charlotte Parfitt who was the winner of the pair of weekend passes to Woollinn in Dublin What we’re working on: Allison has been plugging away on and (mostly) monogamous to her Impressionists MKAL by Helen Stewart. The final clue has just been released so only 20% left to go! When the project has been too big to travel with Allison has also had a pair of Rose City Rollers ankle socks with her and she’s mostly finished sewing a pair of wool trousers – that it is now too hot too wear. Rachel has been flying through Marginalia (or was until this week and 27 degree weather!) She’s finished the body and made a start on the first sleeve. She’s dug into some deep deep fibre stash and found some silk/wool batts that she’s been struggling with a bit. Beyond that the weather has gotten too nice to do anything but sit outside in the garden, so there’s been a lot of that. Talking about Tuck Stitches with special guest Nancy Marchant: As we’ve been chatting about Yarn Adventures this year we didn’t want the conversation to be limited to travels or places you could go with your knitting. Which got us thinking – what if the adventure were learning a new technique and expanding your knitting repertoire? In that spirit, we got to chat with Nancy Marchant at EYF. The Queen of Brioche was kind enough to take some time out of her packed schedule to talk with us about her newest book, Tuck Stitches: Sophistication in Handknitting. A heads up for our listeners – we recorded this interview with Nancy in the café at the Corn Exchange so there is some background noise and the odd café latte being made in the background! *** Wrap up: Many thanks for joining us for another episode! You can find the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio (please rate, review and subscribe!) and you'll find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, in our Yarn in the City group on Ravelry, or in person on Wednesday nights at our knit night between 7 and 10pm at The Breakfast Club on Battersea Rise. Music credits (available on NoiseTrade) Revolution - Kate Tucker A Good Reason To Smile - Chasing Noise

Thank you for listening to Episode 77 which features a conversation with Knitsonik creator Felicity Ford. Our chat took place while at Edinburgh Yarn Festival last month. Enjoy!! The Woolly Thistle Knitsonik Colorwork Sourcebook Knitsonik Colorwork Playbook will be available at The Woolly Thistle as soon as possible. #NHKmittenKAL2016 Christiandatter Mittens @scandiwork @ovisetcetera Riddari Sweater Lettlopi Magnolia Sweater @camillavad Einrum Icelandic yarn Tidal Yarns

Includes four sound bites recorded on the last day of the festival

In this episode I reminisce about Edinburgh Yarn Festival and how the organisers have created an event that celebrates the community of knitters and crocheters as much as yarn. Rather than give an overview of my purchases, I pull together some thoughts on the breadth and diversity of the hand knitting wool sector, based on the amazing wool, processes and approaches I spotted when walking around the marketplace and talking to fellow visitors. I also share some of the projects to come out of my recent natural dyeing sessions. I re-draw a winner for the This Thing of Paper giveaway and answer a listener's questions on whether petitions (like one she had seen on microfiber plastic pollution) are an effective way to create change. Or whether there are better ways to press for change. And I finish up by sharing an inspiring gem. You can find me as Mrs_M_Curiosity_Cabinet on Instagram and as Meg-aka-Mrs-M on Ravelry. There is also a Ravelry Group for the podcast. Shownotes can be found at: Mrs M's Curiosity Cabinet. Music: As I figure by Kevin MacLeod on FreeMusicArchive and licensed under Creative Commons By Attribution 3.0 License

Following on from our last episode where we recapped the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, we’re making plans to check out a new yarn show on the horizon: Woollinn Dublin coming up at the end of May. We chat with organiser Lisa Sisk, who is also one of the owners of Dublin’s beautiful LYS This Is Knit, about what it’s like to put on a yarn show.  What we’re working on: Allison is feeling pretty smug after finishing her Gradient Pullover and Winter Dawn shawl so she also busted out a new toque (Pull the Wool Over) out of her souvenir yarn purchase from Vogue Knitting Live in New York. She’s now working on Helen Stewart’s Impressionists MKAL and using Martina Behm’s Strickplaner 2018 to try and wrangle the rest of her projects and WIPs for Q2. Rachel cast on her Marginalia pullover in Triskelion Arthur DK and finished a hat in Bloomsbury DK from The Yarn Collective. And has been spinning up a storm. And thinking about quilting… MORE yarn show hijinks: We have a good idea of how challenging it is to plan a yarn show. So we have great admiration for our interview guest, Lisa Sisk, and her team who are bringing a much needed yarn show to Ireland. Woollinn Dublin will debut for the first time on the 25th of May. While they may be new to show organising, Lisa and her team are also the owners of Dublin LYS This is Knit, and have leveraged their relationships with designers and dyers to put together an amazing line of exhibitors and teachers. We spoke to Lisa about her experience with pulling the show together, and it sounds like it's going to be absolutely amazing! Many thanks to Lisa for taking the time to chat with us about Woollinn Dublin. She has kindly given us a pair of weekend access tickets to for a giveaway! Getting to Dublin is easy from many spots in the UK and Europe, so if you think you’d like to hop over for the weekend, or even for the day like Allison, please leave a comment on the show notes. We’ll choose a winner on Sunday, April 15th and announce the winner on Instagram. Be sure to leave your Ravelry name or some other way of contacting you in case you win! *** Wrap up: Many thanks for joining us for another episode! You can find the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio (please rate, review and subscribe!) and you'll find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, in our Yarn in the City group on Ravelry, or in person on Wednesday nights at our knit night between 7 and 10pm at The Breakfast Club on Battersea Rise. Music credits (available on NoiseTrade) Revolution - Kate Tucker A Good Reason To Smile - Chasing Noise

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 28 – Crochet Clan.   In this episode I cover: Quick news beats; Old dog, new tricks; Final Destination; En Route; DIPs; Feeding the habit; Big Up and J’adore?   This podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co.  Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile.    If you would like to support the podcast, you can do that through Patreon:   1 - Quick news beats Global Hook Up – The next Global Hook Up is due to be on Saturday 28th April 2018.  Keep an eye on the Ravelry thread and Instagram for updates as I will be vending that weekend at Wonderwool Wales and I’m not sure how good my internet reception is going to be at my accommodation, but I have a back-up plan called Claudia! Time: Saturday 28th 2018 8:00 PM London Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/j/4750475819 The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here:  https://www.zoom.us/join Different Designer CAL – Is due to finish on the 9th April.  Thank you so much for all of your finished objects so far.  If you are looking for a new designer to try out, take a look at the threads to see who people have been working from.  Here are the designers to date: Elisabeth Davis de Herraiz, Nicki Trench, Kat Goldin, Hannah from The Cozy Cottage, Sarah Hazell, Ashleigh Kiser, Sybil R, Vicki Brown, Joanne Scrace, Cecile Balladino, Planet June, Heidebears, Yarnville, Inspired Professor, Iron Lamb, Fay Dashper-Hughes (that felt weird to type), Zeens and Roger, Rachele Camona, Dedri Uys, Emma Potter and Yan Schenkel.   Edinburgh Yarn Festival – The vlog for Edinburgh Yarn Festival is live in all the usual places.  If you want to see what happened, look at the vlog.  Needless to say, we all had a ball and are looking to do it all again in 2019 in Dublin if you fancy joining us?  I may have been looking at accommodation options yesterday... Spotify – the podcast can now be downloaded on Spotify which means that you can now listen on any wireless speaker you have linked to your Spotify account.  Just search for The Crochet Circle under Podcasts.   2 - Old dog, new tricks Class on reading and understanding crochet patterns – I had a query from a watcher that asked if I had any hints on how to read patterns and charts and whether it is something I could go into more detail on.  It would fill quite a few episodes up and so instead I searched out a really good alternative.  Craftsy has a class on Reading & Understanding Crochet Patterns by Shannon Mullet-Bowlsby.  I watched this the other weekend when Craftsy had a free to view weekend and honestly, this Craftsy Tutorial would really get you on the right track and it is nicely delivered.  If you pay for the class, I think you get comprehensive notes to download too.   3 – Final Destination Well, it has been all about shawls this month as I have finished three of them!   The first is my Treasure Island Shawl which is by Hannah Sigmund from The Cozy Cottage Crochet podcast.  I used The Little Grey Sheep yarn (colourway The Rhubarb Patch in their British Gotland 4 ply) and it crochets up a delight!  It’s for me and I have been using this shawl a lot over the last couple of weeks.     Next up is the knitted version of Doppio Colosseum which I managed in record time to get it to Edinburgh Yarn Festival in time.  It’s knitted using 2 x 100g of John Arbon’s Devonia in colourway Bleeding Heart.  It’s off living with the Arbon’s and being used as a show sample.     My last is a new design that I have just published called Loft. It’s a memory of all the people that made the Edinburgh Yarn Festival so much fun!  The stripes in the shawl represent all the stairs we had to climb to get to the top of our accommodation called The Loft.  It uses 3 x 100g of John Arbon Knit By Numbers 4 ply.     As always, there is a 50% discount code for these patterns, just type TCC50% at the check out on Ravelry.  The code is valid until the 13th April.  This shawl (or the one you can see down in En Route) will be heading to also be a sample with John and Juliet and the other will be on my stand at any shows I do throughout the year.   I also finished my cat blanket for Pom Pom.  It was part of the Granny A Long being hosted by Rosina and I used Álafoss Lopi in shades Dark Grey (0005), Mid Grey (0058) and Light Grey (0054).  I have more affinity for the granny stitch now but I’m still not really a fan.  Luckily Pom loves it!       4 – En Route I also have made decent progress on my Stoborough shawl by Sarah Hazell.  It needs 300g of 4-ply yarn (350m/100g) and I had previously dyed up 3 skeins of skinny merino for this project.  It’s my second Different Designer CAL entry but I don’t think it will be finished in time…     5 - Designs in Progress Loft really deserved to also be made in the new Knit By Numbers 4ply Copper shades.  I’m so close to the finishing line with this one so I will pop an FO photo up next month instead. I am also working away on the knitted version.  I’m really pleased with it because I think I have replicated the size and spacing of the crocheted version.    6 - Feeding the habit  What I am showing you below is a mixture of things I have bought and lovely things that were given to me.  I am a very lucky lady!   1 - RiverKnits Yarns Snow Dyed Mohair - 'There's No Business Like Snow Business', dyed on a narrowboat 2 - Birlinn Yarn - 4ply from the Outer Hebrides, Scotland 3 - Fjord Fibres - amazing sock yarn that now comes in 50g skeins! Dyed in Norway 4 - Cosmic Strings - 120g skein of Merino/ Yak/ Silk in colourway 'Pisces', dyed in Edinburgh 5 - Iona Single Origin Wool - DK in colourway 'Serpentine Green', from Scotland 6 - Hey Mama Wolf - Naturally dyed in Germany, Organic wool/ ramie, One of a Kind colourway 7 - Socks Yeah! - 4ply in colourways 'N1 Helium & N4 Xenon' 8 - Easy Knits - Mohair/ silk in colourway 'Orion' 9 - TJ Frog - Tania's new Dorset Horn in it's beautiful natural colour     I was also utterly spoiled by lovely friends.  On the left, you can see some gorgeous yarns that Yael & Emmie gave me.  These include a teal coloured flax (linen) which is grown and dyed in Sweden; the top left is Gotland (DK) which is from a small independent mill in Sweden called Solkustens Spinnvertstad; and the one at the bottom is a single-ply from Honer o Eir, a very small company that spins the fleece from their own sheep.  The chocolate?  Gone! On the right is wool from Lana Rara which I was very kindly given by Rachel.  It's a blend of Bündner Oberländer and Merino and it's grown by lots of smallholders and spun in Switzerland.   My love of proper woolly wools deepens... Below you can see some Romney Marsh Wools from Corrine and some Nash Island 'Tide' which was given to me by Sarah and came all the way from Maine and the Starcroft micro-mill!      Look at all these goodies!  Thanks to Jenny, Vivian, Alyson, Clarisabeth, Caroline, Yael, Emmie, Lisa, Asia, Rosina, Sharon, Gill, Corrine and Charlie.   Lovely things crafted things by lovely crafty friends.     7 – Big Up I have more crafting podcasts for you: Here are some of them for you to look at and listen to – Little Drops of Wonderful - Ali is a crocheter and knitter and is wonderfully upbeat and positive.  She’s based in the UK and LOVES yellow! YouTube FiberTrek – Sarah is a new to me podcaster, though I had heard of her before.  I really like her production style and the fact that she goes out into her fibre community to see what is happening in and around Maine.  If like me, you love woolly wool with provenance, then you will love what Sarah has to offer. The Woolly Thistle/ New Hampshire Knits - Claire is a Scot, living in New Hampshire, US and has an audio knitting based podcast (New Hampshire Knits).  She is also the force behind The Woolly Thistle, which is an online yarn shop.     When you order from The Woolly Thistle you receive your yarn quickly and without the added cost of international shipping.  Shopping is Tax Free at The Woolly Thistle.   9 – J’adore Here is what I am currently loving: Clan – all those people that make crochet a wonderful thing and something that I am proud to be part of. Songs – When I get really busy, I fall back on Ben Howard and the Deluxe version of Every Kingdom It is my chill-out music that just helps to keep me going. Book – I started listening to The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson again. It has been about five years since I listened to is last and it is a fabulous set of books that will give me hours of entertainment while I crochet away in the coming weeks.  See you all in May.   Fay x   Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  Instagram: provenance.craft.co   Instagram: FayDHDesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite  

The Edinburgh Yarn Festival is over, but we're both riding the EYF high and knitting and crocheting up a storm. Vivian is making progress on her Bubbly sweater, and surprise, she's both finished a hat and started ANOTHER hat. We don't call her the hat goddess for nothing! Alyson is loving the Blurre shawl (crochet's answer to the Find Your Fade). There's a Blurre Along being hosted by Earl Grey Crochet until April 30th. Definitely join in, it's a great make. You can subscribe to our show on iTunesand YouTube. You can also download the episode from LibSyn and wherever else you stream podcasts. We appreciate every like, comment, review, and subscribe we get because it gives us warm fuzzies and it helps other people find our show! This episode is sponsored by Pearl and Plum. B U Z Z F E E D  Q U I Z Everyone Has A Tarot Card That Matches Their Personality — Here's Yours W O R K S  I N  P R O G R E S S Bubbly Sweater by Isabel Kraemer Peerie Flooers Hat by Kate Davies - Jamieson and Smith 2 Ply Jumper Weight Blurre Shawl by Deanne Ramsay - Qing Fibers, Fine Fish Yarns, Skein Queen F I N I S H E D  O B J E C T S Tied Knots Hat by Justyna Lorkowska - Julie Asselin Nurtured Sam's Waffle WFL Scarf - Rowan Alpaca Soft DK Photography Mitten by Carmen Jacob - Iona Wool Aran S H O P  T A L K Pearl and Plum  F O L L O W  U S Ravelry: alysonhere, upstateviv YouTube: Keep Calm and Carry Yarn Podcast Instagram: KCACYpodcast, alysonhere, alemjema Etsy: Pearl & Plum  Theme music: Carpe Diem Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

We’ve just come by from a phenomenal trip to the 2018 Edinburgh Yarn Festival, where we saw amazing yarns, caught up with friends old and new and generally soaked up as much colour and inspiration as possible! We recap EYF on today's episode, including an interview with someone who traveled a very long way to get to Edinburgh! We also review the new Jacob yarn from Blacker Yarns. What we’re working on: Allison was desperately trying to finish her handspun Gradient Pullover (by Amy Miller) over the weekend, and has 5 inches of the second sleeve left. She’s also working on some sample knitting for her upcoming trade show. Allison's EYF stash enhancement: A previously ordered kit for the Comfort Fade Cardi by Andrea Mowry in La Bien Aimee Comfort DK. Also  a sweater quantity of fingering weight yarn for Sunset Highway by Caitlin Hunter (mostly House of A La Mode from A Yarn Story), project bag, random sock skein (House of a la Mode in Redmond, a custom colourway dyed in honour of Carmen's dad). Rachel finished her Incunabula (by Karie Westermann) and got some amazing buttons for it from Textile Garden at EYF. She also came back from the show with two sweater lots of yarn, which are planning on growing up to be a Marginalia (Triskelion Yarns Arthur DK in Old Fox and My True Sweetheart) and a Woodman Cardigan from Bristol Ivy’s amazing new book (Jill Draper Makes Stuff Mohonk Light in Grape Hyacinth). She also got some stitch markers from The Little Grey Girl, and Daughter of a Shepherd Volume 1. Gina's Yarn Adventure On the ride up to Edinburgh, Allison met the lovely Gina Ross from Natural Yarns. They got to talking (as knitters do) and discovered that Gina has a fantastic yarn adventure to share, which includes yarn, yoga, mindfulness and building community. We had a chance to catch up with her at the show, and we think you’ll be interested to hear her story. Yarn Review: Jacob Blacker’s new yarn uses the unique Jacob sheep as it’s inspiration, with four bases combining variations of the natural fleece colours. Jacob sheep naturally have multicoloured coats, which means that their wool is less marketable. Sue and her team have blended the colours together during the spinning process to create a range of four coloured bases. These are then overdyed in three colours, giving a range of subtle shades. We got to play with some of it, and boy is it lovely! Yarn stats: DK: 110 m/50 gr 4-ply: 175 m/50 g Colour card here. EYF on-the-spot interviews: Liz and Ceci, aka howmanystitches and creativececi on Ravelry! Congrats to our YINGO winner! The random number generator spoke to us and we hope @svm_treks is delighted to find that her hard work to clear her Yingo card paid off! We will be in touch via DM on Instagram to get your details to send out your prize! *** Wrap up: Many thanks for joining us for another episode! You can find the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio (please rate, review and subscribe!) and you'll find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, in our Yarn in the City group on Ravelry, or in person on Wednesday nights at our knit night between 7 and 10pm at The Breakfast Club on Battersea Rise. Music credits (available on NoiseTrade) Revolution - Kate Tucker A Good Reason To Smile - Chasing Noise

We've got festival fever as our recording comes live from Edinburgh Yarn Festival and this episode includes our Unravel interviews with Hanna Maciejewska and Zoe Fletcher. Thanks also to Woollinn Dublin for sponsoring this episode.

This one’s a real doozy, folks! We’re chatting all about the Edinburgh Yarn Festival in this episode. Of course, we have a lot of new yarn and goodies to show you, but it’s not all acquisitions. We also have a few special guests making an appearance. Louise from Caithness Crafts, Clarisabeth of Crochetcakes, and Caroline from Mind and Muse Crafting all kindly joined us for a mini recording session at EYF. Look out for a video clip of us with our dancing shoes at the ceilidh, and we even managed to chat about some WIPs!  You can subscribe to our show on iTunes and YouTube. You can also download the episode from LibSyn. We appreciate every like, comment, review, and subscribe we get because it gives us warm fuzzies and it helps other people find our show! This episode is sponsored by Pearl and Plum. B U Z Z F E E D  Q U I Z You’re Not Scottish Unless You Score 10/12 On This “Complete The Sentence” Quiz E Y F The Haul:Aileen Clarke Crafts Martin’s Lab The Crochet Project La Fée Fil Hedgehog Fibres Stephen & PenelopeJohn Arbon Textiles Qing Fibre Skein Queen Olann YAK Lifelong Yarns Daughter of a Shepherd Ysolda Julia Asselin Special Guests: Louise Caithness CraftsClarisabeth Crochetcakes Caroline Mind and Muse Crafting W O R K S  I N  P R O G R E S S Bubbly Sweater by Isabel Kraemer Photography Mitten by Carmen Jacob S H O P  T A L K F O L L O W  U S Ravelry: alysonhere, upstateviv YouTube: Keep Calm and Carry Yarn Podcast Instagram: KCACYpodcast, alysonhere, alemjema Etsy: Pearl & Plum Theme music: Carpe Diem Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This episode we chat all about the wonderful time we had at Edinburgh Yarn Festival, the people we met and the yarn we bought. Full shownotes and pictures available at https://tipsyknitspodcast.wordpress.com

In this episode I announce that I will be attending the Edinburgh Yarn Festival and thank the organisers for inviting me to participate as a podcaster in the Blacker Yarns' Podcast Lounge. In the sewing segment I talk about the ups and downs of my latest sewing project (a smart shirt or blouse), including my choice of pattern, the new skills I've acquired and the fitting challenges I've faced. Despite occasional frustration and despondency, I decide to focus on the agency and body kindness that being able to make a properly fitting garment gives us and touch upon the language of fitting. I also explore a listener's questions about the relative benefits and harm of paper versus PDF sewing patterns. In the knitting segment, I mull over how my recent sewing experience is spilling over into my knitting and making me more bold about playing around with the style and shaping in knitting patterns, almost to the point of reworking them entirely. I also announce the winner of the This Thing of Paper giveaway; review Socks 2018, a new e-publication by Making Stories focused on nylon-free, non-superwash socks; and announce a giveaway of a digital copy of Socks 2018.    You can find me as Mrs_M_Curiosity_Cabinet on Instagram and as Meg-aka-Mrs-M on Ravelry. There is also a Ravelry Group for the podcast. Shownotes can be found at: Mrs M's Curiosity Cabinet. Music: As I figure by Kevin MacLeod on FreeMusicArchive and licensed under Creative Commons By Attribution 3.0 License

It's a special reunion video episode! We're both in London, Vivian to see Hamilton the musical, and Alyson to see Vivian. All of our WIPs have travelled with us so you all can see what we're working on (a lot) and we also made a pilgrimage to Loop to squish all the yarn. We love seeing what everyone is knitting and crocheting for the Ultra Violet KCAL which is still going on until March 1st! Watch the video here Special Announcement: KCACY is an official podcast at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2018! Ultra Violet KCAL: Use #UltraVioletKCAL on Instagram and join the Ravelry thread WIP Projects   Alyson Carloway Cowl by Rachel Atkinson Yarn: Orkney Angora St Magnus DK Wisteria Trellis by Joanne Scrace Yarn: Blacker Doulton Border Flock Leicester 4 Ply & Baa Baa Brighouse Marble 4 Ply Beltline Cuff-Down Socks by Rohn Strong Yarn: Patons Stretch Socks Vivian Gris de Lin by Berangere Cailliau Yarn: Blacker Swan Falkland Islands Fiddlehead Mittens by Adrian Bizilia Maxfield Cardigan by Amy Cristoffers FO Projects Vivian Kodiak Kisses by Athena Forbes Yarn: Knit Picks Simply Alpaca Alpaca Hat Bayside Pullover by Hannah Fettig Knit Picks Capretta Yarny Bits and Bobs: Loop Knitting London Mommypedia: Selling knitted/crocheted objects Nerdtastic: Harry Potter - A History of Magic exhibit at the British Library & Hamilton the musical Ravelry: Alysonhere, Upstateviv YouTube: Keep Calm and Carry Yarn Podcast Instagram: KCACYpodcast Etsy: Pearl & Plum

Hello and welcome to 2018! Not quite sure where the last two months went to be honest, but there you go! On the Needles Contoura by Woolly Wormhead in BabyLongLegs Mesmerino DK Mystery Hat B by Woolly Wormhead in Stanley Sport. In The Weave Shed I have taken some of the designs for upholstery that I created in project 4 at college and reworked them in very fine silks to explore the possibility of small art pieces. Yarn Shops Galore The Wool Boat - Colin and Carole's Creations on the Emma Maye. Checkout out their blog or Facebook page for up-to-date information on where they will be moored. Something I Really Like The Farmers' Country Showdown on BBC1. Rhian's episode is episode 10 of Series 2 and is available until the 15th February. Shop Update Currently there is a 20% off sale until the end of January using the coupon code CHEERUP. This is off all products in the shop as well as the brand new Dyeing Day workshops I have put up for March and June. Don't forget that if you sign up to the newsletter you will be sent regular codes for subscriber discount. On The Horizon Waltham Abbey Wool Show Sunday 21st January at the Marriot Hotel, Waltham Abbey. Edinburgh Yarn Festival 14-18th March (marketplace 15th-17th) My 100th episode! No big party like Knit British, but I thought I might have an Ask Me Anything section - those of you who have stuck with me through the last 8 years, especially the lean ones (LOL), can have a chance to take part in an interactive segment. You can either email me your question, or ask it on Twitter using the hastag #askYFTP. Links Lucy Neatby Music Rondopolska by Barry Philips, from the album Tråd, available from Magnatune. Make Contact! We have a listeners' map. Please go on over to pop in a pin - we're covering 5 continents now but I'd still love to see where you all are! Please feel free to leave a comment here or email me at yarnsfromtheplain AT googlemail DOT com. Yarns From The Plain now has a Facebook page here - come over and hit that like button! There's a Ravelry group for both the podcast and the shop, so come on over to chat. You can find me on Ravelry as talesfromtheplain, on Instagram as @yarnsfromtheplain and on Twitter as @yarnsfromplain. TTFN, Nic x

This episode we announce the winners of the #BUDSKAL, have some exciting news about Edinburgh Yarn Festival, chat A Love Like Salt and also discuss some knitting aims for 2018.

The Ultra Violet KCAL begins in a couple weeks, so we're chatting about the yarn and projects we'll be working on. Plus, we're also participating in the Blacker Yarns PodKAL because we're just so excited for Edinburgh Yarn Festival! Not to mention, Alyson has also joined in The Crochet Circle's One Skein Wonderland CAL. Bitten off more than she can chew? Possibly... Vivian on the other hand, is still churning out hats like a knitting machine! You can subscribe to our show on iTunes and YouTube. You can also download the episode from LibSyn. Buzzfeed Quiz: Which Movie Dog Are You Most Like? Ultra Violet KCAL Janurary 15 - March 1 Alyson Carloway Cowl by Rachel Atkinson Orkney Angora St Magnus DK Vivian Gris de Lin by Berangere Cailliau Blacker Swan Falkland Islands EYF Blacker Yarns KALJanuary 13 - March 11 The Woolly ThistleWisteria Trellis by Joanne Scrace WIP Projects   Alyson Sam's Scarf Rowan Alpaca Soft DK Beltline Cuff-Down Socks by Rohn Strong Patons Stretch Socks Vivian Maxfield Cardigan by Amy Cristoffers Kodiak Kisses by Athena Forbes Knit Picks Simply Alpaca FO Projects Alyson Kriesel Fingerless Gloves by Sybil R VivianFingerless Gloves loosely based off of Treads by Victoria Anne Baker Quadratic Hat by Angela Ghosts Grumpasaurus by Kathy Lewinski  Yarny Bits and Bobs Mommypedia: Swatching for Socks Nerdtastic: Black Mirror and The Crown Ravelry: Alysonhere, Upstateviv YouTube: Keep Calm and Carry Yarn Podcast Instagram: KCACYpodcast Etsy: Pearl & Plum Theme music: Carpe Diem Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

Kelly looks back over the year 2017 and shares her best projects, the most popular podcast episodes, and interesting facts about the listener base. Marsha has a bad cold with a cough, not a good mix with podcasting. The shop is back open after a short break for the Christmas holiday. Upcoming Events January 6, 2018:  The St. Distaff Day Spin-In at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, from 10 am until 4 pm. January 7, 2018: Seattle Crafternoon starting at 1 pm. Contact us on Ravelry or email us here for location information. February 22-25: Stitches West in Santa Clara.  On Saturday afternoon the Yarniacs and 2 Knit Lit Chicks meet-up will be in the hotel lobby of the conference hotel. March 15-18: Edinburgh Yarn Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Marsha will be attending and is hoping to meet some of our UK listeners! Kelly's project year ended up with 23 finished projects and 5 of them are adult sweaters!  A 6th should be finished by the time we ring in the new year.  The Handspun Cowichan was finished in time for the camping trip and it was so nice and warm--the perfect camp sweater. This was  The Orca Run by Beth Brown-Reinsel. Kelly's camping trip knitting was the blue crochet cardigan that she stalled out on some time ago.  The pattern is The Curious Case of the Crazy-Stitch Cardigan by Michele DuNaier .  She made great progress and hopes to have a finished sweater by New Year's Day. Other camping knitting included a charity hat out of some alpaca spirit yarn.  It will be really warm.  Happy New Year everyone!

An unedited episode full of knitting, dyeing, spinning, weaving, and future escapades! Enjoy! Click here to visit the Two Ewes Fiber Adventures shop where you can support the show and get beautifully sheepy yarn at the same time. Projects Kelly is almost done with the body of the linen Summer Fjord. The pattern has a drop shoulder and no sleeves. She is thinking about picking up stitches and adding a sleeve. She has also been working on charity hats. One hat, Molly, has been finished. It's a simple textured stitch background with one large cable going up the hat. The second hat is her own pattern started flat and then joined in the round after doing a button tab brim. Both hats are made from leftovers in the stash. Weaving off a cotton dishtowel warp that's been on table loom for almost 10 years. Marsha has made good progress on her Recoleta by Joji Locatelli and has starting the waist shaping. Marsha has been sidetracked knitting by her new obsession: combo spinning. She did not have any dyed braids but had 24 ounces of roving in her stash that she dyed. She then divided the roving equally by color and put in bags. Each bag is filling a bobbin with a bit of fiber left over. Very interesting project. So interesting, that not much is getting done around the house! Advent-ewes The Two Ewes are planning a Winter Weave Along! It will be a 6 month learning adventure with weaving. It starts on October 1 and will go through March 31. It will include weaving instruction for beginners. Weaving information will start at the beginning so don't worry if you are new to the craft. Marsha is a beginner so she will be learning along, too. Handouts in pdf form will be delivered through the podcast feed to all the podcast subscribers. (If you aren't already subscribed there are links to subscribe on the sidebar of the shownotes. Or use your favorite podcatcher app.) The Ewes are also planning some short video tutorial. There will be a project discussion thread with weaving help and community. Any kind of loom will work, rigid heddle, floor, table, potholder loom, cardboard loom, loom made with wallboard and nail, etc. An FO thread will be available later in the year and there will be a giveaway at the end. There is also a Single Shot project along! Quick and satisfying like a single shot. This is for that small project around 200 yards or less. The perfect fun and done project for a palette cleanser. Knit or crochet something quick and satisfying. Prize thread in Ravelry group. starts now ends Nov 1. Dyeing While Marsha dyed roving, Kelly dyed Shetland yarn for a project and put some extra in the shop. Check it out at twoewesfiberadventures.com! Here is a link the article about natural dyeing in Mexico from the 9/19/17 issue of The New York Times. Future Escapades Kelly will be going to Lambtown in Dixon, CA October 7-8. Marsha will be traveling to Scotland for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival in March 2018. She is looking forward to meeting any UK listeners who will be going, too. And of course, the Two Ewes will be at Stitches West in Santa Clara, CA in late February.

Today we chat about what we’re working on, and share details on the upcoming GLYC knitalong, including an interview with designer Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade. WWKIP Day update! Next Saturday is World Wide Knit in Public Day, and we’d love to have everyone come join us at The Village Haberdashery on Saturday, June 10th in West Hampstead Square! We’ll be there from 11am – 2pm and all are welcome! The event is free, but please RSVP via the WWKIP website so we have an accurate headcount and can get in touch if we have to change things due to weather.  Make Happy – aka – What we’re working on Allison is keeping up with the Joji Locatelli Starting Point Mystery KAL in SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock and it is glorious! Rachel has been doing very little knitting or spinning of any kind as work has been completely insane. But the handspun socks are almost to the heels, and she's cast on for Raindrops by Tin Can Knits in Travelknitter's luscious Tanami in the Midnight Kelpies colourway from Edinburgh Yarn Festival. Don’t forget to show us what you’ve been working on that’s making you happy! Tag your photos on Instagram with #yitcmakehappy so we can see your projects!  It’s Knitalong Time We share some early details about the upcoming GLYC 2017 Knitalong, which features the combined creative power of Curious Handmade, The Wool Kitchen and Travelknitter, and talk with Helen Stewart about the pattern for the KAL. Further details will be released on 10 June! Wrap up Many thanks for joining us for another episode! You can find the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio (please rate, review and subscribe!) and you'll find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, in our Yarn in the City group on Ravelry, or in person on Wednesday nights at our knit night at The Goat on the Rise  between 7 and 10pm. Have a great couple of weeks and we’ll chat with you soon!  Music credits (available on NoiseTrade) Ridiculously Happy (feat. Twilight Meadow) - Owl City

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 podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co.  Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile.    If you would like to support the podcast, you can do that through Patreon:   1 - Old dog, new tricks On the back of the 'standing crochet 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 Provenance Craft CoI 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 after my long-term WIPS has 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 audiobook, written and narrated by Neil Gaiman.  I will listen to this again 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: provenance.craft.co   Instagram: FayDHDesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite  

In this episode we have a special interview with Eric Lutz, publisher of RIB magazine, which we recorded at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival in March. We've been holding on to this interview for a while, but since the second issue of RIB will be hitting shops in early June, this seems like a good time to share the audio with you. We've also got a quick update on our WWKIP day event on 10th June at the Village Haberdashery and what's making us happy these days! Make Happy – aka – What we’re working on #MeMadeMay is still underway! Rachel is still working on the handspun socks, and started spinning up some BFL for a sweater. The Kippen Cardigan has fallen by the wayside for the moment. Last episode’s sock yarn is finished and plied and washed and waiting for a moment when I can cast on! Allison finished the crocheted tie for Harrison and not a moment too soon! Everything has been all about the Joji MKAL / mystery wrap which she's knitting in the Kitsilano colourway kit put together by SweetGeorgia Yarns. She's also been sewing and working on finishing a few things, including the Cleo dungaree dress by Tilly and the Buttons that is so close to being finished! Don’t forget to show us what you’ve been working on that’s making you happy! Tag your photos on Instagram with #yitcmakehappy so we can see your projects! In conversation with RIB magazine At the Edinburgh Yarn Festival earlier this year we were lucky enough to meet the publisher of new Canadian bi-annual magazine RIB, Eric Lutz. Eric and his business partner, editor Devon Johnson have created a fantastic magazine that helps to fill an often lacking niche – men’s knitwear patterns. Their approach is to create an inspiring collection of patterns for men who knit, and for those who like to knit for them. Issue 2 of RIB will be available early next month, and we share our thoughts on the pattern previews and what we're looking forward to knitting from this issue. Wrap up Many thanks for joining us for another episode! You can find the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio (please rate, review and subscribe!) and you'll find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, in our Yarn in the City group on Ravelry, or in person on Wednesday nights at our knit night at The Goat on the Rise  between 7 and 10pm. Have a great couple of weeks and we’ll chat with you soon!  Music credits (available on NoiseTrade) Ridiculously Happy (feat. Twilight Meadow) - Owl City

This week is a VERY laidback episode in my kitchen talking about the Edinburgh Yarn Festival with Felix Ford, aka KNITSONIK. Visit main page at knitbritish.net

Hot off the press news on the EYF 2015

see shownotes at www.knitbritish.net

a special show recorded live at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival

first meander back through the wonderful EYF

I reveal the vendor and exhibitor list for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival!

Edinburgh Yarn Festival news, Carol Meldrum interview and yarn reviews

An interview with Mica and Jo from Edinburgh Yarn Festival and we get some INCREDIBLE news! all info at www.knitbritish.net

Live from Edinburgh Yarn Festival, Sophie is joined by guest host Bristol Ivy - who has an exciting Pom Pom Press announcement! This episode also includes an interview with the fabulous gals behind Spincycle Yarns. Thanks to our sponsors Erika Knight.

This is our bumper Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2017 episode! We chat about some of the folks we met, our highlights and our hauls. Thank you so, so much to the incredible Jo & Mica for running such an amazing event and to Louise Scollay and Blacker Yarns for the wonderful Podcast Lounge!

On today’s podcast we’re chatting about two new books that we were asked to review at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival. We’ve got a review of Coffee with C.C. (and Dami too!) – more coffee-inspired patterns from C.C. Almon and this time with her daughter Dami as well. And we also take a peek at Knit the Rainbow, a collection of accessories designed for gradient sets by Joy McMillan. Joy of course, is also known as The Knitting Goddess and she really knows colour! News and Events   The Countess Ablaze Dye Studio is now newly reopened in their brand new space in Manchester’s northern quarter. They are now open from Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm and wow – the space is amazing! Congrats to the Countess and run, don’t walk to see her new space – and a new yarn too! 23 April - the London Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers coach to Wonderwool on Sunday, April 23rd. Tickets are £39 and include round-trip coach and entry to the show. Get your tickets here. Saturday May 6th - Yarn Shop Day Saturday, June 10th - World Wide Knit in Public Day. We’re excited to tell you that we will be co-hosting an event with The Village Haberdashery at their new location in West Hampstead.  Make Happy – aka – What we’re working on (#yitcmakehappy) Rachel is finally past some serious designers block on a new shawl design in Kettle Yarn Co. Beyul DK (in murky chartreuse of course...). She's also made progress on her Kippen Cardigan by Kat Goldin. Allison's Sooper Sekrit Project is SO close to being done! Koolhaas is done, her jacket needs sleeves to be hemmed and buttons sewn on, and she's swatching for Raindrops. She's also totally distracted by yarn in my stash tthat would be PERFECT for Shusui by Susanne Sommer, who we were lucky enough to meet at EYF.  Book Reviews: Coffee and Colour Coffee with C.C. (and Dami too!) - find all the patterns on Ravelry here. You can also find C.C. and Dami on their videocast and blog - Geeky Girls Knit. Knit the Rainbow by Joy McMillan - find all the patterns on Ravelry here, and find Joy's yarns at The Knitting Goddess.      Wrap up Many thanks to C.C. and Joy for providing us with copies of their books to review. We hope you’ll check them out and find as much inspiration as we have. You can find the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio and us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, in our Yarn in the City group on Ravelry, or in person on Wednesday nights at our knit night at The Goat on the Rise between 7 and 10pm. Everyone’s really friendly and we hope to see you there! Have a great couple of weeks and we’ll chat with you soon!  Music credits (available on NoiseTrade) Ridiculously Happy (feat. Twilight Meadow) - Owl City   

In this first episode Mrs M talks about her thinking behind her podcast about materials, the making instinct and a craft-full life and shares her experience of the Edinburgh Yarn Festival as well as some of the wool goodies she picked up there. Music: Springish by Gillicuddy on FreeMusicArchive and shared under Creative Commons Attribution license.  

Hello and welcome to the CLN podcast. Today’s show is part of the Cottage On Tour series where I leave the cottage behind for a little adventure. So grab that cuppa and settle in to hear those voices of Knitbritish, Jared Flood, Carol Feller and Tin Can Knits to name a few. Today’s show is […]

If you’ve been under a rock lately or haven’t listened to our latest episodes of the podcast, EYF of course is the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, the 2017 edition of which wrapped up this past Sunday. We were there and back in a whirlwind of 4 days and have so much to tell you about, including an interview that we were lucky to have with Aimée Gille, owner of L’Oisive The and La Bien Aimée in Paris. We’ve also got the wrap up of the Blacker PodKAL, some upcoming events to keep an eye out for, and an update on what we’ve been working on and what’s making us happy.  Blacker PodKAL wrap up It was amazing seeing so many gorgeous handknits in person in the Blacker Yarns Podcast Lounge at EYF. The Blacker stand was pretty spectacular too! We’ve come away with samples of Blacker’s latest yarn Samite that we talked about on the last episode and we’ll be working with that and reporting back on what it’s like to work with. Huge thanks to Sue and Sonja from Blacker for supporting the Podcast Lounge, and for putting up a prize skein of Samite for our winner of Team YITC for the Blacker PodKAL! We’re delighted to announce that HDayananda – Helen – was our winner on Ravelry and that she picked a gorgeous colour of Samite (and an accompanying skein!) to work up into a shawl. We can’t wait to see what you make Helen – maybe at this year’s Yarn Crawl? News and Events Don’t despair if you missed EYF, there’s plenty of woolly things coming up to tempt you… Week of 20 March: Countess Ablaze is re-opening her studio in central Manchester. We’re getting an advance sneak peek and will report back to you with all of the Countess’ colourful news. 8 April: the new Spring into Wool show is happening in Leeds 22 - 23 April: Wonderwool Wales on April 22 and 23. Come join the London Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers who have organised a coach again this year on Sunday, 23 April 2017. Tickets will be £39 for round-trip transport and entry to the show. Tickets can be booked via Paypal, and all are welcome!  9 September: the 5th anniversary of the Great London Yarn Crawl will happen on Saturday, 9th September. Tickets will go on sale on July 1st and as in previous years all monies raised after expenses will be donated to Refuge, a UK charity that supports women and children who are victims of domestic violence.  Make Happy - #yitcmakehappy Allison's Sooper Secret Project is SO close to being done! Her alternate project is the Koolhaas Hat by Jared Flood. Rachel started the Because Sock Yarn scarf for Dev’s birthday We’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about the Edinburgh Yarn Festival and the glowing yarn fumes and delirium that we seem to have come away from the weekend with. If social media is any indication, there are a lot of yarn lovers and vendors still on a high from the weekend and slowly coming down to reality this week. Things we loved about EYF: Meeting folks and catching up with everyone (although there are still so many we missed!) The ceilidh YARN! The Blacker Yarns Podcast Lounge (and huge thanks to Louise Scollay for organising it so we could be there) The volunteers and their smiling faces An interview with La Bien Aimée EYF was also a great place to see yarns and chat with vendors that we don’t get to see very often, like Aimée Gille, an American transplant to Paris who has been running Paris’ most popular yarn shop, l’Oisive Thé for the last 9 years. Two years ago Aimée and her business partner Hiroko Payne started dyeing their own line of yarns, called La Bien Aimée, which have exploded in popularity thanks to social media. We had a chance to sit down with Aimée while we were at EYF. Here’s that interview. You can find La Bien Aimée/L'Oisive Thé on their website, on Instagram, on Twitter and on Facebook. Wrap up Many thanks to Aimée for joining us on the podcast and congratulations once again to Jo and Mica on a successful show. ou can find the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio and us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, in our Yarn in the City group on Ravelry, or in person on Wednesday nights at our knit night at The Goat on the Rise between 7 and 10pm. Everyone’s really friendly and we hope to see you there! Have a great couple of weeks and we’ll chat with you soon!  Music credits (available on NoiseTrade) Ridiculously Happy (feat. Twilight Meadow) - Owl City

Hello folks, come on into The Crochet Circle Podcast. Here are the show notes from Episode Fourteen - Unchained Melody?   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 podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co.  Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile.    If you would like to support the podcast, you can do that through Patreon:   1 - 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 fantastic 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 colourwork strands mean that the patterned 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 their 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 niece 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 thought 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 on 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 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 able 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 looking 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 has 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 definitely 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 get a 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!          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        

This month we discuss what we've got on and off the needles, including some lovely pink FOs! We also chat about what we're looking forward to at Edinburgh Yarn Festival this year and invite you to join us at the Podcast Lounge. Music from JukeDeck.

Now that the wool festival calendar has really kicked into high gear, and with Edinburgh Yarn Festival fast approaching, we thought we’d take some time today to talk about Yarn Show Strategy. We’ll also have an update on the #Blackerpodkal, where you can find us in Edinburgh, what’s making us happy at the moment, and more!  What's making us happy: The Blacker Yarns PodKAL continues and we are winding down to the last week!  How’s your project going?  Some instagram highlights from #TeamYITC:  Mariette694 has finished her cape of Tamar and Cornish Tin and it is spectacular!  And then there’s Josh (breiwerken on Instagram) has finished her gorgeous colourwork jumper in Cornish Tin!  A latecomer to the podkal is @yarnesty who has cast on a cabled hat also in Cornish Tin V2.0  #TeamYITC prize: we will post in the Ravelry thead what the prize is and who wins! Winner will be drawn on 6th March, so make sure you get your projects up and tagged with #BlackerPODKAL and #TeamYITC. Allison is working on her #BlackerPODKAL project in St. Kilda lace.  Rachel finished the Christmas sweaters for her kids, but is now working on her #BlackerPODKAL project, the Inglis Mitts by Ysolda Teague in Tamar.  Stash season:  Tips for making sure you don’t get overwhelmed by the wool fumes and end up having to mortgage a kidney to buy yarn.  Make a list  Stick to your list If sticking to your list is going to be tough, set aside a set amount of money that you can splurge with and when it’s gone, it’s gone.  Only take cash and leave the credit cards at home.  More generally – really think about what you’re buying. You don’t have to have a specific project in mind, but think about whether you already have five skeins of blue and purple 4-ply yarn in a box at home?  And we've put together a handy downloadable tip sheet for you too. Wrap up You can find the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio and us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, in our Yarn in the City group on Ravelry, or in person on Wednesday nights at our knit night at The Goat on the Rise between 7 and 10pm. Everyone’s really friendly and we hope to see you there! Have a great couple of weeks and we’ll chat with you soon!  Music credits (available on NoiseTrade) Ridiculously Happy (feat. Twilight Meadow) - Owl City

On this episode of the podcast we  chat about what's making us happy at the mo, including an update on our progress with the Blacker PodKAL for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival and the new #yarnlovechallenge on Instagram. We also find out what happens when you love yarn so much that it leads you to making your own. For that conversation we’ll be chatting with our friend Carmen from A Yarn Story in Bath, who’s been working with Sharon from Great British Yarns on a new joint venture, Walcot Yarns. Grab your favourite beverage and your WIP and let's go! What we’re working on (aka Make Happy): The Blacker Yarns PodKAL continues apace! Allison has her SSS well underway, and Rachel is casting on for her Inglis Mitts as we record (better late than never!) The projects shown on Ravelry and Instagram all look amazing and there are some truly speedy knitters out there! We have some special kudos too, for those of you who have come on board #teamYITC: Hdayananda is knitting with a gorgeous green Cornish Tin for her In the Pines Pullover Mariette694 is making a capelet/wrap of her own design in both Tamar and Cornish Tin that is look stunning already And then there’s Josh (breiwerken on Instagram) who is also making his own colourwork design out of Cornish Tin that is nothing short of amazing! If you want to join in with the Blacker PodKAL, it’s not too late! Here are the details: Any design or pattern you want (some great freebies on the Blacker Yarns website) Must be knit with Blacker Yarns to be eligible for prizes and discounts at EYF Can be used in combination with other yarns too Chat thread in Blacker Yarns Ravelry group Tag with#BlackerPodKAL on social media & Ravelry Cast off date is 4th March (just in time for EYF!) If you wear your FO at EYF you can get a discount on more Blacker Yarns! There are multiple teams and you can be on more than one – we hope you’ll tag your projects with #teamyitc so that we can see what you’re working on for the KAL (we’ll have a special #teamYITC prize too!) In other make happy news, Allison has been working on a (gorgeous!) super secret deadline project, and doing lots and lots (and LOTS) of sewing. Rachel has been working on a design for Walcot Yarns, but has managed to finish her Vestvember project (again, better late than never). She's also been doing lots of #spinningSundays. Yarn Love Challenge Okay, the #yarnlovechallenge is something that you’ve probably seen popping up on Instagram in the last couple of day and it’s pretty fun so we wanted to let you know about it. It’s a daily Instagram photo challenge put together by @oharethey and @maryheatherb from Ravelry to celebrate the idea that “Yarn is Love”. We agree! Yarn Love There are fewer things we love more than a new yarn. And we were particularly excited when we found out that our friend Carmen was working on a brand new bespoke yarn – Walcot Yarns. If you haven’t heard us mention Carmen before, she is a North American transplant like us and the owner of A Yarn Story – a specialty yarn boutique in Bath that is stuffed with gorgeous yarns from around the world. Aside from the yarn itself, what got us really excited to chat with Carmen is that she developed this new yarn with in collaboration with Sharon from Great British Yarns – also in Bath. We got Carmen to chat with us and tell us more about Walcot Yarns and what exactly is involved with bringing your own yarn to market. Wrap up You can find the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio and us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, in our Yarn in the City group on Ravelry, or in person on Wednesday nights at our knit night at The Goat on the Rise between 7 and 10pm. Everyone’s really friendly and we hope to see you there! Music credits (all available on NoiseTrade) Ridiculously Happy (feat. Twilight Meadow) - Owl City

Hello folks, come on into 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 podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co.  Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile.    If you would like to support the podcast, you can do that through Patreon:   If you are missing Lynne, she is now doing audio recordings of her blog. They 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 the 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 the 24th December and concluded on the 31st January.  The enthusiasm, support and skill showed within this CAL have 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 finished 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 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 able 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 burning 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 Quarterly'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 make with it, then here are some simple ways of filtering through Ravelry to drill down to some suitable projects:         So much easier to search through 85 projects than 614,000+.     What's good? We are heading into a yarn festival season once more.  The first that I will be attending is the 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_Podcast  Instagram: provenance.craft.co   Instagram: FayDHDesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite

Welcome back Yarn and Fibre Lovers! We're excited to be back post-holidays, refreshed and recharged and ready for another year of yarn-y shenanigans with you, and along with some changes to the podcast too! A new KAL/CAL to kick things off We're delighted to announce that we will be participating in this year's Podcast Lounge at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival. To get everyone excited about this year's EYF, Blacker Yarns and Louise Scollay of KnitBritish are teaming up to host the #BlackerPodKAL. Lots of other podcasts are participating too and we hope you'll join us for Team Yarn in the City! Here's some more details: Cast on date is Thursday, January 19th Any design or pattern you want (some great freebies on the Blacker Yarns website) Must be knit with Blacker Yarns to be eligible for prizes and discounts at EYF Can be used in combination with other yarns too Chat thread in Blacker Yarns ravelry group Tags with#BlackerPodKAL on social media & Ravelry Cast off date is 4th March (just in time for EYF!) If you wear your FO at EYF you can get a discount on more Blacker Yarns! In addition to being eligible for #BlackerPodKAL prizes we're also going to come up with some exclusive to Team YITC members too. Watch this space! What we've been working on Rachel clearly had delusions of grandeur with her Christmas knitting plans so she's still working through those and gives us and update. It sounds like the beginning of 2017 is also already chock-a-block full of knitting deadlines too! Allison is happy to be finished the Hogwarts scarf and still working away on her toe-up socks, as well as a few other things. #spinningsundays What we've also been working on is getting back to our spinning. We made a pact on New Year's Eve that we were going to try and do some spinning every Sunday this year in the hopes that we'll accomplish a lot more. Care to join us? Tag photos of your spinning on Instagram with #spinningsundays and #YITCspinningsundays so that we can find you! Make Happy After the bonkers year that was 2016 we really want 2017 to focus on the positive so we've come up with a simple theme for this year: Make Happy. We'll be threading this theme through all of our interviews and podcast chatter this year and hope you'll let us know how you find the conversations, as well as join in with your own thoughts, stories and images. Please tag us on social media using #YITCmakehappy. Wrap up You can find the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio and us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, in our Yarn in the City group on Ravelry, or in person on Wednesday nights at our knit night at The Goat on the Rise between 7 and 10pm. Everyone’s really friendly and we hope to see you there! Music credits (all available on NoiseTrade) Ridiculously Happy (feat. Twilight Meadow) - Owl City

Pom Pom Quarterly's podcast - Pomcast! Lydia and Sophie bring you all the usual craft related giggling, as well as some mini interviews recorded at Edinburgh Yarn Festival. You'll hear from John Arbon, Dianna Walla, Sonja Bargielowska, and Jo of EYF organisation fame!

Due to a technological problem this is a bit late! We recorded it a few weeks ago. Cia, Pip and special guest Heather talk about Edinburgh Yarn Festival, a whirlwind weekend of yarn fumes and knitting.

                                  Welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast. Here are the Show Notes from Episode Three.   This podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co. and Lynne Rowe Knitting and Crochet Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile.    If you would like to support the podcast, you can do that through Patreon:   The books and yarns in this episode were all purchased by ourselves. Arne & Carlos yarn competition prize - supplied by Provenance Craft Co.   DMC Natura Medium competition prize - supplied by DMC Creative In this episode, we talk a lot about socks as well as Wonderwool and Edinburgh Yarn Festival, stylish crochet designers, crochet tension, Crochet Yeah! WIP Wall update, Finished Objects and The Woollen Woods.   1. Yay Crochet or Nay Crochet (at 1.25 mins) It's a yay from Fay on her Shoreline blanket: In Episode 1, I spoke about a blanket that I hadn’t touched for a year.  I can now safely say that it has moved on somewhat and has made me think about the shorelines beyond the small island that is the UK.  I've thought about our listeners that are further afield and love the idea that through something as simple as a hook and a length of yarn, with a bit of technology, we can share our passions for crochet, knitting and yarn.  Every time I pick up the blanket to do a bit more I think about our lovely listeners.         The Shoreline Blanket uses a very subtle 4dc, 1htr, 2tr, 1htr stitch pattern for the ripple.   It's a Nay from Lynne on paper yarn.  I used paper yarn recently for a knitting and crochet commission and I was really looking forward to trying it out. I have to admit it wasn't one of my favourite yarns, mainly because it wasn't as flexible as I thought it would be. You have to give it a tug when working a stitch and often it popped off the end of the hook. My projects turned out fine but I would only recommend using it for homewares and accessories that will be used indoors, mainly mats, coasters and baskets or bags because if it gets wet it will also get soggy. Quite a few yarn companies are now manufacturing paper yarn so we may see more projects and patterns becoming available.     2. Festivals (at 4.55 mins) Fay visited Edinburgh Yarn Festival in March and had a great time. If you're into your designers, workshops, patterns and like to meet up with fellow enthusiasts then it's a great show for you. Lynne and Fay visited Wonderwool Wales - we both love this show, which is open and airy with good light and it's great to get around and there's a lot of space. We found some great bargains that we can't wait to turn into something lovely.   Lynne's Wonderwool haul:    Fay's Wonderwool Haul:   We're also exhibiting at Yarndale later this year, which is really exciting. We will be sharing a stall so come and say Hi. For information on Yarndale 2016 see: http://yarndale.co.uk/http://thewoolnest.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/crochet-tension.html   Stylish Crochet Designers (at 18.35 mins): Marie Wallin: Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/designers/marie-wallin Website: http://www.mariewallin.com/   Joanne Scrace Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/designers/joanne-scrace Website: http://notsogranny.com/   Kat Goldin: Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/people/katgold Website: http://www.slugsontherefrigerator.com/   Vicky Brown Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/stores/lilley-stitches Website: http://www.vickibrowndesigns.com/    Contemporary Crochet - 37 European Designs - Sys Fredens For book details see here   Designer Crochet - Shannon Mullet-Bowlsby. Create figure-flattering garments with great shape, with easy-to-follow tutorials. For book details see herehttps://www.knitit-hookit-craftit.com/blogs/news/162848583-book-review-crochet-yeah-by-the-crochet-project   5. Yarn Reviews (at 33.50 mins) Socks Yeah!   In Shade Iolite (75% Superwash Merino/25% Nylon; 212m/50g) RRP £5.45 Machine washable at 30 degrees Recommended needle size 2.25mm Read Fay's full review here: https://www.knitit-hookit-craftit.com/blogs/news/162718215-yarn-review-socks-yeah-from-coop-knits   Regia Design Line by Arne and Carlos 4 ply engineered sock yarn (75% virgin wool and 25% polyamide; 50g/210m) RRP £5.19 Recommended needle size is 2-3mm Read Fay's full review here: https://www.knitit-hookit-craftit.com/blogs/news/162372423-yarn-review-regia-design-line-by-arne-and-carlos   6. Magazine Reviews (at 40.00 mins) Inside Crochet issue 76: The Theme for Issue 76 is Spring Time, so there are lots of lovely flowery projects, cute children’s accessories and cosy crochet for cooler evenings or country walks.   Lynne's choice: Celandine Wrap by Emma Wright – inspired by the flower of the same name. www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/celandine-wrap   Fay's Choice: Pop! Socks designed by Katherine Mills. Stretchy socks, comfortable to wear and fun to show off. www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pop-socks Let’s Get Crafting issue 80: Includes a feature on Gregory Patrick (Madman knitting) and how knitting helped him to get out of homelessness. www.madmanknitting.wordpress.com Lynne's choice: Fairisle Purses designed by Lynne. I know I'm breaking my own rule of not talking about my own projects but I had such fun designing and making these and love the way they turned out. I've enjoyed seeing the reader's own versions too. www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fair-isle-purses Fay's choice: Lavender Sachets designed by Nicola Valiji - but would try a crocheted version. Lavender is great from deterring moths from your stash. www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/scented-sachets Simply Crochet – issue 44: An Oriental theme with free amigurumi sea creature pattern cards.   Lynne's Choice:  Kat Goldin’s column – an interesting read, all about her sock obsession for cosy crochet socks and passing on tools and heirlooms.   Fay's choice: Blossom Cushion - simple cushion base with pretty Oriental flowers and embroidery (image not available yet) Woman’s Weekly Knitting and Crochet, May 2016: Bright/Spring theme.   Lynne's choice:  Crocheted Daisy Dog Toy and Blanket – a vintage pattern from the1970s, reworked in Yarn Stories Fine Merino and Baby Alpaca DK – in Cream and Dove. (Image not available yet).   Fay's choice: Crocheted Bowls. (Image not available yet).   Crochet Now issue 2 will be reviewed in our next Episode as it isn't on the shelves yet.   7. Finished Objects (at 41.00 mins) Fay's FOs:     EYF Scarf - Endless Possibilities - the pattern will be released shortly. www.ravelry.com/projects/MaDashper/endless-possibilities   Knit British - Nature's Shades along - Nougat Neck - design to be released shortly. http://www.ravelry.com/projects/MaDashper/nougat-neck   4 (yes 4!!) crochet shawlettes (shh it's a secret - to be released soon)   Crochet Socks for The Duke www.ravelry.com/projects/MaDashper/crocheted-baby-socks   Knitted Socks for Winkie www.ravelry.com/projects/MaDashper/basic-socks-2   Lynne's FOs   Simple Granny Square Blanket using Stash yarns (DMC Natura Just Cotton): own design (not published yet)   Baktus Scarf using Manos Del Uruguay Silk Blend Shade 7438 Zenith (2 skeins): http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baktus-scarf   Simple Stocking Stitch cowl using Rowan Fine Tweed (discontinued): own design (not published yet)   8. Works in Progress and WIP Wall (at 41.00 mins)   See who's at the top of the WIP Wall this month over on Pinterest: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/417920040403148820/    Fay's WIPs   Missed Kingfisher shawl by Joanne Scrace: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/missed-kingfisher  Scarf for Baby Bird using a knitting sequence from Cecilia Campochiaro’s book  Sequence Knitting: http://www.sequenceknitting.com/   The purple blanket that you can see was frogged during the recording of Episode 3!   Tardis cross stitch cushion (available to buy on Etsy): https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/203231184/tardis-de-lys-instant-pdf-pattern?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=tardis%20fleur%20de%20lys&ref=sr_gallery_1 John Arbon socks (update - these are now finished and another pair started) http://www.ravelry.com/projects/MaDashper/basic-socks Winkie's postal scarf is just simple rows of colour.   Shoreline Blanket (picture at beginning of show notes) is Fay's own design using a very subtle 4dc, 1htr, 2tr, 1htr stitch pattern for the ripple.   Lynne's WIPs   Spice of Life CAL (Sandra Paul): http://www.cherryheart.co.uk/p/spice-of-life-blanket.html   Agrarian Artisan Scarf CAL: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/august-crochet-scarf-mcal   Fairisle Blanket (Lynne Rowe): http://www.womansweekly.com/knitting/knit-a-long-knit-a-knitted-blanket-15631/   Odeletta Shawl (Anna Nikipirowicz) (update - I've now bought beads so ready to finish the last few rows): http://www.ravelry.com/projects/LynneRowe/the-odeletta-shawl---crochet-gifts-5   Accordion Mittens (Lynne Rowe): own pattern not yet published   9. Other links   Woollen Woods at Arlington Court, North Devon.  27th. August - 30th. October 2016 (at 59.30 mins)   Organised by Natalie Savage, Visitor Services Manager     For more information see: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/arlington-court-and-the-national-trust-carriage-museum/features/woollen-woods-in-autumn   The Crochet Circle will collect any mammals and fungi that you would like to make and send them all together. You can find out more along with some free pattern links here in our Ravelry Group: http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-crochet-circle-podcast/topics/3425147   John Arbon Mill Membership (at 10.50 mins) https://www.jarbon.com/mill-membership/mill-membership#.VysCaY-cHIW     Woolfest and the wool clip http://www.woolfest.co.uk/whos-involved/woolclip.htm   10. Competition Winners Thanks to everyone who entered our Ravelry competitions and Congratulations to the winners: Erika Knight Studio Linen - theemmashan Lynne Rowe's Once Upon a Time in Crochet - jojotwinkletoes Erika Knight's Simple Colour Knitting - Dianneb     11. New Competitions (at 63.30 mins) We have 2 new competitions open on our Ravelry Forum:   Arne & Carlos Summer Nights Yarn 2 x 50g http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-crochet-circle-podcast/3424381/1-25   200g DMC Natura Medium 100% Cotton http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-crochet-circle-podcast/3424604/1-25 Good Luck and thank you for listening to our chatter. Don't forget, every Episode is published on the first Friday of every month.   Happy Crocheting.   Lynne and Fay x   Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast  Instagram: provenance.craft.co   Instagram: FayDHDesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite      

Curious Handmade Country House Retreat in Cumbria, Hill Top Shawl by Helen Stewart, and Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2016. Kindly sponsored by Quince & Co and KnitCircus Yarns. I am also a Craftsy Affiliate. Please consider visiting my web site before purchasing a Craftsy class or materials as I receive credit for it. Thank you! Show notes are found at www.knittingpipeline.com.  

With the Easter holidays and our kids still off school we've got another international Skype session of the podcast for Episode 34. We hope you'll bear with and that the sound isn't quite up to our usual standard. News, Events & Shout Outs 16th April - Our next book event for the London Craft Guide is being hosted by Knit With Attitude! Join us from 2-4 at the shop for some light snacks and a chat about our journey from the Great London Yarn Crawl to the London Craft Guide! Maya and her team are also generously offering 10% off in the shop and they've paired up the projects from the book with yarns from their shop - check out their blog post to see them all! Please RSVP to Knit With Attitude just so they have a sense of numbers - this is a FREE event! 21st April - Carmen from A Yarn Story is bringing her Shibui Knits Mix Party to London! The event is being held in Clapham and gets underway at 6:30pm. Find all the details and book your ticket on the AYS website. 23-24 April - Wonderwool Wales gets underway for it's 11th year at Builth Wells in Wales. We'll be popping in for a whirlwind visit on the Sunday on a coach visit with our guild from London and are already starting to make our lists of what we'd like to see! 30th April - The third annual Yarn Shop Day is coming up soon! Check out their website to find a participating shop near you and show your love for the awesome yarn shops we have across the UK. Big shout out to our US iTunes review from bjoy -thank you so much! Another shout out to Wild Thistle Farm in Pattston, ME, who accosted Rachel on the train from Boston to Brunswick to ask her (knitting with commercial yarn) if she was a spinner. They have Shetlands people - off you go!We also have a winner of the copy of Wool Tribe generously provided by Edinburgh Yarn Festival in Episode 33 - Rachelke! Please get in touch with us and let us know how to get that to you, and congratulations! What We're Working On: Allison is going great guns on her baby sweater, and has finished the sleeves. She's also been cranking out a new crocheted shawl from Joanne Scrace's new book The Shawl Project Book 1. Rachel has finished her Freshwater Shawl by Andrea Mowbry and Annie Rowden, in fantastic Triskelion Yarns Elen, and is spinning up some of her March Lab Goddess Fibre Club Wensleydale. She's also just discovered that her recent Yarn Chicken winning streak will come to a stunning halt if she continues with her current shawl design project, so there's some frogging in her immediate future. Book Review: Coffee with C. C. In this episode we review C. C. Almon's new book, Coffee with C. C.: A 7 pattern caffeine inspired knitting collection. Disclaimer: Rachel was the tech editor for this project, so take her comments with however many grains of salt you need. The collection includes six sock patterns, ranging from plain vanilla (French Vanilla Cappuccino socks) to more elaborate (I Love You More Than Pumpkin Spice socks), and also includes a shawl pattern. The patterns include lots of textured stitches and interest, but straightforward constructions so they are perfect for new or less experienced sock knitters looking to expand their skills! The hard copy of the book can be purchased from the JavaPurl Designs website for $18 plus shipping, and the eBook is available through Ravelry for $16 plus shipping. *** As always, please let us know what you think through comments on the show notes, send us an email at hello@yarninthecity.com or via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. You can find us on iTunes or Stitcher Radio (and please consider leaving a review for us!), or download us directly from the Yarn in the City website.   And on Wednesday nights you can find us at knit night at The Goat on the Rise pub on Battersea Rise, close to Clapham Junction station in SW London. We meet from 7pm to around 10pm. The food is great and the knitters are friendly. Join us!  Music (all available on NoiseTrade):1000 Ships - Rachel PlattenIt's Not - Aimee Mann

Shout outs: iTunes reviewers and some lovely Ravelry messages about the podcast and the book - thank you! Also huge shout out to podcast interviewee Clara Parkes, whose new book Knitlandia landed on the New York Times bestseller list! And we have a winner for the skein of Tamar Lustre blend from Blacker Yarns! News and Events:  16th April - A Yarn in the City talk and book signing at Knit With Attitude in London. We'll be talking about how we got started with the Great London Yarn Crawl and how the rest of our events, and now our book! grew from there. 23 - 24th April – Wonderwool Wales, Builth Wells Fairgrounds. We're going for the day with the London Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers, and the coach is now full! What we're working on: Rachel has finished her Honey cowl and that's all. Allison finished her Heggelia mitts and has started a sweater for a new baby and is faffing about trying to find something else in SweetGeorgia Yarns to knit. Free Your Skeins! We have a lovely chat with Jo Milmine of the award-winning Shinybees podcast and the Golden Skein yarn club, about how she started her podcast, building community, bringing people together and why you should use your precious, special skeins. New Giveaway - Wool Tribe! We have a cheeky last-minute giveaway as well - a copy of the hotly sought after Wool Tribe, the official program to Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2016. To enter, leave a comment on these show notes by end of day Easter Monday (March 28th, 2016) and tell us your favourite memory of EYF either this year or last year, or one that you say while watching the festival from afar on social media. We'll announce the winner on episode 34 of the podcast. *** As always, please let us know what you think through comments on the show notes, send us an email at hello@yarninthecity.com or via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. You can find us on iTunes or Stitcher Radio(and please consider leaving a review for us!), or download us directly from the Yarn in the City website.   And on Wednesday nights you can find us at knit night at The Goat on the Rise pub on Battersea Rise, close to Clapham Junction station in SW London. We meet from 7pm to around 10pm. The food is great and the knitters are friendly. Join us!  Music (all available on NoiseTrade):Find My Way - Brooke Annibale1000 Ships - Rachel Platten

This week we have a friendly catch up post Edinburgh Yarn Festival. I reassure listeners that knitting on a train with beads is indeed a perfectly safe activity. Come and hear the rundown of Scotland's premier knitting festival. It's not done to death, just a few highlights including my notable mentions for Beyond Measure, Cowtown Knits and Tilly Flop Designs and the Best In Show... which is like Crufts, only without dogs. We round up with the three dyers from the spring quarter of The Golden Skein. Go and check out Whistlebare, Snail Yarn and Sparkleduck. Show notes are at www.shinybees.com Music is Adam and the Walter Boys with 'I Need a Drink'.

This week Gemma Dudley of The Little Grey Girl joins us ahead of her first ever show at Edinburgh Yarn Festival. Purveyor of stylish, handmade bags and notions, The Little Grey Girl is the perfect place to find a beautiful receptacle for your knitting. Gemma opened The Little Grey Girl in October 2015 and runs it as a side-business from her main day job. A creative at heart. TLGG allows Gemma to explore this and escape from the office environment she inhabits during the day. A huge lover of hand dyed yarns and the colour grey, you'll find her at www.thelittlegreygirl.com. Shownotes for the episode are at www.shinybees.com Music is by Adam and the Walter Boys - 'I Need a Drink'.

Agatha and her friends welcome you to another coop cast and I get excited for Edinburgh Yarn Festival!  

On today’s podcast we’re chatting about some new goodies that have crossed our desks at Yarn in the City HQ and they’re two of our favourites: yarn and books! We’re reviewing another awesome new yarn from Blacker Yarns and we’ve also got chat about two new books, including one for our crochet followers.  Shout outs:  Shout outs to Sarah from Crafts from the Cwtch, Louise at Inspiration Knits, LCG contributor Catherine Hopkins and Julie from Knitted Bliss who have all written reviews of the London Craft Guide on their blogs. Thank you!   Shout out as well to Lyndsey at Countess Ablaze who’s amazing studio in Manchester is well, amazing. And a hello to all the knitters from the Joeli’s Kitchen Retreat in Manchester last weekend.  Book news:  All orders and pre-orders up to the end of February have now been sent out. If you pre-ordered a copy and you haven’t received a postage invoice from us, please check your email for a notice from Paypal, and email us at hello@yarninthecity.com if you haven't received on and let us know.  News and Events:  March 18-19 – Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2016 – marketplace, classes, general awesomeness. – Rachel will have copies of the London Craft Guide on her Porpoise Fur stand so you can pop by and take a look for that!  March 18-20 –  H+H trade show, the largest stitching-related trade show in Europe, is taking place in Cologne, Germany. 23 - 24th April – Wonderwool Wales, Builth Wells Fairgrounds. We're going for the day with the London Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers. Spaces are filling up quickly so check on our Ravelry board for all the details.  Note from us: we realized after recording this episode of the podcast that we teased you unnecessarily by hinting at news to this year's Great London Yarn Crawl and we're sorry we forgot to mention it! This year's GLYC will take place on Saturday, 10th September and we're once again looking for volunteer yarn guides. If you'd like to help out, please email us at hello@yarninthecity.com with "I'd like to volunteer for this year's GLYC" in the subject line. Thanks! What we’re working on:  Rachel is almost done with her Honey Cowl in handspun and is dyeing like crazy for EYF. Allison finished the Tulip Cardigan she had picked up again in the last episode, and is so close to being done with her Heggelia mitts! And is anxiously planning what new thing she’ll cast on next.  Two of our favourite things: yarn and books  Yarn Review: the new Tamar Lustre Blend by Blacker Yarns. Book reviews: Crochet Yeah! By Joanne Scrace and Kat Goldin of The Crochet Project, and Penguin by Anna Maltz. Correction: we mistakenly mentioned Navia as the yarns used in Penguin. Yarn support was actually provided by The Island Wool Company. We apologise for the error! And a giveaway! Leave a comment below telling us what you'd make with a single skein of the new Tamar in fingering weight. Name the pattern and leave your Ravelry name and we'll keep the contest open until end of day on Monday, March 14th. The winner will receive this gorgeous skein of Tamar and we'll gift you the pattern you selected on Ravelry if you don't already have it! As always, please let us know what you think through comments on the show notes, send us an email at hello@yarninthecity.com or via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. You can find us on iTunes or Stitcher Radio (and please consider leaving a review for us!), or download us directly from the Yarn in the City website.   And on Wednesday nights you can find us at knit night at The Goat on the Rise pub on Battersea Rise, close to Clapham Junction station in SW London. We meet from 7pm to around 10pm. The food is great and the knitters are friendly. Join us!  Music (all available on NoiseTrade):After the Fight - Jars of ClayDaisy Child - Brave BabyFind My Way - Brooke Annibale

This week has news, reviews and the potential theft of a bottle of IPA. Yes, it's still a knitting podcast, but we do enjoy a real ale on a regular basis. First up you can now join me on Anchor and Snapchat as @Shinybees. Prep is ongoing for the #RewindKAL - you can join in over on Ravelry in the Shinybees Podcast group. I also reveal my word for the year. I've never done this before but I feel it's in the spirit of the word to do so. I'd love to hear yours! Edinburgh Yarn Festival is taking place 17-20 March 2016. I will be offering a session in the Podcast Lounge on how to build a content calendar for your blog or podcast on the Friday afternoon and an informal Q&A on anything business or podcasting related on Saturday afternoon after the Podcaster Meetup, which will be taking place 12.30-2 both days. For those that come, I'll be offering a free power hour consultation to one lucky draw winner. If you can't make it, never fear: I'm going to repeat the sessions via webinar in the two weeks after EYF. TI'll also make the replays from these available for download. To sign up for these (completely free!) go to http://eepurl.com/bRAWz1 Enablers' Corner warns you at going to www.countessablaze.com and looking at the clubs (closing 1 Mar) and The Rt Honourable Ronaldsay is highly likely to result in a stash based indiscretion. You probably won't escape without buying the lovelies and these yarns are rebels which refuse to be tamed! To wrap up, I have a first look at Blacker Yarns Tamar. Show notes available at www.shinybees.com Music from Adam and the Walter Boys with 'I Need a Drink'. Pass that IPA...

My new design, Crooked Ewe Cowl, is available on Ravelry for the special introductory price of $3 until 3/1/16. In this episode I share the inspiration for the design, the curious name, and a few tips. I also talk about my recent foray into two-at-a-time, toe-up, Fish Lips Kiss Heel socks. Kindly sponsored by Quince & Co and KnitCircus Yarns. I am also a Craftsy Affiliate. Please consider visiting my web site before purchasing a Craftsy class or materials as I receive credit for it. Thank you! A big thank you to sponsors of the Knitting Pipeline Retreat: Klose Knit in Urbana IL The Fiber Universe, Peoria IL Ewe-nique Yarns, Morton IL Peddler’s Way Quilt Co Washington IL Le Mouton Rouge Knittery, Bloomington IL I am going to Curioushandmade’s Country Manor Retreat in Cumbria! March 14-17. I’m going to tie this in with a visit to my good friend in Troon, on the west coast of Scotland and then to Edinburgh Yarn Festival. At the Edinburgh Yarn Festival there is a Podcast Lounge sponsored by Blacker Yarns and organized by Louise of KnitBritish Podcast. I’ll be in the Podcast Lounge Friday and Sat March 18-19 sponsored by Blacker Yarns and KnitBritish Podcast for the Podcaster meet up on Friday 1-2 PM and on Sat as well. Show notes are found at www.knittingpipeline.com.  

It's Zoolander-aplenty this episode as I come rip-roaring (sort-of) back from having the flu. Zoolander 2 is out on 12th February and Zoolander is one of my favourite films of all time. I a bit love Ben Stiller. Imagine my surprise, then, that there are indeed no patterns on Ravelry for anything Zoolander themed. Not one. Not even a cheeky little amigurumi Hansel... So, don't kill the president of Micronesia. Just chill out a bit more. Relax, Derek! In Enabler's Corner, courtesy of Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade and Paula of Knitting Pipeline, I enable you to the Fish Lips Kiss Heel pattern. Let's get the Sox Therapist and her kids together for a big reunion. Breast cancer ain't fun. I am offering to gift a pattern to the first ten people that reply to the thread in the group on Ravelry. There are a pair of Edinburgh Yarn Festival tickets up for grabs in a giveaway on the Ravelry group. I'll be attending and taking part in the Podcast Lounge again. You can find all the details at www.edinyarnfest.com Wippin' Piccaddilly has Owligan by Kate Davies, Voodoo by Boo Knits and a pair of afterthought heel socks in yarn from The Golden Skein. Future knits are pretty much any hat by Clare Devine (Tea Collection) and Frisson by Brittany Wilson, available from Ravelry. Show notes are at www.shinybees.com Music for this episode is 'I Need a Drink' by Adam and the Walter Boys.  

Now that we’re a few weeks into 2016 we’re curious as to how you’re all doing with your resolutions or goals for this year. We’ve also been doing some thinking about our own plans for Yarn in the City this year and had our own thoughts that we wanted to share with you.  Shout outs:  C. C. from the Geeky Girls Podcast. The Dublin Brooks Hotel Knit Night, who introduced Alli to the beers of Galway Hooker. Best. Brewery. Name. Ever. What’s Happening:  30th January - Renée Callahan of East London Knit will be teaching Brioche Basics and Brioche Next Steps classes at A Yarn Story in Bath. 30th January - Woolly Wormhead is teaching two classes at Knit With Attitude, a Knitting in the Round Masterclass and her Turning Sideways class. 31st January - there is a Learn to Darn class happening at Wild & Woolly. Participants are encouraged to bring a woolen garment that needs mending and will learn both invisible and decorative techniques by a professional Japanese clothes mender.  4th-7th February – the annual French stitching show L’Aiguille en Fete takes place at the Porte de Versailles in Paris. This show is jammed with all kinds of inspiration! 5th – 7th February – Purlescence is hosting a weekender featuring the KNITSONIK Colourwork and Bespoke Yokes workshops with our good friends Felicity Ford and Brenda Dayne. If you missed Gwlana last fall, Felicity and Brenda are cramming their classes into two full days (and a Friday evening kick off) at Purlescence’s new location in Oxfordshire.   6th - 7th February – Rachel is teaching an Introduction to Drop Spindling and How to Knit a Sexy Sweater class at A Yarn Story.  10th February – It’s the next Late Night Knitty Lock-in of 2016 over at Wild & Woolly. Check out the details on their website.  13th - 14th February – Cécile Balladino is teaching her Eclectic Gipsyland crochet class at Loop. These are the same class but offered on two different days. The class will teach Cécile’s techniques for lace motifs, joining as you go, surface crochet and more. This is not a beginner’s class and you will be expected to already know how to crochet.  20th February – For those of you up north, Karie Westermann is teaching her Two-Handed Colourwork for Fair Isle and Nordic Style Colourwork class at Be Inspired Fibres in Edinburgh.   19th - 21st February – Unravel is happening at Farnham Maltings. We will be there with two stands – a joint Porpoise Fur/Yarn in the City stand where we will be debuting the London Craft Guide! We’ve just found out that our stand will be located in the Barley Room, so we do hope you’ll come and say hello!  26th - 28th February – Joeli’s Kitchen Retreat in Manchester. Featuring classes with Kate Atherley, Karie Westermann, Joeli and other great teachers, as well as a mini marketplace on the Sunday that will include Countess Ablaze.  Giveaway: Speaking of Unravel – we still have a pair of tickets to giveaway. To enter, leave a comment in the show notes for Episode 28 and let us know what you’re looking forward to seeing at the show. We’ll draw a name on February 1st and announce the winner on the first podcast episode in February. Contest note: this pair of tickets is for a single day’s entry to the show and does not include any travel to Farnham. Good luck!  Save the Date! We’ve finally figured out the date for this year’s Great London Yarn Crawl,which will be held on Saturday, 10th September. Mark the date in your calendars now and stay tuned for more details this spring!  What we’re working on: Rachel is working on a sample of the Waterloo Mitts, our pattern from the London Craft Guide, in Eden Cottage Yarns Whitfeld DK. She is also working up her Knit a Sexy Sweater class sample by knitting the Middlefield Pullover by Melissa LaBarre from New England Knits, in Elann Peruvian Highland Chunky. She's finished knitting her Dark & Stormy, but the buttons and grosgrain ribbon are still to be done. She's finished spinning for the first Unravel hat and is almost ready to cast on. The first stage of the project is in her Design Diaries segment on her blog. Allison has her first FO of 2016 off the needles – the Quaking Aspen shawl by Courtney Kelley. She’s also finished spinning some Porpoise Fur handspun from the Lab Goddess Fibre Club and is working it up into the Grown Up Booties by Ysolda. She is also almost finished with her She’s a Waterfall shawl by Dani Sunshine.  2016 - The Do-Over: After last episode’s chat about themes for the year and having a focus for this year, we decided that we wanted to come up for one for our year. There are already lot’s of things out about being creative this year, all of which are great. But we were wondering if there was something we could do that would tie in to what Yarn in the City is all about. We also wanted it to be something that anyone could take part in, no matter how big or small, and in whatever way felt right and personal to them.  We’ve been inspired by Calgary, Canada’s mayor Naheed Nenshi, who challenged his council and the citizens of Calgary to do Three Things for their community as a way to increase civic engagement (an overview here). The idea was simple: if there are over a million people in the city of Calgary and every person did three things to make the city better –image how amazing an already great city would be.  When we were thinking about what we wanted to focus on in 2016 we looked back to the things and themes that resonated with us last year. And they were stories of people within our yarn and fibre community doing great stuff that makes it better for everyone. Whether it’s people who are spreading the passion of wool like the Wovember team, or podcasters likeShinybees and Curious Handmade, who demonstrate than knitting podcasts can build community, or show organisers like Jo and Mica who saw a void in their own community and created the Edinburgh Yarn Festival to fill it.  As a community we’re sharing knowledge and learning from each other and asking questions. So this year we want to encourage you to do three things for the world wide yarn and fibre community. Think about what is important to you. Think about what you’re good at. Talk to your friends and figure out how you can make a difference, however small.  Then we’d like you to do those things, and tell us about them on a dedicated Three Things for the yarn and fibre community thread on our Ravelry board, or on our Facebook page. You can even tweet or Instagram at us. Use the hashtag#3thingsforyarnlove so we can see what you're up to and cheer you on! And once you've done three things, do three more, and three more, and three more... As always, please let us know what you think by tweeting, liking, or loving our posts when you see them go up on Twitter,Facebook and Instagram – or even better, leave a comment in the shownotes, post on our Ravelry board or send us an email at hello@yarninthecity.com.  You can find us on iTunes or Stitcher Radio (and please consider leaving a review for us!), or download us directly from the Yarn in the City website.   Our Knit Night is every Wednesday from 7:00pm to 10:00pm at The Goat on the Rise in Clapham Junction. We'd love to have you join us! Music credits (all available on NoiseTrade) Howlin' At Nothing (Live in Denver), S. O. B. - Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night SweatsBright Lights and Amplifiers - American OperaLove in the World - Devon Heath

Sponsor: I want to thank one of our sponsors for this week’s episode, Edinburgh Yarn Festival, Scotland’s biggest urban yarn event, taking place on the 17th, 18th and 19th of March 2016 in the beautiful World Heritage Site city of Edinburgh, where last year they welcomed 3500 festival visitors. Edinburgh is home to some amazing designers including Ysolda Teague, Gudrun Johnston, Emily Wessel of Tin Can Knits and Lucy Hague of Celtic Cables. There will be a thriving marketplace with yarns, notions and designers from all over the UK and further afield, many of them unique to Scotland or yarns spun from British breed sheep. A spacious knitter’s cafe will offer the opportunity to meet yarn and fibre enthusiasts around the world and some of the best international names in knitting and crochet will be giving workshops, and you can find the festival programme on the website this Friday, so keep an eye out. Visit edinyarnfest.com for all the festival details on workshops, classes, the Knitter’s party, the Podcast Lounge and more. You can also follow along on Instagram @edinyarnfest Fiber folk: Earlier this Spring I received a very endearing email from a woman named Emmaline, a 24 year old sheep farmer […]

KNITSONIK explores sounds recorded on her EDIROL R-09 (EDDIE) and describes designing stranded colourwork from this device. Also interviews from Edinburgh Yarn Festival and a new accordion song.

Polish deisgner Justyna Lorkowska is in the hotseat this week, chatting about her journey from private primary school teacher, through motherhood and into knitting designer. Designing under Lete's Knits, Justyna has a wide portfolio of patterns, from accessories to garments and for all age ranges, as well as a few for the men in your life (or yourself!). Majoring in chunky texture and cabled details, she's designed some of the  favourites of Ravelry, such as Alecia Beth, Alice in Wonderland and most recently, Florrick. She collaborated on a special edition kit for Edinburgh Yarn Festival, designing a shawl pattern, Aisling, for Eden Cottage Yarns. Shownotes as always are at www.shinybees.com Justyna can be found at www.letesknits.com Music for this episode is provided courtesy of Music Alley and is 'I Need a Drink' by Adam and the Walter Boys.

This week, I'm delighted to bring an interview with Stephen West of Westknits. I caught up with Stephen at Edinburgh Yarn Festival where he proclaimed brioche stitch to be the stitch of the year and indeed the new garter stitch, recounted fangirling Ysolda in the early days of his design career and declared Tosh Merino Light in Edison Bulb his Desert Island Skein. No swants were harmed in the making of this podcast. Shownotes for the episode are at www.shinybees.com. Music is provided via Music Alley by Adam and the Walter Boys with 'I Need A Drink'.

Shout outs:Many thanks to our sponsor, Tangled Yarn, who stock a wide range of gorgeous yarns, patterns and tools including Jamieson & Smith Jumper Weight and Supreme Jumper Weight. Both yarns are spun from 100% Real Shetland Wool and are perfect for Fair Isle and colourwork. Tangled Yarn also stock Felicity Ford's  KNITSONIK book.Tangled Yarn is offering Yarn in the City fans an exclusive 15% off Jamieson & Smith yarns until April 26th. Just use the discount code KNITSONIK at the checkout. What's going on:Ongoing: YitC Not-A-KAL KAL, in our Ravelry group. First round runs through 1 June.27-28th March: British Alpaca Futurity and P-Lush show in Coventry. Mmmm...alpaca!25-26th April: Wonderwool Wales, Builth Wells.9th May: Wharfe Wool Fair, Otley, near Leeds.15-16th May: I Knit Fandango, Royal Horticultural Halls, London. We will be there at the Porpoise Fur booth - come say hi!16-17th May: John Arbon Open Weekend, South Molton, Devon.23rd May: Highland Wool Festival, Dingwall Mart.25th May: The Shipston on Stour Wool Fair, Shipston on Stour, South Warwickshire30-31st May: Proper Woolley, Holsworthy, Devon.21 June: Muse Connection Vol. 2 (sadly sold out already!), and the YitC Team runs the Nike Women's 10K in Victoria Park - details on how to join us are here.In the works:Allison has started and finished a gorgeous Saguaro Hat (designed by fab GLYC Volunteer Renée Callahan, aka East London Knit), and is still plugging away on her Beeswax Hat by Amy van de Laar. She has gotten back to work on a fingerless glove project for the YitC Book too. Just look at those cacti! The Saguaro hat - pattern by Renée Callahan of East London Knit Rachel has not finished anything, but has lots of things newly started/in progress, including a Wool Eater Blanket by Sarah London that is completely addictive. She's also working on a new design project inspired by The Boat Race, and is blogging her design process - Installment 1 and Installment 2 of her Design Diaries are up for your perusal.Recaps and Reveals!Allison had a fabulous time at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, and managed to grab audio with some lovely people: Hamming it up with the lovely Karie Westermann - a really good sport about Alli's selfie-stick! John Arbon, from John Arbon Textiles in DevonKarie Westermann, knitwear designer extraordinaireJo, one of the co-organizers of EYF, who confirms that it's back on again for 2016. Hooray!!!!!On the Reveal side, we are thrilled to give you a preview of some of the vendors we will be welcoming to the Yarn in the City Pop Up Marketplace on 5th September 2015. They include:A Yarn StoryEden Cottage YarnsGinger Twist Studios John Arbon Textiles Kettle Yarn Co Knit With AttitudeLoopMidwinter YarnsOf Cabbages and Kings Pom Pom QuarterlySkein Queen The Fibre CoTextile GardenYAK / Yarn and KnittingYellow Bear WaresWe are thrilled to have them on board, and we look forward to being able to add even more awesome names to the list in the coming weeks!As always you can find us on Ravelry, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Please don't hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback with us, and please come say hi at any of the events we're attending if you get a chance!Music credits (all available on NoiseTrade)Loneliness & Alcohol - Jars of ClayEverything You've Done Wrong - SloanFierce Flawless - Ani DiFrancoLeave a Message - Rude King 

Pomcast gals talk to the yarn whisperer - also known as Clara Parkes! (apologies for the background noise during the interview). We also discuss Edinburgh Yarn Festival and Spring knits, amongst other things!

Episode Eleven of the Plutonium Muffins Podcast: Gamha updates you on all of my projects, my new fibre hobby and Edinburgh Yarn Festival! I am publishing this from the p-Lush British Design and Fibre Festival, so some of the images … Continue reading → The post Podcast Episode 11: Gamha appeared first on Plutonium Muffins.

KNITSONIK talks about raising silkworms for a Sonic Trail commissioned by TATE Modern in 2014. Includes munching silkworms and a rehearsal of the CaBAAret song for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival.

Edinburgh Yarn Festival is on the horizon and all of that wardrobe planning you did to make sure you were impeecable turned out in beautiful knitwear for the day should be upon you. And me. but it's not, because my knitting is not finished. Is yours? Don't worry if not, because in today's episode we discuss methods of overcoming your wardrobe malfunction in Enabler's Corner (warning: contains enabling).  The Sock Surgery returns with Kate and Clare, discussing what to do when you have finished those socks. The merits of blocking your socks and how to wash and care for them are important subjects to consider if you don't want all your hard work to go to waste! Full shownotes for this episode are available at www.shinybees.com.  

It's all about the socks this week. Clare and Kate return to discuss different methods for casting off top down socks as well as a brief overview of cast-offs for toe up socks. In Enablers' Corner, I announce a new, one-off collaboration between The Golden Skein and Edinburgh Yarn Festival. Based on the format of the Power of 3 Club, the Linne Foirthe (Firth of Forth) Club is a celebration of the Edinburgh Yarn Festival and the Scottish yarn scene. Edinburgh is home to an array of wonderful designers, dyers and yarn shops and the photo draws its inspiration from the iconic Forth Bridge, which is 125 years old this year. The club is on sale on 15th February 2015 at 1900 GMT at The Golden Skein website. On the sock front, Kate and Clare discuss casting off, with Kitchener Stitch and cinching of the toes being the two main methods of casting off a top down sock. Clare loves Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind off as her go-to for toe up socks. In the Agony Aunt section, Clare answers a question on using magic loop for two-at-a-time socks with a heelflap construction. Clare recommends a tutorial at knitbettersocks.com. Kate joins me in person to discuss how she has found her first month in the Sock Surgery and gives a precis of the Tarsi Grande pattern as well as the Hullabaloo yarn from The Golden Skein's winter 2014 club. Full shownotes for this episode are available at www.shinybees.com Music for this episode is courtesy of Music Alley and is Adam and the Walter Boys with 'I need a drink'.

Lots of Edinburgh Yarn Festival news this week for you and there's a pair of weekend tickets up for grabs for a lucky listener. The Podcast Lounge is shaping up to be a fun area to chill out over the weekend of 14-15 March 2015. Clare, Kate and I will be hosting a Sock Surgery drop on Saturday 14th. If you have any sock knitting woes, come and see us to get help with them! I'll be hosting an informal Q&A on the Sunday which is being referred to currently as 'Enterprise Enabling' to answer any questions you migth have about starting your own business. I'm a huge fan of enabling in all senses of the word and more than happy to share my experience with any of you. The Indie Burgh Yarn Crawl is back for its second year. Date for you diaries is 13 and 14 June 2015. Yarn And Knitting are opening their bricks and mortar shop in the North Laines in Brighton. Their Grand Opening party is Saturday 7 Feb, 2-6pm. In the Enablers' Corner, there are two new to me podcasts for you; Wooldiaries of South Africa and The Baarmygirls in the UK. Wippin' Piccadilly is back. There ahs been some casting on. Full shownotes are available at www.shinybees.com. Music for this episode is provided courtesy of Music Alley and Adam and the Walter Boys with "I need a drink".