Podcast appearances and mentions of john arbon

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 2, 2020 69:43

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 58 – Declutter, Destash & Simplify! My name is Fay and this is my audio and video podcast for those that love fibre crafts, particularly crochet. It’s a community for people that like to support their fellow humans regardless of race, gender, sexuality, ability, size or age. I hope you feel the welcome embrace and love of the Crochet Clan. Come on in and stay awhile. In this episode, I cover: Old Dog New Tricks; Yarn Review; Final Destination; En Route; feeding the Habit; Quick News Beats and J’adore. This podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co. Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, Amazon, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile. If you would like to support the podcast, you can do that through Patreon: 1 – Old Dog New Tricks I have been having a good old sort out these last few weeks. One of the rooms to be sorted was my Stash Palace… It is the smallest room in our house but it is absolutely crammed full of all my crafting materials and equipment. These have mainly been collected in the last six years and my tastes have changed. They haven’t changed drastically ‘cause British breeds and proper woolly wool have always been part of my crafting DNA, but I have things in my stash that I know I’m never going to use. If you are in a similar position, the chances are that you have spent hard-earned money on those items and you would quite like to get some value back for them. So here are some ways that you can deal with your stash based on three levels of stash love: 1 – You bought it/were given it and you aren’t that fussed about trying to get money back for it. This is ideal for passing on to charity shops. All of my local ones love having crafting things passed to them so long as they are good quality. They don’t want ratty balls of tangled yarn. They may also be interested in partial projects, so long as the pattern/instructions are in the bundle and ideally the equipment required too. I have also just passed a load of my commercial wool onto a friend. Her daughter crochets blankets for charity and is going to make good use of that bag of yarn to help keep someone warm in Manchester. 2 – You want to at least try to get some value from these mid-range items if you can. This is the kind of thing that I try to sell on Ebay. Lots of commercial yarn is sold on Ebay and it’s a great platform for selling it on because the chances are that the buyer already has a knowledge of that yarn brand, so have the confidence to buy from that platform. 3 – These stash babies can’t be given away, you really need to try to recoup some of the money you spent on them. This is the level where you are best off going to a specific platform to sell it. Whilst I see more hand-dyed skeins of yarn appearing on Ebay, I still think that Instagram or Facebook Groups are a better option for resale. If you have a large enough following, doing a destash on stories can be a great way of selling your unwanted yarn and equipment. Your other option is to join some of the many Facebook groups for reselling yarn. They can be country-specific, so if you don’t want to pay high postage costs, try to find a group in your country. I am a member of the Yarn Snobs – hand-dyed yarns FSOT group on Facebook. It is mainly made up of UK folk and it’s easy to work out whether the yarn is available from the UK or elsewhere. In non-COVID times, I would also recommend hosting a yarn swap at your local crafting group. I usually hold one twice a year at Woolgathering Sandbach and it gives you the chance to refresh what is in your stash without spending a penny. Having sorted through all of my stash in the last few days and moved a lot of it into the three categories above, I feel a lot better. The sheer amount of ‘stuff’ was weighing heavy. To be fair, we have been decluttering the entire house and so unless an item is useful, beautiful, or sentimental, it has been moved on to a new home and it feels REALLY good. So on that note, I will be having a bit of a destash sale on Instagram on Sunday the 4th October. I will be listing books, yarn and material, so if you fancy seeing what is on offer, come and see from 12pm onwards (BST). 2 – Yarn Review The good folks at John Arbon asked if I wanted to have a play with their new Alpaca Supreme yarn. It has been given a bit of an update with some delicate new colours to complement the existing neutral palette. I’m on a bit of an alpaca kick at the moment and so it was an obvious yes, please! I asked Sonja to surprise me with the colour and I’m very pleased that she sent me Morganite. It’s a proper dusky, old rose pink. I’m not a massive pink fan, but this has such a lovely vintage vibe to it and I love it. The blend is 40% Superfine Alpaca (UK grown), 40% Organic Falklands Merino and 20% A1 Mulberry Silk. Alpaca fibre is generally graded into six different categories and depending on which website you are looking at, Superfine Alpaca is either grade 2 or 3, so right up there at the lux end. Here is a link to the suggested six grades for alpaca fibre (link). A1 Mulberry Silk is basically the highest quality you can get for yarn. Mulberry has an extremely high lustre to it and the A1 refers to the fibre length and lack of neps from the cocoon. If you have ever used their Knit By Numbers, you already know how gloriously soft their Organic Falklands Merino is. I am crocheting up a Positivity Spiral with this skein and it is super soft and luxurious to work with. I’m using a 3.75mm hook and the fabric I am getting has a gorgeous drape and a fluidity to it. I actually keep stroking my face with it, it’s that soft. If you are after a really special skein of yarn for a project then I thoroughly recommend Alpaca Supreme. It’s sportweight/heavy 4 ply, so 333m per 100g. That’s enough to make a one skein shawl with, or a hat or mittens. It would also make a really beautiful shawl. I want to make mittens, a hat, bed socks and a drapey cropped cardigan with this yarn. All the lux things. Here are my five words for Alpaca Supreme: lux, shiny, delicate, super-soft & drapey 3 – Final Destination I have a few finished bits this month. First up is my Encanto Not Wrap. I used Claudia’s Encanto Wrap pattern (link) to create a cowl and since I finished it, I have barely taken it off. I used some gorgeously soft Brenel Alpacas 100% alpaca yarn (link) that I bought in a yarn shop in Aukland, New Zealand. Claudia’s pattern is fab and it’s really easy to make it bigger or smaller, depending on what you want to make and how much yarn you have. I also had two designs in Inside Crochet this month. The Jewel Office Set is made from Erika Knight Gossypium Cotton (DK) and has a pattern for a desk tidy, coaster, pen pot and set of three bowls. It’s made with a mixture of intarsia and tapestry crochet. Photo from Inside Crochet My final finished object is called the Igam Wrap. It’s made with naturally dyed yarn from Helen of Nellie and Eve (link). Helen lives on the side of a mountain in Wales and forages locally for the plant items she uses as dye stock and even uses mountain spring water for dyeing with. She has a lovely Instagram account (link) if you fancy getting to know a bit more about her natural dyeing process. Photo from Inside Crochet The wrap is sized from a small to a 5XL and the size I’m showing used just under 200g of 4 ply (400m/100g) yarn. It’s a blend of 75% Bluefaced Leicester and 25% Masham. The colour is called Juniper and it’s a beautifully soft, blue/steel grey colour. What I really love about this wrap is how versatile it is. It has a double button band so that it can be worn as a cowl, wrap, poncho or twisted wrap. I also have a pair of knitted socks. I really lost my crafting mojo for a few days. It’s unusual for me to not pick up a hook, needles or thread at some point every day and after six days of no crafting passed, I knew it was time to kickstart it somehow. Off to my Stash Palace I popped and found my already caked Indian Giant Squirrel by RiverKnits. This yarn has all of the autumnal colours in one and it was just what I needed to get my mojo back. I knitted my good old plain socks so that the yarn wasn’t competing with a pattern. They make me smile and they brought my mojo back. 4 – En Route This is a bit of a cheaty one because I haven’t actually started the project yet, but I have printed off the pattern and chosen my wool. I’m going to crochet the Colour Pop Sweater by Julme Conradie (link) who is on Instagram as @mysquarehat (link). I really love Julme’s designs and her pattern writing is good. I have 4 skeins of DK variegated yarn that I want to use as a mirrored fade front and back and because this design is worked vertically from side to side it will work a treat with my yarn choice. It’s also in linen stitch which I love. After finishing my Esja Sweater, I swore to never do another long jumper that had a horizontal linen stitch body because I don’t think it has enough integral structure to it for the weight of the yarn. My suspicion is that a vertical stitched, cropped version will be fine, and we are going to find out aren’t we! One of the beauties of side to side vertical construction is that I can put colours that I wouldn’t want right at my face, into the arms instead. I have a deep orange/red that I wouldn’t normally wear in a jumper. I love the colour, I just don’t think it does anything with my pink complexion. The other thing to say about the Pop Colour Sweater is that of course, I am going to fiddle with it. I’m going to knit the ribbing rather than crochet it, which means adding all of it at the end and therefore playing around with the pattern a little. You would expect nothing less of me! So, more actual progress on that jumper next month. Even though it’s DK, there is no way it will be finished. 4 – Feeding the Habit I am fresh back from a lovely weekend away with a couple of my yarny friends. We couldn’t get our money back for our Yarndale weekend, so still went to Skipton and had a weekend of watching movies, eating good food and crafting. We took along yarn that we didn’t want anymore and swapped with each other for things we would use. So, I have three new skeins of yarn in my stash that I didn’t really pay for and have decluttered some of the yarn that I know I won’t use. Result! The yarns are John Arbon Textiles Exmoor Zwartbles in a DK (link), Lain 'Amouree 100% Merino (link) and a skein of unknown goodness! 5 – Quick News Beats 1 - Global Hook Up – The October hook ups are on: Saturday 17th at 8pm BST and Sunday 18th at 9am BST. The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here: https://www.zoom.us/join if a password is required, it is WOOL. If you are joining on your phone or tablet you will likely need to download the software in advance. If you are joining from a PC or Mac, you can join via the link above. Everyone needs to use the same ID number to get into the session. 2 – A group of amazing crocheters and I are part of a Vogue Knitting Live panel on the 8th October called “Crochet in the UK”. It’s part of Vogue Knitting Live form the 8th – 11th October (link). We will be chatting for an hour about how the UK is pushing crochet forward and hopefully showing off contemporary crochet and why it isn’t second fiddle and deserves its own seat at the crafting table. As I get more details on how to join, I will add them to the show notes and get them out on Instagram. All of this is being pushed by Claudia from Crochet Luna podcast. The panel was her idea and she has brought together a fabulous group to represent the UK crochet scene. 3 – Somebody got in touch to say that they were having issues getting into my project notes in Evernote. If anyone else has had issues can you please let me know? Equally, if you managed to get into the notes can you let me know? 4 – Thank you, thank you, thank you for supporting me on Patreon. I cannot tell you what a difference it makes to me and my ability to deliver this podcast. If you want to investigate becoming a Patron, you can see what it means via this link. 5 – Just a bit of a heads up that I may not be around much this coming month. Have no fear, I will be back next month but it may be a bit of an amalgamation podcast as I am going to have to record bits and pieces as I can throughout the month. There is rather a lot going on at Chez Dashper-Hughes at the moment, so I am going to have to squeeze things in when I can. 6 – J’adore I have a new to me podcast to recommend for you today and it isn’t specifically about crochet, but there is a connection. I am really interested in where my food and resources come from, how it is produced and the people behind the production. I should imagine that is fairly obvious from this podcast. Through my friend and stockist Maria or Dodgson Wood, I came across an audio podcast called Rock and Roll Farming (link). Will is a beef, arable and egg farmer in North Wales and has been delivering a weekly podcast since April 2017, with well over 100 episodes to listen to. I know this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but here in the UK, small scale farming is integral to our landscape, food chain and textiles industry and Will offers a broad overview of the UK farming scene through his podcast. I promised you will be interested in some if not all of it. If you want to dip your toe in gently, start with the Herdy Shepherd interviews (part 1 & part 2). If you were ever of the opinion that farmers and agrics weren’t impressive folk, think again. I’ll be back on 6th November in some form or not – possibly a hologram. Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast Instagram: provenance.craft.co Instagram: FayDHDesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite

Episode 55 - Harder than you think

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 5, 2020 51:26

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 55 – Harder Than you Think. My name is Fay and this is my audio and video podcast for those that love fibre crafts, particularly crochet. It’s a community for people that like to support their fellow humans regardless of race, gender, sexuality, ability, size or age. I hope you feel the welcome embrace and love of the Crochet Clan. Come on in and stay awhile. In this episode, I cover: Old Dog New Tricks; Final Destination; En Route; Designs in Progress; Quick News Beats; Big Up and J'adore. This podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co. Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile. If you would like to support the podcast, you can do that through Patreon: 1 – General Update I am stood at my desk as I type this and it’s really difficult to find the ‘right’ words. I’m not even sure there are ‘right’ words. The world seems to be on fire. People are being killed, simply because of their skin colour. This episode was nearly called “Inconsequential” because that is how I felt about podcasting over the last few days – who cares about a crochet podcast when people are being killed, simply because of their skin colour. This crochet podcast is also a platform for morals, beliefs, community and showing solidarity. So, instead, it is called “Harder Than You Think”. Besides being the title for my favourite Public Enemy song (because it has lyrics that speak volumes to me (link)), it is also a reminder that life is harder than you think. It’s particularly hard on people that face oppression, brutality, racism and inequality on a daily basis. That is what hard looks like. So, if you want to be part of the change, to support your fellow humans then know that there is hard work ahead and it will be harder than you think. You will most likely take a step back at some point and think about your former actions and words and feel disgusted with yourself for not having done better. You will make mistakes that you can learn from. I put three actions on Instagram (link). Three simple things that can be your starting point if you are now ready to be part of the change: 1 – Listen to the experiences of others and get angry about the injustices that they are made to suffer day after day and do something positive with that anger without being performative or centring it around you. 2 – Talk to your friends and family about diversity and inclusivity. Keep having the conversations. Keep pushing for solidarity over oppression. 3 – Your money makes a difference. Donate money to organisations that make a difference such as ROTA in the UK (link) or National Bail Out in the US (link). These are just two examples, there are many great organisations out there that you can donate to. Let’s be part of the change. Complacency is not an option. 2 – Old Dog New Tricks I just have a quick one for you this month because time is utterly against me this week. You may have the same issues I have when I go above a 5.5mm crochet hook. I find that the hook gets too heavy and it can be difficult to manoeuvre and ultimately make your hands or wrist hurt. I have some large plastic hooks in my hook case but I really don’t enjoy working with them and I find it difficult to get my tension right. Instead, have a try with bamboo hooks. They are lightweight, slippy enough to tension with and I find them comfortable to work with. So, if you have previously been put off working on larger gauge projects because of the hooks you, why not try a bamboo. 3 – Final Destination I have finished things! Scrapvent Blanket is finished and I love it! I’ll be writing up this pattern shortly. My lovely friend Bec is working up a DK version with an advent yarn calendar she got last year. I have never been that fussed about crocheting blankets, but I think the flood gates may have been opened. I definitely prefer thin fabric without holes. Image text: The left side of my bone coloured linen sofa has blue cushions and my Scravent Blanket draped over the arm. A medley of 24 different coloured yarns with a peachy cream border. Matthew called my Scrapvent Blanket “fugly” – how rude! So, to get my revenge I used loads of the yarns craps from the blanket in a pair of Fugly Socks that he has to wear. The truth is that I didn’t want to add a load of little yarn scraps back into my stash and I used up all the remnants of nine of my blanket colours in his socks. I will use some of the other scraps to also make myself a pair of Fugly Socks. Image text: A pair of scrappy, hand-knitted socks in stripes of forest green, acid green, teal, navy, grey and aqua. The socks are placed on bone coloured linen sofa seat pad. Last month I showed off some slubby/thick and thin yarn that my friend Claudia sent me from Germany. I crocheted it into a cushion cover using a 10mm (bamboo) hook and linen stitch. I chose linen stitch because it makes a nice flat fabric which has a decent amount of stretch which you need in a cushion cover. Eventually, the cushion will go into my Stash Palace, but for now, Matthew is using it on his stool when her delivers training. Who knew that metals stool seats aren’t that comfortable?!? Image text: A close up of my bone coloured linen sofa has blue cushions and my new slubby crocheted cushion cover at the front. It has a light sky blue, olive green, spring green and white running through it and is nobbly because of the slubby yarn. I have also been trying out wood whittling, and I love it. I have concentrated on shawl sticks so far. Image text: Five hand whittled shawl sticks are placed on bone coloured linen sofa seat pad. The sticks have a skeletal quality about them because of the blonde wood and finger-like quality of their shape. 4 – En Route It is time to think about crocheting summer tops! This has been on my to-do list for weeks now and I finally found time at the weekend to search for the right top. I was specifically looking for a top that had been designed by a BIPOC/BAME designer and was size-inclusive (up to a 60” bust). So, where do you start? Well, you go to the BIPOC in Fiber website (link) because it is an amazing resource that is easy to navigate and gives the details and links of BIPOC/BAME in all sorts of categories such as crochet designers, hand-knit designers, yarn retailers, photographers, podcasters – basically every element of our fibre community is covered and categorised, ready for you to search. There were three pages of crochet designers for me to go to and they all link to website or Ravelry pages where I could see their full designs line-up. Because I was looking for a size-inclusive garment, that narrowed the field but I enjoyed going through all of the designer profiles, many of which I was familiar with because of the work that Claudia from Crochet Luna vlog cast had been doing. So, I settled on the Zig-Zag-Zummer top (link) by Sandra at Nomad Stitches (link). You definitely will have seen Sandra’s work before. She is the designer behind the Taroko and Aztec Sweaters. Image text: 1 - Boen coloured linen seat pad with a ball of olive green yarn to the right, the very beginnings of a top and an orange crochet hook. The yarn has a sheen to it because it is pure linen. Image 2 - White wall with Sandra's torso showing. She is wearing her Zi-Zag-Zummer crocheted top which has filet zig zags at the bottom, working up to a plain v-neck top. The top is a mid-dusky rose pink. Image text: Dusky pink background with a white polaroid cut out and Sandra from Nomad Stitches as he photo held up with clear washi tape. Sandra has mid-length brown hair and is wearing a crocheted top with love hearts at the bottom. She is also wearing a big smile. I plan on using my Rowan Pure Linen stash which is 130m/50g because it will ake for a nice cool summer top. I haven’t really made much progress on the top because life, but have a deadline of the 1st July because I am joining in the @promised.fiber (link) Make IT Inclusive MAL (link). If you fancy joining in too, it is open to crocheters, knitters and sewers. Wouldn’t it be amazing if lots of Crochet Clan people searched out a BIPOC/BAME designer from the BIPOC in Fiber website and joined in? I also wanted to highlight a couple of other sources: 1 – Lisa (LisaRaspCrochet on Ravelry) has made a bundle which has 133 different size-inclusive garments. 2 – Yelley (Yelley on Ravelry) also has a bundle with 158 size-inclusive crocheted garments. Find the person on Ravelry, click onto their favourites and then you can search their ‘bundles’. 5 – Designs in Progress I have finished all of my Positivity Spiral samples and have updated the pattern. If you have already bought it or buy it in the future, it now gives options form heavy laceweight up to bulky/chunky weight. I have added in estimated circumference and depth measurements so that you can choose how many stitch repeats you do to get the measurements you want. The updated version will be going out next week. I also have the rights back for Omni and that has already been uploaded onto my website and Ravelry. Again, that works in all weights between heavy laceweight and aran/worsted. 6 – Feeding the Habit There is no Feeding the Habit this month. I have been buying sewing books, but no yarn. This will not last for long because this weekend is the John Arbon Textiles Mill Open Weekend. I should have been vending and instead, we are doing it all virtually from Friday through to Sunday. I know I am going to buy yarn. Especially because I got to design my own colour. More on that in J’adore. As part of the Virtual Mill Open Weekend, we are having an online crafting session – much like the Global Hook Up. Do come and join us on Sunday 7th June at 2pm on Zoom (same joining details as below for Global Hook Ups). It will be some of the Mill Folk form John Arbon, Katie Green, me and hopefully, lost of friendly faces joining us. 7 – Quick News Beats 1 - Global Hook Up – The June hook ups are on: Saturday 27th at 8pm BST and Sunday 28th at 9am BST. The meeting ID number is 475-047-5819 and you will need to join via Zoom which you can do here: https://www.zoom.us/join If you are joining on your phone or tablet you will likely need to download the software in advance. If you are joining from a PC or Mac, you can join via the link above. Everyone needs to use the same ID number to get into the session. 2 – Lots of yarn shows are moving to virtual events. Obviously it is nice to meet face to face, but the beauty of a virtual event is that you can o to ones that were previously out of your reach. Look out for Woolfest, Yarndale and others in the UK. 8 - Big Up This one has to go out to the BIPOC in Fiber team. The website that has been created is a wonderful resource. You may not be aware, but the person behind the website development is actually Alyson from the Keep Calm and Carry Yarn podcast. Alyson has and continues to do an amazing job on the site. 7 – J’adore My love affair with John Arbon Textiles continues. When I first started crocheting and getting into really lovely wool and yarns, I dreamt about having my own yarn colours. I was asked to design my own for the Virtual Mill Open Weekend in their Yarnadelic range which is my current favourite wool of theirs. Image text: Image split into two but features the same yarn, Another Friday Night. The yarn is dark, dusky blue with slivers of silver through it. It’s like the night sky when the starts just start twinkling but not all the light has disappeared. In the left picture, skeins of the yarn are on a table with a chair tucked underneath. On the right, the yarn is wound on colourful plastic cones and bundled inside a large white industrial bag. Obviously, I was tempted to do a mustard but they already have an amazing mustard in that range. Instead, I went for a dark, dusky blue with slivers of silver through it. It’s like the night sky when the starts just start twinkling but not all the light has disappeared. I LOVE IT. If you want some too, be quick (link). I’ll be back on the 3rd July. Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast Instagram: provenance.craft.co Instagram: FayDHDesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite

spotify uk talk germany zoom progress pc mac id stitcher habit feeding harder bipoc designs podbean complacency fiber public enemies keep calm dk final destination omni bec rota en route bst dusky i love it big up ravelry old dog new tricks inconsequential katie green boen yarndale woolfest john arbon carry yarn

Curly-Headed Fish Hoovers

Planet Pod's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 28, 2020 41:34

Lost to the UK since Roman times, according to Ben Macdonald - conservation writer, field director in wildlife television and keen naturalist - the enormous Dalmatian pelican might once again be spotted (no pun intended) gliding across our marshes and wetlands. Along with John Arbon from WWT's Barnes Wetland Centre, Ben describes the dramatic decline of the bird population in the UK over the past 2000 years and the hopes for the future rebirding of the country. Pockets of diverse wildlife as seen on John's patch at Barnes could spread and be re-established. Not a flight of fancy but an exciting, realisable vision. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

uk lost fish barnes headed pockets curly dalmatian wwt hoovers ben macdonald john arbon

Episode 92: GLYC 2019 Done and Dusted

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 24, 2019 47:06

News & Announcements Allison is now a British citizen! And she has a new job! She is now the Events Coordinator – Craft for Farnham Maltings, the home of Unravel. She’s also putting on Make Joy, a one day celebration of yarn and friendship, happening at Baden Powell House in central London near the Natural History Museum on Sunday, 3 November. Tickets are now on sale! Rachel also has a new job! But thankfully she’s working from home so she can knit on client calls without anyone looking at her strangely. Win, win. What we’re working on Allison has been doing a little bit of Porpoise Fur spinning on her new wheel. She’s also working on a super secret uber chunky project to be revealed later in the year, and is knitting some Mercury socks by Kim Drotar (a free pattern on Rav) from the Urth yarn she got from Rachel for her birthday. Rachel – finished one Ripple Bralette by Jessie Mae Martinson for eldest daughter in Dusty Dimples sock yarn in Pretty Poisons, and started another for youngest daughter in Qing Fibre BFL fingering. As a new crochet project, she started the Fern shawl by Jan Power (another free pattern on Ravelry - thank you!) But most importantly, she finally got into her Electric Eel Wheel Nano and has spun up the singles of three bumps of fibre she bought from John Arbon that is destined to be an Odyssey Shawl by Joji Locatelli. Great London Yarn Crawl 2019 – recap and door prizes! The year’s new format for the GLYC seems to have been a fantastic success! Thank you for all you feedback, and as always we’d love to hear your thoughts - use the contact us link at the bottom of the page to give us your feedback, good and bad. And now for the door prizes: Loop’s door prize of 4 skeins of BC Garn in blues and a tote bag were won by Dorothea Tilroe. Tribe sent a tote bag stuff with a giant needle and swatch gauge, a skein of Urth yarn Monochrome, a skein of Bear in Sheeps Clothing fingering, and a Tribe enamel pin. These are finding a good home with Anne Cunningham. Mahliqa: the first prize Swarovski crystal earrings with pompoms and bag goes to Sophie McKane, with a second prize of a necklace and set of stitch markers in the EYF special colourways (collaboration with Countess Ablaze) and Mahliqa bag are headed to Nicole Stanley. A copy of the wonderful This Golden Fleece by Esther Rutter will be enlightening Rhona Johnstone. Grand prize for those who visited all 13 shops! Goodies form Loop, Mahliqa and SweetGeorgia Yarns – a skein of Shalimar (70% sw merino/20% kid mohair/10% silk) and Loop tote bag, SGY Tough Love Sock in Smitten, and set of Swarovski stitch markers and bag from Maliqa go to Sue Smith. We’ve also crunched our numbers and are proud to say that this year’s GLYC raised almost £900 for Refuge - thank you all so much!!!! *** 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) A Good Reason To Smile - Chasing Noise

music british wrap bear tribe mercury loop refuge unravel goodies natural history museum rav smitten swarovski dusted monochrome ravelry shalimar sue smith urth joji locatelli eyf sweet georgia yarns anne cunningham john arbon countess ablaze pretty poisons battersea rise

Episode 44 - Go Garment Go

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 5, 2019 66:17

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

spotify passion zoom reading japanese bear pc mac id bernie sanders stitcher sheep dublin feeding iceland clothing northern ireland belfast podbean mitt romney dk final destination whitehead garment yarn en route fo blurred lines alpaca lake district cumbria old dog papa bear marce marceline ravelry wips stasia sulk mohair russet blue spruce lake windermere perth festival corriedale edinburgh yarn festival john arbon woolfest woollinn

Episode 41 - Three Years Old

The Bakery Bears Video Show

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 5, 2019 87:21

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

spotify australia lost talk british zoom diversity dad progress scotland rain barcelona inclusion designers stitcher bottom feeding cocktails ko isle designs nic years old podbean tasmania mitt romney pp dk kirsty final destination en route jamieson merino north wales alpaca shetland la bella fingering c2c striped ben nevis becci exmoor llandudno before christmas fair isle salt pepper katie green modelled meadowsweet drucilla new it dark stormy caking edinburgh yarn festival eyf john arbon wonderwool wales

Episode 108 - Part 2

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 14, 2018 57:55

Welcome to Episode 108 Part 2 of ‘The Bakery Bears'. Join us in this episode for: - “Whats on YOUR needles” http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/bakery-bears-podcast/2955474/976-1000#994 Kay was knitting : Anguli Cowl https://www.ravelry.com/projects/bryonybear/anguli-cowl Kay is using yarn from John Arbon https://www.jarbon.com Watch Kay's ‘Ball Winding' tutorial here https://www.patreon.com/posts/tutorial-special-21202061 - “Mr Gascoignes Penguins” - Part 1 Lotherton Hall https://www.leeds.gov.uk/museumsandgalleries/visit/lotherton-hall Watch Rachel McGlone's podcast here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcDQvZEA7Og Dan mentioned these books for more on the Wars of the Roses https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/book-talk/wars-of-the-roses-series/ - “Whats OFF your needles” http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-bakery-bears/2955477/1976-2000#1991 Twister Hat https://www.ravelry.com/projects/bryonybear/the-twister-no-2 Complete Platinum Collection is available to Gold & Platinum Podcast Patrons here https://www.patreon.com/posts/mon-ami-pattern-21241602 9 3/4 socks https://www.ravelry.com/projects/bryonybear/9-3-4-socks - “Mr Gascoignes Penguins” - Part 2 Watch the Gold Edition of the show here : https://www.patreon.com/posts/21375171 Watch our last Gold Pudding Club here : https://www.patreon.com/posts/gold-edition-7-21067696 - “Endy Bits!” Promenade Socks & Summer of Sorcery KAL prize draw! Philosophers Cowl https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-philosophers-cowl Join in the Philosophers Cowl KAL here https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-bakery-bears/3823451/1-25 Climb Every Mountain Patron Knitters join in here https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-bakery-bears/3719151/1-25 Any runner or walker can join in here https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-bakery-bears/3719202/1-25#25 Fondant Fibre is BACK https://www.fondantfibre.com Join in with the Miss Potter Sock Club here https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-bakery-bears/3829832/1-25 To subscribe to our complete content - Including a subscription to our electronic magazine Knitability, exclusive patterns, over 200 tutorials, a monthly live Patron only show, Cooking the World videos, Knit Along with Kay videos and access to our online community, visit our Patreon Page : http://www.patreon.com/bakerybearspodcast Remember to come and join our Podcast group on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/groups/bakery-bears-podcast All Kay's patterns can be purchased from here: http://www.ravelry.com/designers/kay-f-jones Thank you so much for watching and see you in two weeks for Episode 109. We will be ending the first season of ‘The Bakery Bears Pudding Club' in truly grand style…. New viewers looking for our past episodes will find our 2017 shows here : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQba2hg0pp7zuSsq-tKtEZwy8gLdbvXv0 & 2014-2016 shows here : http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQba2hg0pp7zVuyqtpxNHbUon4vscZ_gA Follow the presenters on Ravelry - ObiwanKnitter & Bryonybear Or on Instagram - Obiwanknitter & Bryonybears

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Episode 31 - Moth + Hoover = TROUBLE

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 6, 2018 80:27

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 31 – Moth + Hoover = TROUBLE In this episode I cover: Old dog, new tricks; 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 – Old dog, new tricks If you have lots of ends to weave in and some of your yarn tails are beside each other, why not use a large tapestry needle, thread the two ends into the needle and weave them in at the same time? This will save a lot of time, so long as it doesn’t create too much bulk in those parts of your project. My second Old dog, new tricks is all about the dratted moth. If you think you have clothes or carpet moths (they both eat fibres) in your house, deal with swiftly and effectively. Nobody wants to go into their stash to find that moths have decimated it. Here are some helpful articles/blogs on dealing with moths, including one from yours truly: Vogue article on moths in your wardrobe Country Living Article KNIT IT – HOOK IT – CRAFT IT blog post on moths and your stash I would also add that if you buy yarn from a shop, online wholesaler or yarn show, you should check through it to make sure there are no moth eggs. If you want to be very cautionary, pop any new yarn into a freezer bag before you bring it into the house. Leave it in the freezer for 48 hours to kill off any moths or larvae. I would rather take this action than have moths rampaging through my sizable (and named on our home insurance policy), lovingly curated stash. 2 - CALs #SummerTopsCAL – goes on until the 22nd July. WIPs and double-dips are welcome and it doesn’t have to be a summer top, it can be a woolly jumper if you prefer. I don’t care how you craft it. Weave, knit, crochet embroider – I just want people to craft and be happy. Here are the prizes that you can win: 1 - Leather hook case by Nu Shearman, stitch markers by Lisa and a Liberty notebook. 2 – 6 x 50g of Erika Knight Gossypium cotton (enough to make a summer top), stitch markers by Lisa and a Liberty notebook. One of our Crochet Clan, Sharon has also released a pattern. It’s called the No Sew Mimosa Kimono and she is offering all of you a 15% discount via Ravlery. Just type in SUMMERTOPCAL at the checkout. It’s valid until the end of July 2018. One of the patterns is also up for grabs this month. All you need to do is add a comment in the YouTube comments below or in the comment box at the bottom of the show notes in Podbean. I will then pick a winner at random at the end of July. If you have been admiring and waiting for Rowan to rerelease the Liala top that I did over a year ago, the link is now back on Ravelry! The power of positive persuasion definitely worked. #Loftalong – I promised you a Loftalong a couple of podcasts back. Sonja from John Arbon Textiles and I have been plotting behind the scenes and it is all starting on the 13th July. It’s one that I am going to run through my Instagram feed @FayDHDesigns rather than through the podcast. Use #Loftalong for your WIPs and #LoftalongFO for your FOs. If you have already made a Loft (knitted or crocheted) then you can pop it straight under that # on Instagram and be in with a chance of winning prizes. So, it doesn’t matter if you haven’t started yet or you have already finished, you can all get in on the Loftalong action. If you are planning on making one with John Arbon Textiles Knit by Numbers then they are kindly offering a 10% discount on three skeins of their KBN 4 ply. Simply use the discount code LOFTALONG2018 at the checkout. The code is valid until the end of August so even if you aren’t going to start until later, you can still get the discount. There will be prizes too. There’s the woolly kind that can be won by entering with a Loft made from John Arbon Textiles wool and there’s the bespoke tweed bag kind for any Lofts that haven’t been made with John Arbon wool. There will also be some runner up pattern prizes. Both the crocheted and the knitted patterns are both on Ravelry now. 3 – Final Destination I feel like I have managed to do some proper crafting this month. Yay! On the way up to Ben Nevis to start the Three Peaks Challenge, I managed to finish off a pair of socks for my nephew, Lewis. The delight on his face when he actually felt how good handmade knitted socks were. He’s a convert. Yarn: Regia 4 ply (75% wool, 25% polyamide) 50g/210m Shade 04930 Given that I have had HOURS sitting in our car during the course of June, I managed to crack through my Stoborough shawl by Sarah Hazell. I used 3 skeins of a skinny Merino (single ply with not too much twist) that I had dyed. The lightest skein was with an alum mordant and birch bark; the next one was alum mordant with birch bark and an iron modifier (intensifies the colour) and the final one was an alum mordant with an oak gall and an iron modifier. If you haven’t tried a skinny single Merino before, give it a go. It crochets up beautifully and you can get a really nice stitch definition with it. Lots of indie dyers use it as a yarn base. I also sprinted through my first #SummerTopCAL entry – Summer Road Trip Top by Kraftling. I really like the simplicity of this top. It is just two straight panels with no shaping. Yarn: Rowan Creative Linen (DK) 100g/200m in shade Teal Stoborough and the top have both been loaded onto Ravelry as projects, just look me up under MaDashper. I have been working on other things too, and you can see them in Episode 32 – Summer Shenanigans (Part 1). 4 – En Route Although I want to hook on ALL THE THINGS, I have remembered recently that I do better when I have fewer projects on the go. My mind is less cluttered and I don’t feel like things are being neglected. So, although there are MANY CALs that I want to enter, I am going to behave and finish off this project before I start anything else. I am working on my second top for the #SummerTopCAL. It’s the Verity Top by the lovely Dawn at The Almond Snug. I saw a version of it in my friend Anna’s feed and immediately it popped to the front of my crocheted garment queue. I am doing mine in a wool/nylon blend so it will look different from the one shown here. When I went stash diving for the pattern, I just happened to have only three skeins of yarn that were the right weight (sport weight) for the pattern and they were in the right combination (2 of the same and one contrast). It was meant to be. Yarn: Aruancania Ranco (75% Merino, 25% polyamide) 100g/344m This yarn is now discontinued. 5 – Designs in progress It has been a bumper month on this front. Today I get to announce that the Stiallach Collection has gone live and that as eluded to last month, you can all download it for free as this year’s birthday pattern. It’s a collection of four purses and two bags all based on the same central striped theme. As ever, there is a YouTube tutorial to help you get to grips with the techniques. So, this is free to download between the 6th and 13th July 2018. Go to Ravelry, click on ‘Stiallach Collection’ pattern and at the checkout, simply enter the code ‘BIRTHDAY’ into the discount box and it will be added to your library. There will be a UK and a US terminology pattern available. I feel the need to leave intarsia crochet alone for a while now. Not too long though. Obviously. My next rabbit holes I am likely to drop down are slip stitch crochet designs and perfecting patterns in tapestry crochet. I am trying to use this summer to get ahead of my designs and products. All of you lovely people that signed up to be testers and product reviewers and signed the NDA, you will hear from me in the coming weeks. 6 – Feeding the habit So, I went to Woolfest at the end of June and obviously, I bought yarn and caught up with friends (go to Episode 32 – Summer Shenanigans to see more on that). Then a day later, I found myself in a lovely wee yarn shop in Pittenweem, Fife, Scotland and may have bought some more. 1 – Blacker Yarns Lyonesse in shades Citrine and Onyx 2 – Socks Yeah 4 ply in shades Almandine and Topaz 3 – Some Solognot breed wool which is created by a small cooperative in France and I picked up in The Woolly Brew, PIttenweem 4 – Fiskmillan Fibres Romney was also from The Woolly Brew and it is delightful! 5 – Blacker Yarns Llanwenog 4 ply so that I can add it to my British breeds blanket I have also been given some lovely things by some lovely people. The yellow bucket bag and stitch markers were from Ali at Little Drops of Wonderful Podcast as part of the dodgy bags MAL. When Lisa sent through stitch markers as a prize, she also sent me some – she is a gem. Tania (she of TJ Frog fame) brought me back a lovely notebook (100% recycled paper) from her recent trip to the states. Marie (Crochet Artisan fame) sent me an amazing knitting and crochet pattern book from Japanese designer Michyo. I am a lucky lady! 7 - Quick News Beats Global Hook Ups – The next Global Hook Up is due to be on Saturday 7th July 2018 (BST) Time: Saturday 7th July 2018 8:30 PM London BST 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 There is then a second one on Sunday 8th July at 9am (BST) Time: Sunday 8th July 2018 9:00 AM London BST 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 8 – Big Up Long-term friend of the podcast Tamara has moved back to the UK. Welcome home Tamara! I am really looking forward to having a proper catch up with her soon. My friend and Tech Editor extraordinaire, Deb, is opening a yarn shop on 6th She has dreamt about this for a long time and an opportunity arose for her to utilise some space this summer. The shop is in Betws-y-Coed, in Wales. I am hot-footing it over there on Sunday to throw enthusiasm and support at her. If you are anywhere near That part of North Wales. The shop is at Unit 2, Royal Oak Stables, Betws-y-Coed, LL24 0AH. I put a call out to see what magazines people thought were particularly inclusive with their models in terms of race, age, size etc.. The ones that were most talked about were Pom Pom Quarterly, Knitting and Interweave Crochet. 9 – J’adore We are a little bit hooked on a programme called Grace & Frankie starring Jane Fonda, Martin Sheen, Lily Tomlin and Sam Waterson. It’s great fun and nice to see an older generation being represented on TV in a sitcom. My only issue is that Martin Sheen will always be Jed Bartlett from The West Wing. I am really loving working with some non-wool yarns. I can definitely feel the difference in heat when I move to crocheting with wool from cotton and vice versa. I wasn’t a massive fan of the Rowan linen that I tried using and quickly swapped out to a linen/cotton blend that was more enjoyable but sitting outside under my parasol crocheting away in cool yarns has been lovely. Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast Instagram: provenance.craft.co Instagram: FayDHDesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite

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Episode 29 - All the dubs

Play Episode Listen Later May 4, 2018 74:50

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 29 – All the dubs. In this episode I cover: Global Hook Up; 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 – Different Designer CAL – Thank you to everyone that took part in the CAL. As you know, I pulled for prizes live on the podcast. Emma wanted the skein of yarn and Caroline wanted the bag – perfect! There are lots of lovely projects in both the Ravelry FO thread and under #DifferentDesignerCAL on Instagram. Many thanks to Gilly at Fjord Fibres for offering up some fabulous prizes! 2 – Final Destination It has been a bit of an odd month really. I have been really busy but haven’t managed a scrap of personal crocheting! I did, however, finish my copper Loft crocheted (3mm straight hook) and knitted (3mm circular needles) shawls (both use John Arbon Knit by Numbers Copper colours in 4 ply 100g/400m). I have also finished my fourth (!) pair of Mini Mania socks and have another two pairs to make! I love the pattern and how they look but really, I could do without making a further two pairs! All pairs are made using RiverKnits mini skeins (British Bluefaced Leicester and 2.25mm circular needles). I am working on an extension of the pattern to show how you can knit two pairs of socks from 7 x 20g skeins. My biggest FO of all was my stand for Wonderwool Wales. It takes a lot of effort to create a stand at a show and I was really chuffed with how it turned out. I know what I want to improve on for the next show (Wool@J13 – I’m on stand 33) and next year’s Wonderwool Wales (if I get in). 3 – En Route I haven’t made any progress on my Stoborough shawl by Sarah Hazell so won’t show it off again until I have. The two ongoing projects that I showed were vanilla socks for Matthew using Fjord Fibres sock yarn (100g/350m and using a 2.5mm circular needle). The main colour is called Night Storm and the contrast colour is Boreal Forest. I love this yarn. Warm. Bouncy. Quality. Even. Beautiful. The second is my second version of Loft Knitted which is in the grape colourways from the Knit By Numbers range 4 ply 100g/400m using a 3mm circular needle) 4 - 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. 1 - Southdown fibre from Adelaide Walker 2 - 'Wood' which is a collaboration between RiverKnits and BabyLongLegs 3 - Poll Dorset from the Kennixton Flock (thanks Caroline) 4 - Twool - twine made in Devon and spun by John Arbon (thanks again Caroline). 5 - Mini skeins from RiverKnits 6 - New badge pin from Claudia at CrochetLuna (if you wanted one of these and live in UK/EU they will soon be available from me at KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT) 7 - My bag swap bag from Claudia - my idiot cat was found attacking it this morning. He does not share my love of all things cacti... 5 - Quick News Beats Global Hook Up – The next Global Hook Up is due to be on Saturday 5th May 2018. Time: Saturday 5th May 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 Dyeing with daffs - Depending on what part of the globe you are in, you may have daffodils that are or have just gone over. The heads can make the most amazing, colourfast natural dye. I aim to get twice the weight of flower heads to yarn to dry out so that I can use them when I am ready. That ratio gives quite an intense mustard/ochre yellow so you could try 50:50 if you wanted a more subtle colour. 6 – J’adore Here is what I am currently loving: Woolly Wool Festivals – the next one that I am attending is Woolfest in Cumbria on the 22nd and 23rd June 2018. There is something lovely about hearing sheep in the background as you walk around purchasing wool. On the way back, I had 90's dance music blasting out of the van radio with this amazing sunset keeping me company. It was a good journey home, marking the end of a great weekend. See you all in June when hopefully I will have had some decent crafting time out in my garden. Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast Instagram: provenance.craft.co Instagram: FayDHDesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite

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Episode 28 - Crochet Clan

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 6, 2018 85:59

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

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Episode 27 - Global Hook Up

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 2, 2018 86:22

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 27 – Global Hook Up. In this episode, I cover: Quick news beats; Old dog, new tricks; FOs; WIPs; 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 – We have just had the second Global Hook Up and they have both been great fun. The next one is due on the 24th March from 8 – 9.30pm (GMT). After the March Global Hook Up, I will look at changing the times again so that people from different parts of the globe can join in and I can take clock changes into account. The details for the next session are already up in the Ravelry thread, can also be found below and will be put out on Instagram in advance. Time: March 24th, 2018 8:00 PM London 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 Crochet meet up/ session in Birmingham on 25th March 2018 times tbc - Do you fancy being part of a tea party/research session for a potential new contemporary crochet publication? All you need to do is email Marie at info@crochetartisan.co.uk to book your place. I will be there with my crochet and inputting into the session and I would love it some of you were able to join in too. Marie is currently selecting an appropriate venue and refreshments will be supplied. Different Designer CAL – Started on 1st March and runs until 8th April. The premise is that you go to the ‘Different Designer CAL’ Ravelry thread and tell everyone who your favourite designer is. You share why you love their designs and which your favourite one is. You then get to look through all the suggestions or come up with your own. You HAVE to try out a new designer, that’s the only rule. I have two on the go already and will be doing jumper as a third when I have finished knitting a jumper that I am doing at the moment. Edinburgh Yarn Festival – If you are going to EYF on the Thursday or Saturday then I can bring anything from my shop KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT and you can save on the P&P costs. If you are interested in this, simply place an order and in the notes section, tell me that you are coming to EYF and whether you will be there on the Thursday or Saturday (the two days that I am going into the festival). I will then refund the P&P costs, bag up your order and bring it with me in a very large suitcase. 2 - Old dog, new tricks Collect daffodil heads - when the daffs start to die back, collect the heads up, dry them up and use them for dyeing. Here is a blog post that I pulled together on dyeing (including daffs). Ball winders and not friends with long hair – if you have long hair, it’s best to keep it tied up if you are using a ball winder. I managed to catch my hair in my winder, which meant that I had to stop, unwind the yarn and hair and start again. I wouldn’t mind but it happened twice on the same ball of yarn! The technique for sewing up a round in hats or mittens - You may remember that a couple of episodes ago I said I would have to frog back a hat and sew it up again because I was unhappy with the nipple that the original method left at the top. The technique that I felt gave the best finish was to only sew through the front loop only of the final round of stitches. After crocheting the last stitch, fasten off, as usual, thread the tail onto a needle and place the needle from the left, under each front loop. You can usually manoeuvre 3-4 stitches onto the needles before you pull through the yarn. Repeat until you have sewn through every stitch of the last round, pull to get the required tension and then weave into the inside. 3 - Finished Objects Well, it has been a fairly quiet month, mainly because I have had my head down doing designs and travelling. I have managed to finish a couple of things and one of them is a 600g whopper! This is my Inclination Wrap which was designed by Julme Conradie and available from the Nurturing Fibres website. It’s my entry for Alyson and Vivian’s (Keep Calm and Carry Yarn Podcast) #Ultravioletkcal. It is a proper sized wrap and uses linen stitch to get some nice stitch definition with the colour changes. My yarns are Drops Alaska (03 Light Grey), a purple yarn that I hand-dyed a couple of years ago (on a base from John Arbon) and a skein of Life in the Long Grass DK in colourway Viola (the one with pops of yellow and burgundy). I have pulled together a project page on Ravelry for it (I am MaDashper on Ravelry). There has been a lot of progress on the Borgarnes cowl, hat and mittens set. I have been investigating hand anatomy so that the Borgarnes mittens and every other set that I design will have proper sizing guides. It has been time-consuming, but totally worthwhile because I now have all the formulas I need for all future mitten and glove designs that I do. 4 - Works in progress I still haven’t started my future WIP for Claudia’s (Crochet Luna vlogcast) Fortune Cookie CAL which started on the Chinese New Year (16th February) and runs to the 31st March. I’m using The Little Grey Sheep yarn (colourway The Rhubarb Patch in their British Gotland 4 ply) and the pattern is Hannah’s (Cosy Cottage Crochet Podcast) Treasure Island Shawl. I will be double dipping with my Different Designer CAL. I also have (just) started on my Stoborough shawl by Sarah Hazell. It needs 300g of a 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. I have also started embroidery on the Word of the Year bag, which I am loving. I am using 5-ply linen from Namolio on a natural linen bag that I had made for my shop. The mandala came from the book Mandalas to Embroider by Carina Envoldsen-Harris and it's a great book! 5 - Designs in Progress I’m pleased to say that I have made some progress on my Granny lap/cat blanket for Rosina’s granny along. Pom and I will be fighting it out to see who ends up owning this blanket – it’s going to be cat claws at dawn I think because he is a little partial to Icelandic wool and blankets. The yarn is Álafoss Lopi in shades Dark Grey (0005), Mid Grey (0058) and Light Grey (0054). The big question is do I now like granny stripes? The answer is that the jury is still out! I am making loads of progress on my Mini Mania Socks. I have now sorted the joining and jogging techniques, thoroughly road tested them, and I am happy with how they held up. It will still be a month or so before the pattern is ready as they need to be test knitted and I still have another two and a half socks to knit. Part of the pattern is trying to get two pairs of socks out of 7 x 20g mini skeins from River Knits so that you aren’t left with little scraps of socks. 6 - Feeding the habit Hmmm, I’m about to show you a fair bit of yarn. I have been to Unravel festival and two yarn shops. Most of it is for design work and I was very sensibly trying to marry up what I had with my stash with new designs and plug the gaps with the right colours, textures etc. so that I am sorted for most of 2018 when it comes to yarn. Autumn by Freehold Yarn Company, Lancaster Single Farm Teeswater and Dodgson Farm from Northern yarns, Lancaster Damson Gin and Killadoon by Bear in Sheep's Clothing & Baa Ram Ewe's new Pip Colourwork The Little Grey Sheep Hampshire 4-ply minis & John Arbon Textiles Knit by Numbers 4-ply Whistlebare's Yeavering Bell in Aran (Mohair and Wensleydale) Clearly, teal, mustard and grey are very well represented! I also went to Lancaster to visit a couple of yarn shops. You can see the vlog here, or listen to it here. 7 – Big Up I have more crafting podcasts for you: Here are some of them for you to look at: Cherry Heart Podcast – I am sure that this podcast is familiar to everyone, but just in case, this is where Sandra Paul uploads her podcast to. Sandra uploads monthlyish and is a designer and blogger too. She is also very lovely, so give her a watch. YouTube Bear in Sheep’s Clothing – Bernie and Derek are absolute honies! They podcast from Belfast in Northern Ireland and talk all things knitting. If you like really chilled out podcasts where cocktails are sipped, and you can watch a great duo talking about British wools and hand dyeing then check them out! If you get a chance to meet this pair at a yarn show, do it. YouTube Tatted Tatter – Stephanie is already on her 4th podcast (I don’t know how she is managing it). She podcasts from San Diego and does all sorts of crafts but predominantly crochet and tatting. She has a lovely manner about her and is great fun. YouTube Hooked on Owls – Lacey podcasts from Michigan and is a crocheter, knitter and crochet designer – very cute amigurumi! She has eight episodes already and a fun household full of kids, animals and yarn! YouTube 9 – J’adore I am swapping out What’s Good for J’adore. In this new segment, I just give you a very quick rundown of the random things that are getting my love this month. It could be music, books, films, TV, yarn, shoes – anything! So, here is what I am currently loving: Song – Say Something by Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton. It’s got an interesting video that is one long tracking shot. They sing as they move through a large building and it makes the acoustics different. Book – I am continuing to listen to The Great Courses on Audible and am currently making my through ‘The Irish Identity: Independence, History and Literature’. TV – we have binge-watched Derry Girls (set in Northern Ireland), London Irish (Irish 20 somethings living in London) and have just started Young Offenders (set in Belfast). Lots of great Irish comedy! Yarn – I went to a trade show last week (Stitches in Birmingham) and went to see Erika and Bella on their stand. I was lucky enough to get my paws on some of the new Studio Linen colours (Neo and Shrub). They are gorgeous. I want to design a summer top with the Studio linen and possibly some other bits and pieces too… Well, that covers another jam-packed month! See you all in April. Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast Instagram: provenance.craft.co Instagram: FayDHDesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite

Episode 26 - CALathon

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 2, 2018 84:05

Welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 26 – CALathon. In this episode, I cover: Quick news beats; Old dog, new tricks; FOs; WIPs; DIPs; Feeding the habit, Review of Making Winter book; 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 - Quick news beats Global Hook Up – Are you all ready to join in the first-ever Global Hook Up? Here are the joining details: Hi there, Fay Dashper-Hughes is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: 1st Global Hook Up with The Crochet Circle Podcast Group Time: Feb 3, 2018 7:00 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 I have set it up so that everyone is on mute to begin with and then I can unmute you. The meeting will start when I join in at 7pm (GMT) on Saturday 3rd February. It will run for an hour and then we can take a call on whether it works and we want longer sessions. The next session will be on 24th of February and may have a later start time so that it is more accessible from the Eastern time zones too. You may need to bear with me whilst I get to grips with the technology. If you are on Instagram, then please get involved by using #GlobalHookUp and following that hashtag. That way I can see what you are all up to and comment on your projects. I will also release the meeting code on Instagram about an hour before it starts on Saturday night (GMT). One Skein Wonderland CAL – By the time this podcast is out the CAL will have closed. We will announce prizes shortly afterwards. There have been so many great projects. Even if you haven’t managed to join the CAL, I encourage you to look at the Finished Objects thread in the Love Charlie Podcast group on Ravelry and #OneSkeinWonderlandCAL on Instagram to see some fabulous projects. Different Designer CAL – This will start on 1st March and run until 8th April. The premise is that you go to the ‘Different Designer CAL’ Ravelry thread and tell everyone who your favourite designer is. You share why you love their designs and which your favourite one is. You then get to look through all the suggestions or come up with your own. You HAVE to try out a new designer, that’s the only rule. Other Crochet Circle CALs – 4th May to 30th June – Summer tops CAL 13th July – 31st August – Vintage Along (using either vintage yarn or a vintage pattern - 20+ years old) 14th September – 26th October – Sock Along 24th December – 31st January – One Skein Wonderland CAL Apart from the Different Designer CAL, I am going to add a new twist which is that you can enter WIPs so long as they fit the brief. #FridayIsDyeDay – It’s great to see people taking part in this on the last Friday of every month. There was some amazing speckled yarn by Lyndsay (andthentherewasmorgan on IG), Gemma (curlygem92 on IG) dyed up four fab bright colourways and started almost straight away to crochet a hat with one of them. Haylie (fireweedfibres in IG) dyed up two colourways and Jo (dancing_goat_crafts on IG) dyed up some wool tops ready for spinning. I managed to do some from my weekend accommodation. I dyed a shop-bought pair of cashmere gloves a bright turquoise and over-dyed some orange yarn that I had previously dyed and not loved. It has already been crocheted up into a cowl which you can see in FOs. I also made my Mum dye up a skein which you can see below. It’s and 80% Merino/20% silk mix and she wants me to knit her a pair of socks with it. Unravel Festival – I am heading to Unravel on the Sunday 18th February. If you are going to be about and fancy meeting up for a coffee, let me know. Knitting and Stitching Show at Olympia – Eeek, I’m going to be at this show working on the Erika Knight stand! If you are going to the show, I will be there all day on Friday on Stand F62. Come and say hello. I promise to both wave at you and hug you! Both are obligatory. 2 - Old dog, new tricks Google images – If you have a specific pattern in your mind that you want to make, then a really quick way of trying to see whether it exists is to use Google images as a search function. I also use this if there is something that I want to buy, and I want to see what options there are. For instance, I typed ‘crocheted asymmetric shawl lace’ and it came up with hundreds of options which I can then quickly assess and click on the image to find out what the pattern is. You may still have to do some sifting through because the occasional knitting pattern may appear, but I still think that it is a great way to see what is available beyond Ravelry. Instagram – I mentioned a few of the tricks of Instagram in Episode 24 and I think that it prompted a few of you to join Instagram. If that is the case, I really hope that you are finding it to be the positive, inspirational space that I find it to be. 3 - Finished Objects Well first up must be Cardigan of Doom really. I used Cascade Heritage in shade Dark Plum (2632) I cannot say how happy I was to get this project off my needles and out of my life. It has now arrived safely with Frazer (after I sent it to the wrong address!) and here is a quick pic of him in it. I learned some major lessons with this project: 1 – Never knit a 4-ply cardigan ever again. 2 – Don’t make big items for other people. 3 – If you make an obvious mistake, frog it back and remedy it. 4 – Don’t work simultaneously on two projects that have a level of cross over. I ended up adding two rows of moss stitch rib to a K1/P1 section of the cardigan rib… My third Criss-cross shawl for the Olann and Criss-cross CAL is finished! I used Rowan’s Alpaca Colour DK, sadly, a discontinued yarn. It was nice to work with and used 260g in total and came out at a whopping 2.8m in length. You can get the pattern free of charge from Olann and. It is available to download as a PDF in both UK and US terminology and there is a YouTube tutorial to help you through the slightly trickier elements, but that said, this is a pattern for competent beginners and up. There is still time to get hooking this shawl as the CAL doesn’t finish until the 23rd February. At the weekend I over-dyed some chunky alpaca yarn from orange to green. I asked Becci from River Knits for some advice and she very kindly gave me three options. I chose option three which would give me greens and browns. I have gone from feeling totally meh about this yarn to loving it and crocheting it up straight away. More on the pattern in the Making Winter book review below. 4 - Works in progress I have been beavering away on my final set of designs for Erika Knight and remaking the patterns in five different and very awesome colourways. This means that whilst I have been crocheting away, I haven’t got much that I can show you as I only have a couple of personal projects on the go and they are both for CALs! Alyson and Vivian from the Keep Calm and Carry Yarn Podcast are hosting an #Ultravioletkcal based on Pantone 2018 Ultra Violet. I can’t resist a CAL and so I am crocheting up the Inclination Wrap which is available designed by Julme Conradie and available from the Nurturing Fibres website. It is a properly sized wrap and uses linen stitch to get some nice stitch definition with the colour changes. My yarns are Drops Alaska (03 Light Grey), a purple yarn that I hand-dyed a couple of years ago (on a base from John Arbon) and want to put to good use and a skein of Life in the Long Grass aran in colourway Viola (the one with pops of yellow and burgundy). I have a future WIP which I am planning to start between now and the next podcast. Claudia at the Crochet Luna vlogcast is hosting a Fortune Cookie CAL which starts on the Chinese New Year (16th February) and runs to the 31st March. I already have my yarn selected and just need to crack open a fortune cookie which will dictate the pattern that I do. 5 - Designs in Progress My other DIP is just at the very beginning stages. I’m not really a fan of granny squares and the granny stitch. Is that something you can say when you have a crochet podcast? Are you going to disown me? Rosina from the Zeens & Roger vlogcast is hosting a granny along. It started on 1st February and I figured that it isn’t really acceptable to broad-brush say I don’t like something, so I am determined to create a granny something in colours I like and hopefully a pattern I like too. The yarn is Álafoss Lopi in shades Dark Grey (0005), Mid Grey (0058) and Light Grey (0054). These are leftovers that I had from my version of the Phasian Blanket from Take Two. Watch this space to see whether I can be converted. Or not. 6 - Feeding the habit When I did the interlocking crochet workshop at Black sheep wools, I was in great company. One of the other participants was the lovely Kathryn from Crafternoon Treats Podcast. We did some podcast goodies swapping and I have a lot of very lovely things to give away from Kathryn’s Crafternoon Treats Etsy store. Even better the prizes were chosen by Katherine and Lyndsay when we met up for a coffee before the workshop started at Black Sheep Wools. If you haven’t looked at Kathryn’s store yet, you really should. She dyes up some beautiful colourways and specifically works with British breeds. So, you will see some of these goodies going out as podcast prizes for the 2018 CALs. She also gave me some lovely yarn to design with and some great single breed hanks which I can use for my version of Wool Exploration throughout the year. I am a very lucky lady! I spent the last weekend in Wales. Do you remember tales of me supposedly walking back down Snowdon having taken the train up there? Well, because we had moved the dates of our trip, it was out of season for the train. I took one look at the torrent of rain and decided that even a little walk was not for me. Instead, I went shopping with my Mum and got some crafting time in. That was after I managed to photograph our feral goat visitors. En route I had to pop into Abakhan (a haberdashery chain based in the NW of England and Wales). They had a nice selection of Rico cotton which I bought because ready for the Vintage Along in July. I want to use a pattern from a very old book and it up to date with soft modern colours of cotton. 7 – Book Review ‘Making Winter’ by Emma Mitchell I bought this book from Loop London the day after it was launched in the same shop. I bought it for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it is a multi-craft book with crochet patterns in it and I feel that this needed supporting. All too often the woollen craft part of these types of publications is knitting so it’s refreshing to have crochet in there instead. Secondly, other crafts feel very natural and environmentally friendly. The author, Emma Mitchell is very much inspired by nature and this is oh so apparent if you follow her in Instagram. This is the kind of crafting that I like. Taking my inspiration and raw materials from nature whenever possible. I have pulled together a full book review which you can read over at my blog. 8 – Big Up It has been a little while since I did a Big Up and new crochet podcasts are popping up! Here are some of them for you to look at: Micky Midge Crochet Podcast – Michelle has been podcasting for a few months and has a weekly podcast. She’s based in the UK, is a working Mum and is starting to be drawn into the rabbit hole that is hand-dyed yarn! Michelle is about to start a SprintimeCAL which is due to start on 14th February and ends at Easter. The idea is that you crochet something that is Spring themed. Talia Louise Crochet – Natalie has a couple of podcasts out so far. She’s based in Australia and works on a range of projects with lots of different yarns. I think that Natalie is aiming for a monthly podcast. Earl Grey Crochet – Elizabeth has been podcasting for about seven months now and crochets all sorts of things. She makes A LOT of amigurumi. She is great fun, based in Australia and full of enthusiasm. Elizabeth is also running a Blurred Shawl CAL starting on the 31st March. Of course, I will be participating in that! Samsqueak Craftcast - Sam has a couple of podcasts out and is based just outside Chicago. She loves to crochet and do all sorts of other crafting too. 9 - What's Good I had a thoroughly lovely day at Black Sheep Wools. The morning was spent drinking coffee and eating cake with lovely friends Katherine, Lyndsay and Kathryn. Charlie and Katie popped their heads in for five minutes too! The workshop that some of us did in the afternoon was interesting and it taught me a new technique – interlocking crochet. The tutor was Graeme Knowles-Miller and he was great fun and very informative. It’s so nice to be able to sit and chat with fellow crafters, so roll on Global Hook Up! Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast Instagram: provenance.craft.co Instagram: FayDHDesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite

spotify black chicago australia google uk england british zoom spring pc android mac id doom stitcher ios wales feeding rico mum designs podbean linux take two keep calm dip unravel chinese new year dips nw merino wip frazer ultraviolet pantone criss fos snowdon big up ravelry wips cals becci haylie long grass emma mitchell lopi finished objects stitching show erika knight john arbon

Episode 20 - Flappy Socks

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 1, 2017 83:42

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

spotify uk peace dad festival scotland stitcher feeding edinburgh scotland northern ireland mum socks podbean larger keep calm whitehead knit fo hawthorn wip criss regia fos ravelry wips basalt flappy readly ply blue spruce wool gathering crochet now john arbon

Episode 15 - Old dog, new tricks

Pom Pom Quarterly - Knitting Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 7, 2017 87:56

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

POMCAST 36 - Live from Unravel with John Arbon + Nancy Marchant

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 25, 2017 81:54

Live from Unravel 2017! Not only do we have all the news and knits from the festival, this episodes includes two interviews with John Arbon and Nancy Marchant. Thanks to our sponsors La Bien Aimée

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Episode 11 - HOP to it

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 16, 2016 80:02

Welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast. Here are the show notes from Episode Eleven - HOP to it. In this episode I will cover: Yay Crochet or Nay Crochet; the final instalment of Yarn Club Review; Book Review of Raw by The Crochet Project; Take Two; Quod the Rav; The scene for 2017, New World Order 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: Thanks to everyone that tunes in to our podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, iTunes or our new YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated. We love doing the podcast and it makes it even more worthwhile knowing that there are people that really love it and are sat at their computers pressing refresh on publish day! The people that both have a birthday on publish date are Christinadesigns (Christina) and Felicious (Felicia) - Happy Birthday both! 1. Yay crochet or nay crochet It's a yay. Last podcast I showed a crocheted baby blanket for Emma and her new daughter Matilda. Emma comes to the crochet and knitting club that I run, Woolgathering Sandbach, and a few of us crocheted the baby blanket. I really love making things for other people, especially little folk. Winkie has also finished the postal scarf that we have been working on. He really loves it but says it's a little itchy and needs washing! Take a look at how cute he is in it: 2. Yarn club review The final instalment of the Yarn Club Review covers off an ongoing blanket subscription and details of a new shawl club subscription that is open at the moment. Becca, another Woolgatherer (PixieCaticus on IG and Ravelry), signed up to a blanket club ten months ago. Every month she has received 3 x 50g of hand-dyed superwash Merino from one of two indie dyers - Dye Candy (dyecandy on IG) or Unbelievawool (unbelievawool on IG) and the next stage of the blanket pattern. The banket subscription is £21 a month and Becca has two months left to go. She has really enjoyed receiving the yarn through the post and she like many others found that there was yarn leftover, so the dyers offered an extended pattern for those that wanted to do it. She has also kept on top of the club by making the next set of hexagons within a couple of days of them arriving and will still have yarn leftover which she can use for other projects. The other part of the yarn subscription review that I wanted to point you towards is a new shawl club by Vicki Brown. I saw what she was up to on Instagram and emailed her for more details. The Crochet Shawl Club: Starting from January 2017 Vicki will be launching one crochet shawl pattern every two months as part of a club. Every other month (January, March, May, July, September and November) she will produce a box which will include a printed pattern and hand-dyed yarn to work up that shawl (dyed by Vicki exclusively for this club). Each box will be available to purchase singly and will go on sale a month prior to shipping or you can sign up to all six for a fabulous saving (£20). Each shawl pattern will be new and exclusive to box subscribers for two months, after which time the pattern will become available to purchase individually. All yarn will be sock/4ply weight and will be on a range of bases and fibres varying from month to month. However, she can happily accommodate any allergies or personal dislikes. All patterns will use a 3.5mm or 4mm hook. The first box and the full subscription are available to purchase now over on etsy. Single boxes are priced at £20 and include UK postage, postage within Europe is an additional £1.50 and postage for the rest of the world is an additional £3 For the full 6 month collection, the cost is £100 and includes UK postage. Postage within Europe is an additional £9 and £18 for the rest of the world. The contents will remain a mystery until they have been delivered to your door, but you can find some sneak peeks over on Vickie's instagram page. Vicki has also very kindly offered one of the shawl clubs up as a prize for one Crochet Circle listener/viewer - more on that in the future... 3. Book Review - Raw by The Crochet Project I was very kindly sent a digital copy of Raw by the lovelies at The Crochet Project in collaboration with Blacker Yarns. As you know, I won't review a book unless I have crocheted at least one thing from it. You can see from the below photo, I have managed to make both the Mamble socks and the Newham hat from the book. The book has six patterns - a cardigan, sweater, socks, shawl and matching mittens and hat. It was all crocheted using Blacker Yarns in natural shades, showcasing British breeds. The socks are toe-up in construction and I used a yarn that had very little elasticity but is lovely and warm and very sheepy! Having already made a pair of Joanne's crocheted socks, I was familiar with her style, although this one had a different heel construction. I found the sock easy enough to crochet, although I struggled a little with the heel construction. The first time I tried it out I found it hard to keep track of where the heel steps were, called a bridge stitch (this will make sense to you when you read the pattern). I ripped it out and started the heel part again. putting a place market on each decrease, now knowing that I needed to be able to identify them better. That did the trick. I couldn't find and reference to bridge stitch anywhere so I am not sure if it something that Joanne has created. It works for the construction but took a bit of fiddling. The socks are lovely to wear and I would like to crochet these again in something like Socks Yeah or West Yorkshire Spinners so that I can compare them to my first pair. The Newham hat has been crocheted in 100% Merino Knit by Numbers from John Arbon. I played around with the hat construction a little because I like quite a tight hat and the book photos show it being looser on Joanne. I really loved the rib construction for the brim which is crocheted as one long piece and then joined to make a round before picking up stitches. The pattern shows a simple colourwork chart that you go by to create the pattern in the round. This is really easy to follow but unfortunately, when I started this part of the hat I was really quite ill and mucked it up a little. Luckily my two colours aren't in high contrast so it isn't really obvious. This is not a shortfall of the pattern, I was really quite poorly! I love the finished hat and it is gorgeous to wear. Overall, with Raw you get exactly what you would expect from Kat and Joanne at The Crochet Project - really nice simple patterns with interesting design elements, beautiful photography and good yarn choices. The book is available on their website and is £10 for the digital copy and £12 plus P&P for the hard copy which includes a digital download code. It is written in UK crochet terminology and the US terms are given in the abbreviations. I would recommend this book. There is something for all types of crocheters and if natural shades aren't your thing, it is simple to change to colours. 4. Take Two TAKE TWO is a collection of 8 crochet patterns, each shown as two designs - sixteen patterns. You can buy: A printed copy (which includes an instant digital download) £12 from here. I am fingers crossed hoping that the hard copy books will arrive in the third week of December so that I can post them out ASAP. or A digital copy for £10 here or by searching for Take Two on Ravelry in books. I would love to see your finished makes and you can add them to the Ravelry page FO thread and use #TakeTwoCrochet to share your makes on Instagram. 5. Quod the Rav Ravelry is huge, both in terms of the number of people that use it but also the functionality that it has to offer. In this new section, I want to show some of the things that Ravelry can do and ways that you can use it to get the most from the site. It can be quite an intimidating website so I am hoping to demonstrate how you can really use it to your benefit and help others to do the same through the way that you use and record projects on Ravelry. In this podcast, I wanted to cover how you can try to verify whether a pattern is worth purchasing or not? A question was asked in the group thread and so I have pulled together some information on how I check a pattern out pre-purchase. I have used a pattern that I have purchased, knitted, recorded and people have found helpful. In case you are wondering why this section is called Quod the Rav, you can blame Eddie Izzard and his sketch on Latin. 6. Setting the scene for 2017 At the beginning of 2016, I set myself a few crafting goals that I wanted to achieve by the end of 2016. These have given me a gentle steer through my 2016 crafting and I have achieved or been working towards all of them: 1 - Learn how to make socks. So far I have knitted ten pairs and crocheted three pairs and will hopefully reach 14 by the end of the year (festive socks for Jenny and The Duke). 2 - Learn how to do colourwork. I took part in a KAL and used it as a project to work with British breeds and test my colourwork skills. I also learned to do crochet colourwork with the Newham hat from Raw. 3 - Dye some of my own yarn. I organised a workshop in September and a bunch of us dyed British yarns. It was great fun and I am working my way through my own hand-dyed yarn which makes projects even more special. 4 - Take part in CAL/KALs. I have taken part in two KALs but up until now haven't found a CAL that I wanted to do. Luckily, we have the Christmas CAL coming up (details further down) which I am very excited about! 5 - Put better project notes up on Ravelry. I have really tried hard on this one. I get so much help from going through other people's projects that I feel I should offer the same level of detail. There is no doubt that it is time consuming but I love going back and seeing how much work went into projects. 6 - Take better photos of my projects. I can see the difference in the photos that I take now compared to when I started on Ravelry. To me this helps to sell myself as the owner of KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT and a podcaster, so hopefully my photos will only get better as time goes on. I am going to open a thread on Ravelry called Setting the scene for 2017. I will add my crafting goals for 2017 (I will also be talking about them in the January podcast) into that thread and you are all very welcome to do the same. My plan is to review it every quarter to see if I want to focus on other things or document what has really caught my attention - like making socks has in 2016! Get thinking, what do you want to be working in 2017? 7. New world order As you are all aware, Lynne is no longer doing the podcast and so I wanted to reassure people that I have every intention of continuing to podcast on a monthly basis. Podcasting is a great way for me to get inside the crafting industry and understand what is happening and how I can be part of that. It makes me craft more, want to learn new techniques to share with you and it is a great way of engaging with lots of lovely people about this very yarny passion. So here is what you can expect from The Crochet Circle Podcast in 2017: 1 - A podcast that is published on the first Friday of every month for video on YouTube and also audio via Podbean etc. 2 - Vlog style videos on YouTube showing my yarn based antics and general bits and bobs. 3 - The usual content on social media. My intention is to focus mainly on Instagram because it allows me to show off yarn-based things so easily, share your makes (tag crochet_circle) and it is a very positive social media space. I will put the occasional thing out on Twitter but most content will be on IG. 4 - Continue to grow the content and engagement in our Ravelry thread. We have so many lovely people that post in that thread and long may it continue. At some point, I may have to ask whether others want to come forward as moderators. 5 - I want to keep the standard sections like Yay crochet or nay crochet, WIPs, FOs, Feeding the habit, What's good and of course reviews when there is something to review. 6 - I work with a lot of different yarns and so that I can review them all and let you see what I am working on, I am going to pull together a yarn review format for Instagram. That way I can let you know what I think of the yarn but I can show off more yarns rather than having to wait for the podcast. If you aren't on Instagram, all of my Crochet Circle photos are automatically uploaded onto Pinterest. 7 - I want to introduce some new sections like Quod the Rav. Others will come as the podcast moves into this new phase, but I want it to be informative, useful and fun. 8. Christmas CAL There is a lot of excitement about a Christmas CAL! I opened up a thread on Ravelry with a poll and 88% wanted to work from the same pattern with 12% wanting to choose their own. So that everyone can be happy I think that CAL should be either! For those of you that want to work from the same one pattern, take to the Christmas CAL thread to decide which pattern you all want to work from - you just need to decide in enough time to make sure you have enough yarn and are ready for the CAL start date. The CAL starts on the 24th December 2016 and the end date is the 31st January 2017, so choose a project that is realistic for that timeline. I am going to cast on two things (possibly three)! The pattern that you folks choose for the CAL and another of my own choice (and possibly a new design that is currently bubbling in the recess of my brain). I may have purchased some Christmas themed yarn from Vickie Brown... 9. What's good? The reaction to the fact that I am going to continue with the podcast has been lovely. It is a shame that Lynne no longer wants to continue with it but I am really heartened by the fact that so many people want the podcast to continue and are supportive of my solo endeavours - thank you, you lovely people! Happy listening, watching, festive season and crocheting. Fay x Instagram: Crochet_Circle_Podcast Instagram: provenance.craft.co Instagram: FayDHDesigns YouTube: The Crochet Circle Podcast Crochet Clan on Mighty Network: Invite

christmas spotify europe uk british single numbers pinterest stitcher latin raw feeding podbean new world order vlog take two pp book reviews yarn kal fo merino eddie izzard rav dye fos postage ravelry wips newham quod kals blacker yarns west yorkshire spinners john arbon

Interview with John Arbon from John Arbon Textiles

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 31, 2016 45:09

Interview with John Arbon from John Arbon Textiles. Way back in February, we approached John Arbon about interviewing him for The Crochet Circle Podcast. Spool forward a few months and at the back end of July the interview took place at the John Arbon Textiles mill in North Devon. Lynne was unable to make it because she was off on holiday a few days later and so the interview is just between John and Fay, although Matthew (Fay's husband) was in the background and helped with the Yarn Challenge video The mill is a wonderful place, full of older machines that help to bring the whole process to life. Walking around with John, cup of tea in hand, the pride and enthusiasm for the work that they do here is palpable. When you look at the job sheets on the machines and tags for the fibres being processed it becomes obvious John and the team spin yarn for a lot of people. John gives a bit of a run down within the interview, but the chances are that if you tend to buy at the higher end of the British wool/yarn market (think Daughter of a Shepherd, Ysolda Teague, The Little Grey Sheep) then you have used/stashed yarn that has been spun by John. Fay baked the team a cake to say thank you of having us. Cake and mill bits - a winning combination. These five skeins were used as part of John's Yarn Challenge and represent a very small fraction of the yarns spun at the mill. They also have their own amazing yarns for sale, such as their sock ranges, incredible Knit by Numbers range or alpaca ranges to name but a few. Oh, and if you didn't want to crochet or knit your own socks, you can buy them ready made (in the UK), using John Arbon yarn - I have a pair on my feet as I type and they are lush! We had planned to video the walk around the mill but as you would expect, it is an industrial process and was too noisy to make out the chatting. So, instead here are a few places where you can see exactly what happens at the mill: This longer video 'A Long Day in the Mill' shows the mill in full swing and the process from start to finish. It is 8 ins 34 seconds long. This is a shorter version of the above video - 'A Short Day in the Mill', in case you only have a couple of minutes to spare, though I encourage you to watch the longer version when you can. It is 4 minutes long. This link takes you to an article that Knit Now did for the magazine when they visited the mill and interviewed John back in 2013. They have done a great job of explaining each part of the process and I couldn't see the point in reinventing the wheel. John and Juliet exhibit at many of the various yarn events across the UK. You can follow them on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Ravelry. You can also buy all of their lovely, yarn and goodies on their website. If you would like to see more photos from the trip, take a look at our YouTube Channel where you can hear the interview and watch a slide show at the same time. I'll leave you with this photo. We obviously had to go to the pub that John and Juliet frequent. What we didn't know was that the barman is John's son, Harry. I asked Harry whether he was allowed to wear socks that weren't spun by his Dad and he assured me that he only owns socks from his Dad. Here is Harry proudly showing off his pair of John Arbon socks.

uk interview british dad numbers daughter mill textiles knit ravelry north devon ysolda teague john arbon

Episode 47: Yarnporium planning

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 17, 2016 70:00

Hello! In this episode, we have previews of some of the special goodies that vendors are bringing to the Yarnporium in a few weeks, and Rachel gets a wee bit worked up about a very recent design controversy (feel free to fast forward that part). Many thanks to Julie of Knitted Bliss for sharing some of her thoughts with us on the subject of modifications/mashups/originality. Grab your coffee and let's go! Shout outs, news and events: Winner of Mad Colour from Episode 46: Congratulations to Wei-Lin for being picked by Random.org to win the Mad Colour eBook from Tin Can Knits! And thanks to Alexa and Emily for provide the contest prize. 22nd-23rd October: Bakewell Wool Gathering 29th-30th October: Kendal Wool Gathering 1st November: Last day for advanced tickets to Yarnporium! 5-6th November: Yarnporium extravaganza! King's College London on the Strand, WC2R 2LS. Show will be open from 10am-5:30pm Saturday and 10am-4pm on Sunday. 10-13th November: Geeky Puffin Knit Palooza, Farnham - classes, marketplace and a London Yarn Crawl led by Alli! 12th November: Festiwool, North Herts College, Hitchin What we're working on: Allison is working on not much because she's been sick as a dog for much of the last week. But she did whip up a Zigging Hat out of the luscious Rosy Green Wool Big Merino Hug. Rachel finished the Zigging Cowl to go with Allison's Zigging Hat. Both of these will be paired with the Yarnporium pattern, the Zigging Mittens by Renee Callahan! She's also been working on her Kippen Cardigan by Kat Goldin in secret under her desk during a work week that involved a lot of listening to audio. Then we get to the controversy that very recently blew up on social media/Ravelry: The I'll Pack A Cowl for Rhinebeck vs. Baa-ble Hat debacle brings up issues that are near and dear to our hearts here at Yarn in the City: community, respect for people's work, and fair and living wages for designers and other wool industry members. We talk with Julie from Knitted Bliss about her Modification Mondays, what actually constitutes an original design, and there are a few mentions of the dreaded "C" word (that would be copyright...). If you get tired of hearing Rachel carry on, feel free to jump ahead. Yarnporium Specials: The Yarnporium is only a few weeks away, but our vendors have some fantastic special goodies they're bring with them for the show! Blacker Yarns are bringing a selection of the delicious Rosy Green Wool Big Merino Hug that we've used to rework the Zigging Hat and Cowl by Renée Callahan from the London Craft Guide. Renée has designed a pair of mittens to complete the set and the pattern will be in the Programme Guide for the Yarnporium! Midwinter Yarns will have their wonderful, sheepy, lanolin-y Ullcentrum 3-ply, as well as a new Finnish Aran wool in six natural colours. Inspiration Knits will have her book and patterns, and spectacular yarns from Eden Cottage Yarns and Countess Ablaze!!! As well as another special surprise to be revealed later... A Yarn Story will be bringing her vast inventory of Hedgehog Fibres loveliness, as well as a very special Parisian visitor for the weekend: the yarns of La Bien Aimee. Finally, Frankie will be flying the flag for John Arbon and is bringing a specially curated selection of their best products, including the Knit by Numbers 4-ply! *** 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 (all available on NoiseTrade): Michigan Left - Arkells Hey Doreen - Lucius

music planning numbers winner goat congratulations strand parisian callahan yarn knit stitcher radio king's college london baa rhinebeck farnham ravelry cowl tin can knits blacker yarns wei lin john arbon countess ablaze kat goldin renee callahan eden cottage yarns

Episode 7 - Buzz, Buzz, Buzz

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 2, 2016 128:18

Welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast. Here are the Show Notes from Episode Seven - Buzz, Buzz, Buzz. In this episode we continue with our crochet journeys, including helpful hints on sewing up; Yay Crochet or Nay Crochet; Yarn Club; Magazine Round-up; WIP's and FOs; Feeding the Habit, including Fay's trip to Fibre East; a sneaky peak at a couple of projects from our first book "Take Two" and finishing with What's Good. 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: Thank you for helping us reach over 4100 audio downloads. Thanks to all of our lovely listeners and watchers for tuning in. As well as our audio podcast, we will also upload each audio episode to Youtube. We've now taken the plunge with Episode Seven and recorded it live for Youtube, which was exciting but a bit nerve-wracking too. So shortly you can see us as well as hear us. We also have a new backdrop, curated by Fay: You can find us here on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUpBm_Y5l_7S4Q114eKd11g 1.Yay Crochet or Nay Crochet (at 10:00 mins) It's a bit of both from Lynne: I recently went to Portugal on our family holiday and spotted quite a few crochet garments and accessories. The first thing I spotted was a gorgeous long cover-up which I don't think was handmade, but it was lovely all the same. I also spotted a few nice crochet bags and some bright pink crocheted tops that seemed to be very popular. But the icing on the crochet cake was a crochet swimming costume – yes indeed I did spot a crocheted costume. It was quite like a bikini that was then joined down the middle. I didn’t see it in water – only on the sunbed, so not sure how it held up when wet. It's a Yay Crochet from Fay: One of my book designs is a bag. I finished it about a week ago and wasn’t 100% sure of the bag flap that I had designed. So, come Monday morning I took the time to very carefully undo the flap - easier than it sounds because the yarn is a Mohair and Wensleydale mix and it took me a couple of hours. I redesigned the flap and am now really pleased with the overall design and functionality of the bag. It was worth taking the time out and getting the project to where I wanted it to be. 2. Our Crochet Journey: Weaving in ends when finished and when changing colour (at 20:00 mins) The easiest method is when joining double crochet row ends together as you can join the pieces by simply working double crochet (US single crochet) through the row ends of your work (working 1dc into each row end). This produces a neat, slightly stretchy finish. If you want a non-stretchy finish, use slip stitch instead. If your work is in treble crochet (US double crochet) or half treble (US half double crochet) then it's not as straight forward because the posts of the stitches are longer, so working 1 stitch through each row end doesn't work. It's often a case of trial and error - try working 2 stitches into one row-end then just 1 stitch into the next row end, and repeat to the end. The good thing with crochet is that you can easily rip it out if there are too many or too few stitches. Alternatively, you can use whip stitch to join trebles and half trebles, inserting your wool needle through the posts of the stitch (rather than underneath them, which can create a gap and leave the seam looking a little unsightly). Fay decided to add a row of double crochet (US single crochet) along the side of her garment, to create a much neater finish. Granny Squares are easier to join as you already have a neat chain edge all around. You can use either double crochet (US single crochet), working through the back loops of the outside stitches (on the right side or wrong side depending on if you want a visible seam or not). You can also use a slip stitch to join Granny Squares but only use this on the wrong side of your work. When changing colour when working, you can work over your yarn ends (like Tapestry Crochet), so hold your yarn end across the top of the stitches being worked and when you insert you hook into the stitch, wrap yarn around hook and pull back though, you will trap the yarn end into the stitch. Do this for about 6 or 7 stitches. Links to useful websites for joining your work: Joining seams with a slip stitch and double crochet (US single crochet): http://www.simplycrochetmag.co.uk/2013/01/09/beginners-class-joining-shapes-together/ Joining Granny Squares using 4 different methods: http://blog.deramores.com/how-to-crochet-joining-granny-squares/ Joining Granny Squares as you go: http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/joining-asyougo-sqaures.html 3. Magazine Reviews (at 41:00 mins) Let's Get Crafting issue 84: Theme is Christmas (is this too early?? - what do you think). There are lots of cute toys and decorations. Lynne's favourite is the Bear from North Pole Buddies (page 40) designed by Aine Marriott. Fay's favourite is the article "From Barn to Yarn" on pages 20 and 21. See issue 84 projects here on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/lets-get-crafting-knitting--crochet-84/patterns Inside Crochet issue 80: Theme is still summery. Lynne's favourite is Star in a Star Blanket, by Red Sparrow Crochet, page 77 Fay's favourite is Wayfairer's Jumper by Molla Mills See issue 80 projects here on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/inside-crochet-issue-80-2016 Crochet Now Issue 5: Theme is 'bright'. Lynne's favourite is the free Mandala pattern booklet - The Big Mandala Swap which includes Lynne's design in Reds and Oranges, called Passion, page 42. Crochet Now has teamed up with charity Rethink and yarn shops across the country so you can make a Mandala to swap, and maybe find a new crochet friend. Pages 80 and 81. Find out more about the Big Mandala Swap here: http://www.crochetnow.co.uk/mandala-swap/ Fay's favourite is Patchwork Garden Baby Blanket by San Beee, pages 60 and 61. Link to Crochet Now: http://www.crochetnow.co.uk/ 4. FO's (at 51:50 mins) Fay: Blanket and cushion for our book. Both were using Alafoss Lopi wool: http://alafoss.is/knitting-yarn/alafoss-lopi/ which is from the Icelandic sheep and is a chunky yarn. I used a 5.5mm hook (US size 9). The fourth sock as part of my study in sock stripes – I have no HOs! I have used four different techniques to try to find the best way of adding even stripes to socks and other projects knit in the round. I have written a blog post about it so if you are also a knitter and like me have been striving to find the perfect stripe technique, take a look here: https://www.knitit-hookit-craftit.com/blogs/news/jog-free-sock-stripes-two-pairs-of-socks-from-100g-of-yarn I was using two different John Arbon sock yarns. The pink is Exmoor Sock Yarn in shade Blossom: https://www.jarbon.com/yarns/exmoor-sock-yarn/exmoor-sock-yarn?zenid=u4mj75qpai6ncafru3fd9blr22#.V73Q9ZgrLic The grey is Alpaca Sock Yarn in shade Charcoal: https://www.jarbon.com/yarns-wools/alpaca/alpaca-sock-yarn/uk-alpaca-sock-yarn?zenid=u4mj75qpai6ncafru3fd9blr22#.V73RC5grLic I use 2.5mm needles and generally knit a 60 stitch sock. A pair of these lovely socks will be donated to Winwick Mum's Yarndale sock appeal: http://winwickmum.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/yarndale-sock-line-2016.html A few episodes ago I'd been a bit eager and put this shawl in my FO list and then had to admit within the podcast that I had messed up the rows. I left it on the naughty step for two months, then frogged it back and then inside of four nights, I had knitted the lace and done the picot edge bind-off. I used Rowan Finest for this project in shade 067 Cool: http://www.knitrowan.com/yarns/rowan-finest It was glorious to work with, so soft and warm. I used 4mm (US 6) Knit Pro Symphonies. It is made from extra-fine merino, cashmere and royal alpaca. I didn’t know what ‘royal alpaca was so I looked it up. Baby alpaca is between 19 and 21 microns in diameter. Royal alpaca is anything below 19 microns and so is supposedly the finest alpaca that you can get. Only about 1% of the alpaca produced is deemed to be royal alpaca. Human hairs range from about 17 – 181 microns depending on age, colour, weather etc. You can find out more about Royal Alpaca here: http://www.alpacacollections.com/natural-fibers I mentioned a couple of episodes ago that I had bought The Book of Haps by Kate Davies Designs, even though I had tried my hardest not to. I also tried to not join the KAL and failed miserably! I used Rowan Felted Tweed in five different colours and really love the outcome. All of the details on yarn and needles can be found on my Ravelry page: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/MaDashper/nut-hap I have added extensive notes, so if you were thinking about doing a Nut-Hap, you may want to take a look at my Kingfisher version before you start. Mine is huge (but still lovely)! I would definitely use this yarn for crocheting with and am currently dreaming up a cowl design for my leftover Rowan Felted Tweed. Lynne: The only FOs I can share are the projects for our book – I finally finished my cushion which I LOVE, especially as it uses one of my favourite yarns (Wendy Ramsdale). I love the texture that I’ve created, which works perfectly with the yarn (which almost feels a little felted). I finished a shawlette (also for the book) and lots of projects for my latest Search Press book – I did have some knitting help with a couple of the projects, which was a relief, but there was still a lot of work to do, alongside some regular commissions that I do each month, so I’ve literally been knitting or crocheting all day pretty much every day and will be doing so for the foreseeable future. This month I've made: 2 hot water bottle covers, boot toppers, crochet collar, bunting, hats, washcloths, a deep cowl, a pincushion, a dress-up doll with outfits and some stuff I can't even remember. I've worked with some gorgeous yarns, including Sublime's Evie and Superfine Alpaca DK - both are beautifully soft to work with and are firmly placed on my "favourite yarns" list: http://sublimeyarns.com/ 5. WIPs (at 72:45 mins) Fay: My WIPS are five in total plus some projects that didn’t even make the WIP list. I still have some standard items like the Tardis cushion and shorelines blanket which have had NO LOVE! I have had to work on lots of crochet projects for the book and so these two WIPs have been placed on the back burner for now. I've made a decent amount of progress on my Wrap Over Top from Simply Crochet issue 41. Again I am using Rowan Finest but in shade 069 Star. It's really lovely to crochet with even though it splits occasionally. So far I have used 9 balls worth and will probably need to put 12 into it. Luckily I got the yarn at the Black Sheep Wools sale and so got 10 balls for under £30 instead of £65! I had to do some maths to rejig the pattern for this yarn, and now that I am on the last 6 rows (but I will probably extend it) I can see that my calculations seem to have worked, so very worthwhile doing the swatching, blocking and maths. I may have also started two new haps from The Book of Haps… Uncia – using John Arbon’s Harvest Hue’s 4 ply in Blue Spruce https://www.jarbon.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=36_184_176&products_id=245#.V73ZDZgrLic Uncia– using John Arbon’s Devon Wensleydale 4 ply which is an undyed natural grey. Lynne: I'm the same as last month at 14, as I haven’t had any time to work on my own WIPS. I’ve started and finished lots of projects (work related) but nothing for myself so I’m really looking forward to a yarn dying workshop next week, organised by Fay, as it will be a nice to step away from knitting and crocheting for few hours and learn a new skill. 6. Feeding the Habit Rabbit (rabbit... rabbit... rabbit) Link to Chas and Dave song "Rabbit, Rabbit": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOSseI1hao8 Fay: Since we last recorded, I've been to Fibre East. Unsurprisingly the yarn that I got was John Arbon mini skeins and some BFL fibre tops, also from John and Juliet. The stand across from them at Fibre East was selling spindles and so I bought one of them too because I am desperate to learn how to draft, ready for the inevitable spinning wheel. Other habit feeders were our new mascot, who remains nameless until the competition has been judged at the beginning of September. I also bought a new shawl pin which is ceramic and made in the UK: http://an-caitin-beag.myshopify.com/ I also bought some 2 ply linen to play with and Verity’s new sock book – The Sock Drawer: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/449213136/the-sock-drawer-pattern-collection?ref=shop_home_active_1 If you haven’t heard the interview with Verity from Truly Hooked yet, then take a listen - it's been one of our most popular interviews to date. However, that was on the 31st of July and so I created a self-imposed yarn diet throughout the month of August. Today is the 25th and, so far I have not bought any yarn that will be in my hands in August (apart from signing up to a yarn club). I have six more days of no yarn buying and can prove a point to myself. Lynne: I haven’t bought anything either this month, as I know I don’t have any time to crochet or knit and the Woolnest is just overflowing with stuff. So rather than buy new yarn I’ve gone through my drawers and bags and sorted out all the yarn I know I won’t use and will be selling this at Yarndale and hope that it will go to a good home and that someone will make something lovely out of it all. 7. Our First Crochet Circle Book (at 101:55 mins) We're really excited to tell you a little about the book that we have been working on. It is called "Take Two" and the premise is simple. We've each designed four crochet patterns. Lynne has designed a long cowl with matching mittens, a blanket and a cushion. I have designed a short cowl, a bag, a narrow shawl and a purse. So there's something for everyone - from accessories to homewares. There are two key differences with this book. The first is that the yarns we used had to be British and in particular had to be spun in the North of England as we feel proud of our industrial heritage and that fact that we still have working mills that produce amazing yarns. The second is that we both re-made each other’s patterns using our own stash yarn. This has allowed us to showcase British yarns and to also show how a change in yarn weight, colour or a slight variation in the pattern can create an entirely different project. You don’t always have to use the yarns stated in a pattern and so we hope to encourage you to look to your stash when you are crocheting from a pattern and don't be afraid to substitute yarn and make the pattern your own. Take Two is essentially two designers, eight patterns with two interpretations, creating sixteen designs. Lynne’s favourite pattern from the book and yarn is: I'm twixt between my textured blanket which uses West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-ply yarn, and my textured cushion, but I think may be cushion just takes it (and has yet to be named). The basis of the cushion is treble crochet worked in rounds, but for the front piece the rounds are worked in back loops only, leaving the front loops free for working a picot - this creates the deep texture (resembling a Chrysanthemum Flower). You could make it in almost any yarn, from 4-ply to chunky so it’s really versatile and looks like a shop-bought cushion. The size I made with DK yarn took just 6 balls of 50g. I used Wendy Ramsdale which is bred, spun and dyed in Yorkshire and is a sturdy yarn, which is great for a cushion, but it’s definitely a design that you could use up different yarns from your stash. Yarn support was kindly provided by Laughing Hens: https://www.laughinghens.com/ Fay's favourite design is Colosseum. It is a narrow shawl that uses just one skein of 4 ply yarn. The pattern is really simple and memorable, yet elegant and light. I really love all of the yarns that I used for my patterns – Erika Knight and Whistlebare. The yarns were specifically chosen to be soft or lustrous where they needed to be or hard-wearing where required – like the bag. 8.Yarn Clubs (at 115:20 mins) We mentioned in Episode 6 that we wanted to do a review on yarn clubs. We know that a few people that have signed up to them but neither Lynne nor I ever have. So, in the interests of fair reporting and for you lovely Crochet Circler’s, Fay has selflessly signed up to a yarn club with Life in the Long Grass - a husband and wife team based in Ireland: https://www.lifeinthelonggrass.com/clubs/ Fay will open her parcel when we record the next podcast so we'll capture her excitement. Lynne will look into other clubs, including Baa Baa Brighouse Yan Tan Tethera's club: https://www.baabaabrighouse.co.uk/shop/yan-tan-tethera-yarn-club/yan-tan-tethera-subscription/ So, in the next episode, we will be able to report back with a list of available yarn clubs, the cost of Fay's LITLG club and reaction to it, people’s feedback on yarn clubs that they have been part of. So, if there is anything that you would like to know about yarn clubs, please let us know through Ravelry – we will start a thread called ‘Things to know about yarn clubs’ and we will endeavour to answer your questions. 9. What’s Good (at 123:15 mins) Fay: I'm organising a workshop under the banner of KNIT IT – HOOK IT – CRAFT IT on hand-dyed yarns on the 3rd September and 10 of us will get to try out three different yarn dyeing methods – kettle, hand painted and dip-dyed. I'm really looking forward to spending a day learning to dye with some lovely people. It will be a welcome break from all of the work that I have been doing. Lynne: I received advanced copies of my Mandala Book earlier this week, which was really exciting. I’m delighted at how lovely it looks. It’s one of the "20 to Make" titles by Search Press, and the idea is that the projects are quick to make, yet all different and interesting too. Hoping to have them for sale at Yarndale but not sure if they will arrive in time – fingers crossed: https://www.searchpress.com/book/9781782214342/crocheted-mandalas Happy listening and 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

christmas spotify babies uk england passion british ireland north bear human portugal mine stitcher habit feeding buzz pages rabbit reds podbean i love rethink yorkshire icelandic sublime take two blossom dk oranges tardis jumper yarn no love kal hos chas colosseum fo verity wip mandala charcoal episode seven kingfisher fos ravelry wips haps bfl cpath buzz buzz mohair wensleydale long grass granny squares erika knight yarndale crochet now john arbon fibre east rowan felted tweed trulyhooked

Episode 6 - Shore to Shore

Pom Pom Quarterly - Knitting Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 5, 2016 114:18

Welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast. Here are the Show Notes from Episode Six - Shore to Shore. In this episode we continue with our crochet journeys, including helpful hints on blocking; Yay Crochet or Nay Crochet; Yarn Review of Daughter of a Shepherd Hebridean/Zwartbles yarn; Magazine Round-up; a review of two fibre festivals on either side of the pond – Woolfest and Houston Fibre Fest; WIP Wall and FOs, Feeding the Habit, a fab giveaway from Anna Nikipirowicz and finishing with What's Good. 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: 1. Yay Crochet or Nay Crochet (at 2.55 mins) It's a Nay Crochet from Fay due to the lack of crochet content at fibre festivals and in general. When we visited Woolfest, we noticed that most of the stalls were aimed at knitters and even on most of the yarn stalls the samples that were on show were also knitted. This seems at odds with the increasing rise in the popularity of crochet and may be off-putting to new crocheters who perhaps don't realise that you can crochet with any yarn. We know that at Yarndale we'll see a lot more crochet-related vendors and Lynne and I will also be there waving the flag for crochet. It's a Yay Crochet from Lynne for all the lovely things that people are crocheting up and the inspiration that they give to others. I’ve really been enjoying The Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry forum – especially seeing all of the lovely finished objects that people are sharing. In particular, it’s also made me realise how adaptable crochet is, even if you’re not hugely experienced with crochet. It seems easier for people to take parts of a pattern and make something else altogether, or tweak patterns to suit their individual taste. Here's the link to our Ravelry FO's board: http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-crochet-circle-podcast/3400722/51-75#71 2. Yarn review (at 9 mins) Daughter of a Shepherd: 75% Hebridean and 25% Zwartbles DK weight 233m/255 yards per 100g Recommended needles/hook:3.5-4.5mm hook/needles Cool hand wash only and leave flat to dry Completely UK produced (sourced, scoured and spun in UK) RRP: £18 for 100g. Website: www.daughterofashepherd.com Rachel's blog: http://mylifeinknitwear.com/ We had 10g each to test and crochet up. The characteristics of Hebridean wool are very similar to the Zwartbles that is has been blended with as both are very dark brown/near black in colour, durable and dense. This yarn is spun at John Arbon Textiles and John says that the longer staple length of the Zwartbles helps with the processing of the Hebridean because it gives the Heb staples something more to align and grip to. Fay – I tried this with a 3.5mm, 4mm, 4.5mm and 5mm hook and found that the 4.5mm gave the nicest effect, so using a 4.5mm hook I created a tiny little bowl to put my measuring tape in because I am always losing it! It is hard to see the stitch definition because of the natural yarn colour (which is very dark), but it is good. I still had a little bit leftover and so made some leaves with the remainder and also made some using some Jacob wool that I had to create a cup holder for when I am out and about (I usually have them in my different handbags so that I don’t need the cardboard sleeve). The wool is soft and nice to work with and becomes softer when washed and blocked. I would use this again for crochet and could easily take it up against my skin. It would make a beautiful crocheted shawl with an open lacy structure that really makes the most of the stitch definition. I would also use it with other natural wools to bring out the depth of colour that it has. It would be great at the dark end of a gradient project or mixed with a really vibrant blue or burnt orange. Lynne: I really enjoyed working with this yarn – as soon as I wound it off the skein I could smell the sheep and it made me feel happy to be working with a natural fibre that can be fully traced back to its source. I love the natural colour of the wool– it’s a very deep brown, almost like treacle, and there are a few light coloured fibres running through. I have really sensitive skin, but for the time that I was using the yarn, I was absolutely fine. I don’t think I could stretch to wearing it directly around my neck (but that’s just me) but I could mix it with something else and just keep the Hebridean/Zwartbles away from the neck edge. I made two things also with my mini skein – a bookmark, which I’ve already been using, and a small mandala that I’ve made a pincushion from. Both have great stitch definition and are firm in structure. I made my pincushion using wool fabric from Eliza Conway (a Yarndale purchase) and I’m delighted with both of my mini-projects. On Ravelry in Rachel’s group, there are lots of projects on the go with this yarn – often it’s mixed with something else, but it’s a great place to go and visit if you want inspiration. Link to Rachel's Ravelry group: http://www.ravelry.com/groups/daughter-of-a-shepherd 3. Magazine round-up (at 22.15 mins) Fay's overall favourite: Cowslip Parsley Garland from Simply Crochet issue 47, designed by Emma Mitchell. It's a free pattern download from Emma's blog: www.silverpebble.net Lynne's overall favourite: Lace Shirt from Love to Knit and Crochet issue 4. It's a button-down shirt with a scalloped edge on the cuffs and hem. A clamshell pattern creates a light and airy effect which is perfect for Summer. Simply Crochet – issue 47 Ravelry link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/simply-crochet-issue-47 Website Link: http://www.simplycrochetmag.co.uk/2016/07/21/simply-crochet-issue-47/ Fay's favourite: Cow Parsley Garland, designer Emma Mitchell, pg 98 Lynne's favourite: Freeform Floral Cowl, designer Jennifer May, page 83 Let’s Get Crafting – issue 83 Ravelry Link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/lets-get-crafting-knitting--crochet-83 Website Link: http://www.letsgetcrafting.com/ Fay's favourite: Mouse toys (knitted), designer Sachiyo Ishii, I have a pregnant friend that woudl love these for her daughter and new baby! Lynne's favourite: Hearts Garland, designer Kath Webber, pg 48 Crochet Now - issue 4 Website link: http://www.crochetnow.co.uk/ Fay's favourite: Flower Bedspread, designer Mrs. Moon, page 36 - this is beautifukl yarn to work with. Lynne's favourite: Candy amigurumi Deer, designer Irene Strange, pg 62 Love to Knit and Crochet - issue 4 Website Link: https://www.theknittingnetwork.co.uk/ Fay's favourite: Silky Vest Top, pg 33 Lynne's favourite: Lace Shirt, pg 34 4. A Crochet Journey - some tips on blocking your garment (at 26.30 mins) Like everything with crochet (and knitting), there are some aspects of blocking that are just a personal preference. Fay - in the main I wet-block by immersing my finished object in cold water with a small amount of soaking product, gently washing then very gently squeeze out excess water and roll in a towel before pinning out to required dimensions. You can see from the below photo that this can help to take out any residual (unexhausted dye). Lynne - in the main, I spritz (or spray) my work to the point that it’s wet but not saturated. I use a plastic spray gun (the type that you can buy for the garden - usually around £1), then I gently press the water into the fibres with my hands. I then pin out carefully, according to the dimensions of the pattern, and leave to dry. Sometimes I repeat this process if I feel it necessary. Even when a project is already the size you want it to be (pre-blocking), I'd still recommend blocking as it greatly improves your stitch definition and "sets" the stitches. I mainly steam block for cotton (I cover my project with a cotton cloth and hold the iron above and steam - do not touch the fabric with the iron). I also steam block fair isle items because it really sets the stitches nicely. After steam blocking, I pin out because it’s damp and leave to dry. What if I’m desperate? Sometimes I may be on a close call with a deadline – it could be 2pm in the afternoon and I’m still working on a project that needs posting that day – by 4.30pm – so I will always steam block just to make sure that the stitches look good for photography. If necessary I will use a hairdryer to dry it off before posting. A lot of people say don’t block acrylic as it’s not wool and therefore has no stitch memory – but I do block acrylic projects, just because it improves the overall appearance and stitch definition. I would mainly spray block acrylic but have been known to steam block (very carefully) when desperate. There is more risk with steam blocking as you can relax the fibres too much and your work can become very droopy and much bigger than originally made. I always sew my ends in first and then block, whereas Fay doesn't sew in her ends before blocking because she found that if she sewed her ends in first and then blocked, the tail ends sometimes shift and she would have little bits of yarn poking out which then just create more work to neaten them up again. When pinning out it is essential that you get your measurements right because if you overstretch the yarn then it’s ruined forever – yarn has a memory so once it’s set then it will spring back to that shape after washing. So be really careful when blocking, especially if using an iron. It really is a case of trying the method that suits you best given the yarn and project that you have made, but it is definitely worth it - see below! 5. Woolfest and Houston Fiberfest (at 48.50 mins) As you know we went off to Woolfest at the end of June. Whilst we were there, Tamara, one of the listeners to the podcast was at a yarn festival in Houston, Texas. Tamara kindly recorded some audio for us on the festival that she attended and we have some photos too. Woolfest: Houston Fibrefest: We have started a thread in Ravelry for you to add details on any yarn festivals that you have been to. Kerry listens in Australia and has just added details of the large Wool and Sheep Festival that she has been at in Bendigo, Australia. Feel free to add details of any yarn festivals that you have been to so that others can see what is available throughout the world. I have added some standard questions that you can answer if you need something to crib from. Tamara is on the left - thanks for doing the review! Here's Tamara's round-up from Houston Fiber Fest: Link to website: http://www.houstonfiberfest.com/ New companies that Tamara hadn’t come across before: Independence Farmstead Fiber Mill, an artisan mill service for the independent fiber producer: http://www.independencefarmsteadfibers.com/ Windmill Crest Farms near San Antonio: http://www.windmillcrestfarms.com/ There was a gentleman there had an industrial needle felting machine: http://www.feltcrafts.com/ Lucky Ewe Yarn in New Braunfels dye their own yarn which is called Wool Tree Yarn using natural ingredients: http://www.luckyeweyarn.com/ Things that Tamara bought: Brazen Stitchery Harmony Sock in colourway Team Gayle semi-solid in tonal shades of dark green: http://www.brazenstitchery.com/ Lazy cat yarns 2 x 50-gram skeins of Endurance - semi-solid – in shades of gorgeous teal: http://www.lazycatyarn.com/ Western Sky Knits, 2 variegated 100g skeins: http://www.westernskyknits.com/ Hedgehog Fibers is an Irish indie dyer. I was surprised to find Irish yarn in Houston. This festival was their launch at Park Avenue Yarns (a loyal yarn store): http://shop.hedgehogfibres.com/ http://www.parkavenueyarns.com/ Blind date project from In Skein Yarns, one of the local yarn stores. So fun! They were clear plastic bags with a label on the outside describing the project - The craft (I chose crochet), yarn weight, fiber content, the difficulty of pattern and type of project: https://inskeinyarns.com/ Shawl pin – from the Muddy Knitter: https://squareup.com/store/themuddyknitter Two mini Loomes spelt L-O-O-M-E and you can make pom poms, cords, tassels and weavings: https://www.theloome.com/ A funky necklace from Fiesty Fenn Fibers: https://www.etsy.com/shop/FeistyFennFibers Some tea from Independence Fiber Mill: http://www.independencefarmsteadfibers.com/ Didn’t buy but have ear-marked: Suzoo’s Wool Works: http://www.suzooswoolworks.com/ Inner Loop Dyeworks: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/InnerLoopDyeworks – I will definitely buy some more of her yarn – we stock her yarn at the store where I work which is very lucky but tempting at the same time http://www.nimblefingerstx.com Podcaster Suburban Stitcher’s project bags. http://suburbanstitcher.com/ I might buy a mini loom for weaving from Purl and Loop www.purlandloop.com All of Tamara's photos of Houston Fiber Fest can be found here: https://uk.pinterest.com/craftyescapism/ and you can also view her blog here: http://www.craftyescapism.com/ 6. Finished Objects (at 71.45 mins) Fay - Missed Kingfisher shawl was completed whilst in France with Jenny. Cowls for the book – testing more colours because I am thinking about doing them as a kit for Yarndale. Also, the items for the yarn review. One sock firmly in the HO pile! Lynne: Pincushion and bookmark from Daughter of a Shepherd (so pleased with both); mandala coaster for hubby (at his request) to put his mobile phone on at night; lots of commission projects, including a hot water bottle cover, a pair of fingerless mittens, a teddy, a lampshade cover, a set of crochet frames, a cushion, a pair of slippers, another pincushion and another couple of bookmarks - phew. 7. WIPs (at 79 mins) Fay - Simply Crochet wrap-over, Henslowe shawl, Nut-Hap (Kingfisher colours), Tardis cushion, Shorelines blanket, Baby Bird scarf, blanket for the booklet, John Arbon socks for a study on adding stripes to socks. I'm still at eight but there are so many things that I want to start! Lynne – I'm still at 14, but have started (and finished a few) so they didn't even make onto the list (which is good) and I probably won't be able to make a dent in this until after Yarndale. 8. Feeding the habit (at 91 mins) Fay – I thought I was really good this month and so, I bought some extra Rowan Felted Tweed to be able to do a Kingfisher based Nut-Hap. I also realised that I needed to get another skein of the Kalinka linen because it would look great with a contrast colour. Then I remembered that I had been to Woolfest... At Woolfest, I bought yarn from John Arbon and Ripples Crafts, some amazing Art Deco buttons and some woven fabric. It was also my Birthday so I am book rich – Fleece and Fiber, Erika Knight’s latest, a book on dyeing yarn, British Sheep Breeds and an old book of my Dad’s. Very lucky to have so many nice wool related books to go through in the next few months and enhance my reference library with. Lynne - At Woolfest I bought some John Arbon skeins (I love their mini skeins too), a couple of squares of handwoven fabric which is really lovely, some buttons for my cowl from Textile Gardens, and Emily Foulds kindly gave me a ball of WYS Signature 4ply from the cocktail range for my knitting book which I can’t wait to use. I have bought lots of yarn for kits and to test colours, but I don’t count work-related purchases as they go through the business. 9. Competition Time - Odeletta Shawl Give-away This month we have a give-away, kindly sent to us by Anna Nikipirowicz for her Odeletta Shawl Kit which contains everything you need to create your own shawl, including two balls of Rowan Kidsilk Haze, patterns, beads and a crochet hook. Plus a lovely teabag so you can enjoy a nice cuppa whilst you crochet. Thanks Anna! Anna's website is here: https://moochka.co.uk/ Find all the details for the giveaway here: http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-crochet-circle-podcast/topics/3468941 10. What’s Good (at 105 mins) Fay: This was meant to be my What's Good but I was so excited about it that I covered it off early! I just mentioned that my Dad gave me one of his books. It is a very special book that was my absolute favourite book when I was little. It is the Observer’s book of Farm Animals. I was born in 1977 and the book came out in 1976 and was given to my Dad by friends when we moved from Wiltshire to Caithness in the North of Scotland in early 1978. It used to fit in the pocket of my pinafore and I would spend ages pawing through the different breed photos and memorising them. I even wrote in the front of the book to amend it to say “Fay - it is to Fay” so that I could lay claim to it. Needless to say, the book is battered and the spine is being held together with masking tape and love. It is delightful to have something in my possession that brings back nice memories and until recently I had completely forgotten about. It clearly influenced and shaped the person I have become. So my What's Good became the excitement for going to interview John Arbon down in Devon - it really was good! Lynne: Really enjoying natural fibres at the moment – you can definitely feel the difference and there are lots of affordable natural yarns out there that are well worth a try. I’ve been using Wendy Ramsdale which is about £3.50 a ball for 50g and the colours are lovely as well as the texture and feel of the yarn. I’ve used if for hats (only takes 1 ball to make a child’s hat) and also for my cushion (6 balls, so less than £24) for the yarn. Also Erika Knight British Blue is £4.20 for a 25g ball – a bit more expensive but well worth it when you can make a nice cowl with just three balls - so that's £13 for a cowl made with British yarn - where every step is traceable. Remember cotton is also a natural fibre and you can buy Rico Cotton Aran for less than £2 for 50g. I’m not saying I don’t use acrylic as I do because some projects have to be really affordable but there are some lovely yarns out there that may cost less than you would expect. Happy listening and 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

love spotify texas australia uk france british moon dad north irish scotland daughter blind magazine stitcher habit san antonio feeding endurance lazy mouse loop deer heb podbean shore observer fiber wool tardis yarn knit wiltshire crochet shoreline fleece bendigo art deco kingfisher new braunfels farm animals fos baby birds ravelry shawl wips rrp purl hebridean kalinka caithness emma mitchell finished objects erika knight yarndale henslowe john arbon woolfest rowan felted tweed

POMCAST 25 - with mini Edinburgh Yarn Festival interviews

Play Episode Listen Later May 30, 2016 66:23

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!

edinburgh yarn festival pomcast eyf pom pom quarterly john arbon dianna walla

Stitched Together Video Podcast Episode 28 - Honking Big Shawls

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 10, 2016

As always, show notes can be found at www.stitchedtogether.co.uk. Come and join the conversation on the Stitched Together Podcast & Patterns Ravelry Group board.Stuff and ThingsSelf Indulgent Craft-A-Long (#STSICAL2015) started on Christmas Day and runs to February 29th 2016. The thread will be locked when I get up and get online on 1st March. The CAL is for anything new and exciting that makes your heart sing after all the responsibilities and hard work of the run up to the end of the year, so it shouldn't be a WIP.Prizes were all kindly donated and are:A project bag from Knit and Stitch Bits..The Wool Barn Alpaca Sock (grey) in the Denim colourway. The is a sock/4ply weight yarn, comprised of 70% Natural Light Grey Baby Alpaca/20% Silk/10% Cashmere and it weighs 100g and has 400m/436yds.From a generous viewer, who wishes to remain anonymous, The Uncommon Thread, Silky Merino Fingering in the Pern colourway. The yarn is a sock/4ply weight yarn and is comprised of 75% Superwash Merino/25% Mulberry Silk, it weighs 100g and measures 400m.Enter a photo of your FO in the thread before it is locked. One entry per person. You must be a member of the group.Chat is very welcome over in the group.Done and DustedMy project for the #STSICAL was knit using 40% Alpaca/40% Merino/20% Silk from John Arbon that I spun as a worsted 2ply to get a heavy sock/4ply weight yarn. I got 740m from 216g. I made Eyeblink by Heidi Alander. Decided to unpick the bind off and the last wrong side row. I then knit 8 rows and then did a beaded bind off using the technique in this video, by YarnFairy. I like how this technique means there are no holes under the picots. I used Toho Metallic Iris Purple size 6/0 beads from JillyBeads.Eclipse by Lara Smoot using Yeomans Yarn Sport in the Birch colourway and The Yarn Yard Clan in pink.Refraction Shawlette Plus in DyeForYarn Sock BFL Superwash in the Wooden Treasure Chest colourway. The centre panel is made using some of the charts from Refraction Shawlette, with a different final chart.Regia Snowflake Color Socks in the 07709 colourway.Superwash Merino fibre, from World of Wool, that I dyed using Wilton's Food Dyes, I spun it as a worsted 2-ply and the resulting yarn was 282m/308yds of sport weight yarn.KraftyKoala merino silk fibre, was spun as a worsted chain-ply yarn. It measures 124m/136yds of a worsted weight yarn. Fibre was bought in a de-stash and I don't think she is dyeing anymore.A LOT of blocked squares for my Sock Yarn Blanket, which is based loosely on Shannon Geddes' Sock Yarn Square.Nose to the GrindstoneKnitting Goddess Socks, my usual vanilla pattern using The Knitting Goddess 4ply merino nylon that I got at Fibre East 2014. I don't think she uses this base anymore.The Doodler by Stephen West was the 2015 MKAL. I am using Countess Ablaze Lady Persephone Sock in the Persia colourway, Eden Cottage Yarns Pendle in Steel and The Yarn Yard Clan in Waverley. I referred to a great set of tutorials by jkimisyellow, which were really helpful.I've been prepping some Heavenly Wools New Zealand Halfbred Wool Roving in the Dragon's Breath Over Natural Grey. I have 200g and want to spin it as a true 3-ply. It's mainly a merino breed with 24.5 micron count.Splashed OutMy first Fat Squirrel Bag (I think it's a Small Wedge).20g Mini Skeins from Sara's Texture CraftSome bargains from EasyKnits; Lush in Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Smoke in Dabloon (150g skein) and Twinkle DK in Berry.Unwind Yarn Company Journey Sock (150g skein) in Jimmy Angelov.Fondant Fibre Winter Wonderland Rolags.Online CommunityKatya Frankel is holding an Anything Goes KAL from 20th February to 20th March over in her Ravelry Group, and is offering a 20% discount on all of her self-published designs from 8-29 February with the code anythinggoeskal.I really like her new shawl pattern Sidereal but I might join in with the Vector pattern from Flatland.

world sports united kingdom smoke christmas day prizes nose chat steel crafting eclipse decided spinning persia silk clan video podcasts lush online communities birch wool denim sewing vector knitting knit fo patchwork merino fibre wip crochet alpaca cashmere quilting pern dusted grindstone honking doodler flatland waverley pendle sidereal stephen west shawls ravelry group stitched together mkal superwash merino mulberry silk sock yarn blanket eyeblink katya frankel john arbon countess ablaze mini skeins unwind yarn company fibre east eden cottage yarns easyknits heidi alander

Stitched Together Video Podcast Episode 27 - Itchy Nose

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 20, 2016

As always, show notes can be found at www.stitchedtogether.co.uk. Come and join the conversation on the Stitched Together Podcast & Patterns Ravelry Group board.Stuff and ThingsLara Smoot kindly offered to give away a copy of one of her most recently released patterns, Journey to Atlantis, which was previously an exclusive club pattern on Miss Babs Knitting Tour. It uses around 500m of a worsted weight yarn to make. The winner was drawn at random using random.org and is Entry Number 2, ThisPianoGirl.Self Indulgent Craft-A-Long (#STSICAL2015) started on Christmas Day and runs to February 29th 2016. The thread will be locked when I get up and get online on 1st March. The CAL is for anything new and exciting that makes your heart sing after all the responsibilities and hard work of the run up to the end of the year, so it shouldn't be a WIP.Prizes were all kindly donated and are:A project bag from Knit and Stitch Bits..The Wool Barn Alpaca Sock (grey) in the Denim colourway. The is a sock/4ply weight yarn, comprised of 70% Natural Light Grey Baby Alpaca/20% Silk/10% Cashmere and it weighs 100g and has 400m/436yds.From a generous viewer, who wishes to remain anonymous, The Uncommon Thread, Silky Merino Fingering in the Pern colourway. The yarn is a sock/4ply weight yarn and is comprised of 75% Superwash Merino/25% Mulberry Silk, it weighs 100g and measures 400m.Enter a photo of your FO in the thread before it is locked. One entry per person. You must be a member of the group.Chat is very welcome over in the group.Done and DustedMy project for the #STSICAL was knit using 40% Alpaca/40% Merino/20% Silk from John Arbon that I spun as a worsted 2ply to get a heavy sock/4ply weight yarn. I got 740m from 216g. I made Eyeblink by Heidi Alander. I used 620m, which has left me with 35g/120m of yarn.Sockhead Hat by Kelly McClure, using left over Hilltop Cloud BFL/Cashmere/Silk from the Foolproof.Handspun Monster using 110m of Fondant Fibre Falkland Silk, a worsted weight yarn.Purple Kitty using Cascade 220 Superwash.Windward by Heidi Kirrmaier knit from Posh Yarn Miranda Heavy Lace (70% Alpaca, 20% Silk, 10% Cashmere) Barley by TinCanKnits in Cascade 220 Superwash.`Hobbledehoy merino/tencel in the Lagoon colourway was spun as a worsted 2-ply. I got 383m/419yds from 114g/4oz in a fingering/4-ply weight yarn.Nose to the GrindstoneRegia Snowflake Color Socks in the 07709 colourway.Orange Mittens using StarCroft Nash Island Light in the Lobster Bake colourway. I want to add a convertible top as seen in Stonybrook by Wendy Poush.Refraction Shawlette Plus has been frogged and re-started using extra increases and making the "wings" in stocking stitch instead of garter. Uses DyeForYarn Sock BFL Superwash in the Wooden Treasure Chest colourway.Spinning Superwash Merino fibre, from World of Wool, that I dyed using Wilton's Food Dyes, on my new spindle.Crafting Library750 Knitting Stitches: The Ultimate Knit Stitch Bible (UK Link) (US Link) Increase, Decrease (UK Link) (US Link)by Judith Durant.Splashed OutJust Ducky Handspun Pierced Heart Spindle made with Lignum tip, Black Ebony whorl, Padauk shaft. Weight: 1.2 oz/34g Length: 11 3/4”Hello Yarn Falkland in the Ghastly Silence colourway.Into The Whirled 50% merino/25% bamboo/25% silk in the 221b colourway.JOMA Yarn Cash-A-Rino (70% Superwash merino/20% cashmere/10% nylon) in the Humingbird colourway. 115g/4oz of fingering/4-ply weight yarn, measuring 371m/406ydsUnwind Yarn Company Journey Sock (80% Superwash merino/20% nylon) in the La Grande Jatte colourway. 100g of fingering/4-ply weight yarn measuring 365m/400yds.Countess Ablaze Lord of Silk DK (75% Falkland merino/25% mulberry silk) in the Nightmare colourway. 100g of DK weight yarn measuring 240m/262yds)

world lord united kingdom weight nightmare christmas day prizes nose chat crafting atlantis spinning silk video podcasts dk cascade wool barley denim sewing knitting ws lagoons itchy creativeasin knit fo patchwork merino foolproof wip crochet stony brook alpaca cashmere quilting pern asin dusted grindstone falkland windward serviceversion la grande jatte tin can knits lignum id asinimage superwash us link kelly mcclure stitched together format sl250 superwash merino mulberry silk eyeblink sockhead hat john arbon countess ablaze heidi kirrmaier judith durant marketplace gb unwind yarn company hello yarn heidi alander

Stitched Together Video Podcast Episode 26 - Merry Christmas Be Self Indulgent

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 24, 2015

As always, show notes can be found at www.stitchedtogether.co.uk. Come and join the conversation on the Stitched Together Podcast & Patterns Ravelry Group board.NOTE: For some reason YouTube thinks I broke Community Guidelines with my video so I've embedded the file from another source. If you have a clue what I did wrong, let me know! Stuff and ThingsEmily of the FibreTown Podcast has released a new pattern the Esther Belle Shawl and she has donated a copy of this new pattern to give away to a viewer. The original winner, JamieWalcott contacted me to say that as she had won something from the podcast so recently, I should draw again. This new winner, TESOROSTITCHERY is announced in this episode.Self Indulgent Craft-A-Long (#STSICAL2015) starting on Christmas Day and running to February 29th 2016. The thread will be locked when I get up and get online on 1st March. The CAL is for anything new and exciting that makes your heart sing after all the responsibilities and hard work of the run up to the end of the year, so it shouldn't be a WIP.Prizes were all kindly donated and are:A project bag from Knit and Stitch Bits. (The shop is closed until 4th January).The Wool Barn Alpaca Sock (grey) in the Denim colourway. The is a sock/4ply weight yarn, comprised of 70% Natural Light Grey Baby Alpaca/20% Silk/10% Cashmere and it weighs 100g and has 400m/436yds.From a generous viewer, who wishes to remain anonymous, The Uncommon Thread, Silky Merino Fingering in the Pern colourway. The yarn is a sock/4ply weight yarn and is comprised of 75% Superwash Merino/25% Mulberry Silk, it weighs 100g and measures 400m.Done and DustedPamela Stripes En Haute knit from my own pattern, using Posh Yarn Pamela in the I'll Get You My Pretty, The Door Just Opened For Someone and The Grass is Full of Stars colourway.Nephew's Barley Hat is by TinCanKnits and is knit from Cascade 220 Superwash in an unknown colourway.Nicole C Mendez striped socks, using my usual tailored vanilla sock pattern in Ringel Sockenwolle in the #135 colourway.Desert Vista Dyeworks socks in Viso The Fruits of Summer, a yarn from The Golden Skein club.Rusty Boat Trip Cowl in Artesano Alpaca Silk 4ply in the Creme Caramel colourway.Fondant Fibre Superwash Merino/Cashmere/Nylon in the Life's A Beach colourway. Spun as a chain plied worsted yarn to become a heavy worsted weight yarn giving 133m from 99g.Fondant Fibre Lina Rolags. The rolags were made from Alpaca/Camel/Shetland/Silk and spun as a woollen 3-ply to get a light sport weight yarn weighing 98g and getting 235m.Foolproof by Louise Zass-Bangham using handspun yarn from Hilltop Cloud. The fibre was BFL/Cashmere/Silk. In total I used 360m of the sock/4ply weight yarn.Nose to the GrindstoneSockhead Hat by Kelly McClure, using left over Hilltop Cloud BFL/Cashmere/Silk from the Foolproof.Regia Snowflake Color Socks in the 07709 colourway.Aisling Shawl by Justyna Lorkowska using Countess Ablaze Lady Lady Persephone Sock in the An Inveterate Dislike of Julia colourway and Count Cashmerino High Twist in the When Daylight Dies colourway. I have run out of yarn!Hobbledehoy Merino Tencel in the Lagoon colourway. It's been spun as a worsted 2-ply and I'm currently plying. I used my new spindle from AaronMakesStuff.PlottingMaking a Hitofude for my Mum using Artesano Alpaca Silk 4ply in the Lily Pad colourway. The bag I showed was from Shop Louleigh.My project for the #STSICAL is going to be knit using 40% Alpaca/40% Merino/20% Silk from John Arbon that I spun as a worsted 2ply to get a heavy sock/4ply weight yarn. I got 740m from 216g. I plan on making either Eyeblink by Heidi Alander or Wintermute by Melanie Berg.Crafting Library2015 Autumn Essentials: Flatland by Katya Frankel. This collection is made up of three accessory patterns; Tangent a pair of sport weight fingerless mitts, Tesseract a bulky weight cowl and Vector a worsted weight hat.Splashed OutAaronMakesStuff Acrylic and Aluminim Support Spindle with a Red Heart Shaft. It weighs 19g and measures 10 1/4".Fondant Fibre Falkland Merino in the Ginko colourway and Kinloch rolags made of Merino/Shetland/Silk.Pigeon Roof Studios 75% BFL/25% Silk in the Verdigris colourway. This is from the Glow Series.I also got Bye Brook Farm 100% Romney Batt from Sarah of FiberTrek ,Woolweb Farm Navajo Churro yarn and Starcroft Fiber Nash Island Light in the Lobster Bake colourway from my friend Debs.Online CommunityLara Smoot has kindly offered to give away a copy of one of her most recently released patterns, Journey to Atlantis, which was previously an exclusive club pattern on Miss Babs Knitting Tour. It uses around 500m of a worsted weight yarn to make. To enter, go to this thread and suggest a good yarn to use for this pattern. I'll draw for the winner of the copy of this pattern when I record Episode 27.Many thanks for the shout outs from podcasters about my Boat Trip Cowl pattern. I'm so delighted that this pattern seems to have been well received and that people are already posting photos of finished objects on Ravelry.

stars merry christmas united kingdom christmas day prizes nose crafting grass fruits atlantis mum spinning silk video podcasts viso online communities cascade tangent denim sewing vector knitting plotting lagoons knit patchwork merino foolproof wip crochet alpaca cashmere spun debs acrylic quilting pern tesseract dusted grindstone ravelry artesano bfl self indulgent community guidelines wintermute ginko lilypad kinloch verdigris life's a beach tin can knits superwash kelly mcclure melanie berg stitched together superwash merino mulberry silk justyna lorkowska eyeblink hitofude katya frankel sockhead hat john arbon desert vista dyeworks louise zass bangham hilltop cloud heidi alander

Stitched Together Video Podcast Episode 21 - Dyeing Fun

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 15, 2015

As always, show notes can be found at www.stitchedtogether.co.uk. Come and join the conversation on the Stitched Together Podcast & Patterns Ravelry Group board.Stuff and Things1 Year Pod-iversary prize was a skein of Wharfedale Woolworks BFL Lace in the Sea Jewels colourway. There is 800m/875yds from 100g. The winner was post 28, Sikuna from Berlin in Germany.Thank you for all the feedback provided in the thread, I will definitely try and film some spindling soon! There are a couple of videos that I recommend if you are interested in support spinning; Lori of Deerfield Creations filmed a good introduction and Lisa Chan filmed the video that finally made long draw spindling click for me.A spin-a-long (SAL) started on 1st September, using a minimum of 100g or 3.5oz of fibre and spinning at least 100yds/91m. The SAL will finish on 30th September. All other details, including prizes are over on the FO Thread. Please do not chat in the FO Thread. You can use #STSAL2015 on social media and on your project page.Done and DustedNuvem by Martina Behm in Wollmeise Lace-Garn in the Cu colorway. I used the border element from Viajante also by Martina Behm. Thank you to alwysknit, aka Eleanor for suggesting that. The video tutorial I used to do garter stitch in the round was this one.Into The Whirled 85% Polwarth/25% Silk in the Captain Tightpants colourway. Spun as a worsted 2-ply to produce a barber poled yarn. I got 356m from 118g at a fingering/4ply weight yarn.Superwash Merino Fibre from World of Wool - 135g dyed using Wilton 8 Colour Icing Set 226 g and white vinegar.Chester Wool Company Platinum HT Sock (75% Superwash Merino/25% Nylon) - 435m/100g. Dyed using the same colours as the fibre. Bluefaced.net is the retail arm of the undyed yarn selling company.Nose to the GrindstoneSeptember SAL - Hilltop Cloud 70% BFL/15% Cashmere/15% Silk, 100g in natural and 100g in Autumn colours. Spun on my Spanish Peacock bead whorl spindles.Toddler Blanket using Rico Designs Baby Classic DK in the Powder (038), Mauve (041), Dusky Pink (40), Anthracite (32) and Purple (16) colourways. Done using Treble(UK)/Double Crochet(US).Pebble Beach Shawl by Helen Stewart using Black Bunny Fibers Merino Silk Sock (70% Merino/30% Silk) in the Peek-A-Boo colourway.Crafting Library/Quest For KnowledgeHand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece: Dip-Dyeing, Hand-Painting, Tie-Dyeing, and Other Creative Techniques (UK Link/US Link) by Gail Callahan, The Kangeroo Dyer. I also have the Color Grid, which I got from Hilltop Cloud. I found out about these from an interview that Laura of Gynx Yarns from The Dyer's Notebook Podcast did with Gail.Playlist of videos I used when I was first looking at dyeing yarn.Splashed OutSara's Texture Crafts Romney fibre (500g) and Shetland fibre (200g). Sara has a 50% discount (applied at checkout automatically) on her "Fresh From The Farm Tops" at the moment.Babylonglegs Merino D'Arles fibre (200g). You can get the undyed natural fibre from John Arbon. Sarah has a discount on at the moment Add spin4yourlife to the discount box at checkout for a 15% off all Spinning Fibres.Online CommunityI've been watching some broadcasts on the Periscope app. I'm not sure if I'll ever record on there, but my user name is the same as for Twitter, stitchedtog.

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Episode 12: Knitting for Charity

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2015 35:25

What's going on, aka The Madness that is the Month of May:3 May: Love your Yarn Shop Day! Local events include Erika Knight at Nest (Friday night, give them a heads up if you're joining them), Debbie Bliss at Wild & Woolly and 10% off purchases at Knit with Attitude.9-10th May: Stephen West is teaching two classes at Loop in Islington - Knit a top-down shawl and Colour play the Westknits way!14th May: Knit a Tulip for ME Kick Off at Double Tree by Hilton London in Chelsea. The Nymphalidea shawl WIP - knit in Porpoise Fur fibre in the YFP and Clotted Cream colourways. 15-16th May: I Knit Fandango, Royal Horticultural Halls, London. We will be there at the Porpoise Fur booth - come say hi!15-18th May: Gwlana, a knitting retreat in Pembrokeshire, Wales with Brenda Dayne of Cast On and Felicity Ford of Knitsonik. The Mini-Marketplace on Sunday afternoon is open to the public, and will feature Triskelion Yarns, Purlescence, Beads by Laura and Hand Dyed by Kate. 16-17th May: John Arbon Open Weekend, South Molton, Devon.23rd May: A Yarn Story Grand Reopening! In their new digs at 128 Walcot Street, Bath BA1 5BG from 18th May.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. Vendors include A Yarn Story (with some Porpoise Fur fibre), Midwinter Yarns, John Arbon and Wildcraft.What we're working on: Rachel's gorgeous Windmill Bay Stole is finally off the needles! Rachel has completed not one, but two things - hooray! First up is her Windmill Bay Stole, 8 stinking feet of fingering weight alpaca lovelieness. There is much relief that it is finished. She's also finished a handspun shawl for the Porpoise Fur booth at I Knit Fandango - Nymphalidea from Knitty.com designed by Melinda VerMeer, in Clotted Cream and YFP (aka fluorescent yellow) Shetland. She is still working on Painted, and has started another handspun shawl - Penrose Tile by Carol Feller.Allison finished her Green Memories colourwork hat for the Yarn in the City Not-a-KAL-KAL, and has done some spinning, as she is about to start adding to her fibre stash in a monthly fashion with the Hello Yarn Fiber Club.Charity KnittingWe start off with the amazing charity knitting done by 2014 Great London Yarn Crawlers, who donated over 150 items to our charity partner Refuge. We will be collecting again for Refuge this year, so please bring any and all charity items to the kick off party at the Yarn in the City Pop Up Marketplace on 5th September.We also recently learned about AYME (the Association of Young People with ME), an organization that supports the estimated 25,000 children and young people in the UK who suffer from myalgic enchephalomyelitis, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. AYME is launching an awareness campaign called "Knit a Tulip for ME", with a goal of collecting one knitted tulip for every ME-affected young person in the UK in 2015. So far, they've collected 5,000 woolen tulips, and they are holding an official launch on 14th May at the Double Tree by Hilton London - Chelsea with a display of some of the tulips already contributed. The campaign also has a Justgiving page, if you'd like to make a donation. You can also email Jackie (scroll down for the email address) for the pattern and a sponsorship form. There are a number of other charity knitting opportunities out there, including Knit for Peace, which supports people in India, Pakistan and Rwanda. There's also a wealth of charity knitting groups on Ravelry, including Knit Aid UK, Charity Crafting UK, and the innocent and Age UK's Big Knit (love the smoothie hats!).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! Everyone is welcom to come join our Wednesday night knit group from 7-9 pm (or longer) at The Goat on the Rise, Clapham SW11 1EQ.Music credits (all available on NoiseTrade)Loneliness & Alcohol - Jars of ClayFierce Flawless - Ani DifrancoEverything You've Done Wrong - SloanStraight for Your Heart - Sarah Peacock

music peace local united kingdom events madness goat attitude wales projects pakistan loop refuge young people rwanda vendors tulips painted knitting your heart yarn knit wip beads chronic fatigue syndrome shetland justgiving fos doubletree ravelry pembrokeshire wips cast on may love wildcraft knitty ayme yfp clotted cream brenda dayne carol feller westknits debbie bliss erika knight felicity ford knitsonik john arbon

Episode 10: Recaps and Reveals!