Episode 37 - Feeling Festive?

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 37 – Feeling Festive?

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

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1 – Old Dog New Tricks

Today’s Old Do is all about fixing crochet when a hole appears in it.  My friend Lisa went to put on one of her crocheted shawls and discovered that somehow there were two ends poking out that was once a fully formed stitch.  She wasn’t sure how to fix it, so I said I would have a go. 

On investigating the shawl there were a few areas where loose ends were showing and one knot.  I don’t know what caused the yarn breakage but suspect one of three things:

1 – moths

2 – the shawl was trapped in a drawer or door at some point

3 – the yarn has worn at particular points (it was skinny single merino)

The good news is that you can fix crochet, the bad news is that I don’t think one method fixes all.  With Lisa’s shawl, she provided me with her leftover yarn (always a good reason to keep some spare) and I knew that the broken stitches were quadruple trebles. 

Key to fixing these holes was spit splicing new yarn onto the tiny ends of yarn that were poking up.  If you have never spit spliced before, it is a wonderful way of joining two ends of yarn together and works particularly well with wool or yarn with high wool content.  You can do it with superwash yarn, but it may take a bit more effort for the splice to take.  If you are new to spit splicing, here is a link to a YouTube video on how to do it.

Ensure that you are joining to the loose piece at the top of the row so that you are starting from the correct height.  Do the same with the bottom strand of loose yarn so that it won’t unravel further and weave this end in so that it is secure.

Go back to the newly spliced yarn at the top of the row and crochet the missing stitch as per the pattern.  I finished by adding a slip stitch to really bed the new stitch in.  Weave in the end.

If you don’t have enough yarn to do a spit splice, you may be better of tying a knot in it (this will likely create a puckered area in your work though) and then try to felt the two ends together (like the spit splice but without cutting any of the plies out).  This should help to secure the ends which you may be able to weave in and tidy up. 

2 – CAL Updates 

I haven’t recorded it yet, but hopefully, this weekend, I will have announced the #SockCAL winners on Instagram, Ravelry and possibly a YouTube video (time allowing).

Charlie and I are colluding again on a Christmas Eve CAL.  At any point on Christmas Eve, you can start a new project.  Last year we did it as a One-Skein Wonderland CAL and this year it is up to you what you make and with how much yarn.  The bundle is still up in the Ravelry group from last year, so if you need some inspiration for one skein projects, go and take a look. 

As usual, you can crochet, knit, weave, do whatever yarn-based craft you please.  This is all about having a chilled-out project that you can work on during the Festive Season and the month of January. 

The CAL starts on the 24th December 2018 and ends on Sunday 27th 2019.  It is going to be a very chilled out CAL, mainly because I am flat out at the moment and don’t want to over-commit myself again. 

Use #ChristmasEveCAL and #ChristmasEveCALFO to show off your projects and finished objects.

3 – Final Destination

Do you remember me saying that I was going to get time off in November and that I was going to finis