Episode 57 - I'm Back!

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 57 – I’m Back!   

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: Yarn Review; Final Destination; En Route; Quick News Beats and Big Up.   

This podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co. 

Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, 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 – Yarn Review

I was approached by Blacker Yarns (link) to see whether I wanted to review their new Birthday yarn.   

Blacker specialises in British breed yarns that are spun at their sister company, The Natural Fibre Company in Cornwall, so that makes it a “yes” from me.

All seven shades are very much in my colour palette of teal, aqua, mustard and neutrals. 

Available in both 4ply and chunky, both weights are woollen spun and have a nice, even, medium twist to them. 

It’s soft to the touch, plump, with a nice amount of elasticity. 

Even though Cove is woollen spun with a medium twist, it was a real pleasure to work with.  I didn’t get any real fibre tangles on my hook and even though it’s a medium twist, the wool rarely split on my hook.

I used the 4ply mini skeins to make stationery pouches and a new clutch purse for all my design bits and bobs.  The chunky mini skeins were crocheted into coasters.  I also used the 4 ply scraps to make partial Dorset button hoops for all of the items to hang from. 

I always like to sum up yarns that I am reviewing in five words:

plump, seaside, soft, heathered, natural

Things that I would use Cove for are:

Garments, shawls, cowls, gloves, mittens and homewares.

If you would like to read a longer review on Cove, I have written a blog post (link) with more supporting photos.

2 – Final Destination

I thought that a pod holiday would bring about lots of extra crafting time.  Nope.  I still have a few finished things though.

First up is the glorious Stormy Rainbow Blanket which is in Issue 127 of Inside Crochet (link). You can get a digital copy by following the link.  I used the 12 x 20g mini skeins that I dyed up at the RiverKnits mini skein dyeing workshop.  The blanket also needs 3 x 100g of 4 ply yarn.  I used RiverKnits BFL in colourway Steinchen.  If you wanted to make something very similar, Becci and Markus have pulled some minis kits together with the option to get the 3 skeins of Steinchen (link).

I also made all of the bits and pieces for the Blacker Yarns Cove review.  The little stationery holders are a pattern that appeared in Issue 125 of Inside Crochet and were designed by Lucy Djevdet. 

I used the same stitch pattern for the purse and put a simple zippered pouch inside it.

I also made two Croix Coasters and that pattern came from the Modern Crochet book by Debrosse.  I won’t go into more detail about that now because I am pulling together a review of that book.

My other finished object is the Textures Tee V2 by Tina - Tigers Eye Handmade (link).  I made this in Erika Knight Studio Linen which I have had in my stash for a number of years.  I really liked this pattern because it includes stitch alterations for people with boobs, you can play around with the length, pull it in at the waist – basically make it a made to measure garment. 

I’m not sure that Studio Linen is going to continue to be available, but you can get it at Ewe & Ply (link).  I used the dark grey colour, Remnant.

Evernote project pages: Stormy Rainbow (link), Hanging Storage (link), Croix Coasters (link) and Textures Tee V2 (link).

3 – En Route

My one work in progress at the moment is my Encanto Wrap by Claudia – Crochet Luna (link).  I’m not far into the project, so will report back on it next month.

I am using some gorgeously soft 100% alpaca yarn by Brenel Alpacas (link)that I bought in a yarn shop in Aukland, New Zealand a few years back.  It has been waiting patiently to become something gorgeous and it wants to be an Encanto Wrap.

4  – Feeding the Habit

My order came from John Arbon Textiles!  I have five skeins of Another Friday Night and two skeins of Mossy Bog.  Both were Open Weekend Specials, so now unavailable. 

I am busy dreaming up what I can make with them. 

5 – Quick News Beats

1 - Global Hook Up – The September hook ups are on:

Saturday 19th at 8pm BST and Sunday 20th 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 – The show notes have been given a bit of a refresh.  They look a bit classier and should be even more readable.  They are in the same location, I have just been playing around with the themes.

3 – Crochet Clan has 100% moved over to Mighty Networks as our community hub.  It’s free to join, very intuitive and much more fun to use.  If you want to come and take a look, just follow this link: 

https://crochet-clan.mn.co/share/qXbA1tZnaHSae3Ek?utm_source=manual  You will have to sign up to Mighty Network but it is free of charge, is available as a mobile device app and a webpage. 

I have locked down all of the threads in Ravelry and will no longer be adding podcast or project content over there. 

I still have my designs on Ravelry and frankly am not in a financial position to remove them from that platform.

4 – The new home for my project details is Evernote.  You will see in this month’s podcast show notes that projects now point to my Evernote links and that is where you will get all the details like yarns used, gauge, hook size etc. 

I also intend to pull together a Monthly Makes blog which pulls back to these Evernote pages.  The thought process is that I can cover off a wider range of my crafty endeavours through a monthly round-up blog.  It will likely include anything I have sewn, new food recipes I have worked on and any natural dyeing I have done.  I will provide a link to the Monthly Makes blog in every podcast.

I promised to put up my Potato Salad recipe.  It is already on Might Networks but here is a link to my Evernote on it too (link).

5 – For the longest time, I have a real issue around using things like Ko-fi and Patreon accounts.  Well, I finally got over myself. 

Many people want to be able to support creative people like me with their endeavours.  I think most of you recognise the amount of effort I put into the podcast and some of you want to be able to support that creative work financially.

So, I have set up a Patreon account and it has three Patron tiers:

Lace weight - £3 a month

Sport weight - £5 a month

Worsted weight - £10 a month

There are all sorts of benefits available for supporting me, which you can see here.  Best of which is that Patrons on all tiers get the podcast (video and audio) a full 24 hours early, so Thursday at 10am rather than the first Friday of the month.

I cannot tell you how much of a difference your support makes to me.  This will most likely be the thing that stops me having to get a part-time job and allows me to keep on putting that time and effort into the podcast and reviews and Mighty Networks.