Episode 18 - Shear Joy

Hola Crochet Circlers!

Welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes from Episode Eighteen - Shear Joy.

In this episode I cover: Old dog, new tricks; FOs; WIPs; Festival of Finishing CrAL; Feeding the habit; Big up and What's good?

This 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 spent the last two and a half years winding cakes of yarn wrongly because I didn't read the instructions or the wording on my ball winder. That would be nearly three years of rubbish yarns cakes giving me yarn barf.  Well, no longer.  I now wind my yarn anti-clockwise and get beautiful cakes to make up for my inability to read instructions!

Try it - you may also have been winding yarn the wrong way...

Loose is clockwise and actually gives a tight cake of yarn(!).

Fasten is anti-clockwise and gives a squidgy but structured cake of yarn.

2 - Finished Objects 

I have a few finished objects this month, even though the squares below don't look like FOs, they definitely are. 

These squares and rectangles are heading off to Yael for the Blanket of Love and Hope

It was a very cactus based episode!  Cynthia was a free kit in Simply Crochet Issue 59.

Kipper socks from Pom Pom Quarterly Issue 1 re-release using Life in the Long Grass sock yarn in club colourway Chlorophyl.

Hove Purse by me (Fay Dashper-Hughes Designs) which is a free pattern to help you test out your intarsia crochet skills, crocheted in Erika Knight Gossypium Cotton (Mouse, Iced Gem and Pretty) & Netherton Pullover also from Pom Pom Quarterly Issue 1 re-release using Artesano SW Merino DK (no longer available).

The Hove Beach Bag will be released on the 10th July and available as free of charge pattern from the 10th - 31st July to celebrate my 40th birthday!  Just search for Hove Beach Bag on Ravelry. 

3 - Works in progress

I have a few WIPs on the go but am mainly concentrating on my Festival of Finishing cross stitch and starting off some easy 'in the car' type crochet projects for our epic road trip to the Outer Hebrides. 

The TARDIS cross stitch is by StellarSpaceCraft on Etsy and I used DMC thread 311 & Evesham Socks by Joanne Scrace using Regia 4 Colour.

Fronds Shawl by Joanne Scrace using Touch Yarns Possum/ Silk / Merino and the wet felting that Jenny and I did at the Fleece to Felt Day by Good Day Out.

4 - Festival of Finishing CrAL

The response to this CrAL has been fantastic!  I love that so many of you have been ruthlessly going through your crafting cupboards and using this as an opportunity to frog, donate, salvage and finish. Some of you didn't think you had any long-term WIPs and still found projects to finish off! 

 If you are just hearing about #FestivalOfFinishing for the first time I suggest that you start by taking a look at this blog post 'Why you don't finish projects and what you can do about it'.

I would love you to get involved with the CrAL and share what you are up to within the Ravelry thread in The Crochet Circle Podcast Group or by using #FestivalOfFinishing on Instagram.

A pile each for: finish, frog, salvage or donate will really help you to work out what you could do with each project.  

As an additional element, via my company Provenance Craft Co, Claudia at Crochet Luna podcast and Caroline (also fo the Fibre Friends Podcast) and Kathy at Evertote, each FO you have under the Festival Of Finishing is now worth about £2.37. The charity that will benefit from the money is Knit for Peace.  

5 - Feeding the habit

See the sewing bobbins bag with Fronds shawl photo in WIPs.  This is by Sarah Hazell - she is also an amazing cr