Episode 51 - Light

Crochet Circle Podcast

Hello there and welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes for Episode 51 – Light.

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; Quick News Beats; Big Up and J’adore.

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

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1 – Old Dog New Tricks

This month’s top Crochet Clan tip is from Stasia (Stasiacrochet on Ravelry and Instagram). Stasia has been on a real crocheted garment journey. She managed to make 13 last year and is already on her second of 2020.

We both struggle to make tops fit because we have actual boobs to fit into a garment. Stasia’s top tip is to rearrange some of the stitches from your back to your front. For example, if you are making a top-down raglan and you are supposed to have a starting chain with 40 chains for the front and for the back, you may have 38 for the back (-2) and 42 for the front (+2). I sometimes deduct 5!

If you are working top-down in the round then you need to do this before splitting for the sleeves and not from the beginning.

Designers usually say that your back and front are the same width but mine are about 13cm different.

This is a great tip if you aren’t a fan of the boxy sweater which tends to just hang straight off us big boobed people like a tent. You can make a smaller size, tailor it for your bust and create something more flattering. You just need to keep an eye on the arm length and bicep circumference though.

My top tip is to know what you are looking for when you are choosing a garment pattern. For instance, there are patterns on Ravelry that go up to 60” bust but are listed as a 4XL, there are also 5XL patterns listed that also go to 60”. It is always better to go by your measurements rather than a size option.

2 – Yarn review

I have written a full review for Yarnadelic by John Arbon Textiles (link) over at Provenance Craft Co. (link). It’s absolutely beautiful.

Image text: soft grey background with three skeins of squishy Yarnadelic wool. It has a base of blue with dark fawn brown heathered throughout the yarn. It shows quite a high twist in the strands and a beautiful blend of the colours.

3 – Final Destination

I have one little crochet FO from January. Needless to say, I have lots of stuff bubbling away that I will be able to share with you in the future. I am doing submitting some designs to magazines, partly because I really like working with an extended team and partly because it gives me a very firm deadline to work to, which is how I work best.

The quickly whipped up this mitten pattern to be able to review the Yarnadelic yarn. I’m not going to write up a pattern for them, but the knowledge gained will be used in one of my next designs, so you will see a similar-ish pattern from me in the future.

Image text: grey background showing on the right, a full mitten with rib and starting rows in Yarnadelic colourway 'Black Gold of the Sun' transitioning through some simple colourwork into the rusty orange colour that is Bracken from the Harvest Hues range. To the left is my hand, showing how the fingerless mitten fits.

I did finish my Dad’s knitted Icelandic jumper. I posted it on the Wednesday morning and he phoned me on Thursday night to tell me how much he loved it. He is a step closer to becoming Icelandic!

Image text: Double image. On the left is my white-haired Dad wearing his new Jon jumper with his hands crossed to show the details on the sleeves. On the right is the jumper on my mannequin. The main body is dark grey with colourwork at the bottom of the sleeves and the yoke in a gradient of greys into ash white.

The design is called Jon (link) and is by Hulda Hakonardottir. I knitted it using Lettlopi (link) in four shades of grey.

Before I sent it to my Dad, I asked Matthew to try it on to see what the shaping was like. He got his fingers about 3cm into the body of the jumper before he recoiled and refused to put it on. Matthew is at the other end of the wool softness scale to me. He loves lambswool, merino and Bluefaced Leicester and that’s about it. Luckily, I make up for it with my love of characterful wool.

4 – En Route

I have one crocheted WIP on the go and it’s another garment! I was given the Adelong jumper pattern (link) as a present by lovely Claudia Dingle and I happened to have just the right amount of yarn for it from my Christmas pressies. Of course, it’s mustard coloured.

I am using the Erika Knight British Blue 100 which is a DK weight yarn (link). It’s 100% British Bluefaced Leicester, 220m per 100g and I am using shade Mrs. Dalloway.

Image text: grey background with the beginnings of a mustard wool jumper. My hand is holding the remains of a cake of yarn on the jumper and a crochet hook can be seen in the top right of the photo. The jumper is ribbed and the back panel from the collar down is finished, ready to start the front panel from the collar down.

This is a really lovely, soft wool to use and it is crocheting up a dream. The pattern is by Deanne from Addydae Designs (link to IG account) and as you can expect from her patterns, it’s really well written and broken into bite-sized chunks.

Image text: yellow background with a washi-taped photo of Deanne wearing her version of her Adelong jumper in a steel grey. Deanne has on hand on her hip and is looking to her left, with mid-length dark blond hair falling down the front.

I am loving the top-down construction of this jumper. As mentioned in Old Dog, New Tricks, boxy jumpers don’t really suit my shape, so I am crocheting up a size medium so that there is less positive ease and I can make the most of my assets!

5 - Feeding the Habit

I obviously bought more of the Yarnadelic yarn because I am in love with it! I have six skeins and am currently knitting a jumper with it. I also got some mini skeins during a jolly to see Ewe & Ply's new shop in Oswestry (link). There was also some incoming new yarn from RiverKnits (link) which is destined for my next crochet designs.

Image text: Image 1 - grey background with a skein of Chimera yarn from RiverKnits which is a marl of blues and yellow, lying on top of a dark navy skein. In the middle is a hardback copy of Vanishing Fleece by Clara Parkes which has a bright green cover with a hand-drawn big sheep and a very small person riding on its back with a lasso. To the right of the book are three skeins of Yarnadelic yarn in colour Badi Da (mid steel blue/grey with a blend of mid-brown). To the top of the book is a bundle of mini skeins in pastel, sugared almond colours.

Image 2 - yellow background with a washi-taped photo of Becci and Markus from RiverKnits wearing their dye aprons. Bothe have glasses on and are smiling as they look straight at the camera.

5 – Quick News Beats

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

Saturday 22nd at 8pm (GMT) and Sunday 23rd at 9am GMT.

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 – I will be vending at the RiverKnits Open Day on the 7th March. It’s held at their dye studio in Weedon, Northants. All the details can be found here (link). There are even more vendors than last year, including Katie Green, Garthenor, Fruitful Fusion and many others.

3 - International crocheters. If you are interested in being on a list that I can pass out to dyers, yarn shop owners etc. that need test crocheters, then please email me: [e-mail]

6 - J’adore

I have just listened to Clara Parkes’ book Vanishing Fleece. It was wonderful and gave me a real insight into the wool industry in the US and where the concerns and issues are. It is a book worth reading if you are interested in how wool is processed and where the pressure points are.

I’ll be back on March 6th. Have a fab festive season!

Fay x

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