Crochet
Diving into a colour pool: Podcast episode 48
Hello Everyone and welcome to Episode 48 of the Crafternoon Treats Crochet and Yarn podcast. Here is the link to Episode 48: Diving into a colour pool – enjoy!
The first 8 minutes: introduction
I have my usual ramble on, mentioning the weather! So very British… In this section I do get to the point eventually and talk about my word for the year. Which, ironically, is FOCUS.
But seriously, I want to get into the habit of being mindful this year. That means focusing on one thing at a time, not dashing around like a lunatic trying to do five things at once and not doing one thing and thinking about five other things.
Its not an efficient way of working at it leads, in my case anyway, to a lot of disorganisation, stress and fed-upness.
So far, its been working really well and is one of the best New Years’ Resolutions I’ve ever made. I’ve stopped faffing and procrastinating so much, I’m fully focusing on one task at a time and I’m getting more organised. Its really working in my business life – I’ve had a couple of dyeing sessions, had an Etsy update and kept on top of all my orders while doing 2 full podcasts and a shorted video about the Etsy update. I’m really pleased that I managed to fit all this in, bearing in mind I have spent quite a chunk of time organising things for my kitchen refit.
I’ve also made sure that I get some quality crafting time. Being more organised means not working until silly o’clock every evening and I’ve been catching up on a lot of podcasts I’ve missed and I’ve finished three projects in the first three weeks of the year. I’m worried now that this is such a good start, will I keep it up?
Hopefully being mindful and more relaxed will keep me on track.
I’ve also invested in a piece of software called Evernote, which is great because its an online note keeping system that I can organise and add spreadsheets, pdf files, web pages and images to. And I can sync it between my main computer, my phone and my ancient laptop. If you want to check it out Evernote can be found here (this isn’t an affiliate link by the way, I don’t get any income if you go and use or buy it. Its just software that I’ve bought and find useful).
8 minutes to 17 minutes: Colour pool crochet cowl tadah!
One of the projects I’ve finished since the last episode is my colour pool crochet cowl. This is a free pattern on Ravelry by Esther Chandler and I’m thrilled that she has featured a photo of my finished cowl on her Ravelry pattern page…
This is the cowl in all its glory (I’ve tried inserting a video here, which is on YouTube but a private video so you can only access it through this page). I’m up for trying all sorts of new things this year, so let me know what you think!
I made the cowl to use up a special skein of Blue Moon Fibre Arts Socks that Rock yarn in the Maia colourway. I bought this lovely yarn from Loop last year, when I went to London with Clarisabeth of the CrochetCakes podcast to meet up with Emma of Potter and Bloom. I was inspired to make it to join in with the #oneskeinwonderlandcal currently being hosted by Fay at the Crochet Circles Podcast and Charlie at the Love Charlie podcast. Two great crochet podcasts if you haven’t checked them out yet.
The pattern for making a colour pool crochet cowl is very easy. Instead of a chained foundation, I started with a chainless UK dc foundation so that I had a cowl that was four complete skein repeats. I then worked linen stitch in the round (no slip stitch joins, just work in a spiral) just as the pattern indicates (this is a free pattern so I’m not spilling any beans!).
I had to adjust my tension a little bit at times and work linen stitch without the chain some times, just to keep the colours lining up. I did have a colourway with quite narrow bands though – this might not be necessary with a colourway with only a few, wider colour bands.
At the end, when I was almost out of yarn, I added a crab stitch border. This is called reverse single crochet in US terms. I added a chain between each UK dc stitch worked in reversed, to match up with the linen stitch in the main cowl.
17 minutes to 26 minutes: Happy post
I spend a few minutes showing the happy post I received from Fay (of the Crochet Circles Podcast) who also runs a small business called Knit it, Hook it, Craft it. She sources products that are as environmentally and ethically sound as possible and her crafting supplies are really good quality.
I bought a copy of the book that Fay and Lynn Rowe produced at the end of 2016, which I’ve wanted to get for ages. Fay kindly gave me another copy for a podcast prize. I also bought a Mini Pinny and got one donated as a prize too! Both of these will go into the ponchoalong prize pot.
26 minutes to 33 minutes: Ravelry
A small section about my renewed efforts to be more involved with the Crafternoon Treats Ravelry group and to get to grips with Ravelry itself, which can be an overwhelming and confusing site at times.
33 to 36 minutes: Giveaway winners!
The winners of the four prizes in the last episode are named in the podcast here, and below. I’ll also earburn you on Ravelry as I’ve worked out how to do that now! Thank you to the lovely folk who donated the pattern prizes – they are all gorgeous patterns.
As an additional bonus for my podcast followers, Phil of The Twisted Yarn is offering a special discount of 20% off her Game on Hat pattern until February 14th. Use the code CRAFTERNOON20 at check out.
- KrystalRain wins the Lilletind colourwork hat pattern designed and donated by Emilie of the Arctic Knitting podcast
- Annieold wins the Nordic star socks – a pattern for traditional Norwegian socks also by Emilie of Arctic Knitting
- Nicolaknits wins the Game Over hat pattern by the talented Phil of the blog The Twisted Yarn
- Delilahsamson wins the Dragonfly meets Butterfly shawl pattern by Alicia Baines
36 minutes to 46 minutes: Crochet course at Black Sheep Wools
An update on my course at Black Sheep Wools to explore Interlocking Crochet, also known as Double Filet crochet. Its a very interesting technique and the course was taught by Graeme Knowles-Miller who is a new, young knitting and crochet designer. He was lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed the course and the meet-up in the morning over coffee and cake with loads of lovely crafters.
I’m thinking of doing this pattern of Graeme’s which is free – its another lovely and small colourwork project, but the cowl has no shaping so a lot less complex than the Lilletind hat. I also think I might be able to make this out of the Purple rain and cream yarn I have left – a matching set! The pattern is free in Graeme’s Ravelry store.
I’ve also collected a few resources if you want to find out more about interlocking crochet:
- Tanis Galik’s website
- Tanis Galik’s YouTube channel
- Interlocking patterns on Ravelry
- Tanis Galik’s book about Interlocking crochet on Amazon UK
46 minutes to 54 minutes: The ponchoalong and my new poncho
I’ve finished my Blue Ocean Ponco in the Blue Ocean colourway of the Stylecraft Batik swirl yarn. Its lovely to wear and I’m pleased with how the cowl neck, border and colour changes worked out.
The ponchoalong runs until February 14th 2018 and I’m opening it up a bit so that you can enter any poncho you’ve finished by then – as long as you started it since June 2017. I’ll be updating the thread in the Ravelry group with the prize details in the coming week.
My Desert Irony poncho pattern is available on Ravelry and if you quote the code Ponchoalong25, you can get 25% off until Feb 14th.
54 minutes to 1 hour and 4 minutes: Out and about
The main news is that I’ve decided to go to Edinburgh Yarn Festival again this year! With my friend Nicola and we are going to have a great break away. If you are going I hope to get to meet you and have a chat!
I’m also going up to Darlington on Saturday 12th May to a Knitting Retreat organised by Ann of @droppedallthestitches on Instagram. It runs from the 11th to the 13th May and Nathan Taylor of the Sockmatician Podcast will be teaching a course on the Double Knitting Technique and lots of other courses are on offer too. The venue is a lovely hotel, so this will be a proper weekend away with just over a dozen like-minded crafters.
Booking is open now. Places are limited to 14.
I’m not doing any of the courses but I’m attending on the Saturday just for a few hours and bringing some of my hand dyed yarns and stitch markers – a sort of mini-trunk show. But mainly I’ll be taking my crochet and going for a natter!
1 hour and 4 minutes – to the end
A tiny bit of news about my Etsy shop and my new yarns. I’m also having a sale until Jan 31st 2018 with lots of bargains to be had. The podcast also includes news of an extra discount code for podcast viewers for any laceweight yarns.
I also tried another experiment this week; a short video about my Etsy update. I did run into technical difficulties with the lighting and the camera so my hair looks BLUE! I haven’t had a blue rinse, promise!
Hi, Kathyrn! Such a good podcast with all sorts! Wishing you all the best on your FOCUS-full new year! My own word for the year is NOURISH–better nourishing all the good and different ares of my life, health, spirit, etc. Much as I enjoy traditional journalling, in the past year or two I’ve gone over to digital note-keeping. I use the Notes app on my iPad and it’s made a great difference in me keeping track of all things, and getting things accomplished! It’s been great to see you more at Ravelry in the group! 🙂 Like you, I want to make more of the Needles and Stash functions too. And I’m very glad to join your mod/admin team and help out! Hope all goes well with your kitchen reno–look forward to seeing how it goes! Thank goodness for yarn crafts to keep us sane in such times! 😉
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