Navy mustard cream Episode 64 notes

Hello and welcome to Episode 64 of the Crafternoon Treats Crochet podcast, Nave mustard cream which is now live on YouTube.

I’ve gone back to adding sections to the podcast with headings so that I can add timestamps more easily.

0 – about 11 minutes: Intro and chat

As you will know if you watched my last podcast, I’ve been suffering from a lack of crochet mojo since before Christmas. Its not the sort of thing that you can get back by deciding to just crochet on so instead I’ve been exploring some other ways of being creative. I don’t think of myself as an artist in the sense of being able to draw and paint but many of the comments on Episode 63 made me think.

So in the last week I’ve been looking at some drawing tutorials on YouTube. The first channel that I’ve found really useful is by Camilla Loschbrandt. She hasn’t added any videos recently but I hope she will do more… the How to doodle a simple mandala is brilliant.

After watching, I was able to learn the technique and make a hand drawn mandala that I then added some colour to. By the time I had finished it I was already managing to control my pen better (just a cheap fibre tip writing pen) and I found this so relaxing and fun!

The other is by Amanda Rach Lee who has a very popular Bullet journalling channel, which has a huge following. She has separate tutorials on some of the doodles she uses as title pages for months – including one on lavender and one on sunflowers.

11 mins to about 13.30: Finished hat

The beta version of the pattern for the hat I made using my plant stew dyed yarn will be released very soon. I had a few technical difficulties with the editing this episode (there’s always something!) and that set me chasing my tail a bit.

13 mins to 21 mins: Sunflower moon

I’ve been working with some gorgeous Cheeky Chunky yarn from the Wool Couture Company and I’ve put together a cowl and fingerless mitt set that works up really quickly. This is where the navy cream and mustard for the podcast title comes from.

The pattern has just gone live on Ravelry – its the beta version and is currently being tested and tech edited. Its released at 50% discount so that you can have it early and feedback comments if you’d like to. If you are an experienced crocheter you won’t need a tutorial but I’ll be adding a full video tutorial via a link to the final version of the pattern.

The tutorial will show how to make the square motif, how to join them as you go and how to make the mitts and then finish the cowl and mitts with a simple border. I’m planning to make another set in a different colour way for the tutorial – I love the bold look of the navy cream and mustard but I was thinking about doing a combo with neutrals for the second set.

About 21 mins to 27 mins: Using DK double

I’ve also made a version using two strands of DK yarn held together. I chose Stylecraft Bellissima in Rio red and Crushed plum. It works up to a very similar size – I just added an extra round to the square motif – and it makes a very different look.

27 mins to 33 mins: Tortitude

A little bit more about the Sunflower moon mitts and why they are a bit more funky than I had intended!

33 mins to 40 mins: Diversity

This section of the podcast addresses and important and difficult topic – diversity in the knitting, crochet and yarn community. There has been a big discussion about this on Instagram in the last few weeks and you can find out more about it from Ravelry. They have set up a special thread which you can find here.

The thread has now been closed but you can read the background to find out more and then look through the comments if you want to explore the issue and what happened.

Very positive things have come out of the discussion and I am now much more aware of members of our community who are very talented and producing wonderful projects, patterns and products and who are people of colour (POC). A lovely group of creative people have opened a new account called @meetmakersofcolor (NOTE color not colour…) and makers of colour are using the hastag #makersofcolor to highlight their work.

I’m now following both the account and the hashtag and really enjoying finding loads of new and interesting accounts and people to follow and connect with.

The other great resource if you want to actively seek out makers of color to try to redress some of the concerns that they have had about being excluded, is Jeanette Sloan’s website. She has a page that is becoming a directory of makers of colour from all over the world and in different crafting areas. If you are a maker of colour who isn’t on there or you know a maker that you would like to see listed – get in touch with Jeanette. Its an ongoing resource that is going to be added to.

I’ll be following up on this in future podcasts and seeking to feature new makers that I find on this journey and I really hope that we can continue to work on being inclusive so that no-one who crafts ever feels left out, no matter what their colour, beliefs, background, skill, personal preferences and any other variable!!

40 mins to 50 mins: More shout outs

First a shout out to my lovely friend Claudia of the Crochet Luna podcast. I finally met Claudia at Yarndale and would have loved to have spent more time with her. She is so fun and enthusiastic. I was very honoured to be one of a very few people who got a Christmas card sent all the way from San Diego and just found out that its printed from her original artwork. I’m getting a frame!!!

This January I’ve also discovered Melanie Ham, a new-to-me but very popular YouTuber who does crochet tutorials and sewing tutorials. I learned more from her quilting for beginners video than I did in weeks of classes! She’s had some unexpected health problems in the last couple of months and needs a boost so if you want to explore quilting, subscribe and give her videos a go.

50 mins to end: Etsy, Patreon admin

The big news from this section is that I’m having an Etsy sale at the moment. I have lots of skeins of underweight or sole skeins left over and they are available at sale price. I’ll be adding more over the weekend.

If you want to explore my Patreon space and think about subscribing, please do. There are lots of posts, including some audio podcasts that are public so you can see what sort of content I’m uploading. Subscriptions are either $2 or $6 per month. All patrons also get all of my patterns for free – including the Sunflower moon cowl and mitts that feature in Navy cream and mustard 64.

Admin – please look at the bit right at the end to see if you have an unclaimed prize!

xxxxxx Kathryn xxxxx Thanks for watching