Festival of Finishing CAL

I wanted to let you know about a fabulous CAL (crochetalong) that's coming up over the summer. It's called the Festival of Finishing CAL and it's being organized by my friend Fay of the Crochet Circle Podcast. Fay has kindly provided me with the graphics to use. Thank you Fay!

I think it says it all. The CAL runs from June 2nd to August 31st and you basically get out all of those unfinished projects (it could be something other than crochet ... knitting, sewing or whatever...) and get them finished. You can also frog them. I like that idea. I'm not scared of frogging at all. Sometimes I wear something several times and decide I don't like it and make it into something else.

Of course there is sharing to be done on Instagram. I have so much fun looking at the hashtags. The hashtag is #FestivalOfFinishing and there is a going to be a CAL specific thread on Ravelry too. I am very excited about this. I have a sweater that I must finish. I am in the final stages, on the arms, but I've become hopelessly distracted by other projects... again. I started it last year. And at the beginning of the year I was telling myself this was going to be the year of the crochet garment and I am running out of time. It's just not happening!

There is also a charity element to the CAL which I love. For every FO (that's finished object) that hits the Ravelry thread or is added to the #, Fay is going to donate £1 (around $1.30) via KNIT IT – HOOK IT – CRAFT IT (that's Fay's business) to Knit for Peace up to a total of £150 (almost $200). So that's the target 150 FOs in the lists by the end of August!  £150 donated to Knit for Peace would help to deliver over 750 knitted and crocheted items to people that need them in the UK and abroad.

So we will be feeling great after finishing projects at long last and also doing a little bit for charity at the same time. Lovely!

So start looking in all of those places where you know there are unfinished projects hidden away. You've got just over a week and join us for the Festival of Finishing on Instagram by using the hashtag and/or on the Ravelry group thread from June 2nd.

Listen to the Audio Podcast

Mainly hooking bobbles

All week I've been working on my new woollen diagonal bobble blanket inspired by Tamara Kelly's Blackberry Salad Striped Baby Blanket. The repetitive hooking of little bobbles is just what I need right now. The bumpy texture under my fingers is wonderful and the color combo pleases me so much! It's going to be hard to send away but I will remind myself it is for a good cause. 





As you can see though, I am definitely going to run out of yarn. I am woefully short of the required 36 inch height. I am down to two colors and the darker fingering weight wool I am having to double up. I'm adding rows to both top and bottom to keep the middle stripes as symmetrical as possible. I'm only going to get halfway with what I've got.

I visited yarnsub.com (SUCH a helpful site) and found out that my main bright colored yarn is discontinued and am currently working out suitable substitutes. The super online store Jimmy Beans Wool has free U.S. Flat Rate and First Class International shipping during February and a great selection. What great timing! I will return to my crochet garment-making (the Tunisian Entrelac crochet top) while I wait for more yarn to arrive...or perhaps read my latest book Top Down Crochet Sweaters by Dora Ohrenstein which came in the post this week. Yes, I ordered it at last. How exciting!

Anyway until next week, craft on my friends x

A home for my woollen charity projects

I made a really exciting discovery this week. My fortnightly Yak and Yarn charity crochet group meeting was coming up. This always spurs me onwards to activity so that I can go to the meeting with something to contribute: a new pattern for us to try out, some completed products to donate... you get the idea.

 

Anyway, we have a sweet new member who is super keen and getting through my donated yarn stash at high speed. The softest acrylic is almost gone and there is just the itchy type left. I have an issue with working with it. I'm not quite sure how I become so sensitive to scratchy yarn but I do think that some of it is related to living in a warmer climate. When it's humid and you're feeling a little hot the fibers do chafe. I've gone soft since I moved to Texas. Another theory of mine is that I have been exposed to far too much gorgeously soft wool in the yarn store where I teach. Soft AND spoilt!

I do have some donated wool in my stash but the local charities we crochet for prefer items that are machine washable. My wool is hand wash only. But this week I found a charity, the Warm Hands Network, that actually prefers wool because it's warmer. The projects go mostly to Northern Canadian children. There is a Ravelry group too which of course I've joined. The garment I was talking about last week has been put to one side and I've started on a blanket of approximately 36" x 36" dimensions.

I do adore the bobble blanket that I made back here and I found this diagonal bobble striped blanket on Ravelry: The Blackberry Salad Striped Baby Blanket by the rather marvellous Tamara Kelly of the Moogly Blog. I'm guesstimating about having equal quantities of orange and brown colors. I should really just make the calculation and figure out how much I need but I'm missing a yarn label or two and I find it oddly entertaining examining the yarn as I go along wondering if I have sufficient. We all have our quirks! The bobble stitch pattern IS rather yarn hungry and when I look at the picture above it doesn't seem to add up. I may need to supplement to complete it but that's OK. And time is on my side because there are two main shipment dates and I can't possibly make the closest date Jan 30th.

I'd love to know if you know of another charity that accepts wool and/or if you have a charity project on the go... just comment below! Have a wonderful week y'all!

Christmas & charity crochet hats

Occasionally I come across a pattern which I adore and just want to make over and over again. It's called Reversible Strands and has been favorited on Ravelry almost 8000 times so evidently other hookers are loving this pattern as much as me! The swirling lines of the cable / front post stiches are very pleasing to me.

At my charity crochet group Yak & Yarn we have decided to move onto making hats for the homeless this winter as well as scarfs so I was looking on Ravelry at crochet men's hat patterns and came up with this one. The designer, Nancy Smith, is particularly talented with crochet cables. Looking at her website, NLS Stitchings, I discovered that she is friends with the amazing Margaret Hubert and has two stunning patterns in one of Margaret books which is also one of my favorite crochet books: The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet (2nd edition) 

I haven't exactly followed the pattern, I almost never do, but I am very happy with the resulting hats that I will give as gifts. The bright one is for one of my dearest friends in the UK and I made a more manly one for my brother. I will make more with my Yak & Yarn group for charity.

Crochet cables seems very on trend right now. The Fall edition of Interweave Crochet focuses on crochet cables with 10 cable projects and even tutorials for those new to cables from experts.

I have also flicked through a copy of the recently published Celtic Cable Crochet by Bonny Barker in the yarn store where I work. The Lavena Poncho on the front cover is even making the knitters want to learn to crochet! It is fantastic!

Let me know if you've been making anything with crochet cables recently. And have a great week y'all!

Happy Birthday to Yak and Yarn

My crafting group Yak and Yarn is one year old this month. And we are going to eat cake and celebrate!

We meet at a local café twice a month (one day time and one evening meeting to cater for all). We have three core members. I am know as The Fearless Leader which makes me smile because if you know me I'm very relaxed. I set the dates and let people know via our Facebook group and email list. I also research pattern ideas for our group projects.

Audrey is our Head of Charity. I started the group just as a meet up with no particular mission other than fellowship for yarn lovers. Then Audrey was asked for blankets for a local charity and so our joint projects began. After the blankets came the scarfs for the homeless and then baby blankets for a third local charity. Making things together has really brought us closer as a group and given us a sense of purpose. But there is no judgment if someone is working on their personal project instead.

Roxanne is our Head of Recruitment. She has been doing an awesome job asking her friends and neighbors to join us and even teaching her friends so that they can take part too.

As for the other members we have a real mix of nationalities: American, Kiwi, English, Scottish, Indian, Russian, Italian, Canadian.... apologies if I've missed any of you. Houston is a very culturally rich place. Our youngest member is 12, a daughter of a member, and our oldest is in her 80s, the mother of a member in Indiana (satellite members are welcome to join). People come and go and that is fine by us. Life is busy and priorities change. But I feel confident our group will continue ... 

PS The pattern for this adorable slice of birthday cake by crochet designer Donna Childs came from the most recent 10th Birthday Collector's Edition of Interweave Crochet.  The yarn store where I work has just starting stocking this magazine. I am SOO happy. It's just marvelous!

My new volunteering role

This week I am feeling really excited about starting a new volunteering role at local charity The Community Cloth. This charity has been on my radar for quite some time after seeing a neighbor's daughter in the cutest crochet poncho imaginable made by these ladies. The catalyst to making contact was seeing press coverage of the plight of Syrian refugees in Europe in recent weeks. I asked myself "what can I do personally that will make a difference?" I spoke with their program manager this week about how I could help their Artisan Team and I'm giving my input on pattern ideas already.

About The Community Cloth

The Community Cloth is a microenterprise initiative empowering refugee women in Houston. It targets economic, educational and social goals through the provision of seed grants, training, and peer support, and by expanding market opportunities for refugee women artisans. It supports them in creating and selling handmade, indigenous arts and crafts such as woven bags, knitted scarves, household items and more. Through producing and selling their wares, the women have an opportunity to express their culture and heritage, learn new skills that will assist them in transitioning to life in the US, and obtain much-needed supplemental income. All of the proceeds go directly to the artisans and the program.  Most of the women involved to date are mothers; some are widows or are the only working member of their families. Purchases of The Community Cloth products help refugee women provide for the basic needs of their families as they work to establish new lives in Houston.

Yak & Yarn group growth

Last week we had our first daytime yak and yarn meet-up. Since we began in March it has been one Sunday evening a month (with the summer off) but we have members who live further afield and so to accommodate we have doubled our monthly meetings to two! Wow!

Rather remarkably lapghan #13 originates from Indiana (yes - Y&Y has gone national!). One of our daytime members taught her mom how to make our square while visiting and returned recently to find her mom had completed 63 squares, enough for our blanket. Love this story. It just warms my heart! And I am finishing up the joining of lapghan #14. It's a patchwork design this time since I have the final squares in many different colors.

We still have worsted weight yarn left over so we are making scarfs for the homeless using this rather nifty pattern I found online by Evelyn Mayfield on her blog Prayersncrafts. The half double crochet stitch is sturdy but hooking into the back of the loop gives the scarf a pleasing stretchiness. Simple but effective - my favorite kind of pattern.

And our next project (#3) will be baby blankets comprised of classic granny squares in a lighter sport weight yarn using a 4mm hook. I have written out the pattern since there isn't an original designer I can attribute the first granny square to. I am a big fan of the humble but versatile granny square.

Laphans for Yak and Yarn

Our Yak and Yarn group which only began in March this year has been having so much fun making lapghans together for local charity Angela House as our first joint project. And if my calculations are correct we are putting together number 14 currently. Yay!

I have been taking photos of each one before delivery to the ladies but I lost photos clearing my cellphone so I am missing some. I thought they were on the cloud but alas no. I lost photos of the two quilts made of fantastic African material by one of our talented Y&Y members. Technology can be a tad annoying at times!

Anyway, here are the photos I managed to salvage of early lapghans and the most recent beauties we have made. We made single crochet 5 inch squares using a cardboard template and for the majority of the lapghans added an edging of single crochet and single crochet joined the squares together.

 

Charity square edging

Away this weekend with family and friends staying in rustic cabins on the edge of the Big Thicket National Reserve. Found a little time to work on my current charity lapghan project. I am edging lapghan #8 in black and pale turquose before joining with a slip stitch in the latter. We have almost reached our goal of ten lapghans after just four Yak and Yarn meetings. Yay! Fortunately I am not the sole joiner of squares in our group so the pressure is off and I'm working at a leisurely pace. I have heard that joint square making projects often founder and stall when joining is left to one person!

Joining crochet squares

I have a short attention span always having to move onto some new project so with the charity lapghans I've been exploring the fastest way to hook them together. I'd prefer to hook than sew. So my first lapghan was a two-stage process after sewing in the ends: single crochet around, then single crochet together.  However this creates a ridge on one side which was not pleasing to me. For the latest one I used a single crochet to first, chain 1, single crochet to second, chain 1 join making a feature of the join and since my squares differed in size and stitch number with different contributors sometimes I could lose a stitch by single crocheting in the same space. The end results is fab (see charity lapghan #5 in my previous post). Have managed to recruit a second joiner to the group who can offer me a little respite. I  need a break!

Great week for completing projects

School is almost out and I'm in the mood for finishing projects off. Finally added my Attic24 cosy blanket edging at long last AND finished the joining and edging on charity lapghan #5. Yay!

Cowls for charity

It's been a while since I've posted but recently I've just completed a knitted cowl and crochet cowl for the Mission Stitchers who sell items at the annual Hearts and Hands holiday market using donated Glisten Kollage gray sparkly yarn. Patterns were Purl Ridge Scarf by Stephen West and Morticia Chevron Cowl by Erin Chastain-Harris. I'm pleased with both and wonder if they are a little too modern for the event.