Six CALs for Fall 2017

I thought I'd do a little CAL round up this week because we have a few starting this month including my very own - the Back To School Sweater CAL!! I just LOVE a good crochetalong . Check out my post 5 Reasons to Join a CAL in my blog archives! 

1 Back To School Sweater CAL
I'm hosting this CAL (the accompanying blog hop is already underway) with Helen of Making at Number 14! It starts on the 16th of September and runs for 8 weeks until 17th of November. All the details are on my CAL page on my website here. You can chose to make any crochet garment and a few enthusiastic folk have started already!!  We're using the hashtag #BackToSchoolSweaterCAL to share our progress on Instagram and there is chatter in Fay's Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry group here. 

2. Spotting Clouds Top CAL
Clarisabeth from the Crochet Cakes Podcast is hosting a Spotting Clouds Top CAL. This top is designed by Christina Hadderingh who designed the extremely popular Hotel of Bees Shawl so I know the pattern will be well written because I've made this shawl. It started on 21st of August and runs until 14th of October so there is still time. You could make this one for your Back to School Sweater CAL... that's a possibility!! The details and chatter are here in the Podcast Ravelry group.

3, September Shawlalong 
Hannah from the Cozy Cottage Podcast is hosting a shawl crochetalong called the September Shawlalong which runs for the months of September and October. I'll definitely be joining in with this ...  and I may well be double dipping with the next CAL on this list. But I am also very tempted by the crochet version of the Wonder Woman Wrap designed by Clarissa Browning who also designed the knit version. And I still haven't made a Blurre Shawl and I really want to.  The chatter thread for the shawalong is on Ravelry here. Hannah is also going to be running a Tunisian Crochetalong with Claudia from the Crochet Luna Podcast and I believe Claudia will be talking about this in her podcast this weekend. Another CAL to look forward to!

4. #CAKECAL
Emma from  the Potter and Bloom podcast has a shawlong (well it's actually a stolealong rather than a shawl) with a pattern that she designed herself Liula which runs through September and October. Emma's stole is a beautiful stitch pattern and uses a color changing cake of gradient yarn hence the name #cakecal. Here's the chatter thread in the Potter and Bloom Ravelry group. I just watched Emma's most recent podcast and the CAL will run for an additional two weeks to a month to give everyone a chance to buy their yarn. 

5. #HiddenTempleCAL

Rohn Strong has a crochet sock CAL running in collaboration with Happily Hooked Magazine which started just yesterday, September 1st. There is a Happily Hooked Crochet Along group on Facebook to join. The design looks lovely. I am a total sucker for crochet socks so I might have just have to join in while I wait for my CAKECAL yarn!!

6. Welcome Blanket CAL/KAL/QAL

This CAL/KAL/QAL (is a quilt along called a QAL?) is already running and the dates to get your blankets sent off by has recently been extended to November 4th. The blankets are currently being displayed at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago. When the show ends all of the blankets will be given to refugees and immigrants to welcome them to the US. We moved here five years ago and were made to feel very welcome in Texas so I feel that this is a good craftivism cause to participate in. Further details (and patterns) are here. I'm using one of the designs but rather than crocheting squares and joining them together I am making a tapestry crochet blanket in two colors with tassels at the sides (see the photo).

Anyway I'd love to know if you're joining in on one or more of these CALs and if there are any more CALs going on please add these in the comments for us all to see. Have a wonderful week everyone!!

Listen to the Audio Podcast

Announcing the Back to School Sweater Crochet Along

I'm hosting my very own crochetalong this autumn! Yay! I do hope you'll join in!! My friend Helen, fellow British yarn enthusiast and blogger suggested we organize a crochetalong together to spread the crochet garment love. How could I refuse!!!?? The crochetalong, or CAL for short, runs for 8 weeks from 16th September to 17th November.  We also invited some other British crochet bloggers to join us in an accompanying blog hop focusing on different aspects of crochet garment technique. These weekly blog articles start before the CAL on 26th August so we'll all be ready to go mid September!! 

Introducing our group of bloggers:
@craftyescapism - that's me, Tamara, crochet teacher and blogger at CraftyEscapism
@knitithookit - Fay from the Crochet Circle Podcast, owner of Knit It - Hook It - Craft It
@heleneccles1 - Helen, crafter and blogger at MakingAtNumber14
@jojotwinkletoes - Jo, crochet is her thing, at JojoTwinkletoes
@mrsdaftspaniel - Marta, crochet designer, blogging at MrsDaftSpaniel
@samsimplemelody - Sam, crochet designer and tech editor at SingASimpleMelody
and last but not least:
@thecrochetproj - Joanne and Kat at The Crochet Project, designers blogging at TheCrochetProject

And our Blog Hop schedule in brief is as follows:

We will use the hashtag #BackToSchoolSweaterCAL on Instagram and Fay from the Crochet Circle Podcast is hosting a thread in her Ravelry group too. The chatter has already begun so please do visit the thread! We have also shared a few patterns we have made and enjoyed in a Ravelry bundle if you're looking for a little inspiration! Prizes and discount codes on patterns will be revealed in Fay's next podcast which will be available Friday 4th August so make sure you tune into The Crochet Circle Podcast then!

Listen to the Audio Podcast

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

Spring Crochet Guild of America Crochetalong

I've started a new CAL (crochetalong), the gorgeous Sargassum shawl, so I thought I'd let you know in case you'd like to join in. I love CALs for many reasons (see my blog article 5 reasons to join a CAL). There are a number of techniques in the shawl which may be new to you including foundation single crochet, puff stitches, linked double crochet, chainless starting double crochet and setting beads! The last two in this list are new for me! The designer is the talented Pia Thadani of Stitches & Scraps. I have made a fair few shawls but I have three skeins of ocean colored yarn in my stash just wanting to be turned into the Sargassum shawl. Here they are freshly caked ready for swatching...

 

I would really like to win any of the three prizes. My favorite though has to be the book A Garden of Shawls by Karen Whooley. I'm a big fan of Karen and was one of her test crocheters last month for her latest fabulous sock pattern. Love crochet socks!

The first part came out this week but there is certainly time to join in with the giveaway deadline of May 22nd over six weeks away. It's running as a Craft Guild of America (CGOA) Spring 2017 CAL AND also in the CAL Central Crochet group so the ways to stay notified are: the Ravelry CGOA group, the Ravelry CAL Central group, the CGOA CAL Facebook Group and the CGOA blog.

I'll personally be adding the blog to my Feedly app to keep up and using the hashtags on Instagram and Twitter #CGOACals and #calcentralcrochet to share my progress. Do let me know if you're joining in!!

Overlay Crochet technique

I couldn't help myself from jumping on the CAL (crochetalong) bandwagon again. This time I'm making a bag (or purse as they call it here in Texas) designed by the wonderful crochet designer Tatsiana Kupryianchyk aka Lilla Bjorn Crochet  from the Czech Republic. I'm on part five and having such fun learning another new technique - overlay crochet. 

In one of my recent book purchases Crochet Master Class (I wrote a book review here) there is a section devoted to this technique by Melody MacDuffee. She writes:

"I had always wanted to create something in the medium of crochet that looked like a mandala or stained-glass rose window. When I eventually found my way into this technique, I knew I was there."

The book describes Overlay Crochet far better than I could:

"densely textured cable crochet with color changes on every row or round...long stitches cover up horizontal rows or concentric rounds behind them...unwanted ones disappear like magic"

Tatsiana's CAL pattern is well written with very clear photos and video support. And I'm extremely impressed that this CAL has been translated into Dutch, German, Spanish, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, French and Hebrew. Following the hashtag #peacocktailbagcal I can see versions of this bag being made all over world. So cool! I find myself leaving comments "beautiful", "wonderful colors"... and wondering if the recipient can read English but Instagram helpfully has a translate function.

In my mind I can visualize overlay crochet as the perfect technique for a Christmas tree ornament. And Tatsiana has three gorgeous ornament patterns for sale. My favorite is her Starry Dream design.  Now if I can resist another CAL I might just make some as gifts.

Have a great week y'all and please do let me know if you've tried overlay crochet before or if you're feeling tempted!

 

A serious case of crochet sock startitis

I have developed a serious case of sock startisis. In case you're not familiar with the term here's the Urban Dictionary definition:

Startitis: noun - Repeatedly starting new projects while still having multiple uncompleted projects.

 

Melanie is plagued by startitis. She frequently starts knitting something new rather than finish her other incomplete projects.

 

 

 

I am definitely making great progress on my summer mission to find the ultimate crochet sock pattern and I'm learning SO MUCH about socks but I now have five socks started but not completed. It feels a little excessive.

Sock #1 is the Survival Socks pattern that appear in an earlier post of mine The Hunt for the Ultimate Crochet Sock Begins and I'm working on this with one of my students in the weekly workshop I run on a Friday at my local yarn store. And I'm almost there. It's a toe up design and I'm just finishing off the cuff ahead of my student so that's fine. 

Sock #2 is the current most popular sock on Ravelry coincidentally called the Ultimate Crocheted Sock (with an -ed) by Dorothy Hardy. This time the pattern called for an extended single crochet stitch and I just LOVE how stretchy this stitch makes my sock compared to single crochet. However, still being the sock novice I need photos really and there was an error in the pattern which threw me a bit. And something odd happened with my gauge - the sock is huge. (I have since discovered that I need to make the sock 1/2 inch to 1 inch smaller than my foot circumference because this stitch will stretch.) #2 has been abandoned.
 
Sock #3 is above. It's from Karen Ratto-Whooley's absolutely super book I Can't Believe I'm Crocheting Socks which I bought recently. It's the cabled sock and I'm using Premier Yarns Wool-Free Sock Stripes yarn in the Phoenix colorway purchased from Hobby Lobby. I had intended to make a basic sock from Karen's book. She has both cuff-down and toe-up basic sock patterns in the books. But all of my sock stash is in fingering / sock weight and the patterns call for DK weight. It would be more sensible to start with thicker yarn and a bigger hook and work down to fine yarn so I can see the reason for the yarn weight choice. The basic sock patterns have extremely good photo tutorials with differently color coded parts of the sock. Looking at these I was able to visualize exactly what happens at different parts of a sock. For the cuff down pattern there is the cuff, leg, heel flap, heel turning, gusset, foot and toe. SO helpful!

The most recent socks that I've started #4 and #5 are not entirely my fault because I am working to someone else's deadline - Rohn Strong has a July sock crochetalong (sock #4) and also started a sock club this month (sock #5) which I couldn't really resist.

Well better get back to the socks..... Hope your week is going wonderfully!!