Hello Crochet Circlers,
 
Welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes from Episode Seventeen - Festival of Finishing.
 
In this episode I cover: Wolf woman of Cheshire; Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2018; Old dog, new tricks; Festival of Finishing CrAL; FOs; WIPs; Feeding the habit; Big up and What's good?
 
This podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co. 


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1 - Old dog, new tricks
On the back of the 'standing crochet stitch' tip that Claudia from the Crochet Luna Podcast gave me.  
 
Eleanor kindly passed on links for the 'starting crochet stitch' which gives a new technique for starting a new row or possibly round in the same colour. Please ignore that fact that I referred to 'standing' crochet during the podcast, I meant 'starting' crochet. 
 
Eleanor's link was to a blog by Tamara Kelly from Moggly.com:
Starting dc (tr in UK terminology)
 
A little further investigation brought me to this site by Jessie at Home which also gives details for starting dc (sc in US) and starting htc (hdc in US).  
 
I have investigated the differences when you use this technique in rows but want to do more to see how it can be used in the round, if at all.  
 

 
I have pulled together a blog post on using the standing dc to show how to do it and the results that you get compared to the standard turning chain method.
  
2 - Festival of Finishing CrAL
Our latest along is the Festival of Finishing Craft Along.  The idea is that through the months of June, July and August you work with some of your crafting WIPs.  I now have two (cross stitch and knitting) that I want to work on and one to salvage.  
 
The graphic for the CrAL looks like this, and you will see it on Ravelry and Instagram.  
 

 
I have been thinking long and hard on the reasons that projects become long-term WIPs and why we consequently get hung up about them and can even begin to feel some level of guilt. 
 
Rather than add all of the detail into the show notes, I wrote a detailed blog about it instead.  It's full of pointers and will hopefully help you to view your long-term WIPs in a positive and re-energised way.
 
Grab a cuppa and take a look at 'Why you don't finish projects and what you can do about it'.
 
I would love you to get involved with the CrAL and share what you are up to within the Ravelry thread in The Crochet Circle Podcast Group or by using #FestivalOfFinishing on Instagram.
 
A pile each for: finish, frog, salvage or donate will really help you to work out what you could do with each project.  Three of my WIPs are now going to be heading off to the Blanket of Love and Hope project in Sweden to be sewn into a larger blanket and distributed to women that need a woolly hug - thanks Yael for telling me about the wonderful project that you, Emmie and Hedvig do.  
 
 
 
As an additional element, via my company Provenance Craft CoI am going to donate £1 for every finished object (that was previously a long-term WIP) that is added to Instagram using #FestivalOfFinishing, or added to the Ravelry thread.
 
The amount will be capped at £150 and I would LOVE to reach that target.  The charity that will benefit from the money is Knit for Peace. Here is what they do:
 
Our policy is to encourage people to give, whether it is time or money. So we set about finding outlets. We now distribute regularly to over 200 outlets, including hospitals, women’s refuges, refugee drop-in centres, prisons, community groups, and hospices as well as to developing countries. We send the knitting (and crochet) to where it’s needed. We also pass on donations of yarn and needles to enable people on low incomes to knit. The operation has grown organ