Hello my lovelies!
 
Welcome to The Crochet Circle Podcast and the show notes from Episode Nineteen - Sweater, socks & woolly wool.
 
In this episode I cover: Old dog, new tricks; FOs; WIPs; Review of The Crochet Sock Collection; Festival of Finishing CAL; #BackToSchoolSweaterCAL; Feeding the habit; Big up and What's good?
 
This podcast is sponsored by my online crafting company, Provenance Craft Co. 


Thanks to everyone who tunes into the podcast whether it is through Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, iTunes or the YouTube Channel. Your support and engagement are really appreciated and makes running a podcast very special and worthwhile.   
If you would like to support the podcast, you can do that through Patreon:

1 - Old dog, new tricks
I know that you should really swatch for each project, but if the meterage to weight ratio is the same or only slightly different then I tend not to and that's a mistake.
 
I have now made the Hove Beach Bag in two different yarns. The first is Erika Knight's Gossypium Cotton which is 100% cotton and 50g/ 100m.  The second is Yarn and Colours Charming which is 68% cotton/ 32% acrylic and 50g/ 102.5m.
 
On face value, they are very similar yarns but when crocheted into fabric, they are very different.  The Gossypium Cotton has very little give to it and so doesn't really condense down when crocheted.  In contrast, the cotton/ acrylic mix does and this makes for a denser fabric and therefore, smaller finished object.  
 
The 100% cotton had 18.5 sts and 21 rows over 10cm whereas the cotton/ acrylic mix was 21 sts and 24 rows over 10cm.  
From now on in I vow to look at the make-up of my yarn as well as the weight/ meterage ratio, particularly if one of the substitute yarns is a blend.
 

 
2 - Finished Objects 
I have a handful of large-ish FOs this month. 
I showed the beginnings of my Fronds Shawl by Joanne Scrace using Touch Yarns Possum/ Silk / Merino in last month's podcast and I worked on it furiously on the journey back from our holiday, finishing it off as we were driving down the side of Loch Lomond.
 

 
The pattern is easy to memorise and grows very quickly. Whilst the yarn was lovely to work with - it is very, very soft - the colours just aren't for me and so my friend Jenny will be the recipient of this shawl.  This also marks bag five of six of my Stash Bingo project, so I am very happy that I am using up some of my older stash in projects.
 
I also managed to finally finish off some things for the Festival of Finishing!  The TARDIS cross stitch was finished just before we went away and then I made it up into a cushion when we got back.  I learned a few new skills in making the cushion (mitred corners and piping) and was using YouTube videos for tutorials.
 

 
The TARDIS cross stitch is by StellarSpaceCraft on Etsy and I used DMC thread 311.  
 
I was encouraged by Crochet Cavalier to rescue my dog tapestries from the charity shop pile and do something with them.  After an hour or so of pondering, I finally fell on the idea of making pincushions.   I cut up two tapestries to make five-pin cushions that will be sent out to lovely friends that will put them to good use.  
 
3 - Works in progress
Last month I talked about doing a yarn comparison on the Evesham socks because I have already crocheted one pair. What I have discovered is that my tension has changed since I made my initial pair and so I have frogged the little that I had done.  
 
Instead, I am going to make four pairs from Step into Crochet by Rohn Strong.  The four pairs will come from two separate patterns, one toe up and one cuff down and they will all compare yarns to see whether there is a difference. This will also allow me to give you a decent review of Rohn's book in a couple of months and assess the yarns that I have used.
 

 
 So far, I have a sombrero for a very small teddy bear!
 
4 - Book Review - The Sock Collection by Vicki Brown
Two very lovely listeners, Anna and Hayley have become a little sock obsessed.