I know I said no more CALs, but I’m not hosting this one, Claudia from @crochetluna podcast is.  Claudia’s back with Season 5 of her podcast and she is running a Stash busting  CAL throughout the month of October and she asked me to be one of the featured designers! 

So, if you fancy joining the CAL, it starts today the 1st October and ends on the 31st.  You have to pick a pattern from one of the following designers: @faydhdesigns @zeensandroger @thecozycottagecrochet @crochetcakes @nadiratani @doraexplored @hgdesignscrochet 

Michelle @doraexplored has written a pattern round-up blog post.

Rosina @zeensandroger has also written a blogpost and offered a offered 25% discount code.

Hannah @thecozycottagecrochet has a 15% discount on her patterns in her Etsy shop using the code STASHBUST15

@crochetluna

Whether you want to use up oddments of yarn from other projects, lots of the designers have patterns that will suit.  My patterns are more suited to using up those special skeins of yarn that you are very wedded to or pulling together three special skeins that work together into one project.  

I’m going to work on a Scandi Stashbuster Beanie hat by Michelle from Dora Does.  It uses linen stitch and I have a ball each of Outlaw Yarn Bohemia in petrol green/blue yarn and a mustard yellow that will look great together and are deeeeeeeeeep stash.  So deep, I bought them in New Zealand about 6 years ago! All the details are on my grid in Instagram and on Claudia’s too and in her podcast.  

So, I have been a busy little bunny this week, pulling together a blog post "How to hold multiple strands to make a new heavier weight yarn". I used a heavy laceweight yarn up to a heavy aran/light chunky weight yarn for the research and crocheted many squares.  

There is no reason why the research wouldn’t apply to knitting too.  From the swatches, I can see if there is a difference in the size when I use 2, 3 or 5 strands to make a heavier weight yarn.   The best accuracy in terms of size and drape always came from matching the yarn weight and meterage perfectly.  

For instance, holding 2 strands of a 400m per 100g grams, nicely replicates a 200, per 100g yarn.  Not only were the meters and grams used very similar, but the drape was also similar. Having tested over the different yarn weights and with different numbers of strands, my thoughts are the most accurate way to strand to create heavier weight yarns is to:

• Use as few strands as possible.  A 200m per 100g aran weight yarn is best made by double stranding a 400m per 100g 4 ply yarn.  It is absolutely possible to use multiple strands of laceweight yarns to make heavier weights, but the more strands you add, the less likely you are to get gauge and I think this is down to the fact that the multiple strands aren’t plied together. 
• You can mix and match yarn weight strands together.  An aran weight yarn of 200m per 100g can be created by holding together 1 strand of 400m per 100g 4 ply and two strands of 800m per 100g lace weight yarn.
• The way a yarn has been manufactured will change how thick, thin or drapey your final fabric is.  Worsted yarn is much smoother and mainly what I sued for testing.  If I had used woollen spun yarns, different results would have been gained because the fibres in woollen spun yarns lie in different directions, creating a plumper yarn.  I found that this was also the case with singles (twisted yarn with just one strand).
• Yarn blend will always play a part.  The introduction of silk, alpaca, acrylic etc. will always create a different fabric.  To get the closest match possible, stick as closely as possible to the suggested yarn in the pattern.

A full blog post with suggestions on how may strands are needed for different yarn weights can be found here. 

I also want to say thank you to my lovely Patron supporters.  Your monthly support allows me to undertake this sort of research.  The work behind this piece has taken me three days to pull together from swatching, recording, investigating to blogging.  I don’t do things like extra videos for Patrons, because I think research like this is far more helpful in the long run.   If you are interested in supporting these endeavours, you can see my Patron tiers here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This wasn’t meant to be a new design, I was just working up a sock for my bestie and really liked the outcome.  The yarns were specifically chosen for Jenny because she is VERY fussy about colours.  The bright pink is what we call ‘Jenny pink’ and the turquoise is another of her favourite colours.  All this means that the sock pattern is going to be called ‘Fussy Fox Socks’.  

The yarn is from Weku Yarns and is called Pink Me Up.  The mini is also from Weku Yarns but was unnamed.

From Sweater Weather in Farnham Maltings I bought: 

Skeins of BFL twist from The Wool Barn in shades Waterfall, Walnut and Chestnut. 

Skeins of Garthenor Beacons in 4 shades of Tuscany, Baked Crimson, Koi and Blazer. 

The pink and turquoise from Weku yarns. 

A skein from Fruitful Fusion in Ishrat’s DK weight and colourway Denim.    

From Frome Yarn Collective – now called All About The Yarn: 

I found a new dyer called Kissi Hand Dyed Yarns in the colourway Silver Birch.    

From Yarndale I bought: 

One of the handwoven yarn project bags that is a collaboration between RiverKnits and Hana at Broughs Handmade.  I wanted one of each of the three colourways but settled for the blue and rust because it matches my lounge and bedroom and pretty much my life! 

I have been keeping my beady little eye on Jess at Olann for a good while now.  She has set up a mini mill and has been processing fibres there for the last year or so.  I have been looking at it online but really wanted to get up close to the wool.  I had a good chat with Jess, and obviously I bought some of her Merino, Irish-spun wool.  I will keep on checking out her spinning adventures from Cavan, Ireland. 

I also collected a load of yarn from Riverknits to make a knitted version of my Stormy Rainbow Blanket.  It took a wee while to get the colours right, but we ended up with what I think is Scotland in yarn form with 12 minis and 3 full skeins of Silbermond.  When I got home, my copy of Moorit mag had arrived alongside my skein of Riverknits 4ply nene in colourway Erntedank.  

Unlike and ice-cream binge, none of this made me feel sick!

Alyson has done an amazing job to elevate crochet and show it off for what it can be.   

I also had the opportunity to see how people were reacting to the samples at Sweater Weather and Yarndale.  There was a mix of disbelief that it was all crochet (predominantly from beginner crocheters and knitters) and utter excitement that a new wave of crochet had landed.  It was an absolute pleasure to see and hear those reactions.    

So, here’s to Alyson for being an absolute crochet superstar!    

That is it from me. I will be back on the 5th of November.