Dealing with moths in your stash

Dealing with moths in your stash or woollens

Luckily, I don't have moths in my stash.  I rather suspect that if I ever found them, I would be paranoid every time something airborne was spotted in our house.  My 'Stash Palace' is rather large and has been lovingly curated, so the idea of finding moths or their carnage makes me uneasy.

Moths are attracted to quiet, dark places like your yarn shelves or woollens drawer.  They like to feed on ceratin, a protein that occurs in natural fibres and human hair/skin.

I have come across and engaged in quite a few chats about deterring and killing moths and so here is my list of things that you can do whether you want to deter them, or protect your stash like a ninja.  

1 - Use lavender as a deterrent

Moths are scent sensitive and do not like the smell of lavender.  I have mini lavender pouches in my crochet and knitting project bags.  In my Stash Palace, I have little sachets dotted around in the skeins and little crocheted containers with dried lavender flowers in to make sure that the lavender scent is everywhere.  I also have lavender sachets in my shawl basket and in my woollens drawer.  You would be amazed by how many people protect their stashes, but not their finished objects.

I add these little sachets into my woollens drawer you can buy them from

KNIT IT - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT

Every now and then I fumble the sachets so that more of the essential oils with the dried lavender flowers are released and the scent continues to be present.  I also do this with the lavender in my crochet containers.

I also have a lavender kitchen surface spray which I use to clean down surfaces in my Stash Palace as an extra layer of lavender scent. 

This English/French grown lavender is great for making your own handmade sachets - £3.50 for 100g from KNIT IT  - HOOK IT - CRAFT IT

Lavender will not kill moths, but it is a very good deterrent!

2 - Move your stash around & wash your woollens

By rummaging through your stash every now and then and going through your woollens drawer, you can disturb adult moths and discourage them from settling and laying eggs.  This is also a good opportunity to look for signs of moths and you should be looking for:

• Small white fuzzy spots - this means that you probably have larvae on your items and you need to take action.
• Small holes in your items, remember to check the items thoroughly including underarms and collars.  Again, if you see holes, you need to take action.

I tend to wet block all of my projects.  I do this because every time I do, I am amazed by how much dirt comes out and it allows me to wash the project with lavender Eucalan which adds another layer of lavender scent into my woollens. Lavender Eucalan has lavender essential oil in it but doesn't have an overpowering lavender smell when you wear your garment.  

Moving your stash/woollens around will not kill moths, but is a deterrent.

3 - Freeze your stash

If you suspect that you have moths or have bought yarn and want to ensure that you aren't bringing moths or their larvae into your home, then you can place your yarn into Ziploc bags and freeze them.  Freezing the yarn kills the moths and larvae and therefore protects your stash and items.  I have had conversations with people that freeze every skein/ball of yarn before it goes to their stash.  This may seem over the top to some but if you have really beautiful yarns it would be awful to find it decimated by moths.   

You will need to freeze the yarn to below -8 degrees C for a few days.  Freezing your stash will kill moths and their larvae.

4 - Storing your yarn and woolens

Storing your yarn in bags or containers can be a great way of creating a barrier between your yarn and moths.  There is a question over letting the yarn breath but breath in which case you will still want to store it in something like a synthetic drawstring bag. 

Keeping your stash in large sealed containers will create a barrier.  If you are lucky enough to have a cedar wood chest, this is ideal for keeping your yarn and woollens in.

If you find moths or larvae, then you need to

act quickly.  Wash your items thoroughly, clean the area (vacuum and clean down with a lavender based spray) and store your newly washed and dried items in a sealed container.  If you have found moths or their larvae in your stash then the above still applies but instead of washing, you should freeze your yarn.

Once you are sure that you have eradicated all sign of them, then you should keep on doing the things that help to deter them see points 1 and 2) - use lavender and move your stash/woollens around.

I hope this helps you to keep moths away from your precious woollens and stash.

Fay 

Jog-free Sock Stripes & Getting Two Pairs of Socks from 100g of Yarn

I have been on quite a journey up to this point, having only started knitting socks in January this year.

Encouraged by the purchase of sock yarn from John Arbon Textiles at Woolfest, back in March 2015 I signed up for a three week sock knitting course with Winwick Mum (Christine Perry) at Black Sheep Wools, near Warrington.

It made sense that my second pair of socks used the lovely Alpaca Sock Yarn in charcoal (toes, heels and rib) and the moss colourway for the main body.  Lovely socks, great project, not enough moss green left to make a second pair (300m per 100g) as I was left with 44.9g.

So then I started to wonder how many stripes I could add to the cuff of my sock to get two pairs out of 100g of Alpaca Sock Yarn?  Luckily (!) I had just bought some of John Arbon's Exmoor Sock Yarn in Blossom (400m per 100g) which should allow me to make at least two pairs of socks because of the additional meterage and by using the same charcoal for the stripes I could accurately judge the weight of the stripes. Let the sock-off begin.

I found that each stripe in the Alpaca Sock Yarn (charcoal colour) weighed just under 1g.  Therefore, each sock would use an additional 3g which more importantly meant that in a pair of socks I could use just 49g of the main colour of Alpaca Sock Yarn.  This is a great result because it means that using my standard sock pattern (60 stitches, 55 rows to heal, 55 rows for sole to toe decrease) I can get two pairs of socks from one skein of 300m per 100g of yarn.  It is a bit yarn chickeny, but I like to live on the edge!

What I hadn't expected to happen was the resulting, falling down the rabbit hole of creating the perfect jogless stripe.





Sock One
Sock one clearly shows that stripes in two colourway socks are rather handsome but some form of technique is required to make the stripes jogless.  In sock one I had simply changed colours, aware that there would be some jogging but unaware how bad it would be.

Hmmm.  Time to look up some techniques...

Sock Two
The first blog post that I came across was this one: http://techknitting.blogspot.co.uk/2007/01/jogless-stripes.html  and so I attempted the 'Jogless Stripe How-To' on sock number two.  Now this may work for some people (it certainly looked neat in the pictures within the blog) but it wasn't accurate enough for my knitting, so I continued searching.



Sock Three
After a while I came across this page on Craftsy - Knitting Jogless Stripes in the Round: A Tutorial

So, for sock three I used the Craftsy method and saw much better results.  I used the elongated stitch in sock three and kept the marker in the same place.  One of the things that this Craftsy Tutorial doesn't cover is whether or not to carry your yarn up. Given that this was sock three, I decided not to cut the yarn but carry it up to the next stripe (not a massive issue given that each stripe was only four rows deep).


Sock Four - The Ultimate Technique
My final chance to try to perfect the jogless sock stripe, using the same yarn.  Using the Craftsy Tutorial as my basis, here is how I created my jogless socks stripes:

1 - Knit one round in the new colour (you will need a place marker if you aren't already using one).  Cut the old colour, leaving enough of a tail to sew in when finished.
2 - Remove your place marker and using the right hand needle, lift the stitch from the row below up onto the left needle.
3 - Knit the lifted stitch and the first stitch of the new round, together (K2tog).
4 - Add your place marker.  This effectively means that next time you elongate a stitch, it won't be in line with the previous lifted stitch because you have moved the place marker over by one stitch.
5 - Knit as many rounds as required in your new colour.  I tend to change colour every four rounds to make three contrasting stripes. 
6 - When you have finished with the new colour stripes, you simply cut your yarn (leaving a tail) and start using the previous colour and repeat from Step 1 to 5 as many times as required.



By following the above steps and changing two key things:

1 - Moving the elongated stitch over by one stitch within each stripe/colour change over.
2 - Cutting the yarn and not carrying it up inside the sock.  

I feel like I have achieved a very decent seamless sock stripe.  There is more work involved in having to sew in all of the colour change-over ends but I think it is worth it because the loose ends allow you to manipulate the stitches and neaten the stripes up before you sew in the ends.  

As for the original question of whether or not I can knit two pairs of socks from John Arbon Alpaca Sock Yarn, the answer is now yes, and I just need to buy some more of it.  Never a hardship! 

In the ring it is crochet v knitting. But who is the heavyweight?

Crochet v Knitting - who is the heavyweight?

As a relatively new crocheter (almost two years) there are certain facts that have been passed on to me.  One such fact is that crochet uses more yarn than knitting.  Now, I'm not normally one to swim the tide with the other fish - I generally like to make my own mind up about things and I like facts, especially if I have done the work behind my understanding.  For some reason I took the fact that crochet uses more yarn than knitting as gospel.

I can't really trace why it was that I decided to look at the evidence behind this, but it is probably because of my work on The Crochet Circle Podcast that made me want to dig into this topic further.  

So, I thought back to my Standard Grade Chemistry and Physics exams and pondered what the best methodology would be.  

Equipment

Initially I created tensions squares in two different yarn weights and when they were finished and the results were in, I had a look around to see how others had tackled this topic.  There were a few different approaches and some were similar to my methodology.  One of the questions asked was whether there was a difference in lace weight yarns also.  If you have listened to Episode 4 - A Crochet Journey of The Crochet Circle Podcast, you will already understand my new found utter dislike for using small hooks and needles.  But, being a conscientious sort of a person, I also created tension squares in lace weight (grrrrrrrr with a bit more grrrrr on the side!).

Here is what I crocheted and knitted with:   

    

For each of the above weights I knitted a tension square in stocking stitch and one in garter stitch. For crochet I created squares in double, half treble and treble crochet and cut their tails to the same lengths (2.5cm).

As hard as I tried I couldn't make exact 6" by 6" squares but that was taken into account when I was working through the methodology.

Method

So, I have 15 tension not-squares ready to measure and weigh.  My good kitchen scales can measure down to one tenth of a gram and the dimensions (width and length) of each square were measured to a millimeter.

I plugged all of the weights, widths and lengths into my excel spread sheet and applied the following logic:

• By multiplying the width and length of each tension square I know what the number of cm2 is.
• By dividing the weight of each tension square by the overall cm2, I can work out what 1cm squared would weigh.    
• I can then use the 1cm squared weight to tell me what a 5cm x 5cm (2" x 2") sample area would weigh for each square in each yarn weight.  I used a 5 x 5 area because it is a familiar area for people to relate to because it is used for gauging tension for both knitting and crochet. 

Results

The results are below for each yarn weight:

I also looked at the average (across all three yarns weights) percentage increase of yarn used per 25cm2 for the following:

Treble crochet - 31% more yarn than stocking stitch

Garter stitch - 51% more yarn than stocking stitch

Half treble - 45% more yarn than stocking stitch

Double crochet - 74% more yarn than stocking stitch

Given that treble crochet is consistently the next lightest stitch to use, I applied the same logic as above using treble as the baseline:

Garter stitch - 13% more yarn than treble crochet

Half treble - 10% more yarn than treble crochet

Double crochet - 31% more yarn than treble crochet

Conclusions

It is a gross generalisation to say that knitting uses more yarn than crochet.  If you look at some of the other reviews that I have linked to you will see quotes of three times the amount!

Three results were consistent throughout my study.  Stocking stitch was the lightest, treble crochet was next and double crochet was always the heaviest.  

There is very little in it between garter stitch and half treble which is why the position of those varies across the three yarn weights.  

It the heart of this though, what i am really hoping for is that crochet isn't seen as the heavyweight between the two crafts.  If this also encourages crocheters to look to buy yarn with a higher wool content then even better.  I suspect that some crocheters use acrylic because it has been ingrained in them that crochet uses more yarn and is therefore a more expensive hobby than knitting.  

Anything that encourages the use of renewable materials such as wool rather than synthetic fibres derived from fossil fuels is always going to get the thumbs up from me!

Caveats

1 - The overall weight of each of the squares was used which means that the weight of the cast on/cast off and crochet chain are also included.  If I was going to do this experiment again I would deduct the weight of the initial crochet chains, cast on and cast off so that on the actual stitches were being weighed.

2 - Tension changes from day to day. I created each of the five squares for each yarn weight on the same day over the course of three days (DK, then chunky, then lace weight (grrrr)) to try to ensure that my tension was as even as possible.   I couldn't find a better way around this.

Links to other approaches on crochet v knitting weights:

Here is how the lovely Joanne Scrace at Not So Granny approached it - http://notsogranny.com/2014/07/does-crochet-really-use-more-yarn-than-knitting.html 

I found this Compile Yarn blog that uses a stitch count methodology and creates similar results to my test - http://compileyarn.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/knitting-vs-crochet-does-crochet-really.html

And I also quite liked this approach which also looks at Tunisian crochet - http://thing4string.blogspot.co.uk/2007/01/unraveling-truth.html 

Book Review - Crochet Yeah! by The Crochet Project

As part of The Crochet Circle Podcast, I buy crochet books, undertake projects from them and then write a review.  If you have read my review on Socks Yeah! yarn, you will know that I bought the Crochet Yeah! booklet and that there is a certain amount of crossover between the book and the yarn.  If you haven't read the Socks Yeah! yarn review, you can find it here:  https://www.knitit-hookit-craftit.com/blogs/news/162718215-yarn-review-socks-yeah-from-coop-knits 

If you listen to the podcast then you will know that I will only give a book review if I have undertaken a pattern (or two) from that book.  This allows me to give a more thorough review and give a good, honest opinion on how that book actually performed for a crafter.

The Crochet Project's Joanne Scrace and Kat Goldin teamed up with Rachel Coopey of Coop Knits to create a 6 accessory pattern booklet called Crochet Yeah! using Socks Yeah! as the preferred yarn for each of the patterns.

The booklet (A5 which perfect size to fit in a project bag) has patterns for two hats, a pair of mittens, a cowl and a scarf, ranging from beginner to intermediary:

• Bromsgrove Hat - Rated easy and uses between 3 and 4 skeins depending on size
• Evesham Socks - Rated intermediary and uses between 2 and 3 skeins depending on size
• Tenbury Hat & Mittens - Rated easy and uses 2 skeins
• Malvern Cowl - Rated beginner and uses 3 skeins  
• Worcester Scarf - Rated beginner and uses 2 skeins

I started by making the Evesham socks which I crocheted using the Socks Yeah! yarn in shade Iolite (109).  After one sock I then moved onto the Worcester Scarf but made it into a cowl instead because that is a more usable item for me.  For the cowl I wanted to test using a yarn substitute and also wanted to use up some stash yarn, so decided upon Artesano's 4 ply silk in shade Lily Pad.

The booklet is nicely laid out with an introduction to the joint project, moving into a basic stitch guide, information on choosing sizes, tension yarn substitution, finishing and garment after care. These paragraphs are succinct but useful.  

The patterns are well written and three out of the six have charts as well as written instructions.  I am a very visual person, so I find this immensely helpful.  I am wondering whether I inadvertently chose the two patterns I did because they both have charts?  It is very possible.   If find it a quick way to visualise what the stitches are going to create and help commit the row repeats to memory. I really wish more crochet books also provided charts!

As you would expect from the crochet duo, the photography is nicely executed and shows the finished projects off really well, especially as the booklet is in full colour. The model is Joanne and the photographer is Kat, which for me, gives the booklet even more integrity.  

For something like the Evesham sock pattern I would have benefited from a part-way photo at the point where you chain to create the heel flap space.  I would have preferred that to seeing four photos of the finished socks.  That may just be me, I have only been crocheting for a year and three quarters so it may be lack of experience on my part.   

I also like the little diagrams that have been added to the projects so that you can see what direction you should be crocheting in - such as cuff down on the socks.   It may seem simple but from running a knitting and crochet group, I know that some people really struggle to understand where the pattern starts, so the diagrams are a great addition.   

There is a nice mix of stitches used across the six projects with some cross over.  For instance if you were a beginner and started with the Worcester Scarf it wouldn't be a massive step up to try the Evesham Socks if you could already crochet in the round. 

For that reason I think that the booklet provides a great range of different stitches, different projects, all of which are very wearable - something that isn't always the case with crochet books. This isn't a surprise give that Joanne and Kat are at the contemporary end of crochet; the end of the spectrum that I like to loiter around.

The booklet is available for £12 hard copy (plus P&P if you buy online like I did from Coop Knits) or can be downloaded for £10.  I think that this represents good value for money.  I have paid the same amount out for a couple of crochet patterns online (from other designers) and been bitterly disappointed with the instructions once downloaded.  This is certainly not the case with Crochet Yeah! - it is clear, well formatted and a great little resource for the less advanced crocheter or the more advanced crocheter that wants a quick TV crochet project.

I also think that the proof is in the pudding.  My copy of Crochet Yeah! is already battered; it definitely isn't pristine.  There may even be the odd muddy cat paw on it, but that is mainly because my cat sees crochet as a rival for my affection and paws all over it and anything in between him and my hands.   

I will also look out for any further books/pattern releases that The Crochet Project comes up with. If Tin Can Knits are my go-to provider for nice, sizable, contemporary knitting projects, Joanne and Kat under their 'The Crochet Project' umbrella and as individuals are fast becoming my go-to provider for crocheted accessories.

   

Yarn Review - Socks Yeah! by Rachel Coopey of Coop Knits

As part of The Crochet Circle Podcast I buy, crochet (and knit) with different yarns and then provide feedback on them.  Here's my review of Socks Yeah! from Coop Knits.

I knew this yarn was coming out but it took me a few months to see it in a shop and be able to squish it.  I was actually looking for a contrast yarn to go with some West Yorkshire Spinners 4 ply Mallard (shade 862) for a pair of socks that I was going to knit for my Father-in-Law (size 10 feet = never again!).   The yarn does provide a nice contrast for the WYS's colours but I decided against it and chose the WYS Signature 4 ply cream instead.

Of course, I left the yarn shop with both yarn types - just in case I changed my mind...

So, I stashed the one skein of Iolite (shade 109) that I had bought from Sew - In (Cheadle store).  It stayed stashed for a couple of months until two key things happened:

• I started The Crochet Circle Podcast (http://thecrochetcircle.podbean.com) with my friend Lynne (http://lynnerowe.weebly.com/).  Part of the podcast is to provide book and yarn reviews.
• The Crochet Project's Joanne Scrace and Kat Goldin teamed up with Rachel Coopey at Coop Knits to create a 6 accessory pattern booklet called Crochet Yeah! which is based on the Socks Yeah! yarn.  

Having read through the detail of the book I realised that I would need a second skein if I was going to make anything from Crochet Yeah! using the Socks Yeah! yarn.  So, I ordered a second skein in the same shade and a hard copy of the pattern booklet from Coop Knits. 

A mere day later both had arrived and I sat with a coffee pondering which pattern I should choose to go with my dusky blue yarn.  Here is the essential information on the yarn:

I finally decided that I would crochet the most difficult pattern in the book - the Evesham Socks (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/MaDashper/evesham-socks) because it would really help to put the yarn to test as a sock yarn.

Each of the 10 available colours has a very subtle colour blend/marl through it.  The Iolite shade that I chose is predominantly dusky blue but has hues of heather and sage through it too.  I have likened it to the mother-of-pearl effect that you get in shells and it brings a sophisticated colour blend to the yarn that may not be immediately obvious.  Here are the 10 shades available:

Crocheting with Socks Yeah!

The yarn has quite a high twist which makes it perfect for crocheting as this really helps to prevent splitting.  It gives great stitch definition and the nature of the blend also brings great drape to the fabric - but not so much that you don't get structure in the finished piece.

I enjoyed crocheting the first sock, the yarn glides through your fingers and has a really silky (but not slippy) texture.  I was using a standard steel crochet hook and I didn't have any issues with the yarn wanting to fly away. Although the yarn calls for a 2.25mm hook and the pattern calls for a 2.5mm hook, I used a 3mm hook because I am a tight crocheter.   The results can be seen below:

As mentioned, I used the yarn to crochet up a pair of socks for myself.  What I haven't mentioned is that I am fussy and beyond that, I am particularly fussy about things touching my feet. 

Did I mention that I'm fussy?  As much as I really enjoyed crocheting the sock with the yarn I really wasn't convinced that I was going to make the matching one.  I didn't think that the lace pattern would keep my feet warm and I wasn't convinced that the Half Treble Crochet sole was going to be comfortable when I stood up.  I finished the first one, reflected for a moment and then put it on.

I may be fussy but I am also very happy to admit when I am wrong.  I was wrong.  It was about 12.30am and I had forgotten to put socks on earlier in the day so my feet were pretty icy. The yarn is so cosy that the effect was immediate and my feet started to warm up. Luckily the rest of the family was in bed as I walked around the kitchen island repeatedly with one bare foot and one encased in loveliness.

A couple of minutes walking around the kitchen does not a mean that a sock is comfortable though. Fast forward about a week and I had finished the second one so that I could properly road test the yarn and the pattern.  

I have a stand-up desk in my office and on the day that I tested my socks out I spent well over 9 hours standing up in them.  They are comfortable.  They are warm.  The yarn tag says that they are machine washable at 30 degrees on a wool cycle.  All of my delicate items go through the wool wash (it is a 40 degree wash) in my washing machine - including 100% cashmere items so I thought that I should test that socks under the same conditions because I don't want to have to hand wash them.

They were washed, line dried and then finished off on the radiator in the house.  The socks are exactly as they were when they went into the machine - but clean! No shrinking, no stretching, no pilling, just straight back to their original shape.

Knitting with Socks Yeah!

Given that I had a little bit of yarn left (about 20g) I thought I would also test the yarn for sock knitting.  I used the yarn to create contrast cuffs, heels and toes for a pair of socks for my best friend's little four year old boy  (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/MaDashper/basic-socks-2).  The main yarn was Regia Design Lines - Arne & Carlos in the Summer Nights shade.  

WARNING - cute child sock alert!

It is probably unfair to compare the two yarns but they have a similar wool:yarn ratio and pricing point.  In my opinion the Socks Yeah! yarn was much, much nicer to knit with than the Regia.  

In Conclusion

So, the crux of it it that Socks Yeah! is a delight to crochet and knit with and I will definitely buy more and make more crocheted and knitted socks with it.  The drape that the yarn gives would also lend itself to camisoles and shawls. 

If I have one very slight niggle it is that I would like information on the skein ticket and website about where the yarn is grown and spun.  I happened to come across it on a Ravelry thread anyway.  This was the response that Rachel Coopey gave to another inquiring mind:  

"It is south american merino (with a no mulesing guarantee) and it is spun in Peru." 

I wasn't sure what 'mulesing' meant and why you would need a guarantee against it so I looked it up.  You can find details here via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulesing 

As part of The Crochet Circle Podcast, I buy crochet books, undertake projects from them and then write a review.  If you have read my review on Socks Yeah! yarn, you will know that I bought the Crochet Yeah! booklet and that there is a certain amount of crossover between the book and the yarn.  If you haven't read the Socks Yeah! yarn review, you can find it here:  https://www.knitit-hookit-craftit.com/blogs/news/162718215-yarn-review-socks-yeah-from-coop-knits 

If you listen to the podcast then you will know that I will only give a book review if I have undertaken a pattern (or two) from that book.  This allows me to give a more thorough review and give a good, honest opinion on how that book actually performed for a crafter.

The Crochet Project's Joanne Scrace and Kat Goldin teamed up with Rachel Coopey of Coop Knits to create a 6 accessory pattern booklet called Crochet Yeah! using Socks Yeah! as the preferred yarn for each of the patterns.

The booklet has patterns for two hats, a pair of mittens, a cowl and a scarf, ranging from beginner to intermediary:

• Bromsgrove Hat - Rated easy and uses between 3 and 4 skeins depending on size
• Evesham Socks - Rated intermediary and uses between 2 and 3 skeins depending on size
• Tenbury Hat & Mittens - Rated easy and uses 2 skeins
• Malvern Cowl - Rated beginner and uses 3 skeins  
• Worcester Scarf - Rated beginner and uses 2 skeins

I started by making the Evesham socks which I crocheted using the Socks Yeah! yarn in shade Iolite (109).  After one sock I then moved onto the Worcester Scarf but made it into a cowl instead because that is a more usable item for me.  For the cowl I wanted to test using a yarn substitute and also wanted to use up some stash yarn, so decided upon Artesano's 4 ply silk in shade Lily Pad.

The book is nicely laid out with an introduction to the joint project, moving into a basic stitch guide, information on choosing sizes, tension yarn substitution, finishing and garment after care.  These paragraphs are succinct but useful.

The patterns are well written and three out of the six have charts as well as written instructions.  I am a very visual person, so I find this immensely helpful.  I am wondering whether I inadvertently chose the two patterns I did because they both have charts?  It is very possible.   If find it a quick way to visualise what the stitches are going to create and help commit the row repeats to memory. I really wish more crochet books also provided charts!

As you would expect from the crochet duo, the photography is nicely executed and shows the finished projects off really well, especially as the booklet is in full colour. The model is Joanne and the photographer is Kat, which for me, gives the booklet even more integrity.  

For something like the Evesham sock pattern I would have benefited from a part-way photo at the point where you chain to create the heel flap space.  I would have preferred that to seeing four photos of the finished socks.  That may just be me, I have only been crocheting for a year and three quarters so it may be lack of experience on my part.   

I also like the little diagrams that have been added to the projects so that you can see what direction you should be crocheting in - such as cuff down on the socks.   It may seem simple but from running a knitting and crochet group, I know that some people really struggle to understand where the pattern starts, so the diagrams are a great addition.   

There is a nice mix of stitches used across the six projects with some cross over.  For instance if you were a beginner and started with the Worcester Scarf it wouldn't be a massive step up to try the Evesham Socks if you could already crochet in the round. 

For that reason I think that the booklet provides a great range of different stitches, different projects, all of which are very wearable - something that isn't always the case with crochet books. This isn't a surprise give that Joanne and Kat are at the contemporary end of crochet; the end of the spectrum that I like to loiter around.

The booklet is available for £12 hard copy (plus P&P if you buy online like I did from Coop Knits) or can be downloaded for £10.  I think that this represents good value for money.  I have paid the same amount out for a couple of crochet patterns online (from other designers) and been bitterly disappointed with the instructions once downloaded.  This is certainly not the case with Crochet Yeah! - it is clear, well formatted and a great little resource for the less advanced crocheter or the more advanced crocheter that wants a quick TV crochet project.

I also think that the proof is in the pudding.  My copy of Crochet Yeah! is already battered; it definitely isn't pristine.  There may even be the odd muddy cat paw on it, but that is mainly because my cat sees crochet as a rival for my affection and paws all over it and anything in between him and my hands.   

I will also look out for any further books/pattern releases that The Crochet Project comes up with. If Tin Can Knits are my go-to provider for nice, sizable, contemporary knitting projects, Joanne and Kat under their 'The Crochet Project' umbrella and as individuals are fast becoming my go-to provider for crocheted accessories.