Coco and I are patiently waiting for Santa to come tomorrow, and my furry and human family would like to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas. This holiday really came out of nowhere for me this year. We managed to finally get the tree decorated after it sat with lights only for weeks, and well, the Christmas cards that I planned to mail out are still sitting on my desk, but hey, you can only do what you can do.

I have caught up on school work and freelance work so for at least the next few days I plan to chill and enjoy myself with some crafting and family fun. I am hoping to finish up one of the amigurumi Craftsy classes I started awhile back (Woodland Animals), catch up on yarn podcasts, and make a necklace using a very cool vintage piece gifted to me by a friend.

What are your plans for the next few days?

I have to confess that other than all the great information I get from watching and listening to craft podcasts another reason I’ve gotten a little…shall we say…er…addicted to them is that many of them run contests, and ever since I won one over at the Stockinette Zombie podcasts, I have started to pay more attention to them. I am not the type of person who wins stuff, but as of yesterday, I have won two different podcast contests!

The latest one is from a fairly new show called Knittynatter. Zena is the host. She is from the UK and has a wonderful, easy-going personality. I just feel relaxed when I watch her. What I also like about her show is that it is usually under 30 minutes, and generally, she has pretty good show notes. So if she talks about something you can follow links to various patterns. She has been running a monthly contest where members of her Ravelry group can post about their finished objects (or LOLs). You can double dip (meaning you can post to other groups like Dramatic Knits who also has a similar contest), and you can make a post for each item you finish during the month. So the more you make, the more you can enter, and the more chances you get to win.

Podcasts contest can vary. Some are super simple like the Knittynatter, and other are a little more involved. For example, here are a few other contests going on right now (all require that you are a member of their Ravelry group by the way):

Knit Me Happy has a sock KAL for August/September that will include prizes.

Knitabulls is always having lots of contests. Right now there is one to win a knitting bag, but watch her podcast for other contests she has in the works.

Knitting Samurai Plus 1 has an unusual contest now where you post about someone else’s works in progress that you love.

Retro Lemon Studio is having a KAL/contest using toy patterns from the host, Jenna. Some of her patterns are free, and some are paid for patterns, but you can use either.

Almost all the podcasts seem to run a contest now and then. Find the podcasts you enjoy listening/watching, join their Ravelry groups, and enter their contests!

Yeah for me! I’ve made it past the first foot on my scarf for Ravellenics! I have about three more feet to go!

Craft Wars will be airing again Tuesday (7/31) night at 8pm eastern time on TLC. This episode is called Bedknobs and and Gluesticks. If you haven’t guessed, it is a bedroom themed challenge, and here is a sneak peek for you.

Along with the usual fast paced fun of the show, those of you who like to participate virtually through Twitter can do so as host Tori Spelling tweets during the show.

To add some more tweeting goodness, each Wednesday following a premiere of Craft Wars there will be a Twitter trivia contest beginning at 12PM ET. Be the fifth person to answer a trivia question about the latest episode correctly and you could win a pop craft from the show AND a personal tweet from Tori Spelling! Click here for all the rules and details.

Ravelery.com’s Ravellenics officially started at the same time as the Olympic’s opening ceremony, but for me it really started yesterday when I cast on another attempt at a knit ribbed scarf. This time, I’m hoping no matter how crappy it turns out, I’m going to just push through and not frog it until I at least get 4 feet of scarf finished, dropped stitches and all.

The way Ravellenics works (which was originally called Ravelympics…you can read the back story about the name change if you don’t know already here) is that members of the Ravelry community celebrate the Olympics and take this time to also take on a challenge. Though instead of an athletic challenge, we take on a personal fiber challenge. For me, knitting is still very challenging, so that’s why I decided to focus on it.

Participants pick teams to be part of, and I picked the Minknits team. There are all kinds of other teams, and I did look around and thought about joining more, but I wanted to keep it simple and doable for me since this is the first time I’ve participated in this annual event. For the Minknits team, the basic goal is just to knit…period.

The summer Olympics lasts for 17 days, but since I started on Sunday, I’m a little behind. Instead of 17 I have 15 days, and now I’m down to 14 days. 14 days and four feet of ribbing!

It seems like a new craft podcast is popping up just about every day, and I am completely addicted to watching and listening to them. In fact, I have asked my hubby to see about getting me a new car stereo (as a future birthday gift) so that I can download them and listen in the car. I do listen to a few via my ipad when driving, but not all of them are loud enough to do that.

Recently, I updated my blog roll, especially the list of craft podcasts, and I added a bunch of new ones (or at least new to me). Some of these I have had time to watch already, and some I haven’t yet. Hopefully, I will in the next day or so. Now, of course, again many of these are knitting and/or spinning related, but a few cover a few other crafts and topics as well. Still, I’d like to see more diversity in the crafting podcast world, but for now, here’s a list of some of the latest links I’ve added:

3 Stitches

Delusional Knitter

Dramatic Knits

High Fiber Diet

Knit Me Happy

Knit Nerd

Knit Psychos

Knit 1 Heart Too

Knitting on the Fly

Knitting Blooms

Knittynatter

My Ordinary Journey

Noteable Needlework

Purple Photo Kitty

Rain Lover Knits

Single Handed Knits

The Fiberista Files

Willow Fairy Knits

Wolfe Farms

I told you there were a bunch of them! And these are just some new ones I’ve added to the blog roll the other day. Feel free to continue my addiction by suggesting a crafting podcast to add to my list.

Yes, I keep finding them. Boy, they are everywhere! I know once school starts up there is now way I will be able to keep up with listening and watching all of these, but I have found that I can download them through itunes on my ipad and then (for those that the sound is loud enough and are audios versus videos) I can listen in the car. Here are some new (to me) video podcasts I just added to my blogroll:

Retro Lemon Studio - She talks about knitting and spinning. She’s pretty new at spinning, so new spinners might like that.

Lemknitcrochet - From the name, it looks like she’s into crochet and knitting, yeah!

Joanie Knits - She also crochets a little, yeah!

Whatchswatching - She’s a knitter and spinner too.

Fiber Nymph - This is produced by another knitter/spinner.

KnitandSpin4Fun - This is a very young podcaster who talks about knitting, spinning, and sewing.

I won! I won! I want to give a shout out and say “thank you” to the Stockinette Zombies who gifted me a free pattern off of Ravelry.com. I just started listening to their podcast over the past few weeks, and I also joined their Ravelry group. Yesterday, I was sitting in front of my computer crocheting away on an afghan I’m making and watching their latest episode when they called my Ravelry username out as one of their free pattern winners! Of course, I’m still learning to knit, so I opted for a crochet pattern from one of my favorite designers, Linda Permann. It is a shawl pattern called “Summer Picnic Wrap.” It looks like the perfect light-weight wrap for wearing in the South. Oh, and now I have a great excuse for taking a yarn shop trip.

First I want to make a disclaimer that I have nothing against knitting podcasts. If you look at my blog roll, you will see a bunch of knitting podcasts listed, and many of these I listen to whenever I can find the time. I enjoy them; I really do. But….I know that I would also enjoy podcasts on crochet and/or other types of crafting.

Now before everyone starts to tell me that there are other types of craft podcasts out on the Internet, I know that there are, but there aren’t very many (compared to knitting ones) and some of them are ancient and haven’t been updated in months, sometimes years. Face it: knitters are on the ball when it comes to podcasting. The rest of the crafting world is lagging way behind.

Because of this gap in the crafting podcast world, of course it has crossed my mind to do one of my own. It would be handy even for my teaching to be able to record a quality podcast. As it happens, I make a number of videos for my classes using Power Point combined with audio; however, I receive technical help to make these through the school’s e-learning department. I make up the Power Points myself, write the scripts, and go to a sound room where I read the scripts and move through each slide. Then the techie guys magically put the two together for me. If I goof while talking…and of course I do…they can often edit it out for me so it doesn’t sound too bad.

But given all of that, here’s why I don’t just podcast myself:

• First, I want to listen and enjoy them. Listening to myself talk is not the same at all. It sort of reminds me of when I used to sell my jewelry at art shows and people would say, “Oh, that sounds like fun. I love to go to art shows.” Yes, well, when you work at one, you don’t actually get to wander around casually and enjoy yourself.
• Another issue I have with it is that I hate to hear a recording of my own voice, and I do make mistakes. It would take a heck of a lot of editing to make it sound half way decent.
• Then there is the fact that one of my favorite types of podcasts is when there are two people doing one such as The Knit Girllls and Yarn Craft. I listen to solo ones too, but having two people talking is much more of a conversation to me.
• Finally, another major reason is that while I am sure, given time, I could figure out all the techie stuff necessary to create and post a podcast, I can think of many other things I would rather spend my time on.

If you know of any good non-kitting podcasts that actually get updated regularly, feel free to post the URL as a comment, or better yet, what is stopping you from picking up a microphone and doing a podcast yourself?

After pointing out that the yarn podcast world is inundated with knitters but no crocheters, I’m so happy to report about a new crochet podcast produced by Stacey Trock called Crochet Chat. You can find it linked on her Fresh Stitches weblog, over on Podbean, and (of course) on iTunes. If you just want to listen from your PC, I suggest the Podbean link because you can stop and start it very easily. If you plan to listen to it on an ipad or ipod, then iTunes is a good place to download it.

The first episode is 45 minutes long, and Stacey plans to post the second episode on April 4th. She will record a new episode every other week and post them on Wednesdays. I finally got a chance to listen to her inaugural podcast, and I thought it was excellent. She’s funny and informative. In fact, she had some excellent information about how some plant-based yarns, like bamboo, are made.

I can only imagine how much work recording, editing, and posting a podcast is, so hopefully, she will continue to be up to the challenge and we crocheters will have some audio crochet love going on for a change!