Is anybody planning to do the Scheepjes Last Dance on the Beach CAL? Some useful info for you.

[NewYearSameMe]

I'm in a Facebook Yarnaholics group and we have been discussing this CAL as some of us are thinking of doing it. While investigating the colour schemes it has come to our attention that the colour codes for Scheepjes Colour Crafter and Stylecraft Special DK are the same, which means they are almost certainly exactly the same yarn from the same wholesale manufacturer just marketed as two different brands. At Wool Warehouse SSDK is £1.79 and Colour Crafter is £2.39, which adds up to a reasonable difference if you're doing a whole blanket. Prices vary slightly between retailers but the difference between the two brands is fairly consistent.

If you want to match one of the Scheepjes colour schemes in SSDK the colour names are different but you can use the colour codes to match up with the SSDK colours. It's also worth noting that on all the websites that I've checked the colours look different and that seems to be down to electronic alteration of the photos. For instance, on the Wool Warehouse site all of the Scheepjes colours look darker than the SSDK colours, by the same level of darkness. Whereas on the Deramores site it's the opposite, all the SSDK colours look darker than the Scheepjes ones, again with the same level of alteration across the range.

I don't find it offensive as the rules were posted before anyone purchased any yarn. This CAL is being sponsored by Scheepjes, who Wink designed for, so it's certainly their right. The Adm's have done a good job of keeping any controversy off the sight. It's the most pleasant CAL I've ever done.

IMO the rules are for the official group and not the rest of the world. Do you not think that it's weird and controlling that they are kicking out people who have followed the rules of the official group ON the official group but have said (for instance) that they don't like the feel of the yarn on an unofficial group?

It all seems very control-freaky. I don't think I've ever done a CAL in the specified yarn or even the specified colour way.

pleasant, lama? I've had more pleasant period cramps.

Iamagram the rules were posted regarding the Scheepjes group, but they are removing people from the group because they have commented in unofficial groups regarding things they are not pleased with, do you honestly feel that's fair? Technically they have abided by the Scheepjes rules but are still being penalised!

£2 donation on the lux kits is a massive piss take, and they deleted the link to a MIND donation page. It all smacks very much of taking advantage of a very sad situation to make money.

And the admin are bonkers. You can't breathe without being banned, and they jackboot everywhere. Horrible group.

OMG you're not the 'Gram' in the middle of the name poster that crapped in the unofficial group I'm in, and flounced last night? That was hilarious.

Stratter5, it's a 2 EURO donation which is even worse, and when people posted on the "official" page, links to donate directly to MIND, their posts were deleted also. Shocking behaviour. Puts me off the company as an entirety

Lama, unfortunately for you and all others associated with Schjeepes, this is turning into an absolute marketing disaster. You decided to exploit Winks good name by making a €2 donation for each pack sold and accompanying this with what can only be deceived as facist regime on the FB page. Any hint of query, discontent - no matter how logical or measured, the post is blocked for comment and poster banned.... But guess what?????! You cannot control the whole of the Internet, and many potential customers once they saw how controlling, unreasonable and downright unpleasant your behaviour has been will never touch your yarn. I am one of them! Happily crocheting on SSDK!

Stratter5 I think you may be correct. They are also trying to infiltrate the unofficial groups aswell we believe. I imagine Winks family must be so upset to be associated with this company.

I used to follow Wink's blog and I suspect she would be appalled at how it's being run so strictly TBH.

It was my first CAL. It's also my last CAL, it's completely put me off, awful people, really vile money grabbing little people grubbing around and jackbooting all over everyone. You'd have to be a certain kind of person to find it pleasant in there, and I'm v happy to know I'm not.

The Moogly CAL is lovely. Choose your own colours, your own yarn, hell even your own squares if you don't like the current one! There's a group on Ravelry for it

Thanks Soupy, I'll have a look.

Is anyone using the Merino Soft? Some of the colours run, so the advice is to wet block each block as you make it, use a Colour Catcher in your soaking water if necessary. Scroll down on this blog to see where one of the first four blocks that the blogger has made has run.

I'm doing this with stash yarn due to lack of organisation on my part. I'm amazed at the tone of the moderators on the Facebook group. I'm wondering if I missed some major trolling because another message appeared this morning moaning about nasty posting. Are CALs always like this? This is my first.

CALs are absolutely not always like this. The admins aren't usually barking mad for a start. The thing is that the very popular ones have thousands of members so there are bound to be a few 'odd' posts, but generally the mad time is between getting the yarn and the first pattern coming out. However the weirdness has gone on and on for this CAL (again, mainly down to the admins IMO).

Some of the unofficial FB groups are more informative about what's really going on. The admins put a message up about banning people for being 'hateful' which IMO is vaguely libellous as really what most of the banned people in my unofficial group had done was to share their honest opinion of the pattern or yarn, and not even done that on the official group because they knew there was no point. The way that the admins have worded it makes it sound like these people were disrespectful to Wink's memory, which couldn't be further from the truth. She was universally admired and respected for her talent and enthusiasm, which is why so many were drawn to a CAL in her name.

Like I said before, if Iamagram could figure out my FB name everything I've said so far here would be a reason for banning.

Quite a few people in my unofficial group have decided to do Winks 2014 CAL in her memory instead of this one. www.acreativebeing.com/scheepjes-cal-2014/ It's really much prettier and more her style than this years Scheepjes one. Some really gorgeous finished ones on Ravelry.

Ah that's interesting NewYear. That 2014 blanket is absolutely beautiful. I've added that to my list of future projects.

There are quite a few doing the Mandala Madness CAL too. It's really attractive too. It's not connected to Wink in any way, but mandalas remind me of her because she did some really gorgeous ones.

I followed her blog and always loved her mandalas. It was just so sad, and it is a shame to see the official Facebook page being so heavily moderated.

Hope someone here can help - I'm thinking of trying this cal in ssdk but my gauge swatch isn't coming out square - it's rectangular.
How do I make it square?

Which way is it rectangular (i.e. too wide or too high)? Is it far off the measurements it should be?

WTF was my comment deleted?

I am a gram is a troll, she's trolling over on Facebook, pretty bloody shameful behaviour for a church going grandmother.