​
I met Shannon-Jaide of The Wool Flower Co last summer when we were both at a knit and crochet get together in London and we have been in touch ever since. 

Shannon-Jaide is in her early twenties. She is bright, bubbly and charming. Her passion for crochet is immense, something unusual in someone so young and so, as we all try hard to preserve the art of crochet in future generations, meeting someone like Shannon-Jaide has been a real joy.

RAVELRY: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-rustle-park-sunhat
ETSY: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/829769487/the-rustle-park-sunhat-crochet-pdf?ref=shop_home_active_1

​If you are in the US and had considered purchasing a tea towel or two (people appear to be buying them in bulk!) then why not pop over to Janie Crow and take a look at the new (far lower) postage costs. Of course those of you elsewhere in the world are welcome to take a look too!!!

That is it from me this week - I am sorry it is such a short update. I will have more to tell you about next week!

In the days ahead I hope you keep safe and well and don't forget that Tuesday next week see's the publication of Part 6 of the Fruit Garden CAL.
 
Sending yarny love! 

I uploaded an accompanying video to Youtube to help with some of the more complicated bits of the pattern. The video shows how to work the popcorn stitches and the background framework of the Hollyhock Motif and how to work the 2 colour method of crocheting used on the First Edging. 

It has been so exciting seeing your images of the central panel of the Fruit Garden CAL project and I would like to thank you all for being so incredibly positive about the project - it means so much to me! 
​

I am asked about the stylized birds that feature on the Janie Crow logo a lot! Many people have asked me if I can design a pattern for some crochet birds like those in the logo, but on the occasions I have tried to do so I have ended up in a bit of a mess. It was logical therefore, to produce a printed Janie Crow design that features my pair of birds instead.
The Tea Towels are made from 100% cotton fabric, are machine washable and have been produced in the UK

​Let's Knit Magazine are delighted to reveal the shortlist for their reader voted categories for this year's British Knitting and Crochet Awards. Magazine readers have been busy nominating their favourites over the last few months and the chosen short list has now been revealed.

To win one of the awards is a great honour as they are voted for entirely by the public. The British Knitting and Crochet Awards provide the platform for knitting and the crochet community to voice their preferences and recognise those who have helped and influenced them. 

You can vote for your favourites any time between now and the 26th August and the winners will be revealed in the November 2020 issue of the magazine
​

My new version of the Persian Tiles blanket, which I have called Sandalwood, is now available as a kit via US yarn company Mary Maxim. ​
​

The Sandalwood version features rich dusky pink, terracotta, gold, green and blue shades and it has been made using a lovely soft yarn called Premier Everyday DK. The images make the colours look a little washed out and yellow - they are much more vibrant and sumptuous in reality. We had a bit of a hiccup with the US photoshoot due to the current situation and only managed to get the original version of the blanket professionally shot in a room setting. The Sandalwood version and the light blue version are now in the post to the US to be photographed. I am sure the new images will do the blanket far more justice than these do - I took them on the studio floor before the blanket headed off in the mail!

All this said I am incredibly pleased with this blanket and hope that you will like it too! ​
​

The patterns for Part 3 of the Fruit Garden CAL were released on Tuesday (26thMay). The patterns feature the Clementine Motif and 3 more rounds that need to be added to the Acanthus Motif. You can find all the patterns so far by following this link.
​

Last week I told you that Andrea and Andrew from Fruity Knitting had celebrated the 100th edition of their podcast. This week they have released their next episode and I was really excited to see that Angela has been busy working on her version of my Bohemian Blooms blanket. The episode also focusses on knitted animation, something that I found really interesting too.
​

At Janie Crow and Just Knots Yarns we use Royal Mail as our postal service provider. Royal Mail continues to operate most worldwide postal services and we have not yet been hugely affected by issues with the post. Things can change quickly, so if you are wondering about the mail service to your country, you can check up via the Royal Mail ‘Personal Help’ page here.
 ​

 
Hoping this email finds you all safe and well...

First of all I want to say a really big THANK YOU!

The response to the first set of patterns for the new Fruit Garden CAL has been phenomenal and I would like to thank you all for the huge amount of goodwill that has been sent our way this week. I have been feeling really up and down and emotional this week, perhaps partly because the release of new patterns always makes me really nervous, so seeing such a great response has been a real boost.
 
If you have yet to start on your Forget-Me-Not motifs you can find the first set of patterns by following this link and you can find the accompanying video on my YouTube channel via the link here.

 
We have a small number of Fruit Garden CAL kits in both the Life DK/Batik and the Naturals Bamboo + Cotton left in stock and you can find them on the Janie Crow site by following this link.

Unfortunately we have been informed by Stylecraft that they are now out of stock of some of the shades used in Recipe 2 (Bamboo + Cotton) and we already know that Recipe 1 has shades they are waiting for, so for the time being we are unable to restock CAL kits.
 ​

​ 
It is a real shame that yarn kits for the CAL are now out of stock for a while, but you could always have a rummage through your stash and find something that might be suitable, or source other shades. If you fancy doing the Life DK version (Recipe 1) for example, you could substitute Oatmeal in place of Parchment as they are really close colours, or you could use the following info to help guide you through making different yarn sub choices:

Most yarns on the market fall into set categories according to their weight. In the UK we have the following standard weights: 1, 2, 3 & 4ply, DK (double knitting), Aran and Chunky. The yarns used within Recipe 1 of the Fruit Garden CAL are all DK weight, for the Naturals Bamboo + Cotton version they are slightly finer.
 
Yarns sit within the categories to make it easier to ensure that things come up the right size. This is especially handy when substituting yarn, as, in theory, a DK weight yarn should achieve more or less the same tension regardless of brand or yarn content. The ball band on the yarn should give you the suggested tension and also a needle or hook size that this tension is to be achieved on.

For a standard weight DK yarn this is usually a 4mm (US G/6) knitting needle or crochet hook and knitted tension would be 22sts & 30 rows knitted to 10cm. Sadly a lot of yarns do not give a crochet tension.
 
When substituting yarn you need to be sure that you have sourced enough in terms of yarn length. Sounds obvious really but my point is - don’t assume that every 50g ball of yarn has the same length! Each type of fibre comes up a slightly different weight. For example, a 50g ball of cotton yarn is likely to have less length than a wool or acrylic fibre.
 
To work out how much yarn you need you will need to know the length of the yarn used in the design.
 
As a guide for the Fruit Garden CAL:
 
Life DK is 298m (326yds) to 100g
Batik is 138m (151yds) to 50g
Naturals Bamboo + Cotton is 250m (273yds) to 100g
 
You also need to know how many balls of the shade are used in the design.
Lets use Parchment Life DK and the Fruit Garden CAL as an example:
 
4 balls are used in the project, so that is a yarn length of 4 x 298 = 1192 (m)
 
So, we now know that we would need in the region of 1200 metres of yarn in the Parchment shade equivalent. The new yarn choice needs to have the same length regardless of whether it comes in 100g or 50g balls and regardless of the yarn composition.
 
Let’s say you wanted to use Batik in place of the Life DK and want to know how many balls you need.
 
Batik = 138m a 50g ball.
 
You need to divide the total length of yarn needed (1192m) by the length in the Batik ball of yarn, so:
 
1192 divided by 138 = 8.63
 
This means that you would ideally need to source 9 balls of substitution yarn.
 
You can find the yarn list for both versions of the Fruit Garden CAL here if you do want to look at substituting yarn. Alternatively you might want to have a look at working though one of my older CAL projects.

The patterns for Lily Pond and Frida’s Flowers are still both free on the Stylecraft web site. There are kits for Lily Pond on Janie Crow and Just Knots and although the yarn packs for Frida are currently out of stock, you will find packs for the Primavera version (colour subs chosen by the fabulous Lucia Dunn and shown below) on the Just Knots site here.
 ​

I love impressionist art and so I was really excited to receive an email from the Royal Academy this week saying that they have posted a free video on their site:
 
Documentary: Inside ‘Painting the Modern Garden – Monet to Matisse
 
“Originally released in cinemas, this ‘Exhibition on Screen’ film takes us back to our landmark exhibition, ‘Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse’, examining the role gardens played in the evolution of art from the early 1860s through to the 1920s.
 
Back in 2016, we filled our Main Galleries with all the vibrant colours of the garden, as we traced its many forms through a period of great social change and innovation in the arts.
 
Discover the paintings of some of the most important artists of the early twentieth century exploring the theme, including Renoir, Cezanne, Pissarro, Manet, Sargent, Kandinsky, Van Gogh, Matisse, Klimt and Klee’.
 
You can find the feature length video on the Royal Academy site by following this link. I have not had a chance to watch it yet, but hope to do so later on today or tomorrow.

​

5 weeks into lock down I have finally managed to find some time to do some forward planning, so it is really nice to have a few new projects to look forward to. We will be releasing the Climbing Rose Wrap pattern as a PDF download and paper brochure in the early Autumn, so Sarah is currently working on putting the pattern back into my writing style and I am really looking forward to being able to show you more of the lovely images of the project, taken at William Morris’s Red House in Kent, as part of the re-launch. Inside Crochet Magazine have been incredibly supportive with this project and we look forward to being able to share the pattern with you again soon.
 ​

Talking of Inside Crochet Magazine – the May issue of the magazine is out now and Andy has 10 copies in stock on his Just Knots web site.
 ​

​ 
The band Feeder released the song ‘Just a Day’ in 2001. It is a great song, but it was the awesome video that accompanied it’s release that made the track truly iconic. The video featured film clips that fans had recorded at home of them singling along to the song. You can find the original video here.

The Welsh group say they have been consistently asked over the last 2 decades to remake the video, but they have resisted, even vowing to never remake it – until now!
 

​According to the NME:
 
‘Feeder called on fans to help them remake the video earlier this month, noting that it felt like the right time to recreate it “for a good cause”. The new version features fans in NHS uniform, fancy dress and more…..
 
The new version of the video raises awareness for two fundraising drives – the Scrub + Face Protection Hub and Masks 4 NHS Heroes, which aim to provide NHS staff and key workers with vital Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

In a press release, frontman Grant Nicholas said: “The original video has become a classic, especially being in an era pre-YouTube and TikTok. We have always been against remaking it but after messages from fans in Italy we decided to revisit it again and highlight the plight of our own NHS and key workers.’
 
You can watch the video here.
​

I was contacted by Melani Kline this week - Lace_Princess on Instagram. Melani has produced a fabulous drawing of the Acanthus motif from the Fruit Garden CAL and when she shared it on one of the CAL dedicated Facebook Groups this week it all went a bit bananas! 
 ​

Melani has given me permission to share it here - isn't it fabulous!
​

 
I have not had a chance to look at your emails this week – I know they are there in my inbox and I will try and take a look at them over the weekend or early next week – please don’t think I am ignoring you, it is just that the orders on the web site and the launch of the CAL patterns has had to take priority this week.
 
We are in the studio today – hence the Saturday email, but hope to spend some time later on this afternoon baking in the kitchen and then I have a day of crochet planned for tomorrow.
 
It was Andy’s birthday on Thursday. We managed to have a catch up with the family on Zoom and opened a bottle of bubbly and tonight we are going to order from our favourite Indian Take Away to celebrate. Those of you who have met Andy will know what a top-notch kind of guy he is. He has supported me through everything I do and works so hard, so I hope I will be in a position to treat him to something lovely when all this is over – even if that just means a pint in his favourite pub garden!!!
 
The weekend is calling and so I am waving goodbye once again. It really is beginning to feel a bit like Ground Hog Day Monday to Friday so, for us anyway, the weekend still feels a bit different to other days. If you are stuck at home I think it must be worse for you, so I am sending extra big hugs this week!
 
So until next week, keep well, safe and happy!

​

At Janie Crow and Just Knots Yarns we use Royal Mail as our postal service provider. Royal Mail continues to operate most worldwide postal services and we have not yet been hugely affected by issues with the post. Things can change quickly, so if you are wondering about the mail service to your country, you can check up via the Royal Mail ‘Personal Help’ page here.

 
I am a bit late in the day with this email, so apologies for not landing here in your in-box earlier on! I have just popped in to say that the first set of patterns for the Fruit Garden CAL are now ready and waiting for you to download via the Stylecraft web site here. The patterns for the Forget-Me-Not motif are free and you can choose from UK & US terminology and the Dutch Language.
 

 
I have posted a new video on my Youtube channel to accompany the first set of patterns and you can find it by following this link. It is quite a long video - subsequent videos will be shorter - but I hope I cover quite a few things that you will find useful going forwards.

Don't forget that we have now decided to run the The Fruit Garden CAL twice, so if you cannot join in this time, you might want to do so in the Autumn when we start all over again. You can follow the progress of the project within the dedicated Facebook group and I would look forward to seeing images of your work popping up on my social media. 

Things continue to be incredibly busy here at Just Knots and Janie Crow, but we are beginning to feel things are a little calmer and we have received a big yarn order from Stylecraft today, so all being well, we should find time to pack the Naturals Bamboo + Cotton kits over the next few days. As soon as we have kits we will put them into stock and I will be back with my newsletter on Friday with an update on what we have. 

Sending virtual yarny hugs...

​

At Janie Crow and Just Knots Yarns we use Royal Mail as our postal service provider. Royal Mail continues to operate most worldwide postal services and we have not yet been hugely affected by issues with the post. Things can change quickly, so if you are wondering about the mail service to your country, you can check up via the Royal Mail ‘Personal Help’ page here.
​

​
Another week into lockdown and I am back to say hello and check up on you!

When we were young -like in our late teens and early 20s we used to adore Friday nights as it meant party night! Living in London, we would head out to the pub for a few drinks then make the tube journey into town to dance the night away at the Astoria club, heading home at stupid o’clock the next morning on the night bus. Friday night was the highlight of the week and every Saturday we would start planning the logistics for the following week. When I think of it now I am amazed that we had the energy, especially as we used to go to a club in town on Sunday nights too and occaisionally on a week night! Friday nights were always the best though - some of the nights that we will remember for the rest of our lives. 
 
Andy has always been a party animal and he still loves going to clubs and to see bands, so lockdown has been pretty tough on him as he has missed his friends and his live music. These days I am a bit of a hermit anyway - the idea of heaven for me is time spent in my PJs on the settee with a crochet hook, but at the moment it seems that Andy and I are on the exact same page as we are both finding that we are noticing that Friday Feeling creeping in more than ever! Perhaps it is because the Monday to Friday bit (in our own Jane & Andy bubble) is beyond hectic and because I am not sure we have ever had to work so hard and attempt to keep jolly in each others company for so long! Whatever the reason, when it gets to 5pm on a Friday (around about now) we are definitely up for a party….
 
Except we have nowhere to go!!!
 
So here I am with a slightly late email to welcome you to this Friday evening. I hope that you are all keeping safe and well and that you have 5 minutes to spare so that I can bring you up to date with all things Janie Crow!
​

​Did you see my Special Statement about the new Fruit Garden CAL on Tuesday? In case you missed it you can find it by following this link to the Janie Crow blog. The response to the statement has been so incredibly positive and I am really glad that the majority of you saw the CAL repeat as a positive thing. Out of all the emails received this week, we only had one negative response, so I think that definitely counts as a win!
​

We had hoped to have a good stock level of the Life DK & Batik (Recipe 1) kits by now, however there has been a bit of a hiccup at Stylecraft HQ, so we have ended up with only about a 3rd of the stockholding we should have had. If you are quick you can grab one of the last remaining Recipe 1 kits as we have about 5 left in stock on the Janie Crow site. The good news is that we are expecting to receive the yarn to make up the Naturals Bamboo + Cotton kits next week. These will go into stock as fast as we can pack them.
 
Don’t forget that the first patterns for the Fruit Garden CAL will be ready to download from the Stylecraft web site on Tuesday! I have filmed an accompanying video to help guide you through this first motif and will be posting that on my YouTube channel on the same day.
​

​We had lots of emails in response to last week’s newsletter. Thank you for taking the time to get in touch. ‘Wendy from Oz’ sent the following recipe – it sounds really yummy:
 
Good morning, have just loved your newsy email with all you have been up to. I have a nice quick and easy recipe for you this week and it is good hot or cold on sandwiches or with a salad.
 
Aberdeen Sausage Loaf.
 
Ingredients:
 
1 kg thick sausages skinned
2 Carrots  (from your garden! )grated
2 Granny Smith apples peeled cored and grated
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
2 eggs beaten
 
Method:
 
Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
 
Shape into a couple of loaf shapes and coat in flour. Place on lined baking tray into a 180 degree oven for about 1 hour.  Drain on paper towel. Serve with lovely creamy mash and some greens.
 
Have cold the next day on Sandwiches or with a salad. Yum!
I find this makes 3-4 loaves and you can freeze any spares for a later date.
 
Thank you for sending this recipe Wendy!
​

​I did manage to make the roasted carrot burgers I told you about last week. They were good (image above), but I am not sure they were worth all the work. I am a ‘quick results’ cook, so the multiple stages of this recipe possibly made my expectations a little high. I think the Pret Sweet Potato Falafel that Charlie made the previous week were tastier and easier to make.
​

​If you like quick results like me then you might be interested in my (cheat’s) lime pickle houmous recipe. I know it sounds a little odd – but we love it and it takes less than 5 minutes to make.
 
You will need:
 
1 slightly heaped desert spoon of Indian Lime Pickle – I use Pataks.
A jar or tin of chick peas
1 tbsp Tahini
Salt & Pepper
Juice of 1 or 2 limes depending on how sharp you like it (lemon will do if you don’t have it)
1 clove of garlic
Glug of olive oil
Water if needed.
 
Grate the garlic clove then add all ingredients except the water to a basin and blend with a hand blender. If it looks a bit thick add some water. Add salt and pepper to taste and add more lime juice or lemon juice if you think it needs it. Transfer to an airtight jar and leave in the fridge for a day before you eat it – it is much nicer if you let all the flavours combine over night, although we often can't wait that long!
 
If you are not a fan of lime pickle you could try adding other things to your houmous – roasted red peppers are great (we use a couple from a jar) or a good spoonful of pesto. If you want a chunkier houmous you could always add a few mashed chickpeas at the end. Don’t worry if you do not have tahini – you could add some sesame oil or even a good dollop of peanut butter!
 
I hope that once you have a go at making houmous you will not want to buy it in plastic pots from the supermarket. It is super easy, super tasty and super good for you!!!
​

​
​Summer and Chris sat down during the week and made theirs and I have had quite a few of my friends make one too. I love the image of the one made by my friend Gwyn (what a lovely front door you have Gwyn) and the one made by Janet Collins from the UK Hand Knitting and Crochet Guild.
​

​If you want to make a donation to the NHS Charities together appeal you can do so by following this link.
​

Today sees the publication of the Introduction to the Fruit Garden CAL, as well as this special announcement:
​

I love the fact that crochet along (CAL) style projects give home crafters the opportunity to collectively join in with a project. I adore the fact that crocheters can contribute to on-line chat forums, seek out videos and groups to help them and create strong friendships with others regardless of background, circumstances or location in the world whilst working through the project. CALs give distance learners the chance to create wonderful pieces of crochet that they can present to their friends and families as a testament to their own talents and crochet skills and who can look back on the process of making as a rewarding and positive experience.
​

​I am hugely excited about the launch of my new CAL project The Fruit Garden, but, at a time of worldwide uncertainty, I also recognise that many of you may be in a position where you cannot join in with the timeline of the project as it stands at the moment. So, after discussion with the wonderful team at Stylecraft, we have decided that my new CAL will now have 2 official launch dates, so that all those who want to can reap the full benefits of working through a project in an organised and supported timescale.
 
The first set of patterns for the CAL will go live as planned on Tuesday 28th April. This release will be followed by 7 more fortnightly pattern downloads, which means that the final set of patterns will be published on the 4th August.

On 8th September we will start the CAL pattern release process all over again so that anyone who missed taking part, or lost track along the way first time round can join in.
 
Rather than being the ‘poor cousin’ to the first publication, I see the second release as the fabulous ‘after party’ to the main event; If you choose to join in with the CAL the second time around you can make the most of tips and hints from those who have already completed the project. You can also get ideas for alternative colour ways or layouts and you will have a wonderful project completed in time for Christmas. I also feel that a second release will help support those who may have fallen by the wayside first time round - sometimes leaving a project and returning to it at another time can be a really good learning process and having more support going forwards is bound to lead to less disappointment and more completed projects.
 
Over the forthcoming weeks I am going to work on a new version of the CAL so that a third choice of project (to accompany the 2 existing colourways) can be added to the pattern options for the second release in September. The colour palette and format for this additional project is top secret for now, but as soon as I have anything solid to show you I will do so. Having another project option in the mix means that you will have even more free designs to choose from and could even mean that some of you decide to create even more Fruit Garden projects than you had originally planned.
 
I hope that you will all understand why these decisions have been made and will see them as a positive addition to the CAL process.
 
Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, stay safe and I will see you back here again on Friday.

With less than 2 weeks to go before the first set of patterns for the new Fruit Garden CAL are published Stylecraft have uploaded my ‘Getting Ready’ document to their web site. The document includes information about the yarn and equipment required for the project and other crochet related advice like how to achieve the correct tension and how to work neatly.
 
Over the Easter weekend I managed to film a short video to accompany the document. In the film I have covered the basic crochet stitches you will need to produce the project and I have also included a few little tips – like working your turning chain before you turn your work and changing your hook size on stitches with longer posts. You can find the video on my YouTube channel here. Take a look and let me know if you can hear the thunder storm that happened half way through!!!
 ​

It has been pretty lonely for us all over the last few weeks and I have been thinking especially about those of you who are on your own. I am so grateful to have Charlie still at home with Andy and I, but have been missing Summer dreadfully. Like so many others we have been trying to schedule in weekly catch ups with the family via Zoom and Facetime and it has been so good to see everyone even if it is in a virtual way.

Lots of people are joining in on-line tests and having family group quizzes. I am looking forward to a group catch up this evening where each household has set 10 questions and have a few other Zoom based chats lined up over the weekend.
 
The UKHK (UK Handknitting) have been holding virtual knit (crochet) and natter groups over the last few weeks and you can find more information on their Instagram feed here. I think they meet every Thursday evening at 7pm.

Yesterday evening I was part of a Zoom group chat with my girlfriends and we were talking about what special thing we can do to celebrate birthdays during lock down. We are all so used to going out to celebrate or having a party at home, so the prospect of a lockdown Birthday or Anniversary is disappointing to say the least! It was Charlie’s Birthday just as we headed into isolation at the end of March, so being at home was a bit of a novelty then, but as the weeks pass by it is harder and harder to think of ways to mark an occasion. My friends were talking about having on line ‘dance offs’ or dressing up, but if you have any great ideas you would like to share I would love to include them in a newsletter!
 ​

 
Rhonda says the process of crocheting has helped her to relieve stress, feel calmer and keep her mind active and I am so proud of her and the lovely blanket she has created.

It has been so busy with the web site orders over the last few weeks that I have been unable to get going on a new crochet project. I completed a new version of Persian Tiles about 4 weeks ago (which I hope I will be able to show you soon) and have been itching to pick up my hook and start a new design, but packing so many orders has been making my arthritic fingers hurt a little (especially as I am avoiding Ibuprofen), so making the pom-poms was a great way to play with some yarn!

I have rooted through my WIP bag at home and pulled out the cardigan I started knitting in the Autumn, so I am also hoping to make some progress on that now that things are calmer. Heading into next week I have my fingers crossed that I can start to think about some new design work and have a few ideas for inspiration – as usual I would love to know what you are all working on.
​

​We managed to get 2 days at home over the Easter break – we spent our time walking in the countryside around our home, tidying up the garden, cooking and eating! We are hoping to spend this weekend doing similar (after all there is not a lot more that we can do), but I am also hoping to add in some crochet time and have a bit of a clear up in our summer house at the bottom of the garden as it has become a little bit of a dumping ground for things we cannot find a place for in our little house. In this brighter weather I am also very aware that the house is badly in need of a spring clean, so it may well be that some dusting and cobweb hunting is on the cards!
 
With the focus on daily life being so much more food and cooking orientated than ever we have already planned our meals for the next few days and I am looking forward to making a veggie burger recipe I found on-line. We have an abundance of left over carrots, so I have found a recipe that should use these up. Life is just so full of excitement these days!!!
 
I would love to know what you guys are up to and don’t forget that if you have any ideas for ways to mark a special occasion I would love to know them – we are in the lead up to Andy’s birthday and he has been working so hard that it would be lovely to come up with a way to give him a special day - although Summer has already set the bar pretty high by sending him a tin of her handmade rum and raisin fudge!

Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, stay safe and I will see you back here again next Friday.
​

​I hope this email finds you all safe and well...
 
I am just popping in quickly to wish you all a very happy and healthy Easter weekend. I think it is set to be an Easter celebration that none of us are likely to forget! 

We continue to live and work in our own little 'Jane & Andy' bubble. The Janie Crow and Just Knots web sites are still open for business and we have pretty much caught up with all the orders, so are really looking forward to a couple of days off over the weekend. We are hoping to find the time to make a little film to accompany the release of the 'Getting Ready' download for the Fruit Garden CAL, which goes live via the Stylecraft web site on Tuesday and have our fingers crossed that we will get some time in the sunshine in the garden too.
 

 
If you are thinking of getting involved with the new Fruit Garden CAL it's still not too late to order a kit in time for the start of the crochet along on the 28th April. The kits have now sold out 3 times over on both web sites, but we are confident that by the end of next week we should be up to speed with getting the kits into the post. 

As it stands at the moment we have the Parchment and Caramel Life DK and Batik kits on sale on a back order basis and we are hoping to be able to have the Naturals - Cotton + Bamboo kits back in stock within the next couple of weeks.
 ​

 
I know many of you are really looking forward to having a crochet along project to get stuck into come the end of April, but I also know that many of you are worried about getting yarn packs in time. We have been inundated with requests to release the patterns and the yarn packs early, especially from those of you outside of the UK, but for now the scheduled dates all remain in place. A huge amount of work has gone into the design stage, the pattern writing, the promotion and of course the preparation of the yarn packs, so making changes now is not an option. I still have the final read through of the patterns to do and all the video tutorials to film. Add to that the fact that many people are still waiting for their yarn packs to arrive and you can immediately see that there is definitely no chance of having the CAL sooner than originally planned, so please be patient!

I think there may well be a lot of small scale Easter barbecues going on over the next couple of days here in North London as the weather is set to be good. It is especially tempting to make plans outside of the house when the sun is shining, but I urge you to stay home despite how lovely you think the local park, beach or countryside might be.

Over the last few days I have seen lots of social media posts by people busy volunteering to make sew scrubs for doctors and medical staff. My friend Teresa has been especially busy this week making fresh new scrubs that really help the NHS keep on top of things at this time of need. This is the piece on the BBC web site that inspired Teresa to get involved, so I hope you will take a look, especially if you are a keen dress maker! There are loads of other initiatives that will really help too. This week I have seen patterns for masks and laundry bags and have been told that it is a good idea to look on line to find out what your local area is in need of. 

If you want to let me know about any of your home based plans or things that you are doing to help fight the challenges that the world is currently facing please hit reply.

I want to leave you with a positive story though, so take a look at this fabulous article about how sea turtles are thriving now that people are not encroaching on their beaches!

Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, stay safe and I will see you back here again next Friday.

PS: The nomination stage of the Let’s Knit Awards for 2020 is now open and of course I would really love it if you could take a few minutes to take a look at the web page. By submitting your nominations you can be entered into the prize draw and win some fabulous yarny goodies, so do take a look!

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