4 Days Off! Yay!

JANIE'S FRIDAY FEATURE

Welcome to this week's Friday Feature Newsletter - the Janie Crow equivalent of a Sunday supplement magazine....

I am so excited to be able to tell you that the JANIE CROW web shop is finally up and running! Can you believe it? It's only taken 3 months! You can find a link to the shop here.
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The shop features paper pattern brochures for my designs, download patterns and my books and I have also added some lovely shawl pins, clasps and closures made by a company called Jul, who create beautiful accessories, bags and housewares in leather and metal. I will be adding to this range over the next month or so, so do keep an eye on it.
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I am also hoping to add more third party products to the site over the forthcoming weeks. I really like the idea of project bags and lovely accessories and Julie from Tilly Flop Designs has already agreed to let me have stock of her fabulous greeting cards on the site, so I will try and get this sorted soon.

Some areas of the site are still under construction and not everything has the right links yet (if any at all) so do bear with me while these final things are sorted. Hopefully everything is on schedule to be finished by the end of the month and then I can finally stop apologising for being so behind!

We have already received lots of votes in the Delft competition and the voting is open for another week, so if you haven't had a chance to look at the finalists already, you can find more information lower down this email.

I have a new design this week too - it is a hand knit cushion cover called Streymoythat I designed for last year's cruise trip around the UK and to the Faroe Islands that I tutored for Stitchtopia. The cover is knitted in the round using the fairisle technique and the design is based on traditional Faroese designs. I am hoping that some of the Janie Crow stockists will have kits for this within the next few weeks, so I will let you know if any do in case you want to purchase a yarn pack to accompany the project.

We are really looking forward to the Easter break. The forecast here in North London is looking lovely, so I am really looking forward to the break, especially as we rarely get more than one or two days at home at a time. I am not sure what I will do with myself with a whole 4 days off!

Whatever you are planning to do I hope you all have a fabulous time and, as always, if you have anything you want to tell us about, please hit reply....
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'There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.'
- Linda Grayson -

Delft Colouring Competition
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​We revealed the crochet motifs made from the coloured in motifs sent in by the 5 finalists in the recent Delft Colouring Competition last week. We received more than 230 entries, so choosing just 5 was pretty tough, but we are really happy with the outcome of our choices.

You can vote for your favourite by visiting my web site and following the link to the survey - it will take less than a minute for you to record your choice.

The five finalists are as follows:

Rose Garden in Bloom - Katie Mulliner, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire.
 

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(The inspiration is) ‘The rose bushes we had in the garden of our childhood home – they were my Dad’s pride and joy, but he still let us pick the petals to make ‘perfume’.
Sample made in Stylecraft Bellissima DK, using 6 shades.

Autumn Berries - Miss Jen Mitchell, Wellington, Somerset.

'Autumn is my favourite season, so I chose colours of rich hedgerow berries and fruit - blackberries, plums and apples, with complimentary greens.'
Sample made in Stylecraft Special DK using 8 shades.

 Bejewelled - Jackie Walker, Chandlers Ford, Hampshire.

 
'One of my favourite computer games is Bejewelled and I wanted to create a motif that radiated opulence, warmth and glamour. Being wrapped in these colours would make me feel beautiful and shine like a jewel. I felt I needed (one row) of white to represent diamonds'.
Sample made in Stylecraft Special DK using 7 shades.
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Golden Pears and Plums - Kate Wotton, Melton Mowbray, Lincs.

 
'One of my favourite computer games is Bejewelled and I wanted to create a motif that radiated opulence, warmth and glamour. Being wrapped in these colours would make me feel beautiful and shine like a jewel. I felt I needed (one row) of white to represent diamonds'.
Sample made in Stylecraft Special DK using 7 shades.

Golden Pears and Plums - Kate Wotton, Melton Mowbray, Lincs.

‘Blue is my favourite colour, so since the Delft colour scheme is already done I had to think about what I would like. I chose orchid colours as they are so vibrant and fabulous! AND – I didn’t use any blue, which was absolutely a first for me!’
Sample made in Stylecraft Special DK using 8 shades.

As I already said, you can vote for your favourite re-coloured motif by following the link here. All you need to do is pop a tick next to your chosen colour way and submit your form.  Please note that you can only enter the competition once. Voting closes 30th April.

Winners and runners up will be chosen after a public vote.
 
The overall winner will receive a prize of £150 and a yarn colour pack to make their blanket. The 2 runner-ups will each receive a prize of £50 plus a yarn colour pack. All finalists will have their name and wording about their colour inspiration listed on the colour substitution and will be featured in Simply Crochet Magazine. The yarn colour packs for the new colour ways will subsequently be available via Stylecraft stockists. The colour substitution documents for each new colour way will also be available as free downloads via the Janie Crow web site.
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Colour Palette of the Week

I found a great web site this week simply called Color Palettes and you can find it by following this link.
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If you struggle to choose your own colour palettes for personal projects, web sites like this one are ideal as they present you with ready curated palettes that accompany lovely inspiring images, like those I have posted above.
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It's nearly the weekend!

As I have already said, we are really looking forward to our Easter break, but next week it will be back to 'all systems go' here as we prepare for Wonderwool Walesthe following weekend. I love this show and so I am really looking forward to it - I just hope it will be a tad warmer than last year when we (and many others stall holders) resorted to wearing our display garments as it was so cold!!

We will have quite a few new items on display at the show, including the new Janis shawl and Audrey Coat that I designed for West Yorkshire Spinners earlier on this year, so if you are coming along do make sure you come and say hello!

We are hoping to spend some time in the garden this weekend - I am sure many of you here in the UK have the same plans as the weather is set to be good, but I am also hoping to find a little bit of crochet time on the sofa! I have been a bit quiet on social media over the last few weeks, simply because we have been really busy, but hopefully I will find some time to get on Instagram and upload some pics.

I hope that whatever you are doing you have a fabulous weekend and I look forward to seeing you here again next Friday...