April News

So here we are in April, with Easter just around the corner! The weather has been bright and sunny, if not a little chilly still, and the garden is full of beautiful tulips and a few remaining daffodils, so I am happy!
 
I have had a busy couple of weeks again, with a lovely workshop trip to Switzerland in the mix and lots of exercise and fresh air, plus a good dose of yarny fun too! I hope that you have been having a lovely time lately too and that life is treating you well. I also hope that you have a few minutes to catch up with this month's news from Janie Crow! 

We have partnered with the fantastic team at Wool Warehouse to create a yarn kit for my Marrakesh version of Persian Tiles using their gorgeous YARNSMITHS Merino DK Superwash yarn. You can find the kit here.
 
To celebrate the release of this fabulous kit, which contains all the yarn and the printed yarn substitution document, you can currently get 40% off the price and save yourself more than £60! 
 
As the colour palette in the YARNSMITHS Merino DK Superwash is so large (with 120 colours to choose from) this version of the blanket is pretty much identical to my original version, which was made using Stylecraft Yarns - you can find a link to the original kit lower down this email. 
 
The new kits, that use the Merino DK yarn, have been selling really fast, so if they are out of stock by the time you head over to the Wool Warehouse website, be sure to register your interest by clicking on the Wish List icon.

The Marrakesh version of Persian Tiles was inspired by a trip I made there a couple of years ago, when I was lucky enough to visit the stunning gardens that surround the Yves Saint Laurent Museum. I was blown away by the incredible colours, shapes and patterns contained within its walls.
 
Le Jardin Marjorelle was created by French artist Jacques Marjorelle over the course of almost four decades from 1923 and was later purchased by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé who restored and maintained it to create the incredible location it is today.

Due to a cancellation, there is one space now available on my Stitchtopia trip to Morocco this October. You can find the itinerary and more details of the textiles holiday by following this link to the Stitchtopia website. My trip leaves on 18th October and returns on the 30th.

The Marrakesh blanket also features on some new tins within the Emma Ball range, you can find them by following this link.
 
This week we have also added a new bone china mug and a draw string bag design to the range. They both feature my pretty beaded flowers and decorations and I am really happy with how they have turned out! 

We also have some kits back in stock at last! They include Eastern Jewels, Spirit of Flora, Marrakesh and Fruit Garden (Parchment & Caramel), all of which have not been in stock for quite some time. 

I was so lucky to head out to Zurich last week with a fabulous group of knitters to enjoy a holiday that included a packed itinerary of workshops, a city walking tour, a boat trip on the lake, a visit to the Lindt chocolate factory, and a day trip to the Swiss Yarn Festival. We even got to enjoy a ‘free day’ where participants could choose what to do – some visited Lucerne on the train and others took a trip out to the Rhine Falls, which looked spectacular.

I found an abundance of inspirational surface pattern, including the Giacometti murals in the entrance hall of the police station, stained glass windows by Marc Chagall and some made using agate designed by Sigmar Polka in the Grossmünster. We also saw lots of murals painted on buildings and pretty spring flowers – the weather was fabulous too! ​

I will be tutoring a summer time crochet wreath workshop at Black Sheep Wools in May. Tickets are now sold out, but if you are interested in joining a waiting list, should anyone drop out, you can find more information here. I will be at Black Sheep for two days, so Sara is busy organising an event for the day before the workshop (Wednesday 14th May), so keep an eye on their website, or sign up to their newsletter for more information.

Gemma and Emma have both been working on their temperature blankets over the last month and it is lovely to see some warmer colours of yarn coming through in their crochet. Gemma has written a blog post about her progress and you can find it by following this link.

Andy has recently discovered an app called ReciMe that allows you to import recipe videos from platforms such as Instagram and then gives you a break down of the ingredients and method used. It is a great way of keeping track of recipes we see online and we have already made quite a few of those we have saved over the last couple of weeks.
 
A particularly nice one is this Spinach and Feta Lentil bread, by Thyme 4 Cooking, which Andy has now made a couple of times. He used a light Feta and didn't add any oil and it was still delicious hot or cold.

​We have been posting images on social media as part of our Decade of Design celebrations and it has been so lovely to see all your positive responses to some of my older designs. 
 
I posted images of Frida's Flowers last week and will be focusing on the Mexican Diamonds and Delft blankets next week. These designs still seem relatively new to me, so it is amazing to think that they are almost a decade old, with both of them released in 2016! 

Summer and Chris's puppy has been busy growing again and it is amazing how much he changes every week. He is loving the garden, but still likes to sleep on laps, so we get some very cute, quiet moments interspersed with the madness of zoomies!

Andy and I are over the half way mark on our eight week exercise and diet programme. With just three weeks left now, we have really started to see some changes and it has been a really great way to reset and look at the areas of our lives that may have been a little out of control. I really thought I would miss sugar and hard cheeses like cheddar more than I have. That said, I am really looking forward to the first week in May when we can start having a few treats again! Especially as I brought literally kilos of chocolate back from Switzerland! 
 
We are really looking forward to exhibiting at the Wonderwool yarn show in Wales in a fortnight's time. There are still tickets available for the show, so if you fancy coming along to say hi, you can find them here. 
 
I have six weeks at home now (apart from going to Wonderwool) so I am really looking forward to some settled time and getting back to my crochet projects. I hope that wherever you are and whatever you have going on, that life is treating you well and that you are also looking forward to a lovely weekend.
 
I will be back in a fortnight's time, when I hope that we will have all the components of our Zero to Granny project ready to share, so until then, keep safe and have fun with your yarn!