 I have been away in West Yorkshire this week with a group of fabulous knitters on a Stitchtopia organised trip. Yesterday we visited the amazing HQ of the UK Knitting and Crochet Guild in Slaithwaite, where we got to see some of the items from their incredible collection, such as their vintage knitted bathing suit patterns and garments, which included the intricately Swiss darned tank top shown below.   We also got to have a guided tour of the Stylecraft Mill, which fortuitously happens to be located in the same town. Members of the lovely team at Stylecraft explained the many parts of the production line process that happens at the Mill and the workshop group were able to sample knit and crochet some of the yarns while enjoying a lovely cuppa and some cake to round off a fabulous day out - they even came a way with a cute Stylecraft goody bag too!  Today we have the delights of Saltaire and the West Yorkshire Spinners Mill in Keighley, so I have had such a fabulous yarn fix over the last few days that it will be back down to earth with a bump next week when I will be back at my desk! Gemma has been incredibly busy putting some really great bits together for this month's Quick Catch Up email as I have been away and we have a few things to tell you about, so hopefully you have a few spare minutes to catch up with all things Janie Crow.   Last week saw the release of the second set of motifs for the Spirit of Flora CAL and already we are seeing your completed motifs appearing on social media. You are such quick workers and it has been such a treat seeing your crochet out in the wild!  If you need a little guidance when working through the patterns, don't forget that there is a dedicated Facebook group, which you can find here and Emma has been incredibly busy making accompanying video support for YouTube, which you can find by following this link. Some of you may now be starting to assemble blankets made from the motifs you have chosen, so remember you can now find the patterns for the three different borders as a free download on the Spirit of Flora page on the website here. You can also find the link to the download for the three plainer squares on the same page. Thank you for all your incredible feedback on this project - your support means so much to us here at Janie Crow!  LAST MINUTE UPDATE: Andy has put a healthy number of Persian Tiles Eastern Jewels kits in stock this week. You can find them by following this link!  June the 8th was Worldwide Knit in Public Day and over on Facebook we asked our followers if they were attending any events and whether knitting and crocheting in public is something they do with pride anyway! Wendy Alison shared that she attended a huge celebration and as part of the event two thousand crocheted butterflies were attached to a fence for passers-by to take home with them. What a lovely idea.  Miriam Lowrie spent some time in the park crocheting with her little elf. What a nice way to spend an afternoon - sounds idyllic to us!  As we've finally had some warm weather over the last week or so, the focus over on Instagram has been on small items, crocheted in cotton, that might be a far more palatable prospect for those of you who are finding it difficult to enjoy crocheting large, heavy items in the heat. Crochet projects such as bunting and individual flower motifs that you can turn into corsages, fascinators, decorations or mandalas, as well as pouches and small bags can all be lovely items to work on during periods of hot weather when you might not want to add to that 'melting' sensation you could be feeling!     It has been another very busy month for me and progress on my blanket has been frustratingly slow, but all progress is progress, so here I am again to show you what has been on the hook. I was hoping to finish the set of Fitzroy motifs and make a start on Legacy but having read a bit further along in the book and looked at the first phase of construction of the blanket I decided instead to focus on the motifs needed to complete the centre. Therefore I set Fitzroy to one side and embarked on a production line of Legacy.  Legacy has the same flower at its centre as the Harmony motif but then moves into a more complex set of beaded leaves and an outer row of pretty buds. The leaves are worked by making a central stem using a chain with stitches worked into one side of it with the beads and then on the subsequent round the other side of the chain is worked into as well as the beaded stitches to create the leaf shape. As I had chosen to work production line method I threaded all the beads that would be needed for the four motifs onto my yarn in one go but discovered that made the yarn rather heavy and a bit awkward to use, so if doing similar again I would just thread enough for each motif as I worked it. Here are some close-ups of the lovely detail.  I nearly made the full set! Two are completed and the remaining two just need the framework completing. They are so pretty.  Next month it's on to Vanessa and Virginia. Fitzroy will just have to wait! I hope you all have a great month and I'll be back with an update in July. Gemma x  This week's recipe is truly in the comfort food zone as it contains one of the UK's favourite staple foods - tinned baked beans. It could perhaps also fall into the child friendly food category, but that's allowed once in a while isn't it?  We're talking about Barbecue Bean Pie from the BBC food website. One element of the pie is a batch cooked tomato and lentil sauce which is brilliant to make ahead as the quantities stated in the recipe give enough of this sauce for portions to be kept and frozen for future use. When Gemma made this she simply used a third of each of the ingredients to make the appropriate amount of sauce for the dish on its own. She says it was very tasty and with veg on the side it easily fed her family of four with the same quantify left over for another meal. Wow!  Xenobia Bailey is an American artist from Seattle who often uses textiles in her artwork, perhaps most notably for her African inspired crochet hats which have featured in TV adverts, shows and films.    She also produces crochet pieces such as large scale mandalas and, for a mosaic designed to decorate a New York City subway station, she began with a crocheted piece that was then digitised to create the final installation for the station. You can find out more about Xenobia and her work by clicking on the images above and below.  'Trilogy'  'Funktional Vibrations' - New York City Subway 34 St - Hudson Yards Are you a fan of The Muppets like we are? If so you might be interested to hear about a new book release, scheduled for later this year in October. 'The Muppets Official Crochet Amigurumi' by Drew Hill contains patterns to make 16 different Muppet characters, such as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and Animal. Looks like great fun! Click on the image below for more information.    The last month or so has been all about workshop prep as I have designed a knitted project for the West Yorkshire trip and have a knit and crochet project ready for the trip to Peru in a little under three weeks time. It has been really nice to work on some smaller projects, especially as the weather has been lovely and warm, but I am also really looking forward to getting stuck into some new design work once I return from all the trips in early August - I honestly cannot believe the speed at which this year has flown by. Tomorrow I will be tutoring the final workshop of our Stitchtopia trip and I won't be travelling home to London until Sunday morning, so I am excited to have another day and a half with the fabulous group who have joined me on the very first five day trip to West Yorkshire. We have been invited to a birthday party on Sunday afternoon so I have my fingers crossed that the good weather will continue a while longer and that I will return home to a sunny and warm London Town! I hope that whatever you have planned for the next few days that you remain safe and well and that you get to have a little bit of well earned time with your knit or crochet projects - nothing like a little yarny TLC to finish off the week and set everything in order for the new one ahead!    We will be launching the patterns for set two of the Spirit of Flora project next Wednesday the 19th June. As with set one, the patterns will be available as paper brochures via our website or as downloads via Etsy or Ravelry.  Chelsea  Evelyn  Gillow  Marlborough There are four motifs in the set - all are shown above. You can purchase the patterns individually at £3.95 each if you want to cherry pick certain motifs, or you can purchase the set at a price of £10.95 which means you save almost £5 compared to purchasing them individually. This second set includes patterns for the following motifs: Chelsea, Evelyn, Gillow and Marlborough. From Wednesday you will also be able to find the patterns for the three blanket borders as a free download document on the Janie Crow website.  It has been fabulous seeing so many of you getting involved in this project and I know that many of the crocheters who made the blanket last year are continuing to use some of the motifs for other projects. My lovely friend Gwyn has made a crochet pouch using the Marlborough motif and some yarns from her stash. She is watched over by her crochet dragon companion, Draig and it is fab to see her lovely blanket in the background too!  When we did the photoshoot for the Spirit of Flora project at Emery Walker's House in Hammersmith, we were extremely fortunate to find original William De Morgan tiles around the fireplace in the living room. By complete coincidence this is the tile that inspired my colour choices and layout for the Evelyn motif along side the painted flowers that feature in Evelyn De Morgan's famous painting Flora. Huge thanks to Inside Crochet Magazine and Leanne Jade for the permission to use these images.  The Complete Crochet Handbook is back in stock following its reprint. We have signed or unsigned copies for sale on the website now and you can find them by following this link. The book is written in UK terms and the copy written in US terms is called The Perfect Crochet Finish. You can find it for sale on Mary Maxim by following this link.  I love using beads in my projects and always use those from the Debbie Abrahams range as they are a really good quality and come in a fabulous selection of shades. If you are a big fan of beading too, or are a newbie and want to give it a go, now is a good time as Debbie is currently offering a 25% discount on the price of her beads and some select yarns on her website here.  My Gertrude Cushion Cover features beaded leaves around the flowers and my hanging decorations, shown below, are a great use for beads too - you can stick to one shade or add a selection.   You can add beads to most stitches, so even if a pattern doesn't include beads you can choose to add them. The image above shows the Hollyhock motif from The Fruit Garden with some beads added on a couple of rows. I really love how beads add an extra dimension to a project.  My beaded pouches, Cafe au Lait and French Linen, can also be personalised with the addition of the Hollyhock flower and you can choose to add lots of beads to the project or just a few. I think they make perfect summer time evening bags and would be fabulous gifts. If you haven't beaded with crochet before, we have a free technique download here and you can also see free video tutorials on our Youtube channel. If you want to make the most of Debbie's very generous offer, you have just a week as the sale will ends on the 21st June.  A couple of years ago I was interviewed by Jamie and Merion on the Love Crafts podcast and it was a real treat to catch up with them again a couple of weeks ago on their new Craft Talkin podcast, which you can find here .  During the podcast we talked about The Complete Crochet Handbook, the rise in skill level of crocheters, the changing way that crocheters are looking to learn techniques and what I have planned for the future. Jamie also took the opportunity to host his 'Flower or Glower' question round and we chatted a little bit about Justin Bieber and jelly! You can find the podcast by following this link. Please follow Craft Talkin over on Instagram too.  Sarah has suggested the Waterstones book of the month, 'Tom Lake' by Ann Patchett for this week's recommendation. Here's the synopsis from the Waterstones website. Sarah says the book is beautifully written and she really enjoyed it:  In the spring of 2020, Lara's three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake.As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew. Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.' You can find the book on the Waterstones website by following this link.  We have been trying out quite a few new recipes lately and so I have a healthy list for the next few newsletters and Quick Catch Up emails. After a special evening meal at Ottolenghi's restaurant, Rovi, a couple of weeks ago I purchased the book Flavour and have already tried the spicy lasagna, which was amazing!  Last week Andy made a delicious sweet potato recipe, which also features garlic, tahini, crispy roasted chickpeas and baby tomatoes. It was amazing! You can find the recipe over on Minimalist Baker by following this link.   Andy is away for a few days, so I have been pottering about this week catching up on a few home based jobs. I have had a bit of a cake disaster and undercooked a (usually) very reliable chocolate cake recipe and also managed to split the ganache filling for the same cake, not once but twice, so it obviously wasn't my week for baking! Oh well, it was only a cake and the bits I have managed to salvage are delicious!  Summer, my mother-in-law Gill and I are off on a shopping trip with our niece Abby to get a few things for her wedding, which is now only four weeks away, so I am looking forward to a girlie day tomorrow. Sunday will be a family day and I am hoping for some cosy crochet in my special corner of the settee, especially as the final instalments of the (dreadful but addictive) third series of Bridgerton are now out!
I hope that whatever your plans are, you are also looking forward to a nice weekend and that maybe, like me, you will get a chance to sit for a bit with some lovely knitting or crochet! Janie x |
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