​A couple of weeks ago I spent 2 days on the Stylecraft stand at a trade show in Harrogate. It was really great to chat to yarn stockists and craft enthusiasts and to hear about what is going on out in the market place. Many people told me about the rise in the number of teenagers and young adults wanting to learn to crochet, which is just such a positive thing to hear!

I think the prevalence of crochet in the fashion this summer has encouraged many young people to take to making things themselves and it seems that they are more than happy to create things without patterns or very much guidance, taking to Youtube and Instagram for video help - how cool is that!

Here at Janie Crow we all love the Mystical Lanterns pelmet/bunting that I first saw at Folklore Yarns in Belfast. It’s a lovely way to interpret the pattern so I have made a new technique video to show you how to add mirrors to the centre of the motifs to add some extra sparkle. ​

I was so pleased to be able to chat to lots of you about the positive effects of crochet and craft as a whole and it was really lovely to hear your stories about how crochet has helped you and how pleased you are with projects you have made - honestly it was so humbling to be able to catch up with so many of you and I am already looking forward to doing it all again in 2024! ​

Huge thanks too to my amazing team, Andy, Paul and Sarah, who did an incredible job and make me very proud! Take a closer look at Paul's tank top for a clue to a pattern that could be coming along soon! ​

Our son, Charlie has been away on holiday for the last couple of weeks and as he really dislikes cauliflower we had intended to eat it at every meal while he was away as Andy and I both LOVE it! In reality we have only managed it a couple of times, making roast cauliflower with garlic and fennel in the oven last Sunday and Creamy Cauliflower Korma by the Happy Foodie one mid week evening. ​

​Janie x

Myself and members of the team often admire Janie Crow designs made in different colourways or using alternative yarn brands. As these unique projects are becoming more commonly shared on social media we wanted to help those of you who may wish to make a project in an alternative colour palette or substitutre yarns, but may not have an idea of where to start, by giving you the basics on how to sub yarn correctly. It can be quite scary launching into a big project if you're not sure you have enough yarn, so use the following simple steps to ensure you have enough, especially when stash diving or using yarns you can no longer busy extra of. It is good to know that you will be safe!

These tips work for any project – if you find this post helpful you could save it for future reference.

1: Find out about the yarn detailed in the pattern. You need to know the weight of it and how much is being used. In our photo for example, the top yarn is Stylecraft Life DK in French Blue and you would need 4 balls of this yarn. So, we know the brand is Stylecraft and we know the type is Life DK – in this instance, the name tells us the weight is DK so that is helpful. We also know we need 4 balls of the French Blue colour.

​​Here is the important bit: you need to know how much yarn is on the ball. Not in weight but in length. In the case of Stylecraft Life DK, each ball has 298m on it so we know we need approximately 1192 metres of the French Blue yarn (298m x 4 balls).

Next find the weight and length information on the replacement yarn. You can find this on the yarn band, via the website of the brand or even on Ravelry using the 'Yarn Search' feature. So, for example, if you chose to use Rowan Yarns Felted Tweed (shown below) then each ball has 175m on it. Divide the combined length of the original yarn (1192m) by the length of each ball of the new yarn (175m) 

1192 divided by 175 = 6.81 

This rounded up to the nearest ball means that we would need 7 balls to replace the Stylecraft French Blue to have a sufficient amount of yarn. (7 x 175m = 1225m)

2: Check your tension/gauge carefully: even if you swap for the same yarn weight, you may still find that the tension is slightly different. Work a test swatch and match that to the details given on the pattern. If the swatch works up bigger and you have fewer stitches to 10cm, use a smaller hook size and if it works up smaller so that you have more stitches to 10cm, use a larger hook size. Bear in mind that a large difference will impact not just the amount of yarn you use, but also the feel and drape of the project. With that in mind we generally recommend sticking to the same yarn weight if you can.  

​3: Try your colour combinations out. Make a motif – or even some striped swatches – to see how colours work together.  If you want to leave things to chance, make your first motif by pulling colours from a bag so you can’t see what’s coming next! 

Make a note of which of your yarn colours replaces which in the original pattern. A colour swatch card can be helpful here – we have some lovely Emma Ball swatch cards on our website and you can find them by following this link You can also wrap the yarn around wooden pegs and make a note of the information on the flat part using a pencil, which is very satisfying!
 
And that’s it!

​Image copyright Cindy Rizza

August 15th was 'Granny Square Day', hosted by Simply Crochet Magazine, and Gemma asked our Facebook followers to share some of their favourite crochet squares. We kicked off with a photo of some of the motifs from the Love is Enough colourway of the The Fruit Garden blanket. We sneaked a rectangle in there too! ​

Some time ago we touched briefly on the subject of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how potentially it could be used to create crochet patterns. Well, along similar lines we have been seeing images of fairly extreme 'crochet' creations cropping up all over social media, elderly ladies with huge crochet cats being the particular one that springs to mind. ​

We were curious about the origins of these and having done some digging Gemma discovered that the images have been created by Lydia Masterova and were originally posted on her Instagram account and Facebook page.

If you click on either of the images above you can read more about Lydia and what led her to create these images. We can only assume that they took far less time to create than a genuine crochet project of that magnitude might take!

The crochet designer Kirsten Ballering has also been experimenting with AI, asking the AI programme Midjourney to imagine her a crochet rainbow. You can see the result in the image below. It's certainly an impressive rainbow but we're not sure where we would start with writing the pattern! Click on the image to check out Kirsten's Facebook page. ​

​Janie x