Welcome back to our regular book review feature. I'm scraping into December by the skin of my teeth. It's always easy to underestimate just how busy life becomes around Christmas/school holiday times. 

This month I've been looking at another book by the fabulous Anna Nikipirowicz, following hot on the heels of 'Crochet Socks that Rock' comes 'The Crochet Stitch Companion for Blankets & Afghans' (Search Press 2025 ISBN: 978-1-80092-293-8).

As the title of the book suggests this is a stitch directory, but not your average stitch directory. It is divided into five sections: Stitches, Motifs, Edges, Blankets and a comprehensive techniques section. 

The Stitches section includes both written instructions and charts, stitch multiples and a rating  of easy, moderate or challenging to help you choose according to your skill level, although with such comprehensive instructions I think anyone could have a try of any of the stitch patterns. The Motifs section divides the motifs by shape. covering hexagons, squares and diamond shapes and there are ten patterns in the Edges section, several of them really quite unusual, such as the Fair Isle and Overlay Mosaic stitch patterns. They also include stitch multiples so they can be adapted to work with your own blanket designs. 

The layout of the book is clear and concise, with the text set in lots of white space so the pages aren't cluttered. US terms are used throughout.

There are four suggested blanket patterns so that you can have a go at testing several of the stitch patterns, motifs and edge stitches without needing to incorporate them into a design of your own. The blankets are colourful and look fun to make, with a variety of stitches/motifs to try out. You can see the Teignmouth Blanket in the photo below.

As today is the 31st December and I have just finished the squares for my JC temperature blanket my first job for this book will be to help me choose the edging! Emma would have me launching straight into a picot edging but I'm just not sure! 

If you like the look of Anna's book and fancy getting hold of a copy for yourself you can find it on the Search Press website here. If you are in the UK you can get a 20% discount and free delivery by entering the code DD88 at checkout. 

I'll be back next month but I haven't chosen a book yet so if you have any suggestions do let me know in the comments. Happy New Year! 

Have you made your list and checked it twice? Have you managed to get the tree up and at least started a bit of gift preparation? I can only say yes to one of these questions, but with less than a fortnight to go before the big day I hope that you guys are getting into the swing of the festivities! 
 
We have continued to be so busy here at Janie Crow and my list of work related jobs seems to be growing, rather than dwindling as we head towards the Christmas break, but as things generally start to slow down over the next week or so, I am confident of having my to do list whittled down to very little in preparation for new and exciting things in 2026.
 
I have a few things to tell you about this week, so I hope you have a bit of spare time to catch up with my news….

I have really been impressed by how far the competitors on The Game of Wool have come in terms of their design and technique skills since the first programme only five weeks ago. Seeing their progression and experimentation with crochet has been particularly great and I can't wait to see what challenges they will face next.
 
During filming of the third episode, when I was lucky enough to be a guest judge, Tom Daley and I grabbed the chance to have a quick catch-up over a spot of freeform crochet and you can find the resulting video on YouTube by following this link. 

If you have seen The Game of Wool shows already, then you might fancy listening to the Craft Talkin podcasts, which are recorded straight after the show is aired on Sunday evenings. Alongside hosts Merion and Jamie, you will find guests such as Emma Varnam and Anna Nikopirowicz discussing the projects and competitors featured in the weekly episodes.

We still have a really healthy stock of kits and patterns, so if you are looking for a project to work on over the holidays, or want to get one as a gift you should be able to find what you want in our shop.
 
Please note that we will not be able to guarantee the dispatch of items after the 18th December because many of our suppliers will close on Friday 19th for the festive break. This means there is less than a week left if you want to purchase anything from us and get it in time for Christmas. 
 
We will also be taking a break over the holiday period and so, even though you will be able to purchase items from our store throughout the holiday period, we will not be processing any orders until week beginning 5th January.

We are continuing to see a spike in sales of kits for projects that were shown on The Game of Wool a few weeks ago, including the Climbing Rose Wrap (shown above) and the Mystical Lanterns blanket. The Marrakesh version of Persian Tiles is also proving particularly popular and we have lots of stock of the Eastern Jewels colour way too.
 
You can find all our kits and yarn packs by following this link and all our paper patterns here. If you would prefer download copies then check out our Etsy and Ravelry stores.

It's no secret that I adore a bit of bling and love adding beads to my projects. You can find my beading masterclass pull out brochure in this month's copy of Inside Crochet Magazine, which you can find by following this link. 
 
I have also updated the Halley Pouch project (shown below) to make a shawl version (also shown below) in the same edition of the magazine. Yarn and bead packs for this project are available exclusively via Wool Warehouse by following this link.

Emma has been busy planning our traditional Twelve Days of Christmas 
posts for social media, which will run from Christmas Day through to Twelfth Night the 5th January. We have some really lovely posts planned and may well have a few offers in the mix, so do make sure to check out our Instagram and Facebook feeds to get involved.

At the weekend I made the viral three ingredient slow cooker fruit cake which is doing the rounds on social media at the moment. It is a tad boozy, which is not surprising given the ingredients, but it is super yummy and our cake certainly didn't hang around for very long! 
 
All you need is a bottle of Baileys. Not the huge one, I used around 700ml I guess. Between 800g and a kilo of dried fruit and 300g Self Raising Flour. 
 
I soaked the fruit in the Baileys for a couple of days in the fridge, then mixed in the flour. I lined the slow cooker with baking paper and set it to cook on low. The recipe says to cook it for about 4 hours, but it took mine 5 hours to firm up a bit after testing it with a skewer after 3. 
 
The cake is really good, but is definitely better if you leave it a few days before eating. Ours evened out and improved a lot by day three, but we had eaten most of it by then!

I'm usually all over the festive season like a rash and can't wait to head out to see the lights and get on with my holiday planning, but this year I have really struggled to get in the swing of things. I think it might be because we have been so busy at Janie Crow and October was taken up with shows and workshops. I was also unwell for about five weeks, right into the middle of November, so I guess that has made me feel like I am playing catch up with everything.
 
Andy and I are heading into town today to spend time with the lovely Sarah and Paul Hazell (the other half of our show team if you've ever met them at Yarndale or Wonderwool) and I am really excited about seeing the lights and store windows and catching up with them. I am sure that their company and being in London will have its usual effect on me and have me super excited and feeling festive in no time.

I have pretty much finished decorating the spare bedroom and have really enjoyed adding a few finishing touches over the last couple of days - moving all my ornaments and nicknacks around the house to choose which bits look good in the newly decorated room. Having a freshly painted space has made me realise just how in need of a spruce up the rest of the bungalow is, so hopefully there will be some time in the new year to add a few more DIY jobs to the ever growing list of things to do.  
 
We have a super busy weekend planned with a catch up with old school friends to see a local band on Saturday evening and we are hosting a Christmas get together with another group of friends on Sunday, so I guess we better make some time to put up the Christmas tree and get all the decorations out at some point too! 
 
I have seen a load of reels about making your own wreath this year, and I particularly liked this one on Instagram, so I am hoping to have a go at that tomorrow. I found a second hand wicker basket on Vinted and have collected some bay, rosemary and olive branches from my Mum and Dad's garden in preparation. We also have plenty of ivy and yew in our garden that I can cut, so I am sure I can cobble something together! If it is any good I will post a pic on the Janie Crow Lifestyle Instagram feed. 

I recently posted a blog where I talk about my Christmas traditions - you can find it by following this link. From the general sound of this email I think I probably need to remind myself of it too! I trust you will forgive me for being a little bah humbug - I promise to rid myself of the Grinchy feeling by the time I press send on this email!
 
I leave you this week with a link to this video taken by my daughter of our fabulous grandpup, Sto, having a bit of quality time with their festive decorations. Not sure how long their tree is going to withstand so much attention! 

It's been an eventful couple of weeks here at Janie Crow with our festive workshop at Bournemouth and an incredibly busy website in the mix! Time seems to be rushing by at such a rate and it's hard to believe that Christmas is now less than three weeks away. I don't feel at all festive yet, but hopefully that will change this weekend when we are hoping to put up our decorations. On our street the seasonal lights and decorations are going up earlier every year, with some appearing at the end of November, so we are definitely the late comers round here! 
 
Over the last fortnight we have seen an incredible number of new followers on our social media accounts, which we are guessing is as a result of The Game of Wool. If you are new to this newsletter - welcome! I hope you will all enjoy catching up with my news.

​We have a really healthy stock of kits and patterns at the moment, so if you are looking for a project to work on over the holidays, or want to get one as a gift you should be able to find what you want in our shop.
 
Please note that we will not be able to guarantee the dispatch of items after the 18th December because many of our suppliers will close on Friday 19th for the festive break. This means there is really only a fortnight left if you want to purchase anything from us and get it in time for Christmas.

We have seen a bit of a run on kits for projects that were shown on The Game of Wool a few weeks ago, including the Climbing Rose Wrap and the Mystical Lanterns blanket. The Marrakesh version of Persian Tiles is also proving particularly popular and we have lots of stock of the Eastern Jewels colour way too. 
 
You can find all our kits and yarn packs by following this link and all our paper patterns here. If you would prefer download copies then check out our Etsy and Ravelry stores.

If you're struggling to choose a project then how about a gift card? They are available in lots of monetary values from £10 to £250. You can find them by following this link.
 
If you fancy getting some accessories, rather than a kit or pattern, don't forget about our Emma Ball items, which includes things like stitch markers, project bags and storage tins. You can find the range here.

It's hard to believe that we are rapidly approaching the end of our temperature blanket project, with the final month now here. Gemma has struggled at times to keep up, but has made a start on the November squares and, with the Christmas holidays fast approaching, she is hoping to get back up to speed and be ready to start putting a border on as we see the New Year in. In the picture below you can see the simple moss stitch border that Gemma added to our sample blanket - we are really looking forward to seeing your ideas for finishing off. 
 
We have now set up a temperature blanket page on the website so, if you didn't join in this year but fancy having a go in 2026, you can find all the information you need in one place. 
 
In the second photo below you can see an absolutely gorgeous version we found over on Instagram by crafts_r_for_us. Those pinks and peaches are beautiful aren't they! 

Over on Instagram Emma shared that her pre-Christmas crochet project this year is a Mystical Lanterns pelmet. Those of you who have been following us for some time may remember that this pelmet was originally made by Jane's friend Rosemary and incorporates tiny mirrors and bells into the design. You can read all about it in a blog post here. You can see Rosemary's pelmet in the first picture below. We can't wait to see how this progresses. Keep us posted Emma! ​

The blues and golds on the decorations below by Louise Haigh are just stunning. Thank you both for sharing your photos with us. ​

It has all been about The Game of Wool out in the online yarny world over the last few weeks and, love it or hate it, you can't deny it has got people talking about knitting and crochet, which can only be a good thing! We're looking forward to what weird and wonderful projects are still to come over the remaining episodes of the series. 
 
Tom Daley and I managed to grab a bit of crochet time in between filming and had a good chat about our yarny passions - you can find a video of our catch up over on Youtube by following this link.

This month Gemma took a closer look at the recently published ‘Crochet Socks that Rock’ by Anna Nikipriowicz (David & Charles 2025 ISBN-13:9781446314517). 
 
Was this dedicated sock knitter converted to the crochet variety? You'll have to head on over to the blog to find out!

Andy and I have been vegetarian since 2020 so this year will be our fifth veggie Christmas. Andy tends to make this vegetarian wellington and I also make a celeriac and spinach bake. I only make it at Christmas and love the smell of nutmeg and gruyere when it is cooking in the oven. I can't find the recipe online - I think it was originally published in a Sainsburys magazine. This recipe is similar but without the spinach.
 
Gemma has been assigned the task of cooking a vegetarian main course for this year's family Christmas dinner too, so she has been browsing for inspiration. In the lead at the moment is this parsnip, feta and butterbean pie, over on the Good Food website, but she is considering swapping the parsnips out for sweet potato as sometimes the flavour of parsnip can be a little overpowering. She's going to have a practice run any day now, so we'll keep you posted. If you have any tried and tested recipes that you could recommend do let us know and we will pass them on. 

​Inside Crochet Magazine recently asked me about my festive traditions and they printed a summary of the interview in their most up to date magazine. You can find the full piece, with lots of questions about me and my work, as well as my Christmas wish list, on the blog here.
 
I have been doing a little bit of decorating this week and am looking forward to the weekend when I hope to get it finished. Our little bungalow is in need of quite a lot of TLC having been pretty neglected since lockdown, so I am hoping that this most recent spate of DIY will continue long enough for me to knock a few other rooms back into shape. I really love the planning side of decorating but am not keen on the reality of the endless prep and brush washing! In fact my favourite part of any project is making the Pinterest board! You can find the board I made for our little spare bedroom by following this link if you are interested!
 
We will be puppy sitting for a few days from tomorrow and I am really looking forward to having our little grandpup around over the weekend. He is such a little love and thankfully is finally calming down a bit! 
 
I will be back in your inbox next Friday, rather than in a fortnight's time, with the December newsletter so do look out for my next email.
 
Big yarny hugs….

​Inside Crochet Magazine recently asked me about my festive traditions and they published a short summary in the most recent magazine. Here is the interview in full for those of you who want to find out a bit more about me and my Christmas!

​Tell us a bit about yourself – where do you live, with family/pets?
 
I live in suburban North London with my husband Andy (who is also my business partner) and our grown-up son Charlie. Our daughter, Summer, left home more than five years ago now. She has a fabulous husband and a puppy who is now coming up to a year old, so we get to have doggy snuggles most weeks!
 
I love living in London and can’t imagine being anywhere else. We are just a seven-minute walk from a tube station, but, as we live on the edge of the green belt, it is quite rural here too, with a cricket pitch and a large country park at the top of our road. We are lucky to be able to go for long walks in the woods, but also pop into the centre of London very quickly and easily, so we feel it is the best of both worlds. 
 
Andy and I have never moved more than about five miles away from where we were brought up and we are very lucky to have our extended family very close by so no one needs to travel too far for Christmas festivities!

Could you tell us a bit about what you do/make, and how long you’ve been crocheting for?
 
I studied textiles to degree level and specialized in machine knitting, later becoming a hand knitter and working as a design consultant, helping people with their hand knit projects, doing demos and teaching workshops. In 2005 I started to get to grips with crochet and really enjoyed the portability and 3D nature of what I could create. I find crochet much more organic in terms of designing compared to hand knitting and love mixing techniques and colours – somehow my brain seems to work better in crochet than it does in knitting.
 
I design items for the home mostly. Blankets, throws, cushions and such like. I also make accessories such as shawls, scarves and bags. I think of my designs as works of art and can only really envisage flat things when I design – a bit like paintings in frames! I cant seem to get my head around designing garments. I have been trying that over the last year or so, but I haven’t been very productive at it yet!  

What inspires your designs, and how would you describe your style?
 
As part of my textiles degree, I studied the History of Art, and I always enjoyed learning about individual artists and movements. My mum was very proactive at taking me to exhibitions when I was younger, so I have always been surrounded by art. When I was doing my degree, we always had to back up our design work with proof of where our ideas came from and this is something I still do today, and I often use the work of artists as the inspiration for my designs.
 
I love surface pattern and tessellations and often look at existing textiles, wallpaper and carpets as inspiration too. I would say my work is quite decorative and I like pretty little touches and clever stitch combinations. I spend a huge amount of time playing with colours – choosing a palette for a project might be my favourite bit.

​How do you like to celebrate Christmas – can you share some of your favourite family traditions? 
 
I really enjoy the lead up to Christmas and all the planning involved in it. We tend to host a few gatherings of friends in the weeks before the big day and always travel into London a couple of times to see the Christmas lights and look in the shop windows. We like to see a show at this time of year too, often choosing a musical or circus (not animals). 
 
We start the food prep a few weeks before the big day. Andy makes a cracking vegetarian wellington from scratch– even the flaky pastry, which can be frozen a few weeks before. 
 
Our Christmas traditions have changed a little now that my children are grown up and Summer doesn’t live at home. Charlie often works on the days either side of Christmas, so we don’t travel and tend to stick close to home. I like to batten down the hatches al little during Christmas week and we get out the board games and jigsaws.
 
We don’t watch TV on Christmas Day and don’t do gift giving until after lunch. We do always watch the Gavin and Stacey Christmas episodes over the holiday period and can often be found quoting Smiffy’s version of ‘Do they Know its Christmas’. Our main aim is being together as a family regardless of what day it is, so we have been known to have our official Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve or Boxing Day, depending on who is working or needs to be somewhere else on Christmas Day.

What do you most look forward to doing during the festive season?
 
We lead a really busy life with lots of commitments, both work and personal, so Christmas is traditionally a time when we opt out a little and look forward to some serious R&R. (Of course, that tends to mean that we get poorly!)
 
We usually do the food shopping so that we don’t have to touch a supermarket for about ten days other than to nip in for some fresh fruit and vegetables.
 
I love spending time with all the family, but I also really enjoy not having any arrangements and we tend to go for lots of walks and watch movies. I usually cast on a new knit project on Boxing Day or make it my mission to finish some WIPs before the New Year.

​How do you like to decorate your home for the festivities – what’s the look you go for, and has this evolved over the years?
 
I never really have a plan, and I don’t really agree with the whole consumerism side of having a fresh look, with new decorations and themes year after year, so I guess my look is not curated!
 
There is always something that has got broken in the loft in the eleven months between packing the decorations away and getting them out again, so the last few years I have been trying to source things that are more environmentally friendly, such as wooden, tin or felted versions.
 
I also try to source items we can use again. Last year I bought a couple of (real) small trees that sat either side of my mantel piece. They have been out in the garden all summer in new pots and are thriving, so I don’t think they will fit there this year! I tend to cut foliage from the garden and buy a real fir wreath to hang over the fireplace. It all gives off that lovely piney smell and makes up for the fact that we don’t have a real tree. 
 
We have an artificial ‘snow’ covered tree that we have had for about 20 years. It is a little less snowy every year and the house gets covered in white powder when we put it up, but I still love it and think it will probably ‘see us out!’ We have some heirloom baubles and tree decorations that have been passed down a few generations and I still have some that the kids made at school when they were little, so our tree tends to be a real mish mash of things with no real theme. Andy recently referred to it as a tree full of memories, which I think is lovely! 

​I do have a bit of a thing for Christmas bedding. The brushed cotton duvet covers are my favourite and we tend to put them on at the beginning of December, alternating the sets throughout the holidays. 
 
I love seeing the house all twinkly and festive in the lead up to Christmas, but I admit that I take the tree and decs down before New Year if I can. It just doesn’t feel the same when the festivities are over and I like to go into the New Year with everything tidy and sorted. A fresh start I suppose.

​You are well known for your beading, sparkle and rich colourways – can you share some tips for capturing the Jane Crowfoot Christmas look in our own homes this year?
 
Traditional palettes, like green, red and white are not so fashionable anymore and I really like the vintage 50's feel that is popular again. I like a bit of kitsch too and have some lovely old decorations that belonged to Andy’s Grandmother that come out every year. I believe she collected coupons from boxes of Fairy washing powder to save up enough to get them! 
 
I often look for things that would look great in the house in the charity shops in the lead up to Christmas. Last year I found a fabulous candelabra which I decorated with cuttings from the garden and there are always serving platters and festive tableware that can be picked up at little expense. Vintage cut glass vases and bowls, with baubles and fairy lights in, look lovely placed around the house for a quick and easy festive feel.
 
If you fancy making some crochet decorations, then adding beads will give you an instant sparkle. It’s a good idea to add a contrast bead rather than a close match to your yarn as this will create more on an impact. I don’t believe that there are colours that don’t go together – I think it is all a case of quantity and impact. When I am designing, I tend to go with the ‘suck it and see’ method of choosing a colour palette. I sample a yarn shade by adding it in - if I like it, then it stays, if I don’t like it, I rip back and try another. 
 
Cosy crochet blankets look great stacked up ready for those evenings by the TV. Andy and I have our favourites that are always in the living room, but at Christmas time I tend to dig out a few more so that we can all snuggle down and get comfy!

Do you have any Christmas designs and if so, which are your most popular patterns?
 
Handknit Designer Debbie Abrahams and myself run a festive workshop every year in Bournemouth and we both design a project for it. I tend to release these as patterns so there are quite a few now. There are also the designs that I have created for Inside Crochet Magazine over the years – the beaded decorations that featured in a supplement in 2020 and the Glitzy Stocking that I designed last year.

​Tell us a bit about the inspiration behind the patterns you’ve created for Inside Crochet for this Christmas issue?
 
I had the idea of making an artwork with the decorations and decided that I wanted them to create the shape of a Christmas tree, so I worked on shapes and sizes that would all go together and allow me mount them as a cohesive piece as well as looking good on their own. When making the decorations this year I realized that the designs echoed those that I have made previously, which must mean that I have a standard way of doing things and that when it comes to Christmas my brain thinks of flowers and stars! 
 
I really love playing around with beads to get new effects. Making beaded loops and hooking them up later on in the design is so exciting and is a technique I have used in the decorations and the Halley wrap. 

​Do you like to make handmade gifts for friends and family? Which makes have been the most well-received as gifts? Do you have any reliable patterns (of your own, or others) that always work well as a last-minute gift, for example?
 
Every autumn, I think ‘this will be the year that I make some Christmas gifts’ and every year I fail dismally! I think that because creating crochet pieces is my job it means that when it comes to my downtime, crochet is often the last thing I want to do. I also worry about giving a handmade item that isn’t appreciated, but I do know that there are certain people who understand the amount of work that goes into things.
 
I love to cook, so I spend quite a lot of time making tasty things for people – cookies and brownies make great gifts and there are not many people I know who would refuse a home cooked lasagna either, so this might well be the path I will take this year.
 
Last year Andy prepared lots of bulbs to give as gifts. He planted narcissi bulbs in gravel placed in glass jars and timed their growth perfectly so that they burst into flower in time for festive gift giving. I always plant up some hyacinths too as they fill the house with such a lovely smell and add a great pop of colour in the dreary months of the new year.

​What are you hoping to find in your stocking from Father Christmas this year? 
 
It’s a funny thing as you get older – the whole ‘wanting stuff’ goes out the window and you realise that sharing good times with friends and family makes the perfect gift, so I don’t tend to have a list. That said, Andy and I have been discussing getting an infrared sauna! Decadent I know, but Andy has suffered with arthritis since his mid 20s and finds the cold months of winter quite difficult, so the idea of a sauna is very appealing, and they are not as expensive as I first thought. 
 
We live in a bungalow and don’t have spare space, so the sauna would need to go in the summer house where my studio is currently. We would need to do a bit of shifting things around to find a space and maybe our son would need to move out (hint hint), but it would be nice to think that having one might be a reality as we head into 2026.

​If you could make a Christmas wish, what would it be?
 
Of course I have to say that I wish for peace and goodwill across the globe and that winning the lottery wouldn’t go amiss, but I would also like life to slow down a little as it races past the older you get. A couple of extra hours in a day, an extra day in the week and another one added at the weekend would suit me fine – all with not getting any older at the same time please! 

​What are your new year resolutions for 2026 – or just your plans/dreams for things you’d like to do – both in crochet and in life generally? 
 
In 2025 we gave ourselves too much to do and didn’t have enough down time, so for 2026 I am hoping that life will slow down a little. I like to create a vision board as we go into the New Year but always overfill it so this year I am going to be a little more realistic! I would like to create more crochet art pieces. Some one-offs would be great and I like the idea of revisiting some of my Spirit of Flora designs to see how they would work in finer yarns and new palettes.
 
I decided to get physically strong and upped my fitness this year, so I hope to build on that and keep up with the gym sessions. I have found it really helps my concentration and has been a great asset as I get older. Crochet is going from strength to strength too, so seeing more beginners come through and encouraging more people on their crochet journeys would be an amazing thing to do in 2026!