Autumnal Weekends And Cosy Nights By The Fire

Janie's Quick Update

I hope this email finds you well and that you are looking forward to the weekend....
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It is Friday again and so here I am with a Janie Crow update. I am writing this while listening to Woman's Hour on Radio 4 and they have just started talking about chocolate, so I am a bit concerned that I will be a tad distracted from my newsletter writing......

Autumn is most definitely here in North London now. It has been damp and dismal all week and so I have had no qualms about snuggling up on the sofa in the evenings and getting on with my knitting and crochet projects. As you know, I am a real sun lover, but I do find the evenings at this time of year very relaxing and cosy!
 

'Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.'
(John Howard Bryant)

Climbing Rose Wrap

The third motif for the Climbing Rose CAL project has been published in Inside Crochet Magazine this week. The motif is called Rambling Rose and if you are following the project you need to make 10 of them. I have already seen the motifs popping up on social media platforms and there have been a couple posted within the Climbing Rose Facebook Group.
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Iceland

Last week I told you about the knitting trip to Iceland that I will be tutoring next summer. There are just 5 places left on the trip. This is what the Stitchtopia web site says of the trip:'Circumnavigating Iceland, taking in extraordinary waterways and ports along the way, you’re in for an exhilarating adventure packed with opportunities to marvel at the awe-inspiring natural wonders, dramatic landscapes and magical wildlife of one of the world’s most spectacular countries.
In Reykjavik our included excursions combine all the highlights of the classic ‘Golden Circle’ with visits to the producers of the famous Álafosslopi yarns and the studio of a renown Icelandic knitter. There will also be plenty of opportunities for shopping!
Our knitting expert, Jane Crowfoot, will offer four full day knitting and crochet workshops on board, as well as plenty of opportunities for social knitting as we circumnavigate Iceland.'
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You can find information and links to the Stitchtopia site on my web site here.

Instagram Favourite
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I didn't manage to include my Instagram favourite of the month in last week's newsletter, so here it is:

I came across Aulaartesana a few weeks after visiting the Peruvian Textile Exhibition at The Fashion & Textile Museum. It was a fabulous exhibition that showed all the incredible textile heritage of the country. There is so much inspiration on this feed and I love seeing the colours and patterns of these amazing textiles - and the Alpacas are really cute too!
 

Bohemian Blooms - Two New Versions
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The colour sub documents for the two new versions of my Bohemian Blooms Blanket are available to download for free from the Janie Crow web site. You can find them by following this link.

One of the new versions of the blanket that I have named 'Bloomsbury Gardens' has been designed in a simpler layout than the original and features the square flower and butterfly blocks as the focus. The blanket has been made using Stylecraft Life DK, Life Changes, Bellissima and Batik, all of which are DK weight yarns. Yarn packs for this version of the blanket went out of stock via most of the Janie Crow flagship stores when I mentioned this a few weeks ago. The packs are back in stock on the Just Knots web site.
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Yarn kits include the colour substitution documents, but, if you do not have the original Bohemian Blooms pattern book already you will need to purchase that too. Just Knots have the book at a slightly reduced rate if you buy a kit. If you want to make the blanket using alternative yarns from your stash, then you can order the book from Janie Crow and use the colour sub documents to help you choose a new palette.
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Knitting with Wire Workshop
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There are just 2 places left on Suraya's knitting with wire workshop next month. You can find more information about it by following this link.

Suraya's awesome son, Umar, is involved with a project called Plant Paradise. It is a really interesting project that aims to get people planting more trees and shrubs - something that is very much at the forefront of the topic of conservation at the moment.
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The project is called Plant Paradise and you can find the web site by following this link.
'Our planet is not in a healthy state. We’ve used up a life-threatening amount of natural resources and we need to do something about it.

Plant Paradise aims to connect volunteers with planting projects on a global scale.  We are developing a platform that makes it easy for planting projects to promote their events, and simple for volunteers to discover local planting and permaculture work.

Now is the time to give back to the planet we have taken so much from.'

The Plant Paradise web site includes a survey. It takes just a minute or so to complete and it would be great if you could take a look.
 

It's Nearly the Weekend!
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We had a really nice time at Summer and Chris's engagement party last Saturday. I managed to get the cake finished in time, and although it was far from perfect, it did the job! An image of the cake, along with a pic of my Mum and Dad, Summer, Chris, Andy and I.
 

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If you haven't already voted in the Craft Business Awards I would really love it if you could take a couple of minutes to do so. You can vote by following this link and you can skip questions you don't want to answer. I have been nominated in the Craft Influencer of the Year category.

It has been a really busy week here at Janie Crow with quite a few late nights, so I am really looking forward to a bit of quiet time over the weekend. Whatever you are doing, I hope you have a great weekend...