March has brought some wonderful weather and it has been so good to finally feel the sunshine on our faces! The last couple of days have been a touch colder again, and there is a bit of rain around here in North London, but there is blossom on the tress and the light has much improved, so I am a happy bunny!  
 
It has been a really busy couple of weeks since I was last here and I will admit to being a little tired after a trip to Cologne at the weekend and a back to back jaunt to Scotland from Monday to late evening on Wednesday. I am hoping to have a good bit of rest at the weekend so that I can catch up with my sleep a little, but it is exciting to have so much going on. I hope you can spare a few minutes to catch up with all my news in this month's newsletter.

This year marks ten years since I released the Lily Pond CAL design in association with Stylecraft Yarns, so over the next few months we will be celebrating a decade of design by posting images of my back catalogue of projects in release date order on our social media channels.
 
We will be kicking off by featuring the Imogen blanket, which was one of my first stand alone crochet patterns, and then we will work right through to present day, hopefully in time to coincide with the release of new projects for the autumn. I could not have ever imagined the amazing response that my designs would create and I am so grateful for all your incredible support ever since.
 
I am hoping there will be a new CAL design this year, and some stand alone project patterns, including a those for a few garments, but the crazy thing is that as my business has grown, I seem to be getting less and less time to crochet. Hopefully 2025 will be another year of great designs though, so long as I can get myself in gear! 

Andy and I headed off to Cologne on the train last Friday to visit the H+H textile and handicrafts trade show. We had originally decided that we wouldn’t visit this year as we were there last year, but then we found out that crochet designer, Shelley Husband, aka Spin Cushions, was planning to be there and Emma Ball also took on a stand in order to showcase all her lovely products, including those from the Janie Crow brand, so we decided we just had to go! 
 
Travelling by train is one of my favourite things and living in London means that it is easy for us to use the Eurostar. We were lucky to miss the disruption at Paris on Friday, which was caused by an unexploded WW2 bomb and arrived in Cologne early evening after a train change in Brussels, which meant we managed to grab a refreshing pint of beer and buy some Belgian chocolate in the supermarket between trains!
 
The show is unlike anything we see in the UK. It spans three floors of the Koelnmesse exhibition centre and there is so much yarn, fabric and accessories on display that it is really hard to decide where to start! 

We saw some great yarns, including a fabulous new range from West Yorkshire Spinners, which launches in the autumn. I can’t wait to tell you more about it soon, as the palette is just a dream and the inspiration behind it is totally my kind of thing.
 
The show is a great place to see the trends for the forthcoming seasons. There are still lots of self striping and ‘space dyed’ yarns, as well as fluffy, mohair styles and lurex appear to be making a big come back. The Lang Yarns stand had some fabulous garments on display and many of the stands focussed on crochet as well as knitting, which was great to see.

We spent a little time with Emma Ball on her stand on the Saturday afternoon of the show and it was great to hear how many people admire her work. For me, it was also a real treat to see the Janie Crow branded items on display. I am so grateful to Emma and her team for their incredible support over the last couple of years.
 
Emma has created some new items, including draw string bags, tins and mugs, that feature my crochet flowers, so I will let you know when these come into stock – the new mugs are especially fab! 
 
You can find the current collection of Emma Ball and Janie Crow goodies over on the website by following this link.
 
As well as walking the show floors we were able to catch up with some of our friends from within the industry and it was good to spend some time walking around Cologne, especially as the weather was so kind to us. 

Andy and I have taken on a bit of a challenge and have signed up to an eight-week diet and fitness programme, so we have been more aware of the ‘macro’ element of our food choices over the last couple of days. Cake, crisps, sugar and alcohol are out of the window, so I have been searching the web for food that is higher in protein and lower in carbohydrate so that we can stick to the plan.
 
Getting a good balance of protein can be harder when you’re vegetarian, so we already monitor our diet to some extent and, as we also try to avoid over processed food, I have stocked up on some veg and pulses that are naturally a higher source of protein.

I know that green peas and tofu are a both really good sources of protein and I wanted to find a recipe for a dip or that I can use as a tasty addition to a salad, but all of the recipes I found had avocado in them, something I want to avoid for a while as they are such a water thirsty crop and there is a lot of evidence to suggest that we should eat fewer of them from an environmental point of view.
 
I found this recipe on the Veggie Desserts web site but replaced the chickpeas with smoked tofu and it is really delicious! 

My lovely friend and fellow designer Debbie Abrahams is heading down to stay with me this weekend and so I am really looking forward to some, shopping and yarny chat. We haven't caught up properly for ages, other than for tutoring workshops, so I am really looking forward to seeing her. 
 
We recently launched a joint workshop with Debbie and myself, which will take place at Nunsmere Hall in Cheshire next year and there are still a couple of places left. You can find more information by following this link to the Inspired Minds website. The rooms left in stock are the Executive Twins, which are based on two people sharing, so make sure you select that from the drop down menu, otherwise you won't be able to book.
 
The next couple of weeks are looking relatively calm, so I am looking foreword to being at my desk with my hook and yarn. I hope that you can also find some time for a bit of hook or needle action! The forecast is looking a little wintery here in the UK, so the colder weather is a great excuse to curl up on the sofa with a lovely project.

 
Just blowing in, like a March wind, to say hello, ask how you’re getting on with your temperature blankets and share the March temperature chart download with you.
 
You can find it by clicking here.
 
We love to see your progress - here is a little parade of lovelies that we've collected from facebook and instagram - if you do post on social media, don't forget to tag us in with ##janiecrowtempblanket25

Aren't they just fab?  I love the colour schemes.  

I am hoping I get to use at least Apple Green more in March and maybe even Meadow!  This would mean temperatures up to 13 degrees celsius but more than that would mean I might be able to get some washing dry outside!  That's my first real notion that spring is coming!  

I haven't been very well this week and finally succumbed to the lurgy that has been busy infecting (what feels like) the whole of North London since Christmas! I don't feel completely awful, but I have lost my voice at times, which a few people around here probably count as a blessing! 
 
Thankfully we have seen the sun a little more often as we finally head into the spring. The daffodils are in flower in the garden and the tulips are getting ready to burst into bloom. I just love it when the plants, shrubs and bulbs starts to perk up at this time of year and we finally get rewarded for making it through the winter by a garden full of colour! 
 
As usual, we have been busy here at Janie Crow over the last couple of weeks, so I have a few things to tell you about. I hope you have a bit of spare time to catch up with all things JANIE CROW! 

Traditionally I have aimed my crochet designs at the intermediate to advanced skill level, but we still get lots of beginners launching themselves into my projects because their love of the design is enough to spur them on through the learning process. We know, however, that not everyone is confident enough to embark on a big project, especially if they consider themselves to have a relatively low skill level.
 
So, as a result of the large number of comments and requests for simpler designs that we receive, we have decided that it was time that we create some more free resources for absolute beginners. Yay!
 
We will be starting with how to make a Granny Square - a rite of passage for all crocheters. Our Zero to Granny course will be free to access and will include videos and downloads, which we hope to have ready for release in a few weeks time. 
 
We are very excited about this project and hope that it will encourage even more newbies to jump on board and give the wonderful craft of crochet a try. If you are interested in learning, know someone else who might be, or simply want to check that you are working in the right way, keep an eye on our social media channels for more information…..

We have had a bit of a run on kit sales and have sold out of all the CAL yarn packs, but we hope to have lots of items back very soon. We still have stock of all the kits shown below and we now have kits for the Mystical Lanterns blanket in the original colourway and in the Avice version, which is made using Stylecraft Special DK. You can find more information and purchase kits by clicking on the images below.
 
If you are looking to make a blanket using natural fibres, we have the West Yorkshire Spinner's version of Persian Tiles in the original colourway back in stock. The blanket is made using Colour Lab DK, which is a 100% British Wool yarn. You can find the kits by following this link or by clicking on the image of the blanket a little lower down.

Some of you may remember that Andy used to run a company called Just Knots, which was a part of Janie Crow that specialised in knitting needles, crochet hooks and accessories. We always did well with the accessories, especially at shows, but when we moved back to working from home we decided to stop selling the additional items in order to concentrate on patterns, yarn packs and kits.
 
We still replenish our crochet hook stock for workshops and events, but we no longer sell knitting needles, so Andy has decided to sell them at a discounted price over on Ebay. Some of the items say CLEARANCE in the description, others don't due to lack of space within the Ebay system. All prices are discounted compared to RRP and include the postage cost. You can find the Just Knots store by following this link.
 
Clearance items currently includes Knit Pro Symfonie, Nova and Zing and there are also some lovely Lykke wooden needles on there too. Andy is adding to the store continuously, so if you don't see what you need this time, keep checking in case it appears in the future! 

Emma has been busy over on Instagram and has made some really nice posts over the last couple of weeks, including a real beauty on Wednesday, where she focused on celestial crochet projects, including my beaded Halley Pouch pattern. You can find a link to Instagram here and a link to the Halley project (shown below) here.

Andy has put some new Emma Ball bundles together and you can find them on the website now by following this link. The items included work out cheaper when purchased in bundles than singularly, and we have a couple of new items (mostly tins) in stock now too.

I know we are barely into 2025, but if you are already thinking about what events you might like to be a part of next year, then you might be interested to know that Stitchtopia have just launched the details of their residential Festival in March 2026.
 
I won't be tutoring next year, but will be at the event on the Saturday with a pop up shop and I will be giving an evening presentation too, so it would be great to see you there! 
 
There are lots of workshops to choose from and the list of these will go live within the next couple of weeks. You can reserve your place, and get first pick of the workshops, by paying a £50 deposit. 
 
The website currently says that this is a Patchwork and Quilting event, but I can confirm that this is a typo and that the event is also open to yarn lovers too, with workshops by eight fabulous tutors, including Emma Leith, Frederica Patmore and Anna Nikipirowicz.

It is nearly Oscar time again, so Emma came up with the bright idea of launching a competition to see who can come up with the best recreation of one of the images of Justin Bieber wearing a version of the Persian Tiles blanket to an after party event in 2023. You can find more information about the competition by following this link to our Instagram feed. 

Gemma has been busy perusing crochet books over the last couple of months and you can find her reviews of them over on the blog.
 
This month she has found a really pretty book, called 'Adorable Desserts to Crochet' to focus on. The book is by Marie Clesse and it features lots of sweet (!) designs for you to get your hook into. Gemma had a go at making a really scrummy looking macaroon. 
 
If you like the look of the book and want your own copy, you can get a 20% discount and free postage by using the code DD88 at check out on the Search Press website here. 

​Jenny Demkin sent us an image of her Spirit of Flora project this week. She used the Leaf Trellis, Tudor Rose and the free Floral Plain Motif to make her lovely blanket shown below. Jenny used the Floral Tile edging pattern as her border, which is also a free pattern that you can find on the Janie Crow website here.
 
I really love the simplicity of Jenny's project and I adore how just a couple of the motifs from the Spirit of Flora collection can be combined to make a really stunning project! 

Becci (Riverknits) and Sharon (Dragon Hill Studio) are getting together to put on a series of knitting and crochet classes. They met when both exhibiting at a yarn show and soon discovered a shared love of folk music. When they're not spending time knitting or crocheting, you can find them catching up to play tunes!
 
Becci is an experienced knitter and crocheter with a love of wool. In her job as a yarn dyer and co-owner of RiverKnits, she designs knitting patterns with a focus on colourwork and good fit. She has been teaching fellow crafters how to dye yarn for several years now, some of whom have gone on to start their own yarn dyeing businesses.
 
Sharon is a freelance technical editor, yarn dyer, designer and experienced tutor. She has had several patterns published in both Knit Now and Crochet Now magazines. Specialising in crochet, she particularly enjoys teaching and passing on her love of the craft.
Classes will be held at the RiverKnits studio, in Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire.

Both the Beginner Crochet Class and Beginner Knitting Class are a comprehensive 2-day course, comprising 12 hours total teaching time. Day 2 follows a week after Day 1, giving you chance to practise and solidify your progress in between classes. Because we will have two tutors at all times, the teaching will be flexible, and you are encouraged to work at your own pace.
 
The first classes are happening on March 20th (crochet) & 21st (knitting) and there are also dates available in May. Please visit the Riverknits website for more information and to book.

We won't be exhibiting at The Stitch Festival at the Business Design Centre in London in March as it will collide with our son's 30th Birthday celebrations, however, we are able to offer you a discount code that will give you £2 off the standard adult/concessions ticket price. The code to use at checkout is as follows: 
 
JANIECROW25 
 
The code expires at midnight (or there abouts) on the 6th of March and is not valid on afternoon or Sunday ticket sales.

My first workshop trip of the year will be the Stitchtopia trip to the Swiss Yarn Festival in early April, which I have realised this week, is not actually all that long away, and so, with just over four weeks left, I have started designing the project that participants will work on while we are away.
 
The concept of the design has been in my mind for ages and I have been looking at traditional Swiss chocolate box designs as the inspiration for the colours and theme of my project. You can find my mood board for the design over on Pinterest if you fancy taking a look!

There are still a few places on the trip to Zurich, where we will visit the yarn show and tour the city. We will also be visiting the Lindt factory, so if you are a chocolate and yarn fan this might sound like a perfect trip!
 
You can find more information about the workshop by following this link.

I caught up with my cousin Amy last weekend and (of course) the conversation inevitably turned to the subject of cake and she swears that this recipe from the Hummingbird Cafe, is the best carrot cake ever!
 
The online reviews appear to agree, so I am definitely going to give this scrummy looking cake a try. The Ocado site that features the recipe has the cake and the frosting listed separately. You can find the cake recipe here, and the frosting here. Both recipes are printable.
 
If you beat me to it and manage to make the cake over the next few weeks, do get in touch and let me know if Amy is right about it being the best carrot cake ever! 

We got a fabulous surprise a few weeks ago when our daughter Summer and her husband Chris presented us with the new addition to our family - Stoick the puppy! He is named after Hiccup's Dad, Stoick the Vast from How To Train Your Dragon. 
 
Look at that lovely face! We are so in love already and are looking forward to two days of puppy sitting next week! You can keep track of Stoick by following his Instagram account, which you can find here.

We have a busy weekend lined up with some of the family coming over to join us for some cocktails on Saturday evening. Weekly Margaritas became a habit during lockdown and we still try to enjoy a couple of drinks on a Saturday evening when we are home at the weekend, which is not all that often lately. Andy has been busy perfecting Espresso Martinis lately, so I am sure they will be on the menu too! 
 
We have some friends coming for lunch on Sunday so I am hoping the weather will be nice enough to enjoy a local walk. It has been so good to get out and about recently, so fingers crossed that can continue! 
 
Gemma has been taking a bit of a break over the last month or so, but she will be back to help me with the next Quick Catch Up in March, so don't worry if you are missing seeing her Bohemian Blooms Diary, or hearing her words from the web. Usual service is set to resume soon! 
 
Hoping you have a fabulously yarny weekend!

I find February quite a tricky month. It always seems to be cold and damp and there is a bit of a come down from the festivities at the end of the previous year. It's the month when you realise that you can't keep using the 'but it's Christmas' excuse for overindulging and that you have to get yourself back in check. Maybe that was the reason for my choice of book this month: 'Adorable Desserts to Crochet' by Marie Clesse (Dover Publications, New York, 2024, ISBN978-0-486-85343-7). I loved the look of this book as soon as I saw it!

I'm not a natural when it comes to amigurumi, although I wish I was. I find it quite hard on my hands and time consuming but I love the idea of creating an afternoon tea in crochet. There are sixteen dessert patterns in the book, from pies to tarts and  macarons to profiteroles. The photos in the book are colourful and a real feast for the eyes, if not for the taste buds!

Not being overly well endowed with time at the moment, I decided I would have a go at making one of the small macarons. The patterns are written in US terms and there isn't a UK terms conversion chart in the book so if you are a UK terms user you might need to have that info to hand before you made a start on any of the patterns. The macaron pattern only uses one stitch (UK dc) and so I didn't have any trouble with the conversion. The yarn used in the book is DMC Happy Cotton, which comes in cute 20g balls and is specially designed for small amigurumi and crochet objects. I didn't have any of this to hand so I actually used some Scheepjes Catona from my stash. This is a 4ply mercerised cotton with a lovely sheen and I had some fabulous bright colours to choose from, so I went for a candy pink shade. 

There's a really comprehensive techniques section before the patterns start, with a wealth of information on amigurumi techniques such as crocheting in a spiral and stopping the yarn invisibly. I would say it's definitely worth reading through this before starting as sometimes things are done slightly differently with amigurumi. The macaron was made in three separate sections which were then sandwiched together and joined, with a small amount of toy stuffing added for shaping. The pattern was easy to follow and the detailed construction information particularly helpful. You can see my finished macaron below. I was rather pleased with it! 

Whilst it's unlikely that I will crochet a full box of macarons, lovely as it would look, I will definitely try out some of the other patterns, the lemon tarts look particularly tempting. If you're trying to keep your sweet tooth at bay getting stuck into making some of these patterns will keep you distracted!

'Adorable Desserts to Crochet is widely available online but if you are in the UK you can purchase this book, and others, through Search Press with a 20% discount and free delivery, by using the discount code DD88.

I'm hoping that March will bring some cheerier weather. The crocuses in my front garden have appeared once again so spring is just around the corner. I'll see you next month with another book choice. In the meantime, happy crocheting. 

The weather has been so incredibly dull and dingy here over the last week that I keep finding myself scrolling through the images on my phone in search of something bright and colourful. Thankfully my yarn stash is also a good source of colour therapy and so I have been busy sorting through that too - rummaging around for the really bright, zingy shades that I am pretty sure give me a good hit of serotonin when I crochet with them. If only yarn was a source of vitamin D too, eh!
 
In an effort to cheer myself up, within the midst of what feels like a never ending winter, I have tried to pack a lot of bright, inspiring colours into this email, alongside all my news, and hope that you have a few minutes to spare to catch up with all things Janie Crow!

I was talking to another crochet designer the other day about how the workload of designers has changed so greatly over the last few years. Crochet and handknit designers traditionally worked in-house for yarn companies or were employed as freelancers and thus paid solely for their design work. The advances in technology now means that designers have many more jobs on their to do list, such as maintaining engaging social media channels, creating videos, shooting step-by-step tutorials and dealing with pattern queries, alongside all the usual stuff, such as writing and creating patterns in the first place. 
 
With the rise of forums like Tik Tok and Instagram, we are finding that many new crocheters want to create their projects solely from the use of videos and many of them do not know how to read patterns, so it is interesting to see how the needs of the craft community are constantly changing, putting even more pressure on designers and yarn companies alike to create more and more material for their audience.
 
We have had quite an odd start to the year, with quite a few hurdles along the way, and I feel like I have been chasing my tail work-wise for weeks on end, but hopefully things will be calmer towards the end of the month and I am looking forward to some sustained time with my beloved yarn and hook! It can be so frustrating not to be able to really get stuck into my work, but I feel incredibly fortunate to have a small (but totally fabulous) team who can complete many of the tasks that are now essential for running an online crochet business and who support me so well by picking up the flack when I'm not on top of my game.

The Royal Garden project was first released in 2018 and it was made using yarns from the Rowan range. A few years later I worked alongside Scheepjes to create a kit for the project using yarns from their range. This kit has recently been discontinued, so I decided it was time to create some new versions of the design using yarns from the Stylecraft range.
 
One of the new versions is made using a palette of colours from the Special DK range and the other has been made using Stylecraft's 100% recycled yarn, the lovely ReCreate DK. 
 
We do not currently have kits in stock for the Special DK version as we are waiting for some shades to come back into stock, but we do have the ReCreate kits in stock and you can find them by following this link.
 
The original Scheepjes kit was heavy and weighed in at over two kilos, so we were not able to send it to customers outside of the UK as the postage cost was so high, however, as the new kits are a lighter weight, we have been able to amend the postage options and can send them worldwide. 

The design was inspired by the terracotta floor tiles found in the coffee shop at the Green Hotel in Mysore, India, and the formal quilt-like layout of the former royal palace's gardens at the front of the building.
 
You can choose between two different layouts for the project and we have included colourful diagrams to show both of these in the new pattern (shown below). It also includes written and charted instructions, step-by-step images and links to a couple of free technique videos that Emma has created to guide you along the way.
 
The pattern is available in UK and US terms and we are hoping to have the Dutch language version in stock very soon. You can find more information about the project by following this link. 

I mentioned last month that we have ongoing issues with stock levels for kits. We hope to have this problem resolved by early next month as we have been advised that quite a lot of yarns will be available soon. 
 
We have stock of all the kits shown in the box below - you can click on the images for more information on each of the projects.  

We have just been able to add kits for the Climbing Rose Wrap and the Mexican Diamonds Blanket to the website. You can find them by clicking on the images below. We haven't had either of these kits in for a while, so head over to the website now if you have been patiently waiting!

Despite our relatively poor stock of kits and yarn packs, we do have a healthy stock of paper patterns, which you can find here. 
 
Download copies are always available via our Etsy and Ravelry stores within just a few clicks, so you could always use this opportunity to sort through your stash and see if you have enough yarn to at least get started if you are itching to create a new project. You can link to our Etsy and Ravelry stores by clicking on the images below.

We are in Farnham exhibiting at the Unravel Yarn Festival at the Maltings. The show is on today, tomorrow and Sunday and tickets are still available. You can find more information about this great yarn show here.

​Emma and Gemma came up with the idea of running a team Janie Crow temperature blanket crochet along project over the course of 2025 and they have been very busy creating blog posts and social media content about it since early January.
 
It has been brilliant to see how many of you have taken on the challenge of creating a project using the free motif designs from the Spirit of Flora design, which you can find by following this link. You can click on the image below to see the blog posts about the temperature blanket project.

We won't be exhibiting at The Stitch Festival at the Business Design Centre in London in March as it will collide with our son's 30th Birthday celebrations, however, we are able to offer you a discount code that will give you £2 off the standard adult/concessions ticket price. The code to use at checkout is as follows: 
 
JANIECROW25 
 
The code expires at midnight (or there abouts) on the 6th of March and is not valid on afternoon or Sunday ticket sales.
 
My friend, and fellow designer, Shannon-Jaide of The Wool Flower Co is leading three workshops at the show and there are still have places available on all of them. If you are a beginner then you might want to learn to make a Granny Square with Shannon-Jaide's help, or, if you are more experienced, you could join her to make a crochet bum-bag or some pretty crochet shell earrings. You can find all the information on these workshops by following this link and you can see Shannon-Jaide's work over on her inspirational Instagram feed here.

​My first workshop trip of the year will be the Stitchtopia trip to the Swiss Yarn Festival in early April, which I have realised this week, is not actually all that long away, and so, with just over six weeks left, I have started designing the project that participants will work on while we are away.
 
The concept of the design has been in my mind for ages and I have been looking at traditional Swiss chocolate box designs as the inspiration for the colours and theme of my project. You can find my mood board for the design over on Pinterest if you fancy taking a look!

There are still a few places on the trip to Zurich, where we will visit the yarn show and tour the city. We will also be visiting the Lindt factory, so if you are a chocolate and yarn fan this might sound like a perfect trip!
 
You can find more information about the workshop by following this link.

Andy and I were looking at the origin of our recent punnet of blueberries and wondering when we will start to get fruit and vegetables that have been grown a tad closer to home and have not racked up all those air miles. Living in the UK means that the choice of items grown here is pretty minimal, especially at this time of year, so I was really pleased to see some Yorkshire grown rhubarb for sale at the weekend.
 
Stylecraft have a beautiful shade called Pink Rhubarb in their new Made in Yorkshire range of Special DK. I didn't know until the yarn launch recently that Yorkshire is famous for rhubarb farming. If you are interested in the history of growing the crop in the 'Rhubarb Triangle', you can find out more about it via this article on Wikipedia. You can find my blog post about Stylecraft's homemade yarn here.
 
A few years ago we introduced a rhubarb plant to our garden. It has taken a while to settle, but I am hoping that this year we will start to be able to eat some of it. I certainly won't be paying the eye watering cost that the rhubarb I saw at the weekend was priced at, and will be waiting for the cost to come down (more than) a little before making a scrummy rhubarb crumble, such as the one I have featured as this month's recipe.
 
My mum is a big rhubarb fan too and has always stewed it with a wedge of ginger or slice of orange peel, so the idea of a rhubarb and ginger crumble really appeals to me, especially with a good glug of creamy yellow custard. You can find the recipe here. 

Whether you celebrate it or not, there is no getting away from the fact that today is Valentine's Day. Here at Janie Crow we tend not to focus  on 'special' days as we know they are not relevant to everyone and can cause unnecessary upset, but the reason I am mentioning it today is that I want to focus on the symbol of the day and quite literally get to the heart of the matter! (see what I did there?)
 
I am sure there must have been a time when, like me, you have sat or laid down in quiet surroundings and really focused on the rhythm of your own heart, beating away in your chest, and thought about how amazing it is. An incredible muscle that rhythmically thumps away, keeping your whole body, quite literally, ticking along day and night.
 
But here is the thing - when did you last think about your heart health? Do you imagine how your heart might look inside your chest and whether or not it is in good shape? I was thinking about how much we focus on all the things that happen on the surface of our bodies, like making sure our faces are moisturised and that our skin is smooth and wrinkle free. We all feel the pressure to create muscles and tone in place of excess fat and many of us are prepared to spend huge amounts of money looking after the parts of our body that we can see in the mirror. But what about the vital organs that sit hidden away inside our bodies? If we had transparent skin and could see what was going on inside of us, would we be more mindful of what our vital organs look like? If we had to wear our hearts on our sleeves, would we be more careful about our heart health?
 
The statistics for heart disease are shocking - one in five deaths in the US is attributed to it and there are more than 800,000 women living with the effect of coronary heart disease in the UK, which also kills more than twice as many women as breast cancer here.

I was recently sent a link to this video about heart health on the Zoe Youtube channel. It is an interesting film, where the discussion focuses on what you can do to improve your heart health. If you have an hour to spare then you may want to watch (or listen to) the whole conversation in one go, or like me, you can chunk it down into bitesize pieces and listen to bits of it at a time.
 
Whether you celebrate Valentine's Day or not, I hope that I have inspired you to give some thought to the health of your heart on this special day. If you are pretty confident that your heart is already healthy then you could always celebrate by creating a little crochet version! There are loads of patterns to choose from online but I particularly like this one by The Crochet Leaf! If you fancy making a project that includes heart shapes, check out my Indigo Dreams pattern, which you can find here.

I had a fabulous few days away with some of my yarny friends last weekend and I am still feeling buoyed up by spending time with some amazing women! This weekend we are at Unravel in Farnham and I am so enjoying spending time around yarny folk again. It is always such a joy to be in a room full of yarn and excited knitters and crocheters!
 
I keep misjudging the weather and find I am not wearing quite the right amount of clothes, so this weekend I have packed lots of warm layers in the anticipation of more chilly weather. I have finished knitting a lovely garter stitch waistcoat called Pelica and it is keeping me beautifully toasty over my cardigan! The pattern is by Rosa Pomar and you can find it here. Image below by © Agata Xavier shows the waistcoat beautifully. I didn't include buttons and followed the advice of Linda at Kettle Yarn Co and slightly felted mine to give it a slightly thicker feel. I love it!

After a few teething problems (that you may or may not have noticed) we are hopefully now up to speed with using our new email host. Making the decision to change was not taken lightly and I was worried about the technical glitches we experienced early on, but now I am really enjoying working with the new look email and hope that you like it too! If you are finding anything amiss with this new style of email, like odd text or broken links, please let us know so that we can iron out any issues.
 
We are looking forward to a quieter time next week and I am really hoping, in true British style, that the weather will afford us some brighter days. I hope that wherever you are, that you are healthy, happy and warm.
 
Until next time!

It is GLOOMY.   The light is so poor, we have lamps on all day every day and honestly: it just feels like we should all still be hibernating like sleeping bears.
 
The feeling that we need the brightness of sunshine – even if it is that wonderful low winter sunshine on a crisp and cold day – is palpable here at JC GQ.  We have photography and video projects on the go that require good light.  Yes we have ring lights and all that good stuff but the shadows are still there and nothing beats natural light streaming through a window.
 
It is another weight added to the heaviness we are feeling and which seems to be holding down our creativity.  Concentration is also in low supply at present.  In short, we have lost our collective mojo!  Is this a February thing?  We have an excuse in January because, you know, it’s January and there are as we all know 255 days in that beast.  But February?  The month of love?  Why aren’t we bouncing?
 
We are quite literally surrounded by yarn and crochet projects.  We have dedicated spaces set aside for just that and one of us is a quite good designer* And yet when we have our catch-up calls we are meandering away from the projects at hand and discussing BFF creams, resistance training and whether or not Justin Bieber made THAT blanket.

There are so many benefits of being self-employed in a creative role: the fun of it, the colour, the flexibility and the fact that no two days are really the same.  But when that spark is refusing to catch, it’s tricky.  Could it really be that there are days when we wish for an in-tray and an out-tray. Tasks which MUST be done, a boss banging on a desk demanding a report by 5pm or “I’ll have your job Perkins” (my name is not Perkins but you get the idea).  Honestly?  Yes.  Because kicking your own bum into touch requires Mojo.  And I have very much forgotten where I put mine!
 
Do you feel this?  How do you get out of it? Is it weather?  Time of year?  WHAT IS IT PLEASE?
 

​A quick search on Google yielded the AI result which made me say bad words (AI – don’t like it – do you?) so I disregarded its nonsense and decided to try my own ways to light the fire under my motivation. 
 
1: Check bank statement – self-employed means no work, no crisps.  This is quite motivating.  Bank statement confirms that crisp supply will dry up shortly if squib remains damp.  Mojo recovery score 4/10

​2: Stare Out of Window – I’ve been doing this a lot so must be important and productive yes? No.  So much no. Literally NOTHING getting done here and no flames being fanned.  All I’m really doing is watching the squirrels nicking the nuts from the neighbours’ bird feeder and bury them in my garden. Mojo recovery score  -14/10

3. Go for a walk – no.  Sorry but no.  I can’t go out in my pj bottoms and I’d need to wash my hair. I am disregarding this as an option.  Mojo recovery score: inconclusive
 
4. Eat well – see point 1.  Mojo recovery score: probably good but untested

​​5. Be compassionate to self, accept current languishing and be patient.  I didn’t make this up – this is a thing.  I am nothing BUT compassionate to myself.  I allow myself as much cake and crisps as I want, I rarely say no to increasing my credit card balance, my squirrel observations are bang up to date and really there is very little else I could gift my inner glutton.  So, I’m not buying this as an out.  Mojo recovery score: 1/10
 

 
I think this leaves “watchful waiting” which is a thing medical types do. They are much cleverer than me so I’m going with that.  I am going to waitfully watch what happens whilst being chuffed that I managed a full day without a nap. If you have ANY suggestions about how you pick up when you’ve had a dry spell creatively, please share.  I really can only watch the squirrels for another day.  Two at best.

​*Jane.  Yes I know she’s awesome.  Like, REALLY good.

Well you would dance like this if you could design like that wouldn't you?

Hello lovelies – how are you getting on with your blanket?  I have to say, a month in, I’m absolutely loving it.  I have been super excited to be able to use a new colour (no, I don’t get out much), French Blue and I too have picked up the join as you go method.  Honestly, if Gemma does it, I want to.  I am annoying like that but also, she is EXCELLENT at crochet.  
 
You’ll need to plan your layout early if you join as you go, so you know which blocks to join where.  Here’s our suggested layout (and “our” is a bit of a stretch – this was ALL Gemma!) 

If you'd like to download the image, just click on it and you can print a version off.

​What you’ll possibly notice first off is that your first “Monthly Average” block – the one with the flower on – gets attached to the 4th block.  In fact, you’ll need ALL of January’s temperatures to make that and so you’ll be part way through making your 5th block before you can make it and attach it.  It all works out, honest!
 
For our sample blanket, we made all the blocks and joined them at the end using double crochet. We used one colour throughout and it makes the join part of the design of the blanket, giving a raised sashing effect. Our yarn usage was based on this method.

​The join with JAYG (look at that, an acronym) is a little different: it has a lovely sort of braided appearance, and each join uses the colour used in the final round of that block so there is no “sashing” effect.  We don’t really know what this will do to yarn usage yet – we’ll keep you posted.

As we mentioned in our last post, we have made some nice videos with join as you go techniques but we have also just made a quick one, especially for our Temperature Blanket team!
 
You can watch that here:

So there we have it, a little bit of a curve ball perhaps but it's always good to have options isn't it?

Have you made plans for your joining yet?  Do you think you'll give this a try?  Let us know!  For now, we hope you're enjoying the project!

We are now officially at the end of the third week of the temperature blanket: it is early days and Gemma and I have had a bit of a chat about how we’re settling into the project.  As it turns out, we have both GONE ROGUE!  What does this mean?  Well it means we’ve made some adjustments to how we are working the project and if we’ve done it we bet you have too!

Emma’s Change
 
I have decided to leave out the increases in Rounds 1, 3 and 5.  Why?  Well, I am not a neat crocheter.  Things do not come from my hook looking attractive and the more stitches I cram in, the less neat things get.  Reader, I found my wavy squares distressing.  Which is of course ridiculous since they block perfectly flat (and we have a lovely tip on blocking in a later blog post – watch this space) but well, why not?  As you know, these blocks are the plain blocks used in the Spirit of Flora project and in order for them to fit the stitch count of the beautiful floral blocks from that project, Jane designed them so that the size and stitch count were the same.  Since we are only using these blocks, we don’t have to worry about stitch count, so long as all blocks are the same, so we can quite happily leave out the increases if we want.  And I want. So that’s that!

​Gemma’s Change
 
Gemma’s is RADICAL!  She has chosen to use the Join As You Go method on her blocks!  If you’re not familiar with this, it’s exactly as the name suggests: you join your blocks together as you go along.  This means you don’t have a big pile of blocks to join together at the end of the year.  So a little bit more work along the way but not too much and no big joining exercise at the end. 

If this is a thing you’re interested in, we are going to focus on that in our next blog post.  If you’d like to continue making your blocks, just make them up to the last round:  don’t complete the final round and you’ll not need to undo anything.  If you’ve already made your blocks but also think that Join as you go is the technique for you, don’t worry, you’ll only need to make minor adjustments on the ones you’ve already made and we’ll cover that in the next post. You can fully complete block number 1 – you always start with one completed block.
 
We’ve made some videos with Join As You Go techniques on our YouTube channel here but again, we plan to make a quick video to show you the exact method Gemma is using and that will be available in a week or so.

So we’ve both made some changes already to make these projects work for us.  We found we’d also got some other little differences:
 
We live relatively close together – less than 80 miles as the crow flies – but our blocks are already different despite using the same colours for the same temperature ranges.  We discussed how we are collecting our temperatures and found those to be different:
 
Emma: using data from the week before and choosing the highest temperature for each day
 
Gemma: recording her temperature in real time at the mid-point of the day
 
The way we are making our blocks is different too: I am making my block at the end of each week.  Sitting and getting it all done in one go.  It’s lovely.

​Gemma is making a round a day – she leaves her yarn attached at the end of each day in case the following day uses the same colour too.   She explained that she likes that little hit of crochet each day as it’s her down time and is so effective in relaxing and grounding her.  So true!  We explore this theme a lot on social media actually and we know that many of us feel just like this.
 
The final thing we discussed was the temperature chart itself – compare and contrast:

​I started mine with every good intention, neatly and ordered.  I feel like this is how I approach all my resolutions.  As you can see, it very quickly went downhill, and now, only 3 weeks in it’s torn and crumpled and the writing is awful!
 
Gemma’s chart is – in her words “my oasis of calm on the chaos of my desk”. It’s truly a thing of beauty: neat and perfect and with (get this) A SPECIAL PEN.  I have such envy.

By the way, for those of you who are super organised you can find the February chart here

Finally, ends.  Now this we agreed on.  We agreed to not pass comment because we are terrible role models and should not be consulted since we have nothing good to tell you about our habits....

​We’d love to hear how you’re getting on – what changes have you made, if any?  How are you collecting your temperatures?  How many colours are you using?  Tell us everything – we are still very open to change, we’re only 3 weeks in after all!

Welcome to the first ‘new look’ JANIE CROW newsletter of 2025! I am a little later than usual because of a small technical hitch, but I hope this email finds you well and that you are settling into the new year nicely!
 
It has been a busy start to 2025 for us and we are looking forward to some exciting things over the next few months, including the release of two revamped versions of my Royal Garden blanket design, which we hope to release by the end of the month.
 
I have a few other things to tell you about this week, so I hope you can spare a few minutes to catch up with all things Janie Crow!

I will be settling myself on the sofa, in front of the TV, with my knitting at some point over the weekend. I am really enjoying working on another knitting project after completing a garter stitch waistcoat project just before Christmas. I am trying to resist starting work on the Kaleidoscope knitted butterfly hanging designed by the wonderful Phil of Twisted Thread, shown above. It is an incredibly clever pattern as the butterflies are knitted in the round. I am intrigued to see how they are made and think it will be really fun to choose my butterfly colours! 
 
I hope you have some nice plans and that you will also be able to find some time for a spot of knitting or crochet over the weekend too! ​