Don't forget that there is a new dedicated Facebook Group for the Climbing Rose CAL. The group has been created by my fabulous friend and talented crocheter Sue Macdonald and you can find it by following this link, or clicking on the banner above. All images are courtesy of Inside Crochet Magazine and Leanne Dixon.

If you are still looking for a yarn kit to accompany the project you will find them on Just Knots, Wool Warehouse, Deramores and Black Sheep Wools.

It is hard to believe that one of our favourite shows Yarndale is now just 3 weeks away. I have been keeping a track of the weekly countdown on the show's Instagram feed and am now excited by the prospect of getting stuck into the show preparations. I love Yarndale and adore the fact that a cattle market is transformed into a yarny heaven for a couple of days every autumn! We will have some new things on display, including a new version of my Bohemian Blooms design, which has been made using a collection of Stylecraft Yarns and we will also have all the new versions of the Delft Blanket on show.

We have also taken a stand at this year's Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace. The show takes place in North London between the 10th and 13th October and is one of the biggest textile fairs in the UK so we are really looking forward to exhibiting here again.

My 'Maker of the Week' goes to Taina Tellervo who has posted some lovely images of her versions of my Frida's Flowers Blanket on her Instagram feed. I really love both these colourful versions of the blanket and I really enjoy seeing other people's ideas for colour palettes. I think Taina's grey, yellow and pink colour combo is particularly beautiful.
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The four months we now have left in the lead up to 2020 are bound to speed by, especially with the Knit For Peace workshop trip to Mysore creeping up on me in January, but I am looking forward to sharing some exciting new things with you over the next few months including some reworked versions of existing designs and some new accessories that will go in my shop. Towards the end of the year I am hoping that I will have news of a brand new JANIE CROW venture, so I hope you will all continue to check in with me on a Friday afternoon.....

We are looking forward to a weekend at home. After 10 days away it will most likely involve lots of washing and sorting out before we head back into the studio on Monday. Of course it is a lovely treat to have a family holiday, but I have to admit I always enjoy going back to the studio and returning to the routine at Janie Crow once all the sun hats and swimming costumes have been put away for another year.

As always, I hope you are looking forward to a lovely relaxing weekend and that you are healthy and happy wherever you are....
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I hope this newsletter finds you well and that you are looking forward to the weekend....

It has been a fabulous week here at Janie Crow as I have finally been able to reveal a complete image of the Climbing Rose Wrap. The first set of patterns for this brand new CAL project featured in Inside Crochet Magazine issue 117 which was available to purchase from yesterday.
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I am REALLY proud of this design, especially in regards to the inspiration I chose to work from. I have always been a huge fan of William Morris and it has been a long term ambition of mine to produce a design in homage to his work. Having worked in a home decorating store part time as a student, I am very familiar with William Morris’s wallpaper designs in particular and so I started off thinking that my design inspiration for this project would be Morris’s very well known design ‘The Strawberry Thief’, which is one of my favourites, but I was concerned about how I could produce the idea of strawberries and birds in crochet! I was relieved and inspired further when I came across another design called Molly Blue by Fryetts, which in turn was inspired by Morris's work. This lovely design not only had the floral elements I was looking for, but also totally summed up the colour palette I wanted to use.
   

Some of my CAL designs have taken me months to design and make, whilst others, have been quite quick. The design process for the Climbing Rose Wrap was really speedy once I set to crocheting and I really enjoyed interpreting elements of Morris’s fabric design in my crochet. The flowers within the original design are not easy to identify exactly, so I looked at traditional Victorian garden flowers and used these as the basis for my motifs.

Working with Inside Crochet magazine on this project has been amazing. The whole team really got behind the project and I am hugely grateful for all the time and attention they gave me. I was absolutely bowled over that they managed to arrange to shoot the project at William Morris's Bexleyheath home The Red House and I had to keep pinching myself that we were there.
 
I have been totally bowled over by the response to this project and really hope that my design has inspired you to pick up your hooks........
 

There is a new dedicated Facebook Group for the Climbing Rose CAL. The group has been created by my fabulous friend and talented crocheter Sue Macdonald and you can find it by following this link, or clicking on the banner above. All images are courtesy of Inside Crochet magazine and Leanne Dixon.

If you are still looking for a yarn kit to accompany the project you will find them on Just Knots, Wool Warehouse and Black Sheep Wools.

My great buddy Jo Smith has revealed her brand new CAL project Sunstar, which she has released in conjunction with Stylecraft Yarns this week. Jo's design is fun and vibrant and I love her Sunshine inspired centre part in particular, which is made using the two colour method of crochet. You can find more information about Jo's CAL, which is available in 3 colour ways, by following this link or by clicking on the image of Jo's lovely blanket below.
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This week I have added 6 new necklaces made by the talented crochet designer Marina Kelly to the web site. The beautifully intricate necklaces are made with fine hand dyed linen threads and incorporate beads, ceramic buttons and tiny ornate crochet flowers. Take a look at Marina's beautiful designs in the shop by following this link.
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My 'Maker of the Week' goes to redheadeddoodlejumper on Instagram who has posted the most wonderful version of my Summer Palace Wrap. The colour palette includes a lovely splash of bright yellow (a colour I have to admit I still shy away from in favour of a bright green) and a dark edging. I think it is really stunning and am bowled over that this has been made my a complete beginner.....
   

We are looking forward to the bank holiday weekend. It will be a quiet one for us as the kids are both away for a couple of days. It will be nice to get some peace and quiet for a bit, but I know that within a short space of time I will be missing them...

As always, I hope you are looking forward to a lovely relaxing weekend and that you are healthy and happy wherever you are....
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Welcome to this week's Friday Feature Newsletter - the Janie Crow equivalent of a Sunday supplement magazine....

I have been teaching at Missenden Abbey School of Creative Arts for the last couple of days. Both my workshops have been hand knitting orientated - one on colour work yesterday and finishing techniques today - and I have to admit it has made a really nice change to be working on some knitting projects and I have noticed that it really got my brain working after such a long absence away from knit design. I am really looking forward to getting back to my crochet hook next week though.....

I am finding it hard to believe that I am writing the August newsletter already. The weeks seem to be flying past and, with the recent change in weather here in the UK anyway, I have to say it's beginning to feel a little autumnal round here. Fingers crossed some brighter and warmer weather might make me feel otherwise over the next month or so.....

I have a few new things to tell you about this month - so be sure to check out the 'What's New' feature lower down. I also have a colour palette suggestion, an Instagram favourite and a tip of the month, so I hope you are in a position to take a 5 minute break and catch up with the world of Janie Crow before the all important weekend gets underway....
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The most exciting news for me this month is that we have a new addition to the Janie Crow team in the shape of Gemma Biggs, who started working with us this week. I am so pleased to have Gemma on board after my call out for help a few weeks ago. Gemma and I have some great plans, including really getting to grips with the Janie Crow Ravelry pages, sorting out some 'proper' social media campaigns and giving Facebook some much needed TLC.

​"Hi! I am Gemma and this is me in a nutshell - After being made redundant in 2011 from a highly stressful job in the City I settled down to a quiet family life as mum to two brilliant daughters. Life is a bit complicated as they both have disabilities, but it's never boring! In 2017 I learnt to crochet with a local community charity and have not looked back (ok I've become a bit obsessed)!  As well as being great stress relief it has led me on to other crafts such as sewing, which I enjoy when I can. I'm thrilled to be joining the team at Janie Crow!"

The first pattern for the Climbing Rose CAL will be published in Inside Crochet magazine NEXT WEEK and so I have another teaser image to show you that I hope will get you in the mood for the project. The image below shows my initial mood board that I based on the autumn fashion trends as well as some photocopies of original William Morris designs.there are also some images of  fabric patterns inspired by his designs too, such as the Molly Blue design by Fryetts, which, alongside William Morris's famous design 'The Strawberry Thief' were the real catalyst for the CAL design.
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Yarn kits for this project are currently in stock at Just Knots, Deramores and Black Sheep Wools. The design uses Stylecraft Bellissima, Bambino and Batik, all of which are DK weight yarns. Images are courtesy of Inside Crochet Magazine and the muliti talented (photographer) Leanne Dixon.
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The winners of the Delft colouring competition were revealed in Simply Crochet magazine and on my web site a few weeks ago and the free downloadable colour substitution documents, beautifully designed by graphic designer Luise Roberts, are available as free downloads on my web site to coincide with the big reveal. The image above shows all 5 finalist blankets - I think they are all really lovely!
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If you think you might want to make one of the new versions of the Delft design you will need to purchase the original pattern, which is available in UK and US terminology and in the Dutch language. Flagship store Just Knots has yarn packs in stock for all 5 new colour ways.
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I really struggled to think of a new discovery this month as I have been keeping away from on line shopping and shops in general and have not been alerted to anything new and amazing (!) and then last night in bed I remembered the lovely gift that my fabulous friend crochet designer Jo Smith gave me earlier on this week......

Jo crocheted a lovely sun key ring for me and she had wrapped it in a homemade (recycled) paper bag. The key ring is stunning and I popped it straight on my handbag as a charm, but the exciting discovery was not the key ring, but the way in which Jo had made the gift bag.

Jo had used pages from Vogue magazine to make the little bag my key charm came in, but you can use any paper you have left over or specialist 'pretty' wrapping paper or craft paper. Jo perfected her bag design using the Flow Book for Paper Lovers.
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If you click on the image above you can link to a tutorial to make a simple bag like Jo's. If you want to make one with folded sides you can find a video here. Thank you Jo for the inspiration!
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​I visited the Weavers of the Clouds exhibition at the Fashion and Textile museum this week. The exhibition focuses on Peruvian Textiles and is well worth a visit.
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The traditional woven and knitted fabrics from Peru were stunning and had a common colour theme so I decided to use one example as the basis of this month's colour palette, although I now see that I have chosen almost the same browny red shade twice!
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Last week I discovered the hashtag for the Persian Tiles Blanket on Instagram - I told you about it in last week's newsletter and featured some images of amazing versions of the design - so I felt that the maker of the month for August had to relate to Persian Tiles.

I have chosen the blankets and cushions made by Cora (chingola_cgj on Instagram) as I love the fact that she has made the matching cushions in just one colour and that one blanket is a direct colour swap compared to the other.
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If you want to find the pattern for my original Persian Tiles design follow this link.

Cora also doubles up as my Instagram Favourite this week as I am totally smitten with her feed - it makes me want to run home, pack a suitcase, grab my passport and go off on my travels every time I look at it!
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Blocking and pressing is the term used to describe the process of laying out your crochet pieces and then either steaming or moistening them in order to make sure they look neater and more even before you begin the process of joining your pieces together.
 
I think the term ‘pressing’ is extremely misleading as it implies that you should put something heavy onto your crochet and smooth out your stitches, in the same way that you would iron a crease out of a cotton shirt. In my time as a consultant and tutor I have seen many examples of knitted and crochet pieces that have quite literally been pressed beyond recognition. If you are not careful, pressing a crochet piece with a hot iron will destroy the fibres within your yarn and make the stitches flat and your yarn shiny – in some cases (when dealing with man-made fibres) you could even melt or burn your yarn. Once the fibres within your yarn are flattened they will not recover, much in the same way as you can’t un-shrink something that you have washed too hot.
 
Working through your projects you will put a lot of time and effort into creating your crochet pieces in order to produce beautiful items that you can take pride in and others can admire. With this in mind I suggest that you take plenty of time to make sure that all your pieces are finished in the nicest way possible and so, once you have sewn in all your yarn ends, I suggest you use the following blocking steps:
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​Prepare a blocking board:
If you want to block your motifs as you go along you may need to make yourself a blocking board this can be as simple or as elaborate as you want it to be. You can buy special foam jigsaw blocking mats, or pick virtually the same things up in a toy store at a fraction of the cost. You can use the top of your ironing board or a bath towel. I use a folded towel and have a chequered tea towel, which I then lay over the top.
 
Pin out your pieces:
When blocking out a flat piece, such as a granny square for example, I lay the piece face down on the tea towel, however, because of the 3D nature of this project I suggest that you lay your pieces the right way up so that you can see all the flower petals and leaves.
 
If you have a clean chequered or striped piece of fabric or tea towel like mine, you can pin your crochet pieces out in line, ensuring they are straight. Use a tape measure to check you are blocking to the right size. If you have a plain background you can mark out the size with pins, or even sew in a tacked framework.
 
Use long, large headed pins to pin the crochet piece out. You should stretch the piece very slightly and put the pins in as flat as you can. I work from the centre out, marking the central point of each side first, then working towards each corner.
 
Using steam or a water spray:
If you have a steam iron that you know you can trust and that produces steam without spurting boiling water, you can steam your crochet pieces, but be sure to hold your iron a few inches above your crochet to ensure it doesn’t get too hot. You may want to cover the pieces with a light tea towel or muslin cloth to protect them from the heat and to avoid the absorption of too much water when steaming.
 
I like to use a cold-water spray and have a pump action plant spray bottle filled with clean, cold water. I then gently spray my crochet pieces until they are slightly damp, but not soaking. Once the yarn has taken in the water I leave the pieces to dry completely before removing the pins.
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Crochet pieces love to curl up so there is little point blocking each crochet motif as you complete it because by the time you come to put your pieces together they will have curled up again and will need re-blocking. however if you are making repeated blocks you could use one of the new style crochet blockers as the one made by the lovely Dedri of Look at What I Made and shown in the image below:
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Caring for your project:
After putting a huge amount of work into crocheting your project it is important that you care for it properly. I would recommend that crochet projects are washed as infrequently as possible and would advise hand washing rather than machine in order to avoid stretching, bobbling and colour run.
 
The tumble and spin actions on many modern day washing machines can be quite destructive to hand made products and, if you put your completed crochet project in with other wash items, you could find that you get snags and catches caused by things like Velcro fastenings or clasps. Many machines also leave the item sitting in water during the wash cycle – this is something that can encourage deterioration of the yarn fibres and can cause colour run between yarns and felting. Avoid getting the project wet if at all possible and do not hang in one position for too long as this can also cause stretching.
 
I suggest that you store your projects in a sealed plastic bags between use and that you are particularly vigilant in regards to the common clothes moth, a creature which can be incredibly destructive to woollen fabrics in particular. Moths are attracted to dirt and will target areas where there are spills or dirty patches so make sure you always treat affected areas quickly. You can use mothballs, lavender bags and pieces of cedar to discourage moths, but if you do find them they can be difficult to get rid of.
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I am heading home from Missenden later on today and am looking forward to spending some time at home over the weekend. We have some old school friends visiting on Saturday so as usual have our fingers crossed that the weather is going to behave! I think Sunday will be a lazy day - my favourite kind of day!

I am looking forward to some design time in the studio next week and am really looking forward to the launch of the first CAL patterns on Thursday so I will be back here next Friday with more information on that.
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I hope that whatever you have planned you have a great time over the weekend and I look forward to seeing you here again next week!
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I hope that this email finds you all well and that you are looking forward to the weekend!

We have been getting into gear for the autumn this week. It seems a little sad to be planning for the colder months while it is still relatively warm and sunny outside, but by mid August a lot of crafters are beginning to think about projects for the colder weather and, of course, we have to start planning for the show season again.

We will be heading up to exhibit at Yarndale in just 7 weeks time. I adore this show as it is the one that appears to focus more on crochet than on knitting - something that is still unusual in our business. The show has a fabulous vibe and I really do view it as our most important and enjoyable show of the year. As always I am really looking forward to the event, but we have much planning and sorting to do beforehand so really do need to start prepping already. We have some exciting new projects and shop items that will make their first appearance at the show, so I am getting excited about showing you these very soon....
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If you are beginning to plan your autumn show schedule then you might also be interested to hear that we will be taking a stand at The Knitting and Stitching Show, which takes place at Alexandra Palace in London in October.

This week I started following the Persian Tiles Blanket hashtag on Instagram. Not quite sure why it hasn't occurred to me to do so before, but now I am in total awe of all the AMAZING versions of my design that have been posted on there. There are over 3000 posts and new ones are added daily. Below are some images of a few of my favourites - aren't they amazing? You can click on the images to be taken to the crocheters feed.
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If you fancy having a go at making your own version of Persian Tiles you can find my original pattern by following this link. You can also find yarn packs for my original colourway by following this link and for Lucia's Eastern Jewelscolourway.

I am really excited that Wool Warehouse have now been added to the list of Janie Crow flagship stores. Wool Warehouse is a family run business and are one of the few big online retailers who focus much of their stock holding on crocheters as well as knitters. The lovely chaps at WW have been working hard to get my patterns and accompanying yarn kits added to their store. They have recently added yarn packs for my Climbing Rose CAL (shown lower down) and Summer Palace kits in the Original and Blue and Pink Colour way (also shown below) along with the brochure pattern and I hope that they will be able to offer a really comprehensive range of my designs very soon.
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Thank you for all your lovely well wishes in regards to Summer and Chris's recent engagement. It is really nice to have the idea of a wedding on the far horizon and we are looking forward to their official engagement party in October. I am, however, a little sad that I have been told there is no chance of a crocheted wedding dress! Hopefully there is plenty of time to work on this idea!

I will be at Missenden Abbey next week doing a knit workshop on Thursday and Friday. It is less than a week away, but I know there are still a couple of spaces left, so do contact the school if you fancy coming along.

I am looking forward to a weekend at home and hope that wherever you are you are safe, warm and happy too.....
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I hope that this email finds you all well and that you are looking forward to the weekend!

We had a good, but slightly soggy time at the Fibre East Yarn Show last weekend. It was great to say hello to those of you who dropped onto the stand - thank you for braving the rain and coming along! 
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There are a few spaces left on my two hand knit workshops at Missenden School of Creative Arts in a few weeks time and you can find more information by following this link. I will be teaching finishing techniques and colour work and you can choose to come along to one workshop or to treat yourself to both!

Finally this week.....I am totally over the moon to announce that our beautiful daughter Summer Rose and her lovely boyfriend Chris got engaged at the weekend. Chris is a true romantic and proposed in the Lake District while they were away for the weekend - he had even organised for a photographer to be hiding in the bushes to capture the moment he proposed on film. Bless him!

Andy and I are really looking forward to being part of all the years that this lovely pair have ahead of them. CONGRATULATIONS to our little girl and her Knight in Shining Armour!
 

I hope that this email finds you all well and that you are looking forward to the weekend!

We are heading off to exhibit at Fibre East Yarn Show this weekend, so we have our fingers crossed that the weather is going to stay nice and that the rain is going to hold off. If you are coming to the show make sure you come and say hello! We will be in the Cotswold Marquee and we will have lots of lovely new things on display including the new versions of my Delft Blanket design.
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The yarn kits for the project are now on sale via the 3 Janie Crow flagship stores. You can find them at Just Knots, Black Sheep Wools and Deramores. More images and information will be revealed soon.....

This week I have finally been able to reveal the winners of the Delft competition. I plan to feature this in more detail next week, but if you want to have a look at the winners and the free downloadable colour substitution documents for my Delft Blanket design you can do so by following this link. Just Knots have kits for all 5 finalist colour-ways in stock already and other stockists will follow suit soon I am sure!
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We got a lot of feedback about last week's crochet tip, so I have left it in this newsletter and added a few extra tips that relate to it.

As always, I hope you are looking forward to a lovely relaxing weekend and that you are healthy and happy wherever you are....
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I am at a stage with Janie Crow where I could do with a bit of help!

I am looking for someone in the North London area who can crochet well, understands all crochet terminology, can proof read, is good at social media and PC related things and who has good organisational skills. Currently I cannot guarantee how many hours of work I can offer and I know I am asking a lot, but if anyone is able to get to High Barnet easily and fancies coming along for a relaxed chat about what you might be able to do for me then please hit reply.

​Last week I featured a tip on how to stop a long foundation chain from twisting before you join it with a slip stitch. A lot of you emailed to say how much you liked the tip and two of you had suggestions as to how it could be further improved or used.

Joyce Grove suggested using a small elastic band to hold the first chain in place down the shaft of the hook. Joyce says she has tried this and it works really well.

Lenore Rhodes also emailed suggesting that this technique would be a great way of keeping track of your count when you have a very long chain to make, even if it doesn't need to be joined with a slip stitch to form a ring. Lenore suggests that you re position the chain that sits on the shaft of the hook at regular intervals, say every 50 stitches, so that you never have to go back and recount from the very beginning.

I think these are both great tips and I will definitely be using them in the future.

If you missed last week's tip, here it is:

If you are doing a crochet project that requires you to make and then join a long foundation chain it can be difficult to join without accidentally adding a twist or two to your chain. A few years ago someone on a workshop showed me a really neat trick for keeping the chain untwisted, so this month I am going to share it with you.

Imagine you need to make a project that requires a very long foundation chain. Instead of making all the chain and then struggling to not get a twist when you make the slip stitch join, just make a few chain to begin with. In my image below I have made 10 chain.
 

Slip the last chain off the hook making sure it doesn't unravel.
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Insert your hook through the first chain you made and push it onto your hook. It doesn't matter whether you put your hook through from the back or from the front of the chain.
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Place the last chain you made back on the hook, making sure you haven't twisted the chain.
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Push the first chain down the shaft of your hook so that it sits out of the way of the hook end.
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Continue to make your chain, then, when you have reached the right number, draw the stitch at the hook end through the one lower down the shaft to create your slip stitch join.
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It can take a bit of practice to feel comfortable working the chains when you have 2 loops on the hook, but once you get the hang of it this tip is a real time saver and you will be safe in the knowledge that you won't have any twists in your chain.
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I hope that this email finds you all well and that you are looking forward to the weekend!

Can you believe that it is Friday again? The weeks are speeding by and I feel like everything needs to slow down a little to give me a chance to enjoy these summery days. I hope that wherever you are you are enjoying some sunshine too...

I had a great time chatting to Andrea and Andrew of Fruity Knitting last Saturday - if you are one of their Patreons you will be sent a link to an audio edition of our hour long chat where we talked about how to add simple crochet edgings to knitwear, how to read charts and where I find my design inspiration. You can find a link to the Patreon site here if you want to unlock past audio files.

We are really looking forward to the weekend, but also to next week when we will be taking a short break with the kids. I love travelling and enjoy planning trips, although I have made the decision to do fewer workshops away from home next year. The 2 trips I am committed to are the Knit For Peace trip to Mysore, which I talked about last week and an Arena Travel Stitchtopia trip to Iceland that will take place in June. The trip is not yet live on the Arena site, but you can register your interest by contacting them - a link to their web page is here.
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Places on the knitting and crochet trip to Mysore in January continue to book fast. You can make an enquiry by contacting Knit For Peace.

If you fancy a short knitting related break this year then it would be lovely to have you join me at one or both of my workshops at Missenden Abbey as part of their Summer School in August. I will be tutoring a colour workshop and one on finishing techniques and you can find more information by following this link.

I have been telling you over the last few weeks about the CAL I have designed for Inside Crochet magazine. Next week's newsletter will feature a sneaky peek image of the project and links to the 3 Janie Crow flagship stores who will have yarn packs in stock. Packs will go on sale on the 15th July. The project will be revealed in the July issue of Inside Crochet magazine, which goes on sale week beginning 22nd July. If you want to subscribe to the magazine (a bargain at just £5.99 a copy) you can find more info by following this link to their web site.
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I love getting images of your completed projects and especially liked the one I received from Toni Newnman this week. Toni's image is above and it shows a Kingsize version of my Persian Tiles design in the light blue colour way. You can find yarn packs (for a smaller size) on the Just Knots web site and via other stockists.

We have a relatively quiet weekend to look forward to. It is the Village Festival though and we will probably head down there on Sunday. Fingers crossed it stays sunny so that we can enjoy a few glasses of wine in the park!

As always, if you want to get in touch please hit reply and tell me what is on your mind. I hope you have a lovely weekend wherever you are....
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I hope that this email finds you all well and that you are looking forward to the weekend!

We are enjoying a lovely warm afternoon here in North London and it looks like we are set to finally get some good weather. I am sure the garden and all the delights of the next few days are calling you, so this is just a speedy update that won't take you too long to read before your weekend gets under way...

We had a lovely time in Bournemouth last weekend for our Inspired Minds crochet workshop. Sarah and I had a group of 29 crocheters in our company over a 3 day period when we also enjoyed lots of good food, friendly chatter and a fabulous talk by Dedri Uys of Look at What I Made on the Saturday afternoon. Dedri brought lots of her projects with her, including Sophie's Universe and the Ubuntu blankets, so it was a real treat to see her. If you fancy coming along to another Inspired Minds hand knit or crochet weekend in 2020 you can sign up to the mailing list by following this link.

If you are a patreon of Fruity Knitting then you might be interested to know that I will be a guest on Andrea and Andrew's exclusive live chat tomorrow afternoon at 3pm GMT. I am really looking forward to the event and hope that there will be lots of interesting questions for me to answer! You can also see a recent interview with me on the Fruity Knitting podcast by following the links from my dedicated web page here.
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If you are a regular visitor to the Janie Crow web site then you may have noticed that a new Knit For Peace page has gone live this week. The page can be accessed from my home page and it contains lots of links to the charity's web site, including those to the forth coming holiday in Mysore, India in January 2020. Places on the trip are booking fast now so it might be wise to make an enquiry if you have been contemplating coming along. The new web page also features links to make donations to the charity and those to more information about raffles, how to get involved and to the Knit For Peace shop.

I told you a few weeks ago that I have designed a Crochet Along project for Inside Crochet magazine. The project will be revealed in the July issue, which goes on sale week beginning 22nd July. The patterns for the CAL will be featured in 4 issues from August through to November and not July to October as I previously said, so please note the change in schedule. I have also decided not to re-release the patterns myself until Autumn 2020 rather than the spring, so there is a little movement in timings here too. If you want to subscribe to the magazine (a bargain at just £5.99 a copy) you can find more info by following this link to their web site.
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I realised after I sent last week's email that I had not included an image of the new version of my Hollicarrs scarf, so I have put a couple in this time! The first image above is of the new version (dusky pink) and the second one is of the original design courtesy of Rachel Atkinson. The pattern originally featured in Rachel's book 'Daughter of a Shepherd Volume One' and was designed using her fabulous British DK wool 'Hebridean Zwartbles'. I have updated the pattern using Fyberspates Vivacious 4 ply. The design uses 2 skeins of yarn and 4 packs of beads.

The new version of the pattern can be purchased from my web site either as a 4 page paper pattern or as a download option. The pattern includes written and charted instructions and is available in UK and US terminology. Both versions of the pattern are £3.95.

The repeated beaded lace pattern of this scarf/shawl lends itself beautifully to any choice of yarn, be it 4ply or DK, but if you like the idea of using the lovely Vivacious 4 ply yarn and the Debbie Abrahams beads then Andy has put some kits onto the Just Knots web site and hopefully other stockists will start to stock the pattern as well. We think it would look great using Scheepjes Whirl too, although you may have to make the design a little longer to fit in the full colour spectrum of the yarn length.

If you are off to Woolfest in Cockermouth this weekend then I hope you have a lovely time. I am beyond excited to be going to see Pink in concert at Wembley Stadium on Saturday. I will be heading off to the show straight after the live chat with Fruity Knitting, so it is set to be a really fabulous Saturday. No doubt Sunday will be spent recovering in the garden with lots of tea and sunshine - fingers crossed!

As always, if you want to get in touch please hit reply and tell me what is on your mind. I hope you have a lovely weekend wherever you are....
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I hope that this email finds you all well and that you are looking forward to the weekend!

We are in sunny Bournemouth today catching a bit of sunshine and sea air and getting ready for our Inspired Minds Crochet weekend, which kicks off later on this evening, but I am just dropping into your inbox to let you know that my 'Hollicarrs' scarf/wrap pattern is now live on my web site.

The pattern originally featured in Rachel Atkinson's book 'Daughter of a Shepherd Volume One' and was designed using Rachel's fabulous British DK wool 'Hebridean Zwartbles'. I have updated the pattern using Fyberspates Vivacious 4 ply. The design uses 2 skeins of yarn and 4 packs of beads.

The new version of the pattern can be purchased from my web site either as a 4 page paper pattern or as a download option. The pattern includes written and charted instructions and is available in UK and US terminology. Both versions of the pattern are £3.95.

The repeated beaded lace pattern of this scarf/shawl lends itself beautifully to any choice of yarn, be it 4ply or DK, but if you like the idea of using the lovely Vivacious 4 ply yarn and the Debbie Abrahams beads then Andy will be putting some kits onto the Just Knots web site next week and hopefully other stockists will start to stock the pattern too.

Thank you for all the feedback from last week's newsletter. I realised as soon as I had pressed send that I had forgotten to add in my Instagram of the Month recommendation, so will include this in next week's update.

As always, if you want to get in touch please hit reply and tell me what is on your mind. I hope you have a lovely weekend wherever you are....
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