 new in! blankets lifestyle blog videos explore I am just dropping by to wish you all a very happy New Year. We are cosied up at home with a nice bottle of wine and a string of good movies lined up to watch on the TV as we head into 2022. I have been working on the Stephen West Shawlography project over the last few days, but still have a long way to go - an evening on the settee with my knitting sounds pretty perfect for me! It goes without saying that the past year has been a bit of a strange one, especially as we spent more than half of it in semi lockdown here in England. As I look back on the year, and think about all the things that were once again cancelled or postponed, I realise how lucky we were to have been able to celebrate our daughter's fabulous wedding in July and that of our niece, Lily, in November. I know that we were incredibly fortunate in many other aspects of our lives too. It can be very easy to look back and remember all the bad bits though. Along with the nice things that happened in 2021 we have had some rocky moments and our fair share of bad stuff, like every family, so at times it has been really hard to stay positive and upbeat. Hopefully 2022 is set to bring a brighter future and I am looking forward to making new plans, both for Janie Crow and in my personal life. More time at home since our move out of the studio in the autumn has made me realise that there is room in my life for more than work related things and that I am at a time in my life where I can embrace the joy of being at home more - living life at a slightly slower pace and not beating myself up over deadlines and output. From a design point of view, 2021 was the year of my Indigo Dreams CAL, which will continue through to February. With months and months of delays due to the pandemic I was so relieved to get a crochet along project out in the world and it is great to see so many of you continuing to work your way through the design.  In August 2021 Janie Crow turned 10 years old and we had hoped to make some plans to celebrate our company's birthday, but with the continued lockdown and the fact that we had to move out of our studio, we ended up unable to arrange any events to mark the occasion. With 8 months left of our birthday year we are hoping to be able to sort out something for 2022. The last few months have seen kits slowly coming back into stock and I am looking forward to new projects in 2022. A revamped CAL project of mine will be the Stylecraft Make Along project for February (more information about that in the January newsletter) and March will see the release of my Tidings Wrap, which is currently the Advent project on Jimmy Beans. I am working on a couple of cushion designs for Inside Crochet magazine, which will be released in the spring and I hope to have news of a larger project towards the end of the year so long as things go to plan. I hope you will keep up with all things Janie Crow over the forthcoming months. I wish you all a fabulous 2022! Stay safe...   Over the festive period we have been keeping ourselves in hermit mode once again, but have been able to venture out a little and have some family over to share in our small celebrations.vThankfully almost all of us have had our booster vaccinations - Charlie will be the last one on our list when he has his booster on Tuesday next week. We feel incredibly lucky to have been able to take up the offer of a vaccination and have made donations to the Unicef Vaccinaid programme so that others all over the world are also able to get some protection against the virus. If you would like to donate too you can find a link here. Since Christmas we have seen a flurry of download pattern sales on Ravelry and Etsy as people start to plan what projects to make as we head into 22. We will be back at work on Tuesday and will be sending out any orders placed over the festive period. We still have some kits and hope to add more to the site soon as there are still a lot that we do not have the yarn for yet. The following kits are still showing stock:      
  new in! blankets lifestyle blog videos explore  We had a great response to my email last week when I told you that we finally had some kits in stock. We have been able to update our stocks again this week and now have Eastern Jewels, Sunshine & Showers, Fruit Garden Night & Dusk and Red House and Lily Pond ready for sale. We have now sold out of all our Fiori kits, but Lucia still has some on her site. You can find them by following this link.   I feel so incredibly honoured when people post pictures of their Janie Crow projects. I love seeing different colour ways and interpretations of my designs and I adore hearing about the joy that crochet brings to the lives of people across the world. I was so touched yesterday when my friend Lita posted the image below of her crochet group in Indonesia alongside their Fruit Garden blanket projects. Honestly this image moved me to tears and I am so proud to see my designs made by such a fantastic and talented group.  Here is a pic of another beautiful version of The Fruit Garden blanket that was sent to me by Vicky Neale - isn't it fabulous - I love Vicky's choice of colours!  I really enjoy seeing my projects out in the wild, so please get in touch if you want to share some of your makes with myself and the Janie Crow team. We all love seeing them.  A huge thank you to all of you who voted for me in the recent Knitting & Crochet Awards. I am really proud to have been presented with the Highly Commended Award in the Crochet Designer category. It means so much to have made it to the top of the list alongside my fellow Blogstars Lucy of Attic 24 and Helen Shrimpton.  Our daughter Summer has a real skill for gift wrapping. It is a job I dislike, but Sum always embraces it as part of her festive preparations. She is always conscious about the environmental impact of what she does, so this year she opted to wrap her gifts in brown paper and add a simple wired bow to some of them. Upon reflection she felt that her gifts looked a little plain, so she has spent the last week or so decorating them all and giving them a wonderful personal touch. She used felt tipped pens to create her lovely designs.   I haven't started my wrapping yet and still have a few things left to get, so I am pretty sure I won't be hand decorating any presents this year, but I thought I would have a rummage through my oddments of crochet as I am pretty sure I have lots of handmade flowers and bits and bobs that I could attach to some gifts instead of bows and ribbons, which often have a plastic content. I think I might have some brooch backs somewhere so that they could be used as corsages too.  I found this fabulous pattern on Etsy, for little crochet gifts which I think would look so lovely either on a present or hung from the tree.  A few weeks ago Summer and I travelled down to Hampshire to the HQ of The Grey Sheep Co to attend their open day. We had a really great time watching shepherdess Susie Parish give a sheep dog display and chat about how she trains her dogs. It was also really interesting to hear about how the company are cross breeding sheep in order to achieve great knitting yarns.  Company owner Emma Boyles also gave a talk about the new machinery they have to produce their gorgeous yarns in house and we were given a chance to see them in action.  Summer and I had such a nice time chatting to other knitters and crocheters and browsing through the gorgeous yarns that Emma produces on her farm. You can find more information about The Grey Sheep Co (who you may have already seen featured on Country File) by following this link to their website.  The last second class postage date to guarantee delivery before Christmas is tomorrow 18th December and the last first class date is Tuesday 21st. You can find more information by following this link to the Royal Mail website.  For the first time in years we are going to have a proper break over the Christmas and New Year holidays. We will not be working from Thursday 23rd December through to Tuesday 4th January. The Janie Crow website will be open and orders can be placed within this period, but items will not be dispatched until the New Year. If you would like to purchase a pattern and want to start work on it over the holidays, the quickest way to access it will be to get a download copy via either our Ravelry or Etsy stores.  Yesterday I sat and wrote out my list in preparation for our food shopping next week. With Christmas plans pared right back this year we are not planning huge feasts and so I am thinking of doing lots of easy meals that we can rustle up in the evenings and hearty soups we can have at lunch time. I love cooking, but I am not fond of too much faffing and so I like recipes that give scrummy results with minimum effort. This year we have decided to do Tiramisu as our Christmas desert.  Andy will be in charge of making this super simple but gorgeously tasty pud as he loves this recipe from BBC Good Food and has made it many times before. He adds grated chocolate between the layers and uses a little less sugar. It is always tastier when it is a few days old and the flavours have been given a chance to blend a little, so it is the perfect dessert to prepare beforehand.   We have cancelled some of our plans for this weekend and will not be heading out too much. Instead we are hoping to finish off some of the jobs around the house and paint the garage doors - so long as the weather will allow. Living the high life as usual!!! I am hoping that I will get some time (as always) to sit with my knitting in front of the TV and so will need to make some time to wind off some of the skeins of yarn I purchased at The Grey Sheep Co a few weeks ago.  Last week I completed my hand knit tank top that I have made using Stylecraft's ReCreate yarn. I am really chuffed with it and have worn it pretty much everyday since I finished it. I made it in the shade Cherry and am quite tempted to make another in Charcoal. I used this pattern but left out the cable.  The sweater project I have chosen to work on over Christmas and into the New Year is called Oslo and it is by Petite Knit - you can find the Ravelry store by following this link. All the patterns on there are fabulous! Earlier on this week I attended a beginners mosaic class and made a heart plaque. I really enjoyed the class and think this might be the start of a new obsession. I really like the thought of giving old chipped ceramics a new lease of life and really enjoyed the process of cutting and glueing the fragments of pottery into place. My first attempt at this technique is in no way a masterpiece but I am very proud of it.  I came across the work of mosaic artist Amanda Anderson (a piece of her work is shown above) a few years ago when I saw some of her pieces on display in a Bournemouth gallery. I adore her work, which you can find on her website here or on Instagram here. I have a long way to go to get close to this kind of skill. Isn't it amazing!  My friend Jan sent me this picture last Christmas as it reminded her of the Fruit Garden blanket - I love the pic, although I do hope the lady in the pic didn't also remind her of me, so I thought I would share it with you as we head into the festive period. I will be back with a quick update in a couple of weeks time on New Year's eve. I hope that wherever you are you are safe and well and that you have a good holiday whatever you have planned... Janie x 
  new in! blankets lifestyle blog videos explore I hope you will forgive the fact that I have dropped into your inbox for 3 weeks on the trot, but this is a very speedy email to let you know that we finally have some kits and yarn packs in stock. With the days until Christmas speeding away, it occurred to me that letting you know that kits are in stock in my newsletter next week and not before then, might leave it a bit tight postage wise for any of you who may want to work through one of my crochet projects over the festive period, or those of you who would like to give one as a gift. So, without any further ado, we have the following kits and yarn packs in stock and ready for dispatch from Monday: Fruit Garden Blanket - Night & Dusk  Fruit Garden Blanket - Red House   Persian Tiles - Eastern Jewels    I hope you all have a fabulous weekend whatever you have planned. Stay safe   
  new in! Blankets lifestyle blog videos explore I know that I have dropped an email into your inbox two weeks on the bounce, but that's because last week's newsletter was a week late! As things are finally calmer and more settled here at Janie Crow I am trying to get back on schedule and keep my life on track - it is good to feel like things are finally coming together after our move out of the studio. This week we have been busy sorting out my new work space in the summer house at the end of our garden. The building (which Andy brick built about a decade ago) spans the entire width of the garden, so it is a nice sized space which we have now divided up a little so that part of it can be used by me as a small studio space. Seeing the room take shape this week has made me feel a real pang to get back to some design work. As I said last week, I have quite a few ideas hanging around in my head, so it will be lovely to finally settle down with a hook and some yarn and get going on some new projects. I don't have a huge amount to tell you about this week and will recap on some of the things I mentioned last week in my November newsletter, but there could well be something in here that interests you, so I hope you will stick with me for five minutes and catch up with all things Janie Crow.   I love seeing my designs worked in alternative colourways and so when Lucia Dunn of Lucia's Fig Tree asked for permission to recolour my Persian Tiles blanket to create her amazing Eastern Jewels version a few years ago I was really pleased. A few years later Lucia worked her magic to create a version of my Frida's Flowers design too, so I was really excited when we caught up in the spring and she told me that she wanted to make her own version of my Fields of Gold blanket.  I adore this new brightly coloured version of my blanket, which Lucia has come up with. It is just so gorgeous!   Lucia has named her version of the blanket Fiori and, to make this collaboration even more exciting, she has very kindly included the Janie Crow logo alongside hers on the balls of gorgeous Fohen DK yarn which make up the yarn packs for this project. Fohen and Fohen Tweed yarns are a really gorgeous soft and bouncy DK weight, which is a merino wool rich mixture in fabulously vibrant shades. We now have less than 15 of these kits left in stock and, as it is a limited edition, we currently do not have plan to restock. If you have been thinking about grabbing one of these kits, you can follow this link to nab one. The yarn packs contain 31 x 50g balls of exclusive yarn, a sew in Janie Crow label, the original pattern for the Fields of Gold Blanket and a printed yarn sub brochure for Lucia's Fiori colourway. All our yarn kits have been packed re-using the original plastic bag packaging from the yarn supplier rather than new bags. You can find more information about the project by following this link. Please note that the Fiori colourway is only available as a kit and that the yarn substitution document is not accessible separately. We have a limited number of these kits available. Our order came in a little short, so we will have a few more kits towards the end of the month/early December, but it is pretty much a case of when they are gone they are gone! You can find a lovely introductory video that Lucia has made about this blanket collaboration by following this link.   It has been fabulous seeing your Indigo Dreams blankets taking shape. With part two of the pattern out now and part three not far away it has been fabulous to see all the crochet motifs popping up on social media. As usual, it has been a joy to see lots of lovely alternative colourways and types of yarn being used.  I spent some time in the garden this week doing (what might be) my final bit of leaf clearing for the year. I even managed to give the grass a cut, so it is looking much better for a quick bit of TLC. Whilst clearing up I noticed that there was quite a lot of ivy in need of chopping back, so I gave it a good prune and brought the cuttings in to use in my first little bit of Christmas decorating. If I am honest it still feels a little early to be decorating the house, but as time is flying by so quickly, I think we might be getting up into the loft this weekend to get all the festive decorations down.  If you are looking for some nice little stash busting projects and fancy having a go at making some of my crochet decorations then why not take a look at the festive decorations page on my web site by clicking here or on the images above and below.   We are really pleased that it looks like we will be having more kits in stock within the next week as the delivery of yarn is becoming more and more reliable. One of the designs we are hoping to have yarn packs for is my Sunshine and Showers blanket, which I designed as a year long CAL project quite a few years ago now.  The project was originally released as monthly patterns, but they are now all available as downloads via Ravelry and Etsy.  The inspiration for the design was the seasonal weather of the UK and each section of the design, the patterns for which were originally published monthly, reflects a different seasonal theme. For example, in July and August the design was based on sunny skies and flowers, whereas in January the focus was great snowy weather, which I represented by using crochet puff stitches. Sunshine and Showers uses 15 balls of 100g Special DK, so if you fancy doing your own colour way you could search through your stash for left over yarns. Like all my crochet along projects I tried to design this one in a way that made it a great learning tool. It gets progressively harder so that crocheters can build their skills. All patterns include step-by-step images and detailed instructions throughout. Follow this link to the Janie Crow website for more information. The other kits we are hoping to have in stock next week are Eastern Jewels, Fruit Garden - Night & Dusk and Lily Pond. If you are after one of these kits please keep an eye on the web site.  We felt really privileged to attend our niece's wedding last weekend, especially as the ceremony had previously been cancelled twice as a result of lockdown.  The wedding was absolutely wonderful and it was so lovely to see our beautiful girl finally marry her prince. The whole day was a delight from start to finish, but one of the highlights was the amazing Italian wedding breakfast, which included the most delicious pasta dish I think I have ever had in my life!  All the food was delicious, but we enjoyed the mushroom fettuccine so much that we searched out a recipe and made our own version the following day. We used this recipe from Pinch of Yum.  As we have been sorting out the summer house/studio space this week I have been looking at lots of interiors/decorating web sites and whilst doing so I came across a great app from Dulux which helps you envisage what their paint shades will look like in your home. The visualiser app is really cool and you can find more information about it here. Whilst playing about with it this week I found that you can pick colours from existing images too and then match them in their paint range, so needless to say, I am now a tad addicted to the app!   We have also been looking for some curtains for the studio and so I was excited to see the range of William Morris fabrics that are making a comeback in the form of ready made curtains. Whilst on the John Lewis website I found some Kelmscott Tree curtains. As the embroidered bed hangings on William Morris's bed at Kelmscott Manor in Oxfordshire were one of the inspirations for the Fruit Garden blanket I couldn't resist these beauties, despite the price tag - I will just have to make a few savings elsewhere to stay within my little budget!  Finding the Kelmscott curtains led me down a William Morris rabbit hole once again and I came across some lovely festive items in the William Morris Gallery shop. I resisted temptation, but there might be something there that takes your fancy.  We have an imitation Christmas Tree that we get out year after year. I bought the tree around 10 years ago, but have since discovered that you need to keep a fake tree for many years to balance its carbon foot print so it looks like our tree will have a few more years left with us. Thankfully I still love the tree, so am not too worried about that, however I did consider renting a real tree this year to give us a bit of a break from our fake snowy one. Andy's cousin rented a tree last year and many areas in the country operate a tree rental service. You can find more information about this in a piece via Country Living, which you can find here. If you want to read up on the fake vs real Christmas Tree debate you could take a look at this article.   After a long period of time of not really doing a lot of anything (in terms of going out) we have a busy weekend ahead of us so I am thankful that we have already had our booster jabs! Tonight we are going to see The Manic Street Preachers in concert at Wembley and tomorrow Summer and I are heading to the festive open day at The Grey Sheep Co in Hampshire. On Sunday afternoon we are hoping to see a local band at the pub! I would like to think that somewhere amongst all of this we will manage to get some of our festive decorations up at home and that I will get to have some cosy time with my knitting on the settee....  I know that we are very lucky to be in such a privileged position to be planning a lovely weekend ahead and that there are many others who are not so lucky. We are very thankful for what we have and try our best to pay back in small ways if we can. At this time of year we support two of the UK's homeless charities, Shelter and Crisis. If you want to support them too, please click on the links. Both charities rely on the work of volunteers and not just on the proceeds of donations and they do amazing work at a time of year when not everyone is lucky enough to be at home enjoying a lovely Christmas. I will be back in a couple of weeks time with my December newsletter. If you are looking for a project to work on over the festive period or want to source a kit as a gift (either to self or for a friend) don't forget to check into the web site to see if kit stocks have been updated. If you are looking for small stocking filler gifts with an eco edge, then you could also take a look at our Lifestyle range here. I hope that you are well and happy as we head into the weekend and that all is good with you wherever you are in the world. Sending yarny hugs...  
  new in! blankets lifestyle blog videos explore  I was planning to send this email last week (you may have noticed that the intro says there are 5 weeks until Christmas, when there are in fact now only 4!), but we ended up having a really busy couple of weeks, which meant my work schedule got a little bit muddled - hopefully I am back on track now and will be up to speed soon! It is a bit of a shock to realise just how imminent the festive period is. I have yet to write a proper list, but after the nightmare that was 'chase the turkey' last year - where I tried, and tried and tried to get a smallish bird for the meat eaters in our family, but failed miserably as they kept disappearing from my cart each time I went to pay for them - I have at least managed to order a crown and secure our Christmas veg delivery. Last year it turned out we didn't need a turkey anyway as London went into lockdown and no one was allowed to come for dinner, but I am more hopeful that this year we will all get to be together and I do feel like I have scored a little victory for being a bit organised so early on! Over the last couple of weeks I have been preparing a project for the Festive Workshop we hold in Bournemouth annually, so it has been nice to get stuck into a Christmas themed project. I will release the new design in time for next Christmas, but if you are looking for something to get your hook into this year, then I have a few festive themed projects you could take a look at.  My Beaded Festive Decorations design is an ideal way to use up bits and bobs from your stash. The designs would look lovely hung on the tree or could be used as the basis for some fabulous table decorations or corsages. The pattern is available as a 16 page paper brochure or as a download and it includes step-by-step instructions for the crochet beading techniques used.   If you are looking for some little projects to make, then you might also want to take a look at my Festive Stocking pattern and my Festive Decorations by following this link.    When we made up the kits for the new Fiori version of my Fields of Gold design a few weeks ago we discovered that the yarn delivery was a little short, which meant that we had 20 kits that could not be made up. Thankfully the missing yarn has now arrived, so we have some more kits in stock. The yarn kits are a limited edition as they include a special collaborative yarn that is not available elsewhere.   For more information about the Fiori colourway, which has been put together by my fabulous friend Lucia Dunn of Lucia's Fig Tree, follow this link.  I think Christmas crackers were one of the first things that people realised caused a lot of plastic waste, so it is quite usual for them to be plastic free these days.  I have a bit of a thing for garden birds so I fell in love with these crackers from the RSPB, which also feature one of my favourite animals - hares - in the design. You can find the full range of plastic free crackers from the RSPB by following this link. There is a good list of plastic free Christmas tips via Friends of the Earth here.  The second part of my CAL project, Indigo Dreams has now been published in Inside Crochet magazine. As with all my crochet along projects to date, Indigo Dreams starts off relatively easy and gets progressively harder as the project grows over the next five months. In the first part you were asked to make some very simple granny squares and some striped pieces and this month the design features a half and half granny square design. Indigo Dreams will run in Inside Crochet Magazine over five issues through to February next year. The design for this blanket was inspired by a beautiful Kantha stitched quilt that I found on my travels in India a few years ago, as well as my love of traditional patchwork quilts and tessellations.   The patterns include the usual step-by-step images and detailed written instructions and charts. This is possibly one of my easiest projects to date, with most motifs based on the traditional granny square motif. I love working with Inside Crochet Magazine and am incredibly proud of the outcome of this project. The styling of the blanket by Claire Montgomerie and the shots themselves by the fabulous Leanne Jade make me so happy. You can find more information and a list of the Stylecraft yarns I used to make this project by following this link. Patterns are only available via Inside Crochet Magazine for the duration of the CAL. The magazine are offering a six-month subscription offer, which will guarantee that you receive each part of the CAL as it is revealed every month. You can find a great deal (which will save you ££££) for the print magazine by following this link and one for the digital subscription by following this link. You can also find a wonderful Facebook community, so that you can share your progress and ask questions as you go along, by following this link. The group already has more than 2000 members, so it is a great resource to accompany the CAL.  My knitting in Iceland tour was cancelled in 2020 and then again this year, so I am really looking forward to the rescheduled holiday in May 2022. The tour, which is organised by the fabulous team at Arena Travel as part of their Stitchtopia programme of events, is called Natural Wonders of Iceland. It runs between 4th & 12th of May and you can find more information about the trip by following this link.  I will also be tutoring some mini workshops at the Knit For Peace event at Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford in January. I will be joining the amazing knit designer Debbie Bliss on what I am sure will be a great trip. You can find some more information about the event here.  Andy has started to sort out his batch of home brew Christmas drinks this week. He will be making the usual marmalade gin (which we all love), but he has decided to mix it up a little this year by adding mincemeat vodka to the list too!  Andy's idea to make this scrummy tipple, which he has already trialed, was possibly inspired by Jamie Oliver's Christmas Pudding vodka, which you can find by following this link. However, Andy's version is much more straightforward and simply involves mixing a jar of mincemeat into a large bottle of vodka and leaving it to mature for a couple of weeks before staining (and straining and straining it) until it is clear. I recommend a quality jar of mincemeat, but it doesn't seem to matter what brand of vodka you use - it is a really lovely warming festive drink! Cheers!  We are only a couple of days away from opening the first door of our advent calendar. Ours is a pretty paper one with a motivational quote for each day, but if you are looking for a yarny one then you might want to take a look at the Jimmy Beans Advent Box, which is now available to order via their web site.  This will be the sixth annual Craftvent, a holiday-themed Advent calendar and there is something for every type of maker, as Jimmy Beans commissioned both knit and crochet project options and you can choose to work on either a 24 day project or 12 day one.  Designer Ambah O'Brien developed the large knit project called Festive Wrap and I came up with the crochet project, Tidings Wrap, which utilises a unique construction that begins at the centre and works each side outward. Adorable pom-poms are added to the outside using leftover scraps from each day and you can choose from 2 lovely colourways - Ribbon Candy is shown above and the Buttermint version is shown below.  Jimmy Beans' own knit and crochet designer Amy Gunderson created both the smaller knit and crochet projects, called 'Tis The Season Mitts. Gunderson owned a pizza place in Iowa City for seven years, which is also where she first learned to knit in between making pizzas. In addition to being a designer, she is also the Yarn Director at Jimmy Beans Wool.  Supermarket chain Asda has recently launched its Pre-loved Vintage range across 50 of its stores. Click on the image below or here for more information.   Cath Waters designs the most gorgeous tea towels that feature her water colour designs of the Scottish landscape. I came across her work a few months ago and think that one of her tea towels would look really beautiful framed like a print.  There are lots of lovely versions of the tea towel to choose from and, at just £14.99 each, I think they are fabulous value for money. You can find gorgeous prints, canvases, mugs and jewellery on Cath's web site too, so if you are looking for a stunning gift why not stop by her web store and take a look.   We are set for some pretty miserable weather here in London this weekend and have the threat of snow and strong winds for the next few days so we are hoping it doesn't affect our plans for the weekend too much.. I hope that wherever you are and whatever you have in store for the next few days that you have a great time. I really love hearing from you and Sarah and I do our best to reply, so if anything in this newsletter has prompted you to get in touch, please hit reply.... Sending lots of yarny hugs Janie x 
  new in! blankets lifestyle blog videos explore The clocks have changed and the weather is decidedly autumnal here in North London, so we have been making the most of any bright weather and getting out for some local walks. The fields and countryside around us are still looking really beautiful as not too many leaves have dropped yet, but it is getting pretty cold in the evenings, so it has been good to snuggle up with my crochet and knitting projects on the settee in the evenings! This week I have something REALLY exciting to tell you about as I am finally able to reveal the outcome of my most recent collaboration with the wonderful Lucia Dunn of Lucia's Fig Tree AND I am also able to showcase my beaded crochet Christmas decorations, which featured in Inside Crochet Magazine this time last year, as the pattern has now reverted to me. If those two things are not enough to make you want to read on for more information, then hopefully something else within this email will catch your eye!   I love seeing my designs worked in alternative colourways and so when Lucia Dunn of Lucia's Fig Tree asked for permission to recolour my Persian Tiles blanket to create her amazing Eastern Jewels version a few years ago I was really pleased. A few years later Lucia worked her magic to create a version of my Frida's Flowers design too, so I was really excited when we caught up in the spring and she told me that she wanted to make her own version of my Fields of Gold blanket.  Lucia is the queen of recolouring - you may have seen her fabulous version of Tinna's gorgeous Amma CAL - and so I adore this new brightly coloured version of my blanket, which Lucia has come up with. It is just so gorgeous!   Lucia has named her version of the blanket Fiori and, to make this collaboration even more exciting, she has very kindly included the Janie Crow logo alongside hers on the balls of gorgeous Fohen DK yarn which make up the yarn packs for this project. Fohen and Fohen Tweed yarns are a really gorgeous soft and bouncy DK weight, which is a merino wool rich mixture in fabulously vibrant shades. We have been waiting very patiently for the yarn to make its way over from Italy over the last couple of months and we spent last week making up the kits for this project, so I am really excited to finally be able to give you the link to nab one of these limited edition kits. The yarn packs contain 31 x 50g balls of exclusive yarn, a sew in Janie Crow label, the original pattern for the Fields of Gold Blanket and a printed yarn sub brochure for Lucia's Fiori colourway. All our yarn kits have been packed re-using the original plastic bag packaging from the yarn supplier rather than new bags. You can find more information about the project by following this link. Please note that the Fiori colourway is only available as a kit and that the yarn substitution document is not accessible separately. We have a limited number of these kits available. Our order came in a little short, so we will have a few more kits towards the end of the month/early December, but it is pretty much a case of when they are gone they are gone! You can find a lovely introductory video that Lucia has made about this blanket collaboration by following this link.  From Thursday 7th through to Sunday 10th October we were showing our wares at the Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace. Our stand was in the Textile Gallery. There were fewer stands than usual to allow for more social distancing between everyone, but there was a great turn out and kits pretty much sold out, along with needles and hooks, which were flying off the shelves! There were times when it was very busy on the stand and (aside from the very annoying difficulties with wifi and the card machine connection) it was great to see so many of you out and enjoying the show. With his 'Just Knots' hat on, Andy has taken a stand at the Harrogate Knitting & Stitching Show in a couple of weeks time (18th to 21st November). He will have knitting needles, crochet hooks and lots of other accessories. He will also have a lot of reduced yarn - so do pop over to see him and say hello if you are going to the show.  A couple of Mondays ago (24th October) I was the featured designer on shopping channel Yarn Lane TV. I had such a great time chatting all things crochet with presenter Rebecca Reid. We focussed on my Persian Tiles & Summer Palace blankets and also had a quick chat about The Fruit Garden Crochet Blanket Book. During the hour long show I did a couple of little crochet demos, so there might well be something that interests you. You can find the video by following this link. If you want to check out more demo videos on the Janie Crow YouTube channel you can find it here.  It has been fabulous to start seeing your Indigo Dreams blankets taking shape. With part two of the pattern on the horizon I realised I hadn't managed to write a blog post about how to prepare for the CAL - in particular how to achieve the correct tension, so I managed to get one posted this week. You can find it by following this link. I can never quite get over the ongoing appeal of my Persian Tiles blanket, which continues to be my biggest selling design, but I love to see the various colourways that people put together. This week I discovered two new versions made by the team at Yarnplaza. They have named these colourways Lavender Fields and Christmas and you can find more information by following this link.   After our move from the studio at the beginning of last month we are still trying to get ourselves sorted out. There are lots of boxes left to unpack at home, but Andy has been very busy sorting out the office and storage space that we have found locally. It was quite a shock to see just how much stuff we had accumulated over the 5 years we were at the studio!  he pattern for my beaded Christmas decorations, which also features a beaded crochet masterclass, are new to the website this week. The pattern originally featured in Inside Crochet magazine this time last year, but it is now available as a 16 page paper brochure in both UK & US terms or as a download version via Ravelry or Etsy.   The decorations were inspired by Russian Folk crafts and, as they use very small amounts of yarn, they are the perfect stash buster. I think they would look great hung on the tree or threaded together to make bunting. Or maybe even a festive themed corsage? You can find more information by following this link. Images with thanks to Leanne Jade and Inside Crochet magazine.  We also have patterns for my Festive Decorations, shown below. These are proving really popular at the moment as they are another great stash busting project. I think they would look great made in purple, red and gold shades, but I love the frosty feel of the grey and cream I used in the original designs. Perhaps adding some light blue shades and silver lurex would make them look really sparkly and snowy?  You can find the paper pattern for these decorations by following this link to the website, where you will also find links to downloadable copies via Ravelry or Etsy.  You can find my crochet stocking pattern, which would make great table or tree decorations as they can hold little tree presents such as chocolates for an extra special touch, by following this link. Along with the pattern for the Oonagh knitted cushion covers, which feature lovely sparkly beads, for a real festive feel.  I am looking forward to seeing your festive makes on social media. Please share any projects using #janiecrow on Instagram so that I can see what you have been making!  There wasn't a huge amount of sun to ripen the tomatoes in the garden this year so when it became clear that green was the colour they were staying, Gemma decided that tomato chutney was on the cards!  Unlike many other chutney recipes this one from Lovely Greens doesn't use cooking apples and so Gemma says it was easy to knock up on the spur of the moment with ingredients already in stock. Delicious with cheese and biscuits!  We realised it had been a while since we had a 'show and tell' on Facebook, so we asked you to show us what you have been working on, whether that be the new Indigo Dreams crochet along, another Janie Crow project or something different entirely! You showed us your beautiful work, from Climbing Rose Wraps to Persian Tile blankets and much much more. Here are some of the highlights: Sharon Marks showed us her recently completed Persian Tiles, in her own colourway:  Tracy Hellam has been crafting with string as yarn and wool aren't easy to get hold of in Central Zambia!  We love the tassels on Purdy Garcia's Primavera version of Frida's Flowers. They work so well on the points of the hexagons:  Ellen Preston is getting in the mood for Christmas with her very lovely Percy Poinsettia, a Lalylala design.  Eliza Dee Dee has been making the Summer Palace blanket in her own colourway, even using yarn bought by her mother in the 1960s to knit her a cardigan with! Impressive stashbusting:  Thank you to everyone who shared photos - we love seeing your makes :-)  The first part of the Indigo Dreams crochet along was published and many of you got straight to work! The dedicated Facebook group for the Crochet along has been going from strength to strength with over 2,200 members now. There has been much discussion about the difficulties some of you are having with the tension of the chambray squares but there has been great support from both the group moderators and other members alike. On the subject of gauge the brilliant 'Golden Loop' video from Esther of 'It's All in a Nutshell' is well worth a watch, especially if you are struggling to get the correct tension on UK treble (US double) crochet - are you a yanker, rider or lifter? Don't forget that you can take a look at my tension themed blog post here.  Here at Janie Crow we are avid recyclers and so it was good to see in the news that in Co-Op supermarkets around the country it is now possible to recycle a much wider range of plastic packaging such as pet food pouches, crisp packets, bubble wrap, cling film and much more. Other supermarkets have been running schemes to recycle such items for a while now. On the RecycleNow website you can enter your postcode or town to find a store near you that collects these items.  That said, there has been a lot of talk recently about how many big companies, especially large supermarket brands, are using 'green washing' tactics to make consumers think that their ethics are far greener than they actually are. Whilst any effort to cut down plastic use and free recycling schemes are good news, what we need to see is far less use of plastic packaging in the first place and more conscious decisions about the origin of the ingredients in our food. A good place to start is by being aware of where the palm oil in our food is sourced. Palm oil is used in so many foods these days and much of it is from unsustainable sources. Making a habit of looking at the ingredients in our food is a great way to tackle 'greenwashing' so look out for products that say the palm oil is from a sustainable sourse - if it doesn't say it's sustainable then it probably isn't! You can find more information about global brands and their use of palm oil (and why unsustainable palm oil is bad news) via the WWF web site here or by clicking on the image below:  This week I came across this handy little food calculator via the BBC which can give you an idea of the carbon footprint of foods you most regularly eat. For us the big surprise was chocolate, so we are going to be more careful about which brands we buy in the future. We do love a bit of choccy here at Janie Crow, but perhaps we should cut down a little too?  As we move into the colder months of the year here in the UK it's probably true to say that many of us will be spending more time crafting during the dark evenings. Hours of crocheting can take its toll on our hands, arms and shoulders, so we thought this blog post from Inside Crochet magazine would give us all a good reminder of the importance of taking breaks from time to time, as well as doing exercises to prevent repetitive strain injuries. The thought of not being able to crochet is not one we like to contemplate!   After the madness of September, with the move and then the shows in early October, it was almost inevitable that we would get poorly. I went down with a sniffle (not covid) on the day after Ally Pally and it has taken me a good few weeks to feel back to normal. Andy has started with a cold this week too, so it has been a month of not feeling quite up to speed for us. We have been making sure we get plenty of fresh air, sunshine and vitamin C in the hope that we will now have a lurgy free winter, so we are hoping for some bright weather over the weekend so we can get out and about. I am planning to attend the COP26 march in London tomorrow. If you would like to join an event, but you're not sure if you have a local demonstration, you can find a list of worldwide events by following this link. I have quite a few projects to work on in preparation for some forthcoming workshop weekends, so over the weekend I will be keen to set up camp on the settee in the evenings to get on with those. We have been adding lots of programmes to our watch list on the TV, so hopefully we can indulge in a few good movies too! Unfortunately my Stephen West MKAL project has had to take a bit of a back seat and I am still only on clue 2, but it has been great to see finished projects out in the wild. I am still working on my Stylecraft ReCreate tank top though and hope to have that finished very soon. If you are looking for a fabulous knitting project to see you though the next month or so, then I can really recommend you take a look at Julia Marsh's Wee Houses design, which will be the Stylecraft make along project this month.  I think that the scarf or cowl would make a great festive gift. You can find lovely shots of the projects on Julia's Hand Knitted Things instagram feed and the MAL Facebook group here.  The season of family festivities, bright lights, shimmering candles and good food is officially here! Happy Diwali to those of you celebrating this week. May your lives be filled with new hopes for the future and new dreams for tomorrow. Joy, light and love....  
  new in! blankets lifestyle blog videos explore  My new CAL project, Indigo Dreams kicks off next week when the first part will be published in Inside Crochet magazine. I am really looking forward to finally seeing the patterns in print and hope that you will enjoy it if you are planning take part. The week before we moved out of the studio we received a really big yarn delivery. We took some kits for the CAL to Yarndale and some to The Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally last week, so we only put a few in stock on the website. However, we now have somewhere in the region of 40 kits in stock. We know that a couple of shades of yarn that I have used in the CAL are already running short with stockists and we have been advised that one shade might not be back in stock until the new year. If you are considering using the same palette as me and therefore sourcing the yarns, either as a pack or separately, I suggest you don't leave it too long. As with all my crochet along projects to date, Indigo Dreams starts off relatively easy and gets progressively harder as the project grows over the next five months. In the first part you are asked to make some very simple granny squares and some striped pieces. I am really hoping that I might get time to record a quick technique video which I can upload to my YouTube channel next week to coincide with the CAL release, but as we still have a mountain of boxes to wade through here, I am making no promises! Indigo Dreams will run in Inside Crochet Magazine over five issues between next Thursday October 21st (issue 141) and February. The design for this blanket was inspired by a beautiful Kantha stitched quilt that I found on my travels in India a few years ago, as well as my love of traditional patchwork quilts and tessellations.   The patterns will include the usual step-by-step images and detailed written instructions and charts. This is possibly one of my easiest projects to date, with most motifs based on the traditional granny square motif. I love working with Inside Crochet Magazine and am incredibly proud of the outcome of this project. The styling of the blanket by Claire Montgomerie and the shots themselves by the fabulous Leanne Jade make me so happy and I hope you are going to love this project as much as I do.  You can find more information and a list of the Stylecraft yarns I have used to make this project by following this link. As I said already, we have stock of kits available on the website now. They are £59.50 plus P&P and include the yarn and a Janie Crow sew in label. Patterns are only available via Inside Crochet Magazine for the duration of the CAL and are not included in the yarn pack. The magazine are offering a six-month subscription offer, which will guarantee that you receive each part of the CAL as it is revealed every month. You can find a great deal (which will save you ££££) for the print magazine by following this link and one for the digital subscription by following this link. You can also find a wonderful Facebook community, so that you can share your progress and ask questions as you go along, by following this link. The group already has more than 1700 members, so it is bound to be a great resource to accompany the CAL.  My knitting in Iceland tour was cancelled in 2020 and then again this year, so I am really looking forward to the rescheduled holiday in May 2022. The tour, which is organised by the fabulous team at Arena Travel as part of their Stitchtopia programme of events, is called Natural Wonders of Iceland. It runs between 4th & 12th of May and you can find more information about the trip by following this link.  rcumnavigating 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 and dramatic landscapes and of one of the world’s most spectacular countries. In Reykjavik our included excursion combines some of the highlights of the classic ‘Golden Circle’ with visits to the producers of the famous Álafosslopi yarns. Our knitting expert, Jane Crowfoot, will offer four full day knitting workshops on board, as well as plenty of opportunities for social knitting as we circumnavigate Iceland. Her workshops will focus on working in the round using both stranded and fairisle knitting techniques and beading. Jane will also show how to create and cut through a steek in your knitting'.  I felt really sad to drive away from our empty studio space a couple of weeks ago after our lease came to an end. I really had hoped that the building would be Janie Crow's forever home, but actually, now we have had a chance to recover a little from the move and the shows that we have been doing over the last fortnight, it feels quite nice to be home for a bit. As I said in my introduction to this month's newsletter, we have managed to sort out a local office and storage space and I am planning to convert part of the summer house in the garden to become a small studio space for me. Andy built the summer house about 10 years ago and I used it as my design space for a few years before we moved to our bigger premises. I really like the idea of being at home again and am looking forward to sorting it all out over the autumn. Hopefully things will be ship shape by the time we head into next year. If you want to follow my progress while I try to get everything sorted over the next few months, then please check out my Janie Crow Lifestyle feed, which I am hoping to dedicate more time to going forwards...  We have managed to update the stock of quite a lot of our kits after that huge yarn delivery a few weeks ago. We now have kits for Persian Tiles in the Light Blue colour way, Summer Palace Blanket in both original and pink/blue colourways and we have also managed to secure enough yarn to make up my new Red House kits in the fabulous new organic cotton from Stylecraft. We have also put the lovely wooden shade cards by Veronica of Simply Shade Cards onto the website today. Veronica has already made cards for Attic 24, Emma Varnam and Coastal Crochet projects, so I was really pleased when she approached me about making cards for The Fruit Garden Blanket.  Because the new book uses an alphabetical reference for the shades used in each of the 4 blanket colourways I thought that a shade card that lists shades from A to L would be a really useful tool, so over the last few months I worked with Veronica in order for her to create some fabulous cards that are made from sustainable wood. Cards with an alphabetical reference can be used for other projects besides The Fruit Garden Blanket and I think they would make a useful tool for the Indigo Dreams CAL too. I will have a few new things to tell you about in the lead up to the festive season, including a really exciting new collaboration with Lucia of Lucia's Fig Tree and a new pattern release, but this week I thought I would feature the pattern for my Festive Decorations as we have had a little run of sales for these over the last few weeks, which suggests people are already beginning to think about the holidays.  You can find the paper pattern for these great stash busting decorations by following this link to the website, where you will also find links to downloadable copies via Ravelry or Etsy.  You can also find my crochet stocking pattern, which would make great table or tree decorations as they can hold little tree presents such as chocolates for an extra special touch, by following this link. Along with the pattern for the Oonagh knitted cushion covers, which feature lovely sparkly beads, for a real festive feel. I think it is a little early to talk too much about Crimbo, but crafters need to start planning early and I know that from a personal point of view I always underestimate how long it is going to take me to complete my festive makes.... For my 'out in the wild' project of the week, how about this pic of an absolutely stunning Fruit Garden blanket that was sent to me by Karen Thompson:  Isn't it fabulous? I just love the way it incorporates shades from more than one of my versions of the project and I think that Karen's use of lilac on the border really sets off the whole palette. Just gorgeous!   After a slightly false start, when the books were delayed arriving with us, we have been seeing copies flying off our shelves and I am so pleased to hear that you all seem to love The Fruit Garden Crochet Blanket book as much as I do! The original patterns for this project remain available as free downloads via the Stylecraft web site, but I have now amalgamated all the motif designs needed to make this stunning heirloom blanket into a book, which also includes crochet charts, testimonials and more background information about my inspiration and design process as well as a brand new colourway of the blanket project, 'Red House'.  When putting the book together I was lucky enough to be granted permission to use images from The William Morris Society, The V&A and The National Museums of Scotland, all of whom have items in their collections by William & May Morris that inspired my design. I am immensely proud of The Fruit Garden blanket and all that it came to represent over the course of the last 18 months, when so many people used it as a way to help them through difficult times. I have included 8 testimonials in the book from people all over the world who created their own versions of the blanket in 2020. I hope that this book will act as a great learning tool for crocheters who want to create a blanket of their own and also as a lovely keepsake for those who may have already made one or more of the project colourways. All versions of the blanket use yarns from the Stylecraft range, including Life DK, Naturals – Bamboo + Cotton and the new Organic Cotton. You can find kits for the new Red House colour way of the project by following this link. ISBN 978-0-9571659-2-2 RRP £12.95  Now that we are home a bit more I am planning to spend some time nurturing our poor little home, which has been horribly neglected over the last 5 years while we had the studio and even more so over the course of lockdown when we were barley here. I don't have huge plans, mainly just ideas for a few bits of painting and updating, but the bit I really love about redecorating is spending time window shopping websites for ideas and lovely things. I am a big fan of anything that has a link to the Bloomsbury Group and my Bohemian Blooms blanket was inspired by the work of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant and their home at Charleston Farmhouse in particular, so I was really taken with these gorgeous hand painted lampshades by Jane McCall of Bloomsbury Revisited.   When looking at lampshades I also stumbled across the work of Naomi Paul who creates crochet pendant lampshades.  These have a very different and contemporary look compared to the Charleston inspired shades, but I love these too, although my bank balance won't stretch quite this far! You can find more information about Naomi Paul's London studio and the ethos behind her company by following this link.  We are a little behind schedule with The Great British Bake Off and so have only just watched biscuit week, which I think was possibly aired about a fortnight ago. Andy is now keen to make brandy snaps as a result, but I am looking forward to catching up with bread week, which is usually my favourite. It will be interesting to see which one of us makes it to the kitchen to bake first - maybe the weekend would be a perfect opportunity? For us it has been all about cooking fresh, veg heavy, food this week and one of the highlights has been home made pesto - so easy to make and so delicious!  I tend to throw in anything green along with basil, garlic and pine nuts and smoosh it all up in a blender. Added to hot cooked pasta you simply can't go wrong, especially if you add a good glug of olive oil and some salty style cheese. It doesn't even need to be cooked, so it really is about as easy as it comes! Yum... If you need a recipe - there is a good one here.  Whilst on the look out for decorating ideas, I was thrilled to discover that Annie Sloan has introduced a palette of wall paints to her collection. I am a big fan of her chalk paint already and love her use of colour, so stumbling across this brand new product was really exciting!   I am smitten by the plaster, dusky pink shades, Pointe Silk and Piranesi Pink and hope that I might get to use them when we give our bedroom a bit of a rejig. We have recently invested in a new woollen duvet from Baavet for the really cold months of the winter and I also treated myself to a new duvet cover (possibly the first new one in about a decade!) which features some lovely pinky shades, so I might well use this as the basis for my new colour palette.  Unfortunately I think the painting is quite of a way off time wise, as we have more pressing things to do around the house - like a leaky conservatory roof and an unfinished lean to - but it is nice to formulate the start of a plan! I would love to hear what your favourite colour combinations are in your home and how you came about choosing them.  We may only just be on the verge of autumn here in the UK, but when it comes to crafting for the festive season it is wise to start planning your projects early, so I am really pleased to say that my Tidings Wrap, which I designed for this year's Jimmy Beans Advent Box is now available to order via their web site.  This will be the sixth annual Craftvent, a holiday-themed Advent calendar and there is something for every type of maker, as Jimmy Beans commissioned both knit and crochet project options and you can choose to work on either a 24 day project or 12 day one.  Designer Ambah O'Brien developed the large knit project called Festive Wrap and I came up with the crochet project, Tidings Wrap, which utilises a unique construction that begins at the centre and works each side outward. Adorable pom-poms are added to the outside using leftover scraps from each day and you can choose from 2 lovely colourways - Ribbon Candy is shown above and the Buttermint version is shown below.  Jimmy Beans' own knit and crochet designer Amy Gunderson created both the smaller knit and crochet projects, called 'Tis The Season Mitts. Gunderson owned a pizza place in Iowa City for seven years, which is also where she first learned to knit in between making pizzas. In addition to being a designer, she is also the Yarn Director at Jimmy Beans Wool.   We are looking forward to our first weekend at home for a while after the madness of the last month or so. We have plans to see some of our family on Saturday and then a home based day on Sunday. I have a feeling Andy is planning to cook a curry - always a highlight, so that will be a treat! I have been trying to keep up to date with knitting Stephen West's latest mystery Knit Along project Shawlography, so I will definitely be getting my knitting out over the weekend. I am a tiny bit behind on clue one, but hope to catch up over the next week. If you don't know about the project or want to see a few spoilers, then take a look at this link to Stephen's instagram page. I have just made a start on the icord loops!   I leave you with the image above that I found on Insta during the week of a dog worrying about his pal in the washing machine (so funny!) and a link to one of my current favourite Instagram feeds, Origiwools, which features cute animated crochet ducks that always make me smile. This week's post is Bake Off based and I love it! I hope that wherever you are and whatever you have planned for the next few days that you have a great time. I really love hearing from you and Sarah and I do our best to reply, so if anything in this newsletter has prompted you to get in touch, please hit reply.... Sending lots of yarny hugs Janie x 
  new in! blankets lifestyle blog videos explore If you are suddenly panicking that you have lost a day somewhere over the course of this week, don't worry, my usual fortnightly Friday date with your inbox has moved forward by a day - it is definitely still Thursday! I am emailing a day early this week as we are in the throws of moving out of the studio and I want to let you know that we will be suspending the post in order to complete our move and prepare to exhibit at The Knitting & Stitching Show, which starts a week today. We will not be dispatching any orders taken on the website between tomorrow afternoon and Monday 11th October. Emailing you a day earlier than usual gives us more time to react to any orders you might want to place after reading this quick catch up email and means that we can get all the post sorted before we leave the studio tomorrow. You can still place orders on the Janie Crow site, but anything ordered after 2pm Friday 1st October through to Monday 11th will be delayed. We apologise for any inconvenience this might cause, but we cannot see an alternative way of completing our move and doing the show without a little disruption. On a brighter note, we have had quite a lot more stock arrive over the past couple of weeks and so have been able to finally make up a lot of project packs, including The Fruit Garden Crochet Blanket in the Parchment & Caramel and Love Is Enough colourways, as well as more kits for the new Indigo Dreams CAL. I have a few other things to tell you about besides stock updates this week, so I hope you can spare a few minutes to catch up with our news...   A couple of weeks ago I gave a Zoom presentation at the AGM of the Knitting and Crochet Guild. I had a fab time chatting about how and why I became a crochet designer and didn't end up working in a bank! Look at this amazing illustration of the presentation by @salinajaneart:  Big thanks to the Guild and to Salina for all their support. If you’re not a member already then why not consider joining? For a small annual membership fee you will be offered a wealth of great aspects such as local meetings and great resources on their website. For those of you who pre-ordered the new book, The Fruit Garden Crochet Blanket, on the Janie Crow web site, these should have now started arriving. I hope you are enjoying leafing through the pages and perhaps some of you might have already starting making your Red House versions of the blanket! I'll look forward to seeing images of them on social media over the coming months.   If you have been on the search for a Fruit Garden project yarn pack, we now have them in stock for the Parchment & Caramel and Love Is Enough colourways. We hope we will have kits for Red House in again soon, but if you are desperate for a kit, why not check out an independent store or online stockist. The books are now out in the wild and I know that quite a few yarn shops have been able to make up project packs. If you are looking for a kit for another project, we now have really good stock levels of blanket kits including Fields of Gold, Summer Palace (original and blue/pink) and Persian Tiles (Light Blue).  We had another delivery of yarn to make up kits for the Indigo Dreams CAL, which starts in a few weeks time via Inside Crochet Magazine. From the Janie Crow website you can link through for more information about the magazine and to see the great special subscriptions on offer for the duration of the CAL project. I am really excited about the blanket and hope that you will join me on other crochet along journey to get you through the winter months. The first set of patterns will be printed in the magazine in the October issue, which is out on the 21st, and then patterns are available each month through to the February issue.  We had a really great time exhibiting at Yarndale over the weekend and it was so lovely to see so many of you 'in the flesh' at last! The show had its usual great atmosphere and the weather was amazing, so it was the perfect way to feel instantly at home in a yarn show environment. I am really grateful to all those of you who took the time to come on the stand to chat, especially those who told me how important your crochet projects had become over lockdown. I met quite a few brand new crocheters too and it was surprising to discover the number who made the Fruit Garden their first ever project! We will be showing our wares at the Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace next week. The show runs from Thursday 7th through to Sunday 10th October. We have our own stand in the smaller hall and I will be on the Stylecraft stand as part of a meet and greet event on Saturday and Sunday 1pm. I hope to see some of you there!  It has been a week of mixed emotions as we have packed up all or stock and personal belongings at the studio and transported them to their new homes. We have some storage space very nearby, so it has not been a lot of long trips to move everything, but it has been surprising just how much stuff we have accumulated over the course of 5 years. I am really sad to leave our building, which is set to be developed into lots of tiny bed sitting flats, especially as I thought we had found our forever home for Janie Crow, but I am equally excited to be set on our path for a new beginning and I look forward to showing you around my new studio space once everything is sorted. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our lovely assistant Sue, who has been a total rock for us over the last 6 years. Sue has been a close friend for many years since our boys went to school together and she has been an absolute star adapting her skills to fit what we needed from her. Without Sue we could not have grown our businesses the way we have and we are eternally grateful to her and wish her the best of luck for her new life, which she hopes will be by the seaside!  I thought I would briefly step away from the excitement of the Fruit Garden and Indigo Dreams blankets to look back to the Lily Pond blanket Crochet Along, which came out in 2015 and was the first crochet along I did in partnership with Stylecraft Yarns. The design was inspired by the series of Lily Pond paintings by Claude Monet and I tried to create the feeling of movement with the stitch combinations to represent the lilies floating on top of water.  The reaction to the project was incredible with crocheters worldwide getting on board with the concept of the CAL. It was the first time that I was aware of whole groups of crocheters getting together to craft and I especially love these photos of completed projects sent to me by a crochet group in The Netherlands, who even celebrated their blankets with a party in the botanical gardens!   The design proved so popular that Stylecraft asked me if I had any ideas for a new version and the Cherry Blossom colourway was born! Here's an example in the making from ellevensies.design over on Instagram:  All of the patterns, together with the Cherry Blossom colour substitution document, remain available to download free of charge from the Crochetalong pages of the Stylecraft Yarns website here.  A quick search on #lilypondblanket on Instagram also revealed this cushion cover version from @crogemcrochet. Such a great way to turn a big project into a smaller, more manageable one for those of you with less hobby time!  I'll start with an apology for those of you who don't like beetroot but as I might have mentioned once or twice, we're a bit obsessed with it at the moment. This month Gemma has recommended this Riverford recipe for Aromatic beetroot curry with coconut.  Gemma says she put potato in her version to add some variety to the flavour/texture of the curry and it worked really well. We're definitely going to give this a go, especially as the beetroot in our garden are quite literally pushing themselves out of the ground ready to be eaten!  Facebook has been all about Indigo Dreams over the last couple of weeks. We had the most incredible response when we were able to share images for the first time, as you can see from the screen shot of the post below. This was the widest reach of any Janie Crow post on Facebook ever!   There is already a whole community of crocheters gathering in the Facebook group that has been set up especially for the CAL, with membership currently well over one thousand! Thank you to Sue, Jan and Tracy who are dedicating their time to welcoming you and helping members from all around the world with information about the CAL.  We loved reading this story about a grandmother in India being helped by her granddaughter to start a knitting & crochet business at the age of 78.     We feel like our feet haven't touched the ground since we arrived back from our holiday a month ago. Indeed we have barely been home since, except to have dinner and head off to bed, so I am really hopeful that this weekend will provide a bit of much needed rest and recuperation! We have a lot of sorting out to do at home as quite a lot of things have been moved there from the studio, but I am hopeful that we will find a little time to spend in the garden and Andy wants to do a bit more work on the lean to and new shed that he has built, so fingers crossed for nice weather - it has turned a bit damp and chilly here today... I have a lovely knitting project on the go using Stylecraft's fabulous ReCreate, which is a 100% recycled yarn, and I will be hoping for some time on the settee with this. I am also hopeful that I might finally be able to get some alone time with a crochet hook as we head into next week - it feels like an age since I was immersed in a crochet project! Are any of you planning to do the Stephen West MKAL this year? I have chosen a yarn palette that I now realise is very similar to the one I made last year, so I might make a few changes. The knit along shawl project starts next Friday and you can find more information about it by following this link.  We always enjoy hearing from you, so if you want to get in touch simply hit reply and let us know what is on your mind. I will be back in your in box with the October Newsletter on Friday 15th. Until then I hope you stay safe and warm as we head into Autumn...  
  new in! blankets lifestyle blog videos explore   My new crochet along project Indigo Dreams will run in Inside Crochet Magazine over five issues between October and February. The CAL will start in issue 141 of the magazine, which will be on sale on October 21st and you can find preview images and the list of yarns needed to create the project in this month's issue, which came out yesterday. The design for this blanket was inspired by a beautiful Kantha stitched quilt that I found on my travels in India a few years ago, as well as my love of traditional patchwork quilts and tessellations.   The pattern will be broken down into five parts and will include the usual step-by-step images and detailed written instructions and charts. This is possibly one of my easiest projects to date, with most motifs based on the traditional granny square motif. As usual with my CAL designs the project will get progressively harder so that you can push your crochet ability and increase your skill set. I love working with Inside Crochet Magazine and am incredibly proud of the outcome of this project. The styling of the blanket by Claire Montgomerie and the shots themselves by the fabulous Leanne Jade make me so happy and I hope you are going to love this project as much as I do.  You can find more information and a list of the Stylecraft yarns I have used to make this project by following this link. We have stock of kits available on the web site now. They are £59.50 plus P&P and include the yarn and a Janie Crow sew in label. Patterns are only available via Inside Crochet Magazine for the duration of the CAL and are not included in the yarn pack. The magazine are offering a six-month subscription offer, which will guarantee that you receive each part of the CAL as it is revealed every month. You can find a great offer (which will save you ££££) for the print magazine by following this link and one for the digital subscription by following this link. You can also find a wonderful Facebook community, so that you can share your progress and ask questions as you go along, by following this link.   The Fruit Garden Crochet Blanket books arrived here this week after a slight delay due to unforeseen circumstances, but boy was it worth the wait! I am so incredibly happy with it and hope that you are going to love it too! Because of the delay in receiving the books we have had to move the publishing date a little, so if you are waiting on a pre-order please excuse the slightly longer wait. The official publishing date will now be Thursday 23rd September. Moving the date gives us time to make sure that books are also available via other yarn stores, so if you have a local Stylecraft stockist you may want to ask if they are expecting to have it for sale. The original patterns for this project remain available as free downloads via the Stylecraft web site, but I have now amalgamated all the motif designs needed to make this stunning heirloom blanket into a book, which also includes crochet charts, testimonials and more background information about my inspiration and design process as well as a brand new colourway of the blanket project, 'Red House'. When putting the book together I was lucky enough to be granted permission to use images from The William Morris Society, The V&A and The National Museums of Scotland, all of whom have items in their collections by William & May Morris that inspired my design. I am immensely proud of The Fruit Garden blanket and all that it came to represent over the course of the last 18 months, when so many people used it as a way to help them through difficult times. I have included 8 testimonials in the book from people all over the world who created their own versions of the blanket in 2020. I hope that this book will act as a great learning tool for crocheters who want to create a blanket of their own and also as a lovely keepsake for those who may have already made one or more of the project colourways. All versions of the blanket use yarns from the Stylecraft range, including Life DK, Naturals – Bamboo + Cotton and the new Organic Cotton.  When I posted the video above on Instagram of my test print copy, I had a lot of people asking about purchasing a spiral bound copy. I asked our printer if he could cost a print run for a spiral bound version, but the price has come up far too high for it to be feasible. Within the chat on Instagram many people mentioned how easy it is to get existing books spiral bound, so if you think this is something you might want to do with your copy of the book, check out this link to Rymans for more information. Apparently if you have an existing book they can cut through the spine and bind it for you! I am sure other stationary stores are able to provide this service, so don't worry if you don't have a Rymans near you. If you are in the US I understand that Office Depot provide this service too. ISBN 978-0-9571659-2-2 RRP £12.95  We may only just be on the verge of autumn here in the UK, but when it comes to crafting for the festive season it is wise to start planning your projects early, so I am really pleased to say that my Tidings Wrap, which I designed for this year's Jimmy Beans Advent Box is now available to order via their web site.  This will be the sixth annual Craftvent, a holiday-themed Advent calendar and there is something for every type of maker, as Jimmy Beans commissioned both knit and crochet project options and you can choose to work on either a 24 day project or 12 day one.  Designer Ambah O'Brien developed the large knit project called Festive Wrap and I came up with the crochet project, Tidings Wrap, which utilises a unique construction that begins at the centre and works each side outward. Adorable pom-poms are added to the outside using leftover scraps from each day and you can choose from 2 lovely colourways - Ribbon Candy is shown above and the Buttermint version is shown below.  Jimmy Beans' own knit and crochet designer Amy Gunderson created both the smaller knit and crochet projects, called 'Tis The Season Mitts. Gunderson owned a pizza place in Iowa City for seven years, which is also where she first learned to knit in between making pizzas. In addition to being a designer, she is also the Yarn Director at Jimmy Beans Wool.  We have just two weeks left here at the studio and so, if I am honest, I am beginning to get a little worried about the mountains of stock we need to sort through before we leave, especially as the books and yarn for new kits has all arrived this week and we have Yarndale to prepare for. I think we will be having a lot of late nights and no days off between now and the end of the month in order to sort ourselves out, but I am also feeling really excited about our new beginnings... Andy's Just Knots site will be live until this coming Monday, so if you want to grab any of his reduced stock you have a few days to do so - there are still some great kits and yarn bargains there. Just Knots will be up and running as an ebay only store in a few weeks time, but while we sort everything out here and start to merge parts of Just Knots back into Janie Crow, we have put the store into holiday mode. If you were previously a subscriber to Andy's Just Knots mailing list (which operated under the umbrella company of Janie Crow) this might be the first email you have seen from me directly, so welcome!  We are really excited that we will be exhibiting at Yarndale next weekend - 25th & 26th September. We have secured a really big stand so that there is double the amount of space for us to display the blankets and projects and more room for people to move around whilst browsing and stay a little more socially distanced. We are hoping to have yarn kits, patterns, books, crochet hooks, knitting needles and accessories for sale.  We will be dedicating quite a large space on the stand to display The Fruit Garden blankets and I will be on hand to sign copies of the book and catch up with any of you who want to have a chat! The organisers of the show have made tickets available as timed entry to ease congestion and they have provided us with lots of suggestions to make the day safer of everyone, such as the provision of hand sanitisers on the stand and the recommendation for attendees to wear face coverings. We are really looking forward to the event after 2 years away and hope that some of you will come along too. You can find tickets and more information by following this link to the Yarndale web site.  Veronica Drury is the driving force behind a great company Simply Shade Cards, who produce wooden cards that you can use to record your yarn choices for a project. Veronica has already made cards for Attic 24, Emma Varnam and Coastal Crochet projects, so I was really pleased when she approached me about making cards for The Fruit Garden Blanket.  Veronica will have Fruit Garden cards for each of the 4 blanket colourways on sale in her Etsy shop this afternoon. Because the new book uses an alphabetical reference for the shades used in each of the 4 blanket colourways I thought that a shade card that lists shades from A to L would be a really useful tool, so over the last few months I worked with Veronica in order for her to also create some fabulous cards which will be exclusive to Janie Crow (shown above). We will have the alphabetical cards for sale at Yarndale and if we have any left over I will add them to the website on our return from the show. Aren't they fabulous!  Stylecraft have had a large delivery of yarn this week, which means that many of our out of stock kits will start to make an appearance on the Janie Crow web site again. We have yarn packs for the Eastern Jewels version of Persian Tiles and the Night & Dusk version of The Fruit Garden blanket back in stock on Janie Crow. We also have kits for the original Persian Tiles blanket project.  We have yarn waiting to be made up for the Climbing Rose Wrap, Sunshine and Showers and the Sussex Garden version of Bohemian Blooms - all these kits have been put into stock and can be dispatched from Monday.  Most of our yarn kits are now packaged using repurposed packing as we are re-sealing the yarn bags that we receive our stock from Stylecraft in. This has meant we are using a lot fewer new plastic bags.   A few weeks ago Mary Maxim released a new yarn pack for my Delft blanket design. You can find it by following this link. If you would rather not have a yarn kit and are interested in my paper catalogue or download patterns, then take a look at them here on the Janie Crow website. Project pages have links for download copies of my patterns via Ravelry and Etsy.  I am really pleased to have been nominated within the 'Most Iconic Crochet Designer' category in this year's British Knitting & Crochet awards. If you want to head over to the awards website to vote for all your favourite yarn brands, stores, designers and products then you can find the link here. The Crochet Designer award is listed under 'Miscellaneous'. Voting closes next Friday, September 24th.  I want to show you the outcome of all the experimental cake making I went through in order to make Summer & Chris's wedding cake. Ta Dah!  Transporting and stacking a 4 tier wedding cake on the morning of the wedding was not the most relaxing thing to be doing, but I am really pleased with how the cake turned out and hope that you will be especially impressed by the beaded crochet doily that I made for the cake to sit on!   I used the rich dark chocolate cake and zingy lemon cake recipes from the BBC Good Food website and my fantastic Dad made a gorgeous fruit cake which was the second tier down. I am not sure I will ever volunteer to make a wedding cake again, but I do really enjoy my new cake making hobby even if my waistline doesn't!   We will be at the studio over the next few days doing some packing and sorting, but we have a few little arrangements slotted in to make it feel a little more like a weekend. Tomorrow afternoon we are heading over to see our artist friend Paul Hillary's open studio event and on Sunday we are going to try to catch a pop up zero waste market that is held once a month in our town. We have a lot of vegetables suddenly ready in the garden, including an abundance of aubergines which we have been really successful with (beginners luck!), so I will probably make an aubergine and red onion casserole on Saturday night. Although we also have lots of beetroot suddenly ready, so it is going to be a hard choice!  This week I have started knitting a tank top in Stylecraft's ReCReate yarn. It really is lovely to knit with and I was inspired to make it by Emma Varnam who showed her lovely version on one of her recent Instagram Live videos. Like Emma, I am probably going to make it without the cable on the front. I am using shade 1942 Cherry. Emma does a weekly video on a Saturday morning, so you may want to check that out tomorrow. Have any of you already signed up to the next Stephen West Mystery Knit Along? I made the slipstravavganza shawl this time last year and love it, although the last few rows felt never ending as the stitch count was so huge! So far I have resisted the temptation to officially join in, but I have found myself gathering 4ply from my stash to look at colour combos and will probably be dipping into it again over the next few days when I get distracted from the packing! I hope that wherever you are and whatever you have planned, that you have a fabulous weekend and I will see you back here in a couple of weeks time - if you are coming to Yarndale next weekend please make sure to come and say hello! Janie x 
  new in! blankets lifestyle blog videos explore Welcome to a quick catch up with Janie Crow. I hope that this email finds you well and happy wherever you are in the world! I am never quite sure how I feel about this time of year when the end of the summer school break is in sight and thoughts start to turn towards the autumn. I love the sunshine and we have seen so little of it this year that I feel a little bit cheated, but as I said a couple of weeks ago, we finally have a lot of exciting things going on here at Janie Crow, so at least we don't have too much spare time to dwell on the lack of sunshine!   I have just seen the reveal pages that will feature in this month's copy of Inside Crochet Magazine promoting my new CAL 'Indigo Dreams' and I cannot wait for you to see them too! The wait is almost over! The CAL will run across 5 issues and the magazine will be doing a special offer for a six month subscription, both postal and digital - so do look out for that very soon. We hope to have kits for the new CAL project by the end of the month and will let you know as soon as they are in stock. I have used Stylecraft Life DK, Highland Heathers and Batik DK to make the blanket, which was inspired by my love of Indian textiles and traditional patchwork quilt designs.  In case you missed it a few weeks ago, we have put my new book, The Fruit Garden Crochet Blanket, on the web site as a pre-sale item with the aim of despatching the books in time for the official publication date of 17th September. The response to the book has been amazing and I am so pleased to hear that so many of you are excited about it. I am incredibly proud of it!  The pattern focus this week can only really be The Fruit Garden Blanket as we are still buzzing about finally being able to show you the new colourway and talk about the dedicated book. With the imminent release of the book, which showcases the three original colour ways of the design, together with the new exclusive colourway, Red House, here is a visual celebration of the Fruit Garden family. You can click on the images to be taken to the web pages.  Red House  Love is Enough  Melsetter & Kelmscott Cushions  Night & Dusk  Parchment & Caramel   As a child I hated beetroot as I thought it tasted like mud and it has taken me an age to to realise just how incredibly delicious it is - now I just cannot get enough of it and use it in recipes at every opportunity! We have been growing beetroot in the garden this year and it is abundant in all the greengrocers stores right now, so we tried out a delicious Beetroot, Red Onion and Goats Cheese Tarte Tatin recipe recently. You can see the results in this post over on the Janie Crow Lifestyle Instagram feed. You can read more about the Janie Crow Lifestyle brand over on the website, but in short it came from our love of home and our desire to nurture ourselves, our friends and our families, whilst also being kind the the environment we live in. You will find products that we have tried out and that have the environmental credentials that fit with our beliefs along with seasonal recipes and inspiring images.  This month Facebook was abuzz with excitement as the first images of the Red House colourway of the Fruit Garden blanket were released along with the publication date of 'The Fruit Garden Blanket' book. A few of you commented that this is your favourite colourway yet!  We also joined in the celebration of Simply Crochet Magazine's Granny Square Day on Sunday 15th August. Lots of you shared images of beautiful squares with us. Sarah Haws showed us this lovely image of her Willow Squares (pattern from 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws, and Afghans by Jan Eaton):  This was Carolina Stefania's Hollyhock motif from the Fruit Garden blanket - her favourite Granny square at the moment:  This is the Wikipedia definition of a Granny Square: 'A granny square is a piece of square fabric produced in crochet by working in rounds from the center outward. Granny squares are traditionally handmade.' We think that lots of Janie Crow motifs count as Granny Squares - albeit not in the traditional style and we love the way that many of you use them to make a variety of great projects.  None of us can have failed to be moved by the dreadful scenes from Afghanistan over the last few weeks and some of us may already have been involved with local collections of clothes, toiletries and other essentials for refugee families who are being settled in our areas. The online community Woolly Hugs is appealing for help to make squares for blankets to gift to these families. Click here or on the image below for further details. If anyone is able to help I'm sure they would be very appreciative.  Woolly Hugs get involved in a variety of projects, from making blankets for very poorly children in hospitals around the UK, to the Chernobyl project where blankets are gifted to children who visit the UK from the Ukraine each year, many of whom are in remission from cancer caused by the dreadful contamination from the nuclear accident back in 1986. You can find out more about them on their website or on their Facebook page.   We are looking forward to a weekend with family and friends and I hope that whatever your plans for the next few days that you have a great couple of days too. We always enjoy hearing from you, so if you want to get in touch simply hit reply and let us know what is on your mind.  PS: If you are looking for a few yarny bargains we still have some sale stock over on Andy's Just Knots web site here. 
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AuthorWelcome to my blog. Here you will find my email newsletter archive alongside any other general musings or information about events or new pattern releases that I wish to share with you! Archives
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