 I have had a really nice time playing with crochet stitches and beads over the last week and am pleased to have a prototype project for the upcoming festive weekend workshop in Bournemouth completed. Just a few tweaks and I will be ready to make my final version so, with three weeks to go before the workshop, I am feeling nicely in control. Just hoping now that I haven't tempted fate by typing that!! Playing with crochet stitches and techniques and working out how colours go together is probably one of my favourite things to do - and when beads are also added into the mix I find it totally absorbing and can totally loose track of time. It can be frustrating when the crochet doesn't work quite like I expect it to and it doesn't always go to plan, but that is one of the reasons I tend to have quite a few design projects on the go at once. As soon as something is eluding me, or not going right, I tend to put it down and work on something else instead. At the moment I am working on a new floral blanket project, as well as a tessellating one with a very different feel to the floral one. I have also been working on the sampling for the garment collection that I hope to release next year and the aforementioned workshop project.  Andy has been busy getting some kits back in stock and I am pleased to tell you that we now have the kit for the Peppercorn version of Persian Tiles ready for you. This colourway, shown above, echoes the colours of my Sandalwood one, but it is made using a beautiful selection of West Yorkshire Spinners natural yarn shades. If you have been waiting for this to come back into stock, you can find the kits and more information by following this link.  We sold out of the Summer Palace Wrap kits when I mentioned them in my last email a couple of weeks ago, so Andy has made ten more. The kit includes all the yarn you need to make this lovely wrap using Baa Ram Ewe's Pip Colouwork 4 ply - another fabulous British yarn! You can find more info here.   We had a bit of a blip with our stock of Della Q makers bags as the distributing company we get them from changed their shipping methods which resulted in our order being held up in customs for ages. The stock we have received is probably the last shipment we will get this year, so again, if you have been waiting for something to come back into stock, do take a look here to see if it's in!  I know we are only one day into November, but as the weeks fly by so fast and because making festive projects is time consuming, we will be releasing the pattern for my beaded Glitzy Stocking next week. The pattern will be available in UK and US terms, via download or as a paper copy.  Next week we will also be releasing guidance on how to make the Festival of Flowers shawl, which uses crochet motifs from the Spirit of Flora collection. I plan to put the guidance document on the website as a free download next Friday, so make a note in your diary if you fancy taking a look at it. This time of year, as the winter evenings draw in, I tend to find myself thinking about holidays. If you are like me and fancy getting some dates in the diary for next year, why not take a look at the Stitchtopia website for information about crafty trips? I will be going to the Swiss Yarn Festival in April if you fancy joining me.  Whenever the weather turns, I enjoy bringing out these glorious mitts and I love the mix of crochet and knitting and the general patchwork appearance of them. This week, over on Instagram, Emma put together a great post about our combined love of mitts here at Janie Crow. You can find it by following this link. We have a few more things to tell you about this week, so I hope you have a few minutes to catch up with all things Janie Crow.   October was Menopause Awareness Month here in the UK and as most of the Janie Crow team are in that stage of their lives Emma wrote a blog piece about it, which you can find here if you haven't read it yet and would like to. The blog post is full of tips to help manage the myriad of symptoms and also just celebrating the fact that we are starting to talk about it and don't feel that we have to suffer in silence.  Lots of you shared your experiences with us both on Instagram and Facebook and here are just a few of the your words. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and let's keep talking.
Then of course there was the hugely exciting news that Stylecraft Special DK is coming home, with the addition of twenty gorgeous brand new shades to the already extensive colour range. The JC team had great fun making the teaser video. Gemma has finally recovered from someone being on the other side looking through when she took the library book off the shelf and Emma has decided that, much as she loves yarn, the apple was tastier! If you're wondering what on earth we are talking about, you can watch the video by clicking here and you can see the new shades below.   As always, it's hard to believe that another month has passed by already! We've launched full throttle into autumn and although the temperature here in North London is still quite mild, the trees are losing their leaves quickly now. The colours that nature gives us this time of year are quite something. I love all the russets, copper, orange and yellow shades and I think when the leaves are laying on the ground it's somehow easier to notice all the wonderful shapes they have. Anyway, on to the subject in hand, it has been another slow month for me and Bohemian Blooms. Spreading my time over many commitments is challenging and yet somehow I seem to get more done that way than when I do (occasionally) have spare time on my hands. Last month I had managed to join the central 9 squares of the blanket and was ready to start adding the Unity motifs. I managed one!    I've decided that I'm not going to make any plans for what I might achieve on the blanket this forthcoming month, I'm going to take the pressure off myself and see where that takes me! Hopefully I will have some progress to show you next month. Until then, stay warm and well. Gemma x  t's that time of year when the temperature drops as soon as the sun goes down, much earlier in the day now that British Summer Time has come to an end. I don't know about you but lovely warming homemade soups at lunchtime and hearty evening meals are what appeal and Gemma has recommended this Spicy Root & Lentil Casserole recipe from the GoodFood website.   Have you ever noticed an Innocent Smoothie bottle in the shop with a little woolly hat on top? Well the company have just relaunched their Big Knit campaign again and are asking for crafters to knit or crochet the little hats to go on the Smoothie bottles in Autumn 2025. For every behatted bottle sold, Innocent Smoothies donate 25p to Age UK and since they started the Big Knit back in 2003 £3.2 million has been raised! You can find out more including how to join in here or by clicking on the image below.    October has been another busy month with lots going on here at Janie Crow. Within the next couple of hours you will be able to find our 'This was October' reel over on Instagram by following this link. We had a fabulous evening yesterday with lots of trick or treaters coming to the door to celebrate Halloween. Honestly it was a tad crazy at times - I thought I had over done it with the treats, but in the space of about an hour the whole lot had gone! It was lovely having the little ones dressed up and excited on the doorstep though, and brilliant to know that a lot of kids will still choose a satsuma over a chocolate! Andy laughed at me for including them in my big bowl of treats, but he was proved wrong as they were a big hit and were chosen long before all the sweets had gone! Emma is a really big Halloween fan and you can find the blog she wrote about it last week by following this link. We live in a fabulously multicultural town here in North London, so it was fantastic to have Halloween coincide with Diwali celebrations. Last night there were lots of fireworks and our neighbours were busy preparing for family members to visit, with the little lights out by the door and in the windows too. I love it! I found this brilliant link to a Diwali orientated online colouring book yesterday and managed to loose about an hour playing around with it - such a lovely thing to do and I really recommend it! One of my resulting pieces is below:  It has been really nice to have a run of weekends at home and I am pleased to have another couple of home based days this weekend. We have an 80th birthday celebration to go to this evening and an afternoon tea for my cousin's 60th birthday tomorrow. I am thinking it is definitely time for a Sunday Roast in a nice cosy pub too, so hopefully we will be able to find time to do that! there is nothing like a roast when the days are colder and shorter. I hope you all have a great plan for the next few days too and that you might just get a chance to enjoy that extra bit of TLC with your yarn and a hook! Until next time! 
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 We had a fabulous time at the Yarndale show last weekend and it was so lovely to see so many of you on the stand. It was especially good to hear how many of you enjoy the Janie Crow newsletters and mail outs - I hope you will enjoy this week's Quick Catch Up as I have some things to tell you about.   Thanks to varying stock levels at our suppliers and discontinued yarn shades it hasn't been easy keeping all our kits in stock over the last few months, but Andy has been able to do quite a big restock since coming home from the show last weekend. We have quite a healthy stock of the Original Persian Tiles kit as well as the Light Blue one which use Styelcraft yarns - you can find them here. We also have a few Sandalwood kits and the original Persian Tiles in West Yorkshire Spinners yarns.  Our yarn packs for my Sunshine and Showers project proved a real hit at Yarndale and Andy has managed to put more of them into stock on the website this week. This project was designed as a learning tool, with each section of the design echoing the changing seasons - the autumnal parts are some of my favourite as I tried to represent falling leaves and pumpkins (made my working crochet bobbles) sitting in the fields waiting to be picked for Halloween! This is perhaps my only project worked in rows, so it is great for getting to grips with basic stitches whilst achieving straight edges! You can find more information here.   We have good stock of both the colour ways of the Summer Palace blanket and hope to have kits for the wrap in very soon as Baa Ram Ewe have reinstated their Colourwork Pip yarn range. Two of the shades that I used in the original pattern for the Summer Palace Wrap have been dropped, but I have found a couple of great substitutes and listed them on the website here.  After a long absence we have kits in stock for the Indigo Dreams blanket (shown above) and its red companion Crimson Dreams. I think this is a perfect project for the colder months and the Crimson version is particularly festive, so it might be a brilliant autumn make! You can find more information here.  And finally - in terms of kits any way - we have yarn packs in stock for the Spirit of Flora CAL. It was brilliant to see so many pics of your projects at Yarndale at the weekend and I was especially chuffed to see that so many of you had raided your stashes and come up with your own lovely versions.   We are hoping to have more kits in stock over the next few months, including some of the higher end projects, such as the Magic Circles Wrap using Eden Cottage's range of beautiful wool and silk yarn and the Peppercorn version of Persian Tiles which is made using yarns from the West Yorkshire Spinners range. If you are interested in either of these you can request to go on the 'notify me' list by entering your details on the website pages. Emma has been really busy coming up with a very busy work schedule for the next few months and she has already planned some new technique videos for Youtube. She has some great ideas for autumn projects - so do keep an eye out for those! I am also trying to be ultra organised with my workload and am really looking forward to hunkering down with some crochet as the autumn progresses.   At the beginning of September we challenged our followers on Instagram and Facebook to create an Aster motif in a lovely, summery colourway and show us their creations using the hashtag #janiecrowastercompetition. The Aster is the birth flower for the month of September and, being determined to hang on to summer vibes for as long as possible, we were excited to see your entries. As expected, you did us proud with some wonderful colour schemes. Here is just a small selection of entries:  As always, it was really hard to choose winners, but that's what we have to do. There were two goody bag prizes available, one for an Instagram entry and one for a Facebook entry. So, here they are! The top photo (below) is from @dani_poppies, our Instagram winner and we particularly liked the combination of colours on this motif, especially the red picot edging to the flower.  Our Facebook winner is Caroline Foulkes. We were bowled over by Caroline's choice of colours, in particular the combination of the green and pink, and we loved how she took inspiration from the dahlia arrangement. Those lovely cats look like they approved of it all too!  Thank you all so much for taking part in our little September challenge. We hope you enjoyed it and congratulations again to our winners. We will get your prizes sent off to you as soon as possible.  It's nice to be back writing about my Bohemian Blooms blanket project again. September has been an incredibly busy month for me with my crochet classes beginning again and a new routine of driving my daughter to college four days a week. From a motivational point of view I decided that I would focus on finishing all the motifs needed to create the central square of the blanket, which could then be joined. There's nothing quite like getting to a joining stage to feel like you're making some progress. So this month was all about the Vanessa production line. I had three more Vanessa motifs to make, in order to have the full set of nine needed for the centre. Do you remember those sewn bullion stitches that I was struggling with last month? Well, I'm pleased to report no trouble this month and I think they could actually become a bit addictive!  Before I started the joining process I made sure that all the corner stitches of the motifs were correctly marked with stitch markers and then I joined motifs so that I had three strips of three, leaving two long joins along three motifs at a time to complete the centre panel. Ta dah!  The beady-eyed amongst you will notice a few stray ends that need dealing with but that's a mere detail. I'm thrilled to have reached this stage and it will definitely spur me on. It's beginning to look like a blanket!  This coming month I am looking forward to working the Unity motifs on to the sides of this central panel and adding the little Omega squares made right back in the beginning to the four corners. Have a fabulous October and I'll see you back here in a month's time. Gemma x  Gemma's recipe recommendation this week is for Mushroom & Stilton Wellingtons via the BBC Good Food website.  Gemma says that one essential that is always in her fridge is ready made puff pastry, so these were relatively quick and easy to prepare and perfect for a warming family dinner now the nights are a little bit on the cooler side. If you're not a fan of blue cheese I'm sure that could be swapped for something a bit more to your taste - maybe a bit of Boursin would be good?  We were fascinated to read about the recent discovery, in an attic, of a crochet blanket made by Queen Mary (the late Queen Elizabeth the Second's mother). Apparently, during the 1930s/40s Queen Mary would occasionally donate these small cot blankets to help London families. You can read more about the blanket and its history here or click on the image below:  Knitted Knockers UK are a charity that provides knitted and crocheted breast prostheses for women in the UK who have undergone a mastectomy or lumpectomy and alongside the standard prostheses can even make versions suitable for swimming and other sports. They can also provide display packs for organisations and other health care professionals. What a fantastic organisation. You can read more about the services they provide by clicking here or on the image below.    Our poor little house has once again been majority neglected over the last few weeks and so this weekend will be one where we stick pretty close to home. We have quite a few outside projects to do as we need to get the garden furniture packed away and do some autumnal pruning. I think it will also be a weekend of cooking and I am weirdly excited about the prospect of a meal with mashed potato and gravy!! I will be at The Knitting and Stitching Show with the Stylecraft team next week. You will find their stand in the main hall and I will be there all day on Thursday and Saturday and on Friday and Sunday I will be there in the afternoons - it would be great to see you if you are able to come and say Hi!  If you are in London and looking for something to do, the 'Outlaws' exhibition opens at The Fashion and Textiles Museum today. The show focuses on the work of Leigh Bowery and you can find more information by following this link. I came across a funny video whilst scrolling through YouTube this week. It is by Foil, Arms and Hog and you can find it here if you fancy a laugh! If you want to see a Friday specific one by the same guys (which is also pretty funny) you can find it here! Sending big yarny hugs.    As I have said so many times before, it has been fabulous seeing all your Spirit of Flora projects out in the wild over the last few months. I have especially enjoyed seeing different layouts and colourways such as the one shown below made by my friend Gwyn.  Emma has been busy on Instagram showcasing your projects and Gemma has been doing the same over on our Facebook page. Don't forget there are motif and border patterns, including the Flower Tile border that Gwyn has used on her blanket, free to download from the website.  Frustratingly we have been experiencing an issue with our Spirit of Flora pattern listings on Ravelry as a volunteer editor decided to remove them due to 'invalid sources'. Gemma has been working really hard over the last week or so to get them reinstated, but unfortunately Ravelry are notoriously bad at replying to emails or correcting these kind of mistakes. For now only pattern bundle one is available, so if you want single patterns, or wish to purchase the other bundles for the Spirit of Flora project I suggest you take a look within our Etsy store here.  Victoria's Bedroom at Brighton Pavilion  (c) Diane Hill I have been working on a new design inspired by large flowers painted in the Chinoiserie style. I am a huge fan of hand painted frescos and wallpaper and recently saw this great article by Diane Hill, an artist I admire, about the recently discovered painted walls in Queen Victoria's bedroom at Brighton Pavilion. I am nowhere near to finishing my design, but hopefully the images of the interior of the pavilion and the style of Diane's work will give you a few clues about what to expect. I am also hoping to design some garments using some of my black catalogue of blanket designs as the basis. Over on Instagram, Emma has recently asked what kind of garments you would like to see within a collection and you can see some replies here. Don't forget that the Complete Crochet Handbook is back in stock following its reprint. We have signed or unsigned copies for sale on the website now and you can find them by following this link.  The book is written in UK terms and the copy written in US terms is called The Perfect Crochet Finish. You can find the US copy for sale on Mary Maxim by following this link, where you will also find a brand new kit for my Mystical Lanterns blanket on sale.  I love flowers - you may have noticed! And although I keep trying to design crochet projects that don't feature them, I am constantly drawn to them.  (c) Floret Flowers Aster is the birth flower for September and as I have motif design called Aster, which featured within the Fruit Garden Cal back in 2020, we decided to have a bit of fun and challenge our social media platform followers to come up with their own colourways of the motif keeping in mind the colours of summer when choosing their palettes.   If you want to take a look at some of the amazingly colourful Aster motifs made already follow this link to Instagram where crocheters have used the hashtag #janiecrowastercompetition   The pattern for the Aster Flower can be downloaded for free via the Stylecraft web site here, or, if you want a physical copy, you can find it in the Fruit Garden Blanket book, which includes all the patterns used in the project and charts by following this link.  I have been working with Arena Travel, who provide tailor made trips for textile enthusiasts under the heading of Stitchtopia, for many years and felt incredibly privileged to tutor the recent trip to Peru in July and the West Yorkshire trip back in June. For next year I suggested two new holiday destinations and am so pleased that my trips to Switzerland and Morocco are now live to book on the Stitchtopia site. You can now find the information about my trip to the Swiss Yarn Festival in April and the details of the Yarn Inspirations of Morocco trip, which is scheduled to take place in October 2025.    I am especially excited about the trip to Morocco as I fell head over heals in love with Marrakesh when I visited last year and have worked with Helen Warrington at Arena to create a really exciting itinerary that includes stops in Marrakesh, Rabat, the Atlas Mountains, Fez and Casablanca, to name a few. Next year's 'Yarn Inspirations' trip has already sold more than half the places, so if you fancy coming along, do take a look at the details here.  We are incredibly lucky that my fabulous cousin, Bev, did a bit of a Shirley Valentine and went to Greece on holiday forty years ago and never really came back home again! Instead she married a Greek man called Christos and stayed on a tiny little island to raise her children, thus giving us the most ideal holiday destination! Going to Bev's island has been a part of our lives since our children were little and although we don't go every year we all feel the pull of a trip there every couple of years.  One of my favourite things about trips to Greece is the delicious food, with fresh salads and tasty meze at centre stage. This year I became totally addicted to Dakos salad - a Cretan dish that mixes dry barley rusks with black olives, tomatoes, capers and feta. The salad has been part of the diet in Crete for centuries and as it’s so delicious I totally understand why. You can find recipes for it easily (there is a good one here) and it is a great way of using up stale bread if you can’t find the rusks. I’ve been trying to add a bit more protein to my diet lately so have been replacing the feta cheese with tofu and a tablespoon of Greek yogurt. Ooh yum!   We are really looking forward to making our annual trip to Skipton to show our wares at the fabulous Yarndale show, which is one of the highlights of our work diary. If you are planning to come along please drop onto the stand to say hello - we are on stand J12, which is in the usual position. We will have kits, patterns, accessories and our Emma Ball items on display alongside almost all the Janie Crow blankets and projects. Tickets for the show are still available and you can find them by following this link - tickets are timed to ease congestion around the show.   Since we returned home from our summer holiday on Tuesday the house looked like a bomb had dropped on it for a few days, with washing and empty suitcases at every turn. Our son Charlie and his girlfriend will return from Bev's island later on this evening, so I am sure that the suitcases and drying washing will be a big feature over the next couple of days too. Hopefully by the end of the weekend we will be all sorted and back to normal - totally ready for a proper fresh start and our exciting trip to Yarndale next week. We are hoping to get some time in the garden over the next few days. It has all got a bit wild and out of control while we have been away and many plants are in need of their late summer prune. We will also be making time for some walks in the local countryside and, as Andy and I are both on a bit of a health kick after a bit of an indulgent time away, we will be doing some healthy meal preparation.  I am never quite sure how I feel about yarn bombing. Visually I love it and think it is great that crochet in particular is given a public stage because of it, but I am not totally convinced about the environmental impact of yarny installations that have no real use. That said, it pales into insignificance in relation to the waste produced by fast fashion, take away food and supermarket packaging..... I recently came across 'Yarn Bombing in Trivento' on Instagram and just love the vibrant colours, scale, skill and sense of humour that the crochet pieces evoke.  If you are into crochet as an art form then I suggest you also look at the work of Kate Jenkins whose work I really love. I first came across Kate when she created a crochet and knitted fish counter which was on display at The Knitting and Stitching Show. Since then she has worked on lots of collaborations and has really built her incredible inventory of crochet items, which now includes fabulously funny bakery goods and fast food.
Kate was one of the first designers to produce beautifully detailed, tongue in cheek, crochet items and I am really excited that her newest show opens today in London's Soho. I am hopeful that Andy and I will manage to get there either tomorrow or Sunday. You can find all the details by clicking on the image above or here. Hope you all have a lovely weekend Janie x  I have really been enjoying playing around with my crochet hook and some yarn this week and already feel like I have the basis of some new design work just over a week after the final patterns for the Spirit of Flora project were released. Despite my love for the collection it has been so nice to move away from it and start to look at new stuff!  I find it easier to work on a few projects at the same time, so I have been playing with some beads for the festive workshop in November and have also been sampling a new floral design, which I hope will end up becoming a blanket at some point. I am also hoping that I can also squeeze in some time to work on a more geometric design inspired by a tiled floor in a bar we visited in Cologne in March and haven't really had the chance to look at since April! The weather has been really good this week, with warm afternoons and evenings, so we have been making the most of it by getting out and about for walks and pottering around the garden. With the forecasters predicting some more nice weather over the next week I am continuing to feel inspired by florals and am hopeful that the colours of summer will continue for a while longer.   Our trip to Peru feels like a bit of a dream now and I have to keep reminding myself that only a month or so ago we were there. We had such a great time and I am really hoping to get there again one day! If you missed any of the images from our trip you can see them over on Instagram by clicking on the image of Andy and I below and if you want to read my blog post about the trip you can find it here.  The team at Stitchtopia have been busy promoting my trips for next year on their social media platforms and I know that places are beginning to get booked, so if you are one of those ultra organised people who like to plan well ahead and are looking for an exciting textile orientated holiday for next year then do take a look by following this link.  During the summer months we tend to see a bit of a dip in social media posts and newsfeeds that focus on the crafts of knitting, crochet or anything yarny and there are very few events going on while the kids are away from school and people are heading off on their holibobs. I have asked the team not to mention the A word, BTS, the H word and definitely not the C word until we are sure the summer is over, which I am hoping won't be until early October and they have done a fabulous job coming up with posts that skirt around all of these subjects*. Emma works hard to keep the Janie Crow Instagram feed looking lovely and Gemma is a, well, gem, keeping the conversations going over on our Facebook page. * Autumn, Back To School, Halloween and Christmas - shh!  It feels like ages since I was here last, updating you with my progress on the Bohemian Blooms blanket. We are just coming to the end of the school summer holidays and that, together with an unfortunate fall that left my elderly Mum with a very badly broken ankle, means I haven't been able to dedicate as much time to working on the blanket as I would have liked. The new academic year is approaching rapidly too, which means I have to spend time making samples and writing lesson plans for the upcoming term. It's busy, busy, busy here! Despite all the odds I have managed to make two new motifs, the very beautiful Virginia and Vanessa. This motif is named after Virginia Woolf and I learnt a very interesting fact from the book, that Virginia's first name was in fact Adeline, with Virginia being her middle name! Virginia is known to have suffered constant anxiety over the quality of her writing skills and she was haunted by the chance of her work being slated and ridiculed.   I think Virginia is my favourite motif so far, I really like the beading along the petals of the flower and how bright the overall effect is.  Vanessa Bell was particularly keen on painting flowers and she painted wonderful still life paintings which often featured painted ceramics and sumptuous fabrics alongside the flowers cut from her garden. The name Vanessa is of Greek origin and means butterfly so it was only fitting that the motif named after her should feature a butterfly!   This motif was fun to make too and a new technique for me was the sewn stitches used to create the spots on the lower wings. It took several attempts to get them looking reasonable and I have to say I couldn't have managed them without the help of the YouTube video, so thank you to our lovely Sarah for demonstrating it so well! If you are working on the project don't forget there is a playlist of videos to support the project over on our YouTube channel here.  Four attempts at the bullion stitch later... Gemma x  Faced with a mountain of swede (not her favourite vegetable!) from a bargain veg bag recently, Gemma tried out a recipe with the most interesting name: Rumbledethumps.  Gemma says it's a bit like bubble & squeak and definitely a dish for cooler weather rather than a hot summer's day, but nonetheless it went down well with her family and it used lots of swede in one go, which was a bonus! You can find the recipe by clicking on the image above.  As vegetarians we are always looking for quick and easy recipes that don't involve too much vegetable chopping and advance preparation. I (Jane) found this recipe by Dominthekitchen on Instagram and Andy cooked it (a great trade don't you think!) a couple of weeks ago. It was really delicious and the recipe will definitely be added it to the dinner planning going forwards. If you like Greek spinach and feta pie then you are going to love this as much as we did. The recipe made enough for at least six large pieces and it was brilliant accompanied by a tomato salad and some tasty olives.  The Secret Society of Hertford Crafters (who we have featured here in the past) have been working hard again on their post box toppers, this time for the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. You can read all about them here. We're particularly impressed with the knitted racing wheelchair!    Have you heard about the new TV series that has been commissioned for More4? The competitive knitting series will be called 'The Game of Wool' and there will be eight episodes, each one an hour long. Set in the Scottish countryside, ten contestants will take on complex challenges over the series and there will be a 'Big Knit' and 'Wee Knit' challenge each week. You can read more about it in the press release here. We can't wait!    We will be away on annual leave until Tuesday 17th September, so our website will therefore not be dispatching some orders placed after 10am Monday 2nd September. You can continue to place orders during this two week period, but items such as patterns and accessories will not be dispatched until our return. We hope to be able to dispatch kits a couple of times a week. The Janie Crow pattern download sales via Etsy and Ravelry are not affected and will work as usual. I am really looking forward to a holiday, especially as we will be a group of family and friends and we will get to paddle in the sea and sit on the beach! I have been planning the crochet projects I will be taking with me and I will be packing a few work related things and plenty of books to read. Emma is planning a 'holiday makes' post for Instagram next week to find out what kind of things you like to take away with you. I tend to opt for easy, repeated stitch projects that are not too taxing and easy to rip back. I also think about the amount of yarn I take as I have been guilty of packing far too much yarn for holidays in the past. This time I am going to restrict myself to a few hundred grams rather than a couple of kilos of the stuff!!  We have a quiet weekend planned as we prepare for our holiday. There will be quite a lot of washing to do and housework will be on the cards as well as a few family visits. We have had a pretty busy time the last couple of weeks with my lovely father in law's birthday party last Saturday (in the pouring rain!) and a fun fancy dress birthday party the week before. The theme was Hollywood film characters. Can you guess from the image above who Andy and I went as? Please note the cigarettes are made from paper straws and we danced the 'Twist' quite a lot! Thankfully no one needed a shot of adrenalin to the heart! I am hoping to sort out a newsletter while I am away as the September one is due to be in your inbox on Friday 13th, but if my internet connection is unstable or we are quite simply having too much fun while we are away, the email might be moved to the following week. Sending big yarny hugs.   Today sees the release of the final set of four patterns that make up the Spirit of Flora collection. You can find the patterns as paper brochures in both UK and US terms over on the Janie Crow website and the download patterns can be accessed via Ravelry or Etsy. These last four patterns are the most complicated of the twelve patterns that make up the collection and so we have spent a lot of time creating lots of step-by-step images, charts and detailed instructions. You can also find videos that Emma has taken a lot of time to make over on our YouTube channel here. Please note that the videos have been created to accompany the patterns and are provided as a free resource to help with the trickier parts of the patterns. The videos therefore do not show every single row or round of the design. Three of the patterns are twelve pages long and the remaining one is eight pages. The patterns are priced at £3.95 each which is a saving of £3 a pattern based on our usual pattern price range. And, If you purchase all four patterns at £10.95 you can receive a further saving of almost £5. These prices will stay in pace for the foreseeable future, but as we have already discounted the price of the patterns by quite a bit we cannot guarantee there will not be a price rise in the future. The patterns within this final set are as follows:  Sunflower  Pair of Roses - This pattern also includes the instructions for the Half Rose motif, which you can use to create a triangular shaped project or unusual edging.  Double Carnations  Bedford Park Daisy  If you are new to the Spirit of Flora project and fancy getting started you can find lots of free information on the Janie Crow web site here including the Getting Ready document, notes on blocking and pressing, patterns for the plainer motifs and the patterns for the three edgings.   It has been fabulous seeing all your Spirit of Flora projects out in the wild and I am so proud of you all for building your tool box of skills and taking on the challenge. Don't forget that your project doesn't have to be a blanket - you could make a bag or some cushions, or just enjoy making the square pieces. I think they would look great mounted in clip frames and would make great gifts too!     We will be launching the patterns for set three of the Spirit of Flora project next Wednesday the 21st August. As with set one and two, the patterns will be available as paper brochures via our website or as downloads via Etsy or Ravelry.  Sunflower  Pair of Roses  Double Carnations  Bedford Park Daisy There are four motifs in the set - all are shown above. You can purchase the patterns individually at £3.95 each if you want to cherry pick certain motifs, or you can purchase the set at a price of £10.95, which means you save almost £5 compared to purchasing them individually. This third set of patterns are probably the most challenging motifs within the Spirit of Flora project and it includes patterns for the following motifs: Sunflower, Pair of Roses (this pattern also includes the half motif), Double Carnations and Bedford Park Daisy. Huge thanks to Inside Crochet Magazine and Leanne Jade for the permission to use these images.   It has been really fabulous seeing all your Spirit of Flora projects popping up on social media platforms and I am so pleased that so many of you have found Emma's free video tutorials on YouTube so helpful. Emma puts a huge amount of time and effort into creating this content and I am so grateful to her for her attention to detail and commitment to this project. Revamping the patterns for this project since they appeared in Inside Crochet Magazine last year has been a lot of work for myself and the team and so I am really happy that releasing the patterns individually has suited so many of you and that you have enjoyed working through your projects. I especially love how so many of you have picked certain motifs to make unique projects and that lots of you have used up stash yarns to create your own colour ways.  With the Spirit of Flora project drawing to a close from the perspective of us here at Janie Crow it is quite nice to feel a bit more freedom to start on some new design work. I am very much aware that this project, workshops and the recolouring of existing projects over the last year or so have meant that I have released nothing particularly new for a long time. I have a few ideas for blanket projects whirling around in my head, so I am really looking forward to some much needed prolonged periods of design time over the forth coming months.   Peru provided a huge amount of fodder for new design work, with incredible textiles, yarn, craftspeople and scenery at every turn. It already feels like a bit of a dream that we were there and I really hope to return one day to this incredible country that had me spell bound from the start of our trip right up to the end. I have written a blog about the holiday, which you can find by following this link.    Don't forget that the Complete Crochet Handbook is back in stock following its reprint. We have signed or unsigned copies for sale on the website now and you can find them by following this link.  The book is written in UK terms and the copy written in US terms is called The Perfect Crochet Finish. You can find the US copy for sale on Mary Maxim by following this link, where you will also find a brand new kit for my Mystical Lanterns blanket on sale.  I have been working with Arena Travel, who provide tailor made trips for textile enthusiasts under the heading of Stitchtopia, for many years and felt incredibly privileged to tutor the recent trip to Peru and the West Yorkshire trip back in June.  For next year I suggested two new holiday destinations and am so pleased that my trips to Switzerland and Morocco are now live to book on the Stitchtopia site. You can now find the information about my trip to the Swiss Yarn Festival in April and the details of the Yarn Inspirations of Morocco trip, which has only been live for a couple of weeks and is scheduled to take place in October 2025.    I am especially excited about the trip to Morocco as I fell head over heals in love with Marrakesh when I visited last year and have worked with Helen Warrington at Arena to create a really exciting itinerary that includes stops in Marrakesh, Rabat, the Atlas Mountains, Fez and Casablanca, to name a few.   We are so proud of our lovely Gemma who recently won the top spot for best tutor in the @step2skills awards. Gemma is one of the most patient and kind people on the planet and we already knew how amazing she is, but this award makes it official. Way to go Gemma! We love you loads!  The Woolly Away is a fabulous knitting and crochet retreat co-hosted by Diana Bensted of The Crochet Chain and Deb Cunningham at Crates of Wool. I have been lucky enough to tutor one of the workshops at a previous event and have always wanted to attend as a participant too, as it always looks like such a lovely weekend away.  The Woolly Away is two days of crafting and relaxation in the beautiful surroundings of the Manor of Groves hotel at High Wych, near Sawbridgeworth. This year Deb and Diana have organised tutors to teach workshops on Saturday and Sunday mornings with time in the afternoons to work independently with help from the tutors. The event includes all workshops as well as a delicious 3-course meal on Saturday evening and all other meals and snacks are provided. Participants also have access to the hotel’s leisure centre if they fancy a change of pace. The next retreat is 27th-29th September 2024. On Saturday you can choose between a workshop by Molly Brown of Molly Brown’s Emporium who will be teaching Double Knitting, a technique that produces a double-sided fabric where each side is the mirror of the other, or Diana Bensted who will be exploring crochet textures inspired by Gansey designs. On Sunday the choice of workshops is between Andrew Kite, aka The Yarn Whisperer, who will be teaching a new crochet workshop using some amazing hand-dyed, plant-based yarn or Deb Cunningham of Crates of Wool who will also be exploring textures inspired by Gansey patterns, this time in knitting. You can find more information about this exciting event and book by following this link.    The Coat of Hopes was on display in Bradford when we were there during our workshop trip back in June. Unfortunately we didn't get to see it, however, there is still time to join in on one of the walks as it will be travelling from South Ferriby to Lincoln this weekend and then from Lincoln to Nottingham between the 3rd and the 7th September.   image (c) Haworth Church 'The Coat of Hopes is a patchwork pilgrim coat, on an ongoing walk through Britain. Made, worn and walked by many hundreds of people during and since the pilgrimage on which it was created - from the south coast of England to the gates of COP 26, the UN climate summit, in Glasgow autumn 2021. The Coat is made up of pieces of blanket into which people have worked their griefs, remembrances, prayers and hopes for the place they call home. It walks ever calling those who encounter it, or who share it, into the present. Supported by its warmth (love) - to bear its weight (responsibility). So each might “wear the promise that we all belong together” as we seek to respond with our whole self to the climate and ecological emergency.' Words copied from the Coat of Hopes website, where you can find more information.  As we have been away from home so much over the last month we have been a bit lazy on the cookery front and have not tried out anything new, so instead of a yummy food recipe this time, I have a drink recommendation for you instead.  Image (c) Tim Nusog While we were away we found the Peruvian favourite Pisco Sour on offer at the bar pretty much everywhere we went. It is really delicious and I am told that it is as good with or without the egg white, but be warned as it is so lovey to drink that it is easy to get pretty squiffy, pretty quickly! Head over Liquor.com to find the recipe.   We are looking forward to our first proper lazy weekend in quite a while and don't have a huge amount of plans except some drinks in the garden with family later on today and a friend's fancy dress birthday party on Saturday evening.  Over the course of the weekend I will be working on some Granny Squares to help promote Claire Montgomerie's fabulous Granny Square Card Deck which you can find on pre-sale here and I am also hoping to get to the cinema to see the newest Deadpool film at last.
I hope that whatever your plans are, you are also looking forward to a nice weekend and that maybe, like me, you will get a chance to sit for a bit with some lovely knitting or crochet! Janie x It has been a really busy couple of weeks as I was tutoring a workshop group for Stitchtopia in West Yorkshire a couple of weeks ago and have been busy preparing for the trip to Peru next week. We have had a family wedding in the mix this week so I have been busy cake making and enjoying the lead up to our lovely niece Abby's wedding to her lovely Charlie. I do feel like I have been neglecting Janie Crow somewhat because of all that has been going on with workshop stuff and family things, but my wonderful team are so good at keeping everything running smoothly that I know it is in safe hands when I am a little absent! With that in mind, I need to let you know that the Janie Crow website will be closed for a couple of weeks while we are away. You will still be able to shop on the site, but orders received after 10am (BST) on Wednesday 17th July will not be processed until we are back at our desks on Monday 5th August. I hope you all have something lovely in store for the weekend and I look forward to being back in your inboxes in August! Fingers crossed for some sunshine....   The patterns for the second set of motifs for the Spirit of Flora CAL have now been released and we have been enjoying seeing your completed motifs appearing on social media.  If you need a little guidance when working through the patterns, don't forget that there is a dedicated Facebook group, which you can find here and Emma has been incredibly busy making accompanying video support for YouTube, which you can find by following this link. Some of you may now be starting to assemble blankets made from the motifs you have chosen, so remember you can now find the patterns for the three different borders as a free download on the Spirit of Flora page on the website here. You can also find the link to the download for the three plainer squares on the same page. Thank you for all your incredible feedback on this project - your support means so much to us here at Janie Crow!  LAST MINUTE UPDATE: Andy has put a healthy number of Sunshine and Showers kits in stock this week. You can find them by following this link!   I have been away in West Yorkshire this week with a group of fabulous knitters on a Stitchtopia organised trip. Yesterday we visited the amazing HQ of the UK Knitting and Crochet Guild in Slaithwaite, where we got to see some of the items from their incredible collection, such as their vintage knitted bathing suit patterns and garments, which included the intricately Swiss darned tank top shown below.   We also got to have a guided tour of the Stylecraft Mill, which fortuitously happens to be located in the same town. Members of the lovely team at Stylecraft explained the many parts of the production line process that happens at the Mill and the workshop group were able to sample knit and crochet some of the yarns while enjoying a lovely cuppa and some cake to round off a fabulous day out - they even came a way with a cute Stylecraft goody bag too!  Today we have the delights of Saltaire and the West Yorkshire Spinners Mill in Keighley, so I have had such a fabulous yarn fix over the last few days that it will be back down to earth with a bump next week when I will be back at my desk! Gemma has been incredibly busy putting some really great bits together for this month's Quick Catch Up email as I have been away and we have a few things to tell you about, so hopefully you have a few spare minutes to catch up with all things Janie Crow.   Last week saw the release of the second set of motifs for the Spirit of Flora CAL and already we are seeing your completed motifs appearing on social media. You are such quick workers and it has been such a treat seeing your crochet out in the wild!  If you need a little guidance when working through the patterns, don't forget that there is a dedicated Facebook group, which you can find here and Emma has been incredibly busy making accompanying video support for YouTube, which you can find by following this link. Some of you may now be starting to assemble blankets made from the motifs you have chosen, so remember you can now find the patterns for the three different borders as a free download on the Spirit of Flora page on the website here. You can also find the link to the download for the three plainer squares on the same page. Thank you for all your incredible feedback on this project - your support means so much to us here at Janie Crow!  LAST MINUTE UPDATE: Andy has put a healthy number of Persian Tiles Eastern Jewels kits in stock this week. You can find them by following this link!  June the 8th was Worldwide Knit in Public Day and over on Facebook we asked our followers if they were attending any events and whether knitting and crocheting in public is something they do with pride anyway! Wendy Alison shared that she attended a huge celebration and as part of the event two thousand crocheted butterflies were attached to a fence for passers-by to take home with them. What a lovely idea.  Miriam Lowrie spent some time in the park crocheting with her little elf. What a nice way to spend an afternoon - sounds idyllic to us!  As we've finally had some warm weather over the last week or so, the focus over on Instagram has been on small items, crocheted in cotton, that might be a far more palatable prospect for those of you who are finding it difficult to enjoy crocheting large, heavy items in the heat. Crochet projects such as bunting and individual flower motifs that you can turn into corsages, fascinators, decorations or mandalas, as well as pouches and small bags can all be lovely items to work on during periods of hot weather when you might not want to add to that 'melting' sensation you could be feeling!     It has been another very busy month for me and progress on my blanket has been frustratingly slow, but all progress is progress, so here I am again to show you what has been on the hook. I was hoping to finish the set of Fitzroy motifs and make a start on Legacy but having read a bit further along in the book and looked at the first phase of construction of the blanket I decided instead to focus on the motifs needed to complete the centre. Therefore I set Fitzroy to one side and embarked on a production line of Legacy.  Legacy has the same flower at its centre as the Harmony motif but then moves into a more complex set of beaded leaves and an outer row of pretty buds. The leaves are worked by making a central stem using a chain with stitches worked into one side of it with the beads and then on the subsequent round the other side of the chain is worked into as well as the beaded stitches to create the leaf shape. As I had chosen to work production line method I threaded all the beads that would be needed for the four motifs onto my yarn in one go but discovered that made the yarn rather heavy and a bit awkward to use, so if doing similar again I would just thread enough for each motif as I worked it. Here are some close-ups of the lovely detail.  I nearly made the full set! Two are completed and the remaining two just need the framework completing. They are so pretty.  Next month it's on to Vanessa and Virginia. Fitzroy will just have to wait! I hope you all have a great month and I'll be back with an update in July. Gemma x  This week's recipe is truly in the comfort food zone as it contains one of the UK's favourite staple foods - tinned baked beans. It could perhaps also fall into the child friendly food category, but that's allowed once in a while isn't it?  We're talking about Barbecue Bean Pie from the BBC food website. One element of the pie is a batch cooked tomato and lentil sauce which is brilliant to make ahead as the quantities stated in the recipe give enough of this sauce for portions to be kept and frozen for future use. When Gemma made this she simply used a third of each of the ingredients to make the appropriate amount of sauce for the dish on its own. She says it was very tasty and with veg on the side it easily fed her family of four with the same quantify left over for another meal. Wow!  Xenobia Bailey is an American artist from Seattle who often uses textiles in her artwork, perhaps most notably for her African inspired crochet hats which have featured in TV adverts, shows and films.    She also produces crochet pieces such as large scale mandalas and, for a mosaic designed to decorate a New York City subway station, she began with a crocheted piece that was then digitised to create the final installation for the station. You can find out more about Xenobia and her work by clicking on the images above and below.  'Trilogy'  'Funktional Vibrations' - New York City Subway 34 St - Hudson Yards Are you a fan of The Muppets like we are? If so you might be interested to hear about a new book release, scheduled for later this year in October. 'The Muppets Official Crochet Amigurumi' by Drew Hill contains patterns to make 16 different Muppet characters, such as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and Animal. Looks like great fun! Click on the image below for more information.    The last month or so has been all about workshop prep as I have designed a knitted project for the West Yorkshire trip and have a knit and crochet project ready for the trip to Peru in a little under three weeks time. It has been really nice to work on some smaller projects, especially as the weather has been lovely and warm, but I am also really looking forward to getting stuck into some new design work once I return from all the trips in early August - I honestly cannot believe the speed at which this year has flown by. Tomorrow I will be tutoring the final workshop of our Stitchtopia trip and I won't be travelling home to London until Sunday morning, so I am excited to have another day and a half with the fabulous group who have joined me on the very first five day trip to West Yorkshire. We have been invited to a birthday party on Sunday afternoon so I have my fingers crossed that the good weather will continue a while longer and that I will return home to a sunny and warm London Town! I hope that whatever you have planned for the next few days that you remain safe and well and that you get to have a little bit of well earned time with your knit or crochet projects - nothing like a little yarny TLC to finish off the week and set everything in order for the new one ahead!    We will be launching the patterns for set two of the Spirit of Flora project next Wednesday the 19th June. As with set one, the patterns will be available as paper brochures via our website or as downloads via Etsy or Ravelry.  Chelsea  Evelyn  Gillow  Marlborough There are four motifs in the set - all are shown above. You can purchase the patterns individually at £3.95 each if you want to cherry pick certain motifs, or you can purchase the set at a price of £10.95 which means you save almost £5 compared to purchasing them individually. This second set includes patterns for the following motifs: Chelsea, Evelyn, Gillow and Marlborough. From Wednesday you will also be able to find the patterns for the three blanket borders as a free download document on the Janie Crow website.  It has been fabulous seeing so many of you getting involved in this project and I know that many of the crocheters who made the blanket last year are continuing to use some of the motifs for other projects. My lovely friend Gwyn has made a crochet pouch using the Marlborough motif and some yarns from her stash. She is watched over by her crochet dragon companion, Draig and it is fab to see her lovely blanket in the background too!  When we did the photoshoot for the Spirit of Flora project at Emery Walker's House in Hammersmith, we were extremely fortunate to find original William De Morgan tiles around the fireplace in the living room. By complete coincidence this is the tile that inspired my colour choices and layout for the Evelyn motif along side the painted flowers that feature in Evelyn De Morgan's famous painting Flora. Huge thanks to Inside Crochet Magazine and Leanne Jade for the permission to use these images.  The Complete Crochet Handbook is back in stock following its reprint. We have signed or unsigned copies for sale on the website now and you can find them by following this link. The book is written in UK terms and the copy written in US terms is called The Perfect Crochet Finish. You can find it for sale on Mary Maxim by following this link.  I love using beads in my projects and always use those from the Debbie Abrahams range as they are a really good quality and come in a fabulous selection of shades. If you are a big fan of beading too, or are a newbie and want to give it a go, now is a good time as Debbie is currently offering a 25% discount on the price of her beads and some select yarns on her website here.  My Gertrude Cushion Cover features beaded leaves around the flowers and my hanging decorations, shown below, are a great use for beads too - you can stick to one shade or add a selection.   You can add beads to most stitches, so even if a pattern doesn't include beads you can choose to add them. The image above shows the Hollyhock motif from The Fruit Garden with some beads added on a couple of rows. I really love how beads add an extra dimension to a project.  My beaded pouches, Cafe au Lait and French Linen, can also be personalised with the addition of the Hollyhock flower and you can choose to add lots of beads to the project or just a few. I think they make perfect summer time evening bags and would be fabulous gifts. If you haven't beaded with crochet before, we have a free technique download here and you can also see free video tutorials on our Youtube channel. If you want to make the most of Debbie's very generous offer, you have just a week as the sale will ends on the 21st June.  A couple of years ago I was interviewed by Jamie and Merion on the Love Crafts podcast and it was a real treat to catch up with them again a couple of weeks ago on their new Craft Talkin podcast, which you can find here .  During the podcast we talked about The Complete Crochet Handbook, the rise in skill level of crocheters, the changing way that crocheters are looking to learn techniques and what I have planned for the future. Jamie also took the opportunity to host his 'Flower or Glower' question round and we chatted a little bit about Justin Bieber and jelly! You can find the podcast by following this link. Please follow Craft Talkin over on Instagram too.  Sarah has suggested the Waterstones book of the month, 'Tom Lake' by Ann Patchett for this week's recommendation. Here's the synopsis from the Waterstones website. Sarah says the book is beautifully written and she really enjoyed it:  In the spring of 2020, Lara's three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake.As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew. Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.' You can find the book on the Waterstones website by following this link.  We have been trying out quite a few new recipes lately and so I have a healthy list for the next few newsletters and Quick Catch Up emails. After a special evening meal at Ottolenghi's restaurant, Rovi, a couple of weeks ago I purchased the book Flavour and have already tried the spicy lasagna, which was amazing!  Last week Andy made a delicious sweet potato recipe, which also features garlic, tahini, crispy roasted chickpeas and baby tomatoes. It was amazing! You can find the recipe over on Minimalist Baker by following this link.   Andy is away for a few days, so I have been pottering about this week catching up on a few home based jobs. I have had a bit of a cake disaster and undercooked a (usually) very reliable chocolate cake recipe and also managed to split the ganache filling for the same cake, not once but twice, so it obviously wasn't my week for baking! Oh well, it was only a cake and the bits I have managed to salvage are delicious!  Summer, my mother-in-law Gill and I are off on a shopping trip with our niece Abby to get a few things for her wedding, which is now only four weeks away, so I am looking forward to a girlie day tomorrow. Sunday will be a family day and I am hoping for some cosy crochet in my special corner of the settee, especially as the final instalments of the (dreadful but addictive) third series of Bridgerton are now out!
I hope that whatever your plans are, you are also looking forward to a nice weekend and that maybe, like me, you will get a chance to sit for a bit with some lovely knitting or crochet! Janie x  After a very busy few weeks with birthdays and family events I have finally managed to spend some time at my desk this week working on projects for my forthcoming workshop trips. I have selected my yarns for the trip to West Yorkshire in June and have pretty much decided on the design of the small project the participants will work on while we are away. For the Peru project I have selected my yarn palette and have decided on the design - just a little more sampling to go on both the projects before I can finalise them and get the patterns written. It has been really nice to spend some time knitting and crocheting this week.  The weather is still a bit unpredictable here in North London with some quite chilly days still on the cards. I am sat in a sweater and jeans whilst writing this, but had shorts and a T short on Wednesday! I got all my summer clothes out this week and washed them ready for sunshine, so I am really hoping it isn't far away, although the cooler weather does mean that my knitting and crochet projects are more likely to get done! I have a few things to tell you about this week and hope you have time to catch up with all things Janie Crow.   There's not long to wait now until the release of the second set of Spirit of Flora patterns on June 19th. With the final set of four to be released on the 21st August. The pricing per set will be in line with the first release - £10.95 for four patterns or £3.95 each.   You can find an introductory video on our YouTube Channel where I show the groups of motifs and explain which parts of the design can be found for free on the website. You can find more information by following this link. If you need a little guidance when working through the patterns, don't forget that there is a dedicated Facebook group, which you can find here and Emma has been incredibly busy making accompanying video support for YouTube, which you can find by following this link. Thank you for all your incredible feedback on this project - your support means so much to us here at Janie Crow!  Over on Instagram we celebrated some of the incredibly talented crafters who bring Janie Crow designs to life by making them and sharing their photos and videos. Just look at this beautiful Fields of Gold Blanket by Sarah (@crochet_in_the_glen), photographed in such a stunning setting.  Below is Maria (@hooked_by_maria), a self-confessed crochet addict, modelling her version of the Climbing Rose Wrap, made in a lovely palette of purples and pinks. You look fabulous Maria!  These are just a couple of the amazing projects we featured so if you'd like to see the complete reel of images Emma put together you can find it over on Instagram here.  Last month I set myself a very ambitious target of completing all four Gordon motifs and all four Harmony motifs, together with a second Bloomsbury strip and at least one Fitzroy motif. So, how do you think I did? I'm pleased to report that all of the above was achieved. We won't talk about how my poor hands are feeling after the marathon crochet sessions, together with some sample making for my teaching and some sweater knitting on the side too!  One of the features of Fitzroy that I like the most is the raised wavy line, created in a very simple way by working back post stitches around the previous row. It's such an effective way of adding texture without a complicated technique needed. Of course, there is another row of beaded crochet, this time beaded half-treble stitches (half double in US terms), which got me thoroughly confused to begin with because they are worked with right side facing unlike the beaded dc (sc US terms) which are worked with WS facing. Once I had read the instructions properly I got things back together and only had to undo two rows! Sometimes being an experienced crocheter works against you because you 'think' you know what you are doing, haha!  I've never been fond of sewing ends in but I've had a bit of an enlightenment this month in that I've realised it can actually provide some recovery time for when hands are feeling a bit overworked. On that basis I've approached ends with far less grumbling and more enthusiasm, seeing it as just another part of the pattern in a way.  So, I've set next month's targets: I have the rest of the Fitzroy motifs to finish and I'd like to make at least one of the next pattern, which is the very pretty Legacy. This motif begins in the same way as the Harmony motif with a central flower, but in this motif it is surrounded by buds and leaves with beaded stems, all set within a lacy framework. I'm looking forward to working in the round again.  For those of you working on this project too, I just want to remind you that there are some support videos over on the Janie Crow YouTube channel here. Click on Playlists and you'll find a set of videos for Bohemian Blooms. Have a lovely month and I'll see you in June's Quick Catch Up. Gemma x  Do you ever have one of those days when you open the fridge and can't for the life of you work out what you're going to cook for dinner? Gemma had one of those days recently and managed to find this Lentil Loaf recipe which was comprised of just a small handful of ingredients, all of which she happened to have in stock. Apparently it was well received!   We came across a very interesting source of information about fibres on the website of the University of the Arts London. Although other sections are not yet complete, the piece that focusses on natural fibres makes for an informative read. We'd recommend it for anyone who is interested in learning about what is involved in the production of fibres such as cotton, alpaca, silk or wool. You can find the page here or click on the image below:    It has been wonderful having the peonies suddenly burst into bloom over the last fortnight. Most of ours are planted in the front garden so we don't really see them from the house. I have been cutting them and arranging them in vases so we can have them inside - something I don't usually do, but with the threat of constant rain, cutting them means they don't get broken.    It was my birthday yesterday and I was lucky to receive some fabulous flowers including white peonies from the lovely Emma and coral from our gorgeous niece Abby and her partner Charlie - aren't they just the best!  We were really lucky with the weather a couple of weeks ago when we celebrated my Dad's 90th Birthday. We had a fabulous time, with a few surprises for Dad on the day and we all have some wonderful memories to cherish as a result. I love this pic of my Dad, Roy (right) and my fantastic father in law, Mick, warming themselves towards the end of the day with a glass of cognac under my blankets! It was my birthday yesterday so we are heading out to celebrate this evening with a meal in town. I have wanted to go to an Ottolenghi restaurant for a long time so, as a very special treat, we have booked a table at ROVI, which has loads of veggie options on the menu. We have a weekend at home ahead, with Andy heading off on a charity walk for our local hospice on Sunday so we have hoping it stays dry. I hope that whatever you have planned that you have a great couple of days.  |
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