February Newsletter

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I have been working on a couple of cushion cover designs for Inside Crochet magazine. The covers are very pretty and have a floral theme, which includes some beading. It has been so nice to add beads to a design again as I do so love a bit of bling! You can find beading technique videos on my YouTube channel and free technique download documents on the web site. The cushions will appear in the magazine soon!

Working on a beaded design made me want to revisit my Beaded Christmas Decorations pattern, so I have grouped together some lovely 'springy' pastel shades of Stylecraft's Organic Cotton to make a new set. I am hoping to add in an egg shaped decoration in the hope that they will be ready for Easter. I will share some images when I have finished them.

We have been able to put together some more kits. Yay! We now have yarn packs available for the following designs:

Climbing Rose

Mexican Diamonds

Magic Circles

Fields of Gold

We also still have kits in stock for the following designs: Frida's Flowers - Primavera, Frida's Flowers, Sunshine and Showers, Lily Pond and Lily Pond Cherry Blossom, Eastern Jewels and Fruit Garden Night & Dusk and Red House colourways.

The final pattern set for my Indigo Dreams crochet along will be published in the next copy of Inside Crochet magazine. It has been fabulous seeing your crochet blankets taking shape on social media. I am so pleased to hear how many of you have enjoyed the project.

Over the next few weeks we will be doing a bit of work on the Janie Crow website. It has needed a bit of attention for a long time, so I will be working with my fabulous graphic designer, Steph, to bring it up to speed and make it look lovely! I hope you will like the changes we have planned.

As I said in the introduction it has been really good to see some more events and plans on my forward radar - you can find more information about these a little lower down this email.

It has been really fabulous to see how many of you are planning to revisit my Frida's Flowers pattern. The blanket is featuring as the Stylecraft Make Along project for February and you can find more information about how to get involved here.

I have written a blog about the project, which includes some images of the blankets made in fabulous alternative colourways. You can find it by following this link. Images with thanks to Lita Johnathans.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to see if I can create a better base for my mental and physical health going forwards. I read a book called 'Atomic Habits', which is about creating small habits that build over time to create a big change.

In January I started walking daily and have really enjoyed getting out in the local countryside for a daily romp! The habit has slipped a little this week as my workload has grown a little, but I am still managing to get at least 10,000 steps a day - something I struggled to do previously.

This month I have been trying to be a little more aware of what I eat and drink. That isn't to say that I am on a diet - the only thing I am doing differently is writing down every single item that I eat or drink in a note book. This practice has already made me far more aware about how much I eat without really thinking about it and has made me snack less. So far, I have no idea if this practice has made any difference to my weight as another of my small habits is to weigh myself just once a month - but I already feel better.

I am definitely a convert to small habits rather than massive change and would love to hear if similar approaches have worked for you. If you want to sign up to James Clear's weekly newsletter you can do so by following this link.

Over the last few weeks we have had some great images sent in of projects out in the wild so I thought I would feature a few in this week's newsletter.

Rose emailed with an image of her Mystical Lanterns blanket which she gave to a friend as a gift. Isn't it lovely - I really like the way Rose has added another dimension to this blanket by blocking colours together.​

The image above was sent to me by Jill 'in cold wet Adelaide'. She says: 'you called it Willow Blossom, I've christened my versions Field of Daisies'.

Jill Hill sent me the image above of her fabulous Imogen project made using shades of blue - Gorgeous isn't it!

I am often blown away by versions of Persian Tiles when they pop up on social media, but the version above, sent in by Marg McRae, made me gasp in delight when I opened the image. Marg says:

'Hi Janie, I am Marg McRae from Albury NSW Australian. My husband and I have been ex farmers for 30 years, I am his carer as he has a disability. I am writing to you to say I love all of your crocheted blanket patterns, also enjoy reading your newsletters.
In our 1st lockdown last year, I got my crocheting hooks out and did your Persian Tile rug pattern. I chose 4ply pure Australian merino wool. I wanted to share a photo of my blanket, I love it. It has been 30 so years since I have done any crocheting, didn’t want to put my hook down.
I do lots of quilting all by hand, which I find very relaxing also...Marg'

Needless to say, we really love getting emails like Marg's one and all adore seeing your images. You can share them on our Facebook page by following the link. ​

I will be appearing on Yarn Lane TV this coming Sunday (13th February) at 12 noon. I will be chatting to Rebecca about some of my projects and will be doing some demonstrations. I hope you will be able to tune in!

Next Tuesday evening there will be a talk about the work of May Morris on the William Morris Society website. I have a ticket and am really looking forward to it. You can find more information here.

I will be on the Stylecraft stand at The Stitches trade show on Sunday 27th & Monday 28th February.

Sarah and I will be on hand within the Knit & Crochet lounge at The Spring Stitch Festival on Thursday 3rd March. You can find more information about the show by following this link. We will have a few spring inspired kits for sale and will be demonstrating how to add beads to your crochet, so I hope you are able to drop by and see us.

There are still a few spaces on my Iceland Cruise with Stitchtopia, which runs for 11 days from the 4th May. You can find more information here.

I have been busy baking today, making a chocolate fudge cake for a friend's birthday. If it all goes to plan I will show you some images next time, however it is the cake I made for my Mum's 80th birthday a few weeks ago that I am featuring today.

The Sticky Ginger Lemon Drizzle cake was made using the recipe as a guide, but I split the batter into 3 cakes instead of 2 and added a tad more cream cheesy icing. I didn't make the lemon frosting but drizzled some fresh lemon juice over the cakes before I iced them. I used crystallised ginger to decorate it. It was super yummy!

We had a really lovely family day with Mum to celebrate her birthday - she says that the '80' balloons, that Summer and Chris got her, are the first balloons she has ever had. They have taken pride of place for the last few weeks!

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the BBC's children's channel CBeebies. Both my children were big fans of the channel when they were little and I have always loved the bedtime story segment, especially since famous people have started reading stories. As I am sure you are aware Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, will be reading a story to raise awareness of chidren's mental wellbeing on Sunday. You can find the Cbeebies YouTube channel here.

The weather has been really bright and sunny here today so I am hoping to squeeze in a few nice walks this weekend. Our local countryside is coming to life, with lots of daffodil bulbs and crocuses about to bloom. At home, we are on amaryllis watch as the bulb I planted in January is about to burst into glorious flower!  
 
I hope you all have a fabulous weekend and that you have some lovely plans to look forward to. Sending yarny love....

Janie x