Janie Crow Lifestyle

​Exciting News!

​It is a big week here at Janie Crow as we have some exciting news to share with you. Over the past couple of months we have been working on a new venture to join the Janie Crow family. Our new baby 'Janie Crow Lifestyle' launches today and we hope that you will be as pleased with our new arrival as we are....
   

​We have been playing around with the idea of a lifestyle brand for quite a while and it has arisen from our desire to engage with you all on a more personal level so that we can share ideas and thoughts about things other than knit and crochet design, such as well being, recipes, beauty products and home life. Lockdown has been hard for so many, but I think one of the over riding things to have emerged from our global isolation is the importance of home, friends and family and so this seems like the perfect time to finally put our plans into action for the new brand.

We love the fact that so many of you are invested in what goes on here at Janie Crow and we cherish our close relationships with you guys. We love getting your feedback and engaging in email and online chats with you all and so we hope that you will see the new brand as another lovely little added extra to your current Janie Crow experience and I hope that you can spare a few moments to find out more about the lifestyle brand by settling down with this week's newsletter and catching up with all things Janie Crow.
  

​Janie Crow Lifestyle

​Those of you who have followed my email newsletters for a while will hopefully have seen that on the whole I try not to see myself as a 'Janie ship' with a sole navigator sailing alone in the sea! I love the fact that we are part of a huge yarn loving community and I cherish interaction with customers, workshop attendees and other designer makers and have always felt that we should support and champion each other. Over the last few years, especially since the fabulous Sarah Hazell and Gemma Biggs have joined the Janie Crow team, we have also tried to bring you a wider Janie Crow experience, like including recipes and articles that relate to environmental awareness in the weekly newsletters and it has been these kind of things that have served as the catalyst for the idea of a lifestyle brand.
   

For the last couple of years, as the business has grown, it has presented me with big dilemmas in regards to our environmental impact and so we felt it was time that we took a long hard look at the things we do and the products we use and slowly start to implement some changes to the Janie Crow brand. It was this process that eventually took us another step towards the lifestyle brand.

Over the last few months we have been switching our packaging from plastic to paper and this week we have started to pack as many Janie Crow yarn kits as we can into cardboard and paper packaging rather than plastic grip seal and mail bags. The changeover from plastic to paper has been a slow one, so you may still get a kit in plastic for the next month or so, but hopefully by the time 2020 is over we will be a step closer to our plastic free aim for packaging.

The lifestyle brand is a team effort! Sarah and myself will be creating the Instagram posts and newsletter articles. We have roped in Gemma too and because we also wanted to get the input of some 'bright young things' we have Sarah's daughter Phoebe and my daughter Summer on board too! 

Once we had decided that we would look at creating a lifestyle brand the team each set about writing their own 'values' document and we used these as the basis for the outline of our brand ethos. You can read our documents by following this link and we will be visiting some of the points raised in these documents over the next few months including my thoughts on yarn use and how we are all 'a work in progress' as far as being eco savvy is concerned.
​

Over the next few weeks and months we will be sharing some products with you that we feel make great eco swaps to everyday items. We have focussed on a few home products like tea towels and hand-soaps and some luxury beauty items too, but I want to emphasise here that the retail aspect to the brand is not it's main purpose, our aim is to present thoughtful, helpful content that inspires you. It might be that we motivate you to bake a cake from one of the recipes we share or indulge in a cheeky Saturday night cocktail for example, or it might be that an image or story we share simply results in you taking a mindful walk outside or having a think about what eco swaps you could make in your every day life.
​

​Please follow the new Instagram account by clicking this link or on the image above. There are already quite a few posts on there and we have some more planned for the weekend including a recipe from Summer for the most delicious chocolate cookies you will EVER taste! 

I am already really proud of Janie Crow Lifestyle and hope that you will love it too!
   

Hello there! Sarah here....

Whenever Jane and I spend time together or chat on the phone, like most good friends we inevitably end up discussing life, the universe and everything! I am sure you are all familiar with the type of conversation that I mean. Like us, you probably have conversations with friends where you end up going off at some tangent or another and fail to remember where you started! The important thing in these interactions is that we had the chance to share and exchange ideas in a safe context, discuss things that concern us or that have made us happy or laugh out loud. I think it is this idea of sharing, discussing and shaping a point of view that excites me most about Janie Crow Lifestyle. 

I have known Jane for about 15 years and have always been struck by her concern for the environment, eating healthy food and her love of home. When work has taken her away from home she always weighs up the environmental impact of that journey and tries to balance that out in some way. So the idea of launching a lifestyle brand is really a very logical step for Jane because it is part of who she is. I am sure that if any of you have attended one of Jane’s workshops or holidays, one of your abiding memories will be of how much of herself and her skills she is prepared to share. Similarly with the Lifestyle brand, we have shared in Jane’s vision and worked as a team to bring you what we think you would like to see from this kind of idea. We have discussed our own journeys towards a more sustainable lifestyle, we have researched and tested products and opened up the conversation to family and friends. 
   

I think in essence, we all want to make better choices in some of the products that we buy. Finding the right kind of suppliers for the Lifestyle brand has meant that Jane and Andy have been able to make good choices about what they buy and who they buy it from. As much as possible they are supporting small British companies using natural, eco-friendly ingredients and packaging. I really like the idea that this becomes a partnership in encouraging greater access to greener choices.
   

Over the course of the weeks and months that Jane and Andy have been working on the new brand I have learnt a lot and challenged some of my own misconceptions – I love that! I am really looking forward to sharing more articles and ideas with you over the coming months and also to finding out about some of the changes that you have been making. We are not trying to deliver a manifesto, but I am convinced that small changes lead to a more sustained approach and anything that we can do to preserve our precious world gets my vote!
   

​Getting Festive

​I saw the first decorated Christmas Tree when I was out for an evening walk this week - it had lights, tinsel, the works, so it seems that people are definitely getting into the festive mood early this year. With just over six weeks to go until Christmas Day many of us are beginning to think about festive projects too especially if we are planning to make some decorations for the tree or for the house.

I released two new patterns for crochet decorations this week and whilst I know that there is much uncertainty over what the holidays will be like this year, I am sure that the act of giving and receiving remains incredibly special nonetheless, perhaps even more so!
​

Mini Stockings

​These cute little crochet stockings make a lovely festive decoration and would look great hung on the Christmas Tree. They are big enough to fit in a small gift, so you could make some to use as an alternative to gift wrapping, or, if you fancy making 24 of them, you could create your own advent calendar and pop in some scrummy chocolate treats to enjoy during December!
   

​The stockings do not use much yarn so are a great stash busting project too! Why not try making stockings with brightly coloured stripes from lots of colours or add different types of decoration on the cuffs like bright pom-poms or bigger beads?
   

The pattern includes the instructions for four variations of the stocking. Two of the stockings are striped and two have a cuff. One stocking has a beaded cuff and another has a crochet holly detail. The pattern is written for DK weight of yarn and the stockings are worked in the round. The pattern is written in UK terms and has a chart for US equivalents at the front of the brochure.

The pattern is £5.95 and you can get the paper pattern via the web site here or you can download it via Ravelry or Etsy.
​

Festive Decorations

​
​I love putting the decorations on the tree or around the house at Christmas time. I have a really eclectic assortment of hanging baubles, adornments and trimmings that I use to make our home feel festive.  Our decorations have been collected over the years - some belonged to Andy’s grandparents and we have baubles we found whilst on trips away and some were made by my children when they were small. My favourite is probably the paper angel with a head made from a ping pong ball, with a wonky smile drawn in felt tip pen and a dress made from a paper doily that Charlie made when he was at primary school, although I think he cringes a little when I pop it on the tree!
 
I love the way unpacking the decorations year after year and arranging them around the house brings back lots of lovely memories and good feelings. Handmade decorations make extra special gifts as they convey that sentiment too and are a great way of using up odds and ends of yarn from your stash.
   

​For these hanging decorations I have used four shades of yarn for a more contemporary, simple look, but I think these would also look great made with all sorts of yarn types and colours with added buttons, beads and ribbon to add in a big splash of fun!

The pattern in written for five decorations and I have included an alternative shade sequence for each one, so you can see I have included ten decorations in the images.
   

The pattern is written in UK terms, but includes a list of US equivalents. The pattern is available as an 8 page paper brochure or you can purchase a download copy via Ravelry or Etsy. 

Mahliqa Wire

​One of our aims for the Lifestyle brand in particular is to support other designer makers that we admire. Mahliqa specialises in hand knitted & crocheted textile jewellery using a mixed media of hand-dyed yarn, precious metals & Swarovski crystals. Mahliqa’s designer and creator, Suraya, is a London-born British Asian, who draws on her cultural heritage of arts and handicrafts from the Indian sub-continent.
​

​Suraya is hugely inspired by the vintage jewellery styles of India & Persia and incorporates vivid colour into her designs by using Swarovski crystals, gemstones, enamelled copper wires and luxury yarns produced by talented indie yarn dyers. 
 

Suraya is a regular exhibitor at the Knitting & Stitching shows and other yarn festivals and
has been featured in The Knitter, Knitting and Inside Crochet Magazines. Much of Suraya's work is commission based, creating bespoke pieces for private clients, so we are very lucky to have a selection of her fabulous work for sale here on Janie Crow.
​

​Suraya lives just a couple of miles away form us here in North London and we have been friends for a long time. I think that Suraya's work is absolutely stunning and I am so pleased to see how her career has gone from strength to strength over the last few years. Suraya and her work was featured on Kirsty Allsopps Handmade Christmas show last year (you can find the video here - Suraya is featured at around about the 45 minute mark) and you can find the Mahliqa press page here that also shows her winning design from Vogue Knitting Live earlier this year. What a total star she is!

I am totally in love with all of Suraya's ready made pieces of jewellery, but if you fancy having a go at making something yourself you can also find her patterns and accessories on the Mahliqa Etsy store here.
 

​Janie Crow Catalogue

​Don't forget that you can check out my back catalogue of designs by taking a look at the Janie Crow brochure. Simply click on this link or on the image below to be taken to the full colour download version or pop one in your cart alongside any other purchases on the Janie Crow web site and we will send you a paper copy for free.
  

​​It's Nearly the Weekend!

​We have seen a pick up in sales over the last week as many of our yarn kits have come back into stock and people are starting to look at their Christmas shopping lists, so tomorrow looks like being a work day for us, but we have decided to reward ourselves with a rare take out meal this evening, so that makes the prospect of a longer working week a little easier to swallow - much like the copious number of dim sum I am planning to eat later on!

Thankfully the weather over the last week has been far better than expected so we have been able to get out for walks, but it is the personal interaction that we are missing so much. Zoom has been great for keeping in touch, but there is nothing like a face to face conversation is there! Hopefully you are all managing to keep yourselves perky despite the situation. I think my craft has been my absolute salvation and I am slowly getting my motivation back for designing - thank you for all the kind words in regards to that. Your emails have been an incredible support.

I leave you this week with a link to the new John Lewis Christmas advert, another one of those quirky British traditions at this time of year!
  

Despite my love for the Christmas adverts (and I do love this new one from John Lewis so much that I have watched it 5 times already!) I have to admit to being a little irked that the emphasis on whether the nation will be able to get together for Christmas has overshadowed other spiritual events this year. Ramadan and many Jewish Holidays have also fallen during lockdown and the Hindu Festival of Light, Diwali is this weekend. The most important thing is that we all keep safe, so if you are celebrating tomorrow I hope you have a fabulous time despite the obvious changes in family traditions that the pandemic has meant. I will be keeping an eye our for decorations and fireworks and thinking of you all.
  

​Sending big virtual yarny hugs wherever you are and whatever your plans are this weekend.

​I have been nominated within the Craft Influencer of the Year category of the Craft Business Awards once again. I was fortunate enough to win this award for 2020 and would love to do so again. If you would like to vote for me then click on this link or on the image below to be taken to the online voting forms.
   

---Support Me---