Love is Enough

​Love Is Enough

I am just popping by very quickly to tell you that my Youtube video that will give you a sneaky peek of the new version of my Fruit Garden CAL design is now live. You can find it by following this link.
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I have been totally blown away by the response to my most recent design ‘The Fruit Garden CAL’ and I am so pleased that so many of you found it a comforting and rewarding project to work on during these difficult times. I think for many of us our memories of lockdown will be associated with the project and whilst the realities of the outside world have often been very difficult to process, the enjoyment of our craft and the way it can link us in a virtual way to thousands of others, whilst also creating an heirloom piece of crochet, is an enriching experience and an achievement that you should all be incredibly proud of.

​I know that many of you missed out on working through the project the first-time round. In some cases this was because of not being able to source yarns, whilst for other ‘front line’ and essential workers it was a question of finding the time and not the yarn that was the challenge. The last thing we wanted was for anyone to feel disappointed to have missed or not kept up with the CAL, so we decided that we should do the whole thing all over again. I am so excited to have the chance to present you with the brand new ‘Love is Enough’ version of the project.
 

I have also made two new cushion covers using the motifs from the CAL. These designs, which I have named Melsetter and Kelmscott after the houses that meant a lot to May Morris, are shown in the video and the patterns for these will be available in September.

​Thank you all for your incredible support over the last few months - the Fruit Garden CAL has been an incredible journey and I am so excited to see all your completed projects popping up on social media. I hope that you might be inspired to come long on another crochet along trip with me in the autumn!

Climbing Rose Wrap
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If you are looking for something to do over the next month, why not take a look at the pattern for my Climbing Rose Wrap, which is now available as a paper brochure version via the Janie Crow web site, or as a download version via Ravelry and Etsy*.
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​The project has previously been published as a crochet along (CAL) in Inside Crochet Magazine and you can find a very busy and inspirational dedicated Facebook Group for the project by following this link or by clicking on the image above.
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As you know, I have always been a fan of the work of the Arts and Crafts Movement and, having worked in a home decorating store part time as a student, I am very familiar with William Morris’s wallpaper designs in particular. I started off thinking that my design inspiration would be Morris’s very well known design ‘The Strawberry Thief’, which is one of my favourites, but I was concerned about how I could produce the idea of strawberries and birds in crochet and so I was relieved and inspired further when I came across another design based on those of William Morris called 'Molly Blue', which not only had the floral elements I was looking for, but also totally summed up the colour palette I wanted to use.
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​Some of my designs have taken me months to design and make, whilst others, have been quite quick. The design for the Climbing Rose Wrap was a really speedy one once I set to crocheting and I really enjoyed interpreting elements of Morris’s fabric design in my crochet. The flowers within the original design are not easy to identify exactly, so I looked at traditional Victorian garden flowers and used these as the basis for my motifs, hence the fact that they are called Day Lily, Rambling Rose and Anemone.

You can find yarn kits for the project on Janie Crow or Just Knots. The yarn kits on Janie Crow are £44.50 and include the pattern. On Just Knots there are kits available either with or without the pattern in case you already have the magazines. Kits without the patterns are £39.50.

Unfortunately we have already had to substitute one of the shades used in the original project as kit is out of stock at Stylecraft. Any kits ordered before yesterday will include a 50g ball of Batik Rose, as in the original pattern, but newer packs will include a 100g ball of Life DK Rose instead. We feel the colour substitution is incredibly close and the price of the kit will remain the same.
 
Images with thanks to Inside Crochet Magazine & Leanne Dixon.

* Please note that patterns on Etsy are subject to VAT, so the price is higher than on Ravelry. We have alerted Etsy to the fact that UK downloads should no longer be subject to VAT, but have not yet heard back from them.
I hope that wherever you are and whatever you have planned for today you stay safe and keep well...
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