Love is Enough is ready

29/9/2020

Fruit Garden CAL - Love is Enough

Good Morning! I hope you are all doing well. I am just popping by to tell you that we have kits for the new 'Love is Enough' colour way of my Fruit Garden CAL project in stock on the Janie Crow web site now and you can find more information about yarn requirements and dates for your diary by following this link to the introduction document. We have put most of the kits for sale on Janie Crow and a few on Just Knots and more stock should be in towards the end of the month, hopefully in time for the start of the re-run of the CAL at the beginning of November. More stock of the Naturals - Bamboo & Cotton version (Night & Dusk) will also be back in stock soon, so keep an eye on the web sites if you are waiting for that colour way.

Please note that due to the increased workload here at the moment we are unable to take orders over the phone or via email for the next few days, so kits will be sold on a first come, first served basis via the web sites - we apologise for any inconvenience this might cause.

As I have said many times before I love the fact that crochet along (CAL) style projects give home crafters the opportunity to collectively join in with a project. I adore the fact that crocheters can contribute to on-line chat forums, seek out videos and groups to help them and create strong friendships with others regardless of background, circumstances or location in the world whilst working through the project. CALs give distance learners the chance to create wonderful pieces of crochet that they can present to their friends and families as a testament to their own talents and crochet skills. They can look back on the process of making as a rewarding and positive experience.

Rather than being the ‘poor cousin’ to the first publication, I see this second release as the fabulous ‘after party’ to the main event. By joining the CAL the second time around you can make the most of tips and hints from those who have already completed the project. You can also get ideas for alternative colour ways or layouts and you will have a wonderful project completed in time for the spring. I also feel that a second release will help support those who may have fallen by the wayside first time round – sometimes leaving a project and returning to it at another time can be a really good learning process and having more support going forwards is bound to lead to less disappointment and more completed projects.
When trying to decide on the colour palette for the new version of the blanket I looked at the photos I took whilst visiting the May Morris ‘Art & Life’ exhibition at the Dovecot Studios back in February. Whilst inspecting the detail of the images it became clear to me that May often used a palette of peach and apricot shades along with sage greens, olive and duck egg blues in her fine embroidery work and so these images soon formed the basis for my new palette.

I wanted to create a blanket that was a little less traditional in colour choice than the original two versions and I decided that the palette should come away from May’s work a little to create something a little more vibrant and contemporary. I am totally in love with orange (possibly as a result of my 70s childhood where everything seemed to include either orange, avocado green or purple!) and so, as one of the catalysts for the original design was the idea of ripe clementines in a fruit garden, I knew that I wanted this shade to play a more vital role within the design. I built my new palette around the orange shade, adding in a few pinks, a gorgeous vintage peach and subtle creamy yellow to make the colours sing. I kept some lovely greens from the original Recipe 1 colour palette, adding a rich mustard yellow and then surrounding the motifs with Duck Egg and Mint shades. I think this palette works really nicely and
I love the fact that it puts a modern day spin on one of May’s favourite colour combinations.

Yarn kits are £53.50 and include 16 x 100g balls Stylecraft yarn, a JANIE CROW sew in label and an information leaflet.

Kelmscott & Melsetter Cushion Covers

Over the last few weeks it has been really great to see images of Fruit Garden cushions popping up on social media. The pattern for the Kelmscott and Melsetter cushion covers are live on my web site and you can find it by following this link. The patterns for the two cushion covers I have designed to match the Fruit Garden blanket are the Kelmscott cover, which matches Recipe 1 (Caramel and Parchment) and Melsetter, which matches colour way 2 (Night & Dusk).

Both cushion covers feature in the same 12 page pattern and we have now put the metal dome buttons that I used on my cushion covers into stock. You can find them here.

You can choose from a download version or a paper copy of the pattern. The download version is free with an option to make a donation via PayPal if you want to. The paper pattern is priced slightly lower than my other 12 page patterns at £3.95 and will incur a fee for postage and packing.

I designed the cushions so that you can use up some of the left over yarns from your CAL projects, but you will need some extra balls of some shades to complete it (you can find the yarn use listed here). Or maybe you fancy making one in the new Love Is Enough colour palette?