May News

The response to our Zero to Granny Square, Learn to Crochet course has been so positive since we launched it last week and we are incredibly pleased with how it has been received. If you missed any of the information about it, I have included it again in this email.
 
I have had a busy week away at a meet and greet event and workshop at the fabulous Black Sheep Wools in Warrington and have only arrived back home earlier this afternoon, so please forgive the late nature of this email.
 
I have a few things to tell you about this month, including a lovely big stock update, so I hope you have some spare time to catch up with all our news.

​As I said in the introduction, the response to the Zero to Granny course has been amazing and it has been fabulous to see positive comments from so many beginners. Gemma, Emma, Sarah and I have quite a long history of teaching between us, so we made a combined list of all the things beginners tend to ask for help with and tried to cover as many of them as possible in the videos. Emma spent a huge amount of time checking and revisiting them so that we could be sure everything was ship shape before we launched last week and I am so grateful to her for her amazing attention to detail and hard work on this project.
 
We have created a total of thirteen new 'Zero to Granny' YouTube videos, all of which are free to access and sit alongside our existing collection of almost two hundred technique videos on the platform. The videos are listed within a playlist in number order, with the first one (1), entitled The Basics, gently talking beginners through how to choose yarn and hooks, how to make a slipknot and tension yarn. Our second video (2) shows in-depth the process of making a chain, whilst also explaining how to recognise the front and back of each one and how to count them. Each subsequent video shows another technique so that crocheters can build their knowledge of basic stitches. By video number seven (7) we move to working through a Granny Square pattern, a true rite of passage for any new crocheter.
 
We have covered a huge amount of information within our videos and, whilst we acknowledge that they cannot replace the benefits of learning 'in real life', we hope that they are a comprehensive resource for those wanting to embark on their crochet journeys.
 
I gave my young cousin Lizzie a crochet hook a couple of weeks ago when she came to see us at Wonderwool as she was thinking of having a go at learning. I told her the Zero to Granny course was coming and so I was really proud to receive the text and image below last weekend - I am sure she won't mind me sharing it here!
 
If you fancy taking a look at our free course, you can find the dedicated web page here and you can find the YouTube video playlist here. We hope that you will love it!

All our YouTube videos are provided on the platform as free resources, so if you have watched any of them and have found them helpful, please be sure to click the ‘like’ icon and leave a nice review. We put a lot of time into our video tutorials and thankfully the majority of comments are good, but it can be hard when they are negative (or just downright rude!). We tend to get these kinds of comments on the videos where (we think) people are expecting not to have to pay for a written pattern and want to be shown the whole motif. 
 
We feel it is pointless to cover straightforward ‘plain’ rounds or stitch combinations in our videos, so it could be that people are frustrated that not all steps are shown. Emma and I often debate whether we should be removing comments where viewers discuss the rounds and explain them to each other, or whether we should switch off comments all together, but I am not sure this sits right with me. We would love to hear your thoughts on this….

We have a lot of yarn packs and kits back in stock and I have listed them below. If you want to get an idea of all of our kits you can follow this link.

If you are looking to make projects with natural fibres, then check out our kits that include yarns from the West Yorkshire Spinners range of British Wool, which you can find here. You can also now get kits for my Marrakesh version of Persian Tiles using the Yarnsmiths range from Wool Warehouse. I am currently working on more yarn substitutions using yarns from this fabulous range as the colours are just so lovely. A new colourway of the Mystical Lanterns blanket is coming very soon as well as one that is very close to the Sandalwood colourway of Persian Tiles. As soon as the yarn kits for these are ready I will let you know.

We have partnered with the fantastic team at Wool Warehouse to create a yarn kit for my Marrakesh version of Persian Tiles using their gorgeous YARNSMITHS Merino DK Superwash yarn. You can find the kit here.
 
To celebrate the release of this fabulous kit, which contains all the yarn and the printed yarn substitution document, you can currently get 40% off the price and save yourself more than £60! 
 
As the colour palette in the YARNSMITHS Merino DK Superwash is so large (with 120 colours to choose from) this version of the blanket is pretty much identical to my original version, which was made using Stylecraft Yarns - you can find a link to the original kit lower down this email. 
 
The new kits, that use the Merino DK yarn, have been selling really fast, so head over to the Wool Warehouse website if you would like to nab one!

I had a really fabulous couple of days in the Craft Barn at Black Sheep Wools in Warrington. On Wednesday I was in store for a meet and greet event where I chatted to crafters about my projects and the joy of crochet, then on Thursday I tutored a crochet wreath workshop where participants made pretty crochet flowers from my Beaded Decorations pattern.
 
I was really blown away by the beauty of Hilary's amazing version of Spirit of Flora which she brought along to show me. She has used Felted Tweed from Rowan to make it and I think her colour palette is just so gorgeous, don't you! Black Sheep Wools are a Rowan flagship store, so if you fancy taking a look at their yarn range, you can do so by following this link.

We had a fabulous time at Wonderwool Wales a few weeks ago. The sun shone and the show was super busy. Thanks to everyone who took the time to stop by and say hello! Our next show will be Yarndale in September. You can find tickets by following this link.

​We had some friends over for a few drinks in the garden last weekend and my friend Julia brought along some super yummy jammy slices that she had made. Ingredients included oats, almonds, chocolate chips and jam and they really were delicious, so I asked her for the recipe so that I, in turn, can share it with you:
 
Ingredients
225g Plain Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
100g Caster Sugar
85g Light Brown Soft Sugar
225g Butter
150g Rolled Oats
225g Raspberry or Strawberry Jam (Julia used Raspberry)
100g Plain Chocolate Chips (Julia used White Chocolate)
25g Flaked Almonds
 
Method
Preheat oven to 190/375/Gas mark 5. Line a 30 x 20cm (12 x 8in) rectangular baking tin. Sift flour and baking powder in a large bowl, add the sugars and mix well. Add the butter and rub in with fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the oats.
 
To make the base, press three quarters of the mixture into the tin. Bake for 10 minutes. Spread the jam over the cooked base, then sprinkle over the chocolate chips. Place the remaining crumble mixture and almonds in a bowl and stir. Sprinkle on top of the jam and press down gently. Bake for a further 20/25 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool in the tin and cut into slices to serve.

We have been pup sitting the gorgeous Stoick this afternoon and have him with us for a few days now, so there is not a lot of point in planning too many things other than puppy playing! It is our daughter Summer’s birthday tomorrow and she shares the date with my Dad, so it’s a special weekend in our family. Happy Birthday you two! ​

The garden has been brilliantly busy and it has been great to see the peonies start to burst into flower this week. The plants are abundant with flower heads, so hopefully they will give us a great show for a couple of weeks. I am always a bit sad when peony season is over, having waited for them for so long!

If you have been reading my emails for the last couple of months you may remember that Andy and I took on an eight week diet and exercise ‘shred’ programme mid way through March. Our challenge is now over and so we are navigating a slight increase in calories and a decrease in exercise. It has been a really worthwhile experience and I am definitely coming out of it feeling much better.
 
This time last year I got to the point where I knew something had to change. I had constant strains and injuries, bad knees, and aching shoulders, which I put down to my hunched position of crocheting. I was working hard and not making room in my life for much else, other than at the weekends, which were often full of food and a celebratory drink or three, which ended up making me feel even more rubbish on a Monday and yet, week after week, I perpetuated the whole routine again.
 
Last May I had a conversation with Emma which gave me the kick start to sort my life out and you can read more about how things have changed since then over on the Janie Crow Lifestyle instagram page here.
 
So, that is it from me for another couple of weeks. I have a busy diary through to the end of May and Gemma and I will be back in your inbox with a Quick Catch Up email on the 30th May. I hope life treats you well in the mean time and that you get some time to do some serious crafting!