Persian Tiles sandalwood blanket kit now available

Quick Catch Up

I hope this email finds you well and that you have all had a good week since I was here last. I thought I would pop in with a speedy catch up to let you know that a couple of the things I mentioned last week are now live...
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Persian Tiles - Sandalwood

My new version of the Persian Tiles blanket, which I have called Sandalwood, is now available as a kit via US yarn company Mary Maxim. ​
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The Sandalwood version features rich dusky pink, terracotta, gold, green and blue shades and it has been made using a lovely soft yarn called Premier Everyday DK. The images make the colours look a little washed out and yellow - they are much more vibrant and sumptuous in reality. We had a bit of a hiccup with the US photoshoot due to the current situation and only managed to get the original version of the blanket professionally shot in a room setting. The Sandalwood version and the light blue version are now in the post to the US to be photographed. I am sure the new images will do the blanket far more justice than these do - I took them on the studio floor before the blanket headed off in the mail!

All this said I am incredibly pleased with this blanket and hope that you will like it too! ​
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​Whilst in Mysore in January I was inspired to make the new version of the design by a traditional Indian woven carpet design I saw in one of the many fabulous handicraft stores. It was similar to the one shown in the image below.
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Over the course of February and into early March I produced my new version of the design and was very fortunate to be supported by US yarn company Mary Maxim who have now released the kits for the new colour way and the original dark blue version shown below.
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Please note that Persian Tiles Sandalwood is only available as a yarn kit via Mary Maxim. We do not have a yarn sub document we can supply outside of the kit so please do not email asking for one!

If you want some ideas for your own colourway you can join the dedicated Facebook Group. You can get a download version of the pattern via Ravelry or a paper brochure or yarn kit for the original or light blue version via the Janie Crow web site.
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Fruit Garden CAL
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The patterns for Part 3 of the Fruit Garden CAL were released on Tuesday (26thMay). The patterns feature the Clementine Motif and 3 more rounds that need to be added to the Acanthus Motif. You can find all the patterns so far by following this link.
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I know that many of you have already completed your pieces or that you are well on the way to doing so, but if you are in need of a bit of support, you can find my accompanying video on my Youtube channel helpful. In the video I demonstrate surface crochet and show you how to make the leaves that feature in quite a few of the forthcoming motifs, I also talk you through how to made dtr3tog (tr3tog in US terms) and how to make a neat picot at the top of the cluster that the decrease stitch makes. I hope you will take a look.

Support the Maker

Two weeks ago Juliet Bernard and I got together via Zoom and recorded a short chat that has now been published on the Stylecraft Youtube Channel. You can find it my following this link.

The chat focused somewhat on The Fruit Garden CAL, but as Stylecraft had previously asked people to send in questions, I got to talk about other aspects of my career too. Because we are all still in some form of lockdown the video quality is not great, but I hope that there might be something within the film that you will find interesting or useful. 
 
You can find another video that Stylecraft recorded back in early March, where I talk about the inspiration for the Fruit Garden CAL, by following this link.

Fruity Knitting - 101st Episode

Last week I told you that Andrea and Andrew from Fruity Knitting had celebrated the 100th edition of their podcast. This week they have released their next episode and I was really excited to see that Angela has been busy working on her version of my Bohemian Blooms blanket. The episode also focusses on knitted animation, something that I found really interesting too.
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It's nearly the Weekend!

We are really enjoying having a little more time at home now that the lovely Sue works the afternoon shift at the studio and we head home. On a Friday our new shift pattern feels even more special as it is like being allowed to get out of school early and start the weekend sooner - even though we still have a mountain of stuff to do!

The weather here in North London has been glorious all week and it is set to remain that way, so we are hoping to have some time in the garden and enjoy a couple of local walks. I hope that wherever you are you are safe and happy and I will see you back here again soon...

​A Reminder about Postage

At Janie Crow and Just Knots Yarns we use Royal Mail as our postal service provider. Royal Mail continues to operate most worldwide postal services and we have not yet been hugely affected by issues with the post. Things can change quickly, so if you are wondering about the mail service to your country, you can check up via the Royal Mail ‘Personal Help’ page here.
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