Pillow Talk

Janie's Friday FeaturE

Welcome to this week's Friday Feature Newsletter - the Janie Crow equivalent of a Sunday supplement magazine....

I hope this email finds you well. There has been a flurry of new sign ups to the mailing list this week, so I would like to extend a warm welcome to all those of you who have not been here before. I hope you will enjoy this week's newsletter and that you will join me here again over the forthcoming weeks and months.

It has, as always been another busy week here at Janie Crow. I am continuing to add new items to the web site in a rather slow and methodical way! This week sees the addition of the Sunshine and Showers PDF patterns, which I mention in more detail further down this email and I have also added a stockist list.

We have been having really slow internet connection here this week, so I have been crocheting alternative colour way motifs for the Delft competition while I patiently (!) wait for pages to load on the web site as I build them. There will be more news on the competition finalists soon and I will be sending out emails to inform the 5 finalists that they have been shortlisted early next week - so if you have sent in an entry, make sure you check your in box!

This week's newsletter focusses on the humble cushion! I love cushions, maybe not quite as much as I love blankets, but they are still one of my favourite things within the house. I love the decorative effect they have and of course the fact that they envoke comfort, but I also really like designing them as they are small and neat and can have lots of design elements squeezed into them. I have a new cushion design coming very soon, hopefully in time for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival. As soon as it is ready I will let you know.

It is a pretty dull and dismal afternoon here in North London, despite a promising bright start this morning. If it is similar weather where you are, then it might just be the perfect time to settle down with a cuppa and a cheeky biscuit, while you read this week's newsletter. Why not make yourself extra comfy and grab a cushion or two?

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'Last night I dreamt I ate a ten pound marshmallow. When I woke up the pillow was gone!'
- Tommy Cooper -

Cushion Crazy!

Cushions and pillows are now considered an integral part of interior decor and we don't really give them much thought other than to decide whether or not we like the design element of them. Historically, however, the humble cushion has been a really key item in regards to showcasing wealth and social standing.

It is believed that the earliest example of the existence of cushions as we know them comes from Mesopotania around about 7000 BC. There are no physical remains of them, but carved decorative friezes from around this time depict the use of pillows. At this time it is believed that cushions and pillows were luxury items associated with wealth. This idea is absolutely logical as the poor would not have been able to afford even the most simple of clothes, as fabric was an expensive and hard to come by commodity and so fancy items like a cushion or bedding was very much out of their reach economically.

We can see from the items found in tombs that the Egyptians also had ideas as to what use a cushion or pillow should have. There are examples of simple wooden framed beds that would probably have had mattresses and pillows made of wool or straw, but the items that often fascinate us - and which have a link to cushions and pillows in regards to word derivation any way - are the stone or wooden head rests, such as the one taken from the tomb of  Tutankhamun shown below:
 

These headrests were used to support the heads of the dead. The Egyptians considered the head of a human to be the essence of life and therefore sacred, so it was important to them that bodies, and especially heads, were well cared for within the process of burial. This may explain why the Latin word for pillow or cushion 'Pulvinis' shares its origin with the word pulpit, meaning a platform or raised structure.

In ancient Europe the Greek and Roman civilisations also used cushions and, once again, they were considered as works of art that reflected the taste and wealth of the owner. In China, however, the tradition of hard platform style 'pillows' continued. These possibly had some form of fabric cover and padding, but we cannot be sure this is the case.
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Floor cushions and mattresses as we know them today seem to have originated in Japan and by the mid 19th Century the Industrial Revolution meant that many things, previously unobtainable by the majority of people, became more affordable and thus more common place.
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Advances in dying and weaving meant that more people could afford fabric and thus cushions. The Victorian middle classes had a habit of doing everything to an extreme and so the OTT style of their home decor often included an abundance of flouncy cushions! These may have been purchased, but were also often hand made by the ladies within the home and may well have featured hand embroidery and home made lace - no doubt crochet would also have been included as trims and focal points too.

Widespread travel in the 20th Century has meant that many more types of cushions, such as bean bags and floor cushions, have become a common feature of home decorating, but this mass production has in turn meant that there are fewer points of difference between one cushion and another. Perhaps this is why the last couple of decades has seen a trend in crafters wanting to create their own from scratch.
 

Over the years I have designed lots of cushion covers and you will find both hand knitted and crocheted versions in my books Kaleidoscope and Homespun Vintage. I am hoping to get these onto the web site next week along with my brochure pattern for the Norwegian Wood cushion, which is a hand knit pattern, shown above. It is taking me longer than expected to get the new web site up to speed, but as I said in my introduction this week, I am getting there slowly. I also have a new cushion design on the cards, so do look out for more info soon.
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 Tip of the week
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We were really lucky to have some 'homegrown' help on our stand at VKLive New York back in January in the shape of the lovely Robin Schogol. I first met Robin last summer when she popped into the studio while she was visiting the UK and it was a lovely surprise when she offered to come and help up on the stand.

Robin has been going through a really big house move (from the US to the UK) and so we have been talking via email about the stress of moving and I was really touched to hear about Robin's method of relaxing in relation to my Mystical Lanterns design and I thought it you might like to hear about it this week. Robin says:

'When I have trouble sleeping in the middle of the night, or if I feel stress during the day, I just imagine some of the lanterns from the pattern, and the shapes and colours soothe me and I calm down. If it's in the night, I can fall back asleep!'

I taught a Mystical Lanterns workshop at the Unravel show a fortnight ago and this week one of the participants, Sonia, sent me an image of her completed shawl (just 9 days later!). I know that Sonia is a light sleeper and often crochets during the night, so (with her permission) I have shared the image of her shawl as it ties in with Robin's meditation tip. Sonia's lovely shawl - shown above - was made using Jamieson's Spindrift, Noro and Kauni yarns.

Many Janie Crow stockists carry yarn packs for my original Mystical Lanterns designs, which includes a blanket, a shawl and a scarf. You can find the stockist list on the web site.
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What's New?

​This week I have added the PDF patterns for the Sunshine and Showers Crochet Along project to the web site. Patterns for the project are available for free on my archived blog, which you can find by following this link, but the PDF patterns can be purchased for 95p each by following this link.
 

The Sunshine and Showers CAL was first published in Crochet Now magazine over the course of a year in 2016/17. The inspiration for the design was the great British weather (!) and each month saw a different theme, for example, in July and August the design was based on sunny skies and pretty flowers, whereas in January the focus was grey snowy weather, represented by a series of puff stitches. There are a total of 12 patterns.

Like all my crochet along projects I tried to design this one in a way that made it progressively harder so that crocheters could build up their skills. All patterns include step-by-step images and detailed written instructions throughout. The patterns are written in UK terminology.
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Someone shared this cute video by Pixar Sparkshorts on a Facebook group that I belong to this week. I thought you might like it too! The video is called Purl and there are some great yarny puns throughout the clip. My favourite:

Question: Why do Spider's weave webs?

Answer: Because they don't know how to crochet!'
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Colour Palette of the Week

​This week's palette of colours is a 'ready made' one that I found on Instagram on a feed called Luneandluxe.

I follow #cushions on Instagram and had planned to include an image of an Indian style embroidered cushion group this week, but when I stumbled across this image I couldnt resist using it for this week's palette.
 

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I think there is something really appealing about velvet cushions. I am not sure if my love for them is down to my 1970s childhood or whether it is to do with the luxurious nature of the cloth that just makes the colours seem so appealing. Either way I am smitten with this lovely palette.
 

Instagram Favourite

You don't have to know me all that well to realise that I am a real sucker for puppies! Actually, not just puppies - I am a total canine freak! I follow lots of dog related feeds on Instagram and my daughter and I regularly exchange images and short videos of our four legged friends - I swear there isn't a day goes by when I don't receive or send a dog or puppy related alert. And so, can you imagine my sheer delight when Emma Boyles from The Little Grey Sheep shared the fact that her shepherdess Susie Parish has a pair of new sheep dog puppies....
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I have been smitten by these two all week! They are called Bruce and Wren and if you want to get to know them a little better, along with Susie's other dazzling dogs, then take a look at her Instagram feed by following this link.

If you're not a dog fan, don't be put off of following Susie - there are lots of other really interesting posts on her feed, most of which surround her love of the countryside, animals and (of course) wool!
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It's nearly the weekend!

I will be teaching a crochet design workshop at Missenden School of Creative Arts this weekend. I am really looking forward to it as I love the excitement and creativity of design based classes. I will do my best to get some images onto social media so you can see what the group come up with.

It is continuing to scare me just how fast the weeks are going by and I never feel like I quite do the Friday Feature newsletter justice as it always seems like a bit of a rush to cram it into the schedule, so if you have anything you would like to contribute then please do get in touch. Whether you have a neat knitting or crochet tip, or even if you want to write something more in depth or show case your own work, then I would love to hear from you.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend whatever it is that you have planned and I look forward to welcoming you to another newsletter next Friday when I hope to include a piece about the legacy of the famous Ballet Russes. Until then I send crochet love and yarny kisses

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