The last couple of weeks have been a little quieter here at Janie Crow so it has been lovely to relax back into some time at home, especially as we have just had the long Easter weekend which provided a little extra time off than normal. The garden is bursting into life around me as we head full throttle into spring and it has been so fabulous to be able to spend some time pottering around outside at last, although this week the weather is giving us sporadic April showers, so I am not getting too complacent about the improving weather just yet! I have a few things to tell you about this week so I hope you can spare a some of your precious time to catch up with all things Janie Crow. It is hard to believe that today marks the 3 year anniversary of the day we released the Getting Ready information for The Fruit Garden Crochet Along project which I released in collaboration with Stylecraft Yarns just a few weeks into lockdown. When I was designing this project there was no way of predicting what was ahead of us, but it soon became abundantly clear that many crocheters were finding much needed solace by working through this crochet along. The design was inspired by a visit to Kelmscott Manor in Oxfordshire where I saw the incredible embroideries of William Morris’s daughter May, and could immediately see how I could use her work as the basis for a crochet design. This project means a huge amount to me and I am incredibly proud of it. Not only in terms of its design, but also in regards to how working through it created a valuable lifeline for so many crocheters during unprecedented times. We are really looking forward to exhibiting at Wonderwool Wales next weekend (22nd & 23rd April) and hope to see some of you there. Andy has been busy getting some kits put together for us to sell at the show including the Mystical Lanterns scarf kit, the Fruit Garden blanket kit in Parchment and Caramel and a new version of the Magic Circles wrap, which has 'Dusk' included in place of the discontinued shade Autumn Fields from the Eden Cottage range of Milburn DK. We will also have kits for the Sandalwood version of Persian Tiles and lots of items from our Emma Ball and Janie Crow collaborative range. I have been working on a new CAL design for the last few weeks, but have recently ditched my original ideas and started again! I am in the process of rethinking my colour palette and have made a new Pinterest board. It can be really frustrating when ideas don't work out, but I am feeling more confident about my new ideas and hopefully I can incorporate bits of the sampling I have already done into the new design. With the clock ticking and the deadline looming I need to get my skates on with this design now, so I have my fingers crossed that I won't have another blip! I have recently worked alongside my fabulous Graphic Designer, Steph, to create a new Janie Crow catalogue which is available to download here. Having a browse through the catalogue is a great way to see the Janie Crow collection in one place and it includes some background information about the designs. Steph has made it all look so lovely and I am incredibly pleased with it. We have sent the file off to print, so we should have some physical copies within the next couple of weeks. We have continued to see increased sales of my Persian Tiles patterns ever since Justin Bieber wore a version to the Oscars after party a few weeks ago. I am still reeling a little bit and can't quite believe that the blanket took centre stage at such a prestigious event! If any of you did happen to miss the Justin Bieber crochet blanket story, take a look at my Instagram feed for more info and images. Emma has been working on the video for the final part of the Sunshine and Showers project and should have that uploaded to our Youtube channel some time next week. I can't believe that a year has almost passed since we relaunched this crochet along project and I am so grateful to Emma for doing such a great job on the videos. STOP PRESS! Due to unforeseen circumstances there are now 2 places in a shared room on my week long crochet workshop in France in June. You can find more information here. I was so incredibly excited when the first boxes of Emma Ball and Janie Crow velvet cushions arrived last week that I immediately unpacked them and popped one of each design on our bed! I love them so much! The cushions come in 4 designs and we have already sold out of the Mystical Lanterns one, but don't worry - we will be getting more! Don't forget that we now have lots of items from the collaborative range in stock, including stitch markers, note pads and small note-lets as well as the tin items, project pouches and purses and tote bags! Due to cancellations there are still places left on the Arena Travel 'Knitting Traditions of Peru' trip with me as tutor in early September. Peru has the longest continuous history of textile production in the world, going back almost 10,000 years. Invented long before pottery and just as humans started agriculture, Peruvian fibre manipulation began with simple spun fibres but by 500 AD this rudimentary craft had developed into complex techniques. On our travels we’ll explore the processes involved in the production of textiles, including the most characteristic garment, the *chullo*, a knitted hat with an earflap and a calendar waistband that depicts the annual cycles of ritual and agricultural life, and we'll meet local artisans whose traditions have been passed down through the centuries. I am really excited by the prospect of this incredible trip to Peru, a country that has a rich history of intricate knitting traditions. When we think of Peru we imagine bright colours of lush vegetation, foliage and flowers and the incredible surface pattern of costumes, jewellery and artwork, as well as the breathtaking scenery and archaeological sites. I am sure this will be a truly inspirational trip and I am really looking forward to all that we will see and experience on this journey of a lifetime. You can find more information by following this link. There are also places left on my Stitch Yourself Happy - Crochet & Yoga workshop in July. Numerous studies have shown that crafting is just as beneficial for your personal wellbeing and mental health as Pilates, yoga and mindfulness are for both physical and mental health. Over the course of this weekend I will be tutoring beaded crochet workshops and, if you come along, you will get to do some lovely relaxing yoga too! Beaded crochet is a beautifully effective technique that is much simpler than you imagine. There is no need to learn any new stitches, the beads are just added into your crochet at certain stages of the stitch to create a really lovely effect. Participants will need to know how to work crochet basic crochet stitches and how to read a crochet pattern. A few weeks ago we introduced our lovely Gemma over on Instagram and you can find the post by following this link. If you have ever wondered what the members of my fabulous team do for Janie Crow, or simply want to put a face to a name, then do head over to our Instagram feed to take a look! On Sarah's advice I recently bought a copy of 'One Pot, Pan, Planet' by Anna Jones. It is a really lovely looking book with lots of recipes and interesting information about seasonal food and how to cook in a more economical and smart way to the advantage to both the planet and your pocket. We have tried quite a few recipes from the book, but the one we have now adopted as a firm favourite is the Sag Aloo Shepherds Pie, which is easy to make and is truly delicious. You can find the recipe here. I make the bean casserole part of the pie in my slow cooker then pop it in the oven to crisp up the mashed cauliflower, spinach and potato topping later on. As I settle back into the daily routine of working in the studio after what feels like weeks of events and deadlines, I have found myself looking forward to more moments of calm and TLC in my life and am once again trying to create some good habits like going to the gym and getting out of the house for a walk. Reading is one of the first things to go out of the window when my life is work heavy as I tend to find I can't concentrate and end up flicking mindlessly through my phone instead, so I have started a couple of new books this week too. One is Why Women Grow, by Alice Vincent (another recommendation from Sarah) and the other is a fascinating book about the ageing process called Ageless by Andrew Steele. I have the two books on the go at the same time as the Andrew Steele one is quite information heavy and includes quite a lot of long words that I have to look up so I am dipping into both of them depending on my mood and how tired I am! I have discovered a really great interiors feed to follow on Instagram called The Jungalow. The feed has so many lovely interior shots and is awash with fabulous colour combinations so it is fair to say that I am more than a bit hooked! The Jungalow feed is created by Justina Blakeney who has a personal feed that you can find here. This is also the kind of account you can loose a couple of hours rooting around in! At this time of year I always find myself making plans for the house and garden. We are hoping to finally complete the lean-to in the back garden this year by sorting out the paving and I also hope to give our little conservatory a bit of a revamp after it suffered some water damage during the winter. I must admit that when it comes to jobs within the house I tend to enjoy the planning stage more than the doing and am drawn to completing jobs in the garden rather than indoors first. No doubt the jobs in the conservatory will be weather dependant! We are hoping to take a trip to the Garden Centre at some point this weekend, but other than that I think it is set to be a couple of days of pottering around. I have been working on a new book over the last couple of weeks, so if the weather is a bit miserable and we have yet more rain, I might tuck myself away in the studio for a couple of hours of writing. I hope that wherever you are, and whatever you have planned that you will have a great weekend and that you stay safe. Janie x
Once again we have had a pretty bonkers couple of weeks here at Janie Crow and so I have a few things to tell you about this week. I have to admit I am really looking forward to a little bit of calm and serenity over the next couple of days as it has been so busy with us, but I always think that being busy is better than not being busy enough, so we are heading into our weekend full of positivity - despite the awful spring weather we are having! I hope that wherever you are and whatever plans you have for the next few days, that you have a few minutes to spare to catch up with all things Janie Crow We had a great time hosting the Knitting & Crochet Lounge at The Stitch Festival last Thursday and Friday, with lots of visitors joining us in the lounge to take the weight of their feet and make a small crochet flower which they could then attach to a Janie Crow keyring to take away with them as a memento. If you came to say hi to us at the Festival, it was lovely to meet you! The stand was really busy for the whole time we were at the show and it was wonderful to meet so many existing crocheters and to hear about how crochet has helped so many of you. It was incredibly positive to talk to crafters who had not considered learning to crochet before seeing the Janie Crow collection and we were so pleased to be able to head people up towards the wonderful Katie Jones who was busy teaching people to crochet on her fabulously colourful and inspirational stand. When we were packing up the stand we found that someone had left behind a lovely pair of hand knitted mitts. If this was you, please drop us an email so that we can return them to you. After a great time at the Stitch Festival we travelled to Cheshire to host a 4 day workshop at Nunsmere Hall. We had a great time with a group of 40 knitters and crocheters who worked through a small beaded pouch project, either in knit designed by Debbie Abrahams, or crochet designed by myself. Whilst in Cheshire we also managed to squeeze in a trip to visit Black Sheep Wools where we received a very warm reception from Sara and her lovely team. For today only (31st March) Mary Maxim are offering a 31% discount on any item in their store. The offer includes the best selling Sandalwood Persian Tiles kit and all the other Janie Crow kits too. Click on the image below for a link to the Mary Maxim website and use the code ONEITEM31 at checkout. The fourth pattern part of the Spirit of Flora CAL project, Tudor Rose was released in issue 156 of Inside Crochet Magazine on the 16th of this month. The Tudor Rose, which takes its name from the royal House of Tudor is the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England. The stylised rose was adopted by the Arts and Crafts Movement as a symbol of peace and unity. William De Morgan liked to use the flower within his tile designs, often depicting them in larger and smaller scale with outer and inner petals around a central circle. The complete version in the image above is a little more random than the one already shown in the magazine and it has a fancier edging that features a flower motif inspired by William De Morgan's more 'Arabesque' style tile designs. You can see by the image that I have also made a matching cushion using a motif that will feature in the magazine in the late summer/early autumn. You can find a little video from the shoot on my Instagram feed by following this link. We now have project bags, pencil cases, pouches and greetings cards from the Emma Ball range in stock. You can find the Janie Crow and Emma Ball collection by following this link. Velvet cushions and tote bags are on their way next week so do keep an eye out for those. You can check out our YouTube video where Emma and I talk about the collection here and I have also posted our live chat on our Instagram Feed. If you're looking for a tasty lunch or snack recipe, these Thai Red Vegetable Fritters are really tasty. You can find the recipe on the Riverford website by clicking on the image above. We enjoyed reading this story about Jorden, a young man in Melbourne, Australia who, with the help of his teacher, set up a Craft Club at his school after discovering crochet during lockdown. (Photo ABC Takeover Melbourne) If you are a knitter who likes the idea of a colourful challenge then you might be interested to know that my good friend Debbie Abrahams has now launched her Mystery Cushion Club. In June 2022 Debbie's dear friend and best friend to her husband Steve, Kyle Ringland, took his own life after suffering from severe depression. On the outside Kyle was a fun-loving, happy guy who was the life and soul of the party, always with a story to tell and a joke up his sleeve. However, on the inside things couldn’t have been more different. Kyle’s last wish was that any money raised in his memory be donated to the charity Mind. Mind gives help and support to people with mental health issues which have risen steeply in the UK over the past few years, and consequently they are in desperate need of funds to enable them to continue all their valuable work. One in four people suffer with mental health problems, however, like Kyle, most of them don’t get the help they need. Mind fight for people who have mental health issues to raise awareness and build the support network they need in everyday life. Debbie is supporting this charity and fulfilling Kyle’s wish by donating £5 out of the profit of every Mystery Cushion membership to Mind. If you decide to join Debbie's fabulous club this year, with your contribution Debbie and Steve hope they can help make a difference and give people who suffer with mental health issues the opportunity to get the lifesaving help and advice that Kyle never got. You can find more information about Debbie's Cushion Club by following this link. NEW! We launched our first catalogue in 2020 and have updated it this year to include our up to date range of crochet and knit projects. Click on the image above to be taken to the download catalogue. Print copies are coming soon! I had a fabulous time last Saturday afternoon being interviewed as part of the latest Rowan Connect event. It was really nice to chat about my knit and crochet related travels and the background of some of my designs, so thank you to all those of you who took the time out of their weekend to virtually join me. The interview was followed on Saturday evening by the engagement party of our beautiful niece and her partner Charlie and then on Sunday we drove to Cheshire to set up our residential workshop event, which we drove back from yesterday. It has been a busy, busy week and as a result I am really looking forward to a much quieter couple of days this weekend. I have a little work to do as I have a deadline next Friday, so I will be heading up here to my garden studio to work on a new project for a few hours on Saturday, but I am also planning some family time and some cooking - two of my favourite things! I hope that your weekend is set to be a good one too! Yarny hugs... Janie x
We will be at the Stitch Festival next week, which is taking place at the Business Design Centre here in North London. The festival takes place over four days from Thursday next week through to Sunday. We will be there on Thursday and Friday as we are sponsoring the Knitting and Crochet Lounge. We will have patterns and some items from the Emma Ball collaborative collection for sale over the 2 days we are there and Sarah, Gemma and I will be there to guide crocheters through a little crochet flower design that I've called Spring Blossom. If you're coming to the show I hope you will be able to drop by to stand G36 to make a flower that you can add to a Janie Crow wooden key ring. The project is free of charge if you complete a flower on the day and it would be really lovely to see some of you on the stand. If you want to get a reduced price on your ticket for the show you can use the code JCROW23 at checkout. This week has seen the release of another motif for the Spirit of Flora CAL and you can find more information about that a little lower down. I have been putting the fishing touches to some aspects of the design this week and have now decided on all the extra projects that will accompany the blanket layouts that we have shown you already. With the design side of the project almost over for me I have started work on a couple of new and exciting projects - one of which is a crochet techniques book and the other which will be a new CAL for Stylecraft that we are aiming to reveal to you in the late autumn. With a residential workshop on the horizon and a show next week, it has felt like I have bitten off a little more than I can chew a couple of times this week, but now that I have managed to make a bit of an inroad into both the new projects I am feeling a little calmer about my workload and have started to relax into them and enjoy the process. As one of the patrons of the UK Knitting and Crochet Guild I am passionate about the promotion of yarn crafts in this country and am very keen that as many of you as possible understand the value of the incredible historic collection of knit and crochet related artefacts that the guild own. The Guild have a collection open day this coming Tuesday the 21st March and a couple more over the next few months. The collection is housed in Britannia Mill, Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire and their open days are free to attend. You can find more information by following this link. If any of you did happen to miss the Justin Bieber crochet blanket story this week, take a look at my Instagram feed for more info and images. It's been really great this week to see your reaction to the new design for the Spirit of Flora CAL which is being published in Inside Crochet magazine. The motif this month is called Tudor Rose, which takes its name from the royal House of Tudor and is the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England. The stylised rose was adopted by the Arts and Crafts Movement as a symbol of peace and unity. William De Morgan liked to use the flower within his tile designs, often depicting them in larger and smaller scale with outer and inner petals around a central circle. There's a series of tiles that are blue Tudor roses on a cream background. There are also some tiles with red roses with leaves and thorny stems on a white background. This is the first piece that I designed for the Spirit of Flora crochet along and I really enjoyed making a flower that had layers of petals and leaves. I think it would be really lovely worked in lots of different colourways and hope that those of you joining in the CAL are already enjoying working through the pattern. We have seen some really lovely versions of the CAL cropping up on social media and over in the dedicated Facebook Group, which now has almost more than 5500 members. You can find it by following this link. We finally have Mystical Lanterns mugs in stock! We had no idea how many to order and so might have got our estimation way off, so if the stock sells out quickly please be assured we will get some more! You can find them here. Our daughter, Summer, recently worked her way through the Fruit Garden 1000 piece jigsaw and took a time lapse video of her progress. You can find it on Instagram here. Don't forget that we now have lots of items from the collaborative range in stock, including stitch markers, note pads and small note-lets as well as the tin items, project pouches and purses. Due to cancellations there are now 2 places left on the Arena Travel 'Knitting Traditions of Peru' trip with me as tutor in early September. Peru has the longest continuous history of textile production in the world, going back almost 10,000 years. Invented long before pottery and just as humans started agriculture, Peruvian fibre manipulation began with simple spun fibres but by 500 AD this rudimentary craft had developed into complex techniques. On our travels we’ll explore the processes involved in the production of textiles, including the most characteristic garment, the *chullo*, a knitted hat with an earflap and a calendar waistband that depicts the annual cycles of ritual and agricultural life, and we'll meet local artisans whose traditions have been passed down through the centuries. I am really excited by the prospect of this incredible trip to Peru, a country that has a rich history of intricate knitting traditions. When we think of Peru we imagine bright colours of lush vegetation, foliage and flowers and the incredible surface pattern of costumes, jewellery and artwork, as well as the breathtaking scenery and archaeological sites. I am sure this will be a truly inspirational trip and I am really looking forward to all that we will see and experience on this journey of a lifetime. You can find more information by following this link. There are also 2 places left on my Stitch Yourself Happy - Crochet & Yoga workshop in July. Numerous studies have shown that crafting is just as beneficial for your personal wellbeing and mental health as Pilates, yoga and mindfulness are for both physical and mental health. Over the course of this weekend I will be tutoring beaded crochet workshops and, if you come along, you will get to do some lovely relaxing yoga too! Beaded crochet is a beautifully effective technique that is much simpler than you imagine. There is no need to learn any new stitches, the beads are just added into your crochet at certain stages of the stitch to create a really lovely effect. Participants will need to know how to work crochet basic crochet stitches and how to read a crochet pattern. I started collaborating with Mary Maxim in the US and Canada a few years ago. Working alongside them means that I can enable my designs to reach an audience that would otherwise find the postage costs of my kits prohibitive and has also meant that I get to play with some lovely yarns and experiment with new versions of existing designs. The first design they stocked a yarn kit for were the original and light blue versions of Persian Tiles and a few months down the line I created the Sandalwood colourway, which has proved very popular. Recently the team at Mary Maxim have created some more versions of the Persian Tiles pattern, which they have advertised under the name of Rose Garden. There are now 4 colour ways to choose from and you can find them here. We had a really nice time at the Yorkshire Yarn Festival a few weeks ago. We had a big stand in the Great Hall upstairs at the pretty venue and were so pleased to have so many people pop along to say hello! On the Friday evening I attended a Q&A session by knitwear designer Rachel of Unwind Knitwear who I urge you to take a look at as her work is just so lovely. On Saturday evening it was my turn to take the stand to talk about my background and my crochet work. It was so kind of organiser Sophie to allow me to talk at people for half an hour and especially great to hear how many people have come over to the 'dark side' as a result of seeing my designs. The next festival will be held in November so if you fancy going, check out the website for more information. I think it will be a fabulous venue and show in the lead up to Christmas - perfect for yarny gift finding! We had planned to introduce you to the lovely Gemma over on Instagram this week, but with the Justin Bieber blanket mayhem we have moved the post to next week. If you have ever wondered what the members of my fabulous team do for Janie Crow, or simply want to put a face to a name, then do head over to our Instagram feed to take a look! This month marks 3 years since Andy and I became vegetarian - a decision we have never regretted and so I am really pleased that March is officially Veggie Month here in the UK. We cut out meat partly because we were in lockdown with our son, Charlie who was already vegetarian, but also because we were becoming more and more concerned about the global meat trade. Whatever your opinion on the way meat is farmed and processed, it is now recognised that eating less meat is good for you and the environment so I hope you have enjoyed seeing the vegetarian recipes we have been sharing within the newsletters over the last few years. You can find them all featured over on the blog. I asked Andy which is his favourite recipe find of the last couple of years and he said it was Dishoom's Gunpowder potatoes. I agree! They are truly delicious and so easy to make that they have become a regular item in the Crowfoot kitchen. You can find the recipe here. You may have seen the current trend for fashion houses to promote the idea of visible mending and mending in general. The fashion company TOAST have been running lots of workshops along this theme. I attended one of them that was about mending knitwear, which was really interesting and they've also had some events surrounding visible mending and sewing techniques. TOAST now have a range of reinvented clothes that they have called Renewed - you can find it by following this link. Zara have also jumped on the bandwagon of mending with their new range called Pre-Owned. It's something that of course our grandparents did without even thinking about it, but hopefully more and more of us are going to start to thinking about mending our clothes before passing them along the line to others. We have had a myriad of weather here in North London over the last couple of weeks with a sprinkling of snow last Tuesday followed by lots of rain and wind, but the bright patches are starting to appear and I have noticed it is much lighter in my garden studio through to the early evening. I am really excited by the prospect of the official start of spring here in the UK on Monday.
We have a busy weekend ahead as it is Charlie's birthday on Monday too, so I am panning a bit of cake making (Lemon Drizzle is his favourite) and we have family coming for lunch on Sunday. I would love to know what you have planned for the weekend and especially what you currently have on your hook. Don't forget to tag us into any images of your projects that you share on social media. Sending virtual yarny hugs to you all Janie x It has been a busy couple of weeks here at Janie Crow and this weekend finds us at The Yorkshire Yarn Festival where we will be exhibiting our wares for the weekend. We are so excited to be out and in show mode again. Whilst the weather has been bright but still chilly here in North London I have been trying to get out and about a bit for some local walks. It has been good to finally see the daffodils and crocuses making an appearance and bringing some spring time cheer. The hyacinths on the window sill in my kitchen and my incredibly prolific amaryllis (which currently has 6 flowers in bloom) have definitely kept my spirits up alongside a few bunches of daffodils! Flowers are such a healing power don't you think? Maybe that's why they always end up making an appearance in my designs, even when I am trying not to create them in crochet! I have been putting the finishing touches to some of the motifs and projects that will be part of the Spirit of Flora CAL and, as we head into March, we are looking forward to some new projects that will be out in the wild soon. I have a few things to tell you about this week and hope that you have the time and inclination to catch up with our news.. Three motif patterns that make up part of the Spirit of Flora CAL project have now been released via Inside Crochet Magazine with the fourth pattern, Tudor Rose, coming soon. It has been fabulous seeing versions of the motifs cropping up on social media and especially great to see those that have been made using alternative colours. Last week I was lucky enough to attend another photo shoot with the magazine team where we shot images of the my alternative blanket layout. This version is a little more random than the one already shown in the magazine and it has a fancier edging that features a flower motif inspired by William De Morgan's more 'Arabesque' style tile designs. You can see by the image that I have also made a matching cushion using a motif that will feature in the magazine in the late summer/early autumn. You can find a little video from the shoot on my Instagram feed by following this link. Over Christmas I worked on creating a new colourway of my Mystical Lanterns pattern. Annabelle at Stylecraft has also come up with a new colourway so we will be releasing a yarn shade substitution document, which will also show the layout for a shawl project, over the next couple of months. At the moment we are hoping this will be ready for May. Whilst on the subject of new colourways, I am really excited to reveal that my good friend Lucia of Lucia's Fig Tree has also been working on some new versions of my designs too. I am looking forward to showing you her version of Indigo Dreams, which we are tentatively calling Rainbow Dreams, soon. The Glad Tidings Wrap was designed as the Advent project for Jimmy Beans Wool in December 2021. The original design used 16 mini skeins of yarn, with a new shade added to the design each day in the lead up to Christmas. The design is a great stash-buster if you have lots of little bits of left over 4-ply yarn, or you could use a curated collection of mini skeins. The wrap is made by working a central crochet band which is added to daily. In the Jimmy Beans version the colours used on each side of the central band pretty much matched each other in terms of colour and we have made a version using Scheepjes Whirl, which does the same. You could create a quite different effect by using random shades or treating the wrap like a 'temperature' project where you assign colours to different temperatures and select your yarn according to the warmth of the weather that day. The pattern has been amended so that it is not in a crochet along style. You can purchase the paper brochure pattern (in UK or US terms) by following this link, or you can find download versions on Etsy and Ravelry. If you have been patiently waiting for Persian Tiles Sandalwood kits to come back into stock then you might be pleased to hear that we have them in stock now! Follow this link for more information We will be taking over the Knit & Crochet Lounge at the Stitch Festival at the Business Design Festival here in London in March. You can find more information by following this link and you can get a discount on tickets by entering the code JCROW23 at checkout. It would be great if you could come along and join us on the stand where we will be making little crochet flowers that you could add to a free Janie Crow key ring! We now have project bags, pencil cases, pouches and greetings cards from the Emma Ball range in stock. You can find the Janie Crow and Emma Ball collection by following this link. You can check out our YouTube video where Emma and I talk about the collection here and I have also posted our live chat on our Instagram Feed. As I said already, Andy and I are exhibiting at Yorkshire Yarn Festival this weekend. The show organiser, Sophie from Botanical Yarns, has lined up some really fabulous fellow exhibitors and I will feature as the guest at the Saturday evening craft night event where I will be doing a short presentation and Q&A session. Tickets are still available for both days, although tickets are now in short supply for Saturday. You can purchase them in advance by following this link. Tickets for workshops and my Q&A session on Saturday night are also still available. You can find more information by following this link. Hi, Gemma here. Last Friday I was lucky enough to visit the Unravel Yarn Festival in Farnham, Surrey, together with my good friend Courtney. Interestingly Farnham, around 36 miles southwest of London, has the status of a World Craft Town, something I wasn't aware of until I read the informative show guide that was included in the reasonable ticket price of £12. Timed tickets were available in advance giving entry throughout the morning, with some tickets available on the door too, for a couple of pounds more than the advance price. These two look like trouble! That's me on the right, we might look it but we're not actually related The show is hosted by Farnham Maltings, an Arts & Cultural organisation, who you can find out more about here. Farnham itself is a really lovely market town, with a surprising number of independent shops to explore (when there isn't the urgent business of attending a yarn show of course). On arrival we were greeted with the art installation 'Seed of Hope' by Diana Burch, representing the connections between people and nature. All of the connecting cells were bound by hundreds of local people and drop in sessions were running across the weekend for visitors to get involved with binding the laurel cuttings with recycled wool. Once inside the building there were two floors to explore, with 75 exhibitors in total spread throughout several interconnecting spaces. It felt quite crowded at times but not too uncomfortably so, although I expect it might have been busier on the Saturday and Sunday. There were beautiful yarns on display as far as the eye could see. We spotted the Glad Tidings Wrap that Sarah Hazell worked up adorning the Knitting Shed's stall and it's even prettier in the flesh than in the photo. The primary focus of this show is hand-dyed yarn, with the majority of stalls offering a highly tempting array of the most beautiful colours you can imagine. There were rainbow bright colours on some stalls alongside more muted, sultry colours, some of which you can see here on the Urban Purl's stall. Courtney and I found that two hours was enough time to visit and browse all the stalls we were interested in and, although refreshments were available in the venue, we decided to head back into the town centre to find somewhere for lunch (and to compare our purchases of course). Courtney's haul Mine - I just have to learn to knit & crochet faster now! We both enjoyed the show as the range of stalls and the manageable size of the show was fabulous, so we will be getting next year's date in the diary as soon as it's announced! Gemma works a really long day teaching crochet on Wednesdays and always has to leave food prepared for her family. This week's offering was a roasted vegetable and lentil lasagne, from the Delicious Magazine website. Lasagne is always great for the winter as it's so warming and satisfying. If you fancy having a go at the recipe click on the image below. We found this fascinating article from the Guardian newspaper about crochet patterns created through Artificial Intelligence. We're not sure designers need to feel threatened quite yet - which is a bit of a relief if we are honest! A Guinness World Record was broken in Derby last Friday, with 960 people crocheting simultaneously at the Derby Arena. The previous record was 604 people and was set in Australia in 2017. You can read all about it here or click on the image below. I have felt more inspired this week than I have for a while so I have packed my crochet hook and some yarn to take away to Yorkshire with me. I have finally started work on a new CAL design and so, as we have a long drive ahead of us, I hope that means plenty of hooky time for me! I hope that you have some nice plans for the next few days and that life treats you kindly whatever you have planned... Janie x
A speedy email to let you know that the Glad Tidings Wrap pattern is now available. The Glad Tidings Wrap was designed as the Advent project for Jimmy Beans Wool in December 2021.The original design used 16 mini skeins of yarn, with a new shade added to the design each day in the lead up to Christmas. The design is a great stash-buster if you have lots of little bits of left over 4-ply yarn, or you could use a curated collection of mini skeins. The wrap is made by working a central crochet band which is added to daily. In the Jimmy Beans version the colours used on each side of the central band pretty much matched each other in terms of colour and we have made a version using Scheepjes Whirl, which does the same. You could create a quite different effect by using random shades or treating the wrap like a 'temperature' project where you assign colours to different temperatures and select your yarn according to the warmth of the weather that day. However you choose to approach making the wrap, I hope you will enjoy creating this project.
This project was originally designed for Jimmy Beans in the US and was released in December 2021. When the pattern reverted to me in 2022 we ran the project as our own Advent CAL. The pattern has now been amended so that it is not in a crochet along style. You can purchase the paper brochure pattern (in UK or US terms) by following this link, or you can find download versions on Etsy and Ravelry. Thank you to everyone who purchased a copy of one of the Mystical Lanterns patterns last weekend. We were totally overwhelmed by the response to our effort to raise funds for the people of Turkey and Syria, so massively affected by the recent earthquake. We have totted up and donated all profit from the sales of both paper and download patterns and I am so pleased to say that we were able to make the most incredible donation of £3750 to the Disasters Emergency Committee. We are totally blown away by how much we managed to raise and are so grateful to all of you who bought a pattern. Thank you so much. I have started to think about a new CAL design and have picked out some yarn shades from a few of the Stylecraft ranges and will begin to whittle down the palette as I start the design process over the next couple of weeks. I have also made a new mood board on Pinterest, one of the aspects of starting a new design that I really love! It is at this stage that I can get a bit daunted by the task ahead of me. Designing a CAL is a huge process for me, so I am trying to think of it in bitesize pieces so that I don't get overwhelmed and then feel stagnated by seeing the end project in my head too soon. I like to have a rough idea of what the project is going to look like, but it is never set in stone at this stage. It is aways exciting to be on the brink of something new - especially in the stage before all the maths and calculations take over! We have a 'new' pattern release next week in the shape of the Glad Tidings wrap, which was previously released as a download only crochet along project on the lead up to Christmas. The pattern will be available in full (rather than split up in parts as it was for the CAL) from Tuesday next week. You will be able to choose from a download version via Etsy or Ravelry or a paper copy. The wrap is made using 4ply and is another great way of using up bits and bobs of left over yarns from your stash. You can find lots of lovely versions using the hashtags #gladtidingswrap on Instagram. image @insidecrochetmagazine Another couple of patterns to look forward to over the forthcoming months are the Gertrude and Muriel cushion covers, which were previously published in Inside Crochet Magazine. Emma is currently working on the step-by-step images and the final word check of the patterns, so we hope they will be out in the wild in the spring. Emma has been busy filming the last few videos to accompany the Sunshine and Showers crochet project. The video for Part 10 is now available to view on our YouTube channel which you can find here. Emma has come across these lovely Yarn Tags from Laurette Crafts. How lovely they look all wound with the yarn colours from Emma’s Mystical Lanterns project. They are such a good idea and the little ring means you can take them off, reorder them, reuse them and all sorts. Emma says they are Just gorgeous! Emma was waxing lyrical about them this week and then spotted them on another wonderful post on Instagram from @nanaseamakes too! Do have a look at their website as there are all sorts of lovely useful things on there which we definitely need and you might too! Today (Friday 17th February) is world 'Random Acts of Kindness Day' and it is just so so easy to get involved! Being kind and helping someone else - or even just being really nice to yourself is one of the best ways to feed your soul and make you feel great. Head over to The Random Acts of Kindness website for a load of ideas for what you could do to make someone's day! It has been fabulous seeing the most recent motif from my Spirit of Flora CAL, Merton Abbey, being made out in the wild. We have seen some really lovely versions of it on social media and over in the dedicated Facebook Group, which now has almost more than 4500 members. You can find it by following this link. The official images of the CAL were photographed at Emery Walker's House in Hammersmith, London. The house is a wonderful example of decor from the era of the Arts and Crafts Movement and it was a joy to visit. The house features quite a few exclusive wallpaper designs by William Morris, which we fell in love with when we were there, so we were really excited discover that some of the wallpapers are now being reproduced in collaboration with Morris & Co. Take a look at Emma's lovely Instagram post from today for more information. Some fabulous new items have been added to the Emma Ball & Janie Crow Collection over the last couple of weeks including notebooks, yarn cards (which I am totally smitten by), chopping boards, fridge magnets and even jigsaws. We have stitch markers, note pads and small note-lets as well as the tin items for you to choose from. More items from the collection, such as tote bags, project pouches and mugs (shown in the image below) will come into stock in the early spring. You can check out our YouTube video where Emma and I talk about the collection here and I have also posted our live chat from a few months ago on our Instagram Feed. We will be exhibiting at the Yorkshire Yarn Festival in a fortnight's time and I hope that you might be able to come along to the show too! Tickets are still available for the 4th & 5th of March and you can purchase them in advance by following this link. If you would like to come to the show we have 6 pairs of free tickets to giveaway. To be in with a chance of winning them, all you need to do is reply to this email and tell me why you deserve the tickets for you and a friend. If you are successful in your application, we will send you the details of how to claim your tickets. Please only email if you are able to go to the show, which will be held at Sandburn Hall. The show organiser, Sophie from Botanical Yarns, has lined up some really fabulous fellow exhibitors and I will feature as the guest at the Saturday evening craft night event where I will be doing a short presentation and Q&A session. Tickets for workshops are also still available and you can find more information by following this link and clicking on the menu. We have been featuring short biographies of members of the Janie Crow team on Instagram over the last few weeks. I kicked things off with a quick post about me and that has since been followed by one about Andy and another one about Emma. Sarah and Gemma's biogs will be posted over the next couple of weeks. If you have ever wondered what the members of my fabulous team do for Janie Crow, or simply want to put a face to a name, then do head over to our Instagram feed to take a look! I have had quite a lot of time away from my desk this week and have been making the most of the brighter weather by getting out and about a little more. On Tuesday I visited the Cezanne exhibition at Tate Modern and yesterday I went into town to have a mooch around the Battersea Power Station development. With various other trips this week I will have travelled into London on 4 occasions, which is really unusual for me, despite living on the outskirts of the city. Travelling into town has been a really good way of feeding my soul and I feel blessed to have been able to get out and about. This weekend will be a busy one because we will be heading up to Birmingham tomorrow as I will be on the Stylecraft stand at the Stitches trade show at the NEC on Sunday and Monday. We are going to combine the trip with a lovely catch up with our fabulous JC team member Sarah and her husband Paul, so I am really looking forward to the next couple of days.
Next week is looking busy and I am also looking forward to a photoshoot at a location on the Columbia Road on Thursday. I will try to post a few images from that on social media so you can see what we are up to and maybe give you a few sneaky peeks of some Spirit of Flora pieces. I hope that you are also looking forward to your weekend. Don't forget that you can get in touch by hitting reply (especially if you want to win those pairs of free tickets for the Yorkshire Yarn Festival) and you can catch up with us via our Instagram and Facebook platforms. If you want to share your 'out in the wild' project images, please use the hashtags #janiecrow or #janiecrowpattern so that we can see what you are up to. Yarny hugs! Janie x PLEASE HELP US TO SUPPORT THE PEOPLE OF TURKEY AND SYRIA The devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria this week has taken at least 20,000 lives and has left 17 million people in the affected area, many of them injured, cold, hungry and misplaced. The people affected by this tragedy need urgent aid to survive, especially as they are experiencing freezing weather conditions. The Disasters Emergency Fund have launched an appeal to provide items that are desperately needed, such as blankets, shelter, food and access to clean water. We know many people across the world are having a hard time financially and it can be difficult to find the funds to give to an appeal like this, so we have decided to donate all profits from sales of our Mystical Lanterns pattern - from yesterday, today and tomorrow - to the DEC. Contributing in this way means that those of you who purchase the pattern can make a donation to the appeal and get a pattern in return. You can purchase a paper pattern via our website or you can download one via Etsy, Ravelry or Love Crafts. You can choose any of the three Mystical Lanterns patterns - we have them for a blanket, a shawl and a scarf.
This pattern is incredibly popular at the moment, possibly because of the Emma Ball collection which features the motif, so we are hoping that this will be the pattern that will raise a good amount for the charity. It is a great stash busting project and you can see many examples of it out in the wild on social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. Thank you so much for your support. I hope that life is treating you all well and that you are progressing into 2023 in health and happiness. I have been more than a bit foggy brained this week as I recover from the jet lag created by our return from India. I have been so looking forward to starting on some new projects so my lack of concentration has been frustrating. Hopefully next week I will be back to my normal and will finally get going on some new design work. I know I am incredibly fortunate to have been able to travel and I have some amazing memories to make up for the short attention span, so all is good here at Janie Crow! I have a few things to tell you about this week and hope that you have the time and inclination to catch up with our news... The team here at Janie Crow have done an incredible job holding the fort while Andy and I have been away in India with Knit For Peace. We have an ongoing issue with Royal Mail in regards to sending things abroad, but on the whole everything has been working tickety boo in our absence, so I am beyond grateful to have such fabulous people supporting me! Emma and Gemma have been doing a great job on our social media platforms, so do check out what they have been up to on Instagram and Facebook over the last couple of weeks. This week Emma has created some especially lovely posts on Instagram including one about the costumes within Netfilx's Wednesday, which prompted me to dig out the pattern for my Mexican Diamonds scarf and add it to the website as a free download. You can find it by following this link. Emma also shared links to a couple of crochet collars/capelets that I designed a few years ago that are very much in keeping with the Wednesday vibe. If you are looking for a crochet project kit we now have a good stock of quite a few of my designs, including The Blue House, Climbing Rose Wrap, Frida's Flowers and Primavera, The Fruit Garden Parchment and Caramel, Indigo and Crimson Dreams, Mexican Diamonds, Mystical Lanterns (which is seeing a real boom as the moment), Persian Tiles Eastern Jewels and Light Blue. Click on the images below to find more information about these projects. You can find patterns for all my designs on the website as paper copies or as downloads via Etsy and Ravelry. We are looking forward to exhibiting at our first show of the year, the Yorkshire Yarn Festival (more information lower down this email), at the beginning of March and have a few other shows lining up now, so I thought it would be a good time to let you know that we will be taking over the Knit & Crochet Lounge at the Stitch Festival at the Business Design Festival here in London in March. You can find more information by following this link and you can get a discount on tickets by entering the code JCROW23 at checkout. It would be great if you could come along and join us on the stand where we will be making little crochet flowers that you could add to a free Janie Crow key ring! The lovely Sarah Hazell, who carefully looks after all our pattern queries, has been rekindling her love of stitching in the weeks since Christmas and so I caught up with her this week to find out what she has been up to. Sarah has found a couple of great free workshops being run by TOAST which you can find more information about here and she also had a bit more to say about the pleasure she is beginning to find in stitching again after a bit of a break. Here is what she had to say: If you are anything like me then you may find January a difficult month to navigate. There is a huge pressure to ‘improve’ ourselves in all sorts of ways. I often think it is entirely the wrong time of year to start changing – the weather is grim and our immune systems are low, and yet this year I have found myself taking on not one, but three stitch challenges! I have stitched quite a lot in the past, but had lost my mojo. However, I kept coming across beautiful images on Instagram by Karen Turner and her #dailystitchjournal, and thought it was high time I gave myself a little window each day to place a few stitches without the pressure of it having to be something. Karen’s ethos is very much based on selecting whatever thread you feel like using each day and using your intuition to make marks and patterns. It sounds quite daunting, but having a grid to work from really helps. I find that the size and shape of each day on the grid helps me to think about how and what I want to stitch. Some days are more intuitive than others for me but I’m getting there! If you have ever been to Yarndale, then it is likely that you will have come across the fabulous stitchery of Anne Brooke. Anne is a textile artist and teacher who also alongside other workshops, sets a yearly challenge which this year is #52stitcheshannemade. I want to learn more about how stitches can be altered so decided to join in. Once subscribed you receive a video each week from Anne, demonstrating a stitch and suggesting creative ways to interpret and explore the it. Some people are making a book of stitches, others are working on panels. I am using a piece of furnishing fabric from Ikea that is divided into painterly squares. I am being very strict and limiting myself to a ‘seashore’ palette, otherwise I will get totally overwhelmed! I was really happy running these two projects side by side until I saw what Suraya Hussain is up to with her friend Tina Francis. If you have not come across their work before, please take a look at their boundless creativity. Suraya and Tina are not only good friends but share a passion for the power of stitch and how it can be used to measure time. Tina spent time in 2022 working on projects in the community that looked at time and memory and Suraya has been working on wraps and blankets to record daily temperatures to raise awareness of climate change. They have now joined together and are encouraging people to join in their ‘Sharing Stitches’ project. There is a video on Tina’s Instagram page where the two friends discuss past collaborations, stitch, yarn and friendship and a full explanation on how to record your days in stitch. There is an emphasis on using yarn that you already have. I had great fun sorting through my stash and assigning different colours to different temperatures. I don’t think it has to be climate based, but I am finding this not only interesting but a great way to keep me on track. I like the sense of purpose and intention behind this project and the connection it builds between stitchers. I’m still catching up at the moment so it really isn’t too late to join in! The Getting Started information and the first 2 patterns for my Spirit of Flora Crochet Along were published in Inside Crochet Magazine on January 5th. The next pattern, which I have called Merton Abbey will be featured in the next issue of the magazine which will be available next Thursday 9th February. There are some beautiful versions of the first few crochet blocks appearing out in the wild and I wanted to share some images with you to spur you on and motivate you. I am particularly pleased to see that so many of you are embracing the stash diving advice and are creating unique projects. Gemma has selected some images from the dedicated Facebook Group, which now has over 3500 members. You can find it and sign up by following this link. Amy Paoletti's cushion cover - beautiful tones of blue Liesl Kleu's Moffat Flower - so pretty Kylie Anderson's blocks - reminding me of Frida's Flowers! Hilary Lyall's blocks - a lovely vintage feel Karolyn Smalls - love all the different colourways Since Christmas I have been working on a new version of the blanket project, which features a more random layout. This new version also has an alternative edging too, which I designed with William De Morgan's more intricate 'Arabesque' border tiles in mind. I know from the Facebook group that many crocheters are starting to join their motifs together using the blanket layout that Inside Crochet have shared sneaky peek images of within the magazine. However, if you are working through the project it might be an idea to keep an open mind in these early stages as you may decide on your own blanket layout or might even want to make an alternative project such as a bag, a cushion or a shawl, ideas for which will all be featured in up-coming magazine issues. While searching for some more information about William De Morgan recently I came across the knitwear collection that Loewe designed using the ceramicist as their inspiration in 2019. It really is fabulous! You can take a look here. This is a quote from the site where you can find more information and images: 'De Morgan’s Persian and medieval-inspired influence on the Loewe De Morgan capsule permeates abundantly throughout – the ready-to-wear women’s, men’s and accessories pieces serve as a fantastical ode to the artisan, and a sartorial tribute to the enduring spirit of the imagination. From the embroidered indigo, cerulean and green peacock pattern that pieces together a trench coat (as though De Morgan himself stitched each thread), and the high drama of a woollen dragon’s tale and horned knitted beanie, to the collection’s quieter moments: floral motifs adorning Loewe’s signature leather Puzzle, Hammock and Gate bags, and neutral knitwear which feature the ceramicist’s iconic dodo silhouette.' I will be joining Emma on her stand at the Spring Fair trade show on Sunday and Monday at the NEC Birmingham. I am really looking forward to seeing the items from Emma's lovely collection on display and will post some images from the show on Monday so long as all goes to plan. We have some more items from the collection coming into stock next week, including greetings cards and notepads, so I am really looking forward to showing you these very soon. Don't forget that you can also support your local Emma Ball stockists. You can check out our YouTube video where Emma and I talk about the collection here and I have also posted our live chat from a few weeks ago on our Instagram Feed. Andy and I are already looking forward to exhibiting at Yorkshire Yarn Festival in early March. The show organiser, Sophie from Botanical Yarns, has lined up some really fabulous fellow exhibitors and I will feature as the guest at the Saturday evening craft night event where I will be doing a short presentation and Q&A session. Tickets are still available for the 4th & 5th of March and you can purchase them in advance by following this link. Tickets for workshops are also still available and you can find more information by following this link and clicking on the menu. If you're looking for a simple recipe that's very quick to prepare, Gemma recommends this Mushroom Stroganoff recipe from the BBC Good Food website. Gemma doubled up the ingredients to serve more than two. It was great for using up a glut of mushrooms and went down a storm with the family, no leftovers in sight! I love Friday afternoons with the promise of the weekend on the horizon. For us, Saturdays usually involve a lay-in with a good book and a lazy breakfast of eggs, either fried or poached, toast and lots of lovely coffee as we contemplate what to do with our day off. Tomorrow, however, Andy has an appointment for an MRI scan (for his sore shoulder) at 6.50am! Yes, you read that right! 6.50am! So this week our Saturday will involve a bit of a rude awakening, but hopefully they will get to the bottom of what is going on with Andy's shoulder and of course, we are incredibly lucky to have our fabulous NHS looking after us. At least we only have to get up early one Saturday whereas the hospital staff are there bright and early week in, week out.... We have been trying to be a bit more healthy since we got back from our trip to India and have been upping the exercise a little, so no doubt the weekend will involve a walk or two and a bit of batch cooking in a bid to stop us from picking between meals! I am of course hoping to find some time to plonk myself on the settee to crochet as I need to finish my new colourway of Mystical Lanterns and also hope to finish my current book 'Live Life in Crescendo', which I am finding a really good read. I hope that you have a good weekend and that life treats you kindly whatever you have planned... Janie x
I am writing this email from the gardens of The Green Hotel in Mysuru where I have been teaching a workshop for Knit for Peace. Sitting here in the relative tranquility of the garden it is hard to believe that we are just over a fortnight into the new year and that Christmas was only 4 weeks or so a go - it seems like a lifetime already! If you follow Janie Crow on Instagram then you may have seen that over the festive period we created a stream of posts that we called the '12 Days of Blankets' which ran from Christmas Day through to the 6th of January. Each day we featured a blanket design and shared images of the same project 'out in the wild' on our stories. It was a really successful idea, with many crocheters across the globe sharing their projects with the blanket hashtags so that we could see what they were up to. If you want to take a look you can still find the posts on our Instagram feed and each post features the relevant hashtag for the day. Over the next few weeks we will be featuring some of the projects that didn't make it into our 12 Days of Blankets feature, such as The Climbing Rose Wrap, which made an appearance on the feed a few days ago. On Day 4 of the event we featured my Fields of Gold Blanket with the promise that we would donate all proceeds from pattern sales that day to the UNHCR to help Ukrainian refugees. We tallied up the sales via our download portals and paper sales and were able to add the fabulous sum of £150 to our amazing fund-raising total, which now stands at of £5150. Thank you to everyone who got involved. We really appreciate your support. If you would like to make a donation to the UNHCR you can do so by following this link. Sharing the projects created by you guys 'out in the wild', such as the fabulous version of Fields of Gold made by Lizzie Montgomery shown above, is something we are passionate about here at Janie Crow so please make sure you use some hashtags so that we can find your posts on social media. Using #janiecrow or #janiecrowpattern on Instagram will help us find you, but if you also add the name of the project, such as #mysticallanternsblanket or #persiantilesblanket for example, then we have more chance of seeing and sharing your work. If you want to share images on Facebook then you can do so via the Janie Crow page which you can find here. Postal Services Just a quick note to say that we are still having an issue with sending post to countries outside of the UK. This is due to a cyber glitch with Royal Mail. Our website is currently taking orders but we will not be dispatching some of our post until we return from India week beginning 30th January. We hope that the postal service will have returned to normal by the time we are back to work. We thank you for your patience in advance. This time last week we left the cold, wet and windy UK to fly to Mysuru and since then we have been having a great time here in the warmth of this fabulous city. I am sure I will never tire of India. The people are so incredibly friendly and the city is so vibrant and colourful that it is a designers paradise! Last weekend was the Harvest Festival and so we were taken out to a village in the suburbs of Mysuru to see the festivities, which feature cows and oxen, which are sacred here, as an integral part. You can see from my images at the top of this email how adorned the animals are with many of them painted using turmeric and decorated with flowers and fruit. Like most of India, Mysuru was hit badly by covid so Knit For Peace continue to do great work out here helping to combat poverty, focussing in particular on the health and education of women and children. We hope to visit some of the projects before we go home next week. If you want to find out more about the work of Knit For Peace and receive any information about future trips, please head over the the KFP website by following this link. By the way - I learnt just before we came away (via Michael Portillo's Great Indian Train Journeys series) that the updated name for Mysore is Mysuru, so please excuse the fact that within this email I have used a few different ways of referring to this great city! The Getting Started information and the first 2 patterns for my Spirit of Flora Crochet Along were published in Inside Crochet Magazine on January 5th. The next pattern, which I have called Merton Abbey will be featured in the next issue of the magazine which will be available in February. It has been really exciting seeing versions of the first few crochet blocks out in the wild over the last couple of weeks and I am particularly pleased to see that so many of you are embracing the stash diving advice and are creating unique projects. The dedicated Facebook Group now has almost 3000 members and you can find it by following this link. Since Christmas I have been working on a new version of the blanket project, which features a more random layout. This new version also has an alternative edging too, which I designed with William De Morgan's more intricate 'Arabesque' border tiles in mind. I know from the Facebook group that many crocheters are starting to join their motifs together using the blanket layout that Inside Crochet have shared sneaky peek images of within the magazine. However, if you are working through the project it might be an idea to keep an open mind in these early stages as you may decide on your own blanket layout or might even want to make an alternative project such as a bag, a cushion or a shawl, ideas for which will all be featured in up-coming magazine issues. We have had such an amazing response to the Emma Ball & Janie Crow Collection already and I cannot wait to share more items from it over the next few months. Some stock items are now live on the website ready for you to take a look. We have stitch markers, note pads and small note-lets as well as the tin items for you to choose from. More items from the collection, such as tote bags, project pouches and mugs, will come into stock in the early spring. You can check out our YouTube video where Emma and I talk about the collection here and I have also posted our live chat from a few weeks ago on our Instagram Feed. Andy and I are already looking forward to exhibiting at Yorkshire Yarn Festival in early March. The show organiser, Sophie from Botanical Yarns, has lined up some really fabulous fellow exhibitors and I will feature as the guest at the Saturday evening craft night event where I will be doing a short presentation and Q&A session. Tickets are still available for the 4th & 5th of March and you can purchase them in advance by following this link. Tickets for workshops are also still available and you can find more information by following this link and clicking on the menu. he Janie Crow team have been busy getting ready for a new feature that we have imaginatively called 'Friday Motivation' over the last few weeks. We originally thought we would create 'Motivational Monday' emails but decided that the feature might be better suited to social media as we head into the weekend - a time when many more of us are able to dedicate a little bit of our precious time to a bit of TLC. Our Friday Motivation posts will feature on our Instagram feed every Friday (funnily enough) so do look out for them over the forthcoming weeks. Emma has created a lovely Friday Motivation post today that features out in the wild images of the Spirit of Flora CAL and talks about stash busting. Take a look by following this link. We are very fortunate to have a day trip to an Elephant sanctuary, a coffee plantation and a golden temple lined up for tomorrow and then on Sunday we will be visiting one of the projects funded by the Charities Advisory Trust. I will be slipping my crochet hook into my travel bag as I think we have quite a lot of time on the road ahead of us which could be valuable crafting time!
With the weather in the UK decidedly chilly I am sure that many of you will be staying close to home for the next couple of days. I hope that what ever you have planned that you have a smashing weekend and that you are able to stay warm. I will be back in a couple of weeks with a quick catch up email when I hope to bring you up to date with news of new projects. Sending much love from India! Janie x I hope that you have enjoyed a fabulous Festive Season and that you are safe, happy and healthy as we take our first few steps into 2023. I am just popping into to wish you a very Happy New Year and to thank you for all your incredible support over the last 12 months. 2022 was an amazing year for us. It was a year full of changes as we got used to working from home and getting back out in the world after the pandemic. We have also been part of lots of exciting projects and events and I am very proud of the crochet designs I have created over the course of the year too. Our social media presence has really grown, with our followers on Instagram almost doubling and our YouTube Channel and Facebook page reaching more accounts than ever before. As we head into 2023 we have a lot to look forward to with the first patterns for my Spirit of Flora CAL being the very first event in our new calendar, closely followed by our workshop in Mysore, India, in less than two weeks time. I am very excited about what the new year has in store and hope that you will feel inspired to join in with crochet projects or come along and say hello at shows and events over the forthcoming months. Janie Crow wouldn't be where it is today without the support of wonderful people like you and the incredible crafting community that we are all a part of. I hope that our solidarity in an ever changing world and our allegiance to the joys of our craft will continue into 2023 and that the New Year will bring us all feelings of mindfulness, relaxation and accomplishment, which in turn will lead to creative fulfilment and a sense of inner peace and positivity. Happy New Year! We are so excited that today sees the retail launch of the Emma Ball & Janie Crow Collection. We have had such an amazing response to the collection already and cannot wait to share more items from it over the next few months. Some stock items are now live on the website ready for you to take a look. We have stitch markers, note pads and small note-lets as well as the tin items for you to choose from. More items from the collection, such as tote bags, project pouches and mugs, will come into stock in the early spring. You can check out our YouTube video where Emma and I talk about the collection here and I have also posted our live chat from a few weeks ago on our Instagram Feed. The Getting Started information and the first 2 patterns for my Spirit of Flora Crochet Along project will be published in Inside Crochet Magazine on January 5th. You can find more information by following this link.
|
AuthorWelcome to my blog. Here you will find my email newsletter archive alongside any other general musings or information about events or new pattern releases that I wish to share with you! Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|