   Crocheted flowers are pretty much my favourite thing to make and I adore adding beads into my work too, so the Gertrude cushion project was a real joy to design and make. I wanted to create a vintage feel and chose my yarn shades accordingly. I think the little lime green beads provide a lovely pop of colour on the leaves of the dainty crochet blooms. I adored the velvet smocked cushions that my Auntie Muriel had on her bed when I was a child in the 1970s. I used to love running my fingers over the velvet pile and found the smocked stitching fascinating. The cushions were just so enticing and luxurious that I remember thinking that I would definitely have some on my bed when I was old enough! I have previously recreated the style of these cushions in a knit design I called Madeleine, which was published in my book ‘Homespun Vintage’, but I have always wanted to create a crochet version too. When working on the Muriel cushion project I decided to add pretty bobbles instead of smocked style stitching to make a simple accompaniment to my Gertrude cushion, which features pretty flowers and beads. I have always struggled with the way crochet worked in the round can look like it has a ‘scar’ running through it, so my challenge for this project was to design something that would hide the way slip stitches appear without having to fasten off yarns at the end of every round. The paper brochure copy of the Gertrude Cushion is available in UK and US terms in our store here. You can download it via Ravelry or Etsy. The pattern for the round Muriel Cushion is a free download. You can find the UK version here, and the US version here. The patterns for both the cushions were previously published in issue 147 of Inside Crochet Magazine. Thanks to the magazine and Mavric photography for the lovely images.   It has been great to see your interpretations of the Chelsea Motif from the Spirit of Flora CAL on social media platforms lately. There are so many beautiful colour combinations and we are just LOVING the layouts we're seeing with all your completed blocks.  We still have some Persian Tiles kits in stock in the Sandalwood colour way. Sandalwood is widely-considered to be the national scent of India, with most families burning the natural extract in their homes. The most expensive sandalwoods are harvested when the trees are around 60 years old. The older the tree, the stronger, more powerful and long-lasting the beautiful fragrance. It is one of my favourite smells!  Emma Ball also used this version of Persian Tiles to create some lovely crochet accessories - bags and hook rolls and stitch markers and all sorts. I think the velvet cushions continue to be my favourite! We still have kits for our revamped Fiori blanket in stock. Fiori is a collaborative project between myself and Lucia Dunn of @luciasfigtree. The original design is Fields of Gold and the new colour palette was chosen by Lucia, using a trip to her home in the Dolomites, Italy as inspiration.  The original kit used a limited edition yarn, but because of this we struggled to keep up with the demand for kits for this beautiful project. This newer version uses 16 shades of Stylecraft yarn instead and is as colourful as you’d expect from a palette where Lucia is involved! The kits are available on the website and include all the yarn you need for the project, the printed Fields of Gold pattern, a printed yarn substitution brochure and a Janie Crow sew in label. Lucia also has the yarn substitution document available on her website, so do go and have a visit there if you would rather not get a kit.  It was my long term dream to have a large studio space for Janie Crow and so, when that dream became a reality 7 years ago, I was so incredibly excited to move my crochet paraphernalia away from home and into a separate space. Our lease on the studio ended 18 months ago and, with soaring energy costs and lack of suitable local properties available, we made the decision to move the business back home. At the time I was sad to leave our studio, but now that I am home and working from my own little space in the summer house at the end of the garden I couldn’t be happier. The space I have is small and cosy and everything I need is within easy reach. My precious books, my (many) bags of yarn and all my bits and bobs have a home and, as my work space takes up less than a third of the summer house, we don't actually feel like we have lost any home space. The IKEA shelves make a great divider and mean that my little studio is private and easily hidden when we are using the summer house as, well, a summer house!  Some of my prized possessions are in here. My knitted moth by Max Alexander @maxsworld, my huge Klimt book and my diddy knitted fairisle sweater, nestled next to the little blue crochet lobster made by my lovely pal Jo @spannerworks all make me really happy alongside the little curated piles of yarn and baskets of WIPS. There is nothing grand about my space. At times it can feel bit crammed and during the winter it is quite hard to keep it warm, but it ticks pretty much all my boxes and it is conducive to my creativity, especially as I have a great view of the garden which is particularly glorious during the summer months. I’ve made a reel so you can come on a virtual tour of my summerhouse with me if you’d like! You can find it on Instagram.  I turned 54 a fortnight ago and (if I am honest), the prospect of yet another birthday took me down a bit of a ribbit hole emotionally, mostly because it scares me just how fast the time is flying past me. Over the last couple of weeks, and after giving myself a good talking to, I have made some new plans and am slowly rediscovering my crojo and settling back down to normality.  I have been flicking through some of my resource books and am always drawn to Indian textiles for inspiration. Picking out balls of yarn to make a new colour palette is a process that always makes me feel good, so for now I am happy to just have a pile of lovely yarn on my desk regardless of whether or not a new crochet project will transpire. It might be that I simply end up recolouring an existing project or make some samples that will never actually become a ‘proper’ project - either way I am sure that the simple process of crocheting will bring some joy. Emma and I have been talking a lot recently about the impact various life situations have on how we crochet. What really stokes the creativity, what stifles it, the soothing balm of sitting down with hook and yarn. One of the things we really hit upon was the use of crochet as our 'reward' for getting through a tough day. Genuinely being able to focus the mind at a future point in time knowing the feeling of peace, security and quiet contemplation will come. I know many of you recognise this feeling all too well. There are some big things happening in the JC team at the moment, with our lovely Emma in particular navigating some incredibly difficult circumstances, and crochet, in its constant, steady, peaceful way is there; sitting alongside, providing the thread of comfort in normality so needed when things are anything but normal. Through some tricky times it’s become clear that it is not always the conclusion of a large project that is needed. It is often, the process itself. Choosing yarn, trying colour combinations, finding a “one sitting” something that will be an end unto itself. At these times, slowing everything down and bringing the focus right in to now, can work wonders to reset the mind. Being content with whatever you may have chosen to make at that time, just one beautiful motif, is a lovely way to think about crochet. Perhaps it is the repetition of the same stitch or colour or block over again that brings your particular comfort. Or perhaps the reward to you looks like starting something completely new with a new colour pallete. Does it matter? Of course we are big fans of blankets and larger projects but we are also completely supportive to the “400 WIPS on the go” crocheters! We get it completely! So, from now on, no guilt for unfinished projects. You started a new one for a reason. Be happy and well with whatever brings you joy!  I will be in store at Black Sheep Wools in Warrington next Wednesday morning for a little meet and greet event.  I will be on the shop floor on June 14th and I would love to catch up with as many of you as can make it. You can drop in and show me your latest project or come along and ask for some advice or even decide on a new project surrounded by lots of lovely squishy yarn and inspiration. The event is free to attend and it takes place between 10am and 12.30pm and you can find more information on the Black Sheep Wools @blacksheepwools Facebook page.   There are still some 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 have been waiting so patiently for the peonies to bloom in the garden and now that we have a glut of them I couldn't be happier - the flowers are just so beautiful!   One of our plants had in the region of 30 flowers and as the lavender and roses are also in full bloom I really do think June is the best month in the garden.  Last weekend I made a yummy pasta, egg and cheese bake from The River Cottage 'Veg Everyday' recipe book.  This is one of my favourite recipe books and I have made this one a couple of times. This time I swapped the Cheddar cheese for Stilton and served it with some Focaccia and a lovely fresh salad. The recipe is a bit long winded, especially as it involves whisking egg whites, but it is definitely worth the hard work. You can find a review of the recipe by following this link. Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall calls this recipe a Spouffle - such a great word! I think I might be ready to progress to a proper cheese soufflé next time!   I am home alone for the next few days as Andy has been away at a music festival since Wednesday and Charlie flew off for an exciting holiday to the Far East yesterday. It always takes me a couple of days to get used to being on my own and I wander around a bit lost for the first day, but it soon becomes second nature to potter about on my lonesome - and at least the house stays beautifully tidy! The weather is set to be really warm this weekend so I am planning to meet my friend Sally for supper tomorrow and I will probably spend the rest of my weekend in the garden. I have the workshop project that I will be tutoring in France in a few weeks time to complete and have a bit of prep to do for the events at Black Sheep Wools next week, so there will definitely be a spot of crochet involved in my weekend too.  image courtesy of @woollychic  image courtesy of @woollychic My friend Helen Ingram of Woolly Chic is organising another one of her lovely Summer Craft Parties at the Lavender Fields in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. I am disappointed that the date of her party (June 30th) clashes with my workshop trip to France but I hope to be able to go next year. If you are interested in going along to this lovely event you can find more information on Helen's website here.  I was introduced to UPPERCASE magazine by my friend Jo recently. The publication is aimed at 'the creative and curious inspired by craft, design, typography and illustration'. Published since 2009, the magazine has an enthusiastic and loyal readership of designers, illustrators, craftspeople, creative entrepreneurs and paper lovers around the world. With high quality production values and a unique design aesthetic, the content of each issue is 'eclectic and inspiring'. You can find more information about UPPERCASE by following this link.  My friend Jan sent me a link to this article about May Morris. It is an easy to read piece that focuses on May's personal life more than her professional one. I recommend it. 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  As usual it has been a busy couple of weeks here at Janie Crow. I have been working on the new techniques book alongside Sarah who is making many of the crochet samples. I have embraced the challenge of writing step-by-step instructions for stitch formations I haven't met before and have enjoyed sampling some of the pieces, especially the more decorative crochet samples, such as beaded edgings and crochet flowers. Next week I will be moving on to write the chapter about Finishing Techniques (one of my favourite things to do in crochet) so I am looking forward to that.  I have been putting the finishing touches to a shawl design for the Spirit of Flora crochet along, which continues to run in Inside Crochet Magazine. I have also been finalising a few workshops projects, so all in all, a pretty busy time, especially as the plants in the garden are now going full throttle and need our daily attention. What a joy it is to be back out in the garden again! The prospect of peonies blooming in abundance is making me particularly happy! I hope that whatever you have been up to and no matter what you have planned for the next couple of days as we head into yet another Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK, you can find a bit of time to catch up with all things Janie Crow.   Thank you for the amazing response to Fiori. We have kits back in stock alongside some for Fruit Garden Love Is Enough and Parchment and Caramel.    We have kits for The Blue House, Primavera and Sandalwood as well as the Summer Palace Original colourway, which is in stock for the first time in almost a year!     The process of publishing crochet patterns is a long-winded affair. It involves creating a design in the first place, copious hand written notes, word documents, test crocheters and Tech Editors. In the final stages it also involves translators, photographers, stylists and graphic designers. Creating a pattern can take months from start to finish and the work can pass through many hands before a final document heads off to the printer and a download version gets posted.  Whilst I pride myself on the quality of my patterns, every now and again little things get missed. A case in point is my Indigo Dreams design, which was inspired by a kantha stitched quilt I found in India a few years ago. Whilst the original pattern instructions should not hinder the process of crocheting this beautiful blanket in any big way, we realised there were places where the charts had incorrect keys and an asterisk or two needed moving. On the US version there was also a round where the instructions had been left in UK terms, so we have spent the last few weeks meticulously checking through the pattern.  We have uploaded a revised copy on Ravelry and will ensure that all future print runs of the pattern are of the revised copy. Unfortunately we cannot replace existing purchases, but if you have a pattern and want to see where we have made changes, head over to the web site to access a downloadable errata document. We totally understand how frustrating these small blips in a pattern can be and apologise for any inconvenience caused.  The Crochet Guild of Australia will celebrate their National Crochet Conference in just over a week. My great friend Dedri Uys of Look at What I Made will be at the show and I am disappointed not to have made it too - unfortunately the logistics of such a big trip did not work out for me this year, but hopefully I will get to go another time. I am really pleased that despite me not being able to attend the conference this year my best selling design, Persian Tiles will be making its debut as a kit using an Australian brand of yarn. The exclusive kits, which also feature some other Janie Crow and Emma Ball merchandise, will be on sale at the show and there are also some in stock on a pre-sale basis on The Stitchy Witches website. I am incredibly grateful to Patty and Mercury at Stitchy Witches who have worked really hard to create these lovely exclusive kits which also include a limited edition tote bag and a signed postcard. There are just 7 kits left in stock online, so if you are in Australia and fancy treating yourself to a kit do take a look.  I love seeing images of your projects out in the wild and always enjoy it when you have created your own colouways of my designs. The Eastern Jewels version of my Persian Tiles blanket, which was created by Lucia Dunn a few years ago continues to inspire many of you to create versions of this blanket using lots of lovely colours. Rosie Coles recently sent me the image above of her lovely interpretation which uses Semilla GOTS certified wool. I am sure that it is lovely, warm and luxurious made in a fabulous natural fibre.  Some of you may already know that as well as working for Janie Crow, Sarah writes regular columns for Knitting Magazine. She hosts their Yarn Reviews, Top Tips and 'Ask Sarah' column. More recently she has started to write features as well and this month sees her discussing how craft is being used to raise awareness of climate change as well as combat the stress of this massive subject. Sarah is using a stitch project to record the highest and lowest temperatures in Birmingham on a daily basis. This prompted her to look at how other crafts have been recording this kind of data. The feature describes how and why crafters are recording data and the impact this is having on its audiences. She has been amazed by the creativity and community that has evolved globally. The effects of climate change can feel overwhelming at times and leave us feeling helpless by the enormity of it all. Sarah goes on to suggest that craft can be used to help keep our focus on the here and now rather than racing too far ahead, as well as outlining ways to start your own project. Knitting Magazine Issue 243 is now on sale. You can find download copies here.  As a thank you for your continued support over on Instagram, which has recently led us to reach the 100k followers mark, I am excited to reveal the free download pattern that followers can access for the course of this weekend. The pattern for a Beaded Crochet Pouch is live now. You can follow the link in bio from our Instagram page to download the pattern. Please note that the pattern is only available via Instagram, so if you are not a follower already you will need to head over there and sign up. The pattern will only be there for the duration of this weekend and the Bank Holiday Monday, so make sure you download and save it as it will not be available from Monday evening onwards. The project uses Stylecraft Organic Cotton DK in 5 shades and beads in 4 shades, but you can use as many or as few as you fancy, especially as it is a great stash buster. Instructions for placing beads into stitches are included in the pattern, but if you want some visual guidance on how to work beaded crochet check out the videos on our YouTube channel. Please share our Instagram post to your friends and followers so that they also get the chance to get their hands on this free pattern and don't forget - it will disappear in a plume of smoke and turn into a pumpkin like Cinderella’s coach at Midnight (UK time) on Monday. Happy Bank Holiday everyone!   The latest issue (number 158) of Inside Crochet Magazine was released yesterday and in perfect keeping with the Chelsea Flower Show happening this week, and in a move that was definitely, absolutely, planned and not in any way a fabulous coincidence, the name of the new block for the Spirit of Flora CAL is called Chelsea! William De Morgan was enthralled by Persian design and spent a long period of his creative life making tiles that echoed an ‘Arabesque’ style. When designing this motif, I wanted to try and capture a similar feeling by using the blue and cream shades on the border.  Of course that doesn’t mean I’m suggesting you have use those colours for your block as I’m excited to see how Chelsea looks in the incredible colours we are seeing you use for your own projects.There are some absolutely wonderful projects taking shape so do have a look at the #spiritofflora hashtag on Instagram – as always there is so much inspiration to be found there. Big thanks to Inside Crochet Magazine, Leanne Dixon photography and Claire Montgomerie for the gorgeous photographs.  It has been a while since we had a show & tell on our Facebook page so, hoping that a lovely sunny weekend had inspired some serious crafting recently, we asked what you had on your hooks or needles. You can see some of the wonderful projects below, beginning with Susan Johnson's Fields of Gold looking absolutely resplendent in the photo.  Next up is Julia Hill's Crimson Dreams blanket, made from yarns she already had. We're thinking Julia must have quite an impressive stash!  Henny Fiserova has started work on Persian Tiles in blue, but has been advised by her doctor to rest her hand for at least a couple of weeks. Wishing you a speedy return to your crochet, Henny.  Finally, Denise Meldrum has only been crocheting for a couple of months but she is almost halfway through the Mystical Lanterns pattern. Lovely work, Denise.  Many more of you shared images of your beautiful work - too many for us to show here, but thank you to everyone who contributed a photo. We do love seeing your work, especially the ways you use colour to really individualise your projects and it's also great to hear that some of you are making up your own kits from your stash yarn.  This week Gemma's recipe recommendation is this one for Harissa Cauliflower Pilaf which contains a lovely combination of fruit, nuts and spice, together with delicious roasted cauliflower.  It looks like a really interesting combination of flavours and textures. Click on the image above to find the recipe over on the BBC Good Food website.  We love reading about younger people taking up crafting, after all how many of us wish we had started so much earlier? We came across this article about Miah Henley, from Rayleigh in Essex, who learnt to crochet at the age of 10, before setting up her own business selling her crochet makes through a Facebook page in 2020. This led to her being nominated and subsequently winning the Entrepreneur of the Year award at her district council's business awards. You can see some of Miah's makes in the image below and find her Facebook page here.  Image copyright Miah Henley A couple of weeks ago the coronation of King Charles lll took place at Westminster Abbey and to coincide with this event yarn bombers around the country did themselves proud with an amazing array of post box toppers and other coronation themed yarn offerings! We were particularly impressed with the 37 post box toppers made by The Secret Society of Hertford Crafters, especially with the first topper (shown below) into which they have incorporated yarny versions of some of their own members!   The village of Holmes Chapel in Cheshire became home to a giant knitted King Charles, complete with gardening supplies should he get bored!    Last weekend Andy and I joined a group of friends to complete the Big Fun Walk to help raise funds for The North London Hospice - a charity very close to our hearts as they cared so incredibly for Andy's sister Julie before she passed away last year.  The route of the 8.5 mile walk took us through many of London's wonderful parks and we walked past lots of landmarks on the way, including Buckingham Palace and we felt really proud to be presented with our medals at the end - even the dogs, Luna and Willow got one! As the evenings are getting longer and I have a little more spare time, I have been trying to get to the gym or go for a walk most days this week. It always surprises me just how therapeutic walking is and how often I find have sorted out lots of problems in my head while walking. It could be that a crochet pattern that has been perplexing me suddenly falls into place, or that I manage to sort out the logistics of some plans, or maybe it just makes me feel calmer and more at peace.  The Peonies in the garden are almost in bloom Tomorrow I am planning to take a trip into town to see what is going on in the shops. I often find inspiration for projects from current interior trends, so I am looking forward to having a mooch around Anthropologie, John Lewis and Liberty. Going into town will also give me a good walk. For the remaining part of the weekend I am planning to potter around in the garden and make the most of the sunshine, something that is incredibly welcome after months a grey and wet weather here in North London. I hope that whatever your plans are, that you have great weekend and that you are able to enjoy an extra day off on Monday. I will be back in your inbox in a couple of weeks time with the June update when I hope to have news of a couple of new projects. Keep well.... Janie x    We are excited to finally have kits for our revamped Fiori blanket in stock! Fiori was a collaborative project between myself and Lucia Dunn of @luciasfigtree. The original design is Fields of Gold and the new colour palette was chosen by Lucia, using a trip to the her home in the Dolomites, Italy as inspiration.  The original kit used a limited edition yarn, but because of this we struggled to keep up with the demand for kits for this beautiful project. This newer version uses 16 shades of Stylecraft yarn instead and is as colourful as you’d expect from a palette where Lucia is involved! The kits are now available on the website and include all the yarn you need for the project, the printed Fields of Gold pattern, a printed yarn substitution brochure and a Janie Crow sew in label. Lucia will also have the yarn substitution document available on her website soon, so do go and have a visit there within the next week or so if you would rather not get a kit.   Here’s a top tip for a Friday (or indeed any day really) – get a cup of your favourite tea and have a browse of this hashtag: #spiritofflora over on Instagram. Your photos are glorious! They are a riot of colour and now that there are a few different blocks, it’s especially lovely seeing how you are beginning to group them. Some of you clever people have already made complete projects and it’s amazing to see your colour schemes and how they give the project such a different look and feel to mine. From calm pastels to vibrant jewel colours and everything in between, what an absolute treat to see all the different interpretations. Thank you so much for continuing to share your delight in this project, it was a long time in the making and to see it keeping you busy and happy is just wonderful. Don’t forget to tag us in with the same hashtag when you post your photos.  This time 2 years ago we were preparing for our daughter’s wedding. It’s amazing how fast the time has gone since and I often find myself wishing I could re-live the day. It was just so fabulous! I wanted some of my crochet to be involved in Summer and Chris’s big day, but as Sum didn’t want a crochet wedding dress I made do with some small touches instead and created a beaded doily to go under the wedding cake and some crochet covers for the willow trees we decorated the tables with. I used an image from Ravelry as a guide for my doily but changed the stitch count and added a shorter fan edging with beads.  As crochet plays such a large part in our lives, it’s natural that we want to include it in our very special events. Many of you have created amazing shawls or wraps to compliment a wedding outfit and we were delighted to meet Briony (above) at Wonderwool this year. Briony’s mum crocheted that incredible version of the Climbing Rose Wrap for her winter wedding. Briony explained that her wedding had a wool and words theme as she is a published author who loves yarn – check out her page @brionymarshallauthor and have a look at her books; Unravelled is likely to appeal to many of us, you’ll see why!   Crocheted wedding items are inevitably going to be treasured and kept for many years. Julie’s Bunting adds a gorgeous elegance to a garden party and with delicate lace and beads is very much in keeping with summer weddings outside. We love the idea of this pretty decoration being stored and brought out to decorate special events for years to come.  If you can face it, favours are an amazing way to bring crochet into a wedding celebration. We say 'if you can face it' since they are often required in large numbers! Kate @just_pootling is a master of this – please do go and look at her work if you’ve not seen it. The photo above is of the 140 penguins (!!!) she made for her daughter’s wedding. Incredible stuff! We received some great feedback on this topic when we talked about it on Instagram this week, with lots of people telling us about things they had made for weddings, including quite a few who had made place settings and doilies like me and others who had made mandalas and bunting. Lizelle said she made 100 doilies for the wedding tables that were then made into a keepsake blanket and Agitha told us she was busy crocheting her own wedding dress! Amazing!  We still have some kits in stock for the Magic circles scarf shown above and below. We have added a new shade in place of the discontinued one. You can find a short video that shows the colours in better light by following this link to Instagram.  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 was looking back through our posts on Instagram from the last year and realised that it has been almost a year since we hit 50k followers, which means that our following has almost doubled in the space of year. How amazing is that! Having Emma on board to help me with Instagram over the last 12 months has been fabulous and I am really grateful to her for getting me organised so that between us we can post beautiful content more often. I think we have created a really lovely space on our feed, where we can all share our passion for our craft and what goes on in the world around us as we happily hook! Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could get to 100k followers in time for the last bank holiday weekend in May. I know this is a tall order, but I am thinking that If we were to manage to get another 1500 followers over the next 2 weeks or so we could celebrate with an extra special free download pattern that would be available exclusively to my Instagram followers over the bank holiday weekend. If you love our feed and would like to get your friends involved, or you simply want to get your hands on an exclusive free pattern, why not help us get to 100k by inviting your instagram friends to follow us. I’m dangling a little carrot in front of your noses by sharing the image above which shows a tiny snippet of the beaded crochet project we will treat our Instagram followers to if we reach 100k by the end of the month. We are so nearly there and I am really grateful to all those of you who have shared our feed over the last couple of weeks and invited your friends and followers to follow us too!  Last week I had a couple of fabulous days away with my amazing friend Jo who invited me to stay with her in Bath. We had the best time, drinking lots of coffee, eating yummy food and chatting a lot.   On Thursday afternoon we went to a fantastic workshop at The Bath Flower School, where we each made a bouquet to be proud of. Honestly it was the best couple of hours under the guidance of our tutor, the very knowledgeable (and super nice) Saffy.  The Flower School runs lots of amazing courses, aimed at rookies like me, right through to professionals and their range of workshops all sound wonderful. If you’re in the Bath area, or just want to follow a lovely looking feed on Instagram with lots of floral inspiration, then do take a look @thebathflowerschool You can see a pic of my bouquet (taken by Jo), lower down this email.  Last week on Instagram we showcased the exquisite use of colour by a favourite maker of ours here at Janie Crow, Lizzie Montgomery.  If you take a look at her fabulous feed you will see how Lizzie’s perfect eye for colour has transformed my designs, including Fields of Gold, The Blue House, Persian Tiles, Climbing Rose Wrap and Magic Circles.  Please treat yourself to a browse of Lizzie’s page because there is so much inspirational stuff to see on there! Her posts are always beautiful and it is wonderful to see so many fabulous interpretations of my patterns, along side so many other wonderful images.  Emma and I catch up weekly to talk about Instagram posts mostly, but we also end up chatting about all sorts of everything and she mentioned this week that she has gone a bit bonkers about the blossom this year. Emma says she has been loving the school run of late as her drive takes her through some beautiful countryside and it’s especially gorgeous at the moment because the blossom on the trees is absolutely glorious.  Emma's Apple Blossom Emma says: 'The cherry blossom is always so pretty at this time of year but but even that seems extra special this year – possibly a little past it’s peak now, it’s still a total joy to visit an avenue local to me which is lined on both sides with beautiful trees in full pink bloom. Little blossoms falling like confetti when it’s windy. Since hearing a radio article back in February telling us we could expect some spectacular blossom this year, I’ve been really looking forward to seeing what the trees produce. Even in our own small back garden, our little apple tree is giving us the most beautiful show of pink and white blossom and hopefully the promise of some lovely fruit to come. I have read up on the RHS website and the reason the blossom is so abundant this year is that we had the perfect combination of intense heat last summer and a frosty February: apparently deep-rooted trees LOVE this. The buds have had plenty of cold weather which they need to release them to flower once spring warms up. The cold has also ensured that the fruit trees haven’t flowered too early, which is good as it means they are more likely to escape any late spring frost that can prevent fruit forming.' Whilst walking back from a trip into town a couple of weeks ago Andy and I were really struck by the cherry blossom on the trees on our street. They are stunning every spring, but, as Emma says, they seem particularly abundant and full this year. I took the image below at about 10pm so it isn't the clearest of shots, but it gives you an idea of just how full the tree was.  Cherry Blossom When I start to think about a new design I am invariably inspired by flowers. I love looking at tessellating patterns and adore the whole mathematic side of crochet, but if I had a choice I would list floral crochet as my favourite pass time.  I had such a lovely time last week at the @thebathflowerschool and it was such a joy to have an array of flowers to choose for our bouquets. In fact Saffy instructed us to choose 20 flowers and accompanying foliage for our arrangements, so it was a couple of hours of heaven for me and I really love the bouquet I made even though it was too big for me to carry home from Bath on the train. Jo has been sending me pics of how it has been looking over the last week - including the fab pic above. Over the weekend I spent a lovely hour or so putting together a new flower orientated Pinterest Board. I find Pinterest such a great place to pull together images for mood boards and can easily spend hours on the site looking at gloriously inspiring images.   Jo is also a huge flower fan and so it was brilliant to discuss plants, trees and crochet inspiration with her for a few days last week. She is such a colourful person and spending time in her wonderful flat, surrounded by her eclectic taste and vibrant possessions was a real tonic.   At this time of year, as we start to emerge from the grey of winter, it can almost feel overwhelming to find such beauty and colour around us, but as the summer months pass it can also be easy to take it for granted. The summer time is all too short here in the UK so I am hoping to get out and about in nature as much as possible this year.   There are still some 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 think I have told you this before - May is the month for birthdays in our family. Our niece, Helen was 17 on Tuesday (the same day as my Mum and Dad celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary!) and our daughter, Summer will celebrate her birthday next Tuesday on the same day as my Dad. Our nephew Dan will be 14 on the 26th, the same day as our cousin Alexi celebrates his birthday and I have mine at the end of the month so there is always a lot of cake and celebrating for us this month.  We are going away for a few days to visit Andy's Dad down in the New Forest this weekend so I have made Summer's birthday cake to take with us. I used this Lemon Drizzle recipe but made it in 2 round tins and added some lemon curd and icing to make it extra special.  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.  If you head over to the website over the next couple of days you will notice that we have added a note to say that we are unable to dispatch orders until next week. This is because Andy and Charlie got unexpectedly held up after (what was supposed to be) a short trip to Ibiza this week for a music festival. They were meant to come home on Tuesday, but their flight home was cancelled and they were unable to get back until yesterday. As Andy looks after most of the orders on the web site (and as we are visiting family this weekend) we think it is likely that orders will take a little longer than expected to be dispatched, so please be patient. Normal service will resume next week.  Will you be watching Eurovision on Saturday? We know it's corny, but as a family we are big fans of the show so we will definitely be watching it whilst cheering and dancing along! We haven't been away as a family for a while so I am really looking forward to us all being together for a few days and hope that we will get to do some walking in the New Forest and visit the beach. It is so beautiful down there. Of course I will be taking my crochet hooks along with me too! 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  !We had a fabulous time at Wonderwool in Wales last weekend and it was so lovely to meet so many of you on the stand over the course of the show. As I spend so much of my time working like a hermit at the end of the garden it is always so good to be out in the big wild world and chat to you guys! We have quite a lot going on here at the moment, with a few new things on the horizon, so I hope you have a few minutes to spare to catch up with all things Janie Crow!   I have designed a crochet along project pretty much every year since 2011. Sometimes there have been longer gaps between releases, with not every CAL emerging from my hook exactly a year after the last one before, but never the less, I have released 12 CAL projects in 12 years.   When I think back to my first CAL design I can see that the way I work and the expectation of what crocheters want has changed dramatically over the years. Back then my patterns had a few step by step images and were accompanied by a blog post or two, but there was no pressure to make videos, include charted instructions, translate into more than one language, or to create technique documents to help along the way. The added extras that accompany my CAL designs these days all have a place and are essential to the enjoyment and accomplishment of the crocheters who choose to work through them. I wouldn’t change my process or wish there was less work involved as I enjoy all the aspects involved.   As regular followers of this newsletter will probably know, I have been working on a new CAL design since the end of February but, after weeks of trying to make my motifs into a cohesive project, I decided last week that it is time to step back from the project for a little while to rethink. I am not sure what it is that is blocking this design from coming off my hook. It could be the pressure of the timescale, or of the expectation after the success of recent CALs. It could be that Spirit of Flora is still too new (and beautiful) for me to walk away just yet, or it could be that the crochet samples I have completed want to become stand alone blanket or shawl projects rather than a CAL. Having ideas for smaller items, rather than a CAL has felt very liberating and I am excited by what might come off my hook as the weeks progress.   I am asked about the schedule for new design work all the time as so many of you speed through my designs, but I know that there are also many of you who work at a slower pace or want to revisit existing designs. For those of you who like to plan your projects - on the horizon we will be releasing information about the Fiori version of Fields of Gold (shown below) and have been working on a revamp of Mystical Lanterns. Both these projects should be out in the wild within the next month. My Gertrude and Muriel cushion covers are also likely to be released over the summer. As we head into the Autumn I hope there will be some new design work as well as a new colour way for Indigo Dreams that has been created by Lucia of Lucia's Fig Tree.  As we head into 2024 the permission to release the patterns for the Spirit of Flora blanket will start to return to me so we will make plans for how to release this. We have not made any decisions about this yet so please be patient! If you are looking for a project to get your hook into before next year I am really pleased to say that we finally have some kist in stock! After, what feels like a really long time, yarns are starting to come back into stock in amounts that mean we can make kits, so if you are looking for a project do head over to the store and take a look through what we have.  We made up kits for the Magic Circles Scarf (shown above) using the beautiful Eden Cottage Milburn DK to take to Wonderwool last weekend and we still have some of these left in stock. You can find them by following this link.   I was looking through my diary from 2020 and realised that it is 3 years to the day today since we released the first set of patterns for The Fruit Garden CAL, which was inspired by the incredible embroidery design of Arts and Crafts designer May Morris. Daughter to William and Jane Morris, May was a gifted artist and technician. She travelled the world giving inspirational talks and presentations and was passionate about creating recognition of the skill level needed to create intricate embroidery. She was an incredibly accomplished woman, especially given the era within which she lived and worked. After my visit to May’s home, Kelmscott Manor, where I saw many of her beautiful embroideries, I knew immediately that I wanted to create a design using her work and ended up focusing on The Melsetter Hangings, embroideries that were designed by May and stitched by her and her close friend Theodosia Middlemore somewhere between 1890 and 1900. The hangings feature birds, flowers, plants and central fruit trees on an embroidered trellis background.  Over the course of the 3 years since its release, I have been so honoured to see the way The Fruit Garden blanket project has been embraced around the world and I am incredibly proud of the fact that so many crocheters joined together, albeit virtually, to create their own heirloom pieces during unprecedented times. I feel this is an amazing testament to the skills and inclusivity of the crafting community and crocheters in particular. Blankets are by nature a love token. A blanket is a symbol of comfort and warmth and, if you also consider the fact that every stitch is lovingly made by hand, then you know that you are creating something extra special.  I have been looking back through our posts on Instagram from the last year and realised that it has been almost a year since we hit 50k followers, which means that our following has almost doubled in the space of year. How amazing is that! Having Emma on board to help me with Instagram and Youtube over the last 12 months has been fabulous and I am really grateful to her for getting me organised so that between us we can post beautiful content more often. I think we have created a really lovely space on our feed where we can share our passion for our craft and what goes on in the world around us as we happily hook! Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could get to 100k followers in time for the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May. I know this is a tall order, but I am thinking that If we were to manage to get another 5k followers over the next 4 weeks we could celebrate with an extra special free download pattern that would be available to our Instagram followers over the Bank Holiday weekend. If you dont already follow our feed, or you do follow us and would like to get your friends involved, (or you simply want to get your hands on an exclusive free pattern), why not help us get to 100k by following us or inviting your instagram friends to follow us too.  Last Saturday was World Earth Day so I took the opportunity to use the suggested Earth Day Pantone pallet, called 'Be a Force of Nature', to create a version of my 'Flower for Alice' Granny Square. I designed the motif for Granny Square day in last year in honour of my Nanna Martin who was recycling yarn to create crocheted granny squares back in the 70’s and 80’s. Working within the craft industry it is impossible to ignore the pressure to create projects in a more sustainable way and to ensure that the legacy of my designs is not detrimental to the planet. The rise in download pattern sales means we are using less paper in our business than ever before and are thus not having to use printing inks and their associated chemicals and incur the carbon footprint of postage either, but creating larger items like blankets presents a real dilemma for me. This is partly because the cost of making them in natural fibres is often prohibitive and because they are not always logical in terms of washing and repetitive use. Of course there are other considerations too: provenance of the wool itself and the ethical and environmental impacts of its production. Ultimately, I have had to placate myself by accepting that the production of man-made fibres does pose a threat to our environment but this is balanced to some extent by with the fact that blankets are not fast fashion. I know how many of you gift the wonderful blankets you make and that the recipients invariably would not dream of discarding these treasured items and so they are passed on, treasured and become heirloom pieces. And yet, as a consumer, I try so hard to make the right choices but still often wonder whether we are as careful about the items we buy regularly (packets of crisps, nuts, pasta, milk cartons etc) as we are in regards to yarn. A difficult balancing act when we are as passionate about our creativity as we are! I would love to hear what you think...  Our lovely Gemma is a fabulous crochet tutor and over the last few months she has been working with a group of newbie crocheters to guide them though the Sunshine and Showers blanket. Gem sent me the image above this week to show me how the group got on. How amazing to see all those talented ladies with their blankets!  In the latest issue of Inside Crochet Magazine the Marlborough motif for Spirit of Flora ventured out into the world along with some exciting extras! William DeMorgan designed quite a lot of tiles that he called Marlborough, mostly featuring either blue or yellow flowers with a leafy background. For the Spirit of Flora project, I wanted to design a few flower motifs surrounded by a nice border. These motifs would work well sat on the outside edges of your project and would also look really effective as repeated blocks.   You can also find the pattern for the very gorgeous Dana bag in this month's magazine. Using 2 blocks from the Spirit of Flora design, the sky's the limit on this - you can make loads of combinations throughout the project if you fancy! Making this bag is also a lovely way to "go rogue" if you want to see some alternate colours to your chosen palette. You know how sometimes you make a block and love it and want to make it in every colour? Well here is your excuse!  We've also put together the free download for the plain blocks I have designed to accompany the project and you can find them on my website here. I designed these with my love of quilts in mind: a plainer block to calm down the "busy" blocks if you want to create a little space between them.  These gorgeous velvet cushions are the latest addition to the Janie Crow and Emma Ball collaboration. The cushion covers are double sided and there are four designs available, as you can see in the images below. They can be purchased as a complete cushion or the cover only.     Gemma's says her household is trying to focus on a gradual reduction of sugar consumption, but it's not an easy task when you have all inherited the family sweet tooth!  Being on the lookout for lower sugar versions of some favourite recipes, Gemma thinks this lower sugar carrot cake by Mary Berry looks like a good one to try. The recipe uses Agave syrup and Maple syrup rather than more highly refined sugars and the carrots will keep it lovely and moist so it's bound to be yummy! In the Crowfoot household it is Andy's Birthday this weekend so I will be making a cake too! I always ask what type of cake he would like, knowing full well that he will say chocolate, and this year is no different. I tend to make a really fudgy chocolate cake using this recipe and so will probably do the same one again. The recipe freaks me out a little bit, because the batter is particularly runny before it goes in the oven, but so far the cake has always turned out great!  Have you ever tried Tunisian crochet? A new book by knit and crochet designer Anna Nikipirowicz has just been published by Search Press. The Tunisian Crochet Stitch Dictionary details 150 stitches, with step-by-step photos, charts and swatches to guide you along the way.  Gemma says she will be snapping up a copy as she's been turning her attention to this area of crochet recently! You can find out more about Anna's work here or by clicking on the image above.  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 have had a deadline for a chapter of my new book this week so I have been spending a lot of time at my desk, often working into the evenings too, so I am really looking forward to a few days off over the weekend. As it is Andy's birthday on Sunday we are heading into town this afternoon to see the Infinity Mirror Rooms at the Tate, followed by some food and cheeky drink in Borough Market. Saturday and Sunday we will be sticking close to home doing family things and hoping that we might get to venture into the garden. It has been so cold and wet here this spring that we have hardly made it out there so far this year, which is incredibly frustrating as it looks so good and the grass is in desperate need of a cut! It is nice to think that we have an extra day off this weekend due to the bank holiday on Monday. I am hoping to find time to do some crochet as I have some ideas for beaded edgings that I want to try out, so Monday might just be the perfect day for that! I hope you have fun whatever your plans! Janie x   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  |
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