Today it is my turn to reveal the project I have designed as my contribution to the Stylecraft Blogstars Garden Party event. My design is for some delicate floral bunting that would make the perfect decoration for a summertime party or family get together. I think it would make a beautiful hand made decoration for a wedding reception or for a child's bedroom too. In fact, with so many shades of yarn to choose from in the Naturals Bamboo + Cotton range, I think it would be easy to find a colour combination to suit pretty much any event you might be celebrating or any room you fancy decorating! Andy's amazing sister, Julie, was a huge bunting fan. Julie loved life and was the life and soul of any party, enjoying nothing more than a get together and a little boogie! Julie collected patterned papers and fabrics to make her own bunting and she loved organising decorations for any event, with bunting always taking centre stage! We lost Julie in January after an incredibly brave and courageous battle with cancer, so as soon as we started to discuss a garden party theme for a new Blogstars collection I knew immediately that I wanted to design some bunting with Julie in mind. A pretty, floral design that features sparkly silver beads and yarn in her favourite yellow shade was the obvious choice. I really enjoyed designing and making this bunting with the help of my ace crocheter, Marina, and so I hope you will like it too! A percentage of the proceeds from the sale of this pattern will be donated to Bowel Cancer UK. The pattern is available as a paper brochure or as a download via Etsy and Ravelry. You can find more information by following this link to the Janie Crow web site. You can also find more information about the Blogstars collection of designs by following this link to the Stylecraft blog where all the projects that have been released over the last couple of weeks have been featured. If you follow me on Instagram then you may already know that I had a computer meltdown on Friday so was unable to send out my May newsletter. I am back up to speed with all my technology now, so, all being well, you can expect the newsletter to drop into your inbox this Friday, so do look out for it! I look forward to telling you all my other Janie Crow news then! Hoping you have great day and thank you for all your amazing support... 'Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that makes you smile.' Mark Twain
We had a fabulous time at Wonderwool last weekend despite having one man down as Andy tested positive for covid. For a moment or two I considered staying home, but then I decided to be all grown up and put my big girl pants on and take myself to the show. I managed to hire a smaller van and cram it full of stock and the wonderful Sarah Hazell and her fabulous husband Paul came down to Wales to help me. I couldn't be more grateful for their help or for all of you who popped by the stand to say hello! We really did have a very special weekend and it was so good to be out in the wild again after such a long break away from shows. I have been busy getting ready for my Iceland trip with Arena Travel, which heads off next week, but I have a few more things to tell you about today, so I hope you have a little spare time to catch up with my news. We finally have lots of kits in stock, so if you have been waiting for the yarn for certain designs to be back on the website, take a look at the list below and the links for more information. We are so pleased to have so many kits back in stock after long absences from the website and hope that there will be something that takes your fancy. We will be revisiting the Sunshine and Showers design from May onwards to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the design featuring in Crochet Now magazine as a year long CAL project. We will be focussing on the design each month from May this year through to April next year and Emma will be doing some technical videos to accompany the design. Patterns are just 95p each or £11.40 for the whole set via Ravelry. I have created two pretty cushion designs for Inside Crochet Magazine - these will be revealed next week, on May 5th, so do look out for them. A couple of our Instagram posts produced quite a few interesting tips this week so I thought I would share the links here for you. The first post that produced more chatter than usual was one where I asked whether you preferred to work in production line way when crocheting or whether you tend to make one complete motif at a time. It seems the majority like to work in a production line way, but there were some great tips posted too - take a look here. In another post I showed some of the pieces I have in my essential crochet kit - such as sewing up needles, beads and my favourite crochet hooks. This post also produced a lot of feedback with many of you naming your favourite accessories - you can find that post here. If you follow us on Instagram then you may have seen that I officially introduced the lovely Emma to the team this week and mentioned that we will have some new videos on YouTube soon - If you don't already follow us on Instagram it would be great to have you join us! I am very much looking forward to sitting down with the family for a treat filled celebratory meal tomorrow as it will be Andy's birthday. I have baked the scrummy chocolate cake that I made a couple of weeks ago for a friends birthday and will post a pic on my Lifestyle Instagram page. Things have been so busy lately that I have really neglected my kitchen and, other than to make the cake for tomorrow, I have spent barely any time cooking. I am not a fan of ready meals, but on weeks like this we do resort to some of our favourite pre-made meals. This week, rather than share a recipe with you, I am going to recommend you tale a look around the COOK website. We are particularly keen on the Nut Loaf (which will easily serve 3 people, if not 4, despite the packaging saying it is for 2) and the Roasted Pepper and Goats Cheese Quiche, which is a great addition to a large family gathering. I will be appearing on Yarn Lane TV on bank holiday Monday, so I have a little bit of prep to do for this event over the weekend. The show is on at 1pm so I hope you will be able to join me as I chat about my Fruit Garden blanket design. The weather forecast is looking a tad chilly here for the bank holiday weekend so we might not be out in the garden quite as much as we had hoped, but the house has been mightily neglected lately, so I think we will be giving it a bit of much needed TLC over the next couple of days by having a bit of a spring clean. We have Summer and Chris coming for the weekend and as I said already we will be celebrating Andy's Birthday, so I am sure it will be a lovely couple of days. I leave you with a pic of this amazing version of Mystical Lanterns made by Anna Wells with yarns from her stash. Isn't it amazing! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend whatever you have planned and I look forward to popping back into your inbox in a couple of weeks time. Janie x
I had a really great time away from home last week teaching workshops and doing a couple of presentations about my work. Black Sheep Wools hosted a really nice afternoon Tea Party event on Wednesday followed by a day of mini workshops on Thursday where participants made a beaded brooch using one of the flower designs from The Fruit Garden Blanket as inspiration. On Friday I spent the day with a group from Crafty Stitchers in Northwich, Cheshire. It was so good to be with groups of crafters and it was brilliant to see them all so inspired by their crochet. Let's hope that more events and workshops are in the future for us all. The flower motifs from the Fruit Garden blanket would all make lovely brooches or decorations. I used the Hollyhock motif and added beads on a couple of the rounds. You can find a free beading technique download document on the web site here and a video to show you how to do it on the Janie Crow YouTube channel. Andy got the train up and we met on Friday evening in Buxton where we spent a night and then drove on to Holmfirth where we visited some of the places I knew well from my days at Rowan Yarns. On Monday we had a great meeting at Stylecraft and so I am back at my desk feeling inspired by some ideas for the future. After all the preparation I did for the workshops and events last week I am now getting organised for my workshop trip to Iceland, which is in a few weeks time. It has been really nice to dig out my knitting needles and sit down at my PC to draw fairisle knitting charts. I am about to cast on my project to test that everything works ok and so it will be a bank holiday weekend with quite a lot of knitting for me. We are heading away with the kids and my lovely mother in law, so I am hoping there will be plenty of time to knit. I have designed 2 cushion projects for Inside Crochet Magazine. They will be in the next issue, which is called Cottage Garden and is number 147. As soon as I have some official images I will share them with you, but for now you will have to make do with this sneaky peek image from this month's magazine! We will be at Wonderwool in Wales next weekend (23rd & 24th April) so we have quite a lot of things to sort out for that. We have taken on a really big stand so that there will be plenty of room for us all. We hope to have patterns and kits for sale and Andy will be taking lots of hooks, needles and accessories, but above all, this is a chance for you to see my blankets and cushions in the flesh and get a real feeling of colours and styles - there is nothing like seeing things in 'real life' is there! We are planning to revisit my Sunshine and Showers blanket design over the course of this year and into next. The CAL was released 5 years ago and features a new stitch for every month of the year, based on typical weather here in the UK. The pattern is available in parts as downloads, but we have never had videos to accompany the design, so my lovely new assistant Emma will be doing videos to help anyone who wants to work through the project. We will have more information about the project soon. We have updated our stock of the beaded pastel decorations yet again! We have 13 kits in stock and will be making some more to take to Wonderwool with us next week. You can find them by following this link. We have had a big delivery of Della Q items this week. I really love this range of knitting and crochet bags and pouches and use my own little messenger bag all the time - in fact it is my go to bag these days. I also use my little buddy case all the time as it is perfect for storing my beads - the soft velour type interior of this case makes it really perfect! You can check out our updated range of Della Q products here. We will be adding more stock to our Cohana and Jul ranges over the next few weeks so if you are looking for some fancy yarn snips or a lovely fair trade shawl pin make sure you take a look in the web store over the next couple of weeks. Lucy Locket lost her pocket, Kitty Fisher found it; Not a penny was there in it, Only ribbon round it. As a family we still do a Zoom quiz on a Sunday afternoon. A couple of weeks ago my mum asked the question 'Who found Lucy Locket's pocket?', as in the rhyme above by James Orchard Halliwell, which was first recorded in 1842. I had no idea of the answer, but the question sparked a conversation about the fact that womens' pockets were not sewn into clothes until relatively recently. Instead, skirts or dresses of the time, as well as the petticoats worn underneath, had an opening at the waistline to allow access to the pocket which hung around the woman's waist tied by a ribbon or tape. I found a really good piece about the fashion for ladies' pockets via The V&A here and you can find what looks like a really interesting book on the subject called 'The Pocket - A Hidden History of Women's Lives' by Barbara Burman and Ariane Fennetaux by following this link. I have found this all quite intriguing and think it would be really cool to make some separate pockets - do you think they could work in crochet? It is always really cold at Wonderwool! Whatever the weather outside, the cold comes up through the concrete floor in the halls so we always pack plenty of warm clothes to help keep us toasty. A few years ago I got so cold that I ended up buying some hand knitted gloves from another stall holder! When I saw these wrist warmers, made by my good friend Dedri of 'Look at What I made', I thought they would be an ideal make for these spring days when you can get caught out by the cold. Take look at Dedri's fab free pattern by following this link. I put on a bit of weight over lockdown so I thought it was about time I made an effort to shift it. I am not a diet fan and find I always loose my way with strict plans, so I thought a book that outlines a better way of life rather than a strict low fat diet might be the answer for me. I bought the book The Full Diet by Dr Saira Hameed and am working my way through it. It is a good read which has helped me to understand the science behind weight loss and the devil that is sugar and processed food. I haven't made any of the recipes from the book yet, but one of my favourite meals, 'Aubergine Parmigiana', is on plan so I thought I would share it with you this week. I love this dish and make it at least once a month. There is a good recipe here. We are heading away for a weekend by the sea with the family to celebrate the bank holiday weekend. I have packed plenty of knitting and crochet and hope that I will get time to sit with my hooks and needles over the next few days. Next week will be pretty hectic as we get ready for Wonderwool, so a relaxing weekend with some sea views will be perfect. My friend Chris shared with me the work of Gabriela Hurst after I featured some of the crochet garments from The Peruvian Connection a few weeks ago. Gabriela's work combines knit and crochet and is really inspiring. You can find her web site here or by clicking on the images above. I wanted to thank you again for all your support with our Ukraine Appeal to raise funds for UNHCR. We have paid the £5000 we raised to the charity and are thinking up new ways to raise money to support Ukraine. Amanda from Little Box of Crochet is asking for crochet squares to make blankets that will be raffled to raise money. You can find more information by following this link. Image with thanks to Karin Hellaby I am really looking forward to my trip to Iceland with Arena Travel in a few weeks time, but over the last week I have been avidly following the progress of the Stitchtopia tour of Uzbekistan. It really does look amazing and I would really love to take a group of knitters and crocheters out on the same trip in the future. Uzbekistan is a Central Asian nation and former Soviet republic. It's known for its mosques, mausoleums and other sites linked to the Silk Road, the ancient trade route between China and the Mediterranean. It is also famous for its amazing textile heritage. Take a look at the Stitchtopia Facebook page for images and videos of what looks like an incredible trip. Apparently the tour company have already had 3 stitch groups do this tour, but they say that knitters and crocheters aren't keen. I am sure there is so much to interest us yarn folk on this trip, so I would love to hear from you if you fancy this trip. If I get a good bit of interest then perhaps I can pitch it to Arena to try launching the trip again! Last night I finally managed to settle down and watch the first episode of the second series of Bridgerton. After all the hype I was really looking forward to being immersed in the world of empire line dresses, fancy frocks and old fashioned etiquette. I think my favourite thing about the series is the costumes and settings - there really are some gorgeous details on some of those dresses! Watching the show reminded me that a few months ago I made a 'Jane Austin' inspired mood board on Pinterest using the film 'Emma' as my inspiration. Like in Bridgerton, there were some amazing costumes in this film too. You can find the board here - it is a secret board as I was using it for ideas for a design and might still do so in the future, so you will need to follow the link rather than find it on my Pinterest profile. Well, that's it from me for another couple of weeks. I hope there has been something in this email that you found interesting and I hope you all have a fabulous bank holiday weekend and keep well..... Janie x
I hope this quick catch up email finds you well. It has been a bit hectic here at Janie Crow this week as I have been preparing for my workshops 'up north' next week. I love doing workshops and events, but there is always a lot to do in the build up to them, like making sure the project is made and accompanying yarn packs prepared, as well as making sure I have all my own notes ready. I am also doing a presentation next week, so that has taken a bit of work too. I felt a bit snowed under yesterday, so I tidied my desk and had a quick clear up in my studio space - something that always makes me feel more in control, so I am heading into the weekend feeling a little calmer! I have a few things to tell you about this week and hope that you can spare 5 minutes out for your own hectic schedules to catch up with all things Janie Crow. Thank you for your incredible response to our appeal to raise funds for the charity UNHCR, who are doing their best to support refugees. Throughout Ukraine's history sunflowers have been a symbol of peace and solidarity and it has been amazing to see how many of you adopted the idea of making a crochet mandala, using my Fields of Gold pattern to show support. We have seen so many lovely images and messages on social media over the last couple of weeks and I am absolutely blown away by your generosity. We have tallied up all the profit made on the sales of my Fields of Gold pattern for the month of March. We have rounded all amounts up and we have taken a hit on some of the printing charges and packaging costs so that we can donate as much as possible for each sale. We have included download patterns via Etsy and Ravelry and all paper patterns, including those in blanket project kits. We have also added in donations made directly to me via the 'Support Me' buttons on my web site this month. So, without further a do, I can reveal that the amount we raised was an amazing £4901.28. The final amount we will be donating to UNHCR is the incredible total of £5000! I am so grateful to all of you who supported this fundraiser - you are all totals stars! THANK YOU! Last Friday I took myself off to the V&A Museum and had a wander around for a couple of glorious hours. The V&A is my default destination when I am looking for ideas and it was so good to be back there after a long time away. My first port of call at the museum is almost always the Islamic Middle East Gallery, where I check in with the ceramic tile that became the inspiration for my Persian Tiles design way back in 2016. From there I wandered around the South Asia Gallery, which always leaves me full of ideas. This time I found myself really drawn to Indian water colour paintings. I have collected a few of my own miniature paintings on our travels in India, but what really drew me to those on display was the intricate floral painted frames, which I have focussed on in the images below. A visit to the V&A is not complete without a walk around the Arts & Crafts Movement room (Britain Galleries), which has lots of lovely William and May Morris pieces. I was really excited to see that a new item in the museum's collection is this amazing portrait by the awesome Kehinde Wiley. I missed his exhibition at the William Morris Gallery in 2020, so I was a bit emotional to finally see a piece of his work up close and personal, especially as this one is so stunning! If you are a fan of Wiley's work then you might be interested to know that there will be an exhibition of his work at The National Gallery from 18th April - you can find more info here. And finally, I climbed the stairs to my favourite 'hidden gem' in the museum, the ceramic galleries on the 4th Floor. These rooms are a bit out of the way and are not on the well trodden museum route, so there are never many people up there and it almost feels like I have found something secret! The ceramic collection is vast, with huge display cabinets from floor to ceiling in at least 4 large rooms and I always leave feeling really inspired and a little overwhelmed! A visit to the V&A is not complete without a mooch around the shop. I found some great books, which I hope will help me form some new design ideas. In my last email I mentioned that I have been thinking about designing some garments. Many of you replied to say that this is something you would like and I am still considering how my designs could work within items of clothing. I admit that I am quite apprehensive about the idea of fitted pieces and am more likely to come up with wrap, shawl and bag ideas to start with - so it is a case of watch this space for now. If you are looking for some great crochet fashion design I urge you to take a look at Cassie Ward's work. Cassie's Instagram feed is called The Missing Yarn and you can find it here. The response to my pastel versions of the Beaded Decorations was so good last time I emailed that we sold out of kits in no time. The good news is that we now have some more in stock, so if you missed out last time please take a look! The kits includes 6 balls of Organic Cotton DK in the spring shades, a bag of Debbie Abrahams beads, a 4mm crochet hook and the printed pattern, which also includes a beading masterclass. The price for the contents of the kit work out at almost £30, but we have priced it at £24.95. I have made 12 decorations so far and possibly have enough to make at least 8 more depending on the order of yarn use. You can find the kits by following this link, where you will also find the pattern if you want to use yarn from your stash. Just a reminder that the price of our paper patterns will be going up. At Janie Crow we have tried to keep our prices as reasonable as possible and have swallowed quite a few of our increasing costs over the last few years, however we are at a point now where we can no longer put off a price increase on our paper patterns. The cost of printing has almost doubled over the last few months and so we will be increasing the price of paper patterns as existing stocks sell through. The increase in price will be added to the next print run of all our brochure patterns, but for now our smaller 4 page folded leaflet style patterns will remain for sale at £3.95. Going forwards 8 and 12 page patterns will increase in price to £6.95 each and 16 page patterns will be priced at £8.95. If you want to stock up on paper patterns before the price increase starts to kick in from next week, you can find a link to all our paper patterns here. I will be at Black Sheep Wools for a couple of days next week. I will be hosting a Fruit Garden Blanket Tea Party at the store on Wednesday 6th of April. The event is a chance for you to come along and hear about my design process for the project, how we launched it as a CAL over the pandemic and how I set about creating the dedicated book last year. I will be bringing along lots of my own projects and hope that participants will also get involved in a show and tell and talk about their own Fruit Garden projects. You can find more details about the event by following this link. The following day (7th April) I will be tutoring 2 beaded flower mini workshops where I will demonstrate how to make a lovely beaded flower using a motif from the Fruit Garden project as inspiration. Most of the places have sold out but you can still find a couple of spare spots by following this link. Gemma has been incredibly busy finding some great items online this week, such as the fact that March was National Crochet Month in the US and that crochet is a key fashion trend for 2022. You can find a great piece from The Fashion Network here, a piece from Malay Mail here and a lovely piece about crochet handbag trends from Woman and Home. I am pretty sure we could all come up with some lovely crochet bags at a fraction of the price of some of these.... Gemma also found this great little video from 'On the Red Dot' entitled 'Handmade Tales'. I really enjoyed watching it and particularly liked the piece about yarn bombing in Singapore and the spotlight on fibre artist Kelly Limerick. Gemma is always busy in the kitchen and serves her family some lovely home made meals. This week she has recommended this Parsnip Dal recipe from Riverford. It sounds delicious! The last couple of weekends we had some amazing weather, so we spent quite a lot of time preparing the garden for veggie planting. Our little beetroots were delicious, so too were the over wintered fennel I used to make a scrummy pasta sauce. I try to start my working week with a good dose of fresh air and tend to head for a walk around the woods before I settle down at my desk on a Monday. This week the blossom was in full bloom and the catkins were just so pretty that my walk took me much longer to complete as I kept stopping to take some photos on my phone! The weather is a little different here today as we are now in the grips of some icy and blustery weather, so it is extra nice to look back on my images and be reminded that it has been warm and sunny so recently! We are heading away to Stratford Upon Avon for the weekend to meet up with a group of friends who came to Mysore with us in 2020. I am really looking forward to a weekend of knit and chatter and some good walks around lovely Stratford, so I am hoping the weather will not be too unkind! If you are also planning a spot of knit or crochet over the weekend, then you might want to find some good TV to keep you company. I am looking forward to catching up with all things Bridgerton over the next few weeks and will try hard not to binge watch it. Andy and I have also been watching 'This is Us' and are totally hooked - we are only one season in, so we will probably be watching it for the next 5 years! I am always on the look out for good TV and love to hear recommendations, so I would love to know what your favourite shows are to knit and crochet along to! I know that many of you listen to podcasts and book readings, so I would love to be able to pass on your recommendations for these too. We have been keeping an eye on our plastic use in the home for the last couple of years and have managed to drastically reduce the amount that goes into our recycling bin, but we still have a way to go, especially as the figures suggest that only 9% of household plastic gets recycled in the UK and because plastic cannot be recycled infinitely. If you are also on a mission to reduce your plastic consumption then you might want to take part in 'The Big Plastic Count', which will take place for a week between 16th & 22nd May. You can get more info and sign up by following this link. As the war in Ukraine continues, we will be looking at ways to continue our fundraising over the next couple of months. There are still many knitters and crocheters out there doing their bit to raise money, so do have a look around for ways that you can support them. Amanda at Little Box of Crochet is asking for crocheted squares made in blue and yellow to make blankets that will become part of a big raffle. You can find more info on Amanda's Instagram feed. Before I leave you I just want to ask a small favour. My good friend Emma has had her Instagram account blocked, which means she can no longer access it. Despite being a beautiful middle aged woman, the IG bots believe Emma to be underage for an account and, despite her providing all the required information to reinstate her account, she continues to be blocked. Over the years Emma had gained a really good following of more than 10,000 people on Instagram, but now she has had to start all over with a new account. So, my appeal is for you to take a look and follow her if you fancy - I guarantee you will not regret it as she is a lovely, funny human with a great big heart who will not fail to give you a giggle! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend whatever you have planned and I look forward to popping back into your inbox in a couple of weeks time. Thank you all again for your incredible support of our Ukraine appeal - you're all amazing! Janie x
Thank you for your incredible response to our appeal to raise funds for the charity UNHCR, who are doing their best to support refugees. Throughout Ukraine's history sunflowers have been a symbol of peace and solidarity. The national flower is being adopted by protesters - some are carrying bouquets at rallies, others are displaying the flower emoji to show support on line. We will be donating the profit from the pattern for my sunflower blanket design Fields of Gold to UNHCR for the duration of March. I have no idea how much we have raised already as I have not had a chance to tally it all up, but I would really love it if we could manage to raise £1000. Please consider purchasing a pattern if you can - you can choose a paper copy or a download via Etsy or Ravelry. You can find more information here. The charity Good Gifts, a sister charity to Knit For Peace, are raising funds for medical supplies for Ukraine. The emergency health packs are dispensed by health professionals in clinics set up at the borders, as refugees arrive from Ukraine. The packs contain wound dressings, pain relief, antibiotics and medicines to treat chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. The medicines will be dispensed by health professionals free to patients at the point of provision. The contents of the packs are donated by pharmaceutical companies, but funds are desperately needed to transport them. Please consider making a donation by following this link. I managed to catch covid and had a week or so of feeling a bit naff. This week I have been struggling to concentrate on anything for very long, maybe in part due to the infection, so I have been dipping into quite a few different projects so that I don't get too frustrated by my fuzzy brain. I have completed some more pastel coloured beaded decorations which I am planning to decorate the house with this weekend. We had these on display at the Stitch Festival recently and have a limited number of kits for the project left to sell. The kits includes 6 balls of Organic Cotton DK in the spring shades, a bag of Debbie Abrahams beads, a 4mm crochet hook and the printed pattern, which also includes a beading masterclass. The price for the contents of the kit work out at almost £30, but we have priced it at £24.95. I have made 12 decorations so far and possibly have enough to make at least 8 more depending on the order of yarn use. You can find the kits by following this link, where you will also find the pattern if you want to use yarn from your stash. I have also been testing out my Tidings Wrap pattern using Stylecraft's 'Charm' yarn. Sarah is making one too, so we hope to have the pattern for this project ready soon. As soon as we do I will let you know. As I am sure you are aware the price of pretty much everything is set to increase over the next few months if it hasn't done so already. At Janie Crow we have tried to keep our prices as reasonable as possible and have swallowed quite a few of our increasing costs over the last few years, however we are at a point now where we can no longer put off a price increase on our paper patterns. The cost of printing has almost doubled over the last few months and so we will be increasing the price of paper patterns as existing stocks sell through. The increase in price will be added to the next print run of all our brochure patterns, but for now our smaller 4 page folded leaflet style patterns will remain for sale at £3.95. Going forwards 8 and 12 page patterns will increase in price to £6.95 each and 16 page patterns will be priced at £8.95. If you want to stock up on paper patterns before the price increase starts you can find a link to all our paper patterns here. If you are looking for a project kit we now have Primavera yarn packs back in stock. The packs have a yarn substitution in place for the Organic Cotton Shade 'Bone', which is out of stock at Stylecraft. We did a couple of tests and replaced the shade with Ecru from the Naturals ReCReate range. I really love this yarn and think it is a great alternative to the cotton - it has a fabulously long length too, so you need fewer balls, which in turn means the kit is £5 cheaper than it was. You can find all our yarn packs and kits by following this link. It has been amazing to see some completed Indigo Dreams projects popping up on social media. I have really enjoyed the CAL and hope that it has brought those of you who followed it some joy too. I have been working on a new colourway of the project which will be released in the autumn when the pattern reverts to me. As the sun has been making its debut for 2022 in our house this week I have been noticing the odd spider's web and the fine layers of dust in places that it has gone un-noticed since the summer. Over the course of this week I have been starting a bit of a spring clean and this weekend I will take it a step further and put some of my spring-time decorations up. If you follow Lucy at Attic 24 you will know that she rearranges her mantel piece at home to reflect the changing seasons and has a collection of lovely crochet wreaths that all have a seasonal theme too. Lucy has been working on a winter garland lately but I think it looks beautifully springy! You can find some lovely images and more information about her projects by following this link. I found a lovely 'Hello Spring' cushion cover by Two Little Birds on Etsy. You can find the pattern here. There are also patterns for bunny and flower cushion covers on there. While searching through Etsy I also found these ready made crochet tulips by La Fleur Creations. Aren't they fab! You can pick your colour and create your own bouquet! If you fancy making some crochet flowers to brighten up your home and make it feel lovely and springy then you could use this pattern, which you can download via the Knit For Peace web site - obviously I would love it if you would also make a donation to the charity while you are there! I have a few exciting events on the horizon that you might fancy joining me for. You can find information about an afternoon tea event and a couple of workshops that I am doing at Black Sheep Wools lower down this email, but I have a few other things I want to tell you about. We are really looking forward to exhibiting at Wonderwool Wales next month. The show has not happened since 2019, so we are particularly excited about returning. You can find more information by following this link. I will be tutoring two workshops for Arena Travel as part of their Stitchtopia programme. I will be accompanying a group on a cruise to Iceland in May and then will be going on a tour of Finland in June. You can find more information about the trips by following this link. I have been invited back to Yarn Lane TV on May 2nd. I hope you can join me. I will be at Black Sheep Wools for a couple of days in early April. I will be hosting a Fruit Garden Blanket Tea Party at the store on Wednesday 6th of April. The event is a chance for you to come along and hear about my design process for the project, how we launched it as a CAL over the pandemic and how I set about creating the dedicated book last year. I will be bringing along lots of my own projects and hope that participants will also get involved in a show and tell and talk about their own Fruit Garden projects. You can find more details about the event by following this link. The following day (7th April) I will be tutoring 2 beaded flower mini workshops where I will demonstrate how to make a lovely beaded flower using a motif from the Fruit Garden project as inspiration. You can find more information about this event here. I hope you might fancy joining me! Do you fancy a relaxed weekend away in the Hertfordshire countryside with specialist knitting and crochet teachers, gorgeous yarn kits and likeminded people? If so, the WoollyAway could be the answer. A weekend of woolly fun starts in just over a week on the 26th of March and the event includes 2 days of crafting and relaxation in beautiful surroundings. With workshops being led by Natalie Warner, Andrew Kite, Deb Cunningham from Crates of Wool and Diana Bensted from The Crochet Chain. If you book a place you will get to stay in the beautiful Manor of Groves hotel, choose between a knitting or crochet class each morning and immerse yourself in your crafts for two blissful days. Meals are provided and you get access to the hotel's leisure centre if you feel the need for a change. You will also receive an amazing tool kit with some exclusive luxury yarns and patterns for all 4 workshops with a value of approximately £95. You can find more information about the event by following this link and you can book a spot here. I have to admit I am VERY tempted! I was banished from the house for a week while I was infectious with covid recently. Thankfully my symptoms didn't include loss of taste and smell, which I was really pleased about as Andy was a total star catering for my every need. Breakfast, Lunch and Tea were delivered to the door of our garden room without fail for a week and I was treated to some really lovely home cooking. s a thank you to Andy for his amazing attentiveness I gave him a copy of the first ever book from Dishoom called From Bombay with Love. It really is a gorgeous book, full of really tasty recipes. This is what the authors say about the book: 'Dishoom: From Bombay with Love, is an eccentric and charming cookery book, with over 100 recipes for the Bombay comfort food and drink that we love. Through the course of the pages, you will be taken on a day-long tour of south Bombay. Starting at breakfast, through to lunch, dinner and nightcaps, we share recipes for beloved dishes such as Masala Chai, the Bacon Naan Roll and House Black Daal.' The book is a really lovely read, with lots of stories, anecdotes and information about the origins of some of the recipes therein. The images are so incredibly enticing. I visited Mumbai in 2015, but this book is really making me want to go back again! We already love this recipe for Kejriwal - fried eggs on chilli cheese toast - which we discovered a couple of years ago. It used to be our favourite Dishoom recipe, but now that Andy has the book he is working his way through some more - all of which have been delicious so far! When I looked back at last month's newsletter I saw that I was waiting for my Amaryllis to flower, so I thought I would show you what it looked like a few weeks ago. It really was stunning and flowered for about 3 weeks. I have only just moved it off the kitchen table and cut it back. This weekend I am planning to replace it with some twigs and cuttings form the garden which I will decorate with my spring inspired beaded decorations. I am hoping to get into town next week to do a bit of design research. It is ages since I have been to the V&A or an exhibition or even to some of the larger stores like Anthropologie, which I always find so inspiring. A bit of window shopping sounds like a great plan! I recently came across this amazing cardigan by The Peruvian Connection, which reminded me a little of my Frida design - isn't it amazing? It has a price point far beyond my pocket, but the work involved in it is really intricate and I love the style. You can find a few more gorgeous crochet garments on the site such as the Saltillo and Millefiore tops below. I have always designed items for the home as I am not sure my skills are up to creating garments, but seeing these on the Peruvian Connection web site have me inspired. I would love to know how you guys feel about crochet garments - should I stick to blankets and cushions? We have had a real mixture of weather this week - we had torrential dirty rain on Wednesday, which left the windows and cars covered in a fine red dust thanks to a Saharan dust cloud that travelled up to us through Spain over the last week or so. A bit frustrating that we now need to give everything a good clean, but the sun is shining and we are set for a lovely weekend weather wise so we can't stay cross for long! I actually made it back to the gym this week for the first time in a while, so after months of ignoring my membership I am hoping to make it back there over the next few days and will also get a bit of a workout by cutting the grass - my life is so rock and roll! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend whatever you have planned and I look forward to popping back into your inbox in a couple of weeks time. Janie x
At Janie Crow we are supporting the UNHCR (The UN Refugee Agency). We have a link to donate via our homepage, or you can follow this one if you want to make a contribution. Over the last couple of weeks we have also made donations to The Disasters Emergency Committee and to The British Red Cross. Many other charities are doing vital work, however I have noticed that many of them have stopped asking for items such as blankets and warm clothes and are now focusing on monetary contributions as this will have the fastest impact on the people of Ukraine. I know that it can be really hard to find some spare money to give away, especially as we are constantly being told about how the cost of living is set to soar, but even the smallest contributions make a difference. Sarah mentioned to me that a friend of hers is making some crochet sunflowers which she plans to put on a wreath to display in her front window. Throughout Ukraine's history sunflowers have been a symbol of peace and solidarity, so creating something which involves them is a great idea. The national flower is being adopted by protesters - some are carrying bouquets at rallies, others are displaying the floral emoji to show support online. For the month of March we will be donating the profit on the download and paper patterns for my sunflower design, Fields of Gold to the UNHCR as well as continuing to make our own donations. You can find more information about the design by following this link. Looking at my sunflower design has got me thinking that a single flower motif would make an amazing mandala, which I could hang on the front door. I had planned to make a new pompom wreath, but maybe this is a nugget of a new idea.... If you don't fancy making something as big as my sunflower, perhaps you could make some small brooches and sell them to friends and give the proceeds to charity, or maybe you could make a wreath of them to display to your neighbours like Sarah's friend Linda. You can find some patterns and ideas by following this link to Etsy. Some of the sellers have patterns or readymade items that include a charitable donation, so do take a look. The team at Love Crafts have suggested making crochet or knitted hearts using the blue and yellow shades of the Ukrainian flag. You can find a free pattern by Annemarie Bentham by following this link or by clicking on the image above. On both Etsy and Ravelry you can sort designers based on the country they are in. Ravelry have provided a link for Ukrainian Designers here. Etsy have created a Ukraine landing page, which you can find here and they have also waived all balances for Ukrainian based sellers. Etsy CEO Josh Silverman wrote in a recent blog post: 'Being part of a community means that when one part is suffering, the rest of us must step up and offer our support'. According to Etsy, it is waiving a total of around $4million in fees, which includes listing, advertising and transaction fees. If you want to directly contribute to citizens of Ukraine you can do so as follows: Go to the Etsy home page. Click the 'All Filters' button and scroll down to 'Country'. Click 'Custom' and type Ukraine into the box. The results you get will include all digital files created and sold by Ukraine based Etsy sellers. Digital download file transactions allow Ukrainians to earn money without having to produce anything new or process physical orders during this unbelievably tough time. When I did my search I found a lot of downloadable cards and postcards, like the one shown in the image above which I chose, but there are also lots of knit and crochet patterns on there too. We are all aware of the sanctions being imposed on Russian businesses and individuals and so I was interested to read how many UK based supermarkets have made the decision to remove Russian produce items from their stores. It seems that this mostly means vodka, which is predominantly made in Russia, but there are a few other items that we could avoid too, such as Russian grown sunflower seeds and charcoal. If you shop at a certain store then you might want to check their policy. It made me smile to read that Sainsburys have also changed the name of their Chicken Kievs to Kyivs - the preferred way of spelling the Ukrainian name. Many yarn companies, shops and designers have come out in support of Ukraine and lots of them are offering to donate profits from sales to the charities involved in helping. Below I have highlighted a couple that Sarah and I have found over the last few days: Love Crafts are donating 100% of profits from Debbie Bliss pattern sales on a selection of reduced designs. Quinton & Chadwick are holding a raffle for the beautiful sweater shown above. Tickets are £10 each - The retail price of the sweater is £190! Knit and crochet designers Arne & Carlos are supporting Save The children and have a dedicated pattern sale. If you are shopping around for anything else and want to be sure you are doing the right thing then you might want to check out the following article, which I found 'These Brands Let you Support Ukraine Just by Shopping. You can write to your MP and ask them to put pressure on the Government to provide more support for the people of Ukraine. If you want to find your local MP's details follow this link and you can find a template letter here via the Ukrainian London website. There is a petition you can sign asking the Government to provide more help to refugees - you can find it here. When posting on social media use the hashtag #StandWithUkraine There are lots of events planned for the weekend, both nation and world-wide. If you are interested in joining a march, then check out the following sites for some guidance: Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain Ukraine Solidarity Campaign Stop The War Coalition Stand with Ukraine As we head into the weekend I am praying that we start to see some calmer times. Hopefully by the time I am sending my usual style newsletter next Friday we may have seen a de-escalation of aggression, but in the mean time I hope that your knit and crochet is bringing you some peace and that you can find solace in knowing that you have helped in some way.
I hope you all understand the reason for my break away from a usual Janie Crow news heavy email and that you will understand that my motive is humanitarian and not political. Stay safe Within the 'Thought for Today' feature on the radio this morning the speaker talked about the importance of women vocalising their success and it got me thinking about how we measure the achievements of ourselves and other women. I follow inspirational speaker Kubi Springer on Instagram and have read one of her books about building a strong brand. I like the way she writes and enjoy listening to her motivational speeches, but it always bugs me that her benchmark for whether or not you are successful (in business anyway) is what car you drive and how big your house is. It seems to me that when evaluating the worth of anyone these days (not just women) society has a tendency to base calculations on the amount of money we earn, the area we live in and how many holidays we can afford rather than the actual level of success we have achieved. On International Women's Day, we often hear about women who are championed because they have broken the mould and made a pathway into male dominated areas. We see praise for female engineers and mathematicians for example. Women who work in areas traditionally dominated by men. I am not saying this is a bad thing - my daughter is a Design Engineer and I am so incredibly proud of her, especially given all the discrimination and misogeny she has come across over the course of her working life, but shouldn't we be championing ALL women regardless of their chosen careers? For me, converting another crocheter to the benefits of our craft is a win. Hearing how crochet has changed someone's life is another win. Seeing how women support each other in the craft world - win win win! None of these achievements has a monetary value and no price tags can be placed on the joy people experience making projects either. To me, the worth of a hand made gift is immeasurable - the ultimate love token! Over the course of my career I have met some of the most amazing women, many of whom have totally changed my life. My little Janie Crow team is predominantly made up of incredible, strong, loving and funny trail blazing women who have supported me in so many ways, both on a work and personal level, but I have also found that in broader society women can be their own worst critics, especially on social media, where we are often reminded to be kind and thoughtful. We lost Andy's amazing sister to bowel cancer recently. At her funeral everyone spoke of her amazing personality. Of the love she had for her family and her incredible courage in the face of her illness. Julie worked as a teaching assistant and always put the joy of children to the forefront of her life. She was a loving wife, a doting mother to three incredible children and an amazing daughter, sister and friend. Her worth is not measured on the basis of the career she chose, what car she drove or how much money she made in her lifetime, it is based on her incredible gift for loving and looking after people - her own in-built magnificence. Our lives will never be the same without her. In 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People' Steve Covey talks about how we should all live our lives with 'the end in mind'. In other words, by continuously thinking about how we want to be remembered and on what we want our achievements to be based. For International Women's Day 2022, in a world where social media tells us we should 'have, have, have', I am reminding myself today of the importance of championing and supporting ALL women regardless of how traditional society measures worth. I hope this quick catch up email finds you all safe and well. It has been really windy, cold and gloomy here the last couple of weeks, so I have been keeping myself cheery with some lovely spring themed crochet projects. The daffodils are beginning to come into flower around here, so I am hopeful that some nicer brighter days are not too far away. I have a few things to tell you about this week, so I hope you can spare a few minutes to catch up with all things Janie Crow! If you have visited the Janie Crow website over the last couple of weeks you may have noticed a few changes. I have been doing a bit of tidying up and sorting out so that the site is easier to navigate and Andy has been doing the same to the store pages. My lovely Graphic Designer, Steph has been creating some pieces to compliment the images of my projects so that everything starts to look tidier and way prettier! It is a big job and so far Steph and I have only really concentrated on the home page (which still isn't finished), but it has been really rewarding to spend some time on the website, which has been a bit neglected recently. You can follow this link if you want to take a look around! While I am on the subject of the website and in turn our store, we have some good news for those of you who live in Europe as we have started to implement IOSS (Import One Stop Shop) to our products. This means that those of you in the European Union will no longer face large import duties on items ordered via Janie Crow. It has been quite a lot of work for Andy to sort out the listings and add the correct VAT percentages for every country in the EU, but he is nearly there now. If you are from Europe and are considering making an order I suggest that you wait until next week as the system will be totally up and running very soon. We sell kits and paper patterns on our website as well as some lifestyle items like the Della Q makers bags and project pouches. If you are more likely to want to use download patterns to create some of my projects then you can access these via Ravelry. We also have a thriving Etsy store, which has just been awarded a 'Star Seller' badge, so you might want to take a look by following this link too. The patterns for the final instalment of my Indigo Dreams Crochet Along project are now available in Inside Crochet Magazine. It has been so fantastic seeing all your images of the project cropping up on social media and I am really looking forward to seeing all the completed blankets. The patterns for the project will revert to me once the CAL is over, so I have been working on a new colourway of the blanket, which I will reveal when the pattern is rereleased in the autumn. It has been really great fun to revisit this project and I have loved using Stylecraft's new recycled yarn ReCreate to make my swatches for a new blanket. It has also been fabulous to see how many of you are revisiting my Frida's Flowers CAL, which features bright flowers on a black background, and was inspired by the iconic costumes and personal style of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. You can find the newly updated yarn list for the original version of the project here. You can find more information about the CAL and yarn packs for this version by following this link. A few years after the release of the original Frida blanket I asked Lucia if she would create a new colour way of the project and was really excited when she produced her version, which she named Primavera. Until recently, the kit for this blanket has only been available as an exclusive kit from the Janie Crow web site, but to coincide with the release of the CAL project as the featured make along project for February, we decided to give Primavera a wider release. If you are looking for a kit or yarn pack for any of my projects we still have them in stock for the following designs: Mexican Diamonds Fields of Gold Lily Pond Original and Cherry Blossom Frida's Flowers Red House You can find kits for my Magic Circles Scarf via Eden Cottage yarns here or by clicking on the images above. We have also added the Bloomsbury Gardens project to our list of yarn packs this week. You can find them by following this link. Please note that yarn packs are sold separately to the Bohemian Blooms pattern book, which you can find here. I will be on the Stylecraft stand at the Stitches Trade Show this coming weekend so I am really excited about finally being able to catch up with some lovely yarny folk! It is a really nice feeling to be preparing for a show, especially as I will also be at the Spring Stitch Festival on Thursday next week. I will be hosting the Knitting Lounge on Thursday 3rd March at the show and Sarah and I will be on hand to showcase some of my designs and demonstrate various crochet techniques, including beading and how to work in a neat and consistent way. We will have a limited number of kits for my beaded decorations, which include Stylecraft's Organic Cotton DK in pastel shades and silver beads, as well as a 4mm hook. We will also have some fabulous Stylecraft goody bags to give away, so please come along and say hello if you are visiting the show. You can find more information and purchase tickets by following this link. We will be launching our residential workshop in Bournemouth next week. The dates of the event are 23rd to 27th June and participants can choose whether to opt for a 3 or 4 night stay. More information about the workshop is live on the Inspired Minds website now, but it will not be bookable until next Tuesday. If you want to be amongst the first people to get the notification that it is live to book, you can sign up to the Inspired Minds newsletter by following this link. Please do not ask us to save you a space as places are allocated on a first come, first served basis. As well as updating the website we have started to look at the way our social media platforms work and are hoping to be a bit more up to date with the technology behind them. Gemma does a fabulous job with the Facebook page, but we are hoping to get up to speed with Instagram and YouTube over the next couple of months too. We have a new member of the Janie Crow team, Emma, starting to take control of both of these over the next few weeks, so I hope that you will start to notice a difference on these platforms too. In order to make things work in a more streamlined way we have updated my Instagram account to a business one and linked it to our webstore so that links are easier for you guys to follow. To do this Andy and Emma have had to create a store listing in the background workings of Facebook, which means that you may have seen some Facebook generated posts for items in our shop appearing in your feed. Unfortunately there seems to be little we can do about this, but we think that this is only happening because we are working on the background 'bits' and hope that once everything is up and running the automatically generated posts will stop. I hope you will bear with us during this process.... A couple of weeks ago I was invited to be the featured guest on Yarn Lane TV. I had a lovely time chatting to show presenter Rebecca about some of my projects and also managed to squueze in a couple of technique demos. If you missed the show and want to take a look, you can find a video of the programme on the Yarn Lane TV YouTube channel by following this link. My pal Stuart Hillard, of Sewing Bee fame, hosts quite a few of the Yarn Lane TV shows these days. Stuart is great fun to watch and always has lots of great tips, so I tend to try to tune into the show when he is on. In very exciting news this week, Stuart has just revealed his brand new sock yarn colourways that he has worked in collaboration with Stylecraft to produce. You can find more information about these gorgeous Head Over Heels yarns by following this link to Stuart's Instagram feed. I am so thrilled that The William Morris Society have included an interview with me in their latest magazine. The Society were a huge support to me while I was working on The Fruit Garden Blanket Book and I feel so honoured that they felt my work was worthy of an article in their magazine. You can find the society's website here. While you are there, be sure to check out their shop as they have recently added some really fantastic Morris inspired items. I am currently coveting the Orange Tree tote bag, which I think would make a perfect storage bag for my Fruit Garden blanket! A few weeks ago I made the most chocolatey chocolate cake ever for my friend's birthday. I followed this recipe by Nagi at Recipe Tin Eats. I chose it because it said it was an easy recipe to follow, which was true, but I did have a bit of a wobble about just how much coffee to add! I have never created a cake from such a sloppy batter. I really thought I had made a huge mistake when it went in the oven, but it really was delicious. I split my batter into 3 x 20cm tins instead of cooking in one and reduced the cooking time. I also added a bit of sour cherry jam between the layers to take a bit of the sweetness off - kind of mad when I then added salted caramel fudge and tons more chocolate to the top - but it did work really nicely and I will DEFINITELY make it again despite the calories! I didn't follow any of the Winter Olympics, but I did see quite a few people sharing images of the crochet bouquets that winners were presented during the medal ceremonies. In case you missed them, I have posted an image below and there is a link to a video showing the groups of ladies crocheting them here. I have to admit it concerns me a little just how many plasters the ladies have on their fingers and how much crochet they may have been obliged to do in a short space of time, but it is interesting from a crochet perspective. Interesting too that China sited carbon emissions as the reason to produce crochet bouquets instead of real flowers when the country is by far the largest producer of CO2 in the world, but then I suppose every little helps? Andy and I will be travelling to Birmingham on tomorrow so that we can drop my blankets and display items into the NEC ready for the trade show on Sunday. We will be spending the evening with Sarah and her husband Paul, which I am REALLY looking forward to as we have not all been together in 2 years! As I said already, I will be at the show on Sunday (and Monday), so that pretty much wraps up my weekend, but I am sure there will be some time to settle down with my yarn and hook for a spot of mindful crafting.
Hopefully I will get a bit of time for some reading too - I am reading a book called 'Why has no one told me this before?' by Dr Julie Smith on the recommendation of my friend Michele. The book is not totally relevant to me, but it does follow up on many of the 'small habits lead to big changes' themes of another book I recently enjoyed. As I sit here writing this from my garden room, with the birds flying around outside and the sun shining on the emerging bulbs in the garden, it is hard to imagine the horror of what is happening in Ukraine. It is difficult to know if there is anything we can do, so I did a search and found this article, which has provided me with more information and has given me some ideas of how I can help. Perhaps you would like to take a look and decide what you can do too? On a day when the world seems madder and badder than usual I hope we can all find it within ourselves to be kind and think of others, while the powers that be work out what to do. I send you all lots of yarny love and hope you stay safe.... Janie x NEW IN! BLANKETS LIFESTYLE BLOG VIDEOS EXPLOREI have been working on a couple of cushion cover designs for Inside Crochet magazine. The covers are very pretty and have a floral theme, which includes some beading. It has been so nice to add beads to a design again as I do so love a bit of bling! You can find beading technique videos on my YouTube channel and free technique download documents on the web site. The cushions will appear in the magazine soon! Working on a beaded design made me want to revisit my Beaded Christmas Decorations pattern, so I have grouped together some lovely 'springy' pastel shades of Stylecraft's Organic Cotton to make a new set. I am hoping to add in an egg shaped decoration in the hope that they will be ready for Easter. I will share some images when I have finished them. We have been able to put together some more kits. Yay! We now have yarn packs available for the following designs: We also still have kits in stock for the following designs: Frida's Flowers - Primavera, Frida's Flowers, Sunshine and Showers, Lily Pond and Lily Pond Cherry Blossom, Eastern Jewels and Fruit Garden Night & Dusk and Red House colourways. The final pattern set for my Indigo Dreams crochet along will be published in the next copy of Inside Crochet magazine. It has been fabulous seeing your crochet blankets taking shape on social media. I am so pleased to hear how many of you have enjoyed the project. Over the next few weeks we will be doing a bit of work on the Janie Crow website. It has needed a bit of attention for a long time, so I will be working with my fabulous graphic designer, Steph, to bring it up to speed and make it look lovely! I hope you will like the changes we have planned. As I said in the introduction it has been really good to see some more events and plans on my forward radar - you can find more information about these a little lower down this email. It has been really fabulous to see how many of you are planning to revisit my Frida's Flowers pattern. The blanket is featuring as the Stylecraft Make Along project for February and you can find more information about how to get involved here. I have written a blog about the project, which includes some images of the blankets made in fabulous alternative colourways. You can find it by following this link. Images with thanks to Lita Johnathans. One of my New Year's resolutions is to see if I can create a better base for my mental and physical health going forwards. I read a book called 'Atomic Habits', which is about creating small habits that build over time to create a big change. In January I started walking daily and have really enjoyed getting out in the local countryside for a daily romp! The habit has slipped a little this week as my workload has grown a little, but I am still managing to get at least 10,000 steps a day - something I struggled to do previously. This month I have been trying to be a little more aware of what I eat and drink. That isn't to say that I am on a diet - the only thing I am doing differently is writing down every single item that I eat or drink in a note book. This practice has already made me far more aware about how much I eat without really thinking about it and has made me snack less. So far, I have no idea if this practice has made any difference to my weight as another of my small habits is to weigh myself just once a month - but I already feel better. I am definitely a convert to small habits rather than massive change and would love to hear if similar approaches have worked for you. If you want to sign up to James Clear's weekly newsletter you can do so by following this link. Over the last few weeks we have had some great images sent in of projects out in the wild so I thought I would feature a few in this week's newsletter. Rose emailed with an image of her Mystical Lanterns blanket which she gave to a friend as a gift. Isn't it lovely - I really like the way Rose has added another dimension to this blanket by blocking colours together. The image above was sent to me by Jill 'in cold wet Adelaide'. She says: 'you called it Willow Blossom, I've christened my versions Field of Daisies'. Jill Hill sent me the image above of her fabulous Imogen project made using shades of blue - Gorgeous isn't it! I am often blown away by versions of Persian Tiles when they pop up on social media, but the version above, sent in by Marg McRae, made me gasp in delight when I opened the image. Marg says: 'Hi Janie, I am Marg McRae from Albury NSW Australian. My husband and I have been ex farmers for 30 years, I am his carer as he has a disability. I am writing to you to say I love all of your crocheted blanket patterns, also enjoy reading your newsletters. In our 1st lockdown last year, I got my crocheting hooks out and did your Persian Tile rug pattern. I chose 4ply pure Australian merino wool. I wanted to share a photo of my blanket, I love it. It has been 30 so years since I have done any crocheting, didn’t want to put my hook down. I do lots of quilting all by hand, which I find very relaxing also...Marg' Needless to say, we really love getting emails like Marg's one and all adore seeing your images. You can share them on our Facebook page by following the link. I will be appearing on Yarn Lane TV this coming Sunday (13th February) at 12 noon. I will be chatting to Rebecca about some of my projects and will be doing some demonstrations. I hope you will be able to tune in! Next Tuesday evening there will be a talk about the work of May Morris on the William Morris Society website. I have a ticket and am really looking forward to it. You can find more information here. I will be on the Stylecraft stand at The Stitches trade show on Sunday 27th & Monday 28th February. Sarah and I will be on hand within the Knit & Crochet lounge at The Spring Stitch Festival on Thursday 3rd March. You can find more information about the show by following this link. We will have a few spring inspired kits for sale and will be demonstrating how to add beads to your crochet, so I hope you are able to drop by and see us. There are still a few spaces on my Iceland Cruise with Stitchtopia, which runs for 11 days from the 4th May. You can find more information here. I have been busy baking today, making a chocolate fudge cake for a friend's birthday. If it all goes to plan I will show you some images next time, however it is the cake I made for my Mum's 80th birthday a few weeks ago that I am featuring today. The Sticky Ginger Lemon Drizzle cake was made using the recipe as a guide, but I split the batter into 3 cakes instead of 2 and added a tad more cream cheesy icing. I didn't make the lemon frosting but drizzled some fresh lemon juice over the cakes before I iced them. I used crystallised ginger to decorate it. It was super yummy! We had a really lovely family day with Mum to celebrate her birthday - she says that the '80' balloons, that Summer and Chris got her, are the first balloons she has ever had. They have taken pride of place for the last few weeks! Today marks the 20th anniversary of the BBC's children's channel CBeebies. Both my children were big fans of the channel when they were little and I have always loved the bedtime story segment, especially since famous people have started reading stories. As I am sure you are aware Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, will be reading a story to raise awareness of chidren's mental wellbeing on Sunday. You can find the Cbeebies YouTube channel here. The weather has been really bright and sunny here today so I am hoping to squeeze in a few nice walks this weekend. Our local countryside is coming to life, with lots of daffodil bulbs and crocuses about to bloom. At home, we are on amaryllis watch as the bulb I planted in January is about to burst into glorious flower! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend and that you have some lovely plans to look forward to. Sending yarny love.... Janie x
NEW IN! BLANKETS LIFESTYLE BLOG VIDEOS EXPLOREAs I have already said in the introduction above, we are very pleased to have a new project to tempt you with this week. The Frida's Flowers CAL was launched in 2016 and it has been fabulous seeing it made by people all over the world ever since. The original blanket, which features bright flowers on a black background, was inspired by the iconic costumes and personal style of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and it was made using Stylecraft Classique Cotton. As this yarn is now discontinued I decided it would be a good idea to update the yarn listing for the new Organic Cotton DK. You can find the newly updated yarn list here should you like the idea of making this original colour way. You can find more information about the CAL and yarn packs for this version by following this link. A few years after the release of the original Frida blanket I asked Lucia if she would create a new colour way of the project and was really excited when she produced her version, which she named Primavera. Until now, the kit for this blanket has only been available as an exclusive kit from the Janie Crow web site, but now, to coincide with the release of the CAL project as the featured make along project for February, we have decided to give Primavera a wider release. Yarn kits should now be available via your local Stylecraft stockist and the yarn substitution document is available as a download. We have created some kits for the project, which include a printed yarn substitution document, by following this link. You can find more information by following this link. I have written a blog post about Frida and Frida Primavera, which includes lots of ideas for alternative colourways, by following this link. It has been quite grey and gloomy here in North London and very chilly, so we sent out a plea on Facebook for followers to show us photos of their colourful crochet work to brighten the days. Here are just a few of the wonderful makes that were shared with us: Below is Gay Horne's Sunshine & Showers blanket - nearly finished! Elizabeth Beswick-Watts has created a fantastic version of the Mystical Lanterns blanket, but says she regrets not sewing in her ends as she went along! Andrea Dahncke is working on her colourway of The Blue House Blanket. We haven't seen many of these out in the wild yet and think her choice of colours is really pretty. Another design that we don't see so often is the Imogen Blanket. Michelle Withey has just finished hers. Hasn't she made a fantastic job of it? Thank you to everyone who shared images with us over on Facebook. We do love seeing your work and in particular your exciting colourways of Janie Crow projects. Hopefully the images above will inspire you to root through your yarn stash to create a very personal piece of your own crochet.... art 4 of the Indigo Dreams Crochet Along has now been published in Inside Crochet Issue 144 and we are loving seeing your progress over on the dedicated Facebook group, which now has almost four thousand members! In this month's instalment you will be making the Rosewood Motif and the Love Heart Granny Squares. Ever in search of quick and easy recipes to make at the end of a busy day, Gemma has recommended this recipe for really simple homemade falafels, which she found over on the BBC Good Food website. If you're feeding the family for a main meal Gemma recommends doubling the recipe and if you prefer your food a little bit more fiery, you might want to tweak the spice content as they are quite mild. Did you know that it is 1900 years since Hadrian's Wall was built? Well, apparently it is, and to celebrate this occasion the Vindolanda Charitable Trust have launched a Bunting Challenge! The Challenge is to create (by knitting, crocheting or sewing) 1900 flags of bunting, which will decorate a replica section of Hadrian's Wall at the Roman Vindolandia, in Hexham, Northumberland, in an exhibition between 22nd-30th October 2022. Crochet patterns for the bunting, designed by Lynne Barber, are available to download on the project website, which you can find by clicking on the image above or here. You can also find a knitted flag pattern here. It could be a good opportunity for some new year stash-busting too! I have a couple of train journeys ahead of me this weekend and I am already looking forward to a few hours sat crocheting as I speed through the English countryside. I think the weather forecast is looking good too, so a spot of sunshine will be very welcome. What do you have planned for this weekend? We always like to hear about what you have on your hook or your knitting needles and which projects you are getting excited about. Simply hit reply and let us know. Janie x
|
AuthorWelcome to my blog. Here you will find my email newsletter archive alongside any other general musings or information about events or new pattern releases that I wish to share with you! Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|