Quick Catch Up with Janie Crow

It's been a really busy couple of weeks again, with our crochet afternoon event last Saturday and then getting ready for the Footsteps of William Morris workshop with Stitchtopia next week. I feel like I have been working towards a deadline for weeks on end now, so I am looking forward to crocheting at a slightly slower pace as we head into July.
 
The summer months can be much quieter for us than the others, so it is a good time for me to get some new design work sorted. I am working on a new blanket design that I hope will be out before Christmas and the CAL project, which I have designed for Stylecraft, is pretty much completed too. I am really looking forward to showing you these two new projects later on in the year. 
 
We have a couple of things to tell you about this week, so I hope you can spare a few minutes to catch up with our news…

We had a fantastic time on Saturday at the fabulous Old Fold Manor Golf Club in Barnet. We welcomed a room full of gorgeous crocheters and their fans (both the Janie Crow team and their actual electric fans) as we all braved the heat to crochet summer flowers together.
 
We were delighted to see some familiar faces as well as lots of new ones and it was lovely to share projects at the show-and-tell session towards the end of the day. Andy brought along the pop-up shop and there was a glass of fizz and afternoon tea. All in, an absolute dream!
 

If you want to see more pics and some feedback quotes from the day you can find them on our Instagram feed here. We are hoping to book another afternoon event for next year and will give you the details once we have confirmed everything with the venue.

Stitchtopia have released two new residential workshop trips with me for next year. I will be repeating the knitting trip to West Yorkshire in June, where the week will have more of a relaxed, 'retreat' feeling this time, compared to the previous trips. Debbie Abrahams is going to be doing the same trip in October, so there are a couple of choices on dates to choose from if you fancy that one!
 
I will also be heading off to Croatia in October for, what looks to be, a fabulous crochet trip - perfect for those who like a bit of autumn sunshine too. Croatia has a great crochet heritage and the trip includes some lovely sounding workshops and visits. I am getting excited about this one already! There are now just three places left on this trip, so if you have been thinking about coming, you may need to secure your place sooner rather than later. You can head over to the Stitchtopia website for dates and more info by clicking on the links. 

When I look back at my portfolio of designs, the one that still makes me feel the proudest is The Fruit Garden blanket. I love the design, and have very fond memories of working on it, but what makes it so special is that it was released as a CAL just as we headed into lockdown in 2020, which meant that literally thousands of people used it as a way of getting them through a really difficult time. We know that for many, this was their very first crochet project and that alone astounds me, given the complexity of the piece. 
 
The original Fruit Garden blankets were both photographed at Standen House, which is an amazing Arts and Crafts property in East Grinstead, so when I saw that they were looking for artists and creators to submit work for a major exhibition this summer I decided that the Fruit Garden blanket, which was inspired by the embroidery designs of William Morris's daughter May, had to be the one I chose.
 
I am incredibly honoured to have had the Parchment and Caramel version of the blanket (shown above) accepted into the exhibition. I dropped it off at Standen on Monday so that it can be on display within the house, alongside the work of many talented makers, for the next three months.
 
You can find more information about the Inspired by Standen exhibition by following this link. You can follow them on Instagram too! 

The exhibition runs from 2 July to 30 September and is open daily 11am–4pm. There are some accompanying Heritage Makes days, where you can meet makers, enjoy live demonstrations and talks on 15 & 29 July, 5 & 19 August, and 2 & 23 September (10am–4pm). Admission to both is free with normal property entry.

I have enthused about my recent trip to France, where we visited Monet's Garden and Versailles, to so many people lately that I think I am in danger of sounding like a scratched record! For those of you who have asked, we are hoping that this Stitchtopia trip will run again next year, so keep an eye out for more information soon.
 
I want to share with you the project that one of my really talented crocheters created while we were away. Using my pouch design as a basis, Rose decided that she wanted to create a piece that really captured the idea of Monet's waterlilies and incredible ponds at Giverny. She used elements of my pattern and added in design features of her own to create the most wonderful unique version. Isn't it just fabulous! 

Gemma's latest review on her book of the month blog looks at ‘Cozy Crochet Motifs’ by Tuija Heikkinen, hot off the press and published by David & Charles on the 16th of June this year. ​

​The book contains 75 patterns for small motifs, suitable for use as embellishments on clothing or household items such as tea towels or cushion covers. This is a great book for stash-busting as the motifs only use tiny amounts of yarn. 
 
Take a read of Gemma's thoughts on the book over on the blog here and you can follow Tuija Heikennen on Instagram here.

There are a couple of events coming up this month, which may be of interest. On the weekend of the 25th & 26th of July the Summer Wool Festival will be taking place at Redborne School, Ampthill (near Bedford). With 100 stalls, workshops, demos and a street food area, this is a lovely show to visit. There is plenty of free parking and the show takes place in several buildings/marquees so the stalls are well spaced which helps things not get too crowded. You can find out more details and get advance tickets from the website here.

The Knitting & Crochet Guild are holding their next collection open day on the 25th of July at Britannia Mill in Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire. The open days provide the opportunity to see items from the collection on display, find out how the collection is stored and cared for and the chance to chat with expert volunteers. You can find the website for the Guild and more upcoming events here.

Gemma's recommended recipe echoes the one we mentioned last time as it is a quick and easy puff pastry tart, this time topped with onions and artichokes. One of Gemma's fridge staples is a ready rolled puff pastry sheet so that on those evenings when inspiration deserts her she can put together a tart with whatever happens to be to hand. 
 
This is a Mary Berry recipe from the BBC website. It doesn't take too long to put together and cook and is super yummy!

When the weather is warm and sunny the inclination to crochet can be over ridden by the lure of the garden and our out-doorsey hobbies. As crochet is my job I have to get on with it and so have a range of fans to help keep me cool as I move around the house finding the coolest spots to work in. 

Our webstore always goes really quiet this time of year as the weather improves and people head off on holidays but, as an online business we have learnt to adapt to the ‘leaner’ months and can always rely on our download sales to keep things ticking over. Spare a thought then for the small ‘bricks and mortar’ yarn stores who rely on footfall in their shops. For many of them this time of year can be particularly brutal as they struggle to keep going through the summer slump. 

My Sevilla crochet blanket has just headed off to spend a few weeks with @woolontheexe to help build interest in the CAL they are running. If you are able to support them by getting involved, then please head over to their feed for more info. If you have a local yarn store please consider dropping in over the next few weeks - as I have told you many times before, there is no such thing as too much yarn and you can get nicely prepared for when the weather turns a little cooler.

Juliet and I had a lovely time at Hitchin Lavender a couple of weeks ago at the craft evening arranged by the lovely Helen of Woolly Chic. Despite the lavender not being quite in flower we had a fabulous time and enjoyed tea and chat with fellow knitters and crocheters. ​

I know we are only just into July but I have already swatched my autumn knit project as I saw a colourway I just couldn't resist on line. I am going to make the Autumn Alpine sweater by Boyland Knit Works as I am currently completely addicted to working colourwork in the round.
 
Next week I will be away at the William Morris workshop with a fabulous bunch of crocheters. We will be working on a project that uses my Spirit of Flora design as the base, so take a look at pics of the trip over on Instagram if you get a chance towards the end of the week.
 
We are heading off to the seaside to spend a couple of days with friends this weekend. If I am honest I am REALLY looking forward to a bit of time away from my crochet after prepping for the afternoon crochet event and the William Morris inspired workshop next week. I originally decided to do something radical and leave my hooks at home for the weekend, but have now decided that would be far too rash, so I am planning to leave them in the car, alongside a project, just in case!
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I will be back in a fortnight with the July newsletter, so until then I send you yarny hugs…