quick catch up with janie crow

31/12/2021

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I am just dropping by to wish you all a very happy New Year. We are cosied up at home with a nice bottle of wine and a string of good movies lined up to watch on the TV as we head into 2022. I have been working on the Stephen West Shawlography project over the last few days, but still have a long way to go - an evening on the settee with my knitting sounds pretty perfect for me!

It goes without saying that the past year has been a bit of a strange one, especially as we spent more than half of it in semi lockdown here in England. As I look back on the year, and think about all the things that were once again cancelled or postponed, I realise how lucky we were to have been able to celebrate our daughter's fabulous wedding in July and that of our niece, Lily, in November. I know that we were incredibly fortunate in many other aspects of our lives too.

It can be very easy to look back and remember all the bad bits though. Along with the nice things that happened in 2021 we have had some rocky moments and our fair share of bad stuff, like every family, so at times it has been really hard to stay positive and upbeat. Hopefully 2022 is set to bring a brighter future and I am looking forward to making new plans, both for Janie Crow and in my personal life. More time at home since our move out of the studio in the autumn has made me realise that there is room in my life for more than work related things and that I am at a time in my life where I can embrace the joy of being at home more - living life at a slightly slower pace and not beating myself up over deadlines and output.

From a design point of view, 2021 was the year of my Indigo Dreams CAL, which will continue through to February. With months and months of delays due to the pandemic I was so relieved to get a crochet along project out in the world and it is great to see so many of you continuing to work your way through the design.

In August 2021 Janie Crow turned 10 years old and we had hoped to make some plans to celebrate our company's birthday, but with the continued lockdown and the fact that we had to move out of our studio, we ended up unable to arrange any events to mark the occasion. With 8 months left of our birthday year we are hoping to be able to sort out something for 2022.

The last few months have seen kits slowly coming back into stock and I am looking forward to new projects in 2022. A revamped CAL project of mine will be the Stylecraft Make Along project for February (more information about that in the January newsletter) and March will see the release of my Tidings Wrap, which is currently the Advent project on Jimmy Beans.

I am working on a couple of cushion designs for Inside Crochet magazine, which will be released in the spring and I hope to have news of a larger project towards the end of the year so long as things go to plan. I hope you will keep up with all things Janie Crow over the forthcoming months.

I wish you all a fabulous 2022!
Stay safe...

Over the festive period we have been keeping ourselves in hermit mode once again, but have been able to venture out a little and have some family over to share in our small celebrations.vThankfully almost all of us have had our booster vaccinations - Charlie will be the last one on our list when he has his booster on Tuesday next week.

We feel incredibly lucky to have been able to take up the offer of a vaccination and have made donations to the Unicef Vaccinaid programme so that others all over the world are also able to get some protection against the virus. If you would like to donate too you can find a link here.
Since Christmas we have seen a flurry of download pattern sales on Ravelry and Etsy as people start to plan what projects to make as we head into 22. We will be back at work on Tuesday and will be sending out any orders placed over the festive period.

We still have some kits and hope to add more to the site soon as there are still a lot that we do not have the yarn for yet. The following kits are still showing stock:

Fruit Garden Blanket - Night & Dusk