Quick Catch Up with Janie Crow

Greetings from Rabat, our second city location on the Yarn Inspirations of Morocco Tour with Stitchtopia. We have been in the country for five days now and are having an amazing time experiencing all the glorious things that this fabulous country has to offer.
 
I am incredibly grateful that Gemma and Emma have taken the reins while Andy and I are away. I know we can leave Janie Crow in very safe hands, so I hope you have a few minutes to catch up with our news.

We spent four days in Marrakesh before moving on to Rabat by coach yesterday. While there we visited many sites, including the Majorelle Gardens and the Yves Saint Laurent gallery, which featured a fabulous exhibition of his work. We also went to the beautiful Bahia Palace and the Dar El Bacha museum, both of which have the most incredible mosaics, carved and painted wooden ceilings and intricate plasterwork. ​

On Tuesday we travelled to a Berber community in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains and enjoyed a traditional meal and tea ceremony. This was also the location for our second knit and crochet workshop. In Rabat we have visited an artisan weaver and were shown traditional techniques.
 
Over the next few days we travel on to Fez, and then onwards to Casablanca, followed by Essaouira early next week, before returning to Marrakesh and then our journey home. I have been posting on Instagram when the signal is strong enough for me to upload images, so do take a look if you fancy following our journey! Our tour manager Teresa has also been busy posting and you can see her feed by following this link.
 
If you like the idea of a knitting and crochet holiday, you can find more information on the Stitchtopia website here. 

It's hard to believe that we are rapidly approaching the penultimate month of the year, which also means the penultimate month of our temperature blanket project. You can download the November temperature chart here. Aren't we well organised this month?
 
It will be interesting to see how those of you who are working on the project decide to assemble your blanket, especially if you have decided not to use a join as you go method. It would also be good to hear your thoughts on what sort of border you might put on the blanket. When we made our sample we opted for a simple moss stitch one using some of the colours we had left over, with the inclusion of a few front post stitches to line through with the seams in the blanket.

We were very excited to be invited to take part in a book tour for the fabulous new book by Anna Nikipirowicz. ‘Crochet Socks that Rock’, published by David & Charles, contains 15 gorgeous crochet sock patterns, together with a wealth of information to help you achieve a perfect fit. 
 
You can join us for a flick through the book over on Instagram here and Gemma will be doing a full review of the book in her Book of the Month blog post in November. As you can see in the photo below she has been busy testing out one of the patterns already! 

On Facebook we celebrated Lucia Dunn's recolouring of the Persian Tiles blanket, known as Eastern Jewels, and invited you to share photos of your completed projects. You can find the post over on Facebook here and check out all the lovely photos shared. ​

In order to complete the Eastern Jewels project you would need the original Persian Tiles pattern, together with the Eastern Jewels colour substitution document (available directly from Lucia's website here). We do currently have kits in stock over on our webshop here. ​

An incredible crocheted model Spitfire has gone on display in the Town Hall Gardens in Southport, a UK town on the Lancashire coast. In collaboration with the Royal British Legion, the Southport Hookers have spent over 2,500 hours crocheting, sewing and assembling the model. 
 
You can read more about the project here and if you happen to be in the area, do go and take a look. The display will remain in place until the 7th November 2025. 

This month we were sent a copy of ‘Hooked’ by Briony Marshall, an up and coming young author from Wolverhampton, here in the UK. It's very different to the usual type of book we review here at Janie Crow and so made quite a change. It's a novel, rather than a project or technique book, and a quick, light-hearted, read.

You can read Gemma's thoughts about the book within her Book of the Month blog post here. ​

This week Gemma has been very adventurous and tried out tofu for the first time! Stir fry is a regular meal in her house, with a variety of protein sources and it's always lovely and quick to make. Looking for something slightly different to the usual, she gave this recipe a try from the GoodFood website:
 
Sesame & spring onion stir-fried udon with crispy tofu. 

It was enjoyed by all the family, so will now be added to the ‘allowed to cook again’ list! ​

A few weeks ago I promised you some news of an exciting event, and so I am really pleased (after months of having to keep a big secret) to be able to say that Channel 4's new series, Game of Wool, presented by the fabulous Tom Daley, kicks off on Sunday 2nd November at 8pm. Week 3, which will be shown on 16th November, is crochet week, and I was really honoured to be invited along to filming as their guest judge! 
 
You can find more information about the show by following this link and by checking out The Game of Wool Instagram feed.

We are looking forward to a busy time when we get back from Morocco. We have our festive workshop in Bournemouth at the end of November and all that the festive season brings with it over the next couple of months! As Gemma has said already, it seems amazing to be hurtling through October and heading towards Christmas already! 
 
I will be back in a couple of weeks time with news of a couple of new kits and small projects and hope that whatever you get up to in the meantime, that you stay safe and well.