Quick Catch up with Janie Crow

As usual it has been a busy couple of weeks here at Janie Crow and I have a few things to tell you about in this Quick Catch Up email, including the details of an exciting new Stitchtopia textiles workshop tour that I will be tutoring in Turkey next year. I hope you have a few spare minutes to catch up with all things Janie Crow! ​

I had a really lovely time at Black Sheep Wools in Warrington a few weeks ago, where I was in store for a meet and greet event one day and a workshop the next. While I was there, Sara and I managed to have a quick chat about all things crochet and you can find it over on the Black Sheep YouTube channel by following this link.

I feel so lucky to have a great relationship with the team at Stitchtopia who work really hard to create the most amazing calendar of workshop trips and tours for craft enthusiasts. They are always open to my suggestions for places to visit and I am looking forward to sharing details of all the workshops I will be tutoring for them in 2026 very soon.
 
My ‘Ta-dah’ moment for today is that the itinerary for my trip to Turkey in October next year is now live and you can find it by following this link.
 
I am really excited about this trip already, even though it is over a year away, and I have been busy thinking about the knit and crochet projects I can design for participants to work on while we are away. 

I am a big fan of the work of Claire Montgomerie. She is a super talented stylist and crochet designer who has recently seen a huge amount of success with her series of Granny Square card decks.
 
These super little boxes of pattern cards are so handy for crocheters and each box includes instructions for fifty pretty grannies! Following the huge success of her first box of cards, Claire has now released the Granny Squares Flowers Card Deck and you can find it for sale on her website by following this link or by clicking on the image below. Keep an eye out for a review of the set coming soon on Gemma's Book of the Month blog. 

We continue to have healthy stock levels of kits and you can have a browse of all our stock by following this link.

​Over on Instagram this month news of the arrival of Zero to Granny, our video series for complete beginners, was received enthusiastically, and Emma was waxing lyrical about some some of the temperature blanket colour combinations appearing in nature. 
 
She was very excited to have discovered a nest of blue tits in her garden and was immediately able to see echoes of the colouring of those particular birds in the May square she was making. The colours of one of Gemma's May squares was reflected in the gorgeous apple blossom in Emma's garden, as you can see in the photo below. 

Do share your temperature blanket progress with us using the hashtag #janiecrowtempblanket25, so we can take a look at how your blankets are coming along and for the very well organised amongst you, you can download the June temperature chart here. ​

Over on Facebook we have been continuing with our series of posts showcasing Jane's designs from over the last decade. One of this month's post was about the Mystical Lanterns blanket and it would seem from the huge reaction to the post that this is definitely one of your absolute favourites. You can read more about the inspiration behind the blanket by clicking on the image below.

If you don't already follow our social media channels you can find links at the bottom of this email. Do come and join us! ​

According to British Vogue, straw hats are out and crochet caps in this summer, with examples of the style popping up all over Instagram and on the catwalks! Will you be joining the trend?

​Instagram @ritamontezuma

The Isle of Wight Postal Museum has been yarn bombed by the Women's Institute in a bid to raise money for an Alzheimers charity! You can read about it here or click on the image of the amazing Noah's Ark topper below. ​

Gemma's review of the book ‘Crochet Makes from Scrap Cakes’ is now available to read over on the blog and whilst she hasn't quite been converted fully to the idea of making items with completely random colour changes, Gemma did test out one of the patterns to great success. ​

The pattern Gemma chose to try out was for a clutch purse and here is the end result. We think it's rather stylish! 
 
If you like the look of the book and fancy having a go at using up all those pesky little balls of leftover yarn, you can get it from the Search Press website with a discount of 20% and free postage in the UK, by using the code DD88 at checkout. Gemma's next review will be of the Granny Square Flowers Card Deck by Claire Montgomerie (as mentioned earlier in this newsletter). 

In last month's Quick Catch Up I reported that I had made good progress on my Bohemian Blooms project, with the rectangular Gordon and Fitzroy sections, together with four Harmony and four Virginia motifs, in place. I had also managed to add the two Bloomsbury strips that I had made already.  
 
My new target for the month was to make the two remaining Bloomsbury motifs, join the Omega motifs to the ends and then attach the resulting strips to the blanket. I managed to achieve this and actually make a start on the edging! 

There's something very satisfying about reaching the point of adding the edging/border to a blanket. It feels like a long undertaking is coming to an end, with mixed feelings of excitement about completion and slight fear of that familiarity not being there anymore!
​
So with great excitement, I look forward to sharing the finished blanket with you next month! Fingers crossed…

As vegetarians, Andy and I try to eat lots of beans and pulses as they are a great source of fibre and protein, so I was really excited when Sarah gifted me a fabulous book by Amelia Christie-Miller where every recipe includes a jar or two! We are really lucky to live close to a Turkish supermarket that sells lots of different beans in jars rather than cans, so this book is going to be super handy! 
 
When I visited Sarah a couple of weeks ago, her lovely husband Paul used the book to make a Bean Florentine and it was just so delicious! I am really looking forward to making it myself soon, but there are so many other mouth watering recipes in this book that I am going to have to make a list as I can't decide which one to do first! 
 
If you want to get hold of the book, you can find it for sale on Waterstones here. If you want to follow a similar recipe, you can find one by The Bold Bean Co, by following this link.

It's my birthday today, so I am looking forward to a little celebration with my family this evening and we have a busy weekend planned as we venture into the first few days of June. Can you believe we are almost half way through the year already? I have only just got used to writing '25!
 
I have a relatively quiet couple of weeks ahead and I am hoping to be able to put the finishing touches to a couple of projects and maybe start something new. I keep having unexpected things crop up and take a lot of my time these days so it will be good to get some serious crochet under my belt in June! Fingers crossed!