Quick Catch Up with Janie Crow

​I have been away in West Yorkshire this week with a group of fabulous knitters on a Stitchtopia organised trip. Yesterday we visited the amazing HQ of the UK Knitting and Crochet Guild in Slaithwaite, where we got to see some of the items from their incredible collection, such as their vintage knitted bathing suit patterns and garments, which included the intricately Swiss darned tank top shown below.

We also got to have a guided tour of the Stylecraft Mill, which fortuitously happens to be located in the same town. Members of the lovely team at Stylecraft explained the many parts of the production line process that happens at the Mill and the workshop group were able to sample knit and crochet some of the yarns while enjoying a lovely cuppa and some cake to round off a fabulous day out - they even came a way with a cute Stylecraft goody bag too! 

Today we have the delights of Saltaire and the West Yorkshire Spinners Mill in Keighley, so I have had such a fabulous yarn fix over the last few days that it will be back down to earth with a bump next week when I will be back at my desk!

Gemma has been incredibly busy putting some really great bits together for this month's Quick Catch Up email as I have been away and we have a few things to tell you about, so hopefully you have a few spare minutes to catch up with all things Janie Crow.

Last week saw the release of the second set of motifs for the Spirit of Flora CAL and already we are seeing your completed motifs appearing on social media. You are such quick workers and it has been such a treat seeing your crochet out in the wild! ​

If you need a little guidance when working through the patterns, don't forget that there is a dedicated Facebook group, which you can find here and Emma has been incredibly busy making accompanying video support for YouTube, which you can find by following this link.
Some of you may now be starting to assemble blankets made from the motifs you have chosen, so remember you can now find the patterns for the three different borders as a free download on the Spirit of Flora page on the website here. You can also find the link to the download for the three plainer squares on the same page. 

Thank you for all your incredible feedback on this project - your support means so much to us here at Janie Crow! ​

LAST MINUTE UPDATE: Andy has put a healthy number of Persian Tiles Eastern Jewels kits in stock this week. You can find them by following this link! ​

June the 8th was Worldwide Knit in Public Day and over on Facebook we asked our followers if they were attending any events and whether knitting and crocheting in public is something they do with pride anyway! 

Wendy Alison shared that she attended a huge celebration and as part of the event two thousand crocheted butterflies were attached to a fence for passers-by to take home with them. What a lovely idea. ​

Miriam Lowrie spent some time in the park crocheting with her little elf. What a nice way to spend an afternoon - sounds idyllic to us! ​

As we've finally had some warm weather over the last week or so, the focus over on Instagram has been on small items, crocheted in cotton, that might be a far more palatable prospect for those of you who are finding it difficult to enjoy crocheting large, heavy items in the heat. Crochet projects such as bunting and individual flower motifs that you can turn into corsages, fascinators, decorations or mandalas, as well as pouches and small bags can all be lovely items to work on during periods of hot weather when you might not want to add to that 'melting' sensation you could be feeling!

It has been another very busy month for me and progress on my blanket has been frustratingly slow, but all progress is progress, so here I am again to show you what has been on the hook. I was hoping to finish the set of Fitzroy motifs and make a start on Legacy but having read a bit further along in the book and looked at the first phase of construction of the blanket I decided instead to focus on the motifs needed to complete the centre. Therefore I set Fitzroy to one side and embarked on a production line of Legacy.

Legacy has the same flower at its centre as the Harmony motif but then moves into a more complex set of beaded leaves and an outer row of pretty buds. The leaves are worked by making a central stem using a chain with stitches worked into one side of it with the beads and then on the subsequent round the other side of the chain is worked into as well as the beaded stitches to create the leaf shape. As I had chosen to work production line method I threaded all the beads that would be needed for the four motifs onto my yarn in one go but discovered that made the yarn rather heavy and a bit awkward to use, so if doing similar again I would just thread enough for each motif as I worked it. Here are some close-ups of the lovely detail. ​

I nearly made the full set! Two are completed and the remaining two just need the framework completing. They are so pretty. ​

Next month it's on to Vanessa and Virginia. Fitzroy will just have to wait! I hope you all have a great month and I'll be back with an update in July.

Gemma x

This week's recipe is truly in the comfort food zone as it contains one of the UK's favourite staple foods - tinned baked beans. It could perhaps also fall into the child friendly food category, but that's allowed once in a while isn't it?

We're talking about Barbecue Bean Pie from the BBC food website. One element of the pie is a batch cooked tomato and lentil sauce which is brilliant to make ahead as the quantities stated in the recipe give enough of this sauce for portions to be kept and frozen for future use. When Gemma made this she simply used a third of each of the ingredients to make the appropriate amount of sauce for the dish on its own. She says it was very tasty and with veg on the side it easily fed her family of four with the same quantify left over for another meal. Wow!

Xenobia Bailey is an American artist from Seattle who often uses textiles in her artwork, perhaps most notably for her African inspired crochet hats which have featured in TV adverts, shows and films.

She also produces crochet pieces such as large scale mandalas and, for a mosaic designed to decorate a New York City subway station, she began with a crocheted piece that was then digitised to create the final installation for the station. You can find out more about Xenobia and her work by clicking on the images above and below. ​

​'Trilogy'

'Funktional Vibrations' - New York City Subway 34 St - Hudson Yards

Are you a fan of The Muppets like we are? If so you might be interested to hear about a new book release, scheduled for later this year in October. 'The Muppets Official Crochet Amigurumi' by Drew Hill contains patterns to make 16 different Muppet characters, such as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and Animal. Looks like great fun! Click on the image below for more information. ​

The last month or so has been all about workshop prep as I have designed a knitted project for the West Yorkshire trip and have a knit and crochet project ready for the trip to Peru in a little under three weeks time. It has been really nice to work on some smaller projects, especially as the weather has been lovely and warm, but I am also really looking forward to getting stuck into some new design work once I return from all the trips in early August - I honestly cannot believe the speed at which this year has flown by. 

Tomorrow I will be tutoring the final workshop of our Stitchtopia trip and I won't be travelling home to London until Sunday morning, so I am excited to have another day and a half with the fabulous group who have joined me on the very first five day trip to West Yorkshire. We have been invited to a birthday party on Sunday afternoon so I have my fingers crossed that the good weather will continue a while longer and that I will return home to a sunny and warm London Town!

I hope that whatever you have planned for the next few days that you remain safe and well and that you get to have a little bit of well earned time with your knit or crochet projects - nothing like a little yarny TLC to finish off the week and set everything in order for the new one ahead!