Quick Catch up with janie crow

3/9/2021

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Welcome to a quick catch up with Janie Crow. I hope that this email finds you well and happy wherever you are in the world!

I am never quite sure how I feel about this time of year when the end of the summer school break is in sight and thoughts start to turn towards the autumn. I love the sunshine and we have seen so little of it this year that I feel a little bit cheated, but as I said a couple of weeks ago, we finally have a lot of exciting things going on here at Janie Crow, so at least we don't have too much spare time to dwell on the lack of sunshine!

I have just seen the reveal pages that will feature in this month's copy of Inside Crochet Magazine promoting my new CAL 'Indigo Dreams' and I cannot wait for you to see them too! The wait is almost over! The CAL will run across 5 issues and the magazine will be doing a special offer for a six month subscription, both postal and digital - so do look out for that very soon.

We hope to have kits for the new CAL project by the end of the month and will let you know as soon as they are in stock. I have used Stylecraft Life DK, Highland Heathers and Batik DK to make the blanket, which was inspired by my love of Indian textiles and traditional patchwork quilt designs.

In case you missed it a few weeks ago, we have put my new book, The Fruit Garden Crochet Blanket, on the web site as a pre-sale item with the aim of despatching the books in time for the official publication date of 17th September.

The response to the book has been amazing and I am so pleased to hear that so many of you are excited about it. I am incredibly proud of it!

The pattern focus this week can only really be The Fruit Garden Blanket as we are still buzzing about finally being able to show you the new colourway and talk about the dedicated book.

With the imminent release of the book, which showcases the three original colour ways of the design, together with the new exclusive colourway, Red House, here is a visual celebration of the Fruit Garden family. You can click on the images to be taken to the web pages.

Red House

Love is Enough

Melsetter & Kelmscott Cushions

Night & Dusk

Parchment & Caramel

As a child I hated beetroot as I thought it tasted like mud and it has taken me an age to to realise just how incredibly delicious it is - now I just cannot get enough of it and use it in recipes at every opportunity!

We have been growing beetroot in the garden this year and it is abundant in all the greengrocers stores right now, so we tried out a delicious Beetroot, Red Onion and Goats Cheese Tarte Tatin recipe recently. You can see the results in this post over on the Janie Crow Lifestyle Instagram feed.

You can read more about the Janie Crow Lifestyle brand over on the website, but in short it came from our love of home and our desire to nurture ourselves, our friends and our families, whilst also being kind the the environment we live in. You will find products that we have tried out and that have the environmental credentials that fit with our beliefs along with seasonal recipes and inspiring images.

This month Facebook was abuzz with excitement as the first images of the Red House colourway of the Fruit Garden blanket were released along with the publication date of 'The Fruit Garden Blanket' book. A few of you commented that this is your favourite colourway yet!

We also joined in the celebration of Simply Crochet Magazine's Granny Square Day on Sunday 15th August. Lots of you shared images of beautiful squares with us. Sarah Haws showed us this lovely image of her Willow Squares (pattern from 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws, and Afghans by Jan Eaton):

This was Carolina Stefania's Hollyhock motif from the Fruit Garden blanket - her favourite Granny square at the moment:

This is the Wikipedia definition of a Granny Square:

'A granny square is a piece of square fabric produced in crochet by working in rounds from the center outward. Granny squares are traditionally handmade.'

We think that lots of Janie Crow motifs count as Granny Squares - albeit not in the traditional style and we love the way that many of you use them to make a variety of great projects.

None of us can have failed to be moved by the dreadful scenes from Afghanistan over the last few weeks and some of us may already have been involved with local collections of clothes, toiletries and other essentials for refugee families who are being settled in our areas.

The online community Woolly Hugs is appealing for help to make squares for blankets to gift to these families. Click here or on the image below for further details. If anyone is able to help I'm sure they would be very appreciative.

Woolly Hugs get involved in a variety of projects, from making blankets for very poorly children in hospitals around the UK, to the Chernobyl project where blankets are gifted to children who visit the UK from the Ukraine each year, many of whom are in remission from cancer caused by the dreadful contamination from the nuclear accident back in 1986.

You can find out more about them on their website or on their Facebook page.

We are looking forward to a weekend with family and friends and I hope that whatever your plans for the next few days that you have a great couple of days too.

We always enjoy hearing from you, so if you want to get in touch simply hit reply and let us know what is on your mind.