Sunshiney Days!

Janie's Quick Hello!
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I hope that this email finds you all well and that you are looking forward to the weekend!

We are enjoying a lovely warm afternoon here in North London and it looks like we are set to finally get some good weather. I am sure the garden and all the delights of the next few days are calling you, so this is just a speedy update that won't take you too long to read before your weekend gets under way...

We had a lovely time in Bournemouth last weekend for our Inspired Minds crochet workshop. Sarah and I had a group of 29 crocheters in our company over a 3 day period when we also enjoyed lots of good food, friendly chatter and a fabulous talk by Dedri Uys of Look at What I Made on the Saturday afternoon. Dedri brought lots of her projects with her, including Sophie's Universe and the Ubuntu blankets, so it was a real treat to see her. If you fancy coming along to another Inspired Minds hand knit or crochet weekend in 2020 you can sign up to the mailing list by following this link.

If you are a patreon of Fruity Knitting then you might be interested to know that I will be a guest on Andrea and Andrew's exclusive live chat tomorrow afternoon at 3pm GMT. I am really looking forward to the event and hope that there will be lots of interesting questions for me to answer! You can also see a recent interview with me on the Fruity Knitting podcast by following the links from my dedicated web page here.
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If you are a regular visitor to the Janie Crow web site then you may have noticed that a new Knit For Peace page has gone live this week. The page can be accessed from my home page and it contains lots of links to the charity's web site, including those to the forth coming holiday in Mysore, India in January 2020. Places on the trip are booking fast now so it might be wise to make an enquiry if you have been contemplating coming along. The new web page also features links to make donations to the charity and those to more information about raffles, how to get involved and to the Knit For Peace shop.

I told you a few weeks ago that I have designed a Crochet Along project for Inside Crochet magazine. The project will be revealed in the July issue, which goes on sale week beginning 22nd July. The patterns for the CAL will be featured in 4 issues from August through to November and not July to October as I previously said, so please note the change in schedule. I have also decided not to re-release the patterns myself until Autumn 2020 rather than the spring, so there is a little movement in timings here too. If you want to subscribe to the magazine (a bargain at just £5.99 a copy) you can find more info by following this link to their web site.
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I realised after I sent last week's email that I had not included an image of the new version of my Hollicarrs scarf, so I have put a couple in this time! The first image above is of the new version (dusky pink) and the second one is of the original design courtesy of Rachel Atkinson. The pattern originally featured in Rachel's book 'Daughter of a Shepherd Volume One' and was designed using her fabulous British DK wool 'Hebridean Zwartbles'. I have updated the pattern using Fyberspates Vivacious 4 ply. The design uses 2 skeins of yarn and 4 packs of beads.

The new version of the pattern can be purchased from my web site either as a 4 page paper pattern or as a download option. The pattern includes written and charted instructions and is available in UK and US terminology. Both versions of the pattern are £3.95.

The repeated beaded lace pattern of this scarf/shawl lends itself beautifully to any choice of yarn, be it 4ply or DK, but if you like the idea of using the lovely Vivacious 4 ply yarn and the Debbie Abrahams beads then Andy has put some kits onto the Just Knots web site and hopefully other stockists will start to stock the pattern as well. We think it would look great using Scheepjes Whirl too, although you may have to make the design a little longer to fit in the full colour spectrum of the yarn length.

If you are off to Woolfest in Cockermouth this weekend then I hope you have a lovely time. I am beyond excited to be going to see Pink in concert at Wembley Stadium on Saturday. I will be heading off to the show straight after the live chat with Fruity Knitting, so it is set to be a really fabulous Saturday. No doubt Sunday will be spent recovering in the garden with lots of tea and sunshine - fingers crossed!

As always, if you want to get in touch please hit reply and tell me what is on your mind. I hope you have a lovely weekend wherever you are....
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