It’s the May Newsletter – a bit late!

Hello again, are you enjoying the summer weather? I can’t believe we’re about half way through the year already!

I seemed to skip the past couple of weeks due to a lot of things happening recently, but better late than never now, so let’s get down to business.

Here we go with the Woolthreadpaint roundup for May……

The Gem Blanket Collection, Updated Pattern and at a REDUCED PRICE of £3 for a limited time – read on……..

I’m going backwards through the month because there is an important update today that I thought I’d start with.

My crochet project for May was to make a new version of the Rosy Gem colourway from the Gem Blanket collection, and I’m pleased to say I completed it on the 31st. That was satisfying.

As usual, the reason for the update was to replace yarn colours which had been discontinued. This is something that is ongoing and a bit of a pain, but it has to be done to keep my patterns fresh.

For the Rosy Gem, I had to replace the old Hayfield Spirit yarn. And I was thrilled to introduce one of the luscious new Batik Element Swirl yarns in shade, Fire as a substitute, which I’ve been desperate to use since Stylecraft kindly sent me some balls a few months ago.

Some of the older batik yarns in the blanket have disappeared too, so I popped in some of my new favourite yarn, the Yarnsmiths Pebble Haze DK instead. The main yarn in the blanket is still Stylecraft Special though.

I must admit, I think the new version is quite an improvement on the old one. I opted to increase the amount of pink and have less grey, and the end result is a warmer and brighter looking blanket.

There are some tweaks to the other two colourways, the Little Gem and the Spiced Gem as well, again replacing discontinued yarns. The pattern now has both a UK version as the US version too.

The updated pattern has just gone into my online shops today.

Ravelry will automatically send out the updates to anyone who has bought the pattern previously, but unfortunately Etsy doesn’t do that.

For data protection purposes Etsy does not let the sellers communicate with their customers by email, so I can’t send out automatic updates.

So I have an idea. If you’ve previously bought the Gem pattern on Etsy, and would like the update, I’ve created a discount code which will give you 75% off the price of the updated pattern.

I’m keeping the code a secret so that only those who’ve already bought the pattern in the past can get it. What you will need to do if you want the code, is log in to your Etsy account, find your Gem blanket order in the Purchases tab, and then message me asking for the code. You can do that directly from the order, and please only message me that way.

I would have made it a 100% discount, meaning the update would be free, but Etsy’s maximum discount allowed is 75%.

But that is 75% off the reduced price too, so it will be just a few pence!

Note: This code will expire in a few weeks.

I know that you will be asking “Why not just publish the new Yarn List on here?”

The answer is that you will need the new pattern because I’ve switched the layout of yarn colours around a little, so the new yarn list doesn’t directly correspond to the old pattern.

So do take up the offer if you’ve purchased the Gem Blanket Collection from my Etsy shop in the past and want the new yarn colours.

Remember, I can only send you the code if you message me through your Etsy account.

My First Vlog!

Yes I’ve had a busy few days filming and editing a video for my You Tube channel. That was a learning curve lol.

I did a big spring clean of the studio at the start of May – a proper clear out in fact. Loads of things, which had been hastily stuffed in drawers when we changed the studio from being the hub of our family business, to my crochet studio, five years ago. It was all unnecessary stuff which I should have got rid of at the time. It was just cluttering up the place.

Anyway, it felt good to sort it all out, and it not only cleared the studio, but cleared my head as well!

To celebrate, I thought I’d do a Studio Tour, because let’s face it, it probably wouldn’t ever look so neat again.

The result is a virtual walk around the room with me, opening cupboards and drawers and chatting about what materials I’ve collected, how I store them, and what I do with them!

You can find it HERE

I may even have picked up the vlogging bug! I’m already thinking about my next one – as if I didn’t have enough to be doing. Honestly. My husband thinks I’m mad.

Aurora Borealis – the Northern Lights

I’ve been lucky enough to witness the Aurora once before in my life, but didn’t have a camera with me that time.

But oh boy, we got such a treat a few weeks ago.

Did you see it? It was visible across much of the Northern Hemisphere and all we had to do was walk outside our back door. It was stunningly beautiful. An unforgettable experience. These images were taken on my phone just by the kitchen door.

Babies and Blankets

Our little twin girls are growing so fast – eight weeks old already! We’ve had a few visits to see them recently, and tomorrow they are coming to see us on their first car journey. We’ll have everyone together for the weekend which will be very special.

I started the month of May by rushing through the second baby blanket to get it finished for one of the visits, so now the babies have a blanket each, which is only fair!

And that’s about it for May,

apart from some pretty intense behind the scenes reworking of several of my patterns, which was quite time consuming when I think about it.

I’ve been checking them for discontinued yarns, and in some cases had parts of them redone to bring them up to scratch. I’ve also added US versions to them.

The exciting thing is that Wool Warehouse has offered to create a proper designer’s page for me on their website, and they are working on that just now. When it’s ready, these patterns AND YARN PACKS FOR THEM will be available on there.

It shouldn’t be long now.

Coming Up…

My year end accounts and tax return. Let’s not think about that, although I’ll need to just DO THEM.

Also in June it’s time to start the Christmas blanket for 2024. I really should get going, in order to have a finished pattern in time for the Autumn.

I’m quite excited with the ideas that have been swirling around in my head of late, and if I can turn them into something tangible I think it could be a good one.

So I’ll put the Tax Return Form in one of those newly tidy drawers in my studio, and concentrate on something a lot more fun instead for now.

Have a lovely June month xx