The Fruit Garden CAL

Thursday 19th March 2020

Tags: Blogstars, Crochet, MAL/CAL/KAL

Exciting times at Stylecraft HQ as we get ready for the new Crochet Along designed for us by Jane Crowfoot - an extraordinarily beautiful project called The Fruit Garden CAL, which will be available as a free download from our website. 200213_StyleCraft_JANE_057 This is the third CAL that we have collaborated on with Jane to produce and follows on from Lily Pond and Frida’s Flowers.  All of Jane’s CALs are a joyful exploration of colour and technique and you are certainly in for a treat with Fruit Garden. What we love about working with Jane, beyond the sheer beauty of the things she creates, is the depth of research she does and the attention to detail in each and every motif.  Getting an insight into her creative journey and how she translates that into crochet teaches us so much. 200213_StyleCraft_JANE_109 Jane became inspired by British textile designer, William Morris, while designing the Climbing Rose CAL and found the world of the Arts and Crafts movement to be a rich stream of ideas. “As part of my research last year I visited galleries and Arts and Crafts houses, and it was during a visit to Kelmscott Manor, that I realised I wanted to base a CAL design on the incredible embroideries of William Morris’s daughter May,” Jane explains. The Arts and Crafts Movement was a very important creative genre that began in the UK and lasted from around 1880 until the 1920s.  The ethos of the Movement still has so much resonance in our world today with its championing of craftsmanship.  Raising what were considered homely skills to art forms.  It helped to reinvent and rejuvenate these skills for a new generation, encouraging the passing on of techniques so that they shouldn’t be forgotten. Something that all crafters can still aspire to today.

"The Fruit Garden CAL is based on a series of embroideries that were designed by May somewhere between 1890 and 1900. The hangings feature birds, flowers, plants and central fruit trees on an embroidered trellis background and are beautifully imagined and executed. " This CAL with Stylecraft has taken Jane more than 5 months to design and offers crocheters a feast of techniques, which begin with easier motifs and progress to more difficult, all supported by Jane’s step-by-step photo tutorials. “Although some motifs are easier than others, this project is really for the intermediate crocheter who is looking to develop and refine their skills,” Jane says.

There are two colourways available; Recipe 1 features Stylecraft Life DK partnered with Batik; Recipe 2 uses our brand-new Naturals Bamboo+Cotton yarn, launched earlier this month, which is already getting rave reviews. We think you are going to love working on this project, so make sure you put a note in your diary for launch day on 28th April. There will also be a 'Getting Ready' document that is free to download from our website on 14th April that features information on yarn usage, stitches and tension. Yarn packs are now available to buy from your local yarn store or from online retailers from the 30th March. With thanks to the National Trust, Standen, Sussex for hosting our photoshoot.  https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/standen-house-and-garden

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