Hi,

I think this is going to be a bit of a long email as there is a lot I want and need to tell you. I've tried to break it up a bit with headers so you can find the things you are interested in.

The short story

The Crochet Project will be closing at the end of this month. We are ceasing to trade on 31st December 2023. This is for personal rather than financial reasons, the business is profitable and there are no unpaid creditors.

The fuller story

For about the last twelve years I've worked as a freelancer and business owner in the yarn industry. From 2013 to 2021 I ran The Crochet Project with Kat and then later took on the running alone for the last two years.

The Crochet Project is profitable and we have a thriving membership site. But on the whole the yarn industry is a low pay profession and its quite hard to make a good living as a freelancer. So back in September 2022 I took a part-time job in a different sector to provide a little more financial stability.

Running The Crochet Project around part-time employment was harder than I imagined. I had enough time to run the business and create content but I never felt I had the breathing space to be truly creative. In fact I haven't managed to create a single new design in the past year. With a large back catalogue of work to create content around, I have managed to keep you all entertained (I hope) with interesting projects and courses anyway but the situation couldn't really continue for too much longer.

Last week I was offered full-time hours by my employer starting on January 1st and I have decided to accept. I work for a company that creates software to improve patient outcomes, it's meaningful and enjoyable work. I love the job and it feels like the right move for me. As a consequence, I have decided to close The Crochet Project at the end of this year. With only a month's notice it isn't very long to wind up a business and that will be the work of the next few weeks.

I know some of you will be thinking that I could still run some of the business around full time work. Having run the business part time for a year I understand how much goes into running all the different aspects of the business and I know I don't have the capacity to run any of them properly around a full time job and three children.

What happens next

At this stage I'm not completely sure. I am in talks with a couple of companies about the possibility of selling the back catalogue of our work. (If you have any interest in this, please email me) So it may be that our patterns and tutorials will be available again somewhere in the future. However I do not know in what form that would be or if it will happen at all. If there is a class or a pattern you are interested in then you may wish to buy it before we close.

What customers need to know

Obviously you will probably have lots of questions. At this early stage I don't have all the answers but these will be finalised over the next week or two I hope. I've tried to answer as many as I can think of here. I will put an FAQ on the website in the next week or so.

If you have a question not answered here just reply to this email and I will try and answer it and add it to the FAQ if I think its of general interest.

The Hub

I've added the December content to the Hub and there will be no further content added. Forums will be closed at the end of December as I won't be available to moderate them.

I will be cancelling all subscriptions before the business closes so no more monies will be taken after we cease trading. However if you would like to cancel it yourself then you can do so in your account or cancel your direct debit. Your access to the content in the hub will remain until your subscription expires.

I have created an option to purchase lifetime access to all the existing hub content and the idea is that all annual paying members will receive that for free, although they will be able to cancel early and request a refund on unused months instead if they prefer. I will write again with more details of that soon.

If you are an annual member who would like to cancel and be refunded then please email me and I will action that when stopping subscriptions.

Monthly members and non members can purchase lifetime access here.

When the domain name and hosting ends (this will be at the end of July 2024 unless the site forms part of the sale) you will need to use the-crochet-project.thinkific.com to access the hub content.

Class purchases

​Classes will remain on sale until 31st December. All class purchases are for lifetime access and you will be able to continue to access the class in perpetuity after the business closes.

You should bookmark the-crochet-project.thinkific.com as this will be the permanent link to the class, learn.thecrochetproject.com will expire when the domain hosting ends.

Pattern purchases

You will be able to purchase patterns on the website and ravelry until the 31st December. All previously purchased patterns should already have been downloaded by you. Patterns saved to your Ravelry library will remain in your Ravelry library.

After this time you may be able to track down patterns and books at your local yarn store and some online retailers.

There will be no pattern support available after closure.

Gift cards

Gift cards have never sold very well and I don't think I have sold any in the past year. If you do have an unused gift card it will expire on 31st December 2023 so please use it as soon as possible.

Wholesale customers

If you would like to purchase more books before we close then you can do that through the website as usual.

Our distributor, Chester Wool have some remaining stock of our books so you will be able to purchase stock from them still.

Ravelry instore sales will cease on 31st December.

Also if you have stock then please get in touch as I'd love to compile a list of stockists to leave for customers who want to buy our patterns. Drop me an email with your business name and a link.

Funded classes

All funded classes provided by customer donation have been claimed. There are a handful of funded places/patterns made possible from profits. More details on funded places available here.

Closing thoughts

Obviously, I feel very sad to do this. It has been an absolute pleasure to create crochet patterns, tutorials and classes for you over the years. I've been lucky enough to work alone from home but never really felt alone with the beautiful crochet community around me. I am sad to leave this behind.

But I know that the work I have created will continue to bring you joy for many years yet - whether that is wearing a jumper you made, picking a skein of yarn and thinking it is just perfect for that pattern you bought a while ago or rewatching a class you purchased to refresh your memory on a skill.

I'm not quite ready to go yet so I will carry on writing to you through the month sharing my personal highlights of 10 years of The Crochet Project and, of course, any further details of closure plans as they become finalised.

With much love

Joanne

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