You guys! 🥲

Thank you so so much to each and every one of you who has taken the time out to write to me to wish me luck or tell me what The Crochet Project has meant to you. I've been sharing all of the messages with Kat so she gets to see too what a wonderful impact we made.

Reading all of the messages has been a wonderful way to reflect on the past ten years of The Crochet Project and I wanted to share three of the things that came up the most in messages and those just happen to coincide with the three things I am most proud of too.

Teaching you

So many of you reached out to say that we were the start of your crochet journey, whether that was a Kat's hugely popular Crochet Camp, one of the hundreds of people who took a class with one of us in person, or learnt through our beginners book.

Or if your first stitches were learnt elsewhere we heard from lots of you that we helped expand your skills through our patterns, especially the mystery patterns.

The mystery patterns were always a joy to create and I loved using them to pass on new skills, It the Entwine Shawl being probably my favourite for that.

Through the tough times

You supported our business through tough times: we've somehow made it through EU VAT regulation changes, Brexit, Covid, injuries, a divorce and all the challenges of raising three quite a-hem lively kids each. It felt at times that we were having to change our business plan more often than our bed sheets! And you have supported us every step of the way, getting on board with our latest scheme, buying our latest and greatest idea or cheerleading on social media. And we can't thank you enough for it.

But we've also helped you through some hard times, I was so touched to hear stories of shawls made at bedsides, people working themselves stitch by stitch out of mental ill health, projects worked while bodies recovered, feelings of accomplishment and joy in creating for your body, as it is not as you wish it was. All of these stories have been so affirming and made me so proud of the small role we have played in your lives at some of the hardest times.

We also have loved being involved in the happy times with shawls and cardigans being made for brides and bridesmaids being particular highs!

Trailblazing

It's easy to forget now just how dire the world of wearable crochet patterns was when we started in 2013. There were beautiful afghan and homewares patterns but crochet was very much seen as not for clothing and any patterns you could find to wear looked stiff and clunky. Contemporary crochet was almost exclusively acrylic and in DK/worsted weight or above. Knitting was having a renaissance with lots of independent designers creating innovative designs in beautiful delicate hand-dyed yarns and we wanted crochet to follow.

In the early days we were constantly met with incredulity. Either people refused to believe it could be done or when we showed them our designs they refused to believe it was crochet!

And let's not forget your role in this. You believed in us and bought and made our patterns changing the minds of people around you as you went.

Looking at my instagram feed and ravelry there are hundreds of beautiful patterns to crochet with lots of wonderful designers who I admire hugely. Our work here is done!
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Updates and FAQ

I don't really have much in the way of updates to share yet, we are still meeting with potential buyers to see if there is some way we can keep our patterns, classes and tutorials available for the future. I have cancelled all annual memberships and given them lifetime access to the hub. If you are a monthly member buying lifetime access to the hub then do cancel your hub subscription to avoid a December payment being taken - the system isn't clever enough to know unfortunately.

A few questions that have come up repeatedly:

Will you carry on designing?​
I think it's unlikely, designing is a lot of work even without the self publishing side and I think I'd just like to craft for fun. Will I ever stick to a pattern or will I think I know best and change features? Well that is another question!

Will you stay on social media?​
I'll definitely lurk the #thecrochetproject hashtag from my personal account! Seeing the things you make with my designs will never get old.

Will you continue to sell on Ravelry? ​
As it stands no, but if a buyer is found they may sell via Ravelry.

If I've bought a course do I need to buy anything else to keep accessing it?​
No, that's yours to keep. Its only the hub subscriptions that are ending.

Can I buy the hub lifetime access if I wasn't a hub member?
Yes, thats absolutely fine. You can find it here.

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I've tried to reply to everyone's wonderful messages, if I haven't got to yours yet I very much hope I will. I've been somewhat inundated but I have loved receiving every single one so thank you.

I'll be back next week with more final musings.

Love as always

Joanne