Do you have a question that you dread answering?
Maybe because you have answered it too enthusiastically and confidently before and paid the price for it?
Maybe because you want to make a commitment but you know that life can get in the way or things happen that are out of your control?
Maybe because you already have a lot of commitments, but the answer to this question is one of your most important ones, the one that is closest to your heart?
I have one question that I really dread answering. For all the above reasons and then some. Incidentally, it is the question I get asked most these days.
Can you guess?
If you are a Wrapped in Jamie CAL follower, I am sure you can. You may even have asked me that very question yourself or at least, you have meant to ask or asked it in your head. I mean, how could you not?
Funny enough, I have even asked myself that very same question many times.
It is usually my first thought in the morning and my last thought at night. Well, not every night, but, you know, exaggeration is my friend to make a point.
Alas, I can’t take it no more. I am sick of myself being such a perfectionist, of wanting you to have the ULTIMATE pattern experience. To have EVERYTHING ready that possibly can be considered.
I want to overdeliver and I want you to have an absolute fantastic experience that will make you feel really good about your choice to support me as a designer with your pattern purchase.
I want you to have no choice but to give me a five star rating in the shop because you are really happy with your pattern and got everything you were expecting and then some more.
I want you to be confident in recommending my patterns to your friends, because you can feel that enough love and care goes into them to counter the unavoidable swearing and to justify the time it takes to finish even just one pattern.
I want you to be blown away with all the support and the resources that come with each pattern to make it as easy and as doable as possible for everyone who knows the minimum basics of crochet, despite that most patterns are classified as intermediate or advanced.
I want to guide you through each pattern, take your hand, show you step by step, give options, offer variations, … whatever it takes. And I mean this “whatever it takes” in a Black Widow / Ironman / Captain America / Endgame kind of way.
But all that is not going to happen if I keep procrastinating for the sake of perfection. There is no such thing as a perfect pattern and some people say there should not be anyway. That only the Big G is perfect and that sometimes a ‘mistake’ is added on purpose to honour Him. Fair enough. Who am I to argue with that?
You are my crochet kin, my family in spirit. You speak my language. If we were to meet in a room, we would instantly know that we can be best buddies, we would feel at ease and at home with each other, and – despite all restrictions – would feel the urge to hug.
You are my star as much as you are my supporter. I can count on you and I want you to be able to count on me.
Which makes this announcement still super scary, but I trust that it will be all right.
If you have ever worked with me, you know that I am a perfectionist, which has its pros and cons (see above). I am also an idealist (more than anything, really) and I love creating. I usually find it difficult to finish things instead of quickly moving on to the next idea. Wrapped in Jamie is the one exception and at the same time non-exception.
I would like to move on to the next pattern and the next and the next as they pop up in my head, but because I want them to be super special for you, I can somehow and from somewhere find the discipline to write them down, the courage to ask my Beloved to make the 247th “just one more” change in the chart, and test them until my fingers get blisters… ah well, exaggerating again, of course (although not by much), but you know what I mean.
So, keeping in mind that life happens for all of us, knowing that we face moving our farm by the 1st of December (not even having the new place ready yet, but with a couple of months grace period from our landlord), finishing off this year’s last exhausting term of home education/distance education with our youngest, and despite dealing with a political and economical situation that is quite frankly puzzling, confusing and highly concerning, I am finally ready to make the scary announcement.
Oh wait, the question first:
When am I going to release the next Season of Wrapped in Jamie patterns?
I am already starting to sweat and it has nothing to do with the fact that it is currently 34 degrees Celsius outside and I am trying to cool the house down to 27 degrees inside.
OK, deep breath. You can do it.
Breathe in, hold your breath, breathe out. Now do it…
*mutters…cool moss, cool moss, cool moss*
All right. Here it goes.
We are planning to release the first of four sets of Wrapped in Jamie Season 2 patterns on the 1st of December 2021.
There. I said it. No taking it back now.
We are talking about Square 13 – Royal Stag*, Square 14 – Scottish Cross* and Square 21 – Dragonfly**.
*designed by Black Sheep Crochet
** designed by Veronika Gadulova / Tkanee and published in collaboration with Black Sheep Crochet
This set is also going to include the release of the Season 2 Square Border ‘Scotland’* and Square Border ‘Plants and Herbs’**.
Optional and in addition to these borders is a set of square borders that are designed specifically for each of those squares. So that means that there is a ‘Royal Stag Square Border’*, a ‘Scottish Cross Square Border’* and a ‘Dragonfly Square Border’* which you can add to your square instead of the two Season 2 Square Borders or the Season 1 Square Border. These three borders are not officially part of the free CAL patterns, but will be available for purchase anyone who is really sophisticated with their Wrapped in Jamie project. Of course, they will also include photo tutorials, right- and left-handed videos and the charts as usual.
If you purchase a Wrapped in Jamie Season 2 pattern, you will also receive an invitation to join a Crochet-Along Masterclass, where we are going to come together in a zoom (or similar app) class and actually make a square in real time. We will go at a reasonable pace, which means we might need two or three 1.5h sessions to finish our square, but you will have the opportunity to ask questions about stitch placement or any tricky bits. If you are an experienced crocheter (or one of our testers) and the time frame fits you, you are especially invited to join in and offer your support. Participation will be limited, but recordings will be available.
And that’s it for now with the announcements. There is more to come and a A Q&A session will be announced shortly to answer any additional questions you might have.
I am first going into recovery from this thrilling experience (my heart is still racing) and then back to working on the set. There may be some chocolate involved to soothe the soul. All for medicinal purposes, of course. I am actually pretty good with this kind of self-medication.
Anyhoo, nice talking/writing to you and thanks for listening/reading. I’ll catch up with you soon.
Love,
PeTra aka PeBa BlackSheep
P.S. I just noticed that it is almost Halloween! Well, by now you know that this is not a trick or treat kind of scary, even though I may at times look like a zombie, bwahaha.