If you look carefully and listen quietly you’ll catch a sense of new life beginning to stir around us. Snowdrops are pushing through dark soil and rough grass, forming white drifts along my garden path and beneath the trees in the wild copse opposite our house. And, even though around here the farming is mostly dairy, I can sometimes hear the sound of few of the earliest spring lambs calling to their mothers as they test their unsteady legs in the more sheltered pastures. The lanes around the village are extremely muddy and mostly empty of all but the most determined dog walkers (of whom I am not one these days, leaving the coldest and muddiest winter walks to the Engineer who seems to relish the challenge!).
As well as snowdrops, there are other green spikes pushing up into the light – we have daffodils a-plenty, crocuses and even alliums emerging into the world, whilst the garlic and onions I planted in my kitchen garden last autumn are growing away nicely. Like many gardeners I am impatient to begin the new growing season, but there is a lot more winter to come before this can happen. So, while I have a little extra time (Rhubarb and Custard, our shepherd’s huts, are also closed for the winter), I have decided to take up my knitting needles again….
And, feeling ambitious, have started upon “Peace by Piece,” a wonderful patchwork blanket pattern from Needle and Feather on Etsy. I didn’t want a large heavy project and felt that knitting 144(!) approximately 4″ squares that combine into a larger item would be perfect. I love the designer’s colour choices and hope that by next winter I’ll be snuggled beneath my own warm and colourful creation.
The End of the Final Twenty Issues Subscription
I know I’ve told you about the Final Twenty Issues Subscription before – and I don’t want to come across as pushy or giving you the hard sell, but I really don’t want anyone to miss out on this once-only subscription offer as it closes forever this Tuesday evening (27 January 2026).
As you may know the Bustle & Sew Magazine began life in 2011 as a simple collection of three or four patterns, plus one or two short articles. I’ve been producing it (and absolutely loved doing so) for the last fifteen years. It’s expanded to around eighty pages, with each edition containing six patterns, recipes, articles on all kinds of interesting topics from gardening to embroidery, arts and crafts, country life and the natural world. And there isn’t any advertising or sponsorship, just pure content.
However, time marches on and, as the saying goes, “all good things must come to an end.” We’re not at the end of the Bustle & Sew Magazine just yet, but putting the whole magazine together each month is quite intense and in September 2027 I will reach retirement age (currently 67 in the UK). I am anticipating that at that time I will want to slow down, at least a little! So Issue 200, September 2027 will be the very last edition of the Bustle & Sew Magazine in its present form.
As I will be at least partly retiring in September 2027, I have decided to offer the final twenty issues of the Bustle & Sew Magazine for a single payment of just US $50. This is equivalent to just $2.50 per issue (again rather neatly, this was the original price of the first issues). If you decide to purchase the Final Twenty Issues you will receive issues 181-200 on a monthly basis beginning with issue 181 that will be sent out on Thursday 29 January 2026 and the end of September 2027 when the final magazine will be sent to you.
Free Sample Magazine
If you’re feeling a little uncertain about the magazine, and don’t want to commit without seeing it first, then I thought you might like to try this free sample edition from February last year….
Just click here or on the image above to download your free magazine
The Final Twenty Issues subscription to the Bustle & Sew Magazine is still available (but only for the next 48 hours) for a single payment of just US$50. (currently around £37). This is equivalent to just $2.50 per issue (again, rather neatly, this was the original price of the first issue).
If you decide to purchase the Final Twenty Issues subscription, you will receive issues 181 – 200 on a monthly basis between the end of this month 2026 and September 2027 when the final magazine will arrive in your inbox.
If you’d like to learn more about the Final Twenty Issues subscription please click on the image to visit the Bustle & Sew store. This subscription will be available until Tuesday evening only and won’t ever be repeated. Monthly subscriptions will continue as normal, and annual subscriptions will still be available to purchase until September 2026.
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