I’ve always struggled with pain in my hands which makes gripping and repetitive motions for long periods of time challenging. I’ve bought and made various compression gloves and devices to help with that in the past but haven’t found a great solution, so I was delighted when Grace & Able offered to send me a pair of their joint support gloves to try.

The company was founded by an arthritis sufferer and a hand therapist, with the goal of creating functional, attractive, and comfortable joint support products – that mission really resonated with me!

Unlike the previous gloves I bought which look like medical aids, these gloves are available in a range of stylish colours (you can see them all here). I, of course, opted for the lush plum purple:

These gloves are slightly thicker than my old Handeze therapeutic gloves because they’re made from a breathable cotton blend which is more comfortable than a fully synthetic material. They also have much better finger coverage than my old support gloves, supporting your finger joints and leaving just your fingertips free for dexterity.

The design is very clever – these aren’t just regular fingerless gloves! They’re designed with a gusset between each finger, so the gloves have the correct 3D shape to support all around your fingers with even pressure. The thumb is correctly positioned to offer good support at the base of the thumb, where I have the most discomfort. The seams are well finished and comfortable (unlike my old pair that I had to wear inside out so the seams didn’t irritate me!), and the gloves provide a light, supportive pressure.

I’ve been wearing them for the last few weeks to test them out. As well as wearing them while crafting and typing, I’ve been driving in them and I find they help so much with the discomfort in my hands when I grip the wheel for an extended period. My finger joints also tend to get cold and stiff with the airflow from the car’s vents, and wearing these gloves alleviates that while not overheating my hands.

With the gentle warm support of gloves, I can crochet for longer without my hands getting sore. It took a minute to get my amigurumi tension back to normal with the gloves on, but for larger projects that don’t need amigurumi-tight tension, you wouldn’t need any adjustment time. The gloves don’t get in the way of the crocheting, as you still have full control of your work with your fingertips. And an unexpected added bonus: my tensioning finger loves how the glove protects it from having a groove worn into it by my yarn as I crochet – this is a big improvement on my homemade finger protector! 😀

They’re easy to hand wash, and air dry overnight. I thought that the rich purple colour may fade with washing, but my concern was unwarranted: while the washing water did turn slightly pink on the first wash, the colour didn’t fade at all, and they still look as good as new after several washes.

Tip: I use the same Soak Wash that I use to wash all my handknits and delicates! The Pineapple fragrance is sweet and fruity, or the Scentless option is perfect if fragrance bothers you.

I’ve also noticed another benefit of compression gloves that I haven’t heard anyone else mention before, so maybe this is just me, but if you suffer from anxiety, wearing compressive gloves may help you there too! The light pressure on my fingers is like a soothing weighted blanket on my hands, and it helps ground me and make me feel more secure.

Verdict

If you ever suffer from hand pain or stiffness while crafting, typing or driving, or you have arthritis (or anxiety!) I’d definitely recommend you try a pair of joint support gloves. Grace & Able compression gloves are good quality, breathable, available in a range of stylish colours, and provide even support to all your finger joints while being thin enough to let you get things done.

Note: Do measure your hands and check the size guide before you order. If you’re between sizes, I definitely recommend sizing down, not up, as they need to be snug to be effective. My size was exactly halfway between Small and Medium, and the Small size fits me very well, offering gentle compression without any risk of cutting off circulation.

In addition to taking regular breaks and stretching my hands, I’ve been wearing my gloves to crochet, type, read, knit and do diamond painting. I’ve also found myself reaching for them to keep my hands warm and supported when I’m sitting around at home (especially in these cold wintery months!) and while driving. They’re really helping me, and, if you’re looking for extra hand support, I hope they’ll help you too!

Find your Grace & Able compression gloves here >>

As always, I was not compensated for this review, and these are my honest opinions! If you order through my links, I’ll receive a small commission at no cost to you.

If you’re looking for an alternative to plastic eyes for your amigurumi, there are lots of ways to make child-safe options: for example, you can embroider the eyes onto the head, cut out felt circles and stitch them on, or needlefelt a felt circle or ball of roving onto the head. But I’m most frequently asked about making crocheted eyes for amigurumi, so I thought I’d give you a tutorial today in case you’ve also been wondering how to do this!

Basic Method for Crocheted Eyes

Step 1. Crochet a Circle

1. Consult the Eye Sizes table, below, to find the appropriate hook and yarn/thread size for the eye size you want to make.
2. With black yarn, make a magic ring, ch 1.
3. Crochet 6 sc stitches into the ring, then pull the ring tightly closed.
4. Join the last stitch to the first stitch, either with a sl st or, for a neater finish, use an invisible join (see my Invisible Join tutorial for instructions).

Step 2. Add a Glint

• To add life to your eyes, add a catchlight – a ‘glint’ of light – to the eye with a small white stitch (see Glinting Eyes for Amigurumi for details and tips).

Step 3: Repeat

• Make a second eye to match!

Step 4: Attach

• Attach both eyes to your amigurumi. Crocheted eyes are basically tiny appliques, so see my Attaching Appliques tutorial for the neatest way to stitch them to the head.

My Gingerbread Man pattern uses crocheted eyes

Eye Sizes

If you want to replace safety eyes with crocheted eyes, you need to make eyes that are the right size for your amigurumi. The following table gives you the results of my experiments to crochet eyes that closely match the standard amigurumi eye sizes: 8, 9, 10, 12 and 15mm.

Please treat this table as a starting point for the eye size you’re looking for – it’s very likely that you’ll need to play around a bit if you’re looking to make an exact mm size! See the Size Adjustment Tips section, below, for easy methods to tweak the size you’re making.

1. I used Patons Grace yarn for my test, which is marked as a #3 weight yarn, but in my opinion it’s more like a #2.

Size Adjustment Tips

I tested out making a variety of eyes with different yarns, hooks, and stitch counts. From my experiments, I learnt that, as the entire eye is formed from a single round comprising just a few stitches, every stitch makes a big difference. This means that while yarn weight, hook size and number of stitches all play a part in the size of the finished eye, there are other intangible factors that will also affect the size, for example how tightly you pull your magic ring closed, how tightly you crochet, and the properties of your specific yarn, so it’s impossible to give an exact formula for an exact eye size!

But it only takes a minute to make another eye, so, if your eye turns out a bit larger or smaller than you wanted, you can just try again, using one or more of these options to adjust the size:

Slightly increase the size:

• Go up a hook size
• Use a (slightly) thicker yarn or thread
• For embroidery floss eyes, add one (or more) additional strands to your floss
• Add more stitches into the magic ring (see below)
• Use 8 or 9 hdc stitches in the magic ring instead of 6 sc

Slightly reduce the size:

• Go down a hook size
• Use a (slightly) thinner yarn or thread
• For embroidery floss eyes, remove one (or more) strands from your floss
• Add fewer stitches into the magic ring (see below)

Adjusting the stitch count:
Below you can see the results of my test making eyes with 4, 5, 6 (the standard), 7, and 8 sc stitches into the magic ring.

They’d all make acceptable eyes, and the overall size is definitely altered slightly by adding/removing stitches. But there are limits:

• 4 sc gives a more 3-dimensional ball-shaped result (after a little manipulation!), but the eye may start to look a bit square with so few stitches, so I’d recommend using 5 or more stitches.
• 8 sc gives a plumper result, but it becomes more difficult to pull the magic ring tightly closed as you work more stitches into the ring. Depending on your yarn, you may be able to pull an 8 sc ring tightly closed (if not, please adjust the size using one of the other methods above – don’t leave a hole in the middle of your eye!)

Much Larger or Smaller Eyes?

If you’d like to make even smaller eyes for your amigurumi, I recommend you use my Tiny Yarn Eyes for Amigurumi technique instead – it makes a maximum 6mm eye that can easily be scaled down further by using finer yarn.

Baby Snake using ~6mm Tiny Yarn Eyes

And, if you’d like to make larger eyes for your giant amigurumi, my ebook The Complete Guide to Giant Amigurumi includes patterns for 3 sizes of dimensional crocheted eyes (approx 20, 30 and 40mm) that have the glint crocheted right in.

Giant Tiny Whale using 20mm Giant Crocheted Eyes from the Giant Amigurumi ebook

Bonus Tip

I found that I prefer cotton yarn/thread for these small crocheted eyes, to give them cleaner edges without the slight fuzziness you can see on the acrylic yarn samples. If you look at my final samples again (below), all of these except the 15mm use cotton instead of acrylic, and you can see the difference!

I hope you’ll find this guide helpful if you want to make crocheted eyes for your amigurumi! And please don’t forget to add that glint to your finished eyes, to give them the spark of life – it really does make all the difference…

My favourite everyday puffy winter coat is still going strong after 6 years apart from one thing: the padding inside the collar has worn out and split apart so there’s no insulation at the back of my neck.

I don’t believe in ‘disposable’ fast fashion and I really like this coat, so I put up with it last year. I wondered if there was a way to access the inside of the collar from an unobtrusive spot so I could add some more insulation, but couldn’t find a hidden place to open a seam. But yesterday, I decided that there’s no reason to suffer with a cold neck: I needed to get brave and fix this coat!

In the above photo, you may be able to see there’s an almost-invisible seam around the outer edge of the collar (and note the lack of insulation between my hands). Although it’s a very obtrusive place to do my surgery, that seam seemed like the most likely place to be able to get inside the collar.

The stitches are exactly the same colour as the fabric, so I had to be very careful to only cut through stitches and not fibres of the fabric with my seam ripper.

Once I’d cut through a couple of stitches, I was able to unravel more of the seam until I had a hole large enough to access the inside of the collar.

I grabbed some of my usual fibrefill stuffing (it’s not just for amigurumi!) to fill out the collar, and although I knew I didn’t want to overstuff the collar, it took a lot more than I’d expected…

But once the collar was fully stuffed, I tried on the coat before I stitched the opening closed and quickly realised my mistake: the collar was so full that I felt like I was being strangled when the coat was fully zipped!

So I pulled out about half of the stuffing I’d added and spread the remainder thinly and evenly so there are no empty spaces. I tried on the coat again, and it was much better. Warm neck, no strangling (always my preferred state when I wear a coat…)

All that remained was to close the hole neatly, as it was in such a visible location. I found the closest colour match in my thread collection and mattress stitched the opening closed.

When I’d finished, you could barely see where I’d cut it open, so I’ll call that a success!

Now my collar is nicely padded again. It’s intentionally a very cozy snug fit, as I know the stuffing will compact with use so I thought it was better to be more generous than less.

The real test will be whether the stuffing shifts over time and leaves the back of the neck with no insulation again. But now I know I can access the interior of the collar, I already have a plan in place if that happens: I can open a longer length of the seam, pull out the stuffing, and use a piece of quilt batting inside the collar instead – that will definitely do the trick!

Now I’m confident that I can get many more years’ use from this coat – and my wallet and the environment will both appreciate that 🙂

The fourth annual PlanetJune Reindeer Games crochet-along has just wrapped up, and it was the biggest to date! (The Reindeer Games is a relaxed end-of-year CAL where you can participate by crocheting projects from any PlanetJune patterns or any of my books.)

Over the 2-month CAL, we had a record-breaking turnout, with 72 projects from the PJ Ravelry group and an additional 74 from the PJ Discord group, making a total of 146 completed projects:

Isn’t that impressive? We had lots of entries made from my new 2024 patterns (e.g. gourds, stars, ducks and geese) alongside a wonderfully varied selection of projects from my books and older PlanetJune patterns. You can see them all, along with the CAL statistics, in the Reindeer Games 2024 Gallery, which includes credits for all the participants and all the (virtual) medals they won for their achievements!

New for 2024

I introduced a submission form to the Reindeer Games site. For the first few years, I awarded medals manually (with help from volunteers), selecting the correct stall and antlers for each project and tracking multi-project awards by hand. As participation grew, this was becoming too demanding (especially during the holidays!)

I’m happy to report that the new submission form and automated record-keeping system made it easy and fun for me to manage everything by myself this year. Now I’m looking forward to this special CAL continuing to get bigger and better in future years!

Join us next time!

The next Reindeer Games will start on November 1, 2025, so look out for my announcement next October if you’d like to take part in the 2025 CAL (or sign up for my monthly newsletter now so I can send you a reminder!)

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the 2024 Reindeer Games – we all did amazingly! It’s an absolute delight to be a part of such a warm, engaged community, and to see everyone enjoying my crochet patterns and making such wonderful projects from them 🙂

Writing my Year in Review post every year helps me to see what I’ve accomplished, think about what I’ve learnt, and decide what I’d like to do differently in the following year.

This is my 16th Year in Review blog post – one for every year of my full-time self-employment. Back then, I couldn’t have imagined what my life would look like today, but here I am, still loving the process of designing nature-inspired crochet patterns – and still in no danger of running out of ideas!

Although I only published 9 new patterns plus one re-release in 2024, almost all of them included multiple designs, so they represent a total of a respectable 21 new designs:

I’m adding a new section to these annual review posts: my top 10 best-selling patterns of the year! It’ll be interesting to see how the bestseller list changes from year to year…

2024’s Top 10 PlanetJune patterns:

1. Temperature Snake
2. Bearded Dragon
3. Polyhedral Balls & Gaming Dice
4. Tortoise & Simple-Shell Tortoise, Turtle & Terrapin
5. Baby Sea Turtle Applique & Hatchlings
6. Turtle Beach Blanket (Teal Ombre version)
7. Beaver
8. AmiCats Tuxedo
9. Emperor Penguin
10. Baby Sea Turtle Collection

Business Report

2024 has been filled with behind-the-scenes projects to improve PlanetJune and make it run more smoothly:

• Shop upgrade: I relaunched my shop with a complete upgrade and improvements to the photos.
• CAL automation: I automated the submission process for both the Team PlanetJune Ravellenic Games gallery and the Reindeer Games gallery, which removes my huge time commitment from running both of those CALs, making them much more sustainable (and fun for me!) going forward.
• Etsy app: I built a private app to semi-automate processing of my Etsy orders and customer service. (I keep my Etsy shop mainly for visibility, as many people only look for patterns there. I was spending more and more time answering messages, as Etsy prioritises their own messaging over the info customers actually need. My app helps me to send detailed customized messages to my Etsy customers in a timely fashion so they know what to expect, with a much reduced daily workload on my part.)

While each of those projects was a huge challenge that required weeks of my time (and far more than that for the new shop!), I’m already enjoying the results, and they should all continue to buy my time back for years to come.

And now I have a new business report to add here: my second business, the Turtle Beach Press publishing imprint! The first year of selling my masterpiece book, The Essential Guide to Amigurumi, has gone really well.

Even though I haven’t had the capacity to do any kind of marketing for it, word is spreading organically – thank you so much if you’re recommending it to new crocheters and amigurumi fans – and the reception has been fantastic! There are lots of amigurumi pattern books out there, but only EGA gives you all my tips and techniques to make the best amigurumi – from any pattern. And I’m especially happy that the left-handed edition is proving to be a treasure trove of dedicated help for new lefty crocheters. It’s so gratifying to see how much people are enjoying it! ❤️

Personal Report

2024 was a year of bucket list experiences right on my doorstep: an hour’s drive took us into the path of a spectacular total solar eclipse (and, more by luck than talent, I also managed to capture a beautiful photo!) and I finally saw my first (and second, and third…) aurora borealis. Amazing!

I made friends with a baby cow at a local cheese farm, and I finally achieved a long-term dream of having a pair of doves nest in my front porch. I’ll share the full story later, but my doves and their babies were a constant source of joy for me this year.

My health is an ongoing challenge: I’ve been dealing with chronic fatigue for many years now, and my energy is much more limited than my time. I also had my first run-in with COVID this summer, which has left me with some ongoing side-effects.

But we all have to play the hand we’re dealt, and I’m focusing on creating a simpler, happier life, and not beating myself up for the things I don’t have the energy to do. I’m learning that creative hobbies, enjoying nature and resting are all vital for giving me the capacity to do my best work while enjoying my life in the process.

In that spirit, I’ve been trying new things as well as enjoying my long-time favourite crafts and hobbies: crochet, gardening, baking, latch hooking, beading, dehydrating, machine knitting, candle making, yoga, diamond painting, birdwatching, reading, mushroom growing…

Top achievements for 2024 include growing 30kg (66lbs!) of vegetables (and fruits) in my garden, and making reading a priority – I surpassed my goal of reading 52 books in 2024, and feel so much better for making time to rest and read.

Looking Back

Going through this process is so valuable – I always feel like I haven’t accomplished much, but looking through all my photos and taking time to think about everything that has happened over the year puts that in perspective.

Last year, I wished for a simpler, more serene life: for making time for what really matters, and for leaving behind the things that don’t. And looking back through the year, I think I’ve mostly achieved that, and my first year of trying to respect my limits has gone pretty well.

There’s still a voice in the back of my head saying ‘Don’t waste time! Be more productive!’ but the most important parts of the PlanetJune magic – creativity and clear communication – are next-to impossible unless I have the energy to think clearly. I won’t compromise on my standards, and only I can do the work of bringing my ideas into the world, so the only option is patience for the process and accepting that everything I do will take a lot longer than I’d like.

Looking Forward

I feel like I’m on the right track with my goal of a simpler, more serene life. To bring my most creative self to my work, I need to prioritize looking after June the person first. Fewer hours of work and more time to refuel will not only help me manage my health but also make life more enjoyable.

I’ve realised that I’m much happier avoiding the noise of today’s social media (although I’ll always reply if you @ me!) Instead, I’m cultivating a quieter online community in the PJ Discord, that’s more like the old days of forums and early social media, where we can share thoughts and pics from our daily lives and build genuine connections and friendships. (You’re very welcome to join us there if that sounds good to you!)

I’m inching my way back into blogging, re-learning to share what interests me and trusting that there’s something there that you’ll also find interesting. I get deeply fascinated by the things I enjoy, whether that’s a new craft, the wonderful natural world all around us, learning how to grow delicious food, or developing new crochet designs and techniques. All those interests feed back into my crochet and give me the inspiration to create new work.

I’d also love to share some behind-the-scenes posts about the process of writing and independently publishing books, and compare that with traditional publishing. Going through the entire process has opened my eyes to what it takes to create beautiful, high-quality books, and I’d love to explore that with you.

Nerding out on what fascinates me in long blog posts doesn’t really mesh with the current fast, short-form, video-based trending content, and I think that’s okay! I don’t have the energy to create things that drain me, and writing slow, considered pieces is what I do best, so I’m going to lean into that.

In the end I’d much prefer to create a few richly detailed patterns, tutorials and blog posts in a year than hundreds of pieces of lightweight fluff. There’s a lot of noise and busy-ness out there – especially now with the rise of trashy AI-generated content, and constant ads – and not a lot that’s real. I don’t want to contribute to that noise; while I do need to earn a living, money isn’t my driving force. I’m looking for a simple, quiet, and valuable life, and that’s what I’m feeling my way into.

2025 Wishes

Re-reading what I’ve just written, I think the words that sum up my wishes for 2025 are calm, wholesome and honest. Wholesome isn’t a word I’ve related to in the past – my younger self would have equated it with being boring – but now I think it encompasses much of what I’m looking for: a healthy, positive and good-hearted life, both in my pastimes and outlook. I think the world could use more of that!

I wish the same for you too, no matter what your goals for the coming year may be, and I hope 2025 brings you health, happiness and fulfillment. Happy New Year!

Latch hooking is one of those crafts that’s always intrigued me. I always walk past the colourful kits in craft stores, as the large kits are pricey, and the smaller kit designs are more child-focused – think cute puppies and cartoon flowers – and I want a design I’ll like if I’m going to invest my time in making something!

I thought latch hooking would be a good addition to try for my Relaxing Crafts series, so I hunted around and finally found a kit with a beautiful design that spoke to me: plumeria flowers on a rocky beach.

What is Latch Hooking?

Latch hooking is a little like cross stitch – you have a pattern made of coloured squares, and a canvas you work stitches into. But instead of making a stitch for each square, you have a short length of yarn that you tie onto the canvas with a latch hook. I’ve used latch hooks before for machine knitting, and of course working with a hook is second nature to me from crochet!

In a kit, the yarn is bundled into pre-cut strands of each colour, so you don’t need to cut endless little pieces of yarn:

The advice, as with cross stitch, is to start from the middle of the design, in the centre of the canvas, and work out from there.

That’s a good way to make sure the design is centred on your fabric, but I ended up regretting that decision (more on that later…)

How to Latch Hook

The instructions I found online all said to latch each strand of yarn in a one-step motion: wrap the centre of a yarn strand around the hook below the latch, insert the hook under a bar in the canvas, wrap both ends of the strand into the latch, and pull through:

I found it fiddly having to use my non-dominant hand (that’s my right hand, as I’m left-handed) to do all that wrapping. Instead, I treated the latch hook more like a crochet hook, and did a two-step process:

Step 1: Insert the hook under a bar in the canvas, grab the centre of the yarn strand with the hook (below left), and pull the hook back through. Push the hook forward until the yarn sits behind the open latch on the hook (below, right).

Step 2: Grab both yarn ends with the hook, and pull it back through the loop on the hook – the latch will close around the yarn ends as you pull the hook back (below, left), which makes it very easy.

As you can see by comparing the result (above, right) with the photo from the one-step process, with the two-step process the yarn is latched on in the opposite direction (i.e. ‘upside-down’), but that doesn’t matter at all – there isn’t a right or wrong way to attach the strands of yarn, provided you attach them all in the same way. So that’s my top tip for crocheters: use your latch hook like a crochet hook and grab the yarn with the hook instead of manipulating the yarn around and into the hook with your other hand!

Whichever method you use, the end result is a beautiful, plush fabric like a rug.

My Review

The hook that came with my kit was a bit thin and not very comfortable to use, so I invested in a more ergonomic Boye latch hook that has a soft comfort grip that fits my hand well, and an offset head that keeps your hand further from your work. Buying a better hook was well worth it – you’ll be spending hours and hours hooking even a small project, so there’s no point in suffering!

L: cheap hook, R: ergonomic hook

I found the process of latch hooking to be relaxing, but working the right-hand side of my canvas was a bit frustrating, as the yarn I’d already hooked into place kept getting in my way. As I’m left-handed, I found it much faster to hook from right to left, which meant I only had blank canvas beneath my hand. As I started in the middle, the half of the canvas I worked from left to right (away from the middle) was much more of a slog than the half I worked in the more natural (to me) direction.

It’s much easier to work from the side where your hook isn’t blocked by the stitches you’ve already made!

In future, if I make another latch hook project I think I’d mark the centre stitch, and then count my pattern carefully up and across from the centre to the top right corner and start from there. That way, I could work left and down across the canvas to the bottom left corner, and always have blank canvas beneath my hand as I work, so the previously worked stitches wouldn’t get in the way of my hook.

Right-handers: if you want to try this method you’d start at the top left corner and work right and down to the bottom right corner! 

To speed up the process of selecting yarn strands, I ended up counting and pulling all the strands I’d need for a small area (10-20 stitches) at once, lay them all down on the project, and then I could easily grab the next one from the pile without having to pull them individually from the plastic wrappers for each stitch. This definitely helped me feel like I was making faster progress.

Once I realised how much easier the left side was for me, I forced myself to finish the entire right side before I was allowed to start on the left side, and I’m glad I did! As I suspected, it was much faster when I got to the left side, and the project became much more enjoyable. I zoomed through hooking the left side, and finally had a completed project:

Isn’t it pretty?

Relaxing Craft Verdict

Latch hooking definitely qualifies as a relaxing craft! Once you’ve mastered the technique, it’s just counting the pattern squares and hooking each strand into place – lovely and restful. And if you can find a design you like (there are some tempting latch hook kit designs on amazon!), it’s a nice way to pass the time and keep your hands occupied without having to think too hard about what you’re doing.

Comparing latch hooking with other crafts where you also follow a gridded pattern, I think I prefer diamond painting and cross stitch – with either of those crafts, once you’ve prepared one colour of diamond or threaded one length of floss, you can make dozens of squares of that colour without stopping. With latch hooking, you need to stop and pick up a new piece of yarn for every square, so I found it to be a slower process. But I get bored with any of these crafts after a while, and when that happens I like to mix it up by switching to a different relaxing craft!

I really like my finished project (although I’m tempted to pull out the flower centres and rework them in the dark brown instead of the grey) but… what do you do with a latch hooked piece? I feel that the yarn may be too soft to use it as a functional rug, but I’d like to be able to do something with this piece though (for reference, it’s about 20×12″/50x30cm). If you have any ideas, please let me know!

Have you ever tried latch hooking? Or are you tempted to try it now? I’d love to hear your thoughts…

I can’t wait to show you my brand new pattern for the holiday 2024 season: the Amigurumi Star Collection. This four-in-one collection is the ultimate amigurumi star crochet pattern – completely smooth and seamless, with clean straight lines and no gaps to sew closed! 

I came up with the idea for this construction method last Christmas, when I needed a better star topper for my giant crocheted Christmas tree. The star I originally made in 2022 didn’t meet my standards – the concept looked better in my head than it did in reality – so I decided to go back to the drawing board and concentrate on creating the perfect smooth star shape. The result was so lovely that I knew it would become my 2024 Christmas pattern!

About the Design

I’ve translated my original concept into four different star sizes for this pattern. Mix-and-match colours and sizes to make all sorts of starry decor:

• Individual stars make perfect Christmas tree ornaments
• String a row of stars into a stylish garland
• Add stars to your Christmas wreaths or other decor
• Add smiley faces and make an adorable baby mobile

Use my free Crocheted Wreath Base pattern to create this starry wreath.

And of course, you can scale any of the patterns up or down using different yarn weights and hook sizes (see my Scaling Amigurumi article for details). To see how these would look in different scales, I made a giant star throw pillow with blanket yarn and a miniature star using metallic crochet thread!

L: over 15″ across; R: just over an inch across!

About the Pattern

This no-sew collection includes four different star sizes (Tiny, Small, Medium and Large) with diameters of about 2.25-4.25″ (6-10.5cm) when worked in worsted weight yarn.

Clockwise from top left: Large, Tiny, Medium, Small

All four sizes of star are worked in the same way, and the pattern includes right- and left-handed appendices with detailed step-by-step instructions for the seamless gapless construction. Once you’ve made your first star and understand how it works, you’ll be whipping up more in no time – they’re quite addictive!

Buy Now

Ready to get started? Pick up the Amigurumi Star Collection crochet pattern from my shop and start crocheting your first stars today!

Or, if you’re not ready to start crocheting just yet, add them to your Ravelry queue or favourites so you don’t forget:

I can’t wait to see what you do with your stars!

And if you’re making stars – or anything else PlanetJune – for the holidays, I hope you’ll join us on Discord or Ravelry for the PlanetJune Reindeer Games. This sociable crochet-along runs until the end of the year and there are so many inspiring projects being shared already – we’d love to see what you’re making too 🙂

I’ve enjoyed using KnitPicks yarns for many years – they have lots of varieties and colours to choose from, from basic acrylics to fancy bases like merino and alpaca at reasonable prices. I made all the projects in Everyday Crochet with KP yarns and they all turned out beautifully:

A selection of my book patterns; pretty yarns make pretty projects!

So I wanted to let you know that KnitPicks is having an amazing sale on yarn right now, with up to 60% off! I’ve just stocked up on enough to make a few new sweaters for the winter. And, if that’s not enough, I have bonus coupon codes for you to make the deals even better.

I always like to stack discounts wherever I can to get the best possible deals, so read on for my top tips for saving money with a KnitPicks order, and my recommended tools to buy:

Free Shipping

KnitPicks offers free shipping over $75 USD (US/CA), £85 (UK), $120 AUD (AU) if you want to replenish your stash or stock up on tools. If your shopping cart is anywhere near those totals, try adding a couple more balls of yarn or a tool or two to push it over the limit, and the extra cost will be partially or totally offset by the shipping savings.

I took complete advantage of this: I was at $65 + $10 shipping, so I added $10 more yarn, still paid $75 total, and got 5 extra balls of yarn for no extra cost!

Bonus Coupon Codes

These are the best current offers at the time I write this post (click here to see all the current offers) – you can stack one of these with this sale:

• If you’re buying lots of yarn from the same line: buy 10+ of any single yarn line (you can mix colours) and save 10% with code MYYARNPACK
• If you want to try knitting for the first time, or try some new needles: spend $65+ and and get a free Try It Needle Set with code TRY2024

I used the second code: I’d save $5 on my yarn with the 10% code, but the needle set is worth $15 and I want to try their steel and birch needle tips and get some extra cables, so that was a better deal for me.

My Favourite Tools

I have a few favourite tools from KnitPicks that I use all the time, so I’ve made a page that links directly to each of them.

If you’d like to see my recommendations, or are looking for a little something to push you over that free shipping limit, here are
My Recommended KnitPicks Tools >>

I think we could all use a way to make our dollars stretch a bit further these days, and I can’t wait for my haul of bargains to arrive! In case you’re wondering, here’s my shopping list (I can’t use wool, so I’ve had to miss out on some other lovely-looking yarns):

• I’ve stocked up on Brava Recycle – it’s a recycled acrylic yarn in lovely heathered neutral colours, and with the
  sale price I’ve bought enough to make several sweaters with it.
• I grabbed a ball of Brava 500 – that’s 500g of yarn in a single ball, and some colours are reduced to half price. I should be able to make an entire sweater from a single ball – wow!
• And I restocked on my favourite no-rinse wash, Soak. I’ve been using this for well over a decade, to wash all my handknits and delicates, and even to soak the grime off pet collars and purses. It works like magic!

This particular yarn sale ends on Nov 27th, but there’ll be more KnitPicks sales coming up for Black Friday and beyond (see all the current sales here), and I hope my tips on deal stacking and my list of recommended tools will be useful whenever you read this post! Happy yarn shopping – and saving 😉

I do have a KnitPicks affiliate link, so if you shop through any of my links I’ll receive a small commission from your order at no cost to you, but you know that I only ever give genuine recommendations – this is not a sponsored post!