PlanetJune Blog: Latest News, Patterns and Tutorials

Today’s PlanetJune Story comes from Paula Gross from Vancouver, WA, who took on the challenge of crocheting every project from my book, Everyday Crochet, by the end of last year’s Reindeer Games CAL.

I knew you’d love to hear this impressive story and see all Paula’s projects, so I’ll let her tell you all about it in her own words.

Over to you, Paula…

My Year of Everyday Crochet

During my first Reindeer Games in 2023, I bought a copy of Everyday Crochet for myself. The first project I made was a tiny version of the Flecked Scarf for a PlanetJune teddy bear I’d already made. I had previously only made June’s amigurumi patterns so that’s what I expected I’d be making during the games, but seeing all the different antlers and stalls made me want to branch out.

I ended up falling in love with the Flecked Scarf pattern. It worked up so quickly and looked much more complex than it actually was. I started to dream about various color combinations I could make for myself! I ended up making two of the full size Flecked Scarves during that Reindeer Games.

Looking back through the 2023 Reindeer Games Discord chat, I found a post from just after the games where I decided to spend 2024 making all the patterns from the book.

Initially I thought that meant just the patterns from the last chapter of the book, but someone else mentioned all of the practice projects in the book and all of the stitch patterns as well. Suddenly, the year of Everyday Crochet became much bigger! Since I tend to be a completionist and I love giving myself a year-end goal, I decided to go for it and make every project and stitch pattern in the whole book.

One of the biggest challenges for me was figuring out how to use all the stitch patterns in the book. I decided to make squares of each pattern and join them all together to make a pillow in colors matching the Rolling Waves Blanket. The pillow is one of the pieces I am the most proud of because it took a lot of time and I absolutely love how it turned out. The pillow and matching blanket have a place of honor on the arm chair in my reading nook.

I also had fun combining patterns, such as adding a spike stitch edge and a simple flower to the phone slipcover.

By the 2024 Reindeer Games, I had made quite a few of the patterns already. The Double Diagonals Shawl was one of the final patterns I made. I love how it turned out and it was a challenge for me using fingering weight yarn and figuring out the intricacies of the lace. I leveled up as a crocheter making that shawl.

Overall I cannot say enough good things about Everyday Crochet. I love all of the patterns. My favorites, that I will make again and again for myself and as gifts, are the Flecked Scarf, the Handy Baskets set and the Solid Stripes Bag.

I love learning new stitches and June’s ability to write patterns that are easy to follow but produce complex-looking finished pieces is really unmatched. This is now the book I recommend to absolutely anyone wanting to learn to crochet.

(Back to me, June, again!)

Isn’t that impressive?! I designed Everyday Crochet so you could work through it from start to finish, developing new crochet skills along the way, but Paula is one of only a few people I know of who’ve crocheted through the entire book, start to finish. It was so much fun seeing Paula’s projects popping up throughout last year’s Reindeer Games CAL, and we were all cheering her on to finish the final projects by the end of the year – what an achievement!

Thank you so much, Paula, for sharing your story with us today. It makes me so happy to see how much you’ve enjoyed my book 🙂

Please leave Paula a comment if you’ve enjoyed this post!

Links: Everyday Crochet and the Reindeer Games

• If you’d like to make some – or all – of these projects, you’ll find all the patterns in my book, Everyday Crochet, available on amazon and wherever good books are sold.
  Hint: This book makes a great Christmas present for beginner to intermediate crocheters, with hundreds of full-color photos and clear instructions for all the crochet stitches and techniques you’ll need.
• And if you’d like to join us for the 2025 Reindeer Games crochet-along, we’d love for you to crochet along with us as you make these or any other PlanetJune projects!

Do you have a PlanetJune Story you’d like to share? I’d love to hear it! Please email your story to june@planetjune.com, together with one or more high quality photos showing what you’ve made from PlanetJune patterns. If I choose your story to feature here on the blog, I’ll send you your choice of pattern from my shop to say thank you!

The fifth annual PlanetJune Reindeer Games CAL begins today!

The Reindeer Games is PlanetJune’s annual end-of-year crochet-along and online community event. You can join by submitting photos of your PJ projects to the gallery, and chatting with us in the CAL threads on Discord and Ravelry.

I can’t wait to see the gallery of beautiful projects that will emerge as we head toward the end of the year – I hope you’ll join us!

Reindeer Games 2025 CAL

Crochet anything PlanetJune as part of the PlanetJune Reindeer Games 2025 (Friday, Nov 1 – Tuesday, Dec 31).

The idea of the games is to challenge yourself by starting and finishing crochet project(s) before the end of the year. It’s just for fun, like a CAL but you get to choose your projects – anything PlanetJune, including projects from my books – and earn virtual awards! Here’s last year’s gallery to give you an idea:

The Reindeer Games are always so much fun, whether you’re making one tiny decoration, trying to finish that WIP you’ve been neglecting, or crocheting a dozen holiday gifts – we’re a cozy group of crafty friends from all over the world, crocheting and chatting away. It’s all text chat, so you can pop in and catch up whenever you want.

If you’re looking for low-pressure online socializing with warm and friendly crocheters, you’ll find your people here, and we’d love to welcome you.

How to Join

1. Pick any PlanetJune pattern
2. Join us on Discord (#reindeer-games-2025 channel) or Ravelry (Reindeer Games 2025 thread)
3. Add your project photos to the Reindeer Games gallery

(We’re most active on Discord, but you can choose the platform that works best for you, or join us in both places!)

Visit the Reindeer Games site for full instructions, the list of stalls (categories) and antlers (bonus awards) you can win, the 2025 gallery and awards, plus archives from previous years.

Project Ideas

You can enter the Reindeer Games by making absolutely anything based on a PlanetJune pattern (or something from any of my books) – so you have hundreds of crochet patterns to choose from (including dozens of free options, if cashflow is tight).

Realistic animals, elegant accessories, unique toys, seasonal decor – there’s something for everyone…

Take a look at the PlanetJune shop for more pattern inspiration, or grab your copy of any of my books and pick a pattern. 🙂

More Cozy Fun

While we’re mostly here for the crochet and chat, we also have a couple of optional side quests in the Discord group:

This year, the talented Kimberly B. (PsychoGryphon) has created a Reindeer Games Village map for us, so we can finally see our village, with an added bonus game: she’s scattered PlanetJune references throughout the virtual world she built to create the map, so you can explore the photo albums for each area and see how many references to PJ patterns and Reindeer Games antlers you can find!

And we’re also having a different kind of CAL – a Christmas Cake-along! We use my traditional British recipe (with as many adaptations as you like) as the base for holiday fruitcakes: we’ll start our cakes in the next couple of weeks and let them mature before covering them in marzipan and icing (if you want) and decorating them for the holidays.

Some of our 2024 Christmas cakes – iced and sliced!

You can also share your own holiday tradition recipes for us to all try, so we can bake and enjoy together from anywhere in the world. It’s like a virtual cookie swap for our little community ♥

Join Us!

I do hope you’ll join us for the Reindeer Games 2025 – it’s going to be so much fun, and I can’t wait to see the project gallery start to fill up with our beautiful crocheted projects by the end of the year. Whether you’re trying to finish some WIPs, crocheting Christmas gifts, treating yourself to a new PlanetJune pattern, or just want some company as we head into the holidays, we’ll cheer you on as you work towards your crochet goals, and we’re ready to celebrate your successes with you!

The second pattern collection for my crocheted coral reef is now ready to go!

Coral Reef Collection 2 includes patterns for four new coral reef inhabitants, all with innovative no-sew assembly techniques – everything is crocheted together as you go, and each coral can stand up by itself, with no internal wires or additional support. All you need is your hook, yarn in your choice of colours, and a little stuffing in some cases, and you’ll be on your way to making a beautiful individual coral – or perhaps the start of an entire crocheted aquarium!

Coral Reef Collection 2 includes (L-R): Tube Sponge (Aplysina), Mushroom Coral (Fungia), Sea Anemone (Actinaria), and Trumpet Coral (Caulastraea) crochet patterns.

Coral Reef Collection 1 includes (L-R): Brain Coral (Symphyllia), Toadstool Leather Coral (Sarcophyton), Staghorn Coral (Acropora), and Button Polyps (Zoanthus) crochet patterns.

Both Coral Reef Collections are available in your choice of right-handed and left-handed versions, with detailed step-by-step photos so you’ll see exactly how every stage will look as you’re crocheting.

Between the two collections you’ll be able to make a stunning reef packed full of colour and variety – each design is completely different, so you can enjoy trying out a different crochet technique (all fully explained within the patterns) with every coral you make.

The Pre-order Experiment

This staggered release was a new idea for me, and one borne from necessity: translating all my notes for 8 completely unique patterns into my trademark clear instructions while whittling down hundreds of step-by-step photos to the essentials was taking forever…

Lots and lots of notes – and fun with coloured pencils to help me balance the yarn shades between the sets!

So I tried something new: I offered a pre-order for the complete multipack, so you could get started making the first four corals from Collection 1 while I worked on the patterns for the remaining four. Over 90% of you opted for the pre-order, which meant you could enjoy the discounted multipack pricing instead of paying more for the two separate collections, or waiting until both were available.

(I’ve already emailed everyone who pre-ordered, but in case you missed it: your Collection 2 pattern is now ready for you to download from your My Patterns page! I hope you’ve enjoyed crocheting your first corals while I finished the remaining patterns 🙂 )

I’m not sure how practical pre-orders will be for me in future – you need to see what you’ll be getting, and I usually only have the samples completed and photographed shortly before the release date, so there’s not much point. But I’d definitely consider doing a pre-order again for a larger pattern collection like this, with a lot of complexity that I need to distill into clear, simple instructions.

Buy Now

If you didn’t pre-order the multipack, Coral Reef Collection 2 is now available to order in the shop, either separately, or as the value-priced set together with Collection 1. Here are the links:

• Coral Reef Collection 1
• Coral Reef Collection 2
• Coral Reef Collections 1 & 2 multipack deal

I’m so happy with how these coral collections worked out (and here’s a heads-up: look out for a fun ocean-themed CAL next summer – I’ll be making a full crocheted aquarium with all my tropical fish, corals etc, and I hope you’ll join me for that!)

In the meantime, if you make any (or all) of these corals, I’d love to see them. Please share your reef in the PlanetJune gallery, or tag me (@planetjune) in your social posts!

Isn’t it useful to see other people’s projects before you decide whether or not to buy a crochet pattern? Especially now, with the proliferation of scam sites and AI-generated ‘crochet’ images, seeing real projects from real people is the best way to know you can trust the designer you’re buying from.

I know I find the customer photos really helpful on larger e-commerce sites like Etsy and Amazon, so I spent the summer coding up this feature for PlanetJune too, and I’m so excited to have it up and running and filling up with gorgeous photos from my amazing customers!

Now you can go to any pattern (or set) listing in the PJ shop and look for the Gallery & Reviews tab. You’ll see a scrollable carousel of customer pics:

(Then click any of the thumbnails to launch a lightbox so you can see the full-size photo, with credit given to the crocheter who made the project.)

Here are a few more seasonal examples of beautiful customer-submitted photos you can see in the project galleries:

Do visit any pattern listing in the shop to see its gallery in action! Here are links to all the patterns shown in the screenshots in this post, to get you started:

• Fruit Bat
• Pine Cone Collection
• Ornamental Gourds Sets 1 & 2
• PocketAmi Set 3: Halloween
• Oak Leaf Collection & Life-Sized Acorn
• AmiDogs Custom Set (pick any 3)
• Horse, Unicorn & Pegasus
• Maple Leaf Collection

As the PlanetJune galleries are still new, there are currently only between 1 and 20 photos for most patterns, but I hope that we’ll see lots more submissions as time goes by and the galleries fill up with more beautiful projects – and I’d love to include your photos too!

Behind the Scenes

I’ve set up each gallery to display all the project photos for each pattern, randomly ordered, so there’s no preferential treatment, and each time a page loads you’ll see a different selection of projects popping up first.

Since the launch, I’ve also improved the functionality for pattern sets and multipacks, which now show a random selection of projects from all the included patterns, so you can get the flavour of all the patterns you can make without having to click away into each individual pattern in the set:

I’ll also be adding more features in future, for example I’m planning a main PlanetJune Customer Gallery that will show a random selection of customer projects from the previous month’s Top 50 patterns… but that’s another project for another day…

Add Your Projects

I hope you’ll upload your favourite photo for each PlanetJune project you’ve made!

Add your projects by clicking ‘add your photo’ from any shop page (see the first pic above), or visit your My Patterns page to see all your PJ patterns in one place. I’ve also completely revamped My Patterns with a cleaner look and new icons for each pattern for uploading your photo (camera) or writing your review (paper and pencil):

(See the Gallery FAQ for submission guidelines, how to track your submissions, and full instructions.)

Bonus for Ravelry Users: If you’ve made lots of PlanetJune patterns (or even just a few), with your permission I’d love to grab all your PJ project pics (past and future) from your Ravelry projects without you lifting a finger – just email me with your Rav username and the email address you use for your PlanetJune account, and I’ll do everything else.

I’ve wished for years to have a way to see and display all your project photos, and now the project galleries are finally here and working beautifully, I hope you’ll find them really helpful too. I love seeing the submissions coming in, and I can’t wait to see your photos in the gallery!

I’m very excited about my latest crochet designs – I’ve been planning and developing this pattern collection for a long time, and I’m so happy to be able to present the Coral Reef Collections today!

About Coral Reefs

Corals may look like beautiful underwater plants or colourful rocks, but they’re actually animals! Most corals are made up of thousands of tiny polyps that live together in colonies. There are soft corals that sway like plants in the water, and hard corals that build rigid, stony skeletons. These tiny polyps, working together, create reef ecosystems that support an incredible diversity of marine life.

Meet the Reef Dwellers

Each Coral Reef Collection design is inspired by a real reef inhabitant – from hard and soft corals to sponges, sea anemones, and zoanthids.

Coral Reef Collection 1 includes (L-R): Brain Coral (Symphyllia), Toadstool Leather Coral (Sarcophyton), Staghorn Coral (Acropora), and Button Polyps (Zoanthus) crochet patterns.

Coral Reef Collection 2 will include (L-R): Tube Sponge (Aplysina), Mushroom Coral (Fungia), Sea Anemone (Actinaria), and Trumpet Coral (Caulastraea) crochet patterns.

About the Designs

These innovative designs are all completely no-sew, and I’ve come up with lots of new techniques to bring these corals to life entirely through crochet! All you need is a hook, a few colours of yarn, and a little stuffing, and you can start creating your own reef.

Tip: These patterns are also great stashbusters – they’ll look amazing in almost any colour, and each piece needs no more than 35yds/30m of yarn per colour.

A single coral piece makes a lovely standalone decoration, and your reef display will become more and more spectacular as you add additional pieces in different colours!

With four patterns and dozens of step-by-step photos in each PDF, there’s a lot of details packed into these collections, so I’m releasing them as separate right-handed and left-handed editions. Choose your version before you checkout, and every photo will look exactly as you’ll see it while you’re crocheting.

Buy Now (and Save with the Preorder Bundle)

Getting all these details just right takes time, so I’m releasing Coral Reef Collection 1 now, with Coral Reef Collection 2 to follow in October. You’ll save $3.50 when you buy both together – but you don’t have to wait to get the deal!

Pick up the Coral Reef Collections 1 & 2 multipack today: you can download Collection 1 instantly so you can start crocheting your first four corals right away, and I’ll add the second PDF to your PlanetJune account as soon as it’s ready. I’ll also send you an email reminder with a download link when Collection 2 launches, so you can download it directly from your My Patterns page.

Here are the links:

• Coral Reef Collection 1
• Coral Reef Collections 1 & 2 multipack deal

I think these eight patterns are irresistibly cheerful and colourful, and I hope you’ll enjoy making all these corals and other reef inhabitants as much as I’ve enjoyed designing them all. I can’t wait to see your unique reef come to life!

My new pattern is an unmistakable bird for Canadians (ETA: and Minnesotans!) – with a long, elegant silhouette and striking black-and-white markings, it could only be a Common Loon!

Loon Fun Facts

• The Common Loon, also known as the Great Northern Diver, is mostly found on freshwater lakes in North America.
• Loons are completely adapted for swimming and diving. Their feet are placed far back on their streamlined bodies which makes it difficult for them to walk on land, and they only come ashore to breed.
• Loon parents carry their newly-hatched chicks on their backs to keep them safe from predators.
• You might recognise the loon’s haunting call – it’s often (inappropriately!) used by filmmakers to convey an eerie or desolate atmosphere.
• Here in Canada, our one-dollar coin is called a loonie because it features a common loon on the back!

About the Design

With this design, my goal was to capture the smooth lines of the loon and the iconic colour patterns that make the Common Loon so instantly recognisable, without making the pattern too complex.

Their breeding plumage is very distinctive: a white breast, white spots on the back, a white ‘necklace’ around the lower neck, and a narrower white ‘chinstrap’ at the top of the neck. Although I obviously simplified the markings for the pattern, I’ve included all the key features that you’d expect in a realistic loon pattern.

Note: Real loons have red eyes – that doesn’t fit my design aesthetic, but feel free to use red eyes for even more realism, if that appeals to you!

This design presented a few challenges:

• The head and neck shape are more complex than they look – I had to come up with a new technique to keep my trademark smooth amigurumi appearance in a one-piece head and neck.
• It took some careful planning and design to stop the spots from drifting to one side as the body progresses, without adding any colour jogs.
• And I had a balance challenge to overcome too, as loon feet sit so far back on the body! But I got there: this loon can sit straight without tipping forwards or sideways 🙂

About the Pattern

Don’t be intimidated by all the colour changes! I’ve included lots of tips to help you manage the yarns as you crochet the neck, chest, and body spots, so you can get a beautiful result without cutting the yarn unnecessarily.

I’ve also included a complete step-by-step walkthrough for the special neck technique in separate appendices for right- and left-handers at the end of the pattern, so you’ll always know exactly what to do.

And, best of all, there are only 5 parts to this pattern, so once you’ve finished crocheting, you can stitch the parts together very quickly and your loon will be ready to display!

Ready to Crochet?

You can pick up the Loon pattern from my shop right now and start making your own black-and-white beauty!

Or, if you’re not ready to buy just yet, please add my Loon design to your queue or favourites on Ravelry, so you don’t forget about it:

I’m so pleased with how this unique bird design turned out, and I hope you’ll enjoy making it too 🙂

I love crocheting soft and squishy Giant Amigurumi versions of my patterns using blanket yarn! They’re super fun and huggable, but giant amigurumi are more like decorations than playable toys: using a hook that’s wider than a finger always leaves gaps between the stitches that little kids could stick their fingers in.

So I started to wonder: what if I could crochet a version that’s still big and soft, but with the firmness and structure of a standard amigurumi? Could I use the same super bulky blanket yarn with a small enough hook to eliminate those gaps and create a perfectly cuddly kids’ toy?

I did some tests to find out, and here’s the result, courtesy of a not-so-Baby Octopus (from my Baby Cephalopods collection):

A double-sized octopus (left) has twice the size and twice the snuggliness of a standard-sized octopus (right)!

It only took me an hour to make my octopus, and I’m so happy with the result! Trying to see chain stitches in chenille yarn made the tentacles a little more challenging – I had to frog a couple of the arms and try again, but I got there in the end, and everything else came together beautifully.

I forgot how clean and simple these Baby Cephalopods are – such a joy to make! If you haven’t tried these patterns yet, I can highly recommend them. Set 1 includes the Octopus and Squid, and Set 2 has the Cuttlefish and Nautilus, or you can get the multipack that includes all four sweet tentacled babies.

Now, back to my experiment: I found that using a 6.5mm (K) hook gave the best results for toy-making:

• Smaller hooks make the gaps between stitches so small that it’s harder to insert your hook – especially with chenille yarn, where the texture makes the stitches harder to see.
• Larger hooks create the softer ‘giant amigurumi’-style fabric with more space between the stitches.

The K (6.5mm) hook was the sweet spot – small enough to make a satisfyingly sturdy, gap-free fabric, but large enough to offer an easy, enjoyable crochet experience.

And, as a bonus: working with blanket yarn and a K hook, you end up with an ami that’s almost exactly twice the size of the original (for a standard sized amigurumi, worked in worsted weight yarn with an E hook). To demonstrate, here’s a comparison of three versions of my Tiny Whale pattern: Standard, Double, and Giant.

As you can see, the Double whale (centre) is about twice the size of the Standard one, and significantly smaller than the Giant version. It’s a nice middle ground if you want something bigger and cuddlier than a regular amigurumi but not as yarn-hungry as a giant ami!

As this is the ‘goldilocks’ size, I’ve refined my amigurumi scale chart and replaced the old Mini Giant scale (which was such a clunky name anyway!) with the slightly smaller but much more satisfying Double scale:

• If you’ve bought The Essential Guide to Amigurumi, you’ve already seen the new chart – the Double scale was debuted in the book when it launched!
• If you’ve bought The Complete Guide to Giant Amigurumi ebook, I’ve just updated page 8 to reflect the new Double recommendation (and you can download the revised version from your PlanetJune account)
• And I’ve also cleaned up my online Scaling Amigurumi guide with the new Double scale, so everything now matches.

Have you tried making standard amigurumi patterns with blanket yarn? If giant amigurumi feel a bit ridiculous, double-sized amigurumi could be just right for you! They use much less yarn and create a lovely plush huggable toy.

And here’s the best part: all the techniques I developed for giant amigurumi work beautifully at this scale too, especially my game-changing secure magic ring that’s perfect for chenille yarn. If you have my Complete Guide to Giant Amigurumi ebook, you’re already equipped with everything you need to make Double-sized amis too.

I think double-sized amigurumi using blanket yarn and a K US/6.5mm hook might be the perfect fit for sweet cuddly toys – give it a go and let me know what you think!

Here’s a new addition to my stemmed flower patterns: an elegant sculptural lily flower! With my new crochet pattern you can make Calla, Peace, or Arum Lily flower stems that look stunning in a tall vase and are perfect for modern floral arrangements, wedding bouquets, or Easter décor.

A fun fact about these flowers: the Calla Lily (or Arum Lily) from South Africa shares its elegant flower shape with the unrelated Peace Lily from the tropical Americas. Despite their names, neither of these plants is a true lily!

I made mine in classic white (off-white, actually – for that extra touch of elegance), the colour of Peace Lilies and the wild Calla Lilies that I remember from my time in Africa. You can also get creative with your colours: hybrid calla lilies come in a variety of colours including yellow, orange, pink and dark purple, so you can pick your favourites!

While a few of these stems look lovely displayed alone in a narrow vase like this, you can also mix and match them with my other cut flower crochet patterns to create your own custom bouquet:

Here are all my other stemmed flowers: Basic Rose, Daffodils, Carnations and Tulips.

As I like to reward people who chose to donate for my donationware patterns, the PDF version of the Calla Lily / Peace Lily pattern includes additional assembly photos, bonus tips if you want to make a more resilient flower, and my special technique for fastening off the yarn neatly at the base of the stem. As always, the pattern is free for you to use, and you need only donate if you’d like to thank me for my time in creating it, or if you’d like the easy-to-print PDF version.

Go to the free Calla Lily / Peace Lily crochet pattern >>

Or jump straight to donate:

Order the Calla Lily / Peace Lily pattern >>

Not ready to make it yet? Add it to your Ravelry queue: