6/6 – and the range has a name! Thanks to everyone who suggested names; my favourite is Val‘s suggestion of PocketAmi. Thanks Val – some PocketAmi patterns will be winging their way to you as soon as they are ready!

The final design for the PocketAmi range (well, final for now – if these are popular there may be more sets later) is a dragonfly:

It was originally going to be a butterfly, but as I was crocheting, it decided that it wanted to be a dragonfly, and it was just turning out too cute to fight against that! So that’s why we have an unusually-coloured dragonfly here, but we all know ami can come in ANY colour, so you could make one in bright jewel tones or any other colour combo!

Here’s a pretty in pink example (yes, I confess, I just recoloured the above picture, but isn’t it sweet this way?)

I think a few of these would make an adorable baby mobile, don’t you?

Now to write up all the patterns! Don’t forget to sign up for the mailing list if you’d like notification when the PocketAmi are ready for purchase.

UPDATE: Looking for the pattern? You can find the PocketAmi Set 2 crochet pattern in my shop.

5/6 for the ‘mini’ range is a little bird:

I think he looks like he’s just about to leave the nest and take his first flight 🙂

By the way, I decided against the ‘farm’ theme because this range is designed to be really simple and quick to crochet; the shapes are all really simplified and I didn’t think a cow or a horse without a defined head, neck and body would look too good!

Instead, I’m going with a theme of ‘nature that you might see on a walk in the countryside’. One more design to go, and then I’ll get the patterns ready for you! Any more suggestions for the name of the range?

UPDATE: Looking for the pattern? You can find the PocketAmi Set 1 crochet pattern in my shop.

… well, virtual spring cleaning anyway! Changes are afoot at PlanetJune to make the site easier for you to use, and easier for me to maintain. What’s been done so far?

• Flickr
  My 3 Flickr groups (Fuzzy Friends, AmiDogs, AquaAmi) have been merged; now there is just one big PlanetJune Crochet Flickr group – please join and upload anything based on any of my crochet patterns (including the free patterns) to this group!

• Live Chat
  Unfortunately, I have had to remove the ‘Live Chat’ box from the site. Too many people were leaving me messages through it while I was offline, but not leaving an e-mail address, so I couldn’t reply to their messages.

  Please continue to contact me via e-mail with any questions, comments, suggestions etc: craft [at] planetjune [dot] com – I am always happy to hear from you!

• Lost Orders
  Unless you specify a different e-mail address in the comments box when you order, I will send your patterns to the e-mail address you have registered with PayPal. Please keep this e-mail address up to date! Sometimes my e-mails are returned and I have no other way to contact you to deliver your patterns 🙁 To this end, I have started a Lost Orders page in the sidebar with a list of orders I have been unable to deliver. If you haven’t received your patterns and it’s been over 24 hours since you ordered, please contact me or check this page.

That’s it for now. More improvements to follow!

I can hardly believe I’ve been coming up with one design per day for the past few days! I’m exhausted now, so I’m going to slow down for a little while. Here’s the latest tiny ami; my little miniature sheep:

This makes 4 mini designs so far (with the piggy, bunny and mouse). I think I’ll make 6 and then release them as two sets of three, unless anyone has any better ideas? Don’t worry; they’ll be cheap because they are so tiny! I’m still working on the name for the range – thanks for the suggestions so far!

As always, I’d love to hear your ideas for the name or for other designs. If I use your idea for the name, I’ll give you some free mini patterns for your trouble! You have until I’ve made the 6th to send me your ideas, either by comment or e-mail 🙂

UPDATE: Looking for the pattern? You can find the PocketAmi Set 2 crochet pattern in my shop.

Look who I found in my garden:

The reclusive yarn snake, finally waking from his long winter hibernation.

Although he is small (6″ long), he doesn’t fit the theme of my new set of mini animals, but this is what my hands decided to make yesterday, and I like the way he wiggles. The curves are crocheted right in – clever, huh?

The finishing touch – a tiny felt tongue.

I’m so glad you guys like my tiny designs! I unfortunately don’t have the time to reply to every blog comment I receive, but I always reply to any questions you ask in the comments (either by e-mail or on the blog, if I think it’s something others may want to know the answer to as well). And want to assure you that I read and appreciate every comment I receive. Thank you, and please keep on commenting!

Thanks to your feedback, I’ve decided these tiny crocheted animals will be a new range of patterns, and I have a new theme in mind (although no name yet – I’m working on it). Here’s the latest mini ami: a teeny tiny mouse. I’m keeping him away from my cat, as I think, especially with a little catnip inside, this would make a very tempting cat toy (with yarn or felt eyes for safety, of course)!

Like the others, he’s only about 3″ long (plus tail) and he is super simple to make.

I’ll let on what the pattern theme for these little ones will be when I’ve come up with a couple more designs. Any preference over whether you’d like them to be released individually or as value-priced sets (or both)? Let me know – I love to get your feedback!

UPDATE: Looking for the pattern? You can find the PocketAmi Set 1 crochet pattern in my shop.

While I was in the UK, my sister handed me a piece of fabric (a gift from Jodi) and asked me to make it into something for her. We decided a makeup bag would be a good choice for the cute fabric, and I had the brainwave of adding a layer of clear vinyl over the lining, to protect the lining fabric from getting makeup smudges all over it.

I used splityarn’s zippered wristlet tutorial because it’s worked out for me before, but I skipped the wrist strap and layered a piece of thin clear vinyl over the right side of each lining piece before assembling the bag.

It was… not easy. The vinyl wanted to stick to the base plate of the sewing machine, and kept moving with respect to the lining fabric. It was really tricky to keep all the layers in position to sew the bag together. About halfway through, I realised that sewing the vinyl to each lining piece (around the edges within the seam allowance) before I started would have kept the pieces together – isn’t hindsight great?!

But I struggled on, and eventually finished the panda bag. And now I see that the vinyl lining, because it is clear, doesn’t show up at all on any of my photos! But trust me, it is there, and the panda faces on the inside will be protected 🙂

And then – the very same day – I saw Jessica’s post about iron-on vinyl. It would have been perfect for my project, had I only known it existed a day earlier… So, if you decide to make a clear vinyl-lined bag, I recommend you try the iron-on vinyl, if you can find it, and make your life easier!

Dawn: hope this is what you had in mind! I’ll send it to you soon xx

Whilst browsing the Food Network Canada website, I stumbled upon the Foodtv.ca Cooking Club Challenge: a monthly online challenge to make a specific recipe from one of their shows, with some cookbook prizes for the winners. The challenge for May is Michael Smith’s Banana Brownies, and I just happened to have all the ingredients in my kitchen already, so I thought I’d join in.

The original recipe is somewhat very high in calories and fat, so I made a few modifications:

• Halved the recipe to make a smaller batch.
• Substituted semi-sweet chocolate for dark chocolate (from necessity – it was all I had in stock)
• Reduced the fat by substituting half the butter with the same weight in unsweetened applesauce.
• Made individual brownies by pouring the batter into a muffin pan – my half-sized batch filled 12 muffin cups (3/4 full) perfectly.
• Reduced the baking time to 1hr 10 mins to compensate for the smaller cake size.

They turned out very well – not overly sweet or rich, nicely dense, and very tasty. The banana flavour is quite noticeable, although I think that may have been due to my bananas being very ripe! With a bit of whipped cream on the top (which is entirely justified with the lower fat mods and smaller portion size) they make a very nice dessert. Have a virtual taste:

To enter the Cooking Club Challenge, you just submit a photo and a description of your creation. I submitted mine and now I just have to wait and see…

I really don’t expect to win, but the club is a nice motivator to try out a new recipe every month!