July 2015 – PlanetJune by June Gilbank: Blog

free pattern: Crochet Braid Bracelet

July 30, 2015 @ 11:39 am · Filed under: Crochet, Patterns

Even though I’m in the middle of winter, I’m channeling summer with my new free PlanetJune Accessories pattern: the Crochet Braid Bracelet. Crochet up a speedy braided bracelet with this decorative cord technique that’s deceptively easy to crochet as it uses only single crochet stitches! Customize the length and look to match your own style […]

block printing workshop

July 20, 2015 @ 10:18 am · Filed under: Other Crafts

On Saturday, I attended a block printing workshop, taught by Jesse Breytenbach, a Cape Town-based illustrator and printmaker. Jesse has a Masters in printmaking and many years’ experience of relief printing, producing beautiful textiles like these: The last time I tried printmaking was ‘carving’ into styrofoam with a pencil in primary school(!), but I love learning […]

purple cardigan with lace detail

July 16, 2015 @ 11:49 am · Filed under: Knitting

This is sweater #6 of my ‘learn to knit by making a dozen self-designed sweaters’ project. (Here are links to #1, #2, #3, #4 and #5, if you’d like to see my progress.) I wanted to stretch myself – but not too much! – with this cardigan, so I decided to include a narrow lace […]

South Africa wildlife VII: Durban

July 4, 2015 @ 9:50 am · Filed under: Wildlife & Nature

Last weekend, I took the opportunity to travel with Dave, as he had an astronomy conference in Durban, on the other side of the country. South Africa is so huge that it takes 2 hours to fly from coast to coast, from Cape Town to Durban. We stayed at Umhlanga Rocks, a resort village just […]