Today I have a new PlanetJune Accessories donationware pattern for you: the Leaning Ladders Scarf.

This beginner-friendly scarf is made of only basic stitches, so it’s fast and fun to crochet. The eye-catching diagonal eyelet stripes look great in any yarn, and the simple background highlights the colours in a variegated or self-striping yarn beautifully. Choose your recipient’s favourite colour and you have a perfect gift for anyone in your life – women, men, or children! 

Work it in any weight yarn – although I’d recommend DK weight (#3 light) or heavier for a snuggly scarf – with an appropriately sized hook. As with all my accessory patterns, this pattern has both written instructions and a full stitch diagram!

As always with my donationware, the Leaning Ladders Scarf pattern is free for your use, but if you’d like to send me a donation towards it (completely optional), you’ll receive the nicely formatted and easy-to-print PDF version of the pattern as a thank you. PDF-only bonuses:

• The PDF also includes the full written pattern for an any-size piece using this stitch pattern, so you can crochet anything from a skinny scarf up to a large rectangular shawl or blanket. 
• The PDF is neatly formatted with one section per page (standard written pattern; stitch diagram with key; any-size pattern) so you can print just the page(s) you need.

I hope you’ll enjoy crocheting this scarf for yourself, and maybe you’ll make a few extras as Christmas gifts for friends and family?

Go to Leaning Ladders Scarf pattern >>

More PlanetJune Accessories

I’ve just realised that Leaning Ladders is the 25th design in my PlanetJune Accessories range – wow!

If you like my accessory designs, you can also choose from lots more donationware patterns:

Or save when you buy a Custom Set of any 3 regular patterns:

You can also find all these patterns individually in the PlanetJune Accessories section of my shop.

Trendgarne kindly sent me some of their ONline Linie 346 Arona yarn, and I decided to try it out with my free Chunky Moebius Cowl pattern. Isn’t it lovely?

Arona is a 100% cotton ribbon yarn that comes in a 100g ball, which provides a generous 230m of (roughly) worsted weight yarn.

As you can see, it comes in a beautiful range of variegated shades with slowly-changing colours. I really love all these colourways – aren’t they gorgeous?

This yarn has an unusual flat ribbon construction, and there’s no recommended crochet hook size given on the ball band, but the recommended knitting needle size is 5-5.5mm. (A good rule of thumb in these cases is to go up a couple of hook sizes from the recommended needle size, as crochet tends to need a larger size so the piece drapes nicely and isn’t too stiff.)

I swatched with a few different hooks and decided I like the fabric I got with a K (6.5mm) hook. As this yarn is finer than my pattern calls for, I started with a 76 stitch foundation to make a 22″ circumference cowl.

The moebius construction means that the cowl is worked outwards from the middle, and I enjoyed watching the colours change as my cowl grew, from the blue-purple foundation, through light purple and then on to pink and beyond…

The yarn is easy to work with and the stitch definition is amazing. Even a simple stitch pattern like this stands out clearly and looks so good with the colour-changing yarn.

I worked 10 rows of my pattern until my cowl was 5″ tall. It was finished in no time, and took less than half a ball of yarn (making it a real bargain!)

The finished cowl is smooth and cool in the cotton yarn. It feels lovely against my skin and would be perfect for the first chill of breezy autumn days.

As you can see from my selfie at the top of the page, my new worsted weight yarn cowl looks just as good as the chunkier versions, and it sits beautifully against my neck under a light jacket without excess bulk while still keeping my neck warm (useful now I have such short hair…)

If you’d like to make a Chunky Moebius Cowl too, my pattern is free here – it’s a fast and fun stashbusting pattern, and a great choice if you’re making a start on your Christmas gifts!

As this is a donationware pattern, if you donate a dollar or more you can get the PDF version, which includes bonus content, including a fully illustrated explanation of how the Moebius construction works, standard measurements for man, woman, and child, and additional step by step photos.

I’m looking forward to coming up with the perfect pattern to use my other balls of the Arona yarn! I really enjoyed its smoothness, stitch definition, and, of course, the wonderful colourways. If you’d like to try this yarn too, here’s the Arona Ravelry listing (it includes some links to online stockists, in case you can’t find it locally).

Autumn is my favourite season, and, even though it’s spring here in the southern hemisphere, I still think wistfully of beautiful fall colours and the first chill in the air whenever October rolls around. So I decided to spend some time putting together a little PlanetJune Fall photoshoot that perfectly captures the essence of autumn for me:

Amigurumi Acorn, Apples, Pears, Pumpkin (all donationware patterns!); Pine Cone and Mushroom Collections – find all the patterns here

If you’re feeling the joy of autumn too, please join us in the PlanetJune Ravelry group and share what you’re making from my seasonal patterns.

Review and Win contest

You’re automatically entered in the next monthly draw every time you write a review for a PlanetJune pattern you’ve enjoyed – and you’ll also be helping future customers make an informed decision about patterns they are considering buying.

To highlight how easy it is now to review your PlanetJune patterns from the new My Patterns page in your PlanetJune account (see screenshot, above), I tripled the review prizes in September, and there were an unprecedented 86 new reviews written as a result – wow! Thank you to everyone who wrote a review last month; I’m sure all your reviews will be really helpful to other crochet fans. And here are the 3 contest winners:

Jackie M‘s review of my Horse pattern:

I have been looking for a good (small) horse pattern for forever, and this is it!!! Very clear and detailed, and the instructions for the mane and tail are SO unique and easy to implement!

Guinevere M‘s review of my African Violets pattern:

June’s patterns are by far the best I have ever seen for plants, and this pattern is no exception. This is your opportunity to create beautiful African Violets that never have to be watered, and that won’t be turned into salad by your overly adventurous feline. The pattern is clearly written providing different options to allows you to customize your very own pot of African Violets. It also includes lots of photographs and tips to assist you, and the end results are beautiful.

Nuria A‘s review of my Rippled Lace Rectangular Shawl pattern:

This was my first try on such a large crochet project, and on using lace yarn! The pattern is really well written and explained, just as I was able to do foundation single crochet for the first time and with no problem just by reading the instructions. Crochetting this shawl is easy, so you soon can do it without reading the pattern (I used to do it while watching TV). Since the color of the yarn goes changing each two turns, it encourages you to go on a little bit more, and the shawl is complete quite fast.

In conclusion, a really good pattern if you want to crochet a nice shawl and you don’t have so much time to spend on it.

Congratulations, Jackie, Guinevere and Nuria – I’ve emailed you all to find out which pattern you’d each like as your prize!

What’s next?

Continuing my half-a-world-away celebration of Fall, I’ll have a new donationware pattern for you very soon, and then I’ll be turning my attention towards Christmas..!