The fourth annual PlanetJune Reindeer Games CAL begins tomorrow! The Reindeer Games is the annual PlanetJune end-of-year crochet-along and online community event, and 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. Everyone is very welcome, and 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 2024 CAL

Crochet anything PlanetJune as part of the PlanetJune Reindeer Games 2024 (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!

For the fullest experience, join in the fun in one of the PlanetJune Community groups. Look for the Reindeer Games 2024 thread on Ravelry or the #reindeer-games-2024 channel on Discord. (You can also participate by submitting your projects directly to the gallery through the new online form.)

Check out the Reindeer Games site where you can find full instructions, the list of stalls (categories) and antlers (bonus awards) you can win, the 2024 games stats and project gallery, and archives from the previous years’ games.

It’s always so much fun – we’re a cozy group of crafty friends, crocheting and chatting away. As we’re based all over the world, we can compare our holiday traditions, share recipes, and encourage each other as we crochet. We’d love to welcome you to the party in either of our groups.

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. 🙂

Join Us!

I do hope you’ll join us for the Reindeer Games 2024 – it’s going to be so much fun, and I can’t wait to see the project gallery filled to the brim again with our beautiful crocheted projects by the end of the year. Whether you’re trying to finish some WIPs, crocheting Christmas gifts, making pieces to sell, or treating yourself to that PlanetJune pattern you’ve had your eye on, we’ll cheer you on as you work towards your crochet goals, and we’re ready to celebrate your successes with you!

Have you seen the weird and wonderful gourds that are sold for decorating at this time of year? Gourds are fascinating – they are in the same family as squashes and pumpkins, but they are grown as ornamentals, not for eating, and they’ve developed into all sorts of unusual shapes and bright colours. And, as the fall season rolls around, I’m thrilled to finally unveil a project I started last year but took extra time to perfect: my new collection of ornamental gourd crochet patterns!

This time last year, I was inspired to design a set of decorative gourds, but I couldn’t quite nail all the shapes I was looking for, so my prototypes and notes have been sitting and waiting for Fall 2024 to be brought to life. And I’m so glad I waited – the extra time and perspective has led to some excellent new techniques for making amigurumi-style gourds with unique shapes and texture!

Meet the Gourds

The Ornamental Gourds Collection includes two sets of realistic life-sized gourds, each with three different patterns (or you can grab the complete collection for a bargain price). Most real-life gourds come in a wide variety of colours, and my photos show a couple of sample colourways for each gourd, but you can mix and match colours and styles for a near-infinite variety – just like real-life gourds!

Ornamental Gourds Set 1 includes (above, L-R) Goblin Eggs, Warty Pear and Autumn Wings gourds.

Ornamental Gourds Set 2 includes (above, L-R) Mini Bottle, Spoon and Crown of Thorns gourds.

(Side note: don’t you just love the names of these varieties? They’re just as fun as all the different shapes and colours!)

About the Patterns

The patterns within each set are arranged in order of increasing difficulty, from simpler designs that are easy and fast to work up to more complex designs that use new innovations to build in shape and texture. With just basic stitches, you’ll see the realistic bumps, ridges, and points take shape as you crochet, without leaving any holes that stuffing can peek through.

The patterns include full step-by-step illustrated appendices for both right- and left-handers that walk you through each of my special techniques. Each gourd is worked in a single piece (plus the stem) – no sewing required!

Links to Buy

You can buy each pattern set individually, or save money when you buy the whole collection!

• Ornamental Gourds Set 1 >>
• Ornamental Gourds Set 2 >>
• The complete Ornamental Gourds Collection >>

Or, if you’re not quite ready to buy, why not favourite/queue them on Ravelry so you don’t forget about them?

Ornamental Gourds Set 1:

Ornamental Gourds Set 2:

I’m really happy with this new collection. I think they look very much like real gourds at first glance, while also staying true to my signature clean style – I hope you agree! The shapes and textures of these palm-sized gourds are such fun to crochet, and I hope they’ll also bring a touch of seasonal style to your decorating this year. Now, I just have to ask: which gourd is your favourite?!

I haven’t done much hand knitting since I bought my knitting machine in 2020. But last winter, inspired by the projects being shared in the PJ Discord group, I got the itch to pick up the needles again. Knitting is such a relaxing pastime for me, and I’ve missed it! Crocheting larger things with repetitive patterns is relaxing too, of course, but most of my crochet is small amigurumi, so it doesn’t have that same relaxing rhythm. And here’s the result:

Hello! Look what I knitted!

I started this sweater in 2019, based on my ribbed sweater design that I’ve made a couple of times before: the green cardigan in 2015, and the teal pullover version in 2017. My concept for this pink version was to use a lighter weight yarn and a narrower all-over rib pattern to make a more lightweight version of the same basic design.

But my progress ground to a halt: the yarn felt a bit rough on my fingers so the knitting wasn’t a lovely tactile experience; I wasn’t sure about the pink colour (bought on sale), and I got bored with working on it. I hadn’t even decided whether this piece was going to be a sweater or cardigan when I abandoned it, with the back mostly done and nothing else even started!

I picked it back up in February, finished the back and sleeves according to my original plan, and decided on a v-neck cardigan for the front.

After seaming the pieces together, I tried on the cardigan and decided it was slightly more fitted than I’d like, so I decided to make a slightly wider buttonband to give it a tiny bit more ease at the front. One of the benefits of designing as you go is getting to make last-minute customizations while you knit!

I also added a design improvement from my first version of this cardigan. When you wear a cardigan, the buttonholes typically want to pull away from the centre, which means the buttons don’t sit in the middle of the buttonband when the sweater is buttoned up. I countered this effect by offsetting the buttonholes to be set away from the edge of the band instead of centering them on the band:

L: The buttonholes are offset to the left side of the buttonband
R: The buttons sit in the centre of the buttonband when the sweater is buttoned

I wasn’t sure about using metal buttons on a knitted sweater, but I wanted small buttons to match the scale of this sweater, and I had dozens of these buttons in my stash (from a thrift store find of a giant bag of mixed buttons) and I wasn’t keen on making or buying special buttons for a cardigan I wasn’t even sure I’d like. Note to self: pullover sweaters are much faster and easier when it comes to finishing!

In fact, I had so many of these buttons that I decided to use a second of the same button as my anchor button on the inside of the sweater, even though they’ll never be seen. And I like the end result with the metal buttons – what do you think?

Once everything was completely finished with all the ends woven in, I tried it on properly and quickly realised that my usual design choice of making extra-long sleeves to keep my wrists warm wasn’t really appropriate for a lighter summer-weight sweater… I briefly considered unravelling a couple of inches from the ends of the sleeves, but turning up impromptu cuffs is easier, and looks fine!

And the end result of this project is just that: fine. I like it well enough; it fits well enough; the colour is nice enough; the feel is nice enough; the buttons are good enough… While I’m not wowed by anything in particular about this sweater, it’ll be a useful addition to my wardrobe for those in-between weather days, so I’m calling that a win 😉

Best of all, this project has been a good re-introduction to knitting for me. Now I’m looking forward to starting my next knitting project, to keep my hands occupied once the gardening season ends!