As there were 2 simultaneous Crochet-Alongs running for the first half of this month, and the Valentine’s CAL was so popular, I wasn’t sure we’d get many entries in the Plant-Along. I’m happy to have been proved wrong! Here’s the spectacular roundup for February’s Plant-Along CAL – and keep reading to the end to find the March theme…

(For speed, I just give credit with participants’ Ravelry usernames.)

Get ready for a floral explosion – you’re about to enter a virtual nursery or garden centre! Here we go…

Single cacti and succulents:

Fatals-attraction & CrochetChrisie

Veggie & CrochtColorJunkie (yet to be ‘planted’ in a pot!)

CrochetChrisie & Fatals-attraction

Other singles:

rastakt (water lily) and klopferli (plumeria)

Plumeria and roses by ChefTerror

Daffodil and rose hair clip by CranberryAmi

African Violets:

Fatals-attraction & PixyKayte

Fatals-attraction & saudistitcher

both by CrochetChrisie (those are 2 separate, but matching, plants)

Lucky Bamboo

CrochetChrisie & rchlsrsly (still to be potted)

Cactus and Succulent groups

Fatals-attraction & CrochetChrisie

esmerelda62 & CrochetChrisie

rawrjaimee & Soprefon

Some clever modifications:

Teeny tiny miniature succulents by Luna1130

Water Lily coaster set by petrOlly (such a clever idea!) – with a Poison Dart Frog made in green to make him into a regular frog!

And some mega-groups to finish with!

jukatca fitted all 8 succulents into a giant pot (ingeniously made from the large Gift Box pattern)

Luna1130 made both pot sizes for her succulent collections…

… and did the same for her cacti too!

And theMarkofSMB made almost everything on offer – wow!

Looking at all these beautiful plants just makes me smile – I hope it’s done the same for you! (If you’d like to make any of the patterns featured in this CAL, you’ll find them all under Flowers & Plants in my shop.)

Are you tempted to join in the March CAL? The theme is spring/Easter, and we have a lovely selection of patterns for you to choose from (including the new Baby Bunnies – which is still on special for the rest of today if you haven’t picked up a copy yet):

Because of the Easter theme, this CAL will run March 1st – April 8th (Easter Sunday). If you’d like to join in, you can find all the patterns in the Holiday & Seasonal section of my shop, and you’ll find the Easter CAL thread in the PlanetJune Ravelry group – I hope you’ll join us there! 🙂

We had a little bonus crochet-along this month, for V-day. The Valentine’s CAL used my free Love Hearts and Basic Rose patterns:

So here are some beautiful crocheted hearts and flowers for you, courtesy of the PlanetJune Ravelry group members!

(For speed, I just give credit with participants’ Ravelry usernames.)

Veggie & camaharet

Lightblue & BiologyJAP

CraftinMama05 & rchlsrsly

sweetiii2 & CrochtColorJunkie

both by CrochtColorJunkie

both by Foxtrot400

both by JennHanus

CrochetChrisie & yaney (heart fridge magnets)

Luna1130 & petrOlly (heart-embellished rug)

heart-embellished headband by ChefTerror

Valentine’s Dachshund (it’s a PlanetJune pattern, so it counts!) by AliciaLee418

rose ring by klopferli

both by AKmtnnymph

both by AKmtnnymph (I especially love the thread heart earrings)

all by theMarkofSMB

all by CranberryAmi

all by Fatals-attraction (and the white roses are felted – beautiful!)

both by saudistitcher – with close-up of embroidery-floss-crocheted edging

Fabulous work by everyone! I wasn’t expecting such a great response to this mini-CAL. I’m sure the recipients of all these handmade hearts and flowers will really know they are appreciated today – a handmade gift says so much more than a store-bought card.

If this has tempted you to make some roses (or any of my other plant/flower designs), the Plant-Along runs until the end of the month, so you still have plenty of time to make some crocheted greenery to brighten up your windowsills…

If you’d like to join in, click through to the PlanetJune Ravelry group and you’ll be given a warm welcome!

Every month, the PlanetJune CALs get more and more fun, as our Ravelry group grows and our little community strengthens. It’s so nice to see! Let’s look at the roundup for January’s AquaAmi Crochet-Along – and keep reading to the end to find the February themes (Maybe you’d like to join in, if you haven’t before? All welcome!)

(For speed, I’m just giving credit with participants’ Ravelry usernames.) Here’s what happened in the January CAL!

My Sea Turtle pattern is a big time commitment, with 26 separate pieces that make up the turtle, so I’m especially pleased to see how many people tackled it this month. It was really fun to see people’s photos of their piles of pre-assembled pieces, and seeing the lovely colours everyone chose:

PixyKayte & CrochetChrisie

camaharet & klopferli

AKmtnnymph & SunnyStrings (who made a car seat blanket to match her turtle)

theMarkofSMB & arbitrarily (whose turtle was made with a 1.25mm hook and is only 8cm long!)

I have to give a special mention to Monica (theMarkofSMB) who, after making her sea turtle above, managed to put together another five sea turtles, in assorted colours:

all 5 by theMarkofSMB – an amazing achievement!

And then we have my Adult and Baby Emperor Penguin patterns:

CrochetChrisie & Fatals-attraction

Enphra & CranberryAmi

rastakt & Fatals-attraction (who made Valentine’s penguins in 2 shades of pink!)

All the non-tiny aquatic mammals:

adult and baby Beluga Whales, and Dolphin, both by petrOlly

Sea Lion and a clever mod of my Dolphin into a shark, both by petrOlly

CrochetChrisie made sweet adult and baby pairs of both my Polar Bear and Sea Lion patterns, by changing the yarn thickness and hook size

And the only person brave enough to attempt a ‘fuzzy’ pattern this time around was jukatca, with her cute Fuzzy Seal!

And finally, Tiny Whale was very popular this month, as nobody can possibly be too busy to find the time to make this little no-sew pattern. But we didn’t just see plain Tiny Whales: we have colourful whales, catnip-stuffed whales (cat toys), keychain whales, sets of counting whales (for kids), baby toy whales on rings, giant mega-whales, teeny-tiny miniature whales, and even whales modified into Humpbacks and Orcas! This is such a great example of how you can use your creativity to take a pattern, even one as simple as Tiny Whale, and make it your own:

PixyKayte & yasminlangley

both by CranberryAmi

knitwhy & kathykoo

sunshine1127 & yaney

CrochetChrisie & theMarkofSMB

both by petrOlly

CrochtColorJunkie

Fatals-attraction

theMarkofSMB

both by theMarkofSMB

theMarkofSMB and AKmtnnymph

the first 4 of 10 counting whales by saudistitcher

Another amazing roundup! Well done to everyone – they all look great 🙂 (If you’d like to make any of the patterns featured in this CAL, you’ll find them all under Aquatic Animals in my shop.)

If you missed out on the CAL fun, we have two CALs starting on February 1st (tomorrow!):

Firstly, a Valentine’s CAL (using my free Love Hearts and Basic Rose patterns) from Feb 1-14th…

And secondly, a Plant-Along, which includes all my plant and flower patterns (including the new succulents!) from Feb 1-29th.

We’d love it if you’d join in with one or both at the PlanetJune Ravelry group!

Today I have one final 2011 crochet-along roundup from the PlanetJune ravelry group members to share with you, as November’s Accessories CAL was given an extension to give people more time to complete their projects (you can see the first roundup photos here).

Keep reading for details of the January CAL at the end of this post, but first, as promised, here’s the second roundup of PlanetJune Accessories projects made for the Accessories CAL…

(As usual, I’m crediting the participants by their Ravelry usernames, so you can look them up on Ravelry if you want more details.)

Enphra’s Climbing Eyelets Triangular Shawl turned out beautifully!

Here’s a great example of how different yarns can completely alter the look of a project – the following 2 projects are both the Lacy Bobbles Cowl, but made with very different variegated yarns:

Kid mohair/silk blend (with colours by the inimitable Kaffe Fassett) crocheted by my aunt. The mohair gives a fluffy effect and helps the colours to blend together.

klopferli’s cowl uses a wool/nylon blend, which gives great stitch definition.

CrochetChrisie’s Diamond Lattice Neckwarmer looks perfect with her winter coat 🙂

My Lip Balm holder pattern has been really popular this Christmas! A special mention goes out to Jana (saudistitcher) who crocheted an amazing 25 of them to give to all the teachers at her school, but didn’t have time to share a photo of them with us before going home to spend Christmas with her family 🙂

theMarkofSMB

BanuyeGharbi

CrochtColorJunkie

AKmtnnymph

Lightblue

Fatals-attraction

klopferli

Ami Paint Set made into a decorative photo frame, by Fatals-attraction

Scalloped Scarves by theMarkofSMB and CrochetChrisie

…and another by klopferli

BanuyeGharbi’s Plumeria pins

BanuyeGharbi’s pretty gift set includes Plumeria pin, Gift Box and Lip Balm Holder

I never get tired of seeing what people have made from my patterns! I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing them too. If you’re inspired by these photos to make any of these designs for yourself, to give as gifts, or even to sell, you’ll find all the PlanetJune Accessories patterns in my shop.

January CAL

By popular demand, we’ll be continuing with monthly PlanetJune crochet-alongs in 2012, with a vote to decide each month’s theme. The theme for the January CAL is AquaAmi. This includes all the patterns in the Aquatic Animals section of my shop (or you can get creative and modify any of my other patterns to fit the theme).

If you’d like to join in, you’ll find the AquaAmi CAL thread in the PlanetJune Ravelry group from tomorrow. We hope you’ll join us there for some CAL fun.

And that’s it from me for 2011 – Happy New Year, everyone!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS! I hope you’re having a wonderful day. What better way to celebrate than by looking through the wonderful projects made for the 2011 PlanetJune Christmas Crochet-Along? Thank you to everyone who joined in; as always it’s so much fun to see what you’ve made!

(For speed, I’m just giving credit with participants’ Ravelry usernames.) Let’s take a look:

AKmtnnymph made this clever Santa-themed Gift Box

theMarkofSMB used my Christmas Trees, PocketAmi Christmas, and Yeti and Bigfoot patterns to create this set of ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ characters

Fatals-attraction made this lovely group of Christmas Trees

arbitrarily’s PocketAmi set

Enphra made a set of 3 Gift Boxes embellished with ribbon roses

crochet-girl made some PocketAmi (with the Elf adapted into Santa)…

…and more PocketAmi by crochet-girl!

BanuyeGharbi made these two Gift Boxes but will be re-working the pink one at a tighter gauge so it holds its shape as well as the lovely blue one does!

jukatca made this sweet display of a Christmas Tree and Gift Box (and a collection of all my non-crocheted poinsettia tutorials!)

yaney used variegated yarn for her Gift Box

PocketAmi by esmerelda62

Lightblue made black-tipped Reindeer Antlers

CrochetChrisie’s Gift Box is topped with my felt poinsettia

Very effective use of rainbow-coloured yarn from klopferli

Candy Canes by theMarkofSMB

And now for a big pile of Poinsettias, Christmas Puddings, Candy Canes and Christmas Trees:

theMarkofSMB and Fatals-attraction

crochet-girl and BiologyJAP

rhianoran and mistyyarn

theMarkofSMB and Foxtrot400

Fatals-attraction and petrOlly

Fatals-attraction and rastakt

CrochetChrisie and petrOlly

Wonderful work by everyone! I always love seeing all the projects together like this 🙂

If you missed out on the CAL fun, don’t despair: the next CAL starts on January 1st, and there’s still time to vote on the new theme here (you’ll need to be a member of Ravelry but it’s free to join).

Prizes!

And now to the winners! I made a list of all the eligible projects and used random.org to draw 2:
First prize ($10 gift certificate) goes to Fatals-attraction – congratulations Linda!
Second prize (free pattern) goes to theMarkofSMB – congratulations Monica!
Runner-up prizes go to everyone else 🙂

I’ll email Ravelry message the winners with their prize details (and the runner-up prize discount codes to all the other CAL participants) within the next couple of days, but now it’s time to spend a quiet summer Christmas afternoon at home in the sunshine with my little family – I hope you’re enjoying your day too!

It’s time for another crochet-along roundup from the PlanetJune ravelry group members. The Accessory-Along raised some interesting discussions this month (some of which I’ll blog about in future): the difference it makes when you ‘yarn under’ instead of ‘yarn over’ when you crochet, how to do the Tunisian knit stitch, and the difference between working into a ch and a ch-sp. See, Crochet-Alongs are fun and educational!

As many of the PlanetJune Accessories patterns take far longer to complete than an amigurumi, the group members have voted to extend the Accessories CAL for another month, to give people more time to complete their projects, or even start new projects to give as Christmas presents. You can join in too, if you’d like – we’d love to have you join us!

In addition, I’ll be launching the 2011 Christmas CAL tomorrow (with prizes!) so check back here or on Ravelry for details 🙂

And now let’s see the November results of the Accessories CAL! (As usual, I’m crediting the participants by their Ravelry usernames, so you can look them up on Ravelry if you want more details.)

Let’s start this roundup with the show-stopping larger projects:

Shunra’s stunning Diamond Flowers Scarf Wrap (using the increased size modifications) & Pysselkiisen’s Scarf Sweater (modelled by her sister)

jukatca’s Lacy Bobbles Cowl, worn two ways

PixyKayte’s Chunky Elegance Rug (small size) & my Aunt’s miniature Lacy Bobbles Cowl for my cousin’s new baby

And here’s a selection of some larger project WIPs that we can look forward to seeing again, hopefully completed, in the second roundup at the end of next month:

Shunra’s Diamond Flowers Scarf & klopferli’s Lacy Bobbles Cowl

Enphra’s Climbing Eyelets Triangular Shawl & CrochetColorJunkie’s Gossamer Lace Wrap

And now to the ‘quick and easy’ projects!

A selection of my other patterns cleverly turned into accessories by Fatals-attraction, most of which use crochet thread and tiny 1-2mm hooks to make tiny versions! (Gecko pin, Basic Rose ring and necklace, Tiny Whale necklace, Toadstool [from my book] necklace, Love Hearts photo frame, Amigurumi Balloons pin)

theMarkofSMB used my Plumeria pattern to make a lovely crocheted headband

theMarkofSMB also crocheted 2 Scalloped Scarves and an amazing 10 Lip Balm Holders! (I think I know what some people are getting for Christmas this year!)

Fatals-attraction’s Scalloped Scarves and klopferli’s Lip Balm Holders

Lip Balm Holders by klopferli and Lightblue

Lip Balm Holders by PixyKayte and Fatals-attraction

4 Lip Balm Holders by jukatca

Another great roundup! Well done to all the CAL participants; your projects all look wonderful 🙂

From large to small, there is, I hope, something for everyone to be found in my Accessories range. If you’d like to make any of the projects featured in this roundup, you’ll find all the patterns in the PlanetJune Accessories section of my shop. And, if you have time this coming month, please join the Accessories CAL and share your projects with us before the end of the year!

The Halloween CAL was the first crochet-along organised entirely by PlanetJune ravelry group members, and wow, what a success: page after page of projects, creative photography, fun modifications to the patterns… I can see why people enjoy CALs so much.

Don’t be shy – please join the group and participate in future CALs! November’s CAL topic will be Accessories – that’s everything in the PlanetJune Accessories range, and you can also use any of my other patterns to create accessories (e.g. a flower pin or bag embellishment, a fruit necklace). Look for the new CAL thread from tomorrow…

And now see the results of the Halloween CAL! (As usual, I’m crediting the participants by their Ravelry usernames, so you can look them up on Ravelry if you want more details.) You’re going to love these pics!

The best part of a Crochet-Along, for me, is getting to see all the photos and seeing what people have done with my patterns. And I have to say, with the Fruit-Along, the creativity and photo staging of all the participants has been really impressive! I think you’ll enjoy this roundup 😀

Before I get to that though, I wanted to let you know that the PlanetJune ravelry group is finally developing a life of its own, beyond posts from me. Members are choosing and running their own monthly CALs, suggesting new pattern ideas, asking amigurumi questions, showing off their FOs, and more! I’d love to see more of you joining in – I think it’s going to be a really fun and useful hangout now the activity level is increasing.

The first member-chosen CAL starts today: a Halloween CAL for October. Join in on Ravelry and have fun photographing your Halloweeny crochet!

And now see the results of September’s CAL, the Fruit-Along! (To make it faster to write this post, I’m just crediting the participants by their Ravelry usernames)

jukatca & theMarkofSMB

silverlotus & theMarkofSMB

Lightblue & CrochtColorJunkie

Fatals-attraction & petrOlly

klopferli & petrOlly

MissMaro & KOKOXIE

muscidae & theMarkofSMB

jukatca & CrochtColorJunkie

AliciaLee418 & jukatca

Aren’t they all wonderful?! If you’d like to have some fun photographing your projects too, come to the PlanetJune group on ravelry and join in the next CAL 😀