To celebrate my return to full-time PlanetJune work, I have a fun new release for you today: an Expansion Pack for my Poison Dart Frog pattern, so you can turn it into a ‘singing’ frog with inflated vocal sac! (I’ve also re-released the Poison Dart Frog and Gecko patterns today – see later in this post for details.)

Ribbit, ribbit…

I made my frog in a bright golden yellow to match the beautiful Golden Mantella frog from Madagascar, but, of course, you can make frogs in just about any colour. You can also mix and match between the original Poison Dart Frog and this Expansion Pack, to make a singing Poison Dart Frog, or a non-singing single-coloured frog.

What is an Expansion Pack?

• An Expansion Pack is an add-on to an existing PlanetJune pattern.
• The Expansion Pack lets you modify or add to the original pattern to create something else.
• You cannot use the Expansion Pack alone – you must also purchase the original pattern in order to be able to complete the pictured items in the Expansion Pack pattern.

You can buy the Singing Frog Expansion Pack for only $2.50 individually from the shop, or, if you haven’t yet bought the Poison Dart Frog pattern, you can select it as an add-on to that pattern before you add it to your shopping cart, and save 50c on the pair.

Launch Discount

If you’ve already bought the Poison Dart Frog, you won’t be able to save that 50c. But, for 7 days only, add the Singing Frog Expansion Pack pattern to your shopping cart, together with anything else (totalling $5 or more), then use the code FROGLOVE at checkout and you’ll still get your discount! (Valid until next Thursday: 20th June 2013.)

Note: If you don’t need anything else right now, this also applies to Gift Certificate purchases, so you can pick up a $5 gift certificate now, get your discount, and have $5 in your PlanetJune account ready for your next purchase, or to send to a crocheting friend!

Pattern Re-releases: Gecko & Poison Dart Frog

I’m updating my entire back catalogue of patterns with extra information and tips and a new space-saving layout, and re-releasing them in batches as they are ready. Please see the Pattern Re-Release FAQ for more information.

Reptiles & Amphibians: now you can crochet a singing frog for this CAL too!

I realised that only 2 of the 23 patterns in the Reptiles & Amphibians CAL hadn’t yet been updated, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to rectify that. If you’ve previously purchased the Gecko and/or Poison Dart Frog pattern(s), the update(s) are now ready for you to download in the new format!

Log back into your PlanetJune account at any time in the next 2 weeks and you’ll see the download buttons for these pattern purchases have been re-enabled, so you can click and download the new versions.

I hope you’ll be tempted to join the crochet-along, if you weren’t already… Happy reptile- and amphibian-making!

PS – Yay! It feels so great to be back in action 😀

My 7th blogiversary couldn’t have come on a more appropriate day! Today my new visa application was submitted, which means I can begin to concentrate on PlanetJune again, and now is the perfect time to take stock and re-evaluate how things have been going and what my next steps should be.

Year 7 Review

This year has been all go, but since November my focus has been split by health problems, home problems (power outages, no internet service, water leak, being robbed) and immigration problems. These have consumed me for the past few months, but, hopefully, today is the turning point for all that 🙂

With all this clouding my mind, it’s hard to see what I’ve actually achieved with PlanetJune, so I’ve glanced back through my archives to remind myself. Surprisingly, despite everything, I managed to design and publish 24 new crochet patterns in Year 7 (exactly the same number as in Year 6):

That makes me feel pretty good! And I have over a dozen more designs in progress, so the coming few months should see many more pattern releases 😀

I’ve also begun a project to reformat and re-publish all my older patterns, to add additional information and clarifications, and to save space and improve the layout. This requires concentration and meticulous checking to ensure I don’t introduce new errors into the new versions, so I’ve only been able to re-release 41 out of 124 patterns so far. It’s a huge project – I’m only 1/3 through it! – but I’m slowly working my way through the rest. It’s well worth doing though, so all my patterns will be standardised.

Goal Review

My Year 7 goal was to work on strategies to beat the overwhelming feeling of an ever-growing business with only one employee (me!) to do all the work:

I’m working on implementing [strategies] to make the ever-growing PlanetJune more sustainable with less work on my part: automating, prioritising, and re-energising.

Automating my business is still moving forward, albeit very slowly. Luckily my business growth has slowed to a more manageable level while I’ve been distracted, so I’m not completely overwhelmed, and the changes I’ve already made are keeping things in check.

Prioritising (and re-prioritising to account for unexpected incidents) has been critical in getting through the past months. My decisions are always based on keeping my standards high, which means I’ve been shifting due dates forward and planning for projects that I know I won’t even be able to begin until 2014! But there are no shortcuts to producing quality work: better to do it beautifully later than to produce something junky now.

Re-energising has obviously been a big fail over the past 6 months, but one I hope to make up for now – I’ll have more time to knit sweaters for relaxation and we’re planning some new wildlife-related adventures – yay!

What’s Next?

Now I should have more time again, so, once I’ve rested and got my health back, I want to get back up to speed and pick up all the PlanetJune projects I’ve had to abandon recently. Last year, I said:

Yes, I am slightly overworked right now because I’m in the midst of building all my new systems, but that won’t last forever and then I’ll have the payoff: being able to concentrate on the work I really enjoy: creating, innovating, and explaining crochet techniques. I can’t wait!

…and I still feel exactly the same way! I’ll get my new systems finished and the pattern updates completed, but I don’t want to set a time limit. I’ll work for as long as it takes to get everything finished without burning myself out in the process – I’ve had enough of being worn out!

After all the non-work-related stresses of the past few months, though, my work is going to feel like a holiday – I love PlanetJune and I’m very excited to get back to it 😀

To You…

I’ve made some wonderful friends through these past 7 years of craft blogging – some have been my compatriots from the very beginning, and others I’ve only connected with recently; some have become my treasured customers, and others support me with comments and emails. Our global online craft community is a very special environment and I’m grateful to be part of such a kind, generous group of people.

Thank you for accompanying me on my continuing PlanetJune adventure!

I’m updating my entire back catalogue of patterns with extra information and tips and a new space-saving layout, and re-releasing them in batches as they are ready. Please see the Pattern Re-Release FAQ for more information.

Continuing with my pattern re-release project, all the old-style AquaAmi crochet patterns have been reformatted, and any of these patterns you’ve previously purchased are now ready for you to download in the new format!

Log back into your PlanetJune account at any time in the next 2 weeks and you’ll see the download buttons for all your past AquaAmi pattern purchases have been re-enabled, so you can click and download the new versions.

Here are the patterns and sets included in this batch:

• Dolphin
• Sea Lion
• Beluga Whales
• Sea Turtle
• Polar Bear
• Emperor Penguin
• Baby Emperor Penguin

and the multipacks AquaAmi Set 1 and Emperor Penguin Family.

N.B. The 2013 AquaAmi releases (Baby Cephalopods 1 & 2 and Orca/Killer Whale) were published in the new style, so those patterns haven’t been re-enabled in your PJ account as they are unchanged.

If you have any questions about the pattern reformat project, or you received the patterns through a different mechanism (and so don’t have an order for them in the PlanetJune shop) but you’d still like the new versions, check the Pattern Re-Release FAQ for more information. I’ll keep the FAQ updated throughout this project and add any further questions that arise.

(If you’re not interested in reading this whole review, let me just mention now that I’ve added lots of exciting new design options to the Commissions List, so please click through to the list if you’d like to see what’s new, and maybe pledge towards one or more!)

It’s been a whole year since I launched my commissions model. In that time, I’ve designed 7 new patterns through this process, with the 8th almost completed. My Orca would have also been finished by now if my internet cable hadn’t been severed two weeks ago, making my life infinitely more difficult – I’m very relieved to be back online and back in action again today!

The good news: I have so many ideas for new designs that I need some way to choose which to make first, and the commissions system is working as a useful tool to see which designs may be popular and which definitely aren’t worth my time to create at present. (It’s like a vote, except that you can pay for extra votes if you have a strong opinion.)

The current situation: Right now, I’m in the wonderful, if somewhat daunting, position of having 6 fully pledged designs in my commissions queue, waiting for me to make them. I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew there as I was careful to set the rules: designs are made sequentially, in the order they were commissioned, and each may take 6-8 weeks to complete.

The bad news: This long waiting list tells me that I’m still not even close to reaching the balance point with this commissions model – at the last review, I had 3 designs waiting to be created, and now I have twice that many stacked up. Something has to change so the queue doesn’t continue to grow by 3 designs every 6 months – I don’t want to have people pledging towards commissions that I won’t be able to start for a year or more!

Model Review

I really like that my model gives me the freedom to make changes incrementally, and to see what works and tweak what doesn’t. I’m hoping that within a year or two of further adjustments to the model, I’ll have a stable system where the commissions come in at a rate I can handle, and there are never more than a couple in the queue.

The way I see it, I have 4 drastic options to make that happen:

1. Close the list until I’ve caught up with the waiting list.
2. Raise the minimum pledge amount.
3. Raise the total commission price.
4. Raise both the minimum pledge amount and the total commission price.

I know I definitely don’t want to close the list, so option #1 is out, but I don’t want to raise the prices too much and make them too high for my average customer to participate in this process. I’m going to tweak the system again and monitor how that plays out before I consider a drastic price increase.

Design Review

I’ve had one idea that may help to slow the rush and allow me to bring down the numbers of designs in the waiting list, while still letting people have the fun of pledging and getting excited about new design ideas. I’m dramatically increasing the number of options available – hopefully this will spread the pledges so the designs get pledged more slowly, at a rate I can handle.

So, to kick this off with a bang, I haven’t taken down any of the existing options, and I’ve added a whopping 25 new options to the list!

A note about the new designs: to keep it easy to use, I’ve just put the main animal name in the list. However, if there are several varieties of that animal and you want to know what I have in mind, just click its name on the pledge chart – it’ll open the Wikipedia page to the variety of the animal I’m planning to make:

e.g. when the list says Coati, I’m actually talking about a South American (Ring-Tailed) Coati (there are also White-Nosed and Mountain Coati species, and they look very different). Putting all that info on the list would be a bit unwieldy, but if you click ‘Coati’, you’ll go to the South American Coati page on Wikipedia and get a better idea of what I have in mind for my coati design 🙂

I really don’t know what’s going to happen with this huge new list of options… My hope is that it’ll filter out the strongest candidates for patterns, but I could end up with an even longer waiting list of commissions. And the new list is very long – it could be so overwhelming that it puts people off and the pledging dries up altogether. But I have to try things and see what happens!

Pricing Review

As I’m a little concerned that my plan could backfire and I could have 25 more fully pledged designs by tomorrow(!), I’m also making a small tweak to the pricing: I’m raising the total commission cost from $120 to $150. The minimum pledge amount is still unchanged at $6, so it’ll take 25 $6 pledges (or fewer people with larger pledges) to get a design fully funded.

The price increase will take effect immediately, but, for all six designs that had already been fully pledged at $120, I’m making up the difference with pre-pledges, so Orca, Red Panda, Sloth, Meerkat, Camel, and Armadillo are still all fully pledged. And for the AmiDogs, a $30 price hike is too much, so I’m upping their pre-pledges to $78 (so you can commission an AmiDogs breed for $72).

Long term, I’d like to add $3 increments above the $6 minimum, so you don’t need to jump from $6 to $12 to $18 if you want to increase your pledge. I just don’t have the time to code that at the moment, and it’s probably best to not change too many things at once anyway (so I can figure out what’s working and what isn’t), but intermediate pledge values may well be a feature I add at the next review.

Timeframe Review

This is a tough one. When I increased the time to 6-8 weeks per design, I didn’t think I’d actually need anywhere near that time to create the majority of the designs. I keep getting blindsided by circumstances beyond my control (health problems, loss of internet, etc) and I’m only just managing to keep within the 8 weeks at the moment.

I’m not going to alter the promised timeframe (as I can’t promise shorter and I don’t want to take longer), but I really hope that these external complications will lessen so I’ll be able to start to catch up on the pledged designs and shorten the waiting list by creating the patterns more quickly. It’s very frustrating, but I can’t go faster than my availability allows without a loss of quality in my designs and/or patterns, and that’s not a compromise I’d ever be prepared to make.

I am sorry that if you pledge for a design today, it will be many months before you’re asked to pay and still longer until you receive your pattern, but I hope you don’t let that deter you from pledging, if there’s a design you really want – the longer you wait to pledge, the more other designs could be funded before it, and then you’ll have to wait even longer for your pattern!

Go Forth and Pledge!

Please click through to the list if you’d like to see the 25 new design options, and maybe pledge towards one or more, if there are any you’d particularly like me to make! (And if you love all the ideas equally, please don’t feel obliged to pledge for everything – you can still support me just as well by buying the finished patterns from my shop as and when they’re ready.)

I’m really excited by all the new options – I can’t wait to see which turn out to be popular and which designs I’ll get to create!

I’m updating my entire back catalogue of patterns with extra information and tips and a new space-saving layout, and re-releasing them in batches as they are ready. Please see Crochet Pattern Re-Releases for more information.

Today, I’ve re-released all the AmiDogs patterns, so the new versions of any you’ve previously purchased are ready for you to download! Log back into your PlanetJune account at any time in the next 2 weeks, and you’ll see the download buttons for all your past AmiDogs pattern purchases have been re-enabled so you can click and download the new versions.

Free Collar Pattern

From today forwards, all AmiDogs patterns will now come with a free bonus 1-page PDF with instructions for crocheting a simple but effective collar for your dogs, pictured below. This pattern is a separate download (automatically included with each order), so, if you buy more than one AmiDogs pattern, you need only download the collar pattern once – it’s the same pattern for all the dogs.

The new collar pattern. And, ooh, look – a sneak peek of AmiDogs #21, Scottish Terrier! Stay tuned: the Scottie Dog pattern will be coming tomorrow 😉

Now, what I didn’t realise until a moment ago was that your previous orders can’t be updated to include the free collar pattern – oops. So here’s what I’m going to do:

• I’m putting the Collar pattern up as Donationware for $1 in the shop, but I don’t expect you to pay for it. (If you want to send me a donation, of course that’s always appreciated, but that’s not my intention here.)
• If you plan to buy more AmiDogs, please just wait until you order your dog pattern(s), and you’ll get the collar pattern automatically.
• If you’ve bought all the AmiDogs you want but would like the Collar pattern to go with them, please email me within the next 2 weeks and include the order number of a previous order that included an AmiDogs pattern (you’ll find the number in your order confirmation email, and in your list of orders in My Account). I’ll email you back with a $1 discount code off the Collar pattern, so you can ‘buy’ it for a dollar with a $1 discount, i.e. you’ll be able to get it for free.

Sorry it’s a bit convoluted! But it should work 🙂

Don’t Miss your Free Updates

Never miss the two-week pattern re-release window: sign up for the Crochet Pattern Updates mailing list. This list is just for pattern re-release announcements, and, if you sign up for it, you’ll get a short email notification every time a new batch of patterns has been re-released and is ready to download (no more than one or two emails per month until the reformat project is complete).

Missing Orders

Once a pattern has been re-released, all new orders for that pattern will automatically receive the updated version, and, if you’ve already bought the pattern, you can download the re-release for no additional charge from your PlanetJune account. But not all orders are there – here are a few reasons why you may have received patterns by email instead:

• You commissioned a pattern.
• You won a pattern (through ‘Review and Win’, a CAL prize, etc).
• You ordered patterns prior to July 2008 (when I replaced my PayPal shopping cart with my fully-featured shop).
• You ordered patterns through Etsy (or another online storefront).

If any of these (or another reason) apply to you, you can still get your pattern re-releases! I just need a few details from you so I can set up a dummy order in your PlanetJune account, including all your ‘missing’ patterns. I do not have time to email re-releases to anyone; if you want the new versions you must email me so I can set up your dummy order, or re-purchase them.

Instructions for Missing Orders:

1. Make a list of all your PlanetJune patterns that do not show in your PlanetJune account (one per line, please) together with where you bought/won them (for each pattern, just put Etsy, commission, which contest, etc). I need this info so I can verify your purchases.
   • Tip: to quickly see all your PlanetJune Etsy orders, click this link: Search for all planetjune purchases in your Etsy account
2. If you don’t already have a PlanetJune account, create one now.
3. Email me (that’s To: june@planetjune.com, Subject: Missing Patterns) and include:
   • The list of your missing patterns and where you bought/won them from
   • If you ordered through Etsy, your Etsy username
   • The email address you use to login to your PlanetJune account (if different to the one you’re emailing me from)

Depending on demand, it may take me a while to input all these dummy orders! I have no idea how many people will take me up on this offer, but there are potentially thousands of orders to input, so please be patient if it takes me a while to get to yours. I’ll verify and process them when I have time, and they will all be ready by the time all my patterns have been updated and re-released. At that point, I’ll unlock all your orders so you can re-download the updates.

If you send your email quickly, I’ll be able to process it before I get swamped with requests, and you’ll be able to download your patterns as soon as I complete each batch of re-releases. Please do get your list to me as soon as you can.

Phew! Okay, that’s it for today; I’ll be back tomorrow with the Scottie pattern! Until then, enjoy your new and improved AmiDogs 😀

What an amazing year 2012 has been! Even though I’ve been exceedingly busy behind the scenes, when I look at all my 2012 patterns, I feel like I’ve made a lot of artistic progress in my designs this year too:

PlanetJune 2012 crochet patterns

In 2012…

• I created 25 new crochet patterns – a mix of animals, plants, geometric, accessories, commissions, and donationware. All different, and yet, somehow, all very me. Seeing them all together like this makes me feel accomplished!
• As part of my goal to create the essential online go-to reference, I created 9 new video tutorials, 7 photo tutorials, and a handy one-page index for all my crochet tutorials at www.planetjune.com/help 🙂
• I launched the PlanetJune logo and redesigned my blog to make it clearer and easier to use. (The homepage and shop redesigns have been shifted to the 2013 list…)
• I began refreshing my entire pattern catalogue with new clearer formatting, more details, and additional tips where they’d be beneficial. (Sign up for the pattern updates list if you’d like to be notified when you can download the updated versions of any patterns you’ve purchased!)

Personal Report

Without going into too much detail, living as a visitor in a foreign country (as opposed to a temporary resident, as I was when we first moved to Canada) is not at all easy. Being treated as a dependent wife instead of a person in my own right is endlessly frustrating; I can’t even do the most basic things (buy a phone, open a bank account, get a library card, etc) in my own name. I’m sure all this contributed to the stress-induced eczema I developed this year, which is complicating my life even further.

It’s not all bad though; the wildlife situation here is spectacular and we’ve had many wonderful nature experiences this year, as well as the small daily pleasures of our garden full of birds, butterflies and lizards. (If you’re interested, you can look back on my year of monthly nature posts.) And, if you’ve been missing my photos, I have good news: I’ve been saving up my photos of all the new animals and birds we’ve seen since my last nature post, and I’ll be doing a big South African wildlife update in the near future, so you can enjoy it too!

Business Report

2012 was all about building for the future: a growing business is a wonderful thing, but you have to be able to cope with the growth. To that end, I’m trying to improve everything so the business will run itself as much as possible, and my customers will be able to easily find answers to all their questions without having to ask me for personal help.

I never imagined that PlanetJune would get this far, but, aside from a slight blip when I moved halfway around the world, my business has grown by 1.5x per year, every year since 2007. I’m sure that growth can’t continue indefinitely – I don’t know of any millionaire crochet pattern designers, so there must be a ceiling! – but, through years of very hard work and some luck, I’ve built a serious business here.

Of course, this business growth brings its own challenges: as sales increase, so does the amount of admin and tech support required. To provide the same level of service to all my customers, I have to put in 50% more time each year – not a desirable or sustainable situation! I discussed this in my post on Beating Craft Business Overwhelm and I’m working on the strategies I outlined there. (And there’s a technical growth side too: I didn’t think I’d ever hit my huge 1TB/month bandwidth limit, but that happened this year, so I had to upgrade my server to cope with all that traffic.)

Looking back
Here’s what I said in last year’s review:

My resolution for 2012 is to work smarter, not harder. I need to slow down and enjoy life, not let it pass me by while I’m working non-stop. I want to invest time into things that will, in the long run, save me time in the technical and administrative sides of the business, leaving me with a larger proportion of time to spend on the creative and instructional sides, and having a life apart from my work.

Did that work? Yes and no. I’ve totally failed on the ‘slowing down and enjoying life’ part, but that was primarily because I’ve been focusing on the other part of the resolution: investing time in things that will save me time in the long run – putting the work in now that will save me endless work in future years.

Although this project is still ongoing, I’ve spent many weeks of 2012 wearing my web-developer hat and coding new PlanetJune features:

• A system to manage pattern commissions.
• A way to automatically re-enable pattern downloads when updates are available.
• A system for adding ‘dummy’ orders into the shop so people who didn’t originally order through the shop can still receive pattern updates.
• An order-fulfillment mechanism for Etsy orders so I won’t need to email patterns by hand any more. (Created, but not yet implemented.)

I’ve also implemented many smaller changes to streamline and automate the business, such as:

• The Master List for all my crochet tutorials, which has already proven to be an amazingly useful resource.
• A ‘triage’ system of rules for incoming emails (referrals to my tutorials, FAQ, or sellers’ list; a bank of standard responses to common questions; new policies such as not replying to any questions not written in English or providing support for patterns written by other people).
• Improved spam-blockers that reduced the spam I have to check from approx 800/day to approx 2/day (a huge time-saver!)

And, because you can’t work all the time and stay sane, I taught myself to knit, and made some stuff for fun:

My 2012 craft projects

What’s next?

Well, I’m still moving towards the goal where the business more-or-less runs itself and I’m free to design, innovate, and teach, and enjoy life without working all the time. Although I had hoped all the big automation and coding projects would be completed this year, that wasn’t realistic – probably because I keep adding to the list and coming up with more ideas! But the pieces I’ve already set in motion have made a huge difference to my workload, so I’m moving in the right direction.

I hope by next year’s review I really will have completed all my big tech goals, and then I’ll have more time to explore some of my other creative ideas – I have plans for online classes and ebooks that I don’t have a hope of finding time to create at the moment (but I’m writing everything down, so my notes will be waiting for me when I have time to get to them!)

This past year, I’ve worked harder than I ever have in my life – I’m essentially working 3 large jobs now: Designer (and photographer, editor, blogger, etc), Administrator (order processing, customer and tech support, etc), and Programmer (web developer, back-end tech support, server manager, etc). But the big goal here is worth it: to transition my business from a very hands-on one-person business to an automated one-person business, so I can spend the majority of my work time creating new designs and tutorials.

This interim stage is hard going, but I’m trying to do something here that (possibly) no other craft business has done: to grow past the one-person level without expanding or outsourcing. I’m hoping that all my automation strategies will pay off in 2013, and I’ll have a virtual assistant (in the form of my own website and systems reducing my workload) instead of having to hire an actual assistant.

Although I anticipate another year of very hard work behind the scenes of PlanetJune, I’m giving this plan one more year to succeed. If it doesn’t, I’d have to either find a way to scale back my business, or take on minions (unless I can come up with another alternative, as neither of those options appeal to me). But for now I’ll think positive: I can make this work!

On the creative side, I’m very excited about the coming year: I have loads of sketches for new designs that I’m looking forward to transforming into crochet; several design series I’ve already started prototyping; and some brand new concepts for design themes that I’m eager to research. I can’t wait to get stuck into some of my new ideas after the holidays…

Thank you so much for continuing to follow me on this journey – your support makes a huge difference to me. Although I know I’ll have some challenges this year, I’m really looking forward to 2013, and I hope you are too.

Happy New Year!

When I launched my new PlanetJune logo last March, I took the opportunity to completely redesign my pattern stylesheet at the same time. You may have noticed that all my patterns released since then have a subtly different look from my older designs.

My game plan is to convert my entire back catalogue into the new format, and, at the same time, add any tips and clarifications that I think would improve the patterns – after all, I’ve come a long way in my 6 years of pattern design, and I’d like my older patterns to include my new-found wisdom!

An easy way to tell old from new – the new editions have my yarn planet logo at the top of every page.

The improvements are all functional, to make my patterns easier to use, easier to print, and easier to understand. Here are the improvements you’ll see in the re-releases (and all new patterns since April):

Design and Layout:

• The layout has much less wasted space, so each pattern is an average of 1 page shorter, saving on paper if you decide to print them.
• My new page size is designed to print perfectly onto both letter and A4 sized paper.
• I’ve updated the font to be cleaner and more readable, especially if you’re reading on-screen.
• The design is intentionally clear and simple so you won’t waste ink printing decorative borders, coloured backgrounds, etc.

Terminology:

• Abbreviations list gives UK/Aus equivalents for all stitches used, to prevent confusion.
• Invisible decrease: all patterns will now say invdec instead of sc2tog (except in places where a sc2tog stitch is specifically needed).

Size: The finished size will now be included in the patterns.

Added tips and links to tutorials: I’ll link to my relevant tutorials in any pattern that would benefit from a specific technique, e.g. any patterns with colour changes will link to that tutorial.

Clarifications: Any areas in the patterns that I’ve had several questions about over the years will be revised to include additional explanations. I’ll also re-edit all patterns to check for anything else that can be clarified.

Improved photos: Especially in the older 2007 patterns, some of the photos aren’t up to my current standards. I’ll be reprocessing those to be brighter and clearer.

Get the re-releases – free!

Of course, if you’ve happily used the existing versions and had no problems, you won’t need the updates, but I’ll offer them to all my customers, so you can save/print a copy of the latest version.

As I have 124 patterns to reformat, the thought of trying to create all those new editions for one grand re-release day was hugely intimidating. Instead, I’ll be re-releasing them in manageable batches over the coming month, starting next week. Look out for my announcements, as, for 2 weeks following each batch announcement, you’ll be able to download the new version of any of the patterns you’ve already purchased, at no extra charge, directly from your PlanetJune account!

If you’d like notification reminders, as well as posting about them here, I’ll always announce them in my monthly newsletter. And, to make sure you don’t miss out, I’ve also set up a special mailing list: Crochet Pattern Updates. This list is just for pattern re-release announcements. If you sign up for it, you’ll get a short email notification every time a new batch of patterns has been re-released (no more than one or two emails per month until the reformat project is complete).

Once all 124 patterns have been reformatted, there’ll be another 2 week window for you to download all your previously purchased PlanetJune patterns in the new format, so you’ll be able to download any you missed. (That window will also be announced in both newsletters.)

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This is a big project for me and it’ll take many more months to complete, but re-editing all my patterns has been one of my long-term goals – it was just waiting for my logo and new stylesheet to be completed so I could make all the updates for each pattern at once. I’ve been working steadily through the list whenever I’ve had a moment over the past few months, and, although I still have a long way to go, I think it’s well worth my time to revisit all 124 of the pre-logo patterns to make them more useable, so they’ll hopefully answer any future customers’ questions before they’re asked!

I finished my new PlanetJune Accessories shawl design in June. The pattern was ready, the stitch diagrams were ready, the blocked and beautiful sample was ready. Only one thing remained to do before I could publish it: the cover photos.

I don’t feel comfortable here walking around by myself in a dress, carrying a (relatively) expensive camera on a tripod, and posing for photos with my back to the camera while hoping nobody is walking off with it at that very moment. I always felt safe doing that in Canada, but here it just feels like a stupid risk, and so the months ticked by with no shawl pattern…

The only solution I could see was to give up on trying for beautiful scenery – after all, the main focus of my pattern cover photos should be the shawl, not the background – and take the photos in the safety and privacy of my garden. But our garden is a scrappy mess: we’re both very busy, and gardening isn’t a high priority for either of us. (Plus, the birds and butterflies and geckos and chameleons seem to be very happy with the garden’s current state. It’s not a mess: it’s a natural wildlife garden!)

One particular wall in the garden was the most promising candidate for photos – it’s tall, wide, interestingly textured… and a complete mess. Flaking paint in 2 or 3 colours, bare areas, lichens and general grime made for a horrible dirty-looking background – not exactly the look I want people to associate with my beautiful accessories! So I gave myself a weekend project to fix up this wall:

I scraped off all the loose paint and other bits with a wire brush, then scrubbed the entire wall with a bleach solution to get rid of the dirt and lichen. As there were areas with no paint or primer, I used an exterior primer to cover the whole surface (very slow going on such a heavily textured surface) and bring it up to bright white:

And then I rolled on a coat of custom-tinted exterior paint. I chose this shade of green because it’s a fairly natural, neutral colour. It should also be easy to tweak in post-processing to make it yellower, brighter green, or grey, so I can customize the backdrop for each photoshoot.

After the paint dried, I can see it has some thin areas where the colour looks paler, so it’ll need a second coat at some point. But this was a good enough finish to finally take my shawl photos – phew!

Now I’ll have plenty of photography opportunities with beautiful natural lighting in my new outdoor studio: a couple of hours of shade in the mornings before the sun peeks over the wall; late afternoons once the sun has hidden behind the mountain; plus any time the sky is cloudy-but-bright. And now I don’t need to travel to get my shots, I don’t need to worry that the weather will change while I’m en route!

This may seem like an expensive and time-consuming solution (the paint wasn’t cheap, and it took a long time to prep and prime the wall), but, given my circumstances, I think this photo-studio-in-the-garden makes a lot of sense. It isn’t perfect – of course I’d prefer beautiful scenic views to a blank wall – but at this stage I don’t have the time to hunt for locations or the energy to deal with the stress and worry involved in trying to set up and photograph there. My choices were to abandon my Accessories range simply because getting cover photos was proving too difficult, or go for a compromise. I love creating new Accessories designs, so being able to take the photos in my own garden is definitely the best solution for my current situation.

A little teaser for the new pattern…

I think it’s really important to try to make the best of things and accept that not everything can be exactly the way you’d like it to be in an ideal world. Moving to Cape Town required some major adjustments, in my personal life, of course, but also in my business life. I’ve been here for well over a year now and I’m still struggling with some aspects of maintaining PlanetJune from a different continent – for example, just acquiring worsted weight yarn for new amigurumi designs is no easy task – so anything I can do to simplify my life and my business practices is worth it. In the end, I know what my priorities are: I can compromise on my photo backgrounds, but not on my pattern quality – and I don’t think anyone could argue with that decision!

And now I’m relieved and delighted to finally be able to say: look out for a beautiful new PlanetJune Accessories pattern, launching tomorrow! 😀