Wow, I’m blown away by the response to my bird photos post! Not only that you like my photos (yay!) and my sharing my nature-related experiences here (double yay!) but also to hear from some previously-silent readers. Hello new commenters! Thanks for speaking up – it’s really nice to hear from you 🙂

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Over the last couple of months, my business has obviously suffered: firstly having to (temporarily) close some sections of my shop as I can’t ship physical products at the moment; secondly not having any time to work on new designs for my pattern range; and thirdly not being available much to converse/share/help in my usual way, which has also led to a drop in my pattern sales.

I was on the brink of putting out a call for help and asking you to recommend me to your crocheting friends, when I came up with a perfect plan: we can help each other! I’ve created the PlanetJune Affiliate program so you can earn a commission when you refer your friends and readers to my shop.

If you’re familiar with the Amazon affiliate program, mine is very similar: you link to me using your unique ID code, my shop tracks everyone who visits using that code, and you get 5% commission on any orders that are made using your code. Every quarter, I’ll pay out your affiliate earnings as PlanetJune gift certificates.

I’m really excited about this program, but because it’s brand new (I pre-launched it on Twitter and my Facebook page last week) I’m open to modifying things to make it work better for you…

For example, you can choose any of the banners pictured above to post on your blog etc, but if none of them is a convenient size to fit your sidebar, or you run a website full of pug fans (for example), and a pug banner would be the best way to grab their attention, just let me know and I’d be happy to add custom banners to fit your site and audience 🙂

I hope you’re as excited about this opportunity as I am! If you are, please sign up as a PlanetJune Affiliate today, help me to spread the word about my patterns to other crocheters, and we’ll both win as a result!

Voting is now live for the 2011 Crochet Award from the Crochet Liberation Front (aka the Flamies) and I’m thrilled to have been nominated in three(!) categories this year:

• Best Instructional/Technical Crochet Book for my book
• Best Crochet Video (Amateur) for my YouTube channel
• Best Crochet Blog for this blog, of course!

Please check out all the nominees and then vote for whoever you feel is most deserving in each category (but I hope that’ll be me!) You’ll get an exclusive free crochet scarf pattern as your reward for voting, and you can leave any categories blank that you don’t have an opinion about.

There’s a wealth of crochet talent out there, and I’m very happy to be part of such a fantastic community. Please show your support for crochet by casting your vote for your favorite crochet designs, books, hooks, designers and companies!

Last chance!

A final reminder that TODAY is the last day to buy from the Eyes, Tools and Accessories and Signed Books/Bookmarks sections of my shop before I close those sections down so I can prepare for my move abroad. If you still need any of the items pictured below, today’s the final day to purchase them!

Today’s your last chance to pick up any of these pictured products…

…well, part of it, anyway.

Last chance to buy…

Due to my impending move to South Africa, I’ll be closing the Eyes, Tools and Accessories and Signed Books/Bookmarks sections of my shop on March 16th (next Wednesday). So, if you’ve been waiting to buy anything from those sections, don’t delay! I won’t have time to restock anything that sells out, so I suggest you order as soon as possible. There’s already been a rush of orders from my mailing list subscribers, and some items have already sold out.

It’s your last chance to pick up any of these products pictured…

What does this include?

• Eyes (black and clear) and noses
• Detail Stuffing Tools
• Stitch Markers for crochet
• Amigurumi Accessory Kits (only 15 left at time of writing)
• Signed copies of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amigurumi
• Signed bookmarks (FREE with any other shipped purchase!)

And remember, everything (except the eyes and noses) is a PlanetJune exclusive – you won’t be able to find them anywhere after March 16th!

Pattern orders:

As I’m sure you know, my shop is fully automated with instant downloads once you’ve paid for your patterns, so there’ll be no disruption in service at all! It’s only physical items that will be affected by my move.

In the future…

I do intend to resume shipping once I’m settled in South Africa, but that won’t be for a few months – I need to wait for all our boxes (including my supplies!) to arrive before I can even think about setting up again. And, of course, shipping to the US and Canada will be more expensive and slower after my move. (As far as I can tell, shipping to other countries won’t be much affected by my change of country.) None of this is set in stone yet, though, so I strongly encourage you to buy any non-pattern items you need from me on or before next Wednesday.

Since before my book was released, I’ve been trying to figure out a way for you to get your copies signed. I’m not ideally located to do signings, and I don’t think my stardom has reached the levels of world signing tours quite yet! Unless you’d like to buy one of my limited edition signed copies, you’ve been out of luck, and that’s just not good enough, is it?

Here’s my solution: I’ve had some exclusive Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amigurumi bookmarks professionally printed, with a nice space in the middle for me to sign your bookmark especially to you. Keep the bookmark in your copy – it’ll be useful as well as a way to get your copy ‘signed’ without the logistical difficulties or costs!

And here’s the best part: as a personal thank you for buying my book, the bookmark is FREE to you if you’re already buying anything that includes a shipping cost (that’s anything from the Eyes, Tools & More category in my shop: eyes, noses, Detail Stuffing Tools, stitch markers, or the hugely popular new Amigurumi Accessory Kits), and, if not, you can just pay the postage cost for me to send it to you. How does that sound?

The signed bookmark is exclusively available as a free product in the PlanetJune shop. To add a bookmark to your next order, just tell me your first name so I can personalize it to you, select your shipping cost (free if you’re buying any other non-pattern items, or select your location as appropriate), and add it to your shopping cart. Easy!

Can it really be 2011 already?! The past year has just flown by. My second full year of self-employment, and I really didn’t know how things would go: could I build on my 2009 success and continue to grow my business?

At the start of 2010, I was buried deep in writing (and illustrating, and photographing…) my first crochet book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amigurumi, which was released in October:

All the book stuff was really time-consuming (writing, photography, edits, illustrations…), so I thought I’d have a pretty empty photo-mosaic of my 2010 craft projects, but that, surprisingly, wasn’t the case – look what I made!

In 2010, in addition to increasing my amigurumi pattern ranges with 20 new designs, and launching my Detail Stuffing Tool, I spent most of the summer designing, writing and modelling(!) for my first PlanetJune Accessories collection of wearables (at the bottom of the mosaic above). I’d definitely like to pursue this line further in the coming year…

In my spare time (ha!) I completed 2 big art projects – Reepicheep and my punchneedle globe – and learnt how to knook (that’s knitting with a crochet hook, if you didn’t know). I also made my first foray into stop-motion animation, to create a video trailer for my book:

I hosted five seasonal Crochet-Alongs in 2010 (the Groundhog-Along, Spring CAL, Summer CAL, Fall CAL and the just-completed Christmas CAL). That was fun, but a little too much for one year, I think! I’ll take a break from hosting them for a while, and figure out the direction I’d like to take for future CALs. (Let me know if you have suggestions…)

My resolution from last year was to “learn to say ‘no’ to some things and to set priorities” and I’ve been moderately successful in that – I made some very difficult decisions and turned down 2 book offers, a book contribution offer and several commissions because of time constraints and/or lack of sufficient compensation. Running a one-person business is a big deal, especially as the business grows and I’m still the sole employee managing all the work that goes along with it, so I’ll have to keep going with the ‘prioritising and saying no’ resolution even more in 2011!

Having said that, I’m very happy with the success of PlanetJune in 2010 – the increase in income I saw in 2009 has more than held true this year, and I’m starting 2011 from a pretty solid footing, although some things, e.g. finding out we’ll be moving to South Africa soon, have put a dent into some of my grander plans, as you can probably imagine 🙂

For the next few months, I need to be in full-on ‘getting ready to move to another continent’ mode. It’s going to be a challenge – both personally and for my business – but it’s one I’m (just about) ready to embrace. This is a chance for me to start fresh; to declutter my life and my business and concentrate on what’s really important to me. So that’s my resolution for 2011: to figure out what’s really important to me and to be true to myself in the decisions I make.

Although I really want to expand and improve, my PlanetJune priority for the next few months will be to keep things ticking over rather than growing the business. I probably won’t be as prolific as usual, or as visible online, while we get everything organised and make the big move to Cape Town. But, once we get settled in our new home, I’ll be able to concentrate fully on taking PlanetJune to the next exciting stage, whatever that may be!

I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported me over the past year. Your comments and friendship (and orders!) have meant the world to me, and help keep me sane when I feel totally overwhelmed by everything. I hope you’ll accompany me, here and on Twitter and Facebook, on my 2011 adventure.

I wish you a very Happy New Year, and your own adventures in 2011!

I have news. Big news. Mind-blowingly huge news. And it’s not directly craft-related, but will impact my entire life (including my business), so I need to share it with you…

My husband has been offered a job at the observatory in Cape Town, South Africa, and he’s accepted it!

I’m very proud of Dave – he’s worked really hard for years to find a position like this and it’s a great opportunity. We haven’t figured out yet exactly when we’ll be leaving, but it’ll be some time this winter. Can you believe it?! We’re moving to South Africa!

Pics from our trip to African Lion Safari (how prescient!) last year

It is great news, but, PlanetJune-wise, it’s really thrown me for a loop. I had a book contract literally sitting in my inbox waiting to be signed that I’ve had to turn down because there just wouldn’t be time to write it while organising an intercontinental move – so frustrating! And it’s obviously going to cause some changes with my business.

Luckily for me, PayPal started up in South Africa earlier this year. It has extra fees and complications, but I’m just glad it exists at all – I don’t know how I would have managed otherwise!

Pattern downloads in my shop are, of course, instant and automatic, so there’ll be no disruption in service there. The only difficulty will be in shipping physical items (eyes, stitch markers, stuffing tools) – I’ll have to shut down that part of my shop for a couple of months while everything is being shipped over, but that won’t be for a few months, so don’t panic! I’ll keep you updated on the situation when I’ve figured out what needs to happen and when.

I’m still reeling from this – it doesn’t seem possible that it’s really happening! I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t overwhelmed and a bit terrified too, but it’s definitely going to be an adventure, and it’ll provide endless inspiration for my future designs.

See, I told you it was big news..!

I’m guessing that not everybody knows that I run a monthly ‘Review and Win’ contest in my shop. Every review of one of my patterns or other items in the shop is automatically entered, and every month I draw a random winner who gets to pick a free pattern of their choice.

It’s really easy to write a review: just go to my shop, find the page of the item you wish to review, click the Reviews tab and click write a review.

The odds of winning are great because, for some reason, I don’t get that many reviews each month. Hint hint, please review my products! Some of my poor patterns don’t have a single review yet and feel very neglected…

And now for the October ‘Review and Win’ winner… Crystal V, with her review of my Tunisian Stripe Purse pattern (which you can see in the bottom left corner of the photo below):

I just finished making this purse and absolutely loved this pattern! I have never used the tunisian crochet technique before but learned quickly with the included instructions. My favorite part is that there is no sewing involved. 🙂

Congratulations, Crystal, I’ll email you to find out which pattern you’d like as your prize!

And I’m really happy to see that my PlanetJune Accessories patterns (pictured below) are starting to receive some reviews.

If you’d like to be entered into the November drawing to win a pattern of your choice, it’s easy! Just review any item(s) you’ve bought from me – each review in my shop gives you another entry into the contest. Thank you!

I can hardly believe I’m finally getting to write these words: my crochet book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amigurumi, is out today!* It’s been a very long process that’s taken me to this point, and part of me still doesn’t believe it’s real, although I do have this proof:

Yay! Look what I made – it’s really real!

I’ll be sharing more information about the book over the next few days/weeks, but, as there seems to be a lag somewhere between the publisher and Amazon’s website (their current description is about a year out of date!), I’ll share the correct ‘blurb’ copy that should be there:

Amigurumi (pronounced ah-mee-goo-roo-mee) is Japanese for “crochet (or knit) stuffed toy.” Although the concept originated in Japan, the amigurumi craze is taking over the world in waves of crocheted cuteness! From adorable fuzzy critters, to sweet-looking fruits and vegetables, to quirky comic book and cartoon characters – if you can imagine it, you can crochet it!

Whether you’re an experienced crocheter or have never taken hook to yarn, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amigurumi shows you everything you need to know to hook your own delightful amigurumi. This helpful guide includes:

• A primer on the yarn, hooks, and stitches best for amigurumi, plus fun embellishments you can use to personalize your ami.
• Easy-to-follow tutorials for getting started, increasing and decreasing, working in the round, changing colors, and more.
• Expert advice on adding eyes, hair, jointed limbs, clothes, and other fun accessories to your ami.
• Tips for following an amigurumi pattern, plus four start-to-finish patterns to give you a head-start on designing your own.
• A full-color insert with inspirational photos of the finished ami patterns featured in the book – and more!

I’ve spent the past few days making a fun (and deceptively time-consuming to produce!) little book trailer for your viewing pleasure:

Click through to see a larger version of my book trailer at YouTube 🙂

All the amigurumi you see in the video are made from the patterns in the book. These are exclusive patterns that I created for the book – you won’t find them anywhere else.

All along, my plan for this book was to create the definitive reference guide to amigurumi techniques, not just another pattern book, and I hope that’s what I’ve achieved. I’ve put a lot into this book, and I hope that you’ll get a lot out of it, whatever your skill level or experience with amigurumi. It’s the only book of its kind, and I really hope you’ll enjoy it – and please let me know if you do!

If you haven’t ordered a copy yet, they should be in bookstores any day now, if not already, or you can order online from such fine retailers as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon.ca.

Yay!

* UK folks, looks like you’ll have to import a copy or wait till December to get your hands on a copy 🙁
I expect the delay is while they translate it (back) into British English and into UK crochet terms – just guessing…