In an unexpectedly speedy turn of events, I’ve just discovered that I’ll be going in for my knee surgery this Wednesday! I’m very happy to be getting my knee sorted out after a year of chronic pain, but it’s going to affect operations at PlanetJune for as long as it takes me to recover from the surgery.

Hopefully it won’t take too long, but please bear with me in the meantime. Here’s how it’ll play out:

Patterns: No change

You can always buy my patterns from the PlanetJune shop at any time, as they are automatically available for download. (I will be temporarily closing my external Etsy and ArtFire shops though.)

Shipped items: Order today, or wait…

I won’t be able to fulfill any orders for physical items until my knee is fully recovered and I’m able to drive to the post office again! So, if you think you may need a stuffing tool, stitch markers, or an amigurumi kit in the near future, please place your order by the end of the day today (Monday), so I can ship them to you tomorrow before my surgery on Wednesday.

If you miss the deadline and would like to be notified when PlanetJune crochet tools are available to ship again, please sign up for the one-off notification email.

Help: Check my resources first

I’ll be offline while I recover, so anything that requires personal attention from me will be unavailable for a time – how much time depends on how long my recovery takes. If you email me for help, I’ll reply when I’m able to, but I suggest you check my online resources first – you may well find the answer to your question:

• If you have crochet questions, please visit my Crochet Tutorials page for help. (And if you’re having trouble with a PlanetJune pattern, but aren’t sure what you’re doing wrong, check my Amigurumi Troubleshooter to find which of my tutorials will solve your problem!)
• If you have any other questions for me, please check the FAQ first to see if I’ve already answered them there.
• If those pages don’t answer your question, feel free to ask for further assistance in the PlanetJune Ravelry group, where your friendly fellow PJers are ready and waiting to help! This is the quickest way to receive knowledgeable help from a real live person.

If you still have questions about PlanetJune patterns or tutorials, or anything else you’d like to say to me, you can still e-mail me, but please be aware that I may not be able to respond for days (or weeks), depending on how my recovery is going and how many email questions have piled up.

Please keep me in your thoughts on Wednesday. My health has to be my first priority for a little while, but I’ll be crossing my fingers for a full and speedy recovery so I can get back to coming up with new designs for PlanetJune!

It’s been about 3 years since I launched my crowd-sourced model for crochet pattern commissions. The first 18 months went amazingly well, and the second 18 months didn’t – not through the fault of my system, but from all the other things that kept me from working on commissions (book-writing, health issues, etc).

I designed all these patterns thanks to my crowd-sourced design commissions!

Now I’ve picked up the reins of the commissions again, and I’m very happy that my next commissioned design (Camel) will be launched this week.

So, today seems like the perfect time to make some more changes to the commissions process, firstly to give me a chance to work through the huge waiting list of commissioned designs, and secondly to make the commissions process sustainable for the future.

Summary of Commission Changes

I’ve written a long post below to explain my thoughts, but, if you don’t have time to wade through it all, here’s a summary of the changes:

• As of today, I’ve raised the commission price to $300.
• All patterns that were fully pledged at the old price will remain fully pledged.
• I’ll revisit this pricing decision once I’ve cleared the backlog of commissioned designs.
• Please continue to pledge for the designs you really want me to make!
• If you’d like to cancel any pledges, just let me know (you can check what you’ve pledged for here).

It may seem like an extreme measure to double the price of my commissioned designs, but I have good reasons. I like to run my business transparently, so I’ll explain my reasoning below…

Sorry for two posts in one day, but customers are asking how PlanetJune will be affected by the new EU VAT law, so I need to address that today…

The new EU place-of-consumption tax law that comes into effect today applies only to telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services. In this case, an ‘e-service’ is defined as something you buy that is entirely digital, where the process is automated and has minimal human involvement.

For example: you buy an ebook from Amazon. You pay, you download your file, and that’s the end of your transaction. Nobody at Amazon did anything manually to deliver the product to you, and Amazon has no further responsibility after you receive your product.

Now, as it says in my Pattern User Licence information (linked from every pattern page in my shop):

By purchasing any PlanetJune patterns, you are not buying a copy of a pattern; you’re buying far more: a perpetual single-user licence for the pattern. Your licence entitles you to [many perks, including]:

• Unlimited customer support from the pattern designer (that’s me: June Gilbank).

That means you’re buying as much of my time as you need to be able to complete the pattern you’ve purchased. This is not a service that can be supplied automatically by a computer! If you need my help, as per my customer support FAQ:

You can also email me directly for further assistance with any PlanetJune pattern. Please send me a photo of your work (if possible) together with a description of what’s going wrong, to help me diagnose what your problem may be.

Photos that accompanied recent help requests (all now happily resolved)

Can you imagine emailing a photo of your crochet work-in-progress to Amazon and asking for assistance?! Knowing you have unlimited access to expert help from me, now or at any point in the future, should you have any difficulties in completing the pattern you’ve purchased, is the difference between an automated ‘e-service’ and the licence you buy from PlanetJune every time you purchase a pattern.

And that’s why EU PlanetJune customers will not be charged ‘e-services’ VAT under the new law, as I don’t provide any products without a human component attached. As any customer who has ever needed my help can testify, the personal service I provide as part of every pattern licence purchase at PlanetJune goes far beyond the scope of an automated pattern delivery with minimal human interaction.

Disclaimer: This is my understanding of the law, but I have no legal background and am unable to answer any questions regarding this topic, so please don’t ask me! I also cannot be held responsible for the decisions any similar businesses may decide to take.

2014 has been a very strange topsy-turvy year, and I’m glad to put it behind me and move forward into 2015. My 2014 goals were to spend less time working, enjoy life, explore nature and get healthy, but life threw me some curveballs that made each of those impossible. Putting this review together always helps me to get some perspective on the year, so I can appreciate what I did accomplish – which was actually quite a lot, despite the difficulties!

Although my crochet pattern output was far less than usual, with only 8 new releases (plus 4 more to come that I couldn’t quite complete in 2014), I’m very happy with how they all turned out, and I came up with some nice innovations for these designs:

PlanetJune 2014 crochet patterns

And I’m very proud of my new 264-page crochet book, Idiot’s Guides: Crochet, which was published in August:

My latest book

I also made quite a few other craft projects – 5 crocheted, 1 punchneedle, 1 sewn:

My 2014 craft projects

Plus, I managed to knit 2 new sweaters for myself (one with handmade polymer clay buttons) which I haven’t had a chance to model for photos yet, so you’ll have to wait to see them!

Personal Report

2014 was a challenge both mentally and physically. My year of unexpected turns:

• I mistakenly thought my book work was 95% complete when I turned in the finished manuscript last Christmas; I didn’t count on the several rounds of editing – initially for content as I expected, but then again and again for length as the page design (a stage absent from my previous books) started to play a part.
• I bought an exercise ball to use instead of a chair at my computer desk, and ended up re-wrecking my knee that was injured in a car accident over a decade ago, causing months of inactivity and ongoing residual pain.
• Disturbing a burglary in my home led to months of mental trauma.
• An amazing week in Borneo finally got me back on track, but was immediately followed by almost 3 months of chronic viral bronchitis.

The net result of all these unexpected things was that I was essentially housebound, unhappy and not feeling at all creative for much of the year. But I did fulfill a lifelong dream of seeing orangutans in their natural habitat!

Business Report

My personal situation actually had a positive side: precise technical work was the one thing that distracted me from my woes and made me feel like I was still moving forward with something. And that’s exactly what happened – I ended up, without even realising it, substituting the goals I couldn’t accomplish with the other goals on my list that I’d intended to defer until after I got healthy and happy, and I ended up completing 4 of my 7 main overarching business goals in 2014!

These goals were all related to my grand plan that I began three years ago. In 2011’s review, I said:

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.

I’ve been working ridiculously hard on that for the past three years, to get the ever-expanding PlanetJune to the point where I can run the business instead of it running me. And, fingers crossed, I may now be at that point!

For the past few months, my business has been able to essentially keep me covered with ‘vacation pay’ and ‘sick pay’ when I needed them, which has been a huge relief. (I have a lot more I want to say about how I reached this point, but I’ll save that for another post.)

What’s next?

I’ve questioned myself and my goals (and sometimes my sanity) a lot throughout these years of non-stop hard work, but now I have a really clear of what I want for PlanetJune and what I don’t want:

• I want to design unique and beautiful things, and to help others so they can make them too.
• I don’t want to compete with anyone else, or to make decisions based on finance or greed.
• I want to follow my own path, to do my best, and to be genuine, honest and caring in everything I do.

That’s an unusual business plan, isn’t it? But I’ve subconsciously been following these principles right from the start, and they’ve led me, almost by accident, from being an animal-loving techy girl who liked to make things into an entrepreneur with a thriving business, so I know this is the right choice for PlanetJune. I’m still that animal-loving techy girl who likes to make things; it’s just an added bonus that other people also want to make the things I come up with!

So, where to go from here? It’s time for me to really try to meet those life goals from last year: to enjoy life and nature and to get healthy. My knee is still troubling me, but I think I can carefully build back up to real exercise again (although I think my running days may be over for good!) and, now my fear has receded, I really want to be brave and get out and explore more.

As for the business, I’m going to leave my goals flexible and see where life takes me.

• I still have a few big projects to work on to further improve the workings of PlanetJune.
• I want to catch up on my commissioned designs, and then review how to improve that system so I’m not constantly in the position of having a huge queue like a millstone around my neck.
• I’d like to continue to offer my crochet knowledge and tips as new tutorials for my wonderful customers.
• I have so many ideas for new pattern designs and I need to allow myself however much time it takes to bring my most innovative concepts to life.

Most of all, I want to feel happy, healthy, and fulfilled. That’s my wish for 2015, and I wish it for you too. I’m excited to see where this year will take me and PlanetJune, and I hope this will be the best year ever – for all of us. Thank you – as always – for your support on my continuing journey, and I wish you a very Happy New Year!

One of the biggest challenges of a one-person business is there’s nobody else who can keep things going when you can’t. Taking a couple of sick days here and there isn’t a problem, but managing chronic health conditions is a challenge I haven’t found a solution for. I’ve battled to keep going through serious eczema breakouts, 8 months of knee pain, and now 2 months of viral bronchitis.

For the past few months, I’ve been working on a huge project: my first amigurumi ebook, featuring a collection of 6 brand new patterns. My goal was to complete the project by the end of October, in plenty of time for people to make the patterns as gifts for Christmas, but I’ve had to keep moving the deadline as the virus persisted and I just couldn’t get myself back up to speed.

And yesterday was the last straw: my garden sanctuary was invaded again by burglars (there’s nothing of value in my garden, so they hopped over to next door and stole their copper water pipes, leaving their garden full of gushing water). I feel violated and it’s brought all those post-burglary fears back. I’m at the absolute end of my energy reserve: I’m still sick, my knee is in constant pain, and now this…

I have no more strength left to draw on to push through this latest obstacle. There’s just no way I can complete my ebook at the moment to a standard I’d be happy with, and it’s become obvious that I’m not going to get over this virus unless I set my work completely aside and focus on me. I need to retreat from everything and get myself properly healthy – this endless struggle is just too much.

So I’ve decided I have to put PlanetJune on minimum operations for the rest of the year. Luckily, I’ve got my business to the point where it almost runs itself – my daily administration is very minimal now I’ve streamlined the shop to make ordering and downloading automatic and easy for everyone, and my FAQs and crochet help pages have the answer to almost every question you may have. If you need further assistance, our community in the PlanetJune Ravelry group is always ready to provide friendly help. And I’ll still be around, if there’s anything you need from me personally – I’m not abandoning you!

In the new year, I’ll return as a (hopefully) much happier and healthier June, ready to dazzle you with my new pattern collection! And, in the meantime, it’s time to let PlanetJune run itself as much as possible, while I rest and read and knit and breathe, and let my body and mind heal. I really need this. Thanks for understanding.

You may have noticed some changes in the PlanetJune shop over the past few weeks – and now it’s time to officially announce the new and improved PlanetJune shopping experience:

PDFs for Everyone

That’s right, there are no more zip files to deal with! I’ve converted the hundreds of items in my shop (and the thousands of past orders) from zip files to plain PDF files. Now you can download your PlanetJune patterns directly as PDF files that are simple to download and open on any device.

Unlimited Access

As you probably know, when you buy a PlanetJune pattern, you’re buying a perpetual, non-transferable, single-user licence for that pattern. That means you’re entitled to free updates and may download the pattern again (for your own use only) whenever you need to.

Now that process is even simpler: just log back into your PlanetJune account and you can automatically re-download any pattern purchases at any time. There’s no need to contact me first to reset the limit; the links to your pattern PDFs are all stored under their original orders in your PlanetJune account and will never expire.

A little seasonal crochet to brighten your day – details at the end of this post 🙂

About the Changes

When I first started my online shop in 2008, zip files were the way to go, as they were smaller and faster to download, and you could include multiple PDFs in a single zip file. Since the advent of faster internet speeds that rendered smaller downloads unnecessary, and new devices (smartphones, tablets and e-readers) that don’t natively read zip files, I was spending more and more of my time providing technical support for those pesky zip files.

I’ve been working for months on finding a way to both update the shop and convert all past orders without breaking anything or losing any past orders. Slowly but surely I pieced together my strategy. Working out all the code and updates required was a huge technical project, but, once all the plans were ready, it only took a few days to implement.

To make sure my server could cope with the demands of larger files being downloaded more frequently, I actually made the switch over a month ago. Now I’m confident there are no glitches in the new system and everything is running smoothly, it’s time to make this official.

My goals with these web improvement projects are to give you, my customers, a better shopping experience, and to reduce my tech support workload. Since making the above changes, my customer support log reveals that technical queries (related to downloading patterns, logging in, signing up, resetting download limits etc) have reduced from about 35% of my total customer support requests to well below 10% – that means it’s working!

These changes make it easier for you to buy and download my patterns, and that should also save me countless hours of customer support over the coming months and years, especially if/as my business continues to grow.

How You Benefit

Here’s what the changes mean for you:

• Downloading PlanetJune patterns is now simple and straightforward from any computer or mobile device.
• If you need another copy of any of your past PlanetJune purchases, your pattern PDFs are always there in your account ready to download again.
• And, if you missed the download window for any of my pattern updates, they’re all ready for you again now – and at any time in the future!
• Note: If any of your PJ patterns are not in your PlanetJune account – for example, if you bought them on Etsy or ArtFire, or won them in a competition – just email me with the details and I’ll add them to your account, so you’ll have access to any updates, and can download another copy if you need one.

I’m so pleased I’ve finally been able to make this happen. I think it’s going to make a big difference to your shopping experience, and I hope you’ll enjoy using the improved PlanetJune shop!

About that Pumpkin…
If you’re wondering about the giant pumpkin in my photo, I made it from my free Pumpkin pattern, but I used 2 strands of worsted weight yarn and a larger hook (I/5.5mm) to super-size it compared with the normal pumpkins (the orange ones in the background).

If you’d like to try making one too – or any other seasonal PlanetJune crochet patterns – please share what you’re making in the Fall Crochet-Along thread in the PlanetJune ravelry group 🙂

I’m taking the month of September as a sort of mini-sabbatical break. (A ‘sabbatical’ is a term used in the academic world for a break from daily work to pursue travel and/or learning, and then return re-energised and reinvigorated.)

In my case, I’ll be stepping away from the internet for the month. Taking a step back from my online life is something I need for both personal and creative reasons after a very demanding year.

My Sabbatical Plans

Travel
During part of the month, we’ll be fulfilling one of my lifelong dreams of visiting wild orangutans in Borneo! I can’t even begin to tell you how exciting this is for me. I’ve never been to Asia before, so it’s a little nerve-wracking too, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I can’t pass up, and I’m sure it’ll be an amazing experience.

For safety reasons, I’m not sure that sharing details of my trip in real-time would be wise. I’m minimising my online presence all month so it won’t be obvious exactly when I’m away, and I’ll fill you in with a Borneo wildlife report (here on my blog) when I’m back online in October.

Study
For the weeks when I’m not travelling, I’ll be working: spending quality time on creative growth and technical skill development. There are several exciting new PlanetJune projects in progress that need quiet undisturbed concentration so I can figure out how best to make them a reality.

We’re only a couple of days into this sabbatical (I actually started early, last Friday), and I’ve already replaced almost all the zip files for new orders in my shop with PDFs – a feature that will please smartphone and tablet users especially! I’ll continue converting the rest of the shop, and all past orders (and I’ll give you more details on this project once it’s completed). You’ll be able to see the other fruits of my labours throughout the rest of the year – more good things are in the pipeline!

Logistics
September is a poor choice for a break, business-wise: it’s the month when crochet sales start to pick up after the summer, and I usually try to capitalise on that with a strong new pattern release, but my new book should be keeping most people busy for a while, so I think PlanetJune will withstand a quiet September. I have a trustworthy reputation and a large back catalogue of quality patterns, so regular new releases are less important than making sure that everything I publish meets the high standards I’ve set for PlanetJune.

What does my Sabbatical mean for you?

• I will not be shipping any orders throughout September. You may still order crochet tools during this time, but I won’t ship them until the first week of October.
• Direct pattern sales through PlanetJune will be unaffected (instant digital downloads as always) but pattern orders through third-party venues (Etsy, ArtFire) may occasionally take longer than my usual 24-48 hours.
• I won’t be blogging, chatting in the PJ Ravelry group, or participating in social media on Twitter or Facebook, so don’t worry over my silence!
• I will be checking for personal messages in all those places every couple of days (even while I’m travelling), and monitoring my email, so I’ll still be able to offer help where required, but it may take longer than usual for you to receive a response, and I’ll try not to reply to anything except essential customer support requests until after my mini-sabbatical ends.

Getting Help
If you need any help, my recommendations are:

1. For general PlanetJune assistance, check the PlanetJune FAQ – always a good starting point.
2. For crochet help, check my master list of Crochet Tutorials.
3. If your question isn’t answered by those, go and ask in the PJ Ravelry group – you’ll find plenty of friendly and knowledgeable assistance there.
4. If you’re still having difficulty, or have a technical problem with ordering/downloading patterns (only I can help with that!), please email me, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can, but please remember I may be in the Bornean jungle and unable to respond quickly!

My Goals

My hopes for this break are:

• To rest, relax and recover while finding new inspiration in the nature of Borneo.
• To develop my technical skills so I can improve the PlanetJune shopping experience.
• To take quality time to make progress on innovative new designs.

That’s a lot to fit into a month, even with minimal online distractions, but I don’t think I can afford to take a 2- or 3-month sabbatical at the moment!

I hope you have a wonderful month. I’ll give your regards to the orangutans, and I’ll see you in October…

I’ve been 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.

I’ve finally done it! With this last batch of 12 patterns, all my crochet patterns, punchneedle patterns and ebook, and craft tutorials have been updated and re-released. That’s 125 re-released patterns over the course of almost 2 years (I re-released the first batch in October 2012) and it’s a huge weight off my mind that you can now be assured that any PlanetJune pattern you purchase meets my high standards for clarity, quality, detail, and ease of understanding.

This final batch of re-releases includes all 11 patterns from the Fuzzy Friends collection, the About Fuzzy Patterns reference guide you receive with each of these patterns, and Ice Cream Bear.

All these crochet patterns are now updated and re-released:

Fuzzy Bear, Fuzzy Bunny & Chick, Fuzzy Lamb, Fuzzy Penguin, Mini Fuzzies: Woodland Creatures, Fuzzy Seal, Fuzzy Ferret, Fuzzy Monkeys, Fuzzy Kitten, Fuzzy Guinea Pig, Fuzzy Rat, Ice Cream Bear.

If you’ve previously purchased any of these patterns, 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 purchases have been re-enabled, so you can click and download the new versions.

If you have lots of past orders in your PlanetJune account, you don’t have to hunt for the right ones; just follow these simple steps:

1. In your PlanetJune account, click Show All Orders.
2. At the top of that page, click to the list of all your past purchases.
3. Find the pattern name in the alphabetical list.
4. Click the order number to go directly to that order.
5. Re-save your pattern 🙂

The Pattern Re-Release Project has been a much larger job than I originally anticipated, especially with these final Fuzzy Friends patterns. I left them until last for a few reasons:

• They were my first ever patterns, so needed the most work to get them up to standard, especially the usual PlanetJune level of detail when it comes to assembly and finishing.
• They used a technique I developed especially for working with novelty/eyelash/fuzzy yarns. I’ve updated any parts worked in standard yarns to use more conventional techniques (magic ring, invisible decrease, worked right side out) and to offer optional instructions for changing direction for any pieces that change from fuzzy to non-fuzzy yarn or vice versa.
• They (mostly) didn’t use safety eyes, so I had to add extra instructions as to where and when to attach safety eyes, if you want to use them instead, before the head is stuffed! In several cases, this involved re-crocheting at least part of the original design so I could add this information correctly.

I’ve also completely revised the About Fuzzy Patterns document that you get with any Fuzzy Friends pattern purchase. The new 4-page reference guide is crammed full of information, tips, and examples for choosing and using both eyelash and fluffy/fuzzy yarns, how to substitute any regular yarn of your choice, and how to brush smooth pieces with a wire brush to give a fluffy result.

To save you from downloading it multiple times, I’ve made it a separate download in every order that includes a fuzzy pattern – so just download that ‘About Fuzzy Patterns.pdf’ file once! And yes, it’s a straight PDF file, not a ZIP file (woohoo!), so if you have any problems in downloading it, please let me know what went wrong, in as much detail as possible, so I can investigate before I transition my shop away from ZIP files to straight PDFs…

Note: I should just add at this point that Ice Cream Bear is not a Fuzzy Friends design – he’s worked normally and doesn’t need the About Fuzzy Patterns file – but his pattern suffered from a few of the above problems (minimal assembly instructions, no instructions for safety eyes) so I saved him for this group so I could find a solution for them all at once.

If you’re tempted by these new and improved Fuzzy Friends patterns, I have a new deal available for you! Starting from today, you can now buy a Custom Set of any 3 Fuzzy Friends patterns of your choice, for a special bargain price.

As with my other Custom Sets (AmiDogs and PJ Accessories), if you want more than 3 patterns, just add the Custom Set to your cart as many times as you need, selecting 3 different patterns each time.

Now the pattern reformat project is complete, I’ll be giving you another chance to download any and all of the updated patterns you purchased but may have missed the window for re-downloading. That won’t be for a while though – it’ll probably be some time in October.

In the meantime, if you need access to any of your expired patterns, the process is the same as always: just shoot me an email including your 5-digit order number (you’ll find the number in your order confirmation email, and in your list of orders in My Account), and I’ll be happy to unlock that order for you 🙂

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 can’t believe this project is finally finished! Now I think I’m definitely overdue for a rest; it’s going to be a while before I can even look at another crochet pattern, let alone have the brain power to design one… Thanks so much for your patience during this long pattern overhaul period. I feel that the new versions are vastly improved and worthy of the PlanetJune stamp of quality – I hope you agree 🙂