Today is my first Thanksgiving as a Canadian, and I’m not there to celebrate it… But I am thankful that I’m a Canadian citizen and I’ll always have that, wherever in the world I may be. As it’s not a holiday here, I’ll catch up on some PlanetJune admin instead, and give away some free stuff – yay!

Review and Win contest

September’s ‘Review and Win’ winner is Judy C, with her Kingfisher review:

I LOVE the kingfisher that I made from this pattern and am getting a lot of compliments on it. I followed all instructions for the neatest color changes and now I do have a self-standing, perfect kingfisher of my own! All instructions are clear and easy to follow. I highly recommend this pattern-especially for bird lovers like me!

Congrats Judy! I’ll email you to find out which pattern you’d like as your prize 🙂

To be entered into this month’s draw for a free pattern of your choice, just write a review of any product in my shop.

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PlanetJune Affiliate payments

The end of September also marked my first quarterly payments to my affiliates: you’ll all have received your earnings in your PlanetJune account by now, and thank you for referring new customers to my shop!

If you’d like to join the PlanetJune Affiliate program too, you can earn 5% of the value of any orders that are placed using your unique ID code.

Some of my affiliates have yet to generate any sales through their links, so I thought I’d offer some advice in case you’ve done something wrong and are missing out on your commissions:

• You can link to any page in my shop (not the blog)
• Don’t forget to generate your own unique URL for your links from the Affiliate Marketing Tools page (you can find it under My Account when you’re logged in)
• If you’ve put a banner on your site, remember to use your link to my shop

All your links should look like this (except not split onto 2 lines): planetjune.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&referrer=PJ_1234567890

1. They link to a page in my shop
2. They include your unique referrer code (in this case, PJ_1234567890 – yours will be different!)

And a little tip: a lot of people ignore adverts, so you’ll probably have more luck if you e.g. post about something you’ve made from one of my patterns (with a photo), and link to that pattern using your unique link – that’s what my most successful affiliates have been doing, anyway!

If you have any questions about the Affiliate program (or anything else), please feel free to email me.

Wow, what a contest! I so enjoyed reading all your comments on my interview with Liz and Zontee from YarnCraft, and seeing which yarn colours are your favourites.

I had an overwhelming 170 comments to go through, so I did it the technical way so I wouldn’t be working on it all night:

• downloaded all the comments
• stripped out any duplicates
• stripped out any entries that arrived after the end of the contest
• used random.org to choose the winner from the remaining 164 entries

And the winner is:

#15, Chrisie Merriman! Congratulations, Chrisie! I’ll email your Fruit Bat pattern to you, and pass on your details to Zontee at Lion Brand, and she’ll hook you up with your Vanna’s Choice yarn (in your choices of Espresso, Toffee and Scarlet).

No losers at PlanetJune…
Now, I know this means I’ve left 163 people disappointed, and that makes me feel bad, so I’m going to send you all a little something to make you feel better. Check your email 😉

…June the month, that is! I suppose all my posts are ‘June updates’, in a sense 🙂

I’m finding it hard to get my head around the fact that it’s autumn/winter here – switching hemispheres is quite disorienting! And the fact that flowers are still blooming, birds are mating, and most trees are still green makes it even more difficult to believe it’s not really spring. But – finally – I found a view that does make it look (slightly) like autumn:

Beautiful, isn’t it? This tree is on the Observatory grounds.

The May ‘Review and Win’ contest winner is Mary Z, with her review of my Gossamer Lace Wrap:

The Gossamer Lace wrap pattern is very clearly written with nice charts. I recently used the pattern to make a scarf, and had no trouble adjusting the pattern to a shorter starting chain. The scarf has gotten many compliments! Thanks PlanetJune!

Glad to hear that, Mary, and congratulations – I’ll email you to find out which pattern you’d like as your prize!

It’s always nice for me to see people enjoying my PlanetJune Accessories patterns, as they aren’t as well-known as my amigurumi designs. I’ll be designing some more accessories this year (I actually have a beautiful lacy scarf in the works already – it’s cold in this apartment and I needed it to keep warm!), so do let me know if you have any suggestions for future designs you’d like to see in my pattern line.

I feel a strange symmetry here: last time a review of the gossamer lace wrap won the contest was back in March, at which time I was suffering from bronchitis while getting ready to move. It feels like I’ve barely stopped wheezing from that (it lasted well over two months) but now I’ve been struck down with another outburst, just when we’re on the verge of moving out of our temporary accommodation and into our new house!

I’m sure all the stresses of trying to get set up and used to life in a very different country has played its part – I just hope I can get over the exhausting cough more quickly this time around. I have half a dozen designs in various stages of completion, but between getting sick and now having to move again (although thankfully only a few kms this time!), I’m not sure exactly when I’ll be able to complete any of them.

But it’s exciting times ahead: we just got the keys to our house, our possessions should be arriving any day now, and then once we get moved in I can set up my new craft room/photography studio/office and get back to work properly! Now there’s incentive to get back to full health in a hurry 🙂

Ah, February, where did you go?! I know I haven’t posted much lately; my time has mostly been taken up with the process of selling our house (which we managed in a very stressful 3-week whirlwind of constant cleaning and tidying, and being kicked out of the house on short notice for hours at a time while it was being shown) and trying to get all the paperwork sorted for ourselves and Maui to move abroad.

With all that on my plate, it’s no wonder that I succumbed to the flu last week! I’m over that now, but now suffering with bronchitis instead, and there’s still an incredible amount of tasks we have to accomplish before we pack our bags and set off on our adventure at the end of this month. So, if posts remain light for a while, please bear with me!

I have all sorts of stuff planned for once this move is over with and I have more time to devote to the blog again: new patterns, new crochet videos, and some other surprises. In the meantime, I do have a very cute (if I do say so myself!) new design that I hope to launch in the next week or so, so look out for that 🙂

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Now, with it being March 1st, it’s time for me to draw February’s ‘Review and Win’ contest winner… For February and March, I’m trying to encourage people to review products/patterns that don’t yet have a review in my shop. Each of these ‘first’ reviews get a bonus entry into the drawing. I’ve taken all those bonus entries into account with my drawing, and this month’s lucky winner is Anne R, with her review of my Gossamer Lace Wrap:

I started with the cowl and now am almost done with the wrap just a few rows till I start the finishing rows. I used merino wool in a lace weight. The pattern instructions are easy and complete. Thanks for making it so easy to add an extra repeat I am not a little woman. I like it so much I am waiting on the arrival of some cashmere yarn to make another. Don’t be afraid of this pattern, June has made it so simple to feel like such an artisan and accomplished crafts person. I can highly recommend this pattern.

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

There are still lots of patterns that don’t have a review in my shop (to get you started, almost all sizes of Clear Eyes, several individual Dinosaur patterns, and almost all the AmiDogs breeds AND sets are currently review-less…), so why don’t you write a review of one of them this month, and get your bonus entry into the March ‘Review and Win’ draw?

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And one last bit of exciting news: the 3rd Annual Crochet Awards (Flamies) nominations have just been announced, and I just discovered that I’ve been nominated in two categories: this blog has been nominated for ‘Best Crochet Blog’ and my book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amigurumi, has been nominated for ‘Best Instructional/Technical Crochet Book’ – that one makes my heart sing! Voting starts on March 15th (I’ll remind you!) but I’m really happy just to have been nominated 😀

Drumroll, please…. Today I have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a PlanetJune fan or a ferret fan to own a PlanetJune original! It’s very rare that I sell finished pieces – I occasionally accept a commission for a crocheted animal, but I spend almost all my time designing and writing, and prefer to save my hands for crocheting up new designs. But when I came to pack up my toy shelves:

…there was one little baby who stayed behind…

…One little ferret who decided he’d like to be adopted into a new loving home instead of moving to South Africa with me.

This sweet and realistic ferret is a totally one-of-a-kind PlanetJune original. His markings are different to those in my ferret pattern, so you can’t make one like this, even with my pattern!

• He measures 14″ (36cm) long, from the tip of his cute little pink nose to the end of his furry ferret tail.
• He’s crocheted from mohair blend yarns, which makes him fuzzy and fluffy and soft and cuddly.
• Black safety eyes complete his realistic look, so he’s not suitable for children under 3 years old.
• Complete with a signed certificate of authenticity that he was handmade with love by me, June Gilbank!

Would you like to adopt this little sweetie? He’s all ready to go to his new home, and I’ve put him up for auction on eBay with a ridiculously low starting price – far lower than my commissioned rates – so you may end up with a real bargain as well as a one-of-a-kind original!

All proceeds will go to a very good cause: buying a stash of yarn that I can take to South Africa with me so I can continue to create new amigurumi patterns for you in the yarns that you’re familiar with (there’ll be no soft worsted weight acrylics over there: no Bernat, Lion Brand, Red Heart, Patons, Caron… how will I survive?!)

I hope you like my sweet ferret. If you don’t want to place a bid yourself, please pass the link (PlanetJune Ferret auction link) on to anyone else who may be interested in this opportunity.

Or, bid on my ferret right here: PlanetJune Ferret auction 🙂

Thank you!

Happy Groundhog Day! Apart from being my favourite made-up holiday, it’s also time for me to draw January’s ‘Review and Win’ contest winner… This month’s lucky winner is Rita G, with her review of my Detail Stuffing Tool:

I used this stuffing tool and the result was great!! I have crocheted a lot of stuffed animals with the result I used the end of a crochet hook, bamboo stuffing tool, or other means to get stuffing into small places. The results weren’t always good. With this little stuffing tool I had great results finding the stuffing went where I wanted it to go so my animal took shape turning out really cute! I look forward to using this tool again and again! I highly recommend this tool!!

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

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And now back to the important news of today: none of the famous groundhogs (Punxsutawney Phil, Wiarton Willie, and Shubenacadie Sam) saw their shadows this morning, so that means they all predicted an early spring – let’s hope they were right!

I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since the Groundhog-Along! My crocheted groundhog is hibernating in a box in the basement (together with all my other amigurumi) while we try to sell our house, so he’s passing on prognosticating today. I wonder what all the other amigurumi ‘hogs will predict today..? 🙂

Happy Groundhog Day, everyone! BING!

Reviews

Just realised I forgot the ‘Review and Win’ draw at the end of June – oops! The June winner is Vicki S – congratulations, Vicki! I’ll email you to find out which pattern you’d like as your prize 🙂

I’m really happy to have almost 100 reviews in my shop now – thank you so much to everyone who’s taken the time to review one of my patterns or products over the past 3 months. But there are still lots of patterns that have yet to receive a single review, so please keep reviewing! (It’s an easy way for you to help my business even if you don’t have any spare cash to buy more patterns right now, and you might win the next monthly draw!)

To write a review:

1. Go to www.planetjune.com/shop
2. Browse to the item you want to review
3. Click the Reviews tab
4. Click the write a review button

…You may be July’s free pattern winner!

Vacation

And now a little shop admin: as you may have gathered from my previous post, my fancy-schmancy shoes and I are heading to the UK for my sister’s wedding next weekend. This means that any orders for eyes, noses, stitch markers and stuffing tools received after today (July 11th) will be shipped when I return on July 21st. (That’s the downside of having a one-person business! Sorry for any inconvenience.)

Pattern orders are unaffected: all patterns will still be available for immediate download, as always. I’ll also be checking email while I’m away, so feel free to contact me with any questions.

I have two winners to announce today…

First up, the winner of a copy of Crochet for Bears to Wear.

There were 80 entries, and the randomly chosen winner was… #1! (Huh, how often does that happen?! I guess 1 in 80 times in this case; although it seems strange, it’s as likely as any other number to come up.) So, Susan G of Finagling Life, I’ll be emailing you for your address, and then I’ll mail your book out to you. Congratulations!

And now onto my second winner off the day! It’s time for the first monthly drawing for a free pattern (winner’s choice) from everyone who reviewed one of the patterns or products in my shop.

Since I launched the review capability in my shop, there have been 44 reviews, and the randomly selected winner for April is review #24, written by Katie U. Congrats Katie, I’ll be emailing you to ask which pattern you’d like as your prize!