I’ve now been running my commissions model for 18 months. Thanks to your pledges, I’ve designed 10 lovely new animal patterns so far:

…and everything’s going swimmingly! Or, it would be, if I hadn’t unexpectedly been offered a crochet book deal I couldn’t refuse, a couple of months ago…

My process, whether for writing a new book or developing a new design, is always thorough and meticulous. Everything I do goes through research, planning, testing, refining and editing until I’m satisfied that it’s exactly the way I want it to be, and the best end product I can create. That’s just how I work – it’s time-intensive, and there’s nothing I can do to change that. And while, in an ideal world, I’d take a year or longer to write my book in leisure while continuing PlanetJune business as usual, the reality is that the book has to be completed before the end of 2013.

I can’t not put my best effort into this book (just as I can’t not put my best effort into anything else I do), so I’ve made the difficult decision to suspend the commissions process until January 2014. If you’re paying for a commissioned design, you want 100% June effort going into that design, not whatever dregs of energy I can muster in rare moments when I’m not concentrating on the book! And dregs are all I could offer for the remainder of this year. I’m not willing to do that, and I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want me to either…

The Plan

• My Commissions Page will remain open for new pledges throughout this time.
• All existing commissioned designs will remain in the waiting list until January. (Nobody has paid for anything they haven’t received, so I’m not breaking any promises – I just hope you’ll be okay with waiting a little longer for your designs to be completed.)
• If you’re unhappy and want to cancel any pledges, just let me know and I’ll do it – no questions asked!
• When I start back to work in the new year, I’ll email all pledgers to check they’re still happy with their pledges before I start sending any invoices.

I’m sorry if this disappoints you (I’m disappointed too), but, unless I figure out a way to clone myself, we’ll all just have to accept that there aren’t enough June hours to go around, and things will take longer than we’d like. Thanks for your understanding…

I am looking forward to picking up the commissions again next year, though – next in line is another African animal (meerkat!) followed by the camel (I’ve already bought real camel yarn for that one), so there’s lots to anticipate for 2014!