PlanetJune Blog: Latest News, Patterns and Tutorials

I thought I’d try writing a different kind of post today: an insight into my design process, and what happens when things don’t work out as planned.

Remember this picture? This is the orang utan I started crocheting at last spring’s Creativ Festival. My goal was to make a life-sized, realistic baby orang. After the show, I finished both arms and then moved onto the head, and that’s where things started to go wrong…

My first attempt looked like a silly smiling cartoon monkey. My second attempt was much more realistic, but hideously ugly. The more I tried to fix them, the less confidence I had that I would ever be able to complete my orang. Maybe it’s because it was so important to me – I love all the animals that inspire my designs, but the orang utan is one of my all-time favourites. When I conceived this project, I wanted to make something really special just for me – not a simple replicable design, but a real one-of-a-kind art piece.

There didn’t seem to be any point in making the body or legs for my orang project when it didn’t seem like there would ever be a head to go with it, so the pieces have sat in a zip-lock bag in my ‘in progress’ drawer for months, untouched. I often thought about the project, but couldn’t see any way forward.

Yesterday, I went back to basics. I sat down with a sketch book and a dozen reference photos of baby orangs, and spent an hour drawing, redrawing, refining. Looking for the ‘essence of orang utan’ that I had failed to capture to date, instead of thinking of it as a crochet problem. I think I have it: my final sketch crystallized what I needed to do, and then it was almost an afterthought to crochet and sculpt the head. (I won’t share any pics yet… I want it to have a big reveal, after all the work that has gone into this!)

At the Creativ Festival this spring (April 24-26, in Mississauga Ontario), I’ll be giving a talk about my work, called Who’s Who in the Crochet Zoo. Now I’m confident that I will be able to bring my orang utan along – nicely circular when you consider where the project was ‘born’, exactly one year earlier.

Thank you all for the book congratulations! I’m sorry I didn’t have any real photos of it to share – the book is still in layout, so there’s nothing finished to show you yet. But soon, I promise!

Now, back to the crochet patterns. To make up (I hope) for my absence, I have two new patterns to release today: the Alpaca, and a fun new set of PocketAmi for Easter. I don’t have a name for the new ‘natural fibre’ range of patterns yet (ideas, anyone?), but I didn’t want to make you wait, so for now you’ll be able to find the Alpaca pattern filed under Misc Patterns in the shop. Or just click through from this post to make your life easier!

A little info about the new designs:

Alpaca

If you’d like to make an alpaca or llama of your own, you don’t have to find 100% alpaca yarn to do so! I designed this pattern to work with any worsted weight yarn, but, like all my patterns, it’s pretty flexible. The larger alpaca above uses Bernat Satin, which is 100% acrylic – it doesn’t get less natural than that.

In fact, the alpaca yarn I bought was so fine (2-ply – I think that’s fingering weight?) that even after doubling the yarn, it was still significantly finer than the Bernat Satin – I’d say a sport-weight equivalent. But, as you can see, the pattern looks just as good in either size. If you substitute a different yarn weight, be sure to choose an appropriate hook size so you can form your stitches easily, but the stuffing doesn’t show through the finished piece. (Just ask if you have any questions about yarn choices.)

PocketAmi Easter

PocketAmi Easter is another seasonal set, comprising a baby duckling, bunny and chick. They provide all the sweetness you could want from an Easter gift, with none of the calories! If you don’t celebrate Easter, these would be a great way to herald the coming spring (I’m sure it’ll be here soon, won’t it?) or would make a really sweet baby mobile for any time of year. And they work up in no time too, which is always a bonus!

Both patterns are now available to purchase from the PlanetJune store (look at the New Products for March box on the homepage for easy access to my latest designs).

You may have noticed that 2009 began with my announcement that I am taking the leap into self-employment, and then… well, not a lot else. Two patterns in two months is hardly impressive, especially when I should have all this extra time available. But I haven’t just been lazing about; now I can (finally) reveal what’s been going on…

Are you ready for my huge, exciting news?

Early prototypes

I have been writing a book! But wait – it’s probably not the book you’d guess I’d write… It’s a papercraft book about paper chains and garlands, and it all came about through my work on Folding Trees. I’ve been working really hard for the past couple of months designing the projects, creating the samples, writing the instructions and drawing the illustrations, and now it’s finally coming together!

Pretty papers

My book should be out in the US through Barnes & Noble in late summer 2009. The process has been a lot of fun, a phenomenal amount of work, and a big eye-opener into the world of print publishing. I’ll share more details as the publication date approaches…

Now I am returning to my crochet designs, and I should have two new patterns for you by the end of the week!

And one more thing: If you sell your crafts and you’re still undecided about signing up for an ArtFire membership, I strongly suggest you give it some more thought. Since I wrote my last ArtFire post, the $7 advance memberships have been going very quickly – half of the remaining memberships have been snapped up in the past 10 days! If you miss out on one, you’d have to pay $20 per month if you want to enjoy the full benefits of selling on ArtFire.

Looking at my March sales to date, my ArtFire sales are at 22% of my Etsy total, which tells me that the monthly fee has already been worth it! I would guess that the last $7 memberships will be gone in about a week, so please do consider grabbing one before it’s too late. And if you do, please list me (planetjune) as your referrer – thank you! Here’s my direct link: Register on ArtFire.com.

Did you know that 2009 is the International Year of Natural Fibres? Natural fibres include plants (cotton, flax, hemp, bamboo, etc) and animals (sheep, goat, alpaca, camel, angora rabbit, etc).

This is perfect timing for me – I’ve been thinking for months of making a series of animals out of yarn made from their own fibres. To kick start the series, I’ve made an alpaca, using the wonderful yarn I picked up from Alpaca Acres last year. I was saving it for something special, but then I realised: this is what I do. What could be more special for me than to design a mini replica of Harvey, the alpaca who donated some of his fleece to make my yarn?

Me with Harvey at Alpaca Acres

And I turned some of his gorgeous yarn into this:

Harvey’s mini-me

See his fluffy topknot and tail?

And before you ask, yes, there will be a pattern, and no, you won’t need to find some obscure type or thickness of yarn to make it. Look out for the Alpaca pattern some time next week, or sign up for my mailing list if you’d like immediate notification when it’s ready!

If this pattern is successful, I’d like to make some more animals in this series, like a cashmere or mohair goat, an angora bunny, and a silkworm.* What do you think?

UPDATE: You can find the Alpaca crochet pattern in my shop!

If you buy or sell handmade goods, you may have already heard of Artfire.com, a new online marketplace. Artfire is similar to Etsy in many ways, but also has some interesting differences, especially in their fee structure. I’ve been investigating for a while, so I thought it might be useful if I summarised some of the things I’ve discovered, in case you’re also wondering if you should try selling your wares on Artfire…
This post is a review based on my own opinions – I’m not affiliated with Artfire in any way other than as a user!

Google Running a few test searches on Google to try to find some of my crochet patterns, I found that my Artfire page comes up much higher in the rankings than my Etsy page. This gives you an immediate advantage over your Etsy-selling competition if buyers are googling for a certain type of item.

No Account Checkout Unlike Etsy, your customers don’t have to have an Artfire account in order to buy, so if you link from your blog to your Artfire, that’s a good way to get sales from non-Etsians who may be unwilling to create an Etsy account.

No Fees! You can sign up for free and list up to 10 items at any one time with absolutely no strings, no listing fees, and no commission fee when you sell an item (vs 20c listing fee and 3.5% commission on Etsy). This would be a great way to get your feet wet with Artfire – you have nothing to lose.

Did I mention it’s free to sell?! So important I think it deserves a second mention: NO listing fees! NO selling fees! That’s an amazing deal.

Monthly Fee Upgrade The free account limits you to selling 10 items at any one time. To sell as many items as you want, there is a flat fee of $20 per month. But for the first 5000 sellers the fee is only $7 per month – and that’s guaranteed never to increase.

Those 5000 places are going pretty fast – I’ve been thinking about it for the past few weeks, and in that time the number of $7 memberships left has gone down from 2600 to 1400… I decided I wanted to get in at the $7 level while I still have the chance. If I don’t like it, I can go back to the free 10-item membership, and I haven’t lost anything. But I’m prepared to pay for a few months at least and give it a chance to succeed.

As I’m currently paying over $30 in Etsy fees each month, knowing that I could sell a thousand patterns and would still only be paying $7/month in Artfire fees makes this deal very tempting! Just listing my 44 items would cost me $8.80 at Etsy, so I’ll already be saving money by the time I’ve finished setting up all my listings.

My Artfire storefront

Artfire is still small and new, but it’s growing fast, and I really think it has the potential to be big. I’ve only had 1 sale so far, but it all went very smoothly. If you are thinking of expanding your sales venues, I suggest you consider Artfire among your options. At least sign up for a free account – you can upgrade to the $7 monthly account later if you don’t feel like committing today (but remember that those memberships are going fast, so don’t leave it too long!)

Please list me (planetjune) as the referrer if you do decide to sign up. Here’s my direct link: Register on ArtFire.com.

I’ll report back in the coming months with how sales in my Artfire shop compare with sales in my Etsy shop and, of course, my main PlanetJune shop. I’m thinking of writing some more posts about things I’ve found out about while running my business, so please let me know if you’d like to hear more on my perspective of running a craft business…

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll already know that I just discovered I live a one-hour drive away from the yarn-lovers paradise (aka the Bernat/Patons yarn factory outlet), and, as if that wasn’t exciting enough, there’s a big sale there this week – eek!

I headed out there this morning, through what should have been a lovely drive through farmland and Mennonite country (spoiled only by the dreary skies and insistent rain). I got there 10 mins before opening time, and there were already 2 cars ahead of me. By the time the doors opened, there were about 7 more cars waiting – I’m glad I’m not the only one who likes a yarn bargain.

It’s more exciting on the inside!

The yarn without ball bands is sold by the ounce… at a crazily low price

Amazing deals on bagged yarn – with an extra buy 3 get 1 free on the bags

I spent over an hour in there – it was just so difficult trying to decide what to buy, when everything was at such great prices. My only slight disappointment was that Bernat Satin was at regular store prices – otherwise I would have spent a lot more. In the end I managed to limit myself to this little lot:

That’s 24 x Bernat Bamboo, 10 x Patons Cha-Cha, 5 x Patons Divine, 3 x Bernat Cool Crochet. And all for under $40 (Canadian) INCLUDING tax. That’s less than $1 per ball, and about a fifth of the regular prices!

Ahh, I just love a bargain – it was definitely worth the trip. I hope I haven’t inspired too much yarn envy… What do you think of my haul?

Sorry, I couldn’t resist that post title!

I am amazed by the response to my Lemmings, particularly on Craftster (7000 views and rising!). I’m glad I’m not the only one with fond memories of these guys! If you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, you can play a port of the original Lemmings game online here or here (but don’t blame me if you don’t get any work done today – it is very addictive).

I’ve been getting questions about how I made all the accessories. I’m afraid I only improvised them, so I can’t give you a real pattern for any of them. But I can give you some hints:

	Umbrella To avoid having colour changes showing through, I made 6 triangles (3 red, 3 white) and then stitched them together into the umbrella shape, with a little hole in the centre for the handle to poke through. The handle is just a thin crocheted tube with a wire inside (the same wire goes right through the lemming to the ground to make the lemming float).
	Backpack I made a crocheted tube, flattened it and stitched across the bottom. The straps are just chains crocheted with 2 strands of yarn held together.
	Blocks To make each block, I crocheted a square then folded it in half and single crocheted around the edges. It was too floppy with only 1 layer of crochet.
	Pickaxe Crocheted around floral wires. The wire from the handle goes into the arms to keep it securely attached.
	Blocker’s hands I made the arms a little differently for the blocker, in two pieces:

• Hand: 5 sc in magic ring, sc in each st around for 2 more rows.
• Arm: ch 6, form into a ring, sc in each st around for 5 rows.
• Flatten hand.
• Stitch hand onto one end of arm tube before stuffing arm.

Oh, and I used Patons Cha-Cha in Reggae for the hair, but I know Fun Fur have a few green shades too.

Happy Lemming making!

Okay, I can’t spin out the suspense any longer – I have to show you what I’ve made… It seems like there are a lot of Mario or PacMan inspired crafts going on at the moment, but I can’t imagine why nobody has thought to make these before: amigurumi Lemmings!

Gamers of the ’90s probably remember the classic Lemmings video game franchise – those hapless green-haired troops who followed each other in a line and would walk straight off a cliff to their doom if you didn’t create a path to safety for them. It was an original and engaging puzzle/strategy game with really cute music. I used to love playing it on my cousins’ Amiga, and later the tiny black-and-white version on my original GameBoy.

The way to play the game was to assign skills to some of the many lemmings in order to help as many as possible to safely navigate their surroundings and make it through each level. There were 9 different skills:

1. Walker: The basic model lemming. Walks and walks until he hits a wall or falls off a cliff
2. Blocker: Stops other lemmings from passing
3. Miner: Digs a tunnel with his trusty pickaxe
4. Floater: Falls from any height without damage thanks to his handy umbrella
5. Builder: Builds a bridge using the boards he carries in his backpack

There were also Digger, Climber, Basher & Bomber lemmings, but I didn’t make those because they didn’t have any interesting props.

Please click through to see the full-size image – it looks so much better that way!

I crocheted all the Lemmings using my free Mop Top Mascots pattern, and I improvised their accessories to make them into the appropriate lemming. I crocheted around floral wire to make the pickaxe and umbrella handle, and I made a little stand for Builder’s bridge out of black polymer clay (a crocheted bridge isn’t stiff enough to support a lemming!). I also made a stand out of floral wire for Floater (you can see the base of it in the group shot), so he really does hang in the air.

Click through to see the full-size image

It was such a fun project. My favourite parts to make were the umbrella and the builder’s backpack – tiny accessories are just so cute!

Retro-game geek June signing off… Please leave me a comment if you like my Lemmings!

ETA: Just to make it clear, if you’d like to make your own lemmings, the basic lemming body uses my Mop Top Mascots pattern, and you can improvise your own accessories for them!

ETA: Bowing to pressure, I’ve added details for how I made the accessories in the next post…

ETA: If you are interested in commissioning any lemmings from me, please see this post! I can no longer take commissions – please see my FAQ for a possible alternative option.