PlanetJune Blog: Latest News, Patterns and Tutorials

It could take me a while to finish these, so I thought I’d give you a look at my work in progress.

First up is my granny throw that I’m making for the Granny Squares theme on the Crochet Along blog. It’s going to be a cover for my big black leather office chair in my craft room. The chair is very comfortable, but all that black looks a bit harsh and out of place in my room, so I wanted to soften the look of it with some muted colours. These are my colours and square designs:

The yarn is the new Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice – I wanted to use it because of all its yummy colours. I’ve made another 12 squares since taking this photo. 24 more to go, and then lots and lots of joining…

I just started my second project yesterday. I bought a Tunisian crochet hook a few months ago, but haven’t had a chance to learn how to use it until now. I found this project for a cute scarflette on Ravelry and it seemed like a good small project so I could learn how to do Tunisian crochet. I’m using Bernat Bamboo yarn in Dill:

For the uninitiated, Tunisian crochet involves working the entire row of stitches onto the hook (as in my picture), and then working them all off the hook again on the next row. I like it so far, although it’s taking a lot longer than I anticipated, but that could just be because it’s new to me. I am in love with the bamboo yarn though – it is beautifully soft and silky. I think it’ll make a lovely scarf – my neck is very sensitive to a lot of yarns, but I don’t think it’ll have anything to complain about with the bamboo yarn.

I don’t have much time for my crafting these days, so it could be a while before I finish these. But that’s okay; I like having something I can pick up for a while and then set aside to come back to another day.

This project has been in the works for a long time. I was halfway through it when my old sewing machine gave up on me! I’m happy to report that my new sewing machine tackled it without any difficulties – even when sewing through 8 layers of heavy cotton fabric.

I was given this little bag as a gift, and it’s a useful size, with plenty of pockets. One problem: I really didn’t like that nasty brown fake leather strap.

With no clear plan in mind, I decided to do something about it. I started by cutting off off all the plastic ‘leather’ pieces and deconstructing them:

I chose a blue heavyweight cotton with a large leaf print from my fabric stash, and then I recreated all the missing pieces in this fabric. I reused the metal rings from the original strap, and added some length to the new strap because the old one was too short for my liking. I sewed all the pieces together on the sewing machine, and added the finishing touches by hand.

And the end result:

I debated added an embellishment to the front pocket flap, but I think it’s okay like this – the matching zipper pulls add some continuity between the bag and the handle. At least it’s useable now, and thankfully there’s no pleather in sight 🙂

The AquaAmi pattern range is now available to buy direct from PlanetJune.com. Now you can crochet your own adorable dolphins, sea lions and beluga whales. The beluga whale pattern also comes with a free bonus pattern to make a baby beluga whale!

Each pattern is available individually, or buy the complete AquaAmi Set 1 for a special price.

Visit the pattern store to purchase AquaAmi patterns!

I haven’t quite finished the AquaAmi patterns yet (I need a few more photos for the instructions, so I’ll need some more daylight for that). But in the meantime, to whet your appetite even more while you wait, here’s my baby beluga whale with his mummy:

He’s turned out just as sweet as I’d hoped he would. I’m going to give his pattern away as a freebie with the big beluga whale pattern. Not long to wait now!

UPDATE: Looking for the pattern? You can find the AquaAmi Beluga Whale crochet pattern in my shop.

AquaAmi are in the works…

I staged their photoshoot this morning, complete with painted sea/sky backdrop and fabric rocks/sand. The white background I used before really did no justice at all to my white whale. I had a fun arts & crafts evening painting a bristol board with craft acrylics and making a cardboard mountain in preparation for this photo extravaganza.

I’ll show you the full results of the photoshoot on the AquaAmi Set 1 pattern release day (and if you’d like to know when that is, sign up for the mailing list and you’ll be e-mailed the very minute they are available!) but here’s a sample in the form of a much better photo of my beluga whale:

Now I’m thinking she needs a little grey whale calf by her side!

UPDATE: Looking for the pattern? You can find the AquaAmi Beluga Whale crochet pattern in my shop.

Wow, what a great response to my contest! Thank you so much to all who entered – I didn’t expect to get so many fantastic suggestions. I’ve got lots more ideas now for other animals to add to this series 🙂

Now onto the result of part one of the contest: name the range. It was a difficult decision – there were so many great names! I decided in the end to not mention the sea or ocean or mammals, because this way I have the option to add freshwater animals and non-mammals. The name I decided on in the end is… AquaAmi. Short and sweet. This was suggested by several of you, but the first person to mention it was Talvi.

Part two of the contest: the random drawing. There were 92 entries, so after I removed the 5 duplicates from the drawing (and Talvi’s entry) that left 86 unique entries. The random number generator gave me the winner: Gail E.

As an extra bonus to say thanks again to everyone who entered, I have added some runner-up prizes of a discount off their next order from PlanetJune. The 10 runners-up are: Sheryl, Mandy, Eliea, Randi, Suzi.BC, Crystal, Helen, Katie F., Kiirs and Brooke.

Congratulations to all 12 winners – I will be e-mailing you all today to sort out the details of your prizes.
UPDATE: All winners have been e-mailed!

And here’s a sneak peak of the third AquaAmi: a beluga whale.

All three patterns in AquaAmi Set 1 will be released within the next week. And I don’t want to get too mushy, but thank you to all of you for your support; it means so much to me!

UPDATE: Looking for the pattern? You can find the AquaAmi Beluga Whales crochet pattern in my shop.

A while ago, I bought some glass shelves from IKEA so I can display all my toys in my craft room. We finally got around to putting them up this week:

Please click for the full-size image so you can see them properly!

Don’t they look great all together like this? I just threw them up quickly, so I’m sure I’ll be doing some rearranging (and shuffling them to make more space for the new yet-to-be-born animals 😉 ).

Of course, these aren’t all the animals I’ve made. Some of them have new homes:

• Pink bear lives with Dawn in Surrey UK
• White lamb aka Lilly Woolington lives with Nia in Berkshire UK
• Labrador lives with my Dad in Surrey UK
• Both long-haired guinea pigs live with Jen in Michigan
• My original shiba inu Ginger Jr and boston terrier AmiBob live with Kari in Chicago
• One more mystery animal is currently on a photoshoot adventure (more on this later…)

I’m still working on the rest of the craft room – I’ll show you more photos as I complete each area.

PS – If you haven’t entered my contest yet, it’s running for the rest of the weekend!

Here is the second design for my new pattern range (the dolphin is the first). The sea lion was more challenging to design because I wanted to crochet it in one piece, and build the curve of the neck and chest in. That’s quite a challenge using only single crochet, but I’m really happy with how it turned out. I think she looks very sweet:

Now, it’s contest time!

As you may have read from the dolphin post, this new range is all about water animals (but not fish) and the style is simple and sleek with just one colour per piece, to focus on the streamlined shape of these animals.

I’d like to know what you think, so please leave a comment on this post with one or more of these suggestions:

• The name of this range (I’d like something short and distinctive, like my AmiDogs range)
• Other animals you would like to see in this range

There will be two winners:

• Whoever first comes up with the name I like best for the range
• One other commenter (chosen randomly from all entrants; only one entry per person will be counted)

And the prizes? Each winner will receive a pattern of their choice from the PlanetJune range. Winners may either choose from one of the new range of patterns, or one of my existing Fuzzy Friends or AmiDogs patterns.

The contest will run for a week, so entries will be accepted until 7am EST on Monday January 21st 2007.

Good luck and thanks in advance for your suggestions!

UPDATE: Looking for the pattern? You can find the AquaAmi Sea Lion crochet pattern in my shop.