After my review of diamond painting, I decided to jump in and buy some kits! I ordered my favourite Diamond Dotz kit – the Graceful Swimmer sea turtle – and I also picked up a cheap but pretty kit from amazon of a purple-tinted landscape so I could compare the quality of the two.

Quality

I’d expect the quality of an expensive kit to be higher than a cheap kit, but what are the actual differences, and do they affect the appearance of the end product and/or how enjoyable the kit is to make? Let’s take a look…

Price: I paid $49 (Canadian dollars) + tax for my Diamond Dotz kit, and only $8 + tax for my amazon cheapy! Although the branded kit is much larger than my cheap one, the smaller Diamond Dotz kits don’t cost much less ($40ish) so there’s still a massive difference in price between them and the unbranded kits.

Packaging: The Diamond Dotz canvas was rolled neatly in a protective box, so it had no creases. The cheap canvas was folded flat around the diamond packets, so the canvas was very creased and it wouldn’t lie flat when I first opened it (although it did flatten out when the diamonds were added).

Canvas: The canvas backing is definitely nicer on the expensive kit, but I’m not sure that matters at all – you won’t see the fabric once the piece is finished and it’s been framed or mounted.

The cheap kit (left) has a rougher canvas backing that’s not finished as nicely as the more expensive kit (right).

Tools: Although the tools provided with both kits are similar, the Diamond Dotz tool has a comfort foam grip, the tray has a spout to pour unused diamonds neatly back into their bag without spillage, and the pink wax comes in a little plastic jar.

I prefer the Diamond Dotz toolkit (left) because of the foam grip on the tool and the spout on the tray.

Diamonds: My Diamond Dotz kit has square diamonds, and the unbranded kit has round ones (more on that later…). Both kits included far more diamonds than needed to complete the picture. This is intentional, as some of the plastic diamonds will always be flawed, so you can just discard any that would detract from your finished picture without worrying that you’ll run out.

Misshapes, holes, extra material, blobs – you can expect to find a few of these in every kit

Interestingly, I actually found far more flawed diamonds in the expensive kit than in the cheap kit! In both cases, though, there were so many spares that I had dozens of every colour left at the end, despite being very picky and discarding any with the slightest imperfection, so the flaws weren’t a problem in either case.

Adhesion: With my cheap kit, a small section of the adhesive surface stuck to the plastic cover sheet along one of the creases where the canvas had been folded to ship. When I pulled back the cover sheet, the adhesive came away with it, so there was no glue to stick the diamonds to in that area. Apart from that one area, the adhesive surface worked well.

Oh no! The diamonds just won’t stick in this patch where the letters are visible!

Even though my expensive kit was many times larger, I had no problems at all with adhesion – every diamond stuck down perfectly.

Diamond Shape

While the diamond shape happens to be a difference between my kits, it’s just something to be aware of. Neither round nor square diamonds is necessarily a better or higher quality choice.

• Square diamonds fill the entire picture without any spaces, so they give an extra-shiny and neat finish. It’s satisfying to line them all up perfectly and the result is stunning, but it is a bit slow and fiddly to place each one exactly straight.
  
• Round diamonds are very fast to place, as you don’t need to orient them. A little of the backing canvas shows through between the circles, but it’s so much faster and easier to do, it makes for a joyful project!
  

I’d definitely recommend choosing a kit with round diamonds if:

• you’re buying a kit for a child to use
• you have less dexterity in your hands or any vision problems
• you want a very relaxing project

But if you like a little more of a challenge, the square diamonds give a brilliant result.

I did have one small issue with the round diamonds on my cheap kit: some of the letter symbols were so large that there was no way to cover the entire symbol with the diamond. You can only see it if you look closely:

Can you see the tiny dots of black below the diamonds in the middle of this photo?

It’s very minor, but it frustrates me, as this would have been easy to avoid (don’t use the largest letters M and W as symbols, or use a slightly smaller font when printing the design). Although this wouldn’t happen with square diamonds as there are no spaces between the diamonds for the backing to show through, this is a flaw in this specific kit design, not a problem with using round diamonds in general, so don’t let this put you off round diamonds!

Misleading Imagery

Here’s where things could go wrong if you buy a cheap kit – I recommend you check that the images you see online include a shot of the finished diamond painting or the chart you’ll receive, not just the original artwork the design is based on.

Branded kits like my Diamond Dotz turtle show a picture of the finished product on the box, so you know exactly what you can expect from the kit you’ll be making.

My finished project is lovely! And it looks exactly as I expected it would from the box art.

The cheap Chinese kits you can find on Amazon (for example) often only show the original artwork the kit was based on in their listing photos, and the image you’ll be forming will look very blocky and pixelated in comparison. There’s nothing wrong with buying one of these kits, provided you realise what you’re getting. For example, here’s an amazon listing photo (left) and what they left out of the listing: a photo of the completed kit (right):

I won’t leave you a link to this kit, as I’m not trying to call out this one in particular; this is just one of many misleading examples. You can see how, if you’re buying a kit based on the photo on the left, you may be surprised or disappointed if your artwork ends up looking like the image on the right – they are definitely not the same…

The listings also usually show a digital mockups of ‘the finished kit on a wall’ – not only is the image completely different from the kit you’re buying, but the size is misleading too! For example, here’s a ‘photo’ of my cheap kit:

Let’s compare that with my completed kit:

It’s less than 10″ (25cm) square, but the listing image above makes it look twice that size, far more detailed than it is, and pure purple instead of mostly pink!

In general, more abstract and less detailed source images work better for any pixel art, like cross stitch, perler beads, etc. The detail is limited to the size of your pixels (diamonds in this case) – you can’t create a fine line when your ‘paintbrush’ is the width of a diamond! A larger canvas allows for more pixels and therefore more detail.

I’d never consider buying a kit without seeing at least a digitally-rendered example of how the finished product is actually supposed to look. So I recommend, if you’re buying a cheap kit from amazon or similar, you check the reviews for those that include images and see if someone has posted a photo of their finished project. That way, you’ll know in advance whether you’ll like the result, and you won’t be disappointed.

Verdict

I’m happy with both my kits, for different reasons. The square diamonds with the large canvas took a long time and made a beautiful picture, and the round diamonds with the small canvas made for a satisfyingly quick, relaxing project.

With the branded kit, I knew exactly what I was getting and what the finished product would look like, and I imagine the image was carefully selected and customized by hand to be ideal for a diamond painting.

With the cheap kit, I suspect an automated process generated the chart from a pretty picture with little manual input, but if you choose your kit carefully, you can still end up with a lovely result at a fraction of the cost of a branded kit. (I actually prefer the pinky shades in my kit to the purple digital mockup, so I’m not at all disappointed.)

I do have one other recommendation if you’re using budget-friendly kits: I really loved the foam grip and the tray with a spout in my Diamond Dotz kit, so I’d recommend you upgrade your tools! For example, you can buy a Diamond Dotz Accessory Kit (amazon link) including 2 tools, 2 foam grips, 2 trays with spouts and 2 spare wax blocks for only a few dollars. I always recommend investing in good tools, and here’s no exception. You can reuse the same tool and tray while you make as many cheap kits as you want!

It definitely wasn’t cheap, but I think my beautiful sea turtle kit was worth the cost – the square gems are so even and sparkly, and I love the picture!

Next up in my diamond painting adventure…

• Figuring out how to frame my sea turtle art so I can enjoy it! I’ve bought some wood and I’m going to attempt to mount it like a stretched canvas (although I’m not sure exactly how yet). More on that in my next diamond painting update!
• I also need to fix that annoying bare spot in my pink landscape diamond painting. I’ve done some research and it sounds like the solution to this is to buy ‘repositionable tacky glue’ to re-tack the surface – I’ll report back on how that worked out next time, too…

Team PlanetJune had such a blast with the Ravellenic Games last summer, we decided that our Christmas crochet-along this year will be a Team PlanetJune special event!

The first annual PlanetJune Reindeer Games begins on Monday November 1st, and I hope you’ll join us 🙂

Crochet anything PlanetJune as part of the PlanetJune Reindeer Games 2021 (Monday, Nov 1 – Friday, Dec 31). This is a Team PlanetJune event, hosted in the PlanetJune Ravelry group, with a similar concept to the Ravellenic Games: the idea is to challenge yourself by starting and finishing crochet project(s) before the end of the year.

It’s just for fun, like a CAL but you get to choose your projects – anything PlanetJune, including projects from my books – and earn virtual awards! During the Games, we all cheer each other on to complete our chosen projects. Our team captains will award you with your Reindeer Village medals and Antlers as you complete your project(s).

Santa and all 9 reindeer have set up their stalls in the Reindeer Games Village – have a virtual wander around and choose which you’ll visit first:

• Santa’s Toy Shop – toys
• Rudolph’s Gingerbread House – home/décor
• Dasher’s Scarf Stand – scarves
• Dancer’s Winter Wear – hats and mitts
• Prancer’s WIPs Wrapping – any project started before the Games
• Vixen’s Shawl Stall – shawls and wraps
• Comet’s Closet – sweaters and other garments
• Cupid’s Cowl Corner – cowls and neckwarmers
• Donner’s Blanket Bazaar – blankets and afghans
• Blitzen’s Bag Bonanza – bags and purses

You’ll receive the medal for the stall you ‘visited’ once you’ve finish your project! And you can also receive bonus Antler awards for your projects:

• Santa’s Helper – showing team spirit
• Angel – charity project
• Carolling – crochet in public
• Cookie Decorator – colourwork
• Deck the Halls – embellishments
• Heirloom – using a PJ pattern you’ve owned for more than 3 months
• Ice Sculptor – techniques: cables, lace or Tunisian
• Snowman – modifying the base pattern
• Master Wrapper – complete 3 WIP projects
• Super Elf – complete any 3 projects
• Bah! Humbug! – complete a project on Christmas Eve
• Fireworks – complete a project on New Year’s Eve
• Have a Cookie – a special antler for those of us who try our best but don’t quite get to the finish line

Whether you’re crocheting your favourite PlanetJune patterns as Christmas gifts, items to sell at craft fairs or online, toys for charity, or projects for yourself, we’re ready to encourage you to complete your goals and to celebrate your successes with you!

And, even if you think you may not have time to complete a project, you’re very welcome to join the team for the community spirit and friendly chat. There’s something about PlanetJune that attracts the kindest and most supportive people, and, if you enjoy PlanetJune patterns, you’re already part of our community – do come over and say hello!

Team PlanetJune in the Rav Games 2021

To give you an idea of what to expect, in the Ravellenic Games last summer, Team PlanetJune completed 54 projects, and enjoyed 56 pages of chat! Here’s a roundup of all the wonderful PlanetJune projects that we completed in just 2 weeks:

Isn’t it lovely to see the variety of projects and be inspired by what other people are making? I expect the project mix will look somewhat different for the Reindeer Games, with more Christmas decorations and warm accessories – but who knows! You’ll have to join in to find out…

Join us for the Reindeer Games!

While the Ravellenic Games is a fast-paced sprint, the Reindeer Games is more of a gentle stroll together towards the holidays. The rules are relaxed, the timeline is extended, and having fun and supporting each other is the main goal.

If that sounds good to you, please hop over to the PlanetJune group on Ravelry, and leave a message saying “I’m in!” in the Reindeer Games thread. We look forward to welcoming you into our virtual Reindeer Games Village. 🙂

I’ve revamped my incredibly popular Turtle Beach blanket design into two new patterns, showcasing two different designs and two different colour schemes that you can mix and match: cool and calm true blues or tropical teals, in the classic colourblock design or my new ombré version.

Left: Classic Blue Turtle Beach blanket; Right: Teal Ombré Turtle Beach blanket

The more I look at them, the more undecided I am about which Turtle Beach blanket I like best – how about you?

Here’s the Classic Blue Version:

And the Teal Ombré Version:

Just look at that rippling wave effect!

The good news is you don’t have to choose; you can make either colour scheme in either style, or one of each! And, as well as selling the patterns separately, I’ve bundled them into a Turtle Beach Blanket multipack, including both the Classic Blue and Teal Ombré blanket patterns.

About the Patterns

I’ve packed these patterns full of information – each one includes complete row by row crochet instructions for the 8 most common classic afghan sizes, ranging from a small baby blanket through to a king size afghan. For each afghan size, the yardage for each colour is also provided, so you’ll be able to order all your yarn at once and know you have enough.

Blanket/Afghan sizes included:

• Baby (approx 24×32″, 60x80cm)
• Lapghan/crib (approx 36×48″, 90x120cm)
• Toddler (approx 40×48″, 100x120cm)
• Throw (approx 48×60″, 120x150cm)
• Twin (approx 60×85″, 150x215cm)
• Full/double (approx 74×85″, 190x215cm)
• Queen (approx 80×90″, 200x230cm)
• King (approx 96×90″, 245x230cm)

Choosing Yarns

For this pattern I’ve used light worsted weight yarns (medium #4 weight), specifically Red Heart Soft and Bernat Satin. You don’t need to use exactly the same yarn as me – the most important factors are to find colours that you like and that work well together, and that are readily available to you!

As worsted weight yarns can vary considerably in thickness and sheen, I also recommend that you try to choose yarns that are similar to each other if you can’t find all the shades you need within one brand and line of yarn. See my worsted weight yarn comparison for examples and my recommendations for which yarns can be mixed and matched.

The Turtle Beach Collection

With the release of these patterns, I’ve also taken the opportunity to revamp all my other related patterns into a full Turtle Beach Crochet Pattern Collection. You can mix and match patterns within the collection to make your own custom blanket:

• Mix and match colour schemes and stripe patterns with the Classic Blue and Teal Ombré blankets.
• Add custom details (an edging and puffy 3D seafoam effect) with the Ribbed Ripple/Turtle Beach donationware blanket pattern.
• Add any combination of the original 3D stuffed baby sea turtles, the new flat appliqué turtles, and puffy or flat starfish.

Left: Classic Blue blanket; stuffed 3D turtles
Right: Teal Ombre blanket; flat appliqué turtles

Clockwise from top left: 3D seafoam, puffy starfish, flat starfish, squared-off edging

Turtle Beach Collection Deals!

You can explore the details of all the patterns in the Turtle Beach Collection here, but here’s a rundown of just the new deals:

• I’ve bundled both new blanket patterns into a Turtle Beach Blanket multipack, including both the Classic Blue and Teal Ombre blanket patterns.
  
• Baby Sea Turtle Collection now includes a full bonus pattern for a Swimming Turtle to stitch to your blanket. (If you’ve already bought this pattern, you can download it again from your PlanetJune account and you’ll automatically get the latest version.)
  
• You can also now buy a multipack of all 8 baby sea turtle patterns (turtle, hatching turtle, swimming turtle, turtle egg, with all four options in both 3D and flat versions).
  
• And, if you already donated more than the average amount of $3.50 for the original Ribbed Ripple/Turtle Beach blanket pattern, and you’d like to buy the new blanket pattern(s), I can issue you with a credit for the additional amount you paid (over $3.50), to put towards the new Classic Blue version. ETA: For the rest of October 2021 only, even if you donated under $3.50, I’ll still send you a discount code!To get your discount, just email me with the following details:
  1. The order number for your original donation (you can find this in your PlanetJune account or your confirmation email)
  2. Which option you’d like to apply your credit to:
     • Turtle Beach Blanket (Classic Blue Version)
     • Turtle Beach Blanket multipack (includes both the Classic Blue and Teal Ombre blanket patterns)

  I’ll send you a discount code, or, if you’ve already ordered the new patterns, let me know and I’ll send you a gift certificate for you to use later!

Phew! That was a lot of info to get through! I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing all the options in this post, and that you’ll have fun choosing your favourite options from the Turtle Beach Collection. Once you’ve selected your blanket size, colourway and stripe pattern, flat and/or stuffed turtles, and any of the other optional extras, you’ll be able to mix-and-match to make a gorgeous one-of-a-kind blanket.

I’d love to see your finished blankets (or anything else you’ve made from my patterns) – please do share photos with me! I’m @PlanetJune everywhere (on ravelry and social media) or you can email me – I always love to hear from you 🙂

I published my original worsted weight yarn comparison almost a decade ago, as a way to show that, even though two yarns are both labelled as 100% acrylic and worsted weight, they may be too different (in terms of thickness, softness and/or shininess) to mix within the same project and get a good result.

Since then I’ve had many requests for an update including more common and modern yarns, so we could all use it as a lookup table to find suitable matches. With more local craft stores closing and the trend towards online shopping, it’s becoming more difficult to just go into a shop and compare yarns directly, so I decided to go for it and create a useful resource for all of us!

I asked my Ravelry group members to send me samples of worsted weight acrylics from their stashes, and they really came through for me – I had dozens of different yarns to compare! A huge thanks goes to ravelers SilentSilence, MagicalAmigurumi, JEMCCreations, somelady42 and abjCrochet for their help with this project. 🙂

I sorted and labelled all the samples, then I realised I had a daunting task ahead of me: trying to figure out how to categorize and catalogue these samples in a way that would a) be useful and b) let me add to the results in future…

Can We Just Calculate the Thickness?

With my wide range of samples, I was hoping to discover a trend that we could use to determine yarn similarities in future without having to compare specific yarns side by side. I hoped to come up with some numbers so you could just look up the details of a yarn online and then do the calculation to figure out for yourself whether it should be a lighter or heavier worsted weight yarn.

Using the weight and yardage info from the ball band of each yarn, I calculated the weight per metre of each of my yarn samples in the hope that this would give an indication of the thickness of the yarn. While this may work for broader differences between yarn weights (e.g. a fingering weight yarn would definitely weigh less per metre than a bulky weight yarn!), within the worsted weight category I found absolutely no correlation between the nominal length per gram according to the ball band and the actual thickness of the yarns.

So no, we definitely can’t use the information on the ball band as a way to compare different worsted weight acrylic yarns.

My Testing Methods

I had an idea that winding bobbins with the yarns may be a good way to compare yarns without crocheting a sample with each, so I tested my theory by carefully winding bobbins with leftover yarn from the exact same balls I crocheted my original samples from, way back in 2012! (Luckily I never throw anything away…)

And here are the results! First, the original samples:

And secondly, the bobbins:

Each of my bobbins is wound in exactly the same way, with the same number of wraps. I’ve arranged my yarn bobbins in the same colour order as the size order from my crocheted samples, and you can see that there are clear height differences in the yarn wound onto the bobbins that correspond to the size difference I found in the crocheted samples. So this seems like a good indicator of yarn weight.

But that’s not the only factor; the best chance of getting a good match between yarns seems to be by visual and tactile comparison, so I’ve looked at, touched and compared samples of each yarn side by side to assess their thickness, sheen and texture.

Categories

As with my original comparison, I’ve split the yarns by two measures:

Weight: I’ve named my categories the same as before:

• light worsted weight
• worsted weight
• heavy worsted weight

Appearance and Texture: In my original comparison, I called these sheen, slight sheen and no sheen. I’ve clarified the category headings now:

• soft and shiny
• slightly soft/shiny
• sturdy and matte

Here’s an example from each of the categories (I’ve chosen samples that vary in both weight and appearance/texture):

Left: light worsted weight; soft and shiny
Middle: worsted weight; slightly soft/shiny
Right: heavy worsted weight; sturdy and matte

Hopefully you can see the differences! Between the left and right samples there’s a huge difference in both thickness and appearance, and the middle sample lies somewhere between the two in both measures.

So, I’ve ended up with 9 different categories: for each of the three weights, there are three appearance/texture options.

Results

With over 40 samples wound, labelled and categorized, I’m finally ready to share the results with you!

I’ve published the results in a table here: Worsted Weight Yarn Comparison. The blog isn’t the best format to display them in, so, I’ve also compiled them into a 3×3 table in a downloadable PDF file, with weight across the top and appearance/texture down the side. This is a free download that you can grab from my shop for no charge 🙂

I’ll keep both versions updated as and when I receive new yarns to include. (And, if you have a worsted weight acrylic yarn you’d like me to add to the list, please scroll to the ‘What’s Missing’ section at the bottom of the Worsted Weight Yarn Comparison webpage for details of how you can send me a sample!)

I hope you find this resource useful! And don’t forget to download the PDF version from my shop now – no charge, no catch – it’s my gift to you 🙂

Since I released my Baby Sea Turtle Appliqué pattern, I’ve had multiple requests from people making a Turtle Beach blanket and wanting matching flat turtle eggs, hatching turtles and swimming turtle hatchlings to complete the scene.

Some of my best ideas come directly from my customers, and this was one of them: of course I should design the full set, to match my original turtle blanket, but with flat applique turtles! So, here are the Baby Sea Turtle Hatchlings:

Baby Sea Turtle Hatchlings is an Expansion Pack for the Baby Sea Turtle Appliqué crochet pattern, that includes all the modifications required to crochet flat appliqué versions of a hatching turtle emerging from its egg and a half-submerged swimming turtle, plus the pattern for a turtle egg appliqué.

What is an Expansion Pack?

• An Expansion Pack is an add-on to an existing PlanetJune pattern.
• The Expansion Pack lets you modify or add to the original pattern to create something else.
• You cannot use the Expansion Pack alone – you must also purchase the original pattern in order to be able to complete the pictured items in the Expansion Pack pattern.

An Appliqued Turtle Blanket

Here’s an example of how the appliqué turtles look on a Turtle Beach blanket:

Isn’t that lovely?! The PlanetJune patterns I used to make this are:

• Ribbed Ripple/Turtle Beach blanket (baby blanket size pictured)
• Baby Sea Turtle Appliqué
• Baby Sea Turtle Hatchlings Expansion Pack

Top Tip: If this picture is tempting you to make a Turtle Beach blanket for the first time, I’d recommend you get started on your turtles now, but hold off on donating for the blanket pattern just yet – I’ll have a new option coming in the next couple of weeks that you may prefer…

I’m so happy with how these appliqué versions of my baby sea turtles work on a blanket – for me, they seem much more practical than attaching stuffed turtles to a blanket.

As you can see above, it has the same visual appeal as the original turtle blanket, but the flat appliqués create a more sophisticated beach blanket for adults and older children.

Or, if you want a blanket for babies and young children, because I designed the flat turtles to match my original Baby Sea Turtle Collection in size, shape and style, you can make a blanket with applique turtles and gift it together with one or two matching amigurumi baby sea turtles to play with!

Purchase Options

• If you already have the Baby Sea Turtle Appliqué pattern (pictured at top, above), you can buy the Baby Sea Turtle Hatchlings Expansion Pack (lower row, above) for only $3 individually from the shop.
• If you haven’t yet bought the Baby Sea Turtle Appliqué pattern, you can buy the multipack of Baby Sea Turtle Appliqué & Baby Sea Turtle Hatchlings, and save an extra dollar on the pair!

Launch Discount

Now, if you’ve already bought the Baby Sea Turtle Appliqué pattern, you won’t be able to save that dollar. But, for 7 days only, add the Baby Sea Turtle Hatchlings Expansion Pack pattern to your shopping cart, together with anything else (totalling $5 or more), then use the code TURTLEPOWER at checkout and you’ll still get your discount! (Valid until next Wednesday: 15th September 2021.)

Note: If you don’t need anything else right now, this also applies to Gift Certificate purchases, so you can pick up a $5 gift certificate now, get your discount, and have $5 in your PlanetJune account ready for your next purchase, or to send to a crocheting friend!

If you’re not ready to make your Baby Sea Turtle appliqués just yet, don’t forget to heart and queue the pattern on Ravelry so you don’t forget about it:

Baby Sea Turtle Hatchlings: 

Baby Sea Turtle Appliqué:

I hope you’ll enjoy adding these turtles to your next beach blanket!

Which do you prefer: the flat or stuffed turtles? (Or both?!) Would you like to see more PlanetJune Appliqué patterns, or should I focus only on amigurumi designs?

Do let me know what you think in the comments…

I’ve avoided making any ‘small white fluffy dog’ designs to date, but now I have a fluffy white dog of my own I just had to give it a go and make an amigurumi version of my sweet Maggie, who’s (mostly) a mix of miniature poodle, maltese and bichon frise.

One of the problems with designing patterns for long-haired dogs is that they can look quite different depending on how their fur is clipped – for show, for practicality, or something in between. And lots of the small dogs I know are mixed breeds, so they may not look exactly like a specific breed archetype anyway… It’s a challenge to make a pattern that will please people, so I thought starting with my own pup as the model will at least make me happy 😉

To make my ami-Maggie, I started with the closest parts from several of my existing AmiDogs designs, and then made a few tweaks to get a closer match to my little maltipoochon. I used mainly off-white yarn, with light brown for the ears, as Maggie is a little apricot-coloured in places, and not bright white anywhere! And here’s the result:

Aww! I debated brushing ami-Maggie all over to give her a fluffier look, but in the end I decided that the fluffy ears were enough to make her mini-me look like her. Do you agree? (I might still brush the top of her head a bit too…)

You’ve probably guessed what’s coming next, huh? I adore both my babies, and I couldn’t just make an ami-Maggie without making an ami-Maui to complete the set!

To make my ami-Maui, I used my AmiCats Tabby pattern, with only basic modifications to make Maui’s white chin and unstriped tail.

Maui doesn’t have very defined tabby stripes, so I chose two similar heathered shades of taupe/brown (Lion Brand Heartland in Mammoth Cave and Sequioa) to give an impression of mottled tabby colours without modifying the pattern, and I think that was pretty effective.

My amigurumi versions of my babies aren’t perfect matches for their real-life counterparts, but even at a glance there’s no doubt who they represent, and I just love them!

Crochet your own Cats & Dogs!

If you’re looking for cat or dog crochet patterns, look no further than my AmiCats and AmiDogs collections. With 8 cat and 24 dog designs, I have a wide selection for you to choose from:

So many options! And you can mix and match parts from different patterns to make a closer match to a specific dog or cat.

I know I still have some gaps in my design collection though – do you have a little fluffy dog that you’d like to recreate in crochet? Let me know! Leave me a comment below with the breed of your dog and what you think of my ami-Maggie, and/or email me (june@planetjune.com) with a pic of your baby! If there’s enough interest, I may be inspired to create some more AmiDogs patterns in future…

For my new Relaxing Crafts series, I decided to pick up a pile of random craft kits that one of my neighbours was selling on Facebook and see if there was anything interesting for me to try…

It was quite a haul for a few dollars! There are quite a few things I’d like to experiment with in here, and I’ll pass the rest onto someone else who has kids who can use them – nothing will go to waste.

Hiding out in the bottom right corner of the above pic, I found a kit I was intrigued to start first: a small diamond painting kit.

Diamond Painting

The craft of ‘diamond painting’ – sticking flat-backed plastic ‘gems’ onto an adhesive colour-coded surface to form a pattern – seems to have sprung up from nowhere over the past few years. Have you heard of it before?

A diamond painting kit comes with an adhesive backing (this one is cardboard, but most are canvas), preprinted with the design. You fill in each space with a plastic ‘diamond’. Depending on the kit, the diamonds can be square or round – in this kit, mine were round.

There’s an individual bag for each colour of diamond. With only a few colours in this design, I found it most fun to pour a few colours into the tray at once, and then I got to play a minigame every time: to look for a piece that was a) the right colour and b) the right way up.

Each diamond has a domed front and a flat back. You pick up a diamond by loading the nib of the special pen with a little pink wax, then pressing it gently to the domed side of the diamond, so the diamond sticks to the wax:

Then you press the flat side of the diamond down to the picture. The adhesive grabs the diamond and keeps it in place. (The wax stays inside the nib of the pen, ready to grab the next diamond.)

It’s very satisfying to place all the tiny diamonds into neat rows and watch the picture emerge. It’s faster than cross stitch, much easier than paint-by-numbers(!), and once each piece is placed it stays there, so you don’t have to worry about knocking them out of place before you complete the design.

As you work, you peel back the protective plastic film from the painting a bit at a time, so the rest of the picture stays sticky and doesn’t attract dust or lint before you’re ready to apply the diamonds to it.

And, after a little time, the canvas is filled and the finished picture emerges!

Relaxing Craft Verdict

This kit was just a dollar store special and I don’t love the design, but as a test of the craft it served its purpose admirably: I call diamond painting a win on the relaxing front! Big thumbs up from me.

I’m looking at diamond painting kits now – there are lots with really nice looking designs, and I think I’ll be picking one up. Here are my top choices at the moment:

Clockwise from top left: Miniature Magic, Forest Babe, and Graceful Swimmer kits from Diamond Dotz.

I’m leaning towards the turtle – I think the diamonds may make it look like it’s swimming in a sparkling sea. What do you think?

Have you ever tried diamond painting? Are you tempted to try now? Let me know in the comments below!

Today’s PlanetJune Story shows how easily you can brighten someone’s day with crochet. When Nancy Smith, the chairman for the Crochet Guild of America’s Chapter Challenge, contacted me in February to ask for permission for the CGOA to use my Love Hearts pattern as a way for their members to give back to their communities, I never dreamt it would lead to such an amazing result!

Let’s hear from Nancy:

The Crochet Guild of America (CGOA) is a national organization of local crochet guilds located in almost all 50 states of USA. CGOA also hosts a national conference called Chain Link held in different locations each summer that includes classes of various skills, stitches, and techniques, a Design Contest, a fashion show and banquet, and a ‘Meet and Greet’ to possibly sell your designs to publishers, yarn companies and/or magazines. There is also a Masters Program which tests your skills in all aspects of crochet from stitches to gauge to finishing techniques. Be brave! Check it out!

Each year, CGOA challenges the chapters to give back to their local communities by participating in the CGOA Chapter Challenge which selects a project for all interested chapters to make.

Each project is selected with a particular need in mind. Past years have included chemo hats, preemie blankets, squares for afghans, and scarves. This year was a bit different since a lot of places were not accepting physical items due to COVID-19 protocols. But June Gilbank of Planet June came to our rescue by allowing us to use her Love Hearts pattern for the Challenge.

The hearts could be distributed as a group project if there were places near each chapter that were accepting items, along with individual members passing them out to total strangers, family, friends, neighbors, hospitals workers, doctor offices, fire houses, etc.

At first, members were kind of skeptical about the project, but some that handed the hearts out individually reported the results/reactions back to their chapters, and the interest really took off. The smiles and reactions from the recipients were well worth the work!

There were 12,798 hearts made for this Challenge! Besides being individually handed out, hearts were disbursed to an entire elementary school, to Meals on Wheels, to assisted living centers, nursing homes, animal shelters, special education centers, teachers for Teacher Appreciation Day, church meetings, and being attached to future donation projects each chapter makes.

June’s pattern was fast and easy to make, and the chapters were told to use whatever yarns and hook sizes they wanted, which created a variety of sizes and colors besides the three sizes June has in the pattern.

CGOA and its’ chapters send a big THANK YOU to June for so generously allowing us to use her pattern!

For more information about CGOA, and possibly starting your own local chapter, here are the links:

• Crochet Guild of America (CGOA)
• How to Start a CGOA Chapter – Crochet Guild of America (CGOA)
• CGOA Masters Programs – Crochet Guild of America (CGOA)

Nancy Smith
CGOA Chapter Challenge Chairman

A few more photos, shared with permission from the participating chapters:

New York City Crochet Guild, Manhattan NY

Northern Illinois Crochet Guild, Rolling Meadows (a suburb of Chicago) IL

Happily Hooked on Crochet Guild, Danbury CT

The Happy Hookers, Atlanta GA

Northern Kentucky Crochet Guild, Burlington KY

Ebenezer Angelic Crocheters, Washington DC

Crocheters of the Lakes, Lake County IL

New Mexico Crochet Guild, Albuquerque NM

Crochet Twin Cities, Minneapolis/St Paul MN

And here’s the video of the Challenge results:

(Back to me, June, again!)

Well over twelve thousand crocheted hearts – isn’t that incredible! Congratulations to all the participating CGOA chapters – your generosity and kindness has touched so many deserving people. I’m honoured that my Love Hearts pattern continues to be used in such meaningful ways.

Thank you so much, Nancy, for sharing your report – and for choosing to use my pattern for such a successful Chapter Challenge 🙂
Please leave Nancy and the CGOA members a comment if you’ve enjoyed this post!

Do you have a PlanetJune Story you’d like to share? I’d love to hear it! Please email your story to june@planetjune.com, together with one or more high quality photos showing what you’ve made from PlanetJune patterns. If I choose your story to feature here on the blog, I’ll send you your choice of pattern from my shop to say thank you!

PS – If you’re feeling inspired to bring some smiles to your community with crocheted hearts, you can find my Love Hearts crochet pattern here. 🙂