PlanetJune Craft Blog

Latest news and updates from June

recovery clothing for dogs

It’s been a year since my pup Maggie recovered from her surgery to remove a tumour from her shoulder. It was such an exhausting and traumatic time, but she made a full recovery and so far there’s no sign of reoccurrence, and she’s a very happy, healthy and energetic almost-12 year old!

Now that things are better, I want to document my solution for keeping her wound protected from licking and covered to prevent infection without using a plastic cone or bandages. I hope someone will find this post in the future if they need tips for protecting their dog or cat’s shoulder wound after surgery.

Avoiding the ‘Cone of Shame’

When Maggie came home from her surgery, I wasn’t expecting her tiny half-inch lump to have needed such extensive surgery. The biopsy later revealed they only just got it all, with less than a mm of clearance(!), so the surgeon did exactly the right thing.

Her incision was massive, running from her neck all the way down to her elbow. She clearly felt terrible, and she was in so much pain. She was supposed to wear a hard plastic cone around her neck for two whole weeks, but she looked utterly miserable in it and I couldn’t make her do that.

(Trigger warning: Don’t click the following link if the sight of fresh stitches will upset you! Here’s a pic of her when she first came home with her cone.)

Luckily, the inflatable collar I’d bought for my much-missed cat Maui fit her perfectly. These are so much more comfortable for a dog or cat than a hard plastic cone – it’s more like a travel neck pillow than a medical device! The neck size is adjustable, you can customize the amount of inflation for comfort, and the soft cover is removable so you can wash it.

a mini poodle mix wearing an inflatable collar

It’s easy to remove so your pet can eat comfortably, and then refasten it around their neck with the velcro strip. I think this is a much more comfortable option for pets, and it provides a built-in comfy pillow for nap time!

a mini poodle mix with a large surgical scar wearing an inflatable collar

Note: An inflatable collar isn’t a perfect replacement for a cone in all cases – as you can see from the above photo, Maggie could still reach her paws and tail while wearing the inflatable collar. If she needed to be stopped from licking those areas, I would have tried a soft cone collar instead.

Custom T-shirt (a dog Hospital Gown!)

Wounds apparently heal better with airflow vs tight bandages, so I was instructed to protect the incision site from infection by putting a t-shirt or something on her. That was a challenge, as she couldn’t move or bend her leg without pulling on her stitches, so I realised I needed a shirt that tied or zipped up the back, so it would be easier to put on.

I’ve made t-shirts for Maggie before, by cutting down my old t-shirts to fit her. (Having a small white dog who loves to walk in all weather means she doesn’t stay white for very long at certain times of year! The t-shirts don’t only look cute: they work really well to protect her forelegs and tummy from getting filthy during mud season.)

a mini poodle mix wearing a purple t-shirtMaggie in her anti-mud shirt

So I jumped into gear while my sweet girl was sleeping off her sedatives, and got to work on a new shirt – luckily I knew her measurements from the notes I kept from her old shirts. If you need a similar solution you could save yourself some time by buying a dog t-shirt – or using an old one you already have – as your starting point. I needed to keep myself busy until Maggie woke up, so I made a new shirt from scratch.

To make the shirt easy to remove, I cut it all the way down the middle of the back, and planned to stabilize each side of the cut edge with cotton twill tape. While knit jersey fabric doesn’t fray, a cut edge will curl up, and the non-stretchy twill tape prevents that. I also thought that attaching the ribbons to a strong non-stretchy base would spread the load of the attachment points – I didn’t want the ribbons to rip out of the t-shirt fabric as Maggie got more active.

I measured and cut two pieces of twill tape to match the length of the shirt, and then securely stitched one end of four lengths of ribbon at right angles to each tape, to form the ties. (If your shirt is large enough to overlap at the back once you’ve cut it, you could use snaps or velcro instead, but I like that the ribbons make the shirt a bit more customizable; you can make a looser fit by leaving a gap between the two sides of the shirt when you tie the pairs of ribbons together.)

The final step was to attach one tape-with-ribbons to each cut side of the shirt back. This was a bit tricky, as jersey t-shirt fabric is so stretchy! I arranged the tape so the cut ends of the ribbons were sandwiched between the t-shirt and the tape, and I used lots of pins to hold the layers together so the jersey couldn’t stretch too much while I sewed each side of the twill tape down along the length of the shirt.

detail of a dog post-surgical recovery shirt: ribbon ties down the backRight side (top): t-shirt fabric with two lines of stitching
Wrong side (bottom): twill tape with ribbons stitches to it at intervals

Although the stitching to attach the ribbons to the tape was a bit messy and my stitching lines are a bit wonky, the overall effect from the right side isn’t too bad, as you only see the two lines of stitching from where I attached the tape to the shirt. And I was going for function over form – I don’t think a recovery shirt needs to be beautifully finished! The important thing is that the ties hold securely and the shirt stays in place, and it did just that:

a mini poodle mix wearing a post-surgical recovery tie-back t-shirt

I could slip Maggie’s paws into the sleeves, then lift the sides of the shirt and tie the ribbons together down her back to secure it together, just like a hospital gown! (If it works for people, why not for a dog?!)

It worked really well – I could put the shirt on without causing any pain, and untie the top ribbons to check on the wound without needing to remove the whole thing.

My solution let Maggie relax as she recovered, with a comfortable loose covering protecting her wound. I kept the inflatable collar on her too, but I took it off when I could monitor her closely to make sure she wasn’t trying to lick the wound.

a mini poodle mix wearing a post-surgical recovery tie-back t-shirt

Maggie enjoyed convalescing in the sunshine in her ‘hospital gown’, and snoozing the rest of the day away with her inflatable pillow. When she was allowed to take some gentle walks again, I also made her a little crop top to keep the wound covered while it continued to heal without overheating her with the full t-shirt.

a mini poodle mix wearing a cute crop topSassy girl rocking her crop top!

The hardest part of Maggie’s recovery was supervising her full time to make sure she didn’t rip her stitches by running or jumping about too soon! How do you tell a dog they’re not allowed to move for weeks?!

a mini poodle mix wearing a post-surgical recovery tie-back t-shirt

I’m sure the fresh air helped her feel better – as you can see, she was very happy to be outside enjoying the sunshine with me while she recuperated! And I was happy to see that her wound stayed fully covered, no matter how much she rolled around on the grass.

Verdict

Despite the vet tech telling me Maggie would be left with a ‘gnarly scar’, she healed up incredibly well. She has a tiny scar remaining at the top of her leg (you can just see it as a redder spot in the photo below, before her fur fully grew back). She did sometimes get to lick that area by pushing up the t-shirt sleeves when she wasn’t wearing the inflatable collar, and that’s probably my fault for not always supervising her closely enough.

a mini poodle mix with a small post-surgical scar

But the most important thing is that her wound healed cleanly, with no infections and no tumour remaining, and we don’t mind a small battle scar to remind us of what a survivor she is! Now she’s as happy and healthy as ever, and enjoying her garden again this summer without any silly clothes to slow her down ๐Ÿ˜‰

Maggie, my lovely mini poodle mixIsn’t she a sweetie?

I hope you’ll never need the info from this post, but if your furbaby ever needs to recover from injury or surgery, I hope you’ll find something useful in Maggie’s recovery story.

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Barn Owl pattern re-release

I’m so happy to be able to re-release my Barn Owl crochet pattern with a new option that lets you choose the direction you want your owl to look!

I’ve always regretted that I wasn’t able to do this in the original pattern, but I was trying not to over-complicate the pattern. Now I’ve come up with an easy way to branch the pattern into the original straight-ahead option and the new turned-head option, and look how cute they are together…

barn owl crochet expansion pack pattern by planetjune

Aren’t they an adorable pair?! Barn owls have always been my favourite owl, and this addition is the icing on the cake for me. Having a pair of barn owls in two different poses makes them look so dynamic and lifelike – I’m completely satisfied with my design now ๐Ÿ™‚

About the Pattern

Barn Owl is an Expansion Pack for my Owl Collection pattern, a clever low-sew design. The head, body, legs and wings are all crocheted as one piece, giving you an elegant bird silhouette with the perfect owl posture and an effortlessly smooth result!

Owl Collection crochet pattern by PlanetJune

The Barn Owl Expansion Pack includes all the modifications required to crochet a Barn Owl with realistic face shape and markings. The original option has the owl looking straight ahead:

barn owl crochet expansion pack pattern by planetjune

And the new additional option, presented as separate right-handed and left-handed versions for clarity, allows you to have your owl looking to the left or right (and also includes instructions for letting your owl look in any direction, so you can choose your favourite angle!)

barn owl crochet expansion pack pattern by planetjune

What is an Expansion Pack?

Expansion Packs by PlanetJune

  • 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.
  • If you’ve already bought the Barn Owl pattern, this version is a free update for you! You can download the new PDF from My Patterns in your PlanetJune account.
  • If you already own the Owl Collection, but not the Barn Owl, you can buy the Barn Owlย Expansion Pack (including both Barn Owl options) individually for only $3.50.
  • If you haven’t yet bought either, pick up the multipack of both owl patterns and you’ll save 50c on the pair.

barn owl crochet expansion pack pattern by planetjune

I’m so happy with this update to my Barn Owl pattern. I love how the two options look together – it adds so much realism to have them in different poses, just like a real-life pair of owls! I hope you’ll love making them too ๐Ÿ™‚

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finding inspiration at the Ravellenic Games!

The Ravellenic Games – a two-week event hosted by Ravelry where participants challenge themselves to start and finish crochet/knitting projects, timed to coincide with a certain global sports competition – ended on Sunday. I wasn’t sure if we’d have a Team PlanetJune this year, as our Ravelry group has grown quieter, with most of our community activities moving to our more private and chat-friendly Discord. But I’m so glad we decided to go for it anyway!

From July 26th to August 11th 2024, our small but mighty team challenged ourselves to start and finish any crochet projects based on PlanetJune patterns (and those from my books), and look how well we did!

Team PlanetJune crochet projects: Ravellenic Games 202442 projects completed by Team PlanetJune in just over 2 weeks, and don’t they all look wonderful?

We had a lovely variety of projects: amigurumi animals, plants, accessories and home decor. You can see them all in the new Team PlanetJune Ravellenic Games Gallery. (And if you want to make any of these for yourself, clicking any photo in the gallery will take you to the pattern!)

It was such fun to see everyone picking projects to make and inspiring and cheering each other on to finish them, and the team spirit and camaraderie was a tonic for me, too. It’s been difficult to get back into the swing of my usual designing life after spending a year as a book publisher, so I challenged myself to complete a new design for the games. And look what happened: not one but four new PlanetJune birds sprang off my hook!

upcoming PlanetJune crochet patterns: Mallards, Canada Goose, Barn Owl (new option)L-R: Mallard Drake, Mallard Duck, Barn Owl, Canada Goose

I don’t quite know where I found the energy to accomplish all this, although I did spend days, evenings and weekends crocheting up a storm, and enjoying it! I think it was a combination of the lure of the challenge plus the encouragement of my teammates; the more projects I completed, the more I thought “maybe I could fit in one more before the deadline…?” And, when you feel the call, stopping to do other things isn’t really an option ๐Ÿ™‚

Where are the patterns? If you’d like to make these birds too, the patterns will all be coming! The pair of Mallards and the Canada Goose will each become an Expansion Pack for my Duck and Goose pattern in the coming months, and the new turned-head version of the Barn Owl will be a new option that I’ll add to the existing Barn Owl Expansion Pack for my main Owl Collection (and it’ll be a free upgrade, if you’ve already bought the Barn Owl pattern).

Although I didn’t intend this, 2024 looks like it’s shaping up to be the PlanetJune Year of Birds – which is a nice change after 2023’s Year of Snakes. I’m just going with it: following where the inspiration takes me is always the most joyous way, as you can probably tell by how prolific I’ve been this month!

I have been asking myself how I managed to create so much in such a short time, and the answer is… I didn’t, not really. Although I did all the prototyping and crocheting during the timeframe of the games, none of these is a new idea for me: I’ve been planning to make Mallard and Canada Goose expansion packs ever since I designed the original Duck and Goose pattern at the start of this year, and I’d already done the research and planning long before the games began. And I’d always wanted to make a Barn Owl with a turned head, although I decided against it in my original pattern (as it would over-complicate things), but the spirit of the games inspired me to go for the challenge. I’m so glad I did!

I think this event has been really good for my crojo (that’s crochet mojo, if you didn’t know) – a little boost to my confidence that shows I can get back into the saddle of regular designing again. But now I have to deal with the fallout: it’s going to be a long time before I can pick up my hook again, as I have all these new designs to write up, photograph, and turn into new patterns! Note to self: maybe one design at a time isn’t such a bad idea for the future…

So I’d like to give a huge thanks to everyone who joined Team PlanetJune for the games – I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!


PlanetJune Reindeer Games 2024 - logo

And if you missed out, or just want more crochet-along fun, I’d love for you to join us this winter for the fourth annual PlanetJune Reindeer Games, starting November 1st! It’s like the Ravellenic Games, but way more relaxed, with a whole two months to crochet anything you want from my patterns and earn virtual medals.

Our CAL and online social event is always a fun way to end the year together. If you’d like a little nudge when it’s about to start, click here and I’ll send you a reminder!

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a custom AmiDogs Dachshund

I always love to see people customizing my AmiDogs and AmiCats crochet patterns to make closer matches to specific pets. These patterns are so easy to customize by choosing the closest pattern and changing colours to match your pet. If you want to get more adventurous, you can mix and match parts, and add strategic embellishments to match a different breed or specific dog more closely.

You may remember that I’ve already crocheted custom amigurumi versions of my furbabies Maui and Maggie. Last Christmas, I decided to make a mini-me of Dudley, one of Maggie’s best friends. (Check out his Instagram here!) As you’ll see, Dudley is an absolutely gorgeous long-haired cream dachshund, and I knew that, with a little customizing, my AmiDogs Dachshund pattern would be a perfect match!

I took my best guesses from my yarn bobbins box to choose the closest colour:

choosing a yarn colour to match Dudley's fur

And used my AmiDogs Dachshund pattern to make my ami-Dudley:

Dudley, made from AmiDogs Dachshund crochet pattern by PlanetJune

I followed the pattern exactly, choosing slightly larger eyes to match the real Dudley’s soulful gaze, and I strategically brushed the ears, tail, and backs of the legs to mimic his long flowing fur.

And here’s Dudley with his amigurumi mini-me!

Dudley the dachschund and his amigurumi mini-me

Maggie and Dudley are so cute together:

Dudley and Maggie: dachshund and mini poodle mix

…and so are their amigurumi counterparts:

amigurumi Maggie and Dudley crochet AmiDogs


If you’d like to make a custom amigurumi dog or cat to match your furbabies, or as an incredibly meaningful gift for a pet parent, I have 24 AmiDogs and 8 AmiCats patterns for you to choose from as your starting point:

PlanetJune AmiDogs and AmiCats amigurumi crochet patterns

The Essential Guide to Amigurumi book by June Gilbank

And you can find instructions for all the techniques you could ever want for customizing and embellishing your amigurumi in Part 2 (Customizing Amigurumi) of my latest book, The Essential Guide to Amigurumi, now available in print from Amazon and as an ebook direct from me. (You should also take a look at ‘Designing Custom Amigurumi’ in Part 3, for inspiration and examples of what you can achieve!)


I hope this inspires you to make amigurumi versions of the beloved animals in your life!

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Raccoon crochet pattern

Don’t miss the Ravellenic Games discount on this pattern until Aug 11 – keep reading for details!

It feels like forever since I designed a new amigurumi mammal – my latest designs have all been plants, birds, and reptiles – so I had to get back to my PlanetJune roots and make a new cute and realistic amigurumi animal for you. And here’s the result: my Raccoon crochet pattern!

raccoon amigurumi crochet pattern by planetjune

Raccoon Fun Facts

  • Raccoons are naturally found throughout North America, but they’ve also been introduced into Europe and Japan.
  • They are named for their dexterous hands, from the Algonquian word aroughcun. At night, they can ‘see’ their food by touch.
  • Raccoons are very adaptable and thrive in both wild and urban environments. As omnivores, they can eat any available food.
  • Urban raccoons are nicknamed ‘masked bandits’ and (my favourite) ‘trash pandas’ for their black face markings and habit of scavenging garbage!

About the Design

I’m shocked it’s taken this long for me to design a raccoon pattern – I’ve had a soft spot for trash pandas since we first moved to Canada and had occasional raccoon visitors to our birdfeeders, and once a litter of adorable babies playing on the garage roof!

a raccoon eating bird seed; two baby raccoons on the edge of a roofMy very old photos, from 2006-7 (sorry about the quality – this was before the days of cellphone cameras with low-light modes!)

Before I started this design, I thought it’d be pretty easy – cross the colours of my Badger with the markings of my Red Panda, and boom! instant Raccoon! – but every single part of the Raccoon needed to be a different shape and size from my previous patterns, so I didn’t get to take any shortcuts with this pattern ๐Ÿ˜€

raccoon amigurumi crochet pattern by planetjune

The iconic striped tail gives you a perfect opportunity to practice my Ultimate Stripes technique. (I also include alternatives in the pattern, if you prefer speed to perfection.)

raccoon amigurumi crochet pattern by planetjune

And although the all-important face mask has detailed colour changes, they’re limited to just 5 rounds, and the rest of the pattern is fast and easy, with realistic shaping built right in.

raccoon amigurumi crochet pattern by planetjune

In real life, raccoons can come in many shades of grey and brown. I chose to make mine pale grey, and used a very dark grey instead of black for the mask to help the eyes stand out. But you can go with the classic black/white/grey combo, or make a raccoon with a warmer colouring by using a warm grey or even brown for the main colour and cream or off-white for the face. That’s one of the great things about amigurumi: it’s so easy to make a unique animal just by choosing different yarn colours!

Buy Now

Are you ready to get started on your Raccoon? If so, you can pick up the Raccoon amigurumi crochet pattern right now from my shop (but check for the discount below first!)

Or, if you’re not quite ready to buy, why not favourite/queue it on Ravelry so you don’t forget about it?


Ravellenic Games Discount!

The 2024 Ravellenic Games start this Friday! If you’d like to challenge yourself to crochet anything from any of my patterns during the timeframe of the Olympic Games (July 26 – Aug 11 2024), join Team PlanetJune and compete along with us to earn virtual medals and laurel awards.

If you’d like to make a Raccoon for Team PlanetJune, look out for the exclusive Team PJ discount code in the Ravelry or Discord PlanetJune Community groups.

From this year, I’ll be awarding our team laurels via the new Team PlanetJune microsite, where you’ll find all the info for how to join, plus links to the Team PJ project archives for every games since 2012! (If you don’t use Ravelry, you can still join in via the Team PJ site and I’ll award all your Team PJ laurels, but note that you’ll only be eligible for event medals if you cross the official Ravellenic Games finish lines on Ravelry.)


raccoon amigurumi crochet pattern by planetjune

Whether or not you decide to join us for the Rav Games, I hope you’ll enjoy my Raccoon pattern! And if you make a raccoon, I’d love to see it – please share it in one of the PJ groups, or tag me (I’m @planetjune on all the socials) if you post a pic anywhere else ๐Ÿ™‚

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a return to blogging

Over the past couple of years, I’ve fallen out of the blogging habit. After my seclusion while writing The Essential Guide to Amigurumi, I found it difficult to get back into the comfortable swing of sharing things online.

I’ve been putting way too much pressure on myself to make things perfect, and trying to figure out what it means to be ‘professional’ without losing myself and what’s important to me. Posting online used to be easy, but then my anxious brain got in the way with thoughts that I may be old and irrelevant in today’s fast-paced and noisy social media landscape.

Then I remembered: blogging is the way I always enjoyed sharing – it’s slower, more thoughtful, higher quality and longer-lasting than social media. And I don’t (and won’t ever) have ads on my site, so visiting my blog can be a calming respite from the visual assault of endless ads and auto-playing videos – for me as well as you.

So, I’m going to try to relax and start posting here more frequently again, sharing my creative pursuits and what I’m enjoying. That’s mostly crochet and other crafts, with an occasional post about wildlife and nature, growing food in my garden, cooking/baking, and whatever else I find interesting!

I won’t be consistent – as always with me, I’ll only publish things when they’re ready. But I can tell you that I hope to have somewhere between a couple and a few posts per month, depending on my energy and other commitments.

I have lots of projects to catch you up on, so I hope you’ll join me in the coming months for my crochet content, explorations of different crafts, garden experiments, and behind-the-scenes posts about what it actually takes to write and publish a craft book like EGA!

Choose Your Options

You can hear from me and engage as much or as little as you like. Here are the ways you can stay connected:

  • All the Blog Posts: If this sounds good, please subscribe to the blog now, and all my posts will be sent directly to your inbox in future so you’ll never miss another post!
  • Just the Crochet (Newsletter): If you’re only here for my crochet content, please don’t subscribe to this blog. My monthly(ish) newsletter includes all my crochet-related news for the month including any relevant blog posts, so you’ll never miss out on any new patterns, tutorials or tips I have for you, without the other topics.
  • Join In: If you’d like to share about your crafting, reading, cooking, gardening, pets, and life with other positive, friendly, crafty people, I highly recommend you join us in the PlanetJune Discord server! It’s our private ad-free space for text chatting and sharing pics. I find it’s a beautiful antidote to the noise of what social media has become, and our small group gives you a chance to make real connections and friendships with other like-minded souls.

June relaxing outside

So, hello again, and welcome if you’re new here! I’m really looking forward to sharing more of myself with you again. I hope you’ll enjoy my upcoming posts, and please do comment from time to time if you do – knowing you’re out there will be really encouraging as I try to get back into the swing of blogging…

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Strawberry Plant crochet pattern

It’s time for a new classic PlanetJune potted plant pattern! Perfect for the summer season – or adding the feel of summer at any time of year – my realistic Strawberry Plant crochet pattern makes a lovely ornamental piece, with its distinctive leaves, delicate white flowers and plump bright red berries.

Strawberry Plant crochet pattern by PlanetJuneDon’t you just want to reach out and pick one of these juicy strawberries?!

About the Design

For this strawberry plant, I was looking to create a simplified design with just the right amount of realism in a compact, well-balanced arrangement. The pot has a stylish textured band, and a new style of decorative edging that keeps the top edge of the pot nice and straight.

Strawberry Plant crochet pattern by PlanetJune

This pattern also includes bonus instructions for making adorable individual strawberries – perfect as play food, or to make into a cute keychain.

Pattern Details

I’ve put a lot of thought into making this pattern both easy and enjoyable for you to crochet. While it includes multiple pieces – pot, leaves, flowers, and berries – I’ve carefully designed it to minimise both the number of pieces and the amount of finishing needed:

  • The elements are strategically positioned to give a full and balanced composition without requiring too many pieces.
  • Each triple leaf is crocheted as a single piece, making the process a lot faster than you’d think!
  • My instructions include the easiest methods to hide the yarn ends as you go and assemble the plant with minimal sewing.
  • The complete pattern includes 13 pages, with detailed step-by-step photos for each element and clear diagrams for the final assembly.

Strawberry Plant crochet pattern by PlanetJune

I’ve also stuck to my usual design principles: the pattern requires no wires for support, and no tiny hooks or crochet thread. All you need is your usual worsted weight yarn, an E (3.5mm) hook, and some stuffing, and you’ll be ready to create a beautiful, realistic strawberry plant!

Bonus Tutorial: Amigurumi Double Ring

I’ve made a new photo tutorial (for right- and left-handers, of course) to accompany this pattern: the double ring for amigurumi. This technique is a more secure version of the magic ring for crocheting in the round.

double ring for amigurumi tutorial by planetjune

This is one of those optional techniques that isn’t often necessary, and I don’t usually recommend it because it’s a little slower and more difficult than a standard magic ring. But it’s a useful technique to add to your arsenal for those times when you need a magic ring with extra strength or security, like making tiny strawberry flowers!

Buy your Strawberry Plant Pattern!

Ready to get started?ย Pick up the Strawberry Plant crochet pattern from my shop right now.

Or, if you’re not ready to make one just yet, add it to your Ravelry queue or favourites so you don’t forget:

Strawberry Plant crochet pattern by PlanetJune

A crocheted strawberry plant makes a cheerful and summery decoration, and I hope you’ll enjoy making this pattern. The unique construction is surprisingly satisfying, as all the pieces come together so quickly and easily, with such a pretty result!

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shop update!

For the past few months, I’ve been working on a behind-the-scenes project to update the PlanetJune online store to improve your experience and to streamline future updates. This was a massive project: I first built the shop in 2009, and the software and plugins I use have been upgraded multiple times since then, leaving me with thousands of messy files of patched and re-patched code.

I decided that the only way to clean things up was to start again from scratch, so I’ve rebuilt the entire shop using the latest codebase, and incorporated all the hundreds of customizations I’ve coded and built in over the years, from pay-what-you-want donationware to the complete list of all the patterns you’ve ever purchased (so you never accidentally buy anything twice or have to hunt through old orders to find a particular pattern).

Most of the changes are technical so you won’t see any differences, but I’ve made a few upgrades that you’ll be able to appreciate:

Product Photos

This is the big change! Some of my pattern photos are older than some of my customers, and both my equipment and my photography and image-editing skills have improved in the past 18 years! Here’s a summary of the improvements you’ll see:

RE-EDITED PHOTOS: I’ve reprocessed my older photos to be brighter, clearer and better colour balanced.

PlanetJune shop update: brighter and colour-balanced photos The AmiDogs were the worst offenders – with my old monitor I couldn’t tell that the sky sometimes looked purple or grey! Now they all match ๐Ÿ™‚

CLEARER CATEGORIES: All the categories on the main page are larger and clearer and now look like ‘cards’ with rounded borders.

PlanetJune shop update: larger and clearer category images Pick a card, any card…

SQUARE LISTINGS: All the main product photos are larger and now have matching square dimensions, so they’re easier to view and browse through.

PlanetJune shop update: all main images are now square Some images were wide and short, some were tall and narrow – it’s so much cleaner now they’re all squares!

For the full effect, click through to the All Products page – keep scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling…

Clearer Links

I’ve added friendly URLs so you know what you’re looking at, for example:

OLD: /index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=19&products_id=403

NEW: /temperature-snake-amigurumi-crochet-pattern-and-workbook-p-403.html

Having the pattern name in the link is much more helpful than the previous words-and-numbers soup. (And the old links all still work too, if you have any of them saved.)

Custom Gift Certificates

PlanetJune custom value gift certificate

I’ve added a custom value PlanetJune gift certificate, so now you can send a gift certificate for any dollar (and cent!) amount you want.

This is an easier way to gift specific patterns to someone – you can just send them a custom gift certificate for the exact amount, with a note telling them what you’d like them to spend it on! (See the Gift Certificate FAQ for instructions.)


A Fresh Start

The internet is always changing, and it takes work to keep up with the latest coding standards and security updates. I’ve been patching and updating my old shop code since 2009, and starting from scratch for this update was the best way to make sure I didn’t carry any problems forward. This was a huge undertaking (with literally thousands of files of code to comb through) but it’s very satisfying to know that this project is complete. Now that my shop has been refreshed inside and out, it looks much cleaner, and it’ll be much easier to keep it maintained and to make more improvements in future.

And, you know what, seeing all my patterns displayed nicely together on the All Products page lets me see what I’ve accomplished in a way I haven’t really been able to before. I’ve designed hundreds of patterns over the past 18 years, and I’m happy to stand behind all of them – that’s quite an accomplishment, isn’t it? Seeing them all together gives me fresh inspiration to keep adding to the PlanetJune pattern collection.

Please take a look around the new and improved PlanetJune shop – I hope you’ll find more treasures to enjoy now they’re easier to see and appreciate! And I’d love to hear your thoughts on the updates and what else you’d like to see in future improvements, so feel free to leave a comment or send me a message.

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