Happy Christmas! Let’s celebrate with a look at the results of the 2013 PlanetJune Christmas Crochet-Along. Thank you to everyone who joined in; it’s always a pleasure to know my patterns are being enjoyed and to see how good they look in your choices of yarns, colours, etc! And it’s lovely to see that my new Mini Wreath pattern has been so popular 🙂
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Before we go any further: don’t panic! This is not the start of a shift away from crochet and into knitting patterns – it’s just that my Poinsettia ornament happens to be knitted this year. As with my other Poinsettia designs, I’m making it available as a donationware pattern. Although I’m not ruling out the possibility of publishing other knitting patterns in future, it’s not part of my current plan 🙂
As you may remember, I have a little Christmas tradition of crafting a new Poinsettia ornament every year, and, although I’ve been madly busy this year, I’ve managed to squeeze in another poinsettia design so I can keep up the tradition. Now I’ve been doing this for 8 years, I have enough poinsettias to decorate a small tree! And that’s exactly what I’ve done for my Christmas decorating this year:
My poinsettia tabletop tree! Can you spot the new addition?
Here’s a closer look at the PlanetJune Poinsettia Collection to date:
Top (L-R): 2006 kanzashi poinsettia; 2007 crocheted poinsettia
2nd Row (L-R): 2008 polymer clay poinsettia; 2009 punchneedle poinsettia
3rd Row (L-R): 2010 felt poinsettia; 2011 beaded poinsettia
Bottom Row: 2012 thread crochet poinsettia; 2013 …?
(You can find all my Poinsettia designs as PDFs in my shop, or use the links above for the free online versions.)
And now for the 2013 PlanetJune Poinsettia: the knitted poinsettia!
As I’ve been teaching myself to knit over the past couple of years, a knitted poinsettia seemed appropriate for 2013. This is a very simple pattern, provided you know how to cast on, make knit and purl stitches, and increase and decrease. If you don’t already know how, this is a nice small project for learning those skills! (And, although teaching you to knit is not something I can take on, there are many good books and tutorials, and I’ve linked to my favourite online tutorials in the pattern.)
I know we’re only a week away from Christmas, but this really is a speedy pattern, so I hope you’d like to try knitting one of your own – the link to the free pattern is below, and, as always, if you choose to thank me with a donation, you’ll get the handy printable PDF version 🙂
Go to the Knitted Poinsettia pattern >>
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PS – I’ve just finished my book – yay! – and I’m going to take a much-needed break for the next few weeks. I’ll just be popping in for minimal maintenance on PlanetJune stuff, so please be patient if I don’t respond promptly to your emails etc. I’ll be back with exciting new things once I’m completely rested. In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful festive season!
A couple of weeks ago, futuregirl blogged a photo of a selection of giant pine cones she’d gathered in the forest. I couldn’t get that photo of Alice hugging that armful of pine cones out of my head, and I kept reloading the page to look at them again – I had no idea pine cones could even get that big; did you?
With impending book deadlines and taxes to file and other commitments to juggle, I found myself in need of comfort, and the thought of a giant huggable pine cone suddenly sounded like something I had to make, as a fun little break from everything. And the result is a new Expansion Pack pattern: the Giant Pine Cone!
(Those are cones A and E from Pine Cone Collection, for size comparison!)
Giant Pine Cone is based on my very popular Pine Cone Collection pattern, but super-sized and with a few additions to improve the shape and appearance at such a large size.
It’s about 8″ tall and can be worked with 2 strands of worsted weight yarn held together (as I did) or a bulky/chunky yarn – the thick yarn not only makes the pattern work up more quickly, but also keeps the scales of the pine cone realistically proportioned.
Or you could make a not-quite-so-giant pine cone with just 1 strand of worsted weight yarn as usual (and a smaller hook – details in the pattern). The mini Giant Pine Cone option would be about 5″ tall, so it takes much less yarn, but it’d still tower over all the cones in my original collection!
The finished giant cone is wonderfully soft and squishy – the large yarn scales add a layer of plush cushioned padding that makes it really tactile to hug and play with (I’m speaking for myself here, but I’m sure kids would love it too), but it’s also weighty enough to stand up by itself – it’s even more appealing than I imagined it would be! Maui can’t resist it either – he’s already been snuggling up with it as a giant pillow…
If you’ve made my original Pine Cone Collection, you’ll know how easy and fun the scales are to crochet, and this version is no different – it just takes a bit longer because it’s so much larger, but, for its size, it works up surprisingly quickly.
You can buy the Giant Pine Cone Expansion Pack for only $2.50 individually from the shop, or, if you haven’t already bought the Pine Cone Collection pattern, you can select it as an add-on to that pattern before you add it to your shopping cart, and save 50c on the pair.
If you’ve already bought the Pine Cone Collection, you won’t be able to save that 50c. But, for 7 days only, add the Giant Pine Cone Expansion Pack pattern to your shopping cart, together with anything else (totalling $5 or more), then use the code PINECONE at checkout and you’ll still get your discount! (Valid until next Tuesday: 3rd December 2013.)
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!
Can you resist making your own Giant Pine Cone?
PS – Don’t forget to share photos of your Giant Pine Cones in the Christmas prize CAL thread on Ravelry too…
Originally, I wasn’t sure I’d have time to design a Christmas pattern this year, so I thought I’d make a variant on my Twisted Chain Bangle pattern, to turn it into a miniature wreath ornament. But then, with wreaths on my mind, I came up with this completely new – and better! – idea instead, so we have a new PlanetJune Donationware Christmas design for 2013 after all 🙂
Introducing the Mini Wreath Ornament:
This sweet little pattern lets you make surprisingly realistic leafy miniature wreaths – at only 3″ across, they’d be perfect as Christmas Tree ornaments or seasonal decorations. A Mini Wreath works up in no time and comes together like magic with almost no sewing required – you won’t be able to stop at making one! Make them in leafy greens, or any pair of colours to match your holiday decor.
I’ve accessorised mine with a crocheted ribbon bow, but you could use a short length of real ribbon, or add beads and sequins to represent berries and miniature baubles.
Mini Wreath Ornament is a donationware pattern, which means it’s free for you to use, and if you’d like to say thanks by making a donation, you’ll get a handy PDF version of the pattern – easy to print or save to your tablet or e-reader 🙂
I hope you’ll enjoy making mini wreaths this holiday season!
Go to the Mini Wreath Ornament pattern >>
PS – Don’t forget to enter your completed wreaths in the PlanetJune Christmas CAL (on Ravelry) – there’ll be prizes for everyone!
This shawl has been a long time in the making! I created the design over a year ago with the idea to make it a 2-in-1 pattern, but life got in the way of all my plans and I didn’t have time to finish Part II, so this beautiful shawl has just been sitting for many months with the pattern complete apart from the stitch diagrams and a few photos. The November/December PlanetJune Accessories CAL seemed like the perfect opportunity to get those final pieces together and release my lovely but neglected design into the wild…
Cascading Clusters is a triangular shawl with an elegant curve along the top edge so it hugs your neck and won’t fall off your shoulders. The lacy squares quickly grow from the centre top so you can keep crocheting until the shawl is the size you want, then add the pointed scallop border as the finishing touch. The lace pattern has a 2-row repeat, so you’ll pick it up in no time and be able to enjoy crocheting without having to worry about a complicated pattern.
As with all PlanetJune Accessories designs, the pattern includes clear written instructions together with full stitch diagrams, so you can work solely from one or the other if you prefer to use only charts or text patterns, or refer to both for additional clarification.
The shawl is fully customizable in terms of size; just keep going until you like the size or you run out of yarn! And it’s flexible enough to work well with multiple yarn weights (I have a stunning laceweight alpaca/silk version in progress…) – go fine for a delicate wisp of a shawl, or use a heavier yarn for a much faster, but still stunning, result. My sample shawl is worked in a sport weight.
I still plan to make Part II and release it as an Expansion Pack, so you’ll be able to get even more value from this pattern when that happens! In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy the Cascading Clusters Shawl as much as I do – don’t you love the rich purple colour of mine?!
You can buy the Cascading Clusters Shawl pattern individually from my shop, or save money by including it as part of a custom set of any three PlanetJune Accessories designs for a bargain price.
Even if you’re not quite ready to buy now, how about queuing/faving it on ravelry so you don’t forget about it?
If you’d like to make this shawl, or any of my other accessory designs, I hope you’ll join us in the PlanetJune Ravelry group for the Accessories CAL, from now until the end of 2013!
Yep, I’m still working on my book, and I still can’t tell you any details, but I’m moving into the home stretch of my responsibilities (researching, desigining, writing, photographing, etc), so, very soon, you won’t hear any more book talk from me for a few months! After that, I’ll be able to spill the beans and share some sneak peeks of some of my beautiful projects, and you’ll finally be able to see that all my hard work was worthwhile 😉
We’re doing things a bit differently for the rest of the year in the Ravelry group – we’re running 2 extra-long CALs simultaneously. Here are the details:
The PlanetJune Accessories CAL runs November 1 – December 31, so you have plenty of time to complete a large project and/or to make accessories as Christmas gifts. You can join in by making any of the PlanetJune Accessories patterns pictured below, or by turning any of my other patterns into a wearable accessory.
The new shawl pattern (top left) is almost ready – look out for the new pattern announcement very shortly!
And the Christmas CAL will have prizes for all, as in previous years, but this year you have an extra month to get your entries made and ready for the big day! This CAL ends December 24th, so you can keep making Christmassy designs right up until Christmas Eve, and we’ll have a big celebratory roundup on Christmas Day 🙂
I’ll also have a new Donationware addition to this range coming later this month…
You’ll find all the details in the relevant threads in the PlanetJune ravelry group – please join us!
October’s ‘Review and Win’ winner is Alison J, with her review of my Protoceratops dinosaur (the sweet little pink dino from the Dinosaurs Set 3 Expansion Pack):
Dinosaurs Set 3X, L-R: Protoceratops, Iguanodon, Panoplosaurus
What a cutie!!!! And what could be better than only the 4 legs to sew on! Her head, frill, and body are worked very cleverly as a single piece with very nice details and super clear instructions. I love all of June’s dinosaur patterns, and I think this was the quickest one I have made so far.
Definitely recommend!!!
Congrats, Alison – I’ll email you to find out which pattern you’d like as your prize 🙂
And to everyone else: please remember to write a Review every time you’ve enjoyed a PlanetJune pattern – thank you!
The New-To-Me theme challenged participants to try a PlanetJune design they’d never made before and the result is a small but lovely roundup! (Don’t forget to keep reading to the end for the upcoming CAL details – we’re doing something a little different this time…)
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As always, I was not compensated for this review, and the following is based on my honest opinions!
I’ve known Abby through craft blogging circles for years – you may also know her from her blog, While She Naps – and I’ve been eagerly anticipating this book since the day she first announced she’d be writing it! Abby and I are kindred spirits in the sense that we’re both passionate about the techniques used to create our stuffed animal designs – in my case amigurumi, and in hers sewn toys.
You’ve probably already heard good things about this book (with everything going on here, it’s taken me far longer than I’d anticipated to prepare this review) but I don’t think you could test a book much more thoroughly than I have! And (spoiler alert) I’m so excited to show you the results of my testing process! Read on to see what I’ve been able to make, thanks to Stuffed Animals…
Stuffed Animals: From Concept to Construction by Abigail Patner Glassenberg is “a comprehensive reference that teaches you how to sew heirloom-quality stuffed animals, from four-legged friends that actually stand to a classic, poseable Teddy bear.”
Stuffed Animals begins with a very useful introductory section, covering tools and materials, design considerations (research, pattern drafting, fabric selection, etc), and how to actually make soft toys (sewing, turning, stuffing, etc). This is a really solid basic instructional section, and, if you’re new to toymaking, I’d recommend that you read these chapters thoroughly before you do anything else.
The remainder of the book takes the form of a pattern followed by 3-4 lessons on techniques that were used/demonstrated in the pattern. The patterns are child-friendly and designed to make toys that will be played with and treasured. My favourites are the cute puppy, the hilarious zipper-mouthed dinosaur, and the classic teddy bear (just to satisfy my curiosity on how these are made).
All the pattern pieces are printed at full-size (except the dinosaur, which is just too big) so you can copy them directly without resizing. But, even better than that, all the pattern pieces are also available to download from Lark Crafts. This is an excellent bonus feature – it’s so much easier to print the relevant pages directly than to try to hold the book open to scan/copy the pattern pages, and, in the PDF version, the pattern pieces aren’t overlapped (they have to be in the book, to save space), so it’s much easier to see what’s going on. Thumbs up to Lark for offering this.
The pattern instructions are detailed, and numbered points guide you through each stage of the toy assembly, together with in-progress photos of all the interim stages. (Although I didn’t try making one of the included patterns, I read through several from start to finish in preparation for my own design, and I used the step-by-step instructions to help me figure out my toy assembly – I just used my own pattern pieces instead of Abby’s – so I can verify that the instructions are clear and easy to follow.)
After you’ve made each pattern, Abby follows with some theory on the techniques used in the pattern that you can use when designing your own toys, and additional related tips. For example, the Elephant pattern also serves as a demonstration of very useful design features: an underbody gusset, setting legs on darts, cutting a slit to insert a detail (ears, in this case), and making eyelids. (I ended up using 3 of these techniques in my design!)
It’s a big book, both in size and number of pages, with lots of content covered (16 patterns and 52 lessons), so there’s plenty of value for money here.
I decided to try creating a sewn version of one of my amigurumi designs, and I thought my aardvark would be a good example, with only one colour and a very distinctive shape to replicate. Plus, who’s ever seen a soft toy aardvark?! Mine could be the first ever created!
The inspiration: my amigurumi aardvark design
I have happy memories of sitting on my bed as a teenager, listening to the Friday Rock Show on the radio, and hand-sewing toys from kits. So I’m no newcomer to sewing toys, but how the strangely-shaped pattern pieces combine into a perfect animal shape always remained a magical mystery to me.
Toys I sewed from kits, over 20 years ago(!)
Designing for crochet (where you create the shape in 3D as you go) is nothing like designing for sewing (where you create the shape from multiple 2D fabric pieces) so I knew going in that this would be a huge challenge for me, and an excellent test of Abby’s teaching. You may have noticed that I like to jump in at the deep end in my crafting adventures, and this is no exception…
I read through all the lessons and skimmed all the project instructions to see each technique in action before deciding which would make good starting points for the design I wanted to create. I wrote myself a list so I could refer back to these lessons when I needed them (lessons 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 17, 29, 39 and 50 and the elephant, dinosaur, kangaroo and hippo patterns) and then I was ready to start!
I took some measurements from my crocheted aardvark, and drafted my first pattern, building in all Abby’s advice about underbody gussets and darts so the legs wouldn’t splay. I got some scrap fabric and whipped up my first prototype on the sewing machine:
Hahaha! Oh dear – I’m embarrassed to even show you this. I didn’t have a real grasp of the way to create a fully rounded shape, so my poor aardvark v1 was skinny with a giant humpback. Note, though, that the legs are nice and straight! I went back to the drawing board (and the book) and used the information on sewing a ball to refine my design with an additional top gusset piece, to create my second pattern and prototype:
Definitely better, but still not right. I didn’t bother sewing on the footpads or snout or figuring out the ears at this stage – no point working on details if the main body still looks awful. So I went back for another round of prototyping:
It was starting to look like an aardvark by this stage, although I have no idea what was going on in the chin area! I marked the eye position, and, using Abby’s elephant design for instruction on how to insert the ears, I also used this prototype to test 2 different ear positions, so I could get an idea of the best way to do it. (Don’t look at the legs too closely – I got a little scissor-happy when trimming these seams, so some of them came undone when I turned it! All good learning experiences…)
I could have made another prototype, but by this stage I was running out of time (I have my own book to write, you know!) and had no more scrap fabric, so I decided to be bold and make the next version, with a few final tweaks, in my real fabric, and keep my fingers crossed I’d got it right this time…
I’m what I’d call a straight-line sewist: I can whip up a basic skirt or bag on my sewing machine, but these small pieces, exact lines and tight curves are a little beyond my skill level – just the thought of stitching the tiny circles for the feet and the snout with my machine makes me shiver. To give me the best chance of success, I decided to go back to what I know, and hand-sew the final aardvark. Much, much slower, but very relaxing, and it’s much easier for me to get a smooth finish when I place each stitch individually!
When it came to inserting the safety eyes, I had a big surprise – I thought there was no way my awl (bought on Abby’s recommendation) would create a hole large enough for the shaft of the eye to slip through, but it did! Not snipping the fabric for the eyes was a revelation. This is the kind of expert tip that makes Stuffed Animals such a treasure.
Finally, finally, it was time to turn and stuff my aardvark, and see what I’d created… In my quest for the perfect aardvark, after turning and stuffing, I unstuffed and unturned and tweaked a couple of my seams by less than 1mm to subtly alter a curve here and there – it made a big difference. Then all I had to do was re-turn, re-stuff, and sew up the final seam (I came up with a little tip of my own at this stage to make my ladder stitches perfect – I’ll mention it here, in case it helps anyone else: as my fabric is stretchy, I couldn’t press a seam line as shown in Abby’s examples, so I basted a row of running stitches along each edge as a guide for my ladder stitches.)
Basting lines in burgundy so I could accurately place my ladder stitches
And the end result is:
Fatty Aardvark! I love him so much, and I can’t really explain why.. I don’t think his charm really comes across in the photo: he’s big and soft and unbelievably cuddly. I love how solid and fat he is, but he’s still recognisably a PlanetJune design. And he’s irresistably huggable!
He’s most definitely an aardvark, isn’t he? And look at those perfectly straight legs: not a hint of splay there. If I were going into the soft toy pattern design business (which I’m not – at least for the forseeable future!) I’d probably do one more iteration to tweak the angles on the neck and tail a teeny bit, but Fatty Aardvark is perfect just the way he is.
I’ve learnt so much from this project; I feel like Abby has given me the skills to design lots of animal toys (if only I had the time, and could master my sewing machine so I can actually sew samples on it instead of hand-sewing!)
Ami and Fatty Aardvarks
As shaping is so important to me in my designs, now I’ve seen how much difference 1mm in your sewing line makes to the shape of the finished toy, I think I’m more comfortable sticking with designing crochet patterns; they give you much more precise control over the shape you end up with. Follow my crochet pattern stitch by stitch and you will end up with the same shape as me, even if you’re a beginner. Cut and sew my sewing pattern template and you’d probably end up with a similar, but not identical, shape – by the time you’ve eyeballed a 1/4″ seam to add to the pattern piece and then eyeballed it away again to get back to the stitching lines, it’s highly unlikely you’ll end up with exactly the same shape, even if you’re a master of your sewing machine.
Aardvark evolution, or how I went from embarrassing ignoramus to plush designer in 4 stages – and all thanks to Stuffed Animals!
These are all small niggles that I’m including for the sake of completeness. As I’ve used this book as a technique reference, not as a project instructional book, some of my peeves relate to that: if I’d made Abby’s projects before attempting one of my own, I’d have a better grasp of which techniques are illustrated by which project.
This is a one-of-a-kind book and I think it really fills a gap in the marketplace. I’ve decided that this is really three books in one, and different people will use it in very different ways:
It’s a soft toy pattern book: If you’re looking for a book of toy patterns, this is a varied collection of animal patterns to suit a range of skill levels. If you want to make a toy as a gift, you’ll probably find a design to suit every child. While there’s no difficulty level indicated on the patterns, the complexity increases throughout the book as new techniques are introduced.
It’s a course on soft toy technique and construction: Abby’s background as a teacher really shows through here; this book is structured as a step-by-step course, with each project as a demonstration piece for the lessons in that chapter. If you work through every project in the book, learning the lessons as you go, you’ll have a solid grasp of soft toy design techniques that you could bring to your future projects.
It’s a soft toy design reference book: And then there are people like me, who want the book solely as a reference book and will create our own designs. The included patterns are still useful as demonstrations of the lessons, which, for me, are the real gold. The lack of an alphabetised index is a real blow here – this is the only place where the book falls down for me. Everything I need to know is here, somewhere, but I found I had to flip through the book over and over again to hunt for the gems I needed. But it was always worth it – the content in Stuffed Animals is worth digging for, and my copy has definitely earned its place on my permanent reference shelf.
Overall: highly recommended! (Well done, Abby!)
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