It’s book launch day! Today is the day that my new book, Everyday Crochet, is released – so exciting!

Thanks to your preorders, Everyday Crochet had been rising up the ranks in the amazon crochet category, and now it’s (temporarily) out of stock on amazon! ? So that’s an unexpected blow, but I hope it’ll climb higher once they restock, and as the preorderers start to leave reviews after they receive their copies.

UPDATE: Amazon (.com and .ca) completely underestimated the number of preorders they’d receive from all of you (thank you!) and it went out of stock as soon as it launched. It’s now back in stock in the US, but still temporarily out of stock in Canada.

If you haven’t bought Everyday Crochet yet, you can read about it here or order from amazon here (although you may have to wait for it to come back into stock!) – or find it in your favourite bookshop. And order a signed bookplate from me here 🙂

Now, if you’ve already bought Everyday Crochet – or are just about to – we’re starting a crochet-along (CAL) from today until the end of the year for all the patterns in the book in the PlanetJune group on Ravelry, and I hope you’ll join us!

I’ve rolled this CAL into the Reindeer Games – the annual PlanetJune end-of-year CAL and online community event that also starts today – and there’s a special bonus virtual medal waiting for you if you make a project from Everyday Crochet…

Reindeer Games 2022 CAL

Crochet anything PlanetJune as part of the PlanetJune Reindeer Games 2022 (Tuesday, Nov 1 – Saturday, 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:

• 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:

• Cozy Reading – make a project from Everyday Crochet
• Secret Santa – make a project from the Buried Treasure pattern list
• 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 a year
• Ice Sculptor – techniques: cables, lace, Tunisian, etc
• Snowman – modifying or combining patterns
• Ho! Ho! Ho! – completing a project in each of 3 different categories
• 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 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 to our Ravelry group and say hello! (And if you’d join if this event was hosted elsewhere instead of Ravelry, please email me or leave me a comment to let me know, so I can take that into account for next year.)

Whether you join the CAL or not, I really hope you’ll enjoy Everyday Crochet, and that you’ll email me (june@planetjune.com) or tag me (@planetjune) on your social media so I can see what you’re making from my book! (And, if you love it, please recommend it to everyone you know who might like it too, and a 5-star review on Amazon would be very much appreciated…) ?

Only 4 days to go until my new book, Everyday Crochet, launches! There’s no way I can sell signed copies of this book (the shipping costs would be far too high – it’s almost 300 pages and weighs 2lb/900g!), so please order it directly from amazon or your local bookstore.

But, if you’d like me to sign your book for you, I’ve commissioned a professionally printed high quality bookplate sticker with easy-peel backing, perfectly sized at 2×4″ (~5x10cm) to fit in the empty space on the first page of any of my books.

Each bookplate sticker will be signed personally to you by me, June Gilbank, so you can get a ‘signed’ copy of any (or all!) of my books by sticking a bookplate directly into your copy.

Or, if you’re giving my book as a gift, why not give a ‘signed’ copy by sticking a bookplate – signed personally to your recipient – into the book before you gift it?

The easy-peel sticker backing is split on the back, so you can gently bend the bookplate to peel off each section of the backing from the middle – there’s no struggling to peel the sticker from a corner and potentially ruining the corner!

Get your author-signed bookplates now >>

Crochet Tools – Flash Sale!

For this weekend only, I’m also re-opening the Crochet Tools shop, so you can combine shipping if there’s anything else you need. I have very limited quantities this time around, and the shop won’t be open again for the best part of a year, so if you need a Detail Stuffing Tool, an exclusive PJ enamel pin, or anything else, now’s your chance!

Browse my collection of essential crochet tools & pins now >>

Note: If you’re reading this after Oct 30th and missed the flash sale, sign up here and I’ll notify you when the Crochet Tools shop next opens.

Bookplate Availability

The logistics of having to batch-ship via my cross-border shipping company means I can only open the Crochet Tools shop once or twice a year – as my items are so inexpensive, it’s the only way to keep international shipping costs reasonable for you.

But, as the bookplates (and vinyl stickers, while stocks last) can ship as lettermail, I can just drop them at the post office once a week, so I intend for the bookplates to always be available in the shop, so you can get a ‘signed’ copy of Everyday Crochet at any time 🙂

What an amazing birthday present – look what just arrived!

I’m delighted to announce that my new crochet book, Everyday Crochet, will be published on November 1st 2022 and is now available to preorder from Amazon and all good bookshops.

Preorders make a world of difference to how well a book does long-term, as the preorder numbers send a signal to booksellers, libraries and reviewers that the book is valuable and worth stocking, so if you’re thinking about buying Everyday Crochet, please place your pre-order right now (that’s an amazon link, but you should be able to preorder from your local bookstores too), before the November 1 publication date! Thank you so much ?

The Path to ‘Everyday Crochet’

When I wrote my 2015 book Idiot’s Guides: Crochet, I didn’t set out to write an ‘Idiot’s Guide’ – I wanted to write the definitive crochet reference book that I wished I’d had when I was learning to crochet, with projects to practice what you’ve learnt along the way, simple instructions with clear close-up photos for every technique, beautiful photographs, and a wide variety of patterns, stitch patterns, and motifs.

I’m happy to say that my publisher, DK, agreed with my assessment that the book I wrote for them transcended the unfortunately-named Idiot’s Guides brand, and now that IG: Crochet has sold out, we’re republishing it as a revised version with a new idiot-free name. (Thank goodness!)

Introducing: Everyday Crochet!

Fully Updated and Revised

I completely revised the old book to create Everyday Crochet, and we’ve given it a new clean easy-to-read format. I’ve combed through it page by page and added lots of little touches, such as:

Page references for all the new techniques you’ll need for each practice project:

A gorgeous visual table of contents so you can see the projects you can make as soon as you open the book:

A left-handed reference section at the end of the book that shows you all the basics. Lefties now get step-by-step left-handed photos for every step from learning how to hold a hook and yarn through to completing their first project.

I’m most excited about this last point – I campaigned hard for this, and I think it may be a first for a craft book! (I had to fight to even get one page for left-handers in IG: Crochet, and I know that wasn’t enough.) As a lefty myself, I understand the struggle of trying to learn everything from a right-hander’s perspective, so it was important for me to have this available for others like me – we lefties make up 10% of the population, but are rarely catered for.

With my 16-page left-handed reference section, you, a fellow left-hander, can go from picking up a hook for the first time to completing your first crochet project (a single crocheted dishcloth) without ever having to consult a right-handed photo and trying to mirror it so you can figure out what you need to do. Once you’ve got those basic crochet skills down, adding on new stitches and techniques will be much easier, even in this world of right-handed instruction. (And you can always come back to PlanetJune too, where I always provide additional instruction to lefties where it’s needed!)

What’s New (and What’s Not)

I should make it clear: although it has a new name and has been fully revised, Everyday Crochet is not a substantively different book from IG: Crochet – all the patterns, projects and tutorials are the same. If you’ve bought IG: Crochet, you already know that it’s a high-quality book packed full of useful tips, beautiful photos and my original patterns, and nothing has changed there.

There were only a few tiny errata in IG: Crochet that have now been corrected. Other than that, and a couple of errant arrows that had previously turned up in the wrong place, the changes are in clarity and clarification only.

But wow, it is so much clearer now!

Old (left) vs new (right) – see how much clearer it is to read now?

Design: You may have noticed that the old font was very thin and pale and not the easiest thing to read. The new text design is modern, clean and super-clear – it’s so much easier on the eyes! And I’ve replaced all the arrows that point to specific stitches in the tutorial photos to make them clearer – the old coloured arrows were pretty, but clean black arrows are much easier to see.

Content: I’ve made little tweaks and improvements throughout the entire book that make it a better experience to use. I’ve fully edited the content, breaking up long paragraphs into lists, highlighting keywords, and clarifying anything that wasn’t phrased exactly how I wanted it to be in the previous book.

Do I Need This Book? (Yes!)

I had three goals for (both versions of) this book, because I wanted to make an ambitious 3 books in 1 volume:

• The complete beginner’s guide: To create the clearest, most comprehensive learn-to-crochet tutorials, with ultra close-up photos of every single step, so people really can learn to crochet from my book.
• The crochet tips guide: To distill all the knowledge and tips I’ve picked up over my crocheting life into clear, easy to follow instructions.
• The beautiful pattern book: To create a collection of stylish original accessories and home decor patterns that would make perfect gifts, so you’ll want to make everything in the book! The patterns need to be simple to work (but not boring for experienced crocheters) and show some of the variety possible in crochet, so you’ll learn more as you make each pattern.

And that’s what you’ll get in Everyday Crochet! This book is different from every other crochet book on the market and excellent value for money, whatever your crochet skill, as it’s perfect for both beginners and more experienced crocheters. I hope you’ll find it a valuable resource, whether your goal is to learn to crochet, to improve your crochet skills and knowledge, to find a selection of clean, timeless designs to crochet, or all of the above.

(Want to know more about the content? The patterns, tutorials etc are all the same as in the previous version of the book (IG: Crochet), and you can read my posts about the old version where I talk about everything that’s in the book!)

• If you never got around to buying IG: Crochet or were put off by the name, this is the perfect time to pick up my refreshed and revised book, Everyday Crochet!
• While you don’t need to buy Everyday Crochet if you already have IG: Crochet, it’s a lovely update if you’d like to treat yourself (or put it on your Christmas list).
• And I hope that, even if you don’t buy it for yourself, you’ll buy a copy of Everyday Crochet as a gift for every beginner or intermediate crocheter you know!

I’m so proud of this book. Everyday Crochet truly is the crochet reference book I always wished existed, and I hope it’ll earn a permanent place on your bookshelf.

Everyday Crochet will be published on November 1st 2022 and is now available to preorder from Amazon and all good bookshops.

If there are other crochet techniques you’d like me to cover in future videos, please leave a comment below, or email me (june@planetjune.com) with your suggestions!

Crocheted appliques are small flat embellishments that you can attach to larger crocheted pieces as decorative elements. I’m often asked for my recommendation on how to fix appliques to their background. There are different ways to tackle attaching an applique to a crocheted background, and the best method depends on what you’re making:

• Will the reverse side of the background be hidden – for example, on a cushion or a hat?
• Will the reverse side be visible – for example, on a blanket or a scarf?
• Or if you’re attaching the applique to an amigurumi – for example adding crocheted eyes or spots – is it a decorative piece, or will it be played with?

In my latest video, I’ll show you the three different methods I use to attach crocheted appliques, and the pros and cons of each. You’ll learn how to attach appliques with fabric glue, and two methods for stitching down appliques: the faster variation (for when the back of the piece won’t be seen) and a neater method (for when the back will be seen).

Although there’s no actual crocheting in this video, I’ve made right- and left-handed versions anyway, so you can see the shape of the crochet stitches and the way to sew them down exactly as you’ll see them when you do it yourself! (I’ve also added text instructions with photos for those of you who prefer to read written instructions.)

I know this question will come up even more frequently as I add more applique patterns to my catalogue, so having a helpful guide is going to come in very handy, and I hope you’ll find it useful!

Go to the How to Attach Crochet Appliques video tutorial >>

I spent most of the day yesterday setting up this scene in the PlanetJune forest (no regrets!) and I couldn’t wait to share it with you! This photo captures the essence of what I love about fall – the gorgeous colours and the cozy warm feeling of the season. I hope you love it too…

What do you think? Does it give you a warm and cozy feeling?

To set up this woodland scene, I used 5 different PlanetJune designs (find them all at www.planetjune.com/fall!):

• Squirrel (both the grey and red varieties)
• Oak Leaf Collection & Life-Sized Acorn (and now you can see how well the acorns fit in the Squirrels’ paws!)
• Maple Leaf Collection & Canadian Flag
• Pine Cone Collection
• Mushroom Collection & Variations

Can you spot them all (except the Canadian flag – that didn’t quite fit this theme!) in the scene?

Behind The Scenes

Why did it take me so long to capture one photo? I thought you might enjoy a glimpse into my process here…

First I collected the elements I thought I might include in this photo – a big pile of leaves, mushrooms, acorns, pine cones and squirrels.

I set up the empty PlanetJune forest scene with a fleece fabric floor and my painted green backdrop.

Fun fact: I’ve been using the PlanetJune forest since 2008, when I launched my AfricAmi patterns and realised my white rhino wouldn’t show up well against a white background! The ‘ground’ is a piece of fleece fabric, and the mottled green backdrop is a sheet of white poster board that I painted to look generically leafy. I’m amazed that my painted backdrops have survived my round-the-world travels and I’m still using them 14 years later!

Then it was time to arrange all the elements, light the scene so everything shows up clearly, and start photographing!

I currently use two softboxes to light my photos. They make it possible for me to shoot at any time of day or night and have my pictures always look consistent. Look at the difference they make to the scene: in the above photo the lights are off and in the one below they’re turned on:

After snapping the first photo, I copied it to the computer and checked it on my big monitor. Then came many rounds of tweaking. I’d change the exposure or depth of field on the camera, or moving elements around while hoping I didn’t knock any pieces over or jog the camera tripod (it’s tricky maneuvering around the tripod and light stands to reach into the scene, and my poor mushrooms fell over multiple times!)

After each change, I’d snap another photo and check it again, and repeat over and over. In the end, to create the square photo I was looking for, I had to raise the height of the ground at the back by slipping a roll of extra fabric under my base fleece. And, of course, doing that made allll the mushrooms fall over and I had to start positioning them all again…

But finally, I had the raw photo I wanted, and all that was left to do was to crop and process it into the final image!

It’s a long process, but to me it’s like a little art project, and it’s very satisfying when it all comes together into a finished piece I can be proud of. I hope you’ll love my adorable little woodland scene!

If you’d like to crochet any of these patterns, or any of my other autumn-themed designs (including some freebies, if crochet patterns aren’t in your budget right now) I’d love it if you’d join the PlanetJune ‘Fall into Autumn’ CAL (crochetalong).

You can find the CAL in the PlanetJune groups on Ravelry and Discord, and you can also join in by posting what you’re making to any of your social media accounts and tagging me (@PlanetJune) so I can see them and leave you a comment.

I don’t usually announce CALs here on the blog unless I’m already writing a related post like this one, so if you’d like to be notified about new crochetalongs, please join one or both of the PlanetJune community groups where our CALs take place, or sign up for my monthly newsletter – I’ll always keep you in the loop!

Autumn is my favourite time of year, when the weather starts to cool and the leaves turn glorious colours, and I’m celebrating that now with the second addition to my autumn leaf designs: the Oak Leaf Collection (with a bonus matching tiny acorn design!)

Oak Leaf Collection & Life-Sized Acorn includes two different sizes of oak leaf to crochet, and a realistic life-sized acorn pattern. Each leaf is worked in one piece, with a clever construction that gives a realistic shape and the suggestion of veins. The acorns are worked amigurumi-style, with an ingenious no-sew construction. So the entire project has no sewing – you’ll only need your needle to weave in the yarn ends!

Ideas for Use

• Make a pile of acorns as a tasty snack for an amigurumi Squirrel
• Use a single crocheted oak leaf as an appliqué on a hat or sweater, glue it onto a greetings card, or add a pin back and an acorn to make a brooch
• Make a simple ornament by adding a hanging loop to a pair of oak leaves and one or two acorns.
• Crochet lots of leaves in a variety of colours and add a handful of acorns: scatter them on your mantelpiece or Thanksgiving table, or group them together into a beautiful fall garland or wreath.

About the Patterns

Although they are only available together, I’ve separated the oak leaves and acorns into two separate PDF files, as the crochet and construction techniques are completely different for each, so there’s no info that’s common to both patterns. Here’s a brief intro to each:

Oak Leaf Collection

• This pattern includes large (9-lobed) and small (7-lobed) realistically sized and shaped oak leaves.
• For each leaf size, you’ll find both the written instructions and a complete stitch diagram on a single easy-to-print page.
• For more detailed assistance, the pattern also includes general instructions with photos to help you understand the construction of the leaves, and separate appendices for right- and left-handers including row-by-row photos and stitch diagrams for each leaf.

Life-Sized Acorn

• This acorn is approximately life-sized (only 1.5″/4cm long) and realistically shaped, and has an ingenious no-sew construction.
• The pattern is fully illustrated throughout with lots of step-by-step photos to explain the unique one-piece construction.
• For ease of printing, it also includes a single-page text-only printable version at the end of the pattern.
• Note: This is a completely different acorn from my Amigurumi Acorn design from 2007! That one is cute, round and vastly oversized, with the cap and stalk as separate pieces that need to be sewn together.

About the Designs

I’m really pleased with the work I’ve been doing on applique design in recent years. I’m evolving a new style of applique where I shape the piece with single crochet stitches, which gives a sturdy result without any holes – it’s the 2D version of my amigurumi style! As I develop this style, I’m learning how to create different shapes and angles with each new design, and the oak leaves are the epitome of my work so far in this field.

Spot the difference! Real and crocheted oak leaves

It’s fascinating to me – to have the lobes of the leaf sit at realistic angles and create a symmetrical leaf, the number and position of the stitches has to be different on each side of the leaf… It’s not at all obvious how to do this, but the beauty of it is that once I’ve created the design and written and charted the pattern for you, you can simply follow it to make perfectly-shaped leaves without having to understand any of that!

And the acorn was a different sort of design challenge: making a realistic size and shape when you have so few stitches to work with – even one stitch makes a huge difference! I tried many different ideas (there are well over a dozen green-and-purple acorn prototypes still littering my desk…)

This no-sew method, although unconventional, was by far the best in terms of a good result. After you’ve made the first one and learnt how it comes together, it’s not difficult at all and they’re quick to crochet with no assembly at the end – you’ll love it!

Buy Now

Ready to get started? Pick up the Oak Leaf Collection & Life-Sized Acorn crochet patterns from my shop right now.

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

I hope you’ll love these new seasonal designs and that they’ll spark ideas for your Fall, Thanksgiving and Halloween decorating! And they’d be even more spectacular if you combine them with my Maple Leaf Collection and Pine Cone Collection patterns… I can’t wait to see what you do with them!

Trying something new today: I’ve created my first pattern-exclusive video tutorial: a quick video demonstration that’s only available to purchasers of a specific pattern, and that demonstrates a specific part of the pattern that might trip you up.

In this case, I’m demonstrating the optional Puffy Seafoam add-on for my Turtle Beach blankets, found in the donationware version of the Ribbed Ripple/Turtle Beach pattern.

Isn’t it a lovely effect?

This addition lets you add a row of 3-dimensional seafoam to any of my Turtle Beach blanket patterns. It’s crocheted as an afterthought directly onto the completed blanket, so if you’ve already made a turtle beach blanket, you can add the puffy seafoam at any time!

A Little Background…

Turtle Beach Collection is my most popular pattern set, having gone viral multiple times since I first released the original donationware blanket pattern to accompany my baby sea turtles in 2016, and I’ve been improving and expanding the collection ever since then, with more blanket patterns, flat and stuffed turtles, starfish, and additional modification ideas.

In 2019 I first added a brief explanation for the Puffy Seafoam at the end of the basic Ribbed Ripple/Turtle Beach Donationware pattern. It’s a fast and fun addition with a realistic 3D effect, but the construction is a little unusual, so I thought it deserved a bit more detail to help you make it!

Now, I’ve updated the tutorial in the pattern (it now includes full right-handed and left-handed instructions) and I’ve created an exclusive video tutorial (with right- and left-handed versions) to accompany this, so you can watch it in action – isn’t that cool?

How to Get the Video

If you’ve ever donated for the Ribbed Ripple/Turtle Beach blanket pattern, you can log back into your PlanetJune account and download the new Ribbed Ripple pattern PDF from ‘My Patterns‘.

On page 9 of the PDF, you’ll find the updated Puffy Seafoam add-on instructions, including the links to both the right-handed and left-handed versions of the new video.

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

You can also add the seafoam to my Classic Blue (above, left) or Teal Ombré (above, right) Turtle Beach blankets, so if you haven’t bought the Ribbed Ripple pattern too, you might like to think about grabbing it now!

For your minimum $2 donation you’ll get the Puffy Seafoam add-on – including the video links – and also an optional edging you can use if you’d like to square off the edges of your finished blanket, to turn it into a rectangle or use as a base to add any fancy crocheted edging. These options work with any of my Turtle Beach blanket patterns.

3D seafoam, squared-off edging

Pattern-Exclusive Videos: Good Idea?

This project was an experiment for me in two ways:

1. To see if I can make a ‘quick’ video that doesn’t take hours of my time to produce and edit (the answer to that is no!)
2. To see how well this idea of making bonus pattern-exclusive video content works – and that’s where you come in…

Please watch the video and let me know what you think!

• Is the video demo a valuable addition to a pattern?
• Is it useful to have the video link on the same page, so it’s right there as soon as you get stuck?
• Would you like to see more patterns with private video tutorials for any tricky bits?

Please email me or comment below with your feedback!

What’s Next

I hope you’ll enjoy the new video! It’s a novel method with a lovely 3D result, and I think the video will really help you to visualize what you’ll be doing as you crochet the seafoam, and how it comes together.

If this ‘pattern-exclusive video’ idea is popular, I’ll start keeping an eye on my customer support requests for any other common questions that would benefit from a quick video tutorial, and then update the relevant pattern with the link once I’ve made the private video.

Tip: From now on, I’ll notify you of any pattern updates in my monthly newsletter, so if you don’t already subscribe, please sign up to make sure you know about any bonus content and improvements I’ve added for the patterns you own!

Have you seen this novelty loop yarn in stores? It’s designed to be finger-knit with no tools – you just pull one loop through the next.

Working straight gives you a standard knitted fabric, and crossing pairs of loops before you ‘knit’ them lets you make pretty stitch patterns.

I picked up a bargain bundle of this Bernat Blanket Alize Blanket EZ from the yarn factory outlet store as part of my quest to find relaxing crafts to try. (And yes, this is the wrong time of year to be making a cozy blanket, but I have air conditioning, so it’s not that bizarre…)

Choosing a Pattern

Once you know what you’re doing, you can probably adapt many knitting patterns for this type of yarn, but I’d recommend starting out by choosing a pattern that’s designed especially for loop yarn.

I chose my favourite pattern, Yarnspirations’ Diamond Lattice Blanket, and looked up other projects on Ravelry to see what other people thought of it. Based on the feedback of a few other ravelers, I started by forming a starting chain so the bottom of the blanket would match the cast-off edge, and pulled up a row of plain knit stitches in the back bumps of the chain before beginning the lattice pattern, to give a straighter bottom edge.

This pattern says it’s rated as ‘experienced’ skill level, and I agree with that assessment. I wouldn’t jump into this as your first loop knitting project like I did unless you really like a challenge. (Luckily, I do!)

As others had noted in their project notes, the pattern is extremely wordy and not clear to follow. I decided to just ignore the pattern directions after the first row, and figure it out myself based on watching where the slanted crossed stitches should go next. I got a bit confused at the edges at first, but apart from that it was fairly straightforward, thanks to my experience with crossed stitches in knitting. Again, I wouldn’t recommend this specific pattern unless you’re familiar with loop knitting and/or regular knitting with crossed stitches.

Loop Knitting: The Process

Loop knitting is actually a little more difficult than I’d imagined it would be:

• As you never turn the work, you work left to right for one row and right to left for the next, so each hand has to do different things on odd and even rows.
• It’s definitely a two-handed craft – crossing loops with one hand while finding the next loop of the working yarn with the other keeps you on your toes!

Crossing a pair of stitches

Upsides

Although the in-progress project looks like a knitter’s nightmare – just like you’ve dropped all your stitches off the needles! – the textured yarn holds the loops in place well, so the stitches are fairly secure. It even takes a bit of effort to frog these stitches if you make a mistake, so stitches unravelling by mistake doesn’t seem to be a problem.

The yarn is very soft and feels nice to work with (if you’re familiar with plush chenille super bulky blanket yarns, it’s like a looped version of an extra thick one). As each stitch is large, it works up quickly and the resulting fabric is extremely thick and plush – I’d never use this yarn and technique to make anything other than a cozy blanket.

Downsides

I discovered a major problem with using this kind of yarn: as you never turn the work, you don’t see the back until you’ve finished (or stop and flip it over). That wouldn’t be a problem, except that it’s very easy to skip a loop in your working yarn without noticing, so you keep going blissfully along with no problem until the end of your session when you fold up your work and see this:

Noooo!

A big loop on the back of the work! The only solutions at this point are:

• Cut the loop off (which should be just as safe as starting a new ball of looped yarn – there’s just a tiny nub of plain yarn at the end of each ball – but that would leave two extra tiny nubs in your work).
• Cut the loop in half and weave in each of the resulting ends (again, it’s safe to do this, but I’m not sure how well the ends would stay hidden over time).
• Undo alllll the way back to the loop and redo it properly.

Can you guess which one I did?! That’s right, I frogged back to fix the mistake whenever I realised that I’d done it again, sometimes unravelling 5 or 6 entire rows, so I could fix the problem – ugh.

And here’s the other problem with this yarn: the fluffy chenille is very ‘grabby’ – when you’ve pulled a loop through another loop, they tend to hold in place. This is obviously a good thing when you have a whole row of loose loops to work with, but it does mean that unravelling takes almost as long as knitting the loops in the first place!

Adding a New Ball of Yarn

I couldn’t find any info on how to add the next ball of yarn, so my solution was to hold the last loop of the old ball and the first loop of the new ball together. Then, on the next row, all I had to do was to remember to pass the new loop through both the loops below.

Tip: As there are free loops all over the place, it’s easy to miss the doubled loop, so I clipped a locking stitch marker around both loops so I could easily spot them again as I worked the next row.

The Result

My finished blanket is 43×57″, which is a nice size for a sofa throw. (It did confuse me though, as the pattern claims the blanket is 56″ wide, not 43″ – I think that must be a mistake in the pattern instructions, as that’s a huge discrepancy.)

Isn’t it pretty?

Although it’s far too hot to even contemplate needing a thick cozy blanket at the moment, I know I’ll enjoy using mine when the cooler weather arrives. It’s very soft, has a good weight to it, and I love that lattice stitch pattern.

A couple more angles…

Here’s the texture of the back of the blanket.

And here are the top and bottom edges – they did end up matching nicely.

And, most importantly: it’s passed the Maggie test! She curled straight up on it on my lap and went to sleep – that’s high praise from my discerning girl. 😉

Relaxing Verdict

Loop knitting is definitely a relaxing craft if you’re following a simple repetitive pattern. Once you’ve completed the first row, it’s very easy to form knit stitches by pulling the next loop from the working yarn through the next loop of the row below. I found it to be mostly relaxing once I got used to my more challenging stitch pattern, and if you chose a more straightforward stitch pattern, it would be very relaxing!

Finger knitting with pre-looped yarn means you don’t need to worry about tension – the size of each loop is fixed, so you know you’ll get a nice even result without any effort to control it. But it does give rise to the problem of accidentally leaving a loop on the back of your work – that’s one thing that would never happen with knitting or crochet, or even finger knitting, where you always control the flow of yarn.

Immersing your fingers directly in the soft cozy yarn to create a blanket makes a nice change from holding a hook or needles, but my overall verdict is that looped yarn is a bit of a novelty with limited applications. It’s fun to try, and the results can be lovely – I’m very happy with my chunky blanket! – but I don’t see loop knitting becoming the ‘next big thing’ in fibre arts. What do you think?