PlanetJune

In case you hadn’t guessed from the above, I’ve been working hard on some new designs, and now I can finally unveil big brother Elephant and pals, the Hippo and White Rhino:

Click for larger picture

The Elephant, Hippopotamus and Rhinoceros are all made with bulky weight yarn (like the AquaAmi), and are each about 6″ long. The three will form Set 1 of a new range, once I have written up the patterns. I’m going to call them AfricAmi, which gives me plenty of scope for future animal designs - there is a lot of interesting wildlife in Africa! Do you like the name?

I also painted a new backdrop to stage these guys. It took a lot of painting to get the background to stop looking like a big green board and starting to look a little bit like foliage, but I think the end result was worth it.

I hope you enjoyed the story! And look out for the AfricAmi patterns… coming soon to the PlanetJune store

I think I’m in love! He just flowed straight out of the yarn like this - I barely even had time to think about designing an elephant before he was there.

He’s crocheted from one of the new ‘heather’ shades of Bernat Satin
- have you seen them? I’m really excited about these new shades! They would make lovely colours for clothing too, and Satin is so soft I’d probably be happy with it against my skin, unlike Vanna’s Choice, which has some gorgeous colours, but isn’t quite as soft as I’d like.

Now back to the elephant: I’ve made him very small for a specific purpose - he’s going to be getting a big brother for the pattern version

As promised, here are some more pictures of my polar bear design. He is not pictured in a snowy scene because I’d like you to be able to see more than just a pair of eyes! It’s difficult enough to photograph white yarn against a contrasting background, let alone white on white…

Polar Bear will be part of my AquaAmi range; you’ll see from my fun facts below that he is an appropriate member of the AquaAmi family, even though he doesn’t live in the water all the time…

Here’s what my polar bear research uncovered:

• The polar bear is the largest land predator, at typically 2-3m long
• He is insulated against the freezing conditions of his Arctic habitat with a thick layer of blubber (fat), black skin, and two layers of hair
• He is adapted for swimming with a longer, more streamlined shape than other bears, and small ears that lay flat under water
• Big powerful front paws make him a strong swimmer, but also come in handy for swiping prey and for distributing his weight when walking on ice!

If you’d like to be notified when the AquaAmi Polar Bear pattern is available for purchase, please sign up for my mailing list.

6/6 - and the range has a name! Thanks to everyone who suggested names; my favourite is Val’s suggestion of PocketAmi. Thanks Val - some PocketAmi patterns will be winging their way to you as soon as they are ready!

The final design for the PocketAmi range (well, final for now - if these are popular there may be more sets later) is a dragonfly:

It was originally going to be a butterfly, but as I was crocheting, it decided that it wanted to be a dragonfly, and it was just turning out too cute to fight against that! So that’s why we have an unusually-coloured dragonfly here, but we all know ami can come in ANY colour, so you could make one in bright jewel tones or any other colour combo!

Here’s a pretty in pink example (yes, I confess, I just recoloured the above picture, but isn’t it sweet this way?)

I think a few of these would make an adorable baby mobile, don’t you?

Now to write up all the patterns! Don’t forget to sign up for the mailing list if you’d like notification when the PocketAmi are ready for purchase.

5/6 for the ‘mini’ range is a little bird:

I think he looks like he’s just about to leave the nest and take his first flight

By the way, I decided against the ‘farm’ theme because this range is designed to be really simple and quick to crochet; the shapes are all really simplified and I didn’t think a cow or a horse without a defined head, neck and body would look too good!

Instead, I’m going with a theme of ‘nature that you might see on a walk in the countryside’. One more design to go, and then I’ll get the patterns ready for you! Any more suggestions for the name of the range?

I can hardly believe I’ve been coming up with one design per day for the past few days! I’m exhausted now, so I’m going to slow down for a little while. Here’s the latest tiny ami; my little miniature sheep:

This makes 4 mini designs so far (with the piggy, bunny and mouse). I think I’ll make 6 and then release them as two sets of three, unless anyone has any better ideas? Don’t worry; they’ll be cheap because they are so tiny! I’m still working on the name for the range - thanks for the suggestions so far!

As always, I’d love to hear your ideas for the name or for other designs. If I use your idea for the name, I’ll give you some free mini patterns for your trouble! You have until I’ve made the 6th to send me your ideas, either by comment or e-mail

Look who I found in my garden:

The reclusive yarn snake, finally waking from his long winter hibernation.

Although he is small (6″ long), he doesn’t fit the theme of my new set of mini animals, but this is what my hands decided to make yesterday, and I like the way he wiggles. The curves are crocheted right in - clever, huh?

The finishing touch - a tiny felt tongue.

I’m so glad you guys like my tiny designs! I unfortunately don’t have the time to reply to every blog comment I receive, but I always reply to any questions you ask in the comments (either by e-mail or on the blog, if I think it’s something others may want to know the answer to as well). And want to assure you that I read and appreciate every comment I receive. Thank you, and please keep on commenting!

Thanks to your feedback, I’ve decided these tiny crocheted animals will be a new range of patterns, and I have a new theme in mind (although no name yet - I’m working on it). Here’s the latest mini ami: a teeny tiny mouse. I’m keeping him away from my cat, as I think, especially with a little catnip inside, this would make a very tempting cat toy (with yarn or felt eyes for safety, of course)!

Like the others, he’s only about 3″ long (plus tail) and he is super simple to make.

I’ll let on what the pattern theme for these little ones will be when I’ve come up with a couple more designs. Any preference over whether you’d like them to be released individually or as value-priced sets (or both)? Let me know - I love to get your feedback!

Yesterday’s amigurumi piglet needed a friend. Here is the smallest, simplest bunny I could dream up:

If you’re interested, there will be patterns for the pig and the bunny - sign up for my mailing list if you’d like to know when they are available

And now I have a question for you. I could keep designing these simple tiny ami for just about every variety of animal out there. They are a joy to make because they are so small and easy to whip up. Would you like to see some more (a whole new mini pattern range), or is two enough? Help me to decide!

PS - Catherine Andrews: please contact me with an alternate e-mail address. I keep getting a delivery failure when I try to send your patterns to the e-mail address you use for PayPal!

Sometimes a quick project is the most satisfying. He was quick to design and easy to crochet, but my amigurumi piglet does make me smile:

He may be small (about 3″ long) but he has big ambitions! This little piggy is hoping for a grand adventure - I’ll have to see what I can do about that…