PlanetJune by June Gilbank

I just returned from the summer Tent Sale at the Yarn Factory Outlet in Listowel, ON. Twice a year, they have a big sale, and I’ve been to the past two winter sales, but never to the summer sale before.

It’s about an hour’s drive from my house, through farmland and Mennonite country, and today I had an added surprise: the highway was closed for a stretch, and I got to take a scenic diversion through even more of the countryside. It turns out that the drive is so much nicer in August than in February: I saw 2 hawks perched on a signpost, skipping lambs following their mothers, countless cows with calves, and big horses with adorably fragile-looking foals. If the sun had only been shining, it would have been a perfect drive!

And then when I got there, I discovered that the yarn sale is also better than their winter sale! They put up a huge tent in the parking lot, filled with huge boxes of bagged yarn, 3, 4 or 6 balls per bag (same shade and dye lot in each bag) with crazy prices on the bags and then, on top of that, if you buy 3 bags of the same yarn, you get the 4th for free!

Despite the gloomy day, it was stuffy and humid outside, so you can just imagine what it was like inside the crowded tent. But it was worth it. Everyone was handed an extra-strong black garbage bag on the way in, to use as a shopping bag, which I thought was overkill until I started shopping. 24 balls of yarn is large and heavy, and the deals were too good to stop at only 24!

I managed to restrain myself and only bought 4 bags (24 balls) each of Patons Grace and Bernat Satin. And that took some serious willpower – seeing yarn that usually costs $4-5 per skein being sold at $4 for a bag of 3 skeins… Ah, the temptation!

My haul!

The only downside was that I didn’t have any cash with me – the cash-only till had no queue at it, but the two debit/credit tills moved very slowly. I ended up spending about half an hour shopping, and another hour standing in the stuffy tent waiting to pay. But when I finally got back outside, there was a little refreshments tent, selling hot and cold drinks and fresh baked goods, so I got myself a little energy boost before the drive home

Today was the first day of the sale, and it runs through to August 21st. If you live in driving distance of Listowel, Ontario, I highly recommend you take a trip to the Yarn Factory Outlet this week or next. You won’t regret it!

Reviews

Just realised I forgot the ‘Review and Win’ draw at the end of June – oops! The June winner is Vicki S – congratulations, Vicki! I’ll email you to find out which pattern you’d like as your prize

I’m really happy to have almost 100 reviews in my shop now – thank you so much to everyone who’s taken the time to review one of my patterns or products over the past 3 months. But there are still lots of patterns that have yet to receive a single review, so please keep reviewing! (It’s an easy way for you to help my business even if you don’t have any spare cash to buy more patterns right now, and you might win the next monthly draw!)

To write a review:

1. Go to www.planetjune.com/shop
2. Browse to the item you want to review
3. Click the Reviews tab
4. Click the write a review button

…You may be July’s free pattern winner!

Vacation

And now a little shop admin: as you may have gathered from my previous post, my fancy-schmancy shoes and I are heading to the UK for my sister’s wedding next weekend. This means that any orders for eyes, noses, stitch markers and stuffing tools received after today (July 11th) will be shipped when I return on July 21st. (That’s the downside of having a one-person business! Sorry for any inconvenience.)

Pattern orders are unaffected: all patterns will still be available for immediate download, as always. I’ll also be checking email while I’m away, so feel free to contact me with any questions.

I’m a winner

Yay – my Reepicheep has won the Craftster Fantasy Crochet Challenge, with 64% of the votes!

(Are you bored with seeing Reep’s picture yet? I’m sorry – I promise this is the last time I’ll post it!)

I am a bit disappointed though, because I thought the fantasy theme was really rich and exciting subject matter, and there would be loads of imaginative entries. I don’t know if it was the time of year, or if people just didn’t know about the contest, but in the end there were only a paltry four entries – such a shame. I was looking forward to seeing all sorts of crocheted dragons and unicorns and elves and so on… I suppose I’ll just have to make them all myself, if nobody else is going to! (My new Mythical Creatures pattern category in the shop is looking a little sparse, so that’s actually not a bad idea at all…)

Blogiversary Contest Winners

Thank you so much to everyone who left me a comment on my blogiversary post! I’ve loved reading all your comments and suggestions, and I’ve definitely gained some inspiration and new ideas to take me forward into Year 5 of PlanetJune Now onto the fun part: the winners! I downloaded all the comments into Excel, tagged them as pattern or tool, and split them apart into two sets. I then picked a random entry from each set as the winners:

The pattern draw winner is Vicki, who said:

June,
Your blog is amazing! I love all of your patterns!! I think some additions to the farm series would be fun – goat, chicken, horse, sheep, etc…Thanks for all you do for all of us crafters! I would like to be entered into the pattern contest
Thanks!

And the Detail Stuffing Tool draw winner is SparklyShiny, who said:

You’ve had a very busy year! Your website is so easy to navigate and your patterns are truly amazing (I’m getting spoiled with your well-written directions). I can’t wait to see what you come up with next – love the idea of a dragon, and I keep looking for a realistic parrot pattern.

I definitely want one of your stuffing tools – after the experience of Chihuahua leg (before your tool was available), I know that I need to add one to my tool kit.

Congrats to both of you – I’ll email you, Vicki, to find out which pattern you’d like, and you, Sparkly, to get your mailing address!

I feel bad for all the non-winning commenters – your comments were all so sweet and really useful – so I’ve decided to email a discount coupon to all of you: now you’re all runners-up (Please allow me a couple of days to send them all out – there are a lot of you runners-up to get through – and check your Spam folder if you don’t see it in your inbox.)

So, as I said in the title of this post, everyone’s a winner – yay!

Don’t forget to enter the contests at the end of this post!

Year 4 Review

The PlanetJune craft blog will be 4 years old tomorrow. It’s hard to believe it; every year has flashed past so quickly! So what exactly have I been doing with myself for the past year? I’ve:

• Designed and published 17 new crochet patterns:



• Self-published my first eBook, The Punchneedle Handbook
• Designed and published 9 punchneedle embroidery patterns:



• Had my pincushion and needlebook patterns published in the book One Yard Wonders
• Somehow managed to find time for some other crafts and tutorials:



• Won the Critter Contest and Craftster’s Best of 2009; nominated for 3 Bobby awards and a Flamie award
• Wrote, photographed and illustrated my upcoming crochet book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amigurumi

That last item was the biggie that’s occupied most of my time since last summer; writing a 200-page book is no easy task. But it’s finally finished and I can’t wait to be able to see the finished book when it’s released in October!

Tiny Acorns…

I thought I’d take a step back and return to the first post I ever published on this blog (reproduced here in its entirety):

The tiny acorn that became PlanetJune…

When I started PlanetJune, I had a small goal – to inspire creativity by keeping track of my crafts on the blog. From that one small goal I’ve:

• Met the most amazing and inspirational creative people
• Developed the confidence to start designing patterns
• Become an artist and a teacher
• Written and illustrated my first book (with a second book on the way)

…and, in only four years, turned a little crafty hobby into my full-time occupation – something I would never have dreamed could occur when I first set out on this journey. They say to dream big, but dreaming small and having the reality exceed your wildest expectations is pretty special too!

Where Next?

That’s not to say I’m at the point I’d like to be with my business and my creative career. My goal for the coming year is to build my business to the point where I no longer have that niggling feeling that I should really go and get myself a ‘real’ job – a feeling that comes down to the grim reality of earning enough money to continue to support myself. I’m paying my own way at the moment, but I’m far from earning the salary I used to make pre-self-employment. And that’s okay: I’ve changed my lifestyle too; I no longer buy clothes I don’t need or DVDs I’ll never watch. I don’t have any expensive hobbies, and my craft purchases are all business expenses! I do what I love, and I love what I do.

But, to continue to succeed I need to grow and expand the business. I wish I had a crystal ball: I have a lot of exciting ideas, and it’s hard to know where I should invest my time. It’ll be interesting to see where I am by my 5th blogiversary!

Contests

You, my readers, have given me so much support and encouragement along this journey so far, and so I’d like to give something back! I’m running 2 contests:

1. Win any single pattern (your choice) from my store. (FYI, each PocketAmi set counts as one pattern.)
2. Win one of my exclusive Detail Stuffing Tools – a must-have for stuffing amigurumi or small plush toys!

To enter, leave me a comment on this post, including:

1. Your choice of prize – type TOOL or PATTERN
2. Tell me something, e.g. a suggestion for a future design, something you’d like to see on PlanetJune, or a suggestion for how to take my business to the next level. Anything goes – I just want to hear from you!

If you want to enter both contests, just leave me 2 comments!

On Friday 18th June at 5pm EST, I will draw one name from each set of TOOL comments, and one from each set of PATTERN comments. (In the unlikely event that the same person ‘wins’ both, I’ll contact them to see which prize they would prefer, and then draw another name for the other contest winner). Good luck!

I have two winners to announce today…

First up, the winner of a copy of Crochet for Bears to Wear.

There were 80 entries, and the randomly chosen winner was… #1! (Huh, how often does that happen?! I guess 1 in 80 times in this case; although it seems strange, it’s as likely as any other number to come up.) So, Susan G of Finagling Life, I’ll be emailing you for your address, and then I’ll mail your book out to you. Congratulations!

And now onto my second winner off the day! It’s time for the first monthly drawing for a free pattern (winner’s choice) from everyone who reviewed one of the patterns or products in my shop.

Since I launched the review capability in my shop, there have been 44 reviews, and the randomly selected winner for April is review #24, written by Katie U. Congrats Katie, I’ll be emailing you to ask which pattern you’d like as your prize!

I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who has already taken the time to write a review for my shop – I think people are going to find them really helpful. But I have a lot of products in my shop that don’t have even one review yet, so please keep those reviews coming, and who knows, you may be the lucky winner in May’s free pattern draw! Each review you post will give you an additional entry into the draw