PlanetJune by June Gilbank

I’ve been planning a cactus collection for a few months now – I know I’m not exactly the first person to come up with the idea to make a crocheted cactus, but my idea was to make my designs more realistic than the cartoonish cacti I’ve seen before.

I always like to base my patterns on solid research so they look as realistic as possible, and when I started to investigate, I found a huge number of really interesting-looking cacti to crochetify: I started out sketching 8 different types, and then had so many great ideas for how to create them, I couldn’t decide which to cut!

I spent a lot of time developing different techniques and effects for each cactus, so I hope you can see that it’s not the same basic pattern with tweaks for size and shape here: each cactus is completely different from all the others.

8 plant designs plus 2 pots seemed a bit excessive for one pattern – that’s almost a book, not a pattern! – so my solution was to split the patterns over two cactus collections: you can buy your favourite collection without breaking the bank, or buy both (at a huge discount!) and mix-and-match cacti from each collection to create your perfect cactus garden.

Cactus Collection 1

Cactus Collection 1

Each collection comes with both the individual-sized pot pattern and the larger cactus garden pot pattern:

• An individual cactus makes a quick and sweet gift – or you can anthropomorphize it with some eyes and a smiley mouth to make a super-cute version!
• Two or three (or more) individual cactus pots look great arranged in a line along your windowsill.
• The larger cactus garden makes a beautiful decoration – and you’ll never have that problem where one of the collection dies and you’re left with a big empty space in the pot!

Cactus Collection 2

Cactus Collection 2

If you’d like to buy either or both of the Cactus Collection patterns, you can find them all in my shop. Don’t forget that there’s huge savings to be had if you buy the set of both collections.

As a special bonus for my newsletter subscribers, Twitter followers and Facebook fans, I’ll be giving out a special discount code to use with these patterns this week – so look out for that too!

Collection 1 includes (clockwise, from top left): Notocactus, Moon Cactus, Mammillaria, Echinocereus.

Collection 2 includes (clockwise, from top left): Micranthocereus, Cephalocereus, Opuntia (Paddle Cactus), Ferocactus (Barrel Cactus).

Which is your favourite?

UPDATE: adding some clearer links to where you can find the patterns:
Buy Cactus Collection 1
Buy Cactus Collection 2
Buy Cactus Collections 1 & 2 (at a bargain price!)

Here’s a realistic amigurumi apple: it’s not just a ball with a stalk attached, it’s actually the shape and size of a real apple!

Can you spot which is the real apple? Haha!

Give one to your (or your child’s!) favourite teacher, make a bowlful in red and green as a decorative centrepiece, or add a pair of safety eyes and an embroidered smile to make a sweet-as-apple-pie toy.

It’s so realistic I almost want to take a bite

The apples crochet pattern is free for you to use. If you’d like to thank me with a donation, you’ll get a handy printable PDF version of the pattern as a thank you

Enjoy!

Go to Amigurumi Apples pattern >>

I have a confession to make: when I launched my Dinosaurs Set 1, I promised I’d design another set if/when I sold 100 copies of the first set. And, ahem, well let’s just say that happened quite some time ago… I did start working on Set 2 in rare quiet periods while I was working on my new book, but there’s a lot involved in designing a three pattern set, so I put them to one side and concentrated on individual patterns until I had more time on my hands.

Dinosaurs Set 1, L-R: Brachiosaurus, Stegosaurus, Triceratops

And that time is now!

As you probably know from my first set, my dinosaur designs are deceptively simple: crocheted all in one colour, so they are really easy for you to crochet, and all the magic is in the shaping I built into them. It was really important to me that the new dinos have the same aesthetic as the original designs, and I hope I’ve succeeded in that:

Dinosaurs Set 2, L-R: Pteranodon, Plesiosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex

The first set (Brachiosaurus, Stegosaurus, Triceratops) were all herbivores, but I didn’t really want to make an all-carnivore set (some of the dino shapes are too similar to give an interesting mix of designs), so the theme of Set 2 is land, sea and sky. Coincidentally, once I started my research, I discovered that all the dinos I chose for Set 2 are actually carnivores anyway – ha!

Meet The Dinosaurs

Tyrannosaurus Rex was an obvious choice for my land dinosaur. He was the ‘king’ of the dinosaurs – need I say more?! T. rex was one of the largest carnivores, at about 40 ft long. He used his long tail to counterbalance the weight of his big head, he walked on his back legs, and had almost comically tiny arms.

Plesiosaurus is my sea dinosaur. I’ve always loved the elegant shape of Plesiosaurs. Plesiosaurus was about 8 ft long, and had an extremely long neck, a small head, wide body, and four long, paddle-like flippers. He lived in the sea and fed on fish and cephalopods.
Fun fact: some people believe that Nessie, the mythical Loch Ness monster, could be a surviving plesiosaur!

Pteranodon is my sky dinosaur; a type of Pterosaur. I was going to call him Pterodactyl, but then I discovered that the word Pterodactyl actually covers several different species (some of which don’t have that distinctive head crest!), and that the correct name for this specific dino is Pteranodon. He had a 20-30 ft wingspan, a long toothless beak, and a characteristic cranial crest at the back of his head.

I should probably mention, that, during my research for these species, I discovered that, technically, neither Plesiosaurs nor Pterosaurs are actually dinosaurs! The term ‘dinosaur’ correctly covers only a certain type of terrestrial reptile with an upright stance, so Plesiosaurs and Pterosaurs are simply related reptiles that lived in the same time periods as the true dinosaurs. I think that, for the purpose of this collection, and what people understand when they hear the word ‘dinosaur’, it’s okay for me to include them in my dinosaur set – I don’t expect anyone to use my patterns as research tools!

I hope you like my new dinosaur set! You can buy the patterns individually in the shop, or save a bundle when you buy the complete Set 2.

And here’s a bonus pic of my Dinosaurs Sets 1 and 2 – is it just me, or do they look really cute together?! (And I love those Vanna’s Choice yarn colours!)

Click to see them larger!

PS – I mentioned the new dinos on my Facebook page yesterday, and people there are already asking about Dinosaurs Set 3! Well, the same thing applies as last time: I’ll make a third set if I sell 100 copies of this one. So, if you want even more dinos, please spread the word about my new dino patterns!

Every time I say I’ll take a little break from AmiDogs before adding another breed, something happens to change my mind! In this case, a pattern commission from an Akita owner.

By the way, I love to get commissions for new patterns! (If you’d like to commission a pattern, get in touch – my rates vary depending on whether you’d like an exclusive pattern or if I can also sell it in my shop, and if so how popular I think it’s likely to be.)

So AmiDogs breed #16 is… the Akita!

What is an Akita, you may ask? Well, in my research for this design, I discovered there are actually two breeds of dog called Akita. The American Akita that you see here is the breed you’ll see called ‘Akita’ at dog shows etc. The Japanese Akita (or Akita Inu) looks more like a large Shiba Inu (who I’ve already reproduced in crochet!)

The Akita has a short muzzle, pointed ears and a long bushy tail that curls over his back, as you can see:

If you’d like to buy the AmiDogs Akita crochet pattern, you’ll find it in the shop as a stand-alone pattern, or, as always, you can save some money by including it in a custom set of any 3 AmiDogs patterns of your choice

I hope you like my Akita! I think he’s a cutie, don’t you?

I’m happy that so many of you are enjoying my botanical crochet patterns – it’s a refreshing change for me to mix it up a bit (although don’t worry, I won’t neglect the animal designs either!). I just love nature, and now I have an excuse to examine animals and plants in detail and challenge myself to recreate the essence of what I find in a simplified, easily reproducible way. This ‘job’ makes me very happy!

As you know, I can’t make a pattern for my darling Reepicheep, but I can and have made one for the lovely water lily you’ve seen with him! How about making a realistic crocheted water lily (or lotus blossom) arrangement as a beautiful decoration or table centrepiece?

This is a bit different to most of my other patterns: there’s no stuffing involved, and it’s *gasp* not all worked in single crochet, although it is all worked in very simple stitches, so it’s not difficult at all. The pattern includes full instructions with step by step photos and clear illustrations at every stage, so you can easily crochet your own Water Lily. With two different leaf sizes, you can create an aquatic arrangement with as many leaves and blossoms as you want.

Although the blossoms are fairly time-intensive (11 parts to each blossom, but they are worth it, I promise), the leaves are an absolute joy to crochet – you can work one up in minutes! So if you’re making an arrangement, I’d suggest several leaves to every flower – in reality, each plant has many leaves and a single flower, so you won’t even be cheating!

To give a more delicate effect, I used sport DK weight yarn for my petals, instead of my usual worsted weight, but you could use worsted weight for everything if you prefer (I give size comparison information in the pattern).

You could pick up my Water Lily crochet pattern from the shop and crochet one this weekend!