PlanetJune Craft Blog

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I Love Yarn!

Today is I Love Yarn day, and, although every day is I Love Yarn day as far as I’m concerned, I thought I’d take a quick break from book-writing to share a little of my yarny love, as evidenced by a few of my old blog photos…

As a crocheter, I love yarn. I love being able to turn this:

my Bernat Satin stash
some of my amigurumi yarn stash

via this:

amigurumi in progress
toymaking!

into this:

PlanetJune amigurumi designs
some of my amigurumi designs

and this:

baby alpaca laceweight yarn
mmm, laceweight baby alpaca

into this:

PlanetJune Accessories designs
some of my accessories designs

But possibly the best thing about working with yarn is that you can fudge things and fix mistakes – it doesn’t always have to be perfect.

I’m a novice when it comes to knitting, and I must confess that I wasn’t quite delighted with my grey cardigan (the first garment I knitted) – stockinette tends to curl, and my i-cord edging wasn’t enough to combat that curl at the bottom. I found myself doing the Picard tug to the bottom of the cardigan every time I stood up…

I’d heard you can stitch a tape facing to the inside to keep it straight, but who has time to shop for tape? Then I realised I could make an afterthought knitted facing by picking up stitches all around the bottom, knitting a few rows, then stitching it a few rows up on the cardigan. I used some stash fingering weight yarn (left over from my Climbing Eyelets Shawl) and just did it without over-thinking the plan…

grey cardigan - afterthought facing to stop curling

It worked perfectly! My cardigan now has a straight non-curling edge around the bottom. You can just see a dented line on the outside from where I grafted the live stitches from the top of the facing to the cardigan with duplicate stitches, but the pale green colour is totally invisible from the outside and looks pretty from the inside when I wear the cardigan unbuttoned.

3 knit sweaters by planetjune

With this fix, I now have 3 self-designed and wearable handknit sweaters, and they’ve seen me through the (southern hemisphere) winter nicely. None of them is 100% perfect, but that may just make them even more special because it reminds me that I made them and it inspires me to do better next time. Although I won’t have time to knit anything else until I finish my book, I’m very excited at the idea of having a whole wardrobe of handmade sweaters – and in another year or two of knitting that could well be possible! I already have yarn bought and earmarked for the next 3…

So, both as a yarny professional (crochet designer) and an enthusiastic amateur (knitting adventurer), I really do love yarn! It’s amazing that you can start out with a ball of yarn and a hook or a couple of pointy sticks, and make pretty much anything 🙂

6 Comments »

  1. Zuleika said

    What a gorgeous wall of yarn! I’m planning on some yarn shopping tomorrow, hope I can find colours as pretty as those.
    Being able to create pretty much anything with yarn and a hook (or needles) is an amazing gift. I’m grateful for it every day. 🙂
    By the way those sweaters are gorgeous.

  2. Matilde said

    Me gustan mucho tus lanas.

    • June said

      Matilde, the rainbow of yarn in that photo is all Bernat Satin, but my other favourites for amigurumi are Red Heart Soft and Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice. If you’re interested, I’ve previously written a little about why I like each of these yarns 🙂

      • Chrisie (CrochetChrisie) said

        That picture has more Bernat Satin than I’ve ever seen in stores here. 😉 Such pretty colours!

        • June said

          Aren’t they lovely?! I got every solid colour of Satin on the market at the time I was stocking up in preparation for leaving Canada – almost 40 shades! (I think some have since been discontinued.)

  3. Chrisie (CrochetChrisie) said

    I love (and share) your enthusiasm for yarn, crocheting and knitting!

    I’ve been crocheting and knitting a lot lately and I get such a feeling of accomplishment when I take yarn and turn it into something usable or cute (or both!).

    Thanks for sharing the love!

    I love your sweaters too! Some day I will tackle sweaters. 🙂

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