The Fall CAL in the PlanetJune crochet designs group on Ravelry is now over! Participants crocheted along using my Pumpkin and PocketAmi Halloween patterns. Check out my roundup below of all the cute and spoooooky finished projects. (If I’ve missed yours, please email me or leave a comment with the link, and I’ll add it to this post.)

Ready to see the cuteness? Read on…

Halloween Trio by klopferli. I love the blue witch – why aren’t there more blue witches out there?!

Nicole (klopferli) was very busy this time around; she also whipped up both cute AND spooky pumpkins!

A nice set of all 4 designs (love the cat’s eyes!) by amanda1981, pictured in a very cool handmade set!

Spot the crocheted pumpkin! Megan of Crochet Every Day held her own CAL using my Pumpkin pattern – and here’s her contribution.

Another cute set by Silverlotus, with a special surprise…

…she used Glow in the Dark yarn for the ghost! Love it! And on the right, we have another creative idea: Veggie used bamboo skewers to turn her Halloween set into a mobile. (Cool idea!)

Here’s a spot the difference by Missie of Crafting With Cat Hair. It’s so cute together with the real mini pumpkin!

Launi of Gracious Rain crocheted my pumpkin pattern using ‘yarn’ she made by cutting an old t-shirt into strips! Cool, huh?

Here’s a monochrome set by rastakt – I love how the cat’s eyes look like they’re glowing in this pic!

A very stylish pumpkin by Becky L (submitted via my Facebook page).

A set by saudistitcher (the witch’s eyes are hilarious!). It’s incomplete because her real-life cat Bibi made off with the black crocheted kitty before Jana could take the photo! 🙂

These teeny-tiny pumpkins were crocheted from thread by Anne R (again, submitted via my Facebook page). To give you an idea of just how tiny they are, that’s a marble in between them – wow!

And last but definitely not least, jucatka made a spooky Haunted Cactus Garden using the CAL patterns and my Cactus Collection patterns! Too cool for words – I love it!

It’s so great to see such variety here, and I’ve especially enjoyed seeing how people have staged their photos this time around – nice job, everyone! Thanks so much to everyone who joined in; I hope you enjoyed it 🙂

If you like seeing things people have made using my patterns, check out the PlanetJune Crochet Flickr group. Join the group, and add photos of everything you’ve made from my crochet patterns – I just love to see what you’ve been making!

And one more thing: Happy Halloweeeeeeen!

You may remember from the Reepicheep I crocheted that I’m a Narnia fan, and with The Voyage of The Dawn Treader movie coming out in just over a month (yay!), what better time to make my own Aslan?

I really think that every lion needs a lioness, so the idea for a pattern including male and female lions was born, and you can now find the Lion and Lioness crochet pattern in my shop, if you’re so inclined. I love the shaping on my lioness:

Here’s where I approach crazy levels of dedication to the cause: I made eight prototype manes for my male lion (each using a different yarny technique), and only one looked anywhere near good enough: the eyelash yarn mane. But a) eyelash yarn is quite hard to come by these days, and b) I know how most people’s hearts sink at the mere mention of the stuff, so I was determined to find a way to make a lion’s mane that only used regular, worsted weight yarn and still looked fairly realistic. And, with attempt #9, I cracked it!

Now, don’t worry about having to latch hook hundreds of strands to the head: this mane is all crocheted (remember that loop stitch video tutorial I just made? Now you know why!) – with a little additional magic after crocheting to give it that realistic look.

My Lion and Lioness crochet pattern has a little more detail and shaping than most of my other patterns. It’s 13 pages long, and includes 30 step-by-step photos with detailed explanations of every stage (including 3 pages devoted to the special mane techniques) so you can make a perfect realistic lion and lioness of your own.

You can just about see that the lions have cute little white chins 🙂 I used a light brown for the mane (and tail tassels), but you could use any shade ranging from the same yellow as the body, any shade of brown, or even black, and it’d still look realistic – did you know that lions’ manes darken with age?

I know lions don’t look much like other cats, but I feel like I’m one step closer to coming up with the realistic cat design that’s always eluded me to date. I’ve never seen a realistic toy cat that I like, and I aim to change that some day…

But, for today, I hope you like my lions!

I’m so glad people liked my crocheted i-cord video tutorial! Putting my voice up on YouTube for anyone to listen to was a bit (okay, a lot) out of my comfort zone, but I’m starting to get used to it… In time, I’d like to make a whole crochet tutorial video library (and if you have requests for video tutorials you’d like to see, please let me know and I’ll add them to my list, although I can’t promise exactly when I’ll have time to make them – nobody’s paying me to make them!)

Today I have another little crochet video tutorial for you. Loop stitch (aka fur stitch) is a decorative stitch similar to single crochet but with an added long loop of yarn formed on the back of the work. You can make the loops as long as you’d like, depending on your application – just wrap the yarn around something to create each loop so that all the loops you form are consistent in size. (I use my finger in my video tutorial, but you could use a wider piece of cardboard to form longer loops.)

I’ve seen at least 4 methods for creating loop stitch; my demo shows the method I find most effective, as, unlike the other methods I’ve seen and tried:

• It doesn’t distort the size of the ‘single crochet’ part of the stitch
• It locks the loop firmly into place
• The loops formed stand up nicely away from the work

Once you’ve finished crocheting with loop stitch, you can leave the loops as is for a curly, furry effect, or snip through the top of each loop to create straight strands of yarn sticking out from your work. It’s not a subtle look, but, in the right pattern, can be used to great effect!

And now to the video tutorial (in right- and left-handed versions, of course):

Crochet loop stitch (right-handed)

Click to watch this video on YouTube.

Crochet loop stitch (left-handed)

Click to watch this video on YouTube.

Note: as the loops are formed on the back of the stitches, you can’t use it while crocheting amigurumi unless you keep any pieces using loop stitches turned ‘inside out’ (see my tutorial Which is the ‘Right’ Side?).

You can put this tutorial (as well as my previous crocheted i-cord video tutorial) into practice with my new pattern, coming very soon…

Do you find my tutorials helpful? If so, please consider making a contribution towards my time so I can continue to create clear and concise tutorials for you:

Thank you so much for your support! Now click below for loads more crochet video and photo tutorials (and do let me know what else you’d like me to cover in future tutorials…)

Have you ever tried to crochet a really tiny tube or cylinder? I find that single crocheting in a ring with 5 stitches is challenging enough; let alone trying to make a 4-sc cylinder, or, almost impossibly, a 3-sc tube.

Knitters are lucky; they have a great way to make a very fine tube – it’s called an i-cord and it’s really easy to knit up on dpns (if you knit). But I have great news for you: you can also make i-cord using your crochet hook!

It’s very simple once you get the hang of it, and it’s an easy way to make fine tubes, as long as you like. You can use i-cord in amigurumi, as trim, or even to make bag handles. It’s versatile and works up quickly.

Note: you can also make a wider i-cord tube, by starting with more chains and dropping all but one loops off the hook. I’d recommend you don’t go too wide though, as it’s easier to accidentally pull out one of the dropped loops when you have more of them in play. I’d recommend you stick with a 3-ch or 4-ch crocheted i-cord. For anything wider than that, make a sc spiral (or learn to knit it on double pointed needles).

The easiest way to explain it is to show you, so I’ve made a video showing how to crochet an i-cord. And because I’m nice like that, I’ve done right-handed and left-handed versions.

Crochet an i-cord (right-handed)

Click to watch this video on YouTube.

Crochet an i-cord (left-handed)

Click to watch this video on YouTube.

See – it’s easy!

If you’d like to practice crocheting i-cord, I’ll have a new pattern that uses this technique available in a few days…

UPDATE: By request, here are my written instructions to crochet i-cord:

Crochet an i-cord (text instructions)

• Ch 3. Insert hook into 2nd ch from hook, yarn over and draw up a loop, insert hook into next ch, yarn over and draw up a loop (3 loops on hook).
• Row 1: Drop 2 loops from hook. Hold onto the dropped loops with your non-hook hand so they don’t come undone. Yarn over and draw through remaining loop on hook. Insert hook into first dropped loop, yarn over and draw through (2 loops on hook). Insert hook into second dropped loop, yarn over and draw through (3 loops on hook).
• Repeat Row 1 for desired length of i-cord. Cut yarn, leaving a long yarn end. Draw end through all 3 loops on hook and pull tight to fasten off.

That’s it!

Bonus Tips

Finishing a crocheted i-cord:

• The easiest way to end the final row is to cut the yarn leaving a long end, draw the end through all 3 loops on the hook, and pull tight. This will draw the end into a point.
• To maintain the tubular shape to the end, wait till you have all 3 loops on the hook, then sl st through each loop in turn, fasten off, and use the yarn end to stitch the first and last sl sts together into a circle.
• For finishing, it depends on what you want to do with the i-cord: use the yarn ends with a yarn needle to stitch it to something else, or hide the ends by weaving them up through the middle of the tube.

Make an attached i-cord as an edging for a blanket (or other crocheted project):
To save sewing the i-cord edging on afterwards, you can crochet it directly around the edge of your blanket.

• Right-handed: After putting the 3rd loop back on your hook, insert your hook into the next stitch along the right edge of the blanket, then draw up the loop (the ‘chain 1’) back through both the blanket edge AND the 3rd loop on the hook. If you do that for every row (or every other row, for speed) of the icord, you’ll attach the left edge of your i-cord to the edge of the blanket as you crochet the i-cord.
• Left-handed: After putting the 3rd loop back on your hook, insert your hook into the next stitch along the left edge of the blanket, then draw up the loop (the ‘chain 1’) back through both the blanket edge AND the 3rd loop on the hook. If you do that for every row (or every other row, for speed) of the icord, you’ll attach the right edge of your i-cord to the edge of the blanket as you crochet the i-cord.

Do you find my tutorials helpful? If so, please consider making a contribution towards my time so I can continue to create clear and concise tutorials for you:

Thank you so much for your support! Now click below for loads more crochet video and photo tutorials (and do let me know what else you’d like me to cover in future tutorials…)

Box of books, fresh from the publisher

I’m so happy with the response my book has got so far! Amazon shipped a lot of the pre-orders early which meant that some people actually got their copies on the release day, so I’ve had four 5 star reviews on amazon already, and many more comments and emails from my readers/customers/friends, who I think must be some of the nicest people in the world. I feel very lucky to have so much support – thank you all 🙂

Speaking of Amazon reviews, if you’ve received your copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amigurumi, would you do me a huge favour and review it at amazon.com? You’d be doing me a huge favour – I’m hoping the reviews will help me to reach people who have never heard of me before, which would be fantastic for my business, as well as help with book sales. Thank you!

It’s nice to see the first reviews starting to trickle in for my PlanetJune Accessories patterns too! If you’ve bought any of them (or any of my other patterns), please do leave a review in my shop, to help other people make an informed purchase decision. And each review gives you an entry into my monthly contest to win a free PlanetJune pattern of your choice!

Speaking of which, I have yet to draw the the September ‘Review and Win‘ contest winner – oops! I’ll fix that now: the winner is… Amanda M, with her review of my PocketAmi Christmas pattern:

These patterns are great and fast work-ups. I’m making TONS of them to put on Christmas presents this year, so I am more than familiar with this set at this point. Difficulty from easiest to hardest is snowman, reindeer, elf, but I find that they’re all amazing to read and easy to work. You’ll love the finished product!

Congratulations, Amanda, I’ll email you to find out which pattern you’d like as your prize!

Phew, what a week! Actually, “what a month!” would be more accurate. Between working all hours to get my first PlanetJune Accessories collection launched before the book came out, shooting and editing the promo video for the book, and living through the craziness of the book launch, I’m absolutely exhausted! I really wanted to start work on a new amigurumi design this week, but the creative side of my brain just wasn’t co-operating.

The good news is, my creative mojo came back last night – I have a new design underway and I think it’s going to be a good one…

I can hardly believe I’m finally getting to write these words: my crochet book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amigurumi, is out today!* It’s been a very long process that’s taken me to this point, and part of me still doesn’t believe it’s real, although I do have this proof:

Yay! Look what I made – it’s really real!

I’ll be sharing more information about the book over the next few days/weeks, but, as there seems to be a lag somewhere between the publisher and Amazon’s website (their current description is about a year out of date!), I’ll share the correct ‘blurb’ copy that should be there:

Amigurumi (pronounced ah-mee-goo-roo-mee) is Japanese for “crochet (or knit) stuffed toy.” Although the concept originated in Japan, the amigurumi craze is taking over the world in waves of crocheted cuteness! From adorable fuzzy critters, to sweet-looking fruits and vegetables, to quirky comic book and cartoon characters – if you can imagine it, you can crochet it!

Whether you’re an experienced crocheter or have never taken hook to yarn, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amigurumi shows you everything you need to know to hook your own delightful amigurumi. This helpful guide includes:

• A primer on the yarn, hooks, and stitches best for amigurumi, plus fun embellishments you can use to personalize your ami.
• Easy-to-follow tutorials for getting started, increasing and decreasing, working in the round, changing colors, and more.
• Expert advice on adding eyes, hair, jointed limbs, clothes, and other fun accessories to your ami.
• Tips for following an amigurumi pattern, plus four start-to-finish patterns to give you a head-start on designing your own.
• A full-color insert with inspirational photos of the finished ami patterns featured in the book – and more!

I’ve spent the past few days making a fun (and deceptively time-consuming to produce!) little book trailer for your viewing pleasure:

Click through to see a larger version of my book trailer at YouTube 🙂

All the amigurumi you see in the video are made from the patterns in the book. These are exclusive patterns that I created for the book – you won’t find them anywhere else.

All along, my plan for this book was to create the definitive reference guide to amigurumi techniques, not just another pattern book, and I hope that’s what I’ve achieved. I’ve put a lot into this book, and I hope that you’ll get a lot out of it, whatever your skill level or experience with amigurumi. It’s the only book of its kind, and I really hope you’ll enjoy it – and please let me know if you do!

If you haven’t ordered a copy yet, they should be in bookstores any day now, if not already, or you can order online from such fine retailers as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon.ca.

Yay!

* UK folks, looks like you’ll have to import a copy or wait till December to get your hands on a copy 🙁
I expect the delay is while they translate it (back) into British English and into UK crochet terms – just guessing…