The Ravellenic Games – a two-week event hosted by Ravelry where participants challenge themselves to start and finish crochet/knitting projects, timed to coincide with a certain global sports competition – ended on Sunday. I wasn’t sure if we’d have a Team PlanetJune this year, as our Ravelry group has grown quieter, with most of our community activities moving to our more private and chat-friendly Discord. But I’m so glad we decided to go for it anyway!

From July 26th to August 11th 2024, our small but mighty team challenged ourselves to start and finish any crochet projects based on PlanetJune patterns (and those from my books), and look how well we did!

42 projects completed by Team PlanetJune in just over 2 weeks, and don’t they all look wonderful?

We had a lovely variety of projects: amigurumi animals, plants, accessories and home decor. You can see them all in the new Team PlanetJune Ravellenic Games Gallery. (And if you want to make any of these for yourself, clicking any photo in the gallery will take you to the pattern!)

It was such fun to see everyone picking projects to make and inspiring and cheering each other on to finish them, and the team spirit and camaraderie was a tonic for me, too. It’s been difficult to get back into the swing of my usual designing life after spending a year as a book publisher, so I challenged myself to complete a new design for the games. And look what happened: not one but four new PlanetJune birds sprang off my hook!

L-R: Mallard Drake, Mallard Duck, Barn Owl, Canada Goose

I don’t quite know where I found the energy to accomplish all this, although I did spend days, evenings and weekends crocheting up a storm, and enjoying it! I think it was a combination of the lure of the challenge plus the encouragement of my teammates; the more projects I completed, the more I thought “maybe I could fit in one more before the deadline…?” And, when you feel the call, stopping to do other things isn’t really an option 🙂

Where are the patterns? If you’d like to make these birds too, the patterns will all be coming! The pair of Mallards and the Canada Goose will each become an Expansion Pack for my Duck and Goose pattern in the coming months, and the new turned-head version of the Barn Owl will be a new option that I’ll add to the existing Barn Owl Expansion Pack for my main Owl Collection (and it’ll be a free upgrade, if you’ve already bought the Barn Owl pattern).

Although I didn’t intend this, 2024 looks like it’s shaping up to be the PlanetJune Year of Birds – which is a nice change after 2023’s Year of Snakes. I’m just going with it: following where the inspiration takes me is always the most joyous way, as you can probably tell by how prolific I’ve been this month!

I have been asking myself how I managed to create so much in such a short time, and the answer is… I didn’t, not really. Although I did all the prototyping and crocheting during the timeframe of the games, none of these is a new idea for me: I’ve been planning to make Mallard and Canada Goose expansion packs ever since I designed the original Duck and Goose pattern at the start of this year, and I’d already done the research and planning long before the games began. And I’d always wanted to make a Barn Owl with a turned head, although I decided against it in my original pattern (as it would over-complicate things), but the spirit of the games inspired me to go for the challenge. I’m so glad I did!

I think this event has been really good for my crojo (that’s crochet mojo, if you didn’t know) – a little boost to my confidence that shows I can get back into the saddle of regular designing again. But now I have to deal with the fallout: it’s going to be a long time before I can pick up my hook again, as I have all these new designs to write up, photograph, and turn into new patterns! Note to self: maybe one design at a time isn’t such a bad idea for the future…

So I’d like to give a huge thanks to everyone who joined Team PlanetJune for the games – I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

And if you missed out, or just want more crochet-along fun, I’d love for you to join us this winter for the fourth annual PlanetJune Reindeer Games, starting November 1st! It’s like the Ravellenic Games, but way more relaxed, with a whole two months to crochet anything you want from my patterns and earn virtual medals.

Our CAL and online social event is always a fun way to end the year together. If you’d like a little nudge when it’s about to start, click here and I’ll send you a reminder!

The third annual PlanetJune Reindeer Games crochet-along has just wrapped up, and it was a huge success! (The Reindeer Games is a relaxed end-of-year CAL where you can participate by crocheting projects from any PlanetJune patterns or any of my books.)

For 2023, I changed the way the CAL runs so it’s not limited to Ravelry any more. Over the 2 month CAL, we had 60 projects submitted through the PJ Ravelry group and an additional 50 projects from the PJ Discord group, making a total of 110 completed projects:

Aren’t they great? All the projects, together with the CAL statistics, are on display in the brand new Reindeer Games 2023 Gallery, including credits for all the participants and all the (virtual) medals they won for their achievements!

The next Reindeer Games will start on November 1, 2024, so look out for my announcement next October if you’d like to take part in the 2024 CAL (or sign up for my monthly newsletter now so I can send you a reminder!)

I’m really happy with this new more inclusive direction for the Reindeer Games, and I’m already planning more improvements for next year, including a submission form so you can submit your projects to the gallery even if you’re not part of our Rav/Discord groups. (Do let me know if you have any other suggestions – I’m always happy to make things better for all of us!)

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the 2023 Reindeer Games, and a huge thanks to all of you who make the PlanetJune community such a friendly, welcoming environment. It’s a pleasure to be a part of it and to get to know you all – and to see the beautiful creations you make from my patterns 🙂

Each month in 2023 I’m sharing a Temperature Snake CAL roundup with a collage of some of our snakes’ progress – even if you aren’t joining in, I think you’ll enjoy seeing all the snakes growing throughout the year!

I can’t believe this is the final monthly roundup – only one more month of snake-CALing until we can start adding our snakes to the final Temperature Snake CAL 2023 gallery!

Here’s the November collage from some of the latest photos that have been posted to the CAL threads on Discord and Ravelry, plus some from people who’ve tagged me (@PlanetJune) on FB and IG or emailed to me:

Click to see the full-size collage

Can you spot your snake?

CALers, if you haven’t already downloaded the final part of your pattern, grab it now from your PlanetJune account! This month you get to start the tail decreases, make the tail tip, and add the finishing touch of a tongue to your snake – at last 😀

We’re all ready to cheer you to the finish if you’ve got behind on your snake – come and join us in the PlanetJune community groups if you need some extra encouragement.

Just one month to go – you can do it! I can’t wait to see our finished Temperature Snakes in all their glory in the new year.

And if you’d like to make a Temperature Snake in 2024, I’ll be releasing the final stand-alone pattern and workbook shortly – watch this space! Or, if you’d prefer, you can still order the multi-part CAL pattern now, and you’ll be automatically upgraded to the final Temperature Snake pattern once it’s released.

A brief time-limited announcement before we begin: Amazon (US only, sorry) is having a super-sale on the ebook version of my last book, Everyday Crochet. It was supposed to be a one-day sale, but, as I write this, the price is still just $1.99 – it’s a crazy bargain, so please don’t miss out! Buy Everyday Crochet now! >>

And, if you already bought it this weekend (or any time), it’d mean the world to me if you could leave a review on Amazon – thank you ♥

Now back to our regularly-scheduled programming…

Each month in 2023 I’m sharing a Temperature Snake CAL roundup with a collage of some of our snakes’ progress – even if you aren’t joining in, I think you’ll enjoy seeing all the snakes growing throughout the year!

It’s hard to believe this is the penultimate roundup – just one more set of interim photos to go after this and then it’ll be time for the final CAL gallery!

Here’s the October collage from some of the latest photos that have been posted to the CAL threads on Discord and Ravelry, plus some from people who’ve tagged me (@PlanetJune) on FB and IG or emailed to me:

Click to see the full-size collage

Can you spot your snake?

Now we’re getting towards the end of the year, the different colour palettes are so clear! It’s fun to look through the photos and see which snakes look like they might be related and which look completely different. But, as I anticipated, every snake is unique, and I love that!

If your snake has been lagging, come and join us in the PlanetJune community groups, and we’ll cheer you on. Some CALers have caught up on a few months of their snake during October – with only 20 stitches per day, that’s very possible, and you can do it too!

And, if you’d like your snake to be included in the last monthly roundup before the final gallery, please post an up-to-date pic (or email it directly to me: june@planetjune.com) by 9am EST on December 3rd. Do remember to tag or DM me (@PlanetJune) if you post on social, and make your post public, or I won’t see your pic.

We’re heading into the home stretch now! Keep going 🙂

The third annual PlanetJune Reindeer Games CAL begins tomorrow! The Reindeer Games is the annual PlanetJune end-of-year crochet-along and online community event, and you can join by submitting photos of your PJ projects on Discord, Ravelry, social media or by email. Everyone is very welcome, and I can’t wait to see the gallery of beautiful projects that will emerge as we head toward the end of the year – I hope you’ll join us!

Reindeer Games 2023 CAL

Crochet anything PlanetJune as part of the PlanetJune Reindeer Games 2023 (Wednesday, Nov 1 – Sunday, Dec 31).

The idea of the games is to challenge yourself by starting and finishing crochet project(s) before the end of the year. It’s just for fun, like a CAL but you get to choose your projects – anything PlanetJune, including projects from my books – and earn virtual awards! During the Games, we all cheer each other on to complete our chosen projects. You’ll earn virtual medals for every project you complete, and your projects and awards will be added to the Reindeer Games gallery!

Inspired by the success of the Temperature Snake CAL this year, where people are entering via the PJ groups, social media and email, I’ve expanded the scope of the Reindeer Games so it’s no longer limited to Ravelry – you can join wherever you are online:

• Online Groups For the fullest experience, join in the fun in one of the PlanetJune Community groups. Look for the Reindeer Games 2023 thread on Ravelry or the #reindeer-games-2023 channel on Discord.
• Social Media Post your project photo on Instagram or Facebook with your stall/antler list and tag @PlanetJune (make sure your post is public so I can see it!), or message your photo and list to me directly via my IG account or FB page.
• Email Send your photo and stall/antler list directly to june@planetjune.com with subject line ‘Reindeer Games’, and also tell me the username you’d like to use for the Gallery).

I’ve set up a new Reindeer Games site where you can find full instructions, the list of stalls (categories) and antlers (bonus awards) you can win, the games stats, and the project gallery.

I’m especially excited about the gallery, even though, as I write this, there’s nothing to see there. But that will all change as soon as there are some completed projects to show – it’s pretty fancy! We’ll all be able to see and admire all the completed projects (as soon as I’ve awarded their medals), no matter where they were submitted from.

In this ever-changing online world where there isn’t one single place where all PJ fans like to congregate, this seems like a much more sustainable way to run a CAL. Now I can meet you where you are, so everyone is included… as it should be 🙂

Project Ideas

You can enter the Reindeer Games by making absolutely anything based on a PlanetJune pattern (or something from any of my books), but this year we’ve added a new antler award called Season’s Greetings, which you can win by making any seasonal holiday-related PJ projects. I thought I’d whet your appetite with a few examples you might like to try…

You can’t have Reindeer Games without reindeer! Try my Reindeer/Caribou pattern for a realistic reindeer:

Decorate your home with a beautiful wreath – my Christmas Decor crochet pattern collection includes all the components and an optional crocheted wreath base:

The cutest life-sized Gingerbread Family patterns are a fast and fun project:

Or fill your windowsill or mantle with my Christmas Trees pattern sets:

You’ll find plenty more ideas in the Holiday & Seasonal Crochet Patterns category of my shop. And if these seasonal decorations don’t appeal to you, remember you can join the Reindeer Games by making any PlanetJune patterns – there are no restrictions!

Join Us!

So, will you join us for the Reindeer Games 2023? I do hope so – it’s going to be so much fun, and I’d love to see the project gallery filled to the brim with our beautiful crocheted projects by the end of the year. Whether you’re crocheting your favourite PlanetJune patterns as Christmas gifts, items to sell at craft fairs or online, toys for charity, or projects for yourself, we’re ready to encourage you to complete your goals and to celebrate your successes with you!

And, even if you think you may not have time to complete a project, you’re very welcome to join us online for the community spirit and friendly chat. There’s something about PlanetJune that attracts the kindest and most supportive people, and, if you enjoy PlanetJune patterns, you’re already part of our community – do come over to our Discord server or Ravelry group and say hello!

Each month in 2023 I’m sharing a Temperature Snake CAL roundup with a collage of some of our snakes’ progress – even if you aren’t joining in, I think you’ll enjoy seeing all the snakes growing throughout the year!

We’re three quarters through the CAL now, and, at 273 body rounds, it’s no wonder our snakes are long enough to be tied in knots! Here’s the September collage from some of the latest photos that have been posted. These are taken from the CAL threads on Discord and Ravelry, plus some from people who’ve tagged me (@PlanetJune) on FB and IG or emailed to me:

Click to see the full-size collage

Can you spot your snake?

The snakes are becoming more spectacular with each month that passes, don’t you think? I love how stripey and bendy they are, and how creative our CALers are getting with their photos!

If you’ve got behind on your snake, you’re not alone, and we understand! Come and join us in the PlanetJune community groups, and we’ll give you some support and encouragement as you catch up – just add a few extra rounds a day, and you’ll be up to date again in no time. Now is the perfect time to get back into it so you’re all caught up before the busy holiday season begins.

And, if you’d like your snake to be included in the next monthly roundup, please post an up-to-date pic (or email it directly to me: june@planetjune.com) by 9am EST on November 3rd. Do remember to tag or DM me (@PlanetJune) if you post on social, and make your post public, or I won’t see your pic.

Each month in 2023 I’m sharing a Temperature Snake CAL roundup with a collage of some of our snakes’ progress – even if you aren’t joining in, I think you’ll enjoy seeing all the snakes growing throughout the year!

We’re two thirds through the CAL now, and our snakes are getting seriously long! Here’s the August collage from some of the latest photos that have been posted. These are taken from the CAL threads on Discord and Ravelry, plus some from people who’ve tagged me (@PlanetJune) on FB and IG or emailed to me:

Click to see the full-size collage

Can you spot your snake?

I love all the snakey poses – the roundups are only getting more fun to look through as the year progresses, don’t you think?

August has been a bit quiet in the crochet-along, with fewer photos than usual in this collage. I’d like to think the other CALers have been enjoying their vacations, and leaving their snakes at home. But now we’re into September – the start of the prime crochet season – so if you’ve let your snake lapse over the summer, maybe it’s time to pick it back up and enjoy crocheting some more colourful stripes?

If you’re making a Temperature Snake too, please join us in the PlanetJune community groups, share your snake’s progress with us all, and get chatting with our friendly community. We’ll cheer you on if you have some catching up to do!

And, if you’d like your snake to be included in the next monthly roundup, please post an up-to-date pic (or email it directly to me: june@planetjune.com) by 9am EST on October 3rd. Do remember to tag or DM me (@PlanetJune) if you post on social, or I won’t see your pic.

Each month in 2023 I’m sharing a Temperature Snake CAL roundup with a collage of some of our snakes’ progress – even if you aren’t joining in, I think you’ll enjoy seeing all the snakes growing throughout the year!

Yep, the months are flying by, and somehow it’s roundup time again! Here’s the July collage from some of the latest photos that have been posted. These are taken from the CAL threads on Discord and Ravelry, plus some from people who’ve tagged me (@PlanetJune) on FB and IG or emailed to me:

Click to see the full-size collage

Can you spot your snake?

At this length, they’re starting to look very snakey, and it’s so much fun bending them into different shapes that have different overlapping colours. Everyone has used almost all their colours by now, so our snakes are at peak colour! Now we just need to watch and wait and see what happens with the colours as they continue to grow for the rest of the year…

If you’re making a Temperature Snake too, please join us in the PlanetJune community groups, share your snake’s progress with us all, and get chatting with our friendly community.

And, if you’d like your snake to be included in the next monthly roundup, please post an up-to-date pic (or email it directly to me: june@planetjune.com) by 9am EST on September 3rd. Do remember to tag me (@PlanetJune) if you post on social, or I won’t see your pic.