Today I have one final 2011 crochet-along roundup from the PlanetJune ravelry group members to share with you, as November’s Accessories CAL was given an extension to give people more time to complete their projects (you can see the first roundup photos here).

Keep reading for details of the January CAL at the end of this post, but first, as promised, here’s the second roundup of PlanetJune Accessories projects made for the Accessories CAL…

(As usual, I’m crediting the participants by their Ravelry usernames, so you can look them up on Ravelry if you want more details.)

Enphra’s Climbing Eyelets Triangular Shawl turned out beautifully!

Here’s a great example of how different yarns can completely alter the look of a project – the following 2 projects are both the Lacy Bobbles Cowl, but made with very different variegated yarns:

Kid mohair/silk blend (with colours by the inimitable Kaffe Fassett) crocheted by my aunt. The mohair gives a fluffy effect and helps the colours to blend together.

klopferli’s cowl uses a wool/nylon blend, which gives great stitch definition.

CrochetChrisie’s Diamond Lattice Neckwarmer looks perfect with her winter coat 🙂

My Lip Balm holder pattern has been really popular this Christmas! A special mention goes out to Jana (saudistitcher) who crocheted an amazing 25 of them to give to all the teachers at her school, but didn’t have time to share a photo of them with us before going home to spend Christmas with her family 🙂

theMarkofSMB

BanuyeGharbi

CrochtColorJunkie

AKmtnnymph

Lightblue

Fatals-attraction

klopferli

Ami Paint Set made into a decorative photo frame, by Fatals-attraction

Scalloped Scarves by theMarkofSMB and CrochetChrisie

…and another by klopferli

BanuyeGharbi’s Plumeria pins

BanuyeGharbi’s pretty gift set includes Plumeria pin, Gift Box and Lip Balm Holder

I never get tired of seeing what people have made from my patterns! I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing them too. If you’re inspired by these photos to make any of these designs for yourself, to give as gifts, or even to sell, you’ll find all the PlanetJune Accessories patterns in my shop.

January CAL

By popular demand, we’ll be continuing with monthly PlanetJune crochet-alongs in 2012, with a vote to decide each month’s theme. The theme for the January CAL is AquaAmi. This includes all the patterns in the Aquatic Animals section of my shop (or you can get creative and modify any of my other patterns to fit the theme).

If you’d like to join in, you’ll find the AquaAmi CAL thread in the PlanetJune Ravelry group from tomorrow. We hope you’ll join us there for some CAL fun.

And that’s it from me for 2011 – Happy New Year, everyone!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS! I hope you’re having a wonderful day. What better way to celebrate than by looking through the wonderful projects made for the 2011 PlanetJune Christmas Crochet-Along? Thank you to everyone who joined in; as always it’s so much fun to see what you’ve made!

(For speed, I’m just giving credit with participants’ Ravelry usernames.) Let’s take a look:

AKmtnnymph made this clever Santa-themed Gift Box

theMarkofSMB used my Christmas Trees, PocketAmi Christmas, and Yeti and Bigfoot patterns to create this set of ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ characters

Fatals-attraction made this lovely group of Christmas Trees

arbitrarily’s PocketAmi set

Enphra made a set of 3 Gift Boxes embellished with ribbon roses

crochet-girl made some PocketAmi (with the Elf adapted into Santa)…

…and more PocketAmi by crochet-girl!

BanuyeGharbi made these two Gift Boxes but will be re-working the pink one at a tighter gauge so it holds its shape as well as the lovely blue one does!

jukatca made this sweet display of a Christmas Tree and Gift Box (and a collection of all my non-crocheted poinsettia tutorials!)

yaney used variegated yarn for her Gift Box

PocketAmi by esmerelda62

Lightblue made black-tipped Reindeer Antlers

CrochetChrisie’s Gift Box is topped with my felt poinsettia

Very effective use of rainbow-coloured yarn from klopferli

Candy Canes by theMarkofSMB

And now for a big pile of Poinsettias, Christmas Puddings, Candy Canes and Christmas Trees:

theMarkofSMB and Fatals-attraction

crochet-girl and BiologyJAP

rhianoran and mistyyarn

theMarkofSMB and Foxtrot400

Fatals-attraction and petrOlly

Fatals-attraction and rastakt

CrochetChrisie and petrOlly

Wonderful work by everyone! I always love seeing all the projects together like this 🙂

If you missed out on the CAL fun, don’t despair: the next CAL starts on January 1st, and there’s still time to vote on the new theme here (you’ll need to be a member of Ravelry but it’s free to join).

Prizes!

And now to the winners! I made a list of all the eligible projects and used random.org to draw 2:
First prize ($10 gift certificate) goes to Fatals-attraction – congratulations Linda!
Second prize (free pattern) goes to theMarkofSMB – congratulations Monica!
Runner-up prizes go to everyone else 🙂

I’ll email Ravelry message the winners with their prize details (and the runner-up prize discount codes to all the other CAL participants) within the next couple of days, but now it’s time to spend a quiet summer Christmas afternoon at home in the sunshine with my little family – I hope you’re enjoying your day too!

It’s time for another crochet-along roundup from the PlanetJune ravelry group members. The Accessory-Along raised some interesting discussions this month (some of which I’ll blog about in future): the difference it makes when you ‘yarn under’ instead of ‘yarn over’ when you crochet, how to do the Tunisian knit stitch, and the difference between working into a ch and a ch-sp. See, Crochet-Alongs are fun and educational!

As many of the PlanetJune Accessories patterns take far longer to complete than an amigurumi, the group members have voted to extend the Accessories CAL for another month, to give people more time to complete their projects, or even start new projects to give as Christmas presents. You can join in too, if you’d like – we’d love to have you join us!

In addition, I’ll be launching the 2011 Christmas CAL tomorrow (with prizes!) so check back here or on Ravelry for details 🙂

And now let’s see the November results of the Accessories CAL! (As usual, I’m crediting the participants by their Ravelry usernames, so you can look them up on Ravelry if you want more details.)

Let’s start this roundup with the show-stopping larger projects:

Shunra’s stunning Diamond Flowers Scarf Wrap (using the increased size modifications) & Pysselkiisen’s Scarf Sweater (modelled by her sister)

jukatca’s Lacy Bobbles Cowl, worn two ways

PixyKayte’s Chunky Elegance Rug (small size) & my Aunt’s miniature Lacy Bobbles Cowl for my cousin’s new baby

And here’s a selection of some larger project WIPs that we can look forward to seeing again, hopefully completed, in the second roundup at the end of next month:

Shunra’s Diamond Flowers Scarf & klopferli’s Lacy Bobbles Cowl

Enphra’s Climbing Eyelets Triangular Shawl & CrochetColorJunkie’s Gossamer Lace Wrap

And now to the ‘quick and easy’ projects!

A selection of my other patterns cleverly turned into accessories by Fatals-attraction, most of which use crochet thread and tiny 1-2mm hooks to make tiny versions! (Gecko pin, Basic Rose ring and necklace, Tiny Whale necklace, Toadstool [from my book] necklace, Love Hearts photo frame, Amigurumi Balloons pin)

theMarkofSMB used my Plumeria pattern to make a lovely crocheted headband

theMarkofSMB also crocheted 2 Scalloped Scarves and an amazing 10 Lip Balm Holders! (I think I know what some people are getting for Christmas this year!)

Fatals-attraction’s Scalloped Scarves and klopferli’s Lip Balm Holders

Lip Balm Holders by klopferli and Lightblue

Lip Balm Holders by PixyKayte and Fatals-attraction

4 Lip Balm Holders by jukatca

Another great roundup! Well done to all the CAL participants; your projects all look wonderful 🙂

From large to small, there is, I hope, something for everyone to be found in my Accessories range. If you’d like to make any of the projects featured in this roundup, you’ll find all the patterns in the PlanetJune Accessories section of my shop. And, if you have time this coming month, please join the Accessories CAL and share your projects with us before the end of the year!

The Halloween CAL was the first crochet-along organised entirely by PlanetJune ravelry group members, and wow, what a success: page after page of projects, creative photography, fun modifications to the patterns… I can see why people enjoy CALs so much.

Don’t be shy – please join the group and participate in future CALs! November’s CAL topic will be Accessories – that’s everything in the PlanetJune Accessories range, and you can also use any of my other patterns to create accessories (e.g. a flower pin or bag embellishment, a fruit necklace). Look for the new CAL thread from tomorrow…

And now see the results of the Halloween CAL! (As usual, I’m crediting the participants by their Ravelry usernames, so you can look them up on Ravelry if you want more details.) You’re going to love these pics!

The best part of a Crochet-Along, for me, is getting to see all the photos and seeing what people have done with my patterns. And I have to say, with the Fruit-Along, the creativity and photo staging of all the participants has been really impressive! I think you’ll enjoy this roundup 😀

Before I get to that though, I wanted to let you know that the PlanetJune ravelry group is finally developing a life of its own, beyond posts from me. Members are choosing and running their own monthly CALs, suggesting new pattern ideas, asking amigurumi questions, showing off their FOs, and more! I’d love to see more of you joining in – I think it’s going to be a really fun and useful hangout now the activity level is increasing.

The first member-chosen CAL starts today: a Halloween CAL for October. Join in on Ravelry and have fun photographing your Halloweeny crochet!

And now see the results of September’s CAL, the Fruit-Along! (To make it faster to write this post, I’m just crediting the participants by their Ravelry usernames)

jukatca & theMarkofSMB

silverlotus & theMarkofSMB

Lightblue & CrochtColorJunkie

Fatals-attraction & petrOlly

klopferli & petrOlly

MissMaro & KOKOXIE

muscidae & theMarkofSMB

jukatca & CrochtColorJunkie

AliciaLee418 & jukatca

Aren’t they all wonderful?! If you’d like to have some fun photographing your projects too, come to the PlanetJune group on ravelry and join in the next CAL 😀

It always makes me smile to see what people have made with my patterns, and hosting Crochet-Alongs is a great way to bring them together. Even though I’ve been largely absent for this CAL (a crazy move halfway around the world takes up a lot of time), I’m very happy to see that people have still participated – yay! I’d like to give a shout-out to the folks in the PlanetJune Ravelry group who keep the conversation going even when I’m not around to join in 🙂

It’s been quite a challenge to put this roundup together with my very limited internet access, but I’ve managed it. And now for the fun part – let’s take a look at the Easter CAL entries:

yaney made a cute PocketAmi bunny called Pip!

camaharet crocheted pretty daffodils in pink and white.

arbitrarily made this sweet Fuzzy Lamb with a colourful tummy!

Katalin whipped up a tulip and a bee to add to her daffodils to make a spring bouquet.

englishdormouse‘s Fuzzy Bunny looks striking with that lovely variegated yarn.

klopferli‘s  PocketAmi trio look like they are chilling out in a mini armchair!

CrochtColorJunkie crocheted a whole egg box full of Easter eggs…

…and she took her trio of PocketAmi bunnies all the way to the Griffith Observatory to take their photo beneath the Hollywood sign (okay, it’s pretty small, but it’s really there at the top of the hill!)

rastakt set up a cute backdrop for her sweet PocketAmi set.

I’m melting with the cuteness of Morgan’s adorable grey lamby!

saudistitcher made this duckling and ‘chocolate’ egg for her little granddaughter 🙂

Linda sent me this pic of her daffodil that she made into a pin (clever idea!)

The prolific winner of the Christmas CAL, jukatca, has been crocheting up a storm again, making the full selection of CAL projects! Fuzzy Lamb…

…a sweet Fuzzy Bunny…

…a collection of Easter Eggs (and don’t they look pretty in those colours?!)…

…a PocketAmi Easter set…

…and a vase of red and white daffodils. I used to love that variety with the red centres (narcissi, maybe?) – I haven’t seen them since I left the UK 8 years ago, so this brings back some memories for me!

And last, but definitely not least, Jolie made the daffodil pattern her own by adding some pretty embroidered embellishments.

And now the results of the random drawing:
First prize ($10 gift certificate) goes to Morgan S
Second prize (free pattern) goes to Linda S
Runner up prize (discount voucher) goes to all the other entrants – thank you for participating!

Please bear with me: I still don’t have internet access at home so it may take me a few more days to email your prizes to you, but I promise you’ll get them some time next week!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this roundup – I think all the projects are adorable! Happy Easter to those who observe it, and, for everyone else, don’t forget to go out tomorrow to pick up some cheap chocolate eggs 😉

As for me, I hope to get my Blackberry contract approved and get back online properly any day now – it pays to be patient in South Africa, as things happen when they happen here, and trying to rush them doesn’t help at all. I’m attempting to curb my frustration: I think a nice calm nature walk to look at some of the beautiful and exotic birds and plants that are everywhere here will take my mind off it! Here’s our temporary accommodation (actually, there are 3 identical pepperpot towers and mine is the middle one that you can’t see here, but you get the idea):

Down the hill (to the right in the above photo) is the city. And up the hill (to the left above) is nothing but a spectacular view up Table Mountain:

So don’t feel sorry for me – I’ll get the internet sorted out soon, and, apart from that, it’s pretty amazing here, especially for a big nature fan like me!

Happy Christmas!

Here’s the rest of the Christmas Crochet-Along roundup (if you missed my previous post, the other entries are here).

Meg used variegated yarn to great effect with her baubles.

Di made some wonderfully sparkly baubles using beaded crochet with seed beads – I really love these!

Poor Ginger has been in hospital (get well soon, Ginger) but still managed to complete a few baubles for the CAL – now that’s team spirit!

Reem made an exact twin of my white Christmas tree, but used beads instead of pins to make the baubles.

Erica made this Christmas pudding as her first CAL.

Katie made Rudolph and all Santa’s other reindeer too – how cool is that?! And she cleverly adapted the technique from my PocketAmi witch’s hair to make a bearded Santa.

This bold red Christmas tree was crocheted by Jo-Ann.

Linda did a little outdoor decorating amid the snow in Sweden with some Christmas puddings (and a couple of Christmas whales thrown in for good measure!)

Hattalahutta stuffed her tree and decorated it with pearl headed pins and silver star sequins.

Nicole has been busy, making a poinsettia and a tri-colour candy cane…

…and a cute little white Christmas tree!

Erica didn’t have any green yarn for her pudding’s leaves, but used green thread to great effect instead.

Jana made her poinsettia into a tree ornament with a little hanging loop.

Lena says this poinsettia and pudding were her first completed ravelry projects 🙂

And last but definitely not least, Kim adapted my Elf pattern to make a cutie Merry Mouse to go with her other PocketAmi!

All wonderful, I’m sure you’ll agree… And now to the winners! I used random.org to draw 2 from all the emailed entries:
First prize ($10 gift certificate) goes to Jukatca – congratulations Judy! 🙂
Second prize (free pattern) goes to Robin!

But nobody’s a loser around here: I’ll email runner-up prize discount codes to all the CAL participants within the next couple of days!

Thanks so much for taking part; seeing all these sweet projects has really put a smile on my face. I hope it’s done the same for you with these roundup posts 🙂

And one more thing before I settle down with Dave and Maui for some tea and Christmas cake: I hope you’re having a very happy Christmas. Cheers!

UPDATE: I missed a few pics from my updates – oops! Here they are:

Cora ran out of time to finish her tree, but did complete a cute snowman for the CAL!

Rebecca had the lovely idea of making baubles to decorate the tree for her family reunion – each family gets to take one home at the end of the reunion. She also modified the pattern to make some into the ‘candy’ shape you can see here – clever!

…And Rebecca also made this cute elf and snowman into tree ornaments by adding a hanging loop to them.

If I’ve missed your entry too, please let me know so I can add it to this post!

The Christmas Crochet-Along has been a great success! For the past month or so I’ve had the pleasure of watching the entries come in, and seeing all the special little touches (yarn choices, pattern modifications, mix-and-matching, etc) that make each project a unique creation.

And what better way to celebrate Christmas than to show off the wonderful seasonal crochet-along projects! As there are so many, I’ve split them into 2 posts, and I hope you’ll enjoy looking through all the entries as much as I have.

Stay tuned for part 2 some time tomorrow (well, technically today – it’s after midnight). I’ll also be announcing the contest winners in the next post…

Seeing double with Silverlotus‘ cute PocketAmi.

La Mañosa crocheted 2 stars and stitched them together to make it more rigid – clever!

Ellen made both poinsettia types and a Christmas pudding!

Jo-Ann made this pretty poinsettia.

This stylish green and white candy cane is from Nadine.

Barbara decorated her tree with little decorations from Hobby Lobby.

Mack made a variety of candy canes and modified my Mop Top Mascots pattern to make it more Christmassy.

Robin took my Elf one step further and added a Santa to her PocketAmi collection.

Alicia made a poinsettia table centrepiece.

Jukatca made a striking set of baubles…

…a PocketAmi set with an added girl elf…

…some candy canes and a Christmas pudding…

…AND a poinsettia!

Leigh made some self-striping baubles using a patterned yarn.

Dee made a Christmas pudding for a Ravelry “Christmas Ornament” swap.

Pysselkiisen made 4 Christmas trees…

…a poinsettia…

…and a lovely candy cane and Christmas pudding wreath!

Aren’t they all lovely? Believe it or not, these are not all of the entries – I still have plenty more pictures to process and upload once I’ve had a little sleep and put the turkey in the oven tomorrow morning 🙂

HAPPY CHRISTMAS everybody, and look out for part 2 of the CAL roundup in a few hours…