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!