PlanetJune Blog: Latest News, Patterns and Tutorials

Welcome to the Under the Sea CAL, a PlanetJune coral reef and ocean life crochet-along!

The official start date is the summer solstice: this Sunday, June 21 2026, but everything is ready for you right now if you’d like to get started early!

Overview

The Under the Sea CAL is a light-hearted, low-pressure summer crochet-along that runs until August 31st 2026, and you can join by making any PlanetJune patterns related to ocean life, beaches or summer.

You can make anything from a single tropical fish or coral to a much more ambitious multi-part display. If you’re not sure what that could look like, keep reading for lots of project display ideas…

If you’re already inspired and can’t wait to get started, you can browse all the core reef-related patterns here >>

But you aren’t limited to these patterns – you can also join in by making any PlanetJune patterns that you can justify as fitting the broad ocean/beach/summer theme. If you want to make e.g. a sunhat or summery bracelet or beach blanket or whale or dolphin, that’s perfect too! There are no strict rules for this CAL, so you’re welcome to get creative – if you can justify why your pattern or project fits the theme, it counts.

WIPs are also allowed, and so is assembling a display using some pieces you’ve already made (that’s what I’ll be doing) – the more the merrier! I’m hoping we’ll assemble an incredibly cheerful and colourful project gallery by the end of this CAL, and I’d love for you to be a part of it.

How to Participate

Crochet, Snap a Pic, Submit: As you finish crocheting each piece, submit a photo to the Under the Sea CAL gallery to log your progress and increase your project tally. And if you’re making a bigger display piece, the CAL page also has a larger Displays Gallery to showcase your final project(s) too.

Chat and Share: For the fullest experience, join in the fun in one of the PlanetJune Community groups. Look for the Under the Sea CAL 2026! thread on Ravelry or the #under-the-sea-cal channel on Discord – we’ll be crocheting and chatting and sharing project ideas all summer long!

Project Ideas and Inspiration

There are so many ways to combine amigurumi fish, corals, octopi, seahorses etc into larger projects and displays! Below, I’ve assembled an inspiration dump with lots of ideas, suggestions and tips for you. I’ve grouped them into three categories – Vignettes, Hanging Displays, and Dioramas – and if you don’t already have an idea in mind, I hope that something you see here will spark your imagination for a project you’d like to make…

Vignettes

Vignette is a fancy word for a little scene you can assemble from your crocheted pieces.

Just group a few corals together, add a fish, and you have a gorgeous display:

Add more elements to create a larger display:

And you can even group your smaller vignettes together to make a larger scene, to fill your whole mantelpiece (or windowsill, top of bookshelf, etc):

Vignette Tips:

Hanging Displays: Wall Hangings and Mobiles

String your elements onto yarn or invisible fishing line so you can display them as a wall hanging or mobile! I have tips for how to attach and balance all your pieces in my Amigurumi Wall Hanging Tutorial.

You can add a crocheted backdrop to your wall hanging, to get an effect similar to my flatlay scene below (but I’d suggest making a smaller scene!) by either suspending the fish etc in front of the backdrop, or attaching them directly to the backing.

And the principle is exactly the same for mobiles – instead of a flat scene, attach your strings of elements to a hoop, a cross frame, or balanced rods (if you’re feeling ambitious!) Here’s a simple mobile I put together to demonstrate, using an 8″ hoop (if you try this, you could crochet around the hoop too, to decorate it further and hide all the knots…)

Tip: You can find the pattern for the bubbles in the PDF version of the Amigurumi Wall Hanging tutorial!

Dioramas

Sometimes it’s a good idea to think inside the box! A diorama is a self-contained scene with a base and/or background.

To set up a diorama, you can either use a real rectangular fish tank or round fish bowl, or get creative: make an aquarium scene from a large clear jar or vase, a shadow box or deep picture frame, a platform base, or any suitably sized box.

Tip: Check thrift stores, dollar stores and any local freecycle/buy nothing type groups for suitable containers to build your diorama in – in my case, I used an upturned miniature crate from the dollar store.

Here’s my example diorama:

You can get as fancy as you like with decorating your scene, but simple can be very effective too! All I did for mine was to cut a piece of blue felt to size, to fit the back ‘wall’ of my box, but here are a few more ideas:

• Cut felt to fit the base of the container to represent the ‘sea bed’
• Place a few small decorative stones around the corals, to look like aquarium gravel
• Paint or decorate the outside of the container

Then you can add your crocheted pieces!

Tip: Use my vignette and hanging display tips above to arrange and balance your pieces.

To complete my diorama, I arranged a few corals in front of my backdrop, and then added a single ‘floating’ fish, suspended from the top of the box. My crate conveniently had a gap between the wooden panels, so I tied the fish’s string to a bamboo skewer which sits nicely in the gap. If your container doesn’t have any handy holes, you could cut or drill small holes to pass the strings through, or tie the string around a piece of card or a popsicle stick and stick that to the ‘ceiling’ of the container.

And here’s a great example of an aquarium made by Marion McEwan (shared with her permission) from a real fish tank, using a Turtle Beach blanket for the sand, PJ corals and starfish, and a few other patterns:

If you also plan to make a big project like this for the CAL, you can keep your momentum up by submitting a photo of each element as you finish it, as well as the big reveal for your finished project.

Join the CAL!

I do hope you’ll join us for this low-pressure crochet-along over the summer months – dip in and out as much as you want, crochet as few or as many pieces as you want, use lots of different PlanetJune patterns or just one or two – anything goes!

Ready to join? Here are the important links:

• Under the Sea CAL gallery – find all the CAL info and submit your photos here!
• PlanetJune reef patterns – tropical fish, corals, cephalopods and more

So, has something in my inspiration pics given you an idea for what you’d like to make? Or maybe you have a completely different idea? I can’t wait to see what you make for the CAL – please let us know what you’re planning!

Tip: Don’t miss the special discount on all PocketAmi patterns – details at the end of this post!

Today I’m bringing the fun with my new no-sew crochet pattern: PocketAmi Set 7: Plant Pals!

These undercover amigurumi can pass for regular crochet seedlings:

…but if you know their secret you can pull them out of their pots to reveal the hidden characters!

They make perfect secret desk buddies as well as being fun for kids to play with. All the pots are all the same size, so you can swap them between the characters, and display them as regular plants or with the faces peeking out from the pots.

These three whimsical designs are a little happiness boost – everyone I show them to loves the surprise reveal!

About the Patterns

These are all completely no-sew patterns: each plant and soil ball is worked as one piece, with a single colour change between the brown soil and green plant, and the pot is a separate piece. The plants fit snugly in their pots, so they won’t accidentally fall off during playtime.

To make your Plant Pals baby-safe, you can use crocheted eyes or embroider the eyes instead of using the plastic eyes.

And to add even more whimsy, try embroidering a different expression (e.g. smile, surprise, wink) on each soil ball, so there’s an extra surprise when you pull the plants out of their pots!

About the Designs

I had the idea for these tiny seedling characters while potting up my veggie seedlings, carefully removing each little plant from its pot together with its soil ball before moving it to a larger home. (This crocheted version is much less messy!)

L-R: Sprout, Tuft, and Rosette, in and out of their pots!

To me, Sprout looks like my baby cucumber and zucchini plants, Tuft reminds me of baby onions, and Rosette of baby lettuces – but they could also be a sunflower, spider plant, and succulent seedling, or anything else you want them to be…

About PocketAmi Patterns

PocketAmi Plant Pals is the seventh pattern in my PocketAmi range, with three pocket-sized amigurumi included in each set. At only around 3″ tall, they are super-fast to crochet and make excellent gifts for kids, or cute little ornaments. Here’s a refresher of the previous sets:

PocketAmi 1-2 (beginner-friendly animals), 3-5 (seasonal themes), 6 (pets) and 7 (plants)

I couldn’t believe it when I checked the copyright date of my last PocketAmi design: it was 2011 – that’s fifteen years ago! And the first PocketAmi designs have turned 18 this month – how is that possible?!

To celebrate this milestone, I’m offering an additional $1 off every PocketAmi pattern (including the new Plant Pals) for the next week, so you can grab any of these tiny amigurumi patterns that may be missing from your collection!

To get your discount, use code TINYBUTMIGHTY at checkout by June 1st 2026, and you’ll save $1 for each PocketAmi pattern you buy.

Links to Buy

• Pick up PocketAmi Plant Pals from my shop now!
• Or check out the whole PocketAmi pattern range 🙂

And, if you’re not ready to buy just yet, add the Plant Pals pattern to your queue or favourites on Ravelry, so you don’t forget about it:

I hope these mini Plant Pals will bring a smile to your face – and to everyone you make them for!

Today’s PlanetJune story is from Anna in Holland. A few months ago, Anna contacted me for advice on my Tortoise pattern, saying:

My boyfriend has a tortoise, and his mom asked if I could make a door stopper that looks like his tortoise. So, I bought your beautiful and realistic crochet pattern. However, I’m looking for a kind of filling that’s heavy enough so it can be used as a door stopper. Would you perhaps have any tips or tricks for me for any material I could use as filling?

A tortoise door stopper – isn’t that a fantastic idea?! Here were my suggestions:

• It might help to scale up the pattern using a heavier yarn and larger hook, to make a slightly larger tortoise which would give room to add more weight inside the body.
• To weight the tortoise, stuff the head, neck, legs and tail as usual, but stuff the main body cavity with something heavy, e.g. weighted stuffing pellets, small decorative stones, glass marbles or sand.
• To contain the stuffing, insert an empty plastic or fabric bag into the body cavity, then pour the stuffing into the bag before tying it off securely.

An extra tip if you want to try this project too: as the shell will completely cover the body, it doesn’t matter if your weighted stuffing makes the middle of the body look a bit lumpy!

I was delighted when Anna wrote back to show me the finished result, and (with her permission) I’m sharing her story with you! Over to Anna…

After some time, he’s finally finished. It was a fun project☺️ Your pattern guide was really easy to use.

I used a 4,5 mm hook and Panduro chunky acrylic yarn (they recommended a 8 mm hook). I didn’t want it to be too bulky, so I crocheted pretty tightly, so that the filling doesn’t stick out of the holes in between the stitches.

I used 9mm eyes like you said in your pattern. I also tried 8mm, but I thought those were a little too small; 9mm was perfect!

Because it’ll be used as doorstopper, I used heavy decorative stones (around 1,5 kg [June: that’s about 3lb]) which I put in a resealable bag. I didn’t really have something else to put it in, but any sturdy bag will do. I thought just putting in the stones loose was not a good idea, because then they could stick out or perhaps damage the wool.

I just filled the head, legs and tail as described in your pattern with some cotton pillow filling. I also put a little layer of filling around the bag with stones, so its body is a little less sturdy and rounder.

I put in the bag around Round 33 of the Body & Tail part of the pattern.

I thought you’d like to see the resemblance between the end result of your beautiful tortoise pattern and a picture of my boyfriend’s tortoise.

(Bingo the tortoise was so energetic, he couldn’t sit still at all. So, this picture is the best I could do of them together😅)

My mother-in-law was very happy with the tortoise, so thanks again!

(Back to me, June, again!)

Isn’t that a wonderful project idea? You did a fantastic job, Anna – your tortoise looks just like the adorable Bingo, and your crocheted version clearly makes an excellent door stopper (and is much better at sitting still!)

Thank you so much, Anna, for sharing your story with us today 🙂

Please leave Anna a comment if you’ve enjoyed this post!

PS – If you’d like to crochet your own realistic tortoise – either as a stuffed toy or a door stopper version – you can find my Tortoise crochet pattern here.

PPS – And if the multi-part shell seems intimidating, try the faster one-piece shell option when you buy the Tortoise pattern with the Simple-Shell Expansion Pack!

Do you have a PlanetJune Story you’d like to share? I’d love to hear it! Please email your story to june@planetjune.com, together with one or more high quality photos showing what you’ve made from PlanetJune patterns. If I choose your story to feature here on the blog, I’ll send you your choice of pattern from my shop to say thank you!

I’m thrilled to announce my new realistic bumblebee pattern, Tiny Bees!

Full of colour and slightly larger than life-sized, Tiny Bees are the perfect addition to any crocheted flower arrangement. With just a few rounds of crochet, a couple of colour changes, and simple no-sew wings, your little bee friend will come together in no time at all.

Inspiration

Since I started planting native flowers to attract pollinators to my garden, I’ve paid more attention to how many different types of bees I see. (Did you know there are over 400 species of bee in Ontario alone?!) My little bee friends and I happily coexist all summer – as I harvest my beans, they buzz around me and sip nectar from the bean flowers while they pollinate next week’s beans! I miss my little garden helpers in winter, so I thought I’d commemorate them with a realistic bee crochet pattern.

About the Design

Made in standard worsted weight yarn, Tiny Bees are a little larger than a real bee, but they’re the perfect size to accompany a vase of crocheted flowers, or add to a crocheted potted plant as an adorable embellishment!

Designing an amigurumi this small was quite a challenge – every stitch counts at this stage! I wanted this to be a very simple and unfussy design, but with enough detail to look like a real bee, not a cartoon.

It took a lot of tweaking to come up with a design that’s shaped like a bee while staying as small as possible, and combining PlanetJune simplicity with accurate bee markings. But I’m so happy with the result – a realistic no-fuss design in a tiny little body!

Meet the Bumblebees

I based my basic yellow-and-black bumblebee on the American Bumblebee (Bombus pensylvanicus) and the online version of this bee pattern is completely free for you to use, or you can say thanks with a donation.

As I like to reward people who support my work, the PDF version, available for a donation of any size, also includes two more bees with different markings!

L-R: yellow-and-black, spotted, white-tailed bees

• A spotted bee with the distinctive black spot on its back, like most of the common bumblebees and carpenter bees that visit my garden here in Canada. I based mine on the Common Eastern Bumblebee (Bombus impatiens).
• And a white-tailed bumblebee, as all the bumblebees I remember from my youth in the UK had a cute little white bum! I based mine on the White-Tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lucorum) and Buff-Tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris).

I hope that at least one of these bees will speak to you, but if you have a favourite bumblebee species, you can mix and match the markings in the pattern and change the colours to create your favourite bee.

If you’d like to make a closer-to-life-sized bee, just use finer yarn and a smaller hook – easy peasy! (See my Scaling Amigurumi article for the appropriate hook size to use with any size yarn.)

Make a Bee!

As always with my donationware patterns, the basic (yellow-and-black) bee pattern is free for you to use online, and you need only donate if you’d like to thank me for my work in creating it, or if you’d like the easy-to-print PDF version that also includes the two additional bee patterns.

Your support means the world to me – every dollar helps to support me so I can continue to create new designs.

Go to the free yellow-and-black Tiny Bees pattern >>

Or jump straight to donate:

Order the Tiny Bees pattern with all 3 bees >>

And why not grab one (or all!) of my crocheted flower patterns (pictured below) to accompany your bees?

PlanetJune flower crochet patterns >>

Not ready to make your bee yet? Add this pattern to your Ravelry queue:

I feel like Tiny Bees are the crocheted flower addition we never knew we needed! Don’t you agree?

I’m so pleased with how well these tiny cuties turned out, and how cheerful they look as they hover over their crocheted flowers. I hope they’ll brighten your day too!

More experimenting with my mid-gauge knitting machine! I bought 4 balls of Caron Simply Soft Speckle from the Spinrite yarn factory outlet closing sale because it was cheap, and I liked the colour, but I had no idea what I’d do with it. Spoiler alert: here’s what I ended up making:

I think the process is more interesting than the result with this sweater: having only 4 balls of a worsted weight yarn in a speckled colourway added constraints that shaped what I ended up designing. Read on if you’d like to see my thought process, and how I adapted when things didn’t go as expected…

Design Decisions

1. Worsted weight yarn. Although Simply Soft is one of the thinnest of all the ‘worsted weight’ yarns I’ve tested and compared, I wasn’t sure how well any worsted weight would knit up on my mid-gauge machine. (To check this, I made a quick swatch on the machine, varying the tension every few inches until I found the settings that made a fabric I liked.)

2. Limited yarn quantity. Four balls of yarn is definitely on the low end for a sweater. I decided to design it with a fitted shape so I wouldn’t waste yarn on extra volume, and keep my fingers crossed that I’d have enough to complete the project!

3. Speckled yarn. Yarns that change colour can often look nicer in the ball (where the colours are all spread out nicely) than when they’re worked up (where the colours can pool or clump together strangely). But my bigger concern was that colour changes can also interact with a stitch pattern, so I hand-knitted a swatch with a few different ribbing options and decided that this yarn looks best in plain stockinette where the speckles are the main feature and don’t have to compete with any texture.

So that gave me the design constraints:

• Smooth stockinette fabric without ribbing at the collar and cuffs
• A fitted shape that still looks good in a chunkier yarn (so nothing too tightly fitted)

And, to stop the project from being too boring to make, and to give a tidy end result, I decided to build in some hidden features: folded hems, set-in sleeves, and interior waist shaping.

Problem 1: Knots!

I quickly discovered that this yarn was frustratingly full of knots where the yarn had been joined. I thought I might get away with ignoring them and kept knitting, hoping for the best. Once I realised that some of the knots were showing from the front (ugh!) I had to frog the whole thing and start again. I cut out all the knots as I re-wound the yarn, and made sure to change to a new ball at the end of a row as I re-knitted it, so all the extra yarn ends would end up along the side seams.

So much frogging! So many little balls to wind!

Problem 2: Bulky Hem

When I calculated the size for this sweater, I tried to leave plenty of ease so I can wear a long-sleeved T-shirt underneath, and I got that just right: the result is a smooth but not at all tight fit. But when I came to try it on: disaster!

The folded hem that looked so neat on the cuffs (you’ll see that in a later photo) looked overly bulky and flared around my hips. With the rest of the sweater being so fitted, that really wasn’t a good look, so I unravelled the entire hem from the bottom so I could hand-knit a new bottom edge.

Bottom stitches picked up and ready to hand-knit

I was still trying to keep the smooth look I’d envisioned for this sweater, so I found tutorials for several different folded hem methods and tried them all. But I didn’t like any of the results – I think the folded hem would have worked out much better with a finer yarn or a boxier, larger-fitting sweater – so I had to abandon the idea and try to think of a different bottom edging.

After a few more experiments, I figured out that a 3×1 rib with the purl columns twisted to keep them tight looks pretty good – it has enough ribbing to keep the bottom from curling up, but with narrow vertical lines breaking up the smooth fabric instead of a fully ribbed appearance.

The bulky folded hem on a cuff, and the subtle ribbing around the bottom

Finishing

I finished the very bottom edge with a narrow i-cord to match my neckline finish, which I intentionally left minimal for that smooth look I was going for. It’s not obvious that these are matching i-cords, but it made me feel a bit better to have some continuity, as I’ve ended up with three different edge treatments: folded hem cuffs, twisted rib bottom hem and i-cord neckline…

A 2-stitch applied i-cord to finish the neckline

With the i-cords finished, I just had many (many, many) ends to weave in! It’s so frustrating when yarn is full of knots from the factory, but I didn’t have the luxury of extra yarn, so I re-used all the small balls I’d made when I cut out the knots, and each new ball meant two extra yarn ends to weave in.

But finally, the sweater was complete! I’m happy with how it turned out: it fits very well thanks to the waist shaping, the speckles are nicely spaced, and, despite my unmatched edge treatments, I don’t think the design looks too chaotic. It’s a cozy addition to my wardrobe, and I’m feeling much more confident with designing and knitting with the machine now.

Reflections & What’s Next?

I did have some yarn leftover at the end, and if I were remaking this sweater I’d keep the shaping but add a little more all-over ease; I think that would be a better design choice, especially with a bulkier yarn like this. And I’m not going to do any more frogging(!), but if I did, I might change the cuffs to match the bottom edging.

One thing I’ve noticed about machine knitting: although it’s fast when you don’t make mistakes (and don’t add interior shaping by hand, which takes forever), I find the process of running the carriage back and forth to be quite tiring. It may be a knitting machine, but it’s a manual knitting machine – it’s still completely hand-powered!

I like having the option to knit plain parts more quickly, but I’ve missed the relaxation of forming stitches slowly by hand while I watch TV, so my next sweater will be the opposite of this one – a fine-gauge, completely hand-knitted pullover with a textured stitch pattern. It’s going to take a looong time to finish, and that’s just fine by me!

The axolotl is one of the most fascinating and unusual creatures in the world, and adding a crocheted version to the PlanetJune amigurumi menagerie is long overdue!

Ready to get started? You can find the pattern here: Axolotl amigurumi crochet pattern!

Axolotl Fun Facts

• Axolotls are a type of Mexican salamander that doesn’t go through metamorphosis like most amphibians (the way that tadpoles turn into frogs). They stay in ‘tadpole’ stage for their whole life, retaining their fins and external gills and never leaving the water.
• They live in freshwater lakes and eat any small insects, worms and snails they find.
• Axolotls have an amazing superpower: when injured, they can perfectly regenerate many parts of their bodies without any scarring! They can regrow limbs, tail, eyes, and even parts of their spine, heart and brain.
• Wild axolotls have a mottled dark brown colour, but captive-bred axolotls are found in many different colour morphs, including pink, gold, black, and glow-in-the-dark!

About the Design

My axolotl is roughly life-sized and realistically shaped, at about 9″ (23cm) long. It has a wide head, fins along the top of its body and underside of its tail, tiny pointed toes, and fanned-out gills on either side of its head that give it that unmistakable axolotl cuteness:

About the Pattern

As with my lizard and frog patterns, the realistic legs are wired with pipe cleaners, but the pattern also includes tips for omitting the pipe cleaners if you want your axolotl to be baby-safe.

The pattern includes stitch diagrams for the fins and gills in addition to the written instructions, so you can use whichever instructions work best for your learning style.

And, as always, close-up photos aid with every step of the assembly, so you can be confident you’ll be able to make a perfect axolotl too.

Get Creative with Yarn and Colour!

I pre-released this pattern for the Ravellenic Games CAL, so I can show you a range of projects made by Team PlanetJune. Look how cute this pattern is in a wide range of colours – I think they look adorable in any shade, realistic or fantastical!

Projects by Nethilia, Pawluh, Pandabugcreations, Klopferli, PsychoGryphon

And I made a double-size axolotl for the CAL (using blanket yarn and a K hook) – at almost 18″ long, this is a lovely size for a cuddly toy:

Goldy and Lucy with their big sister Lavender. (In case you’re wondering about the names, I loosely based all my axolotls’ colourings on real colour morphs: golden, leucistic, and lavender!)

If you’d like to try making an extra cuddly axolotl too, I used blanket yarn and a K/6.5mm hook for mine, and the tips from my Complete Guide to Giant Amigurumi. My secure magic ring tip is a game-changer for blanket yarn, which has an annoying tendency to snap when you try to pull your magic rings closed!

Ready to Crochet?

You can pick up the Axolotl pattern from my shop and start choosing colours for your own adorable axolotl!

Note: If you bought the CAL pre-release version, I’ve already emailed you with a notification, but you can download the final version of the pattern from your PlanetJune account now!

Or, if you’re not ready to buy just yet, add my Axolotl design to your queue or favourites on Ravelry, so you don’t forget about it:

I can’t wait to see our army of amigurumi axolotls continue to grow! Which colours will you choose for yours..?

Today’s PlanetJune Story comes from Kendra Hoover of Kendra’s Crafty Crafts. Kendra specializes in amigurumi replicas of pets, and I featured her work in The Essential Guide to Amigurumi as an example of how amigurumi patterns can be used to create unique custom pieces.

I intentionally design my crochet patterns with clean, simple lines and structure, so they’re easy to follow and give a realistic, well-shaped result. But you can also use my patterns as a starting point to add your own details and modifications to more closely match a real-life animal.

Kendra does this incredibly well, and I thought you’d enjoy an insight into her journey. I’ll intersperse photos of some of her beautiful work (all based on PlanetJune patterns) together with their real-life counterparts, so you can admire her creations as you read. (Some of them are so realistic you may have to play spot the difference to tell the real pet from the crocheted version!)

UPDATE: Click each photo below to go straight to the pattern it was based on – some of the dogs will definitely surprise you!

Now, over to you, Kendra…

Kendra’s Story and Gallery

Hello, my name is Kendra, owner/creator of the Kendra’s Crafty Crafts amigurumi business.

I taught myself how to crochet as an adult, and I pretty much started with amigurumi. Animals have always been an inspiration to me with every craft I have tried, and crochet is the one that has stuck with me for the longest.

The first crochet animals I ever made were some (very unshapely) guinea pigs. Of course I had to keep practicing so that I could make them look like my own guinea pigs. I shared a picture in a guinea pig Facebook group, and that’s where I learned about Etsy.

After some time making generic guinea pigs, I finally got brave enough to try custom markings. After that, I wanted to expand my pattern collection and try different animals, and that’s when I discovered PlanetJune and all of June’s amazing patterns!

I have since made many of June’s patterns, and played around with different techniques of customizing them to look like people’s pets.

After a lot of research and searching and watching videos on the internet, and more than a little bit of trial and error, I have come up with a lot of different ways to make a crocheted animal look similar to photos of people’s pets.

(Almost all of the techniques I have discovered on my own are in June’s book: The Essential Guide to Amigurumi. Isn’t that convenient?)

Now, 7 years after first learning to crochet, I’ve moved on from Etsy and have my own website where I sell my crocheted animals.

I’ve made hundreds of pet memorials and pet look-alikes in that time, and every year they get better and better!

It’s so much fun to look back and see how much I’ve improved my skills, and that wouldn’t have been possible if I didn’t get to make so many unique pets for all of my wonderful customers!

(Back to me, June, again!)

Isn’t Kendra’s work fantastic? I love to see the details she adds to each custom piece, to turn my patterns into true pet replicas.

Thank you so much, Kendra, for sharing your story with us today.

Please leave Kendra a comment if you’ve enjoyed this post!

Links

• How to customize: For guidance on how you can start to incorporate these techniques into your own work, Part 2 of The Essential Guide to Amigurumi is devoted to customizing amigurumi, whether you’re trying to add extra details, make a likeness of a specific person, or recreate your favourite pets in yarn!
• Dog patterns: Kendra’s dogs are all based on mix-and-match versions of various AmiDogs patterns. You can find all 24 AmiDogs crochet patterns in the shop. They’re available individually, or you can choose a value-priced custom set of any 3 breeds so you can mix-and-match pieces to better match your pup.
• Other pet patterns: You’ll also find the patterns Kendra used as the basis for all the other pets pictured here in the Pet Animals category of the PlanetJune shop 🙂

Do you have a PlanetJune Story you’d like to share? I’d love to hear it! Please email your story to june@planetjune.com, together with one or more high quality photos showing what you’ve made from PlanetJune patterns. If I choose your story to feature here on the blog, I’ll send you your choice of pattern from my shop to say thank you!

I’m trying something a bit different today, and I’m going to show you my messy desk and my work in progress! This is the design I’m working on at the moment…

It’s an Axolotl! The axolotl is one of the most fascinating and unusual creatures in the world, and adding a crocheted version to the PlanetJune menagerie is long overdue 🙂

This cutie has the Golden colour morph (yellow with orange gills), and before I can release the pattern I still have to make another one in the more common pinkish Leucistic colourway, and shoot the final cover photos.

I’ll be crocheting my next axolotl during the Ravellenic Games (a big knit-and-crochet-along that coincides with a certain global sporting event) which start tomorrow, February 6th.

And to make it all more fun, if you’d like to join Team PlanetJune for the games, I’ll give you exclusive access to buy a pre-release version of the Axolotl pattern so you can crochet along with me as I make my sample for the cover photos!

Early Access for Team PlanetJune

The pre-release pattern will be available in two stages, so you can get started crocheting the pieces while I edit the assembly instructions. It won’t be quite perfect – e.g. you’ll get my hand-drawn stitch diagrams instead of the final professional vectors – but that’s all part of the CAL fun. You’ll have everything you need to make your axolotl over the next 16 days, plus full access to me (as always) if you have any questions.

Ravellenic Games CAL Details

This CAL runs from Feb 6-22 and you can participate by making any PlanetJune pattern. (It doesn’t have to be an axolotl, if you have a different project in mind, or would like some encouragement to finish a languishing WIP!)

Please join us in the PlanetJune Discord and/or Ravelry groups – where I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have – or see the Team PlanetJune Gallery page for the full CAL instructions.

Can I Just Buy the Pattern Instead?

Of course! If you’d prefer to wait for the full pattern launch, the final Axolotl pattern should be ready in my shop around the end of Feb – check back here, or sign up for my monthly-ish newsletter if you’d like me to let you know when it’s ready.

And if you do grab the early access version for the CAL, you’ll automatically receive the full final pattern PDF when it launches too, so you won’t miss out on anything.

Let’s Go!

If you’re ready to join me with exclusive early access to the PlanetJune Axolotl pattern:

1. Pick up the pre-release pattern now and choose your yarn colours
2. Join Team PlanetJune on Ravelry or Discord
3. Start crocheting from Friday
4. Share your Axolotl pic in the Team PlanetJune gallery!

I can’t wait to see our adorable axolotl army forming over the next 16 days, and I hope you’ll join the fun!