PlanetJune Blog: Latest News, Patterns and Tutorials

I’ve never really been interested in making socks – they are so inexpensive to buy, and seem like they would take so long to make, it just doesn’t seem worth it to me (although I know many knitters would disagree). Also, sock yarn is normally made of wool, which I’m sensitive to, so I a) can’t make them without wearing gloves, and b) couldn’t wear the finished socks anyway!

And then I saw the new Patons Stretch Socks yarn, which changed my mind…

• It’s elasticated! Maybe it would be the perfect yarn to crochet some non-bulky hand-warmers for when I’m working?
• It comes in some really nice colourways
• Although it is 39% wool, the elastic wrapped around the outside of the yarn cushions it from my skin and I can touch it with no problems
• Oh, and it was on super-special at Michaels, and I can never resist a bargain

I decided to try Dorothy Hardy’s Ultimate Crocheted Socks pattern from CrochetMe.com. I liked the idea of the one-piece construction (no sewing!) and working from the toe end means if you run out of yarn, you just end up with a shorter sock – a nice idea. The first sock came together without too many problems, although the pattern has some unclear points and I had to unpick a few times before I figured it out. I also redesigned the heel shape a bit because it didn’t really fit the shape of my foot as written, and I added a couple of extra rounds and a crab stitch edging to the top of the cuff.

I decided to save the second sock as a travelling project for the plane trip to Hawaii. I made half the sock on the way out, but on the way back I was tired and didn’t want to have to figure out how to do the heel, so the second sock sat unfinished until this weekend… After a false start on Saturday (proof that even pattern designers can slip up: I was crocheting hdc stitches instead of esc – hey, I’m only human!) I raced through it, and now I finally have a pair of socks to wear around the house:

It was hard to get a decent photo of my own feet, and Maui kept wandering into the shot too! Hopefully these will give you an idea though:

They are comfy and cosy, and I really like the yarn and the colour. I don’t love the shape of the toe or the heel, but it’s not a bad design, and not having to sew anything was a definite bonus.

I can see why knitting is better-suited to sockmaking – crocheted socks just look a bit clumsy and bulky by comparison. Although, having said that, now I know how a sock is constructed, I’m sure I could design a more stylish crocheted sock… I’m just not sure I want to! I’m glad I have made a pair of socks, just for the experience, but I think I’ll use the leftover sock yarn to make those custom-fitted hand-warmers instead…

A crocheted African Violet never needs watering, never dies, and is always in bloom. It’s the perfect thing to brighten up your office desk, or to give as an unusual and thoughtful gift. Everyone appreciates a bit of colour, especially in the middle of winter!

This is a very special pattern: it includes full instructions to mix and match your own lifesize crocheted African Violet. With two plant sizes, two pot sizes, and two flower patterns (single-colour and two-tone), you can create your own custom violets in your favourite shades.

You can pick up the African Violets pattern today from the PlanetJune shop!

I also have a question for you – what would you like me to design next?? Would you like to see more flowers, more dogs, more wild animals, more PocketAmi sets, or something completely different? Please send me your suggestions (either as a comment here or by e-mail) – and remember, if I use your suggestion I’ll give you a discount on the pattern! I hope you’ll come up with some fun ideas for me…

Phew, 24 hours of panic are over… Yesterday all my websites were suspended – I don’t know if it was a mistake or if, once again, I’ve grown too big for my webhost to handle (remember the disaster of last March when I had to switch hosts?!) Until yesterday, my new host has been fantastic, so hopefully all will be well from now on.

It was a scary day without my website, and not the best start to my new self-employed career! Thanks for your patience while I was offline, and I’m so sorry if you wanted to buy any of my crochet patterns while I was gone (for future reference, my Etsy store is a good backup for pattern emergencies).

I will leave you with some better news: a sneak peek at my upcoming pattern…

More details and pics to follow soon!

The start of a new year is always a good time to begin a new chapter in your life; to try something new and make changes for the better. This year is a big one for me: I’ve decided to quit my day job to concentrate on designing, creating and writing, and see where that takes me. Self-employment is a big scary step, but sometimes you just have to take a leap and see what happens! I already have a couple of projects lined up, and I can’t wait to get started!

Take a look at some of the things I made in 2008…

Also in 2008, I had some of my work published in a book and a magazine, I taught a crochet class, and I co-founded Folding Trees. Just think how much more productive I could be without having to fit in a full-time job as well!

I hope to be able to post here more often too, although I’m still sticking to my policy of quality over quantity – I only post when I have something worth talking about 🙂

Thank you so much to all my blog visitors and friends – your support, comments and e-mails are what give me the courage to dream big. My New Year’s resolution is to give myself the chance to succeed, but to not beat myself up about it if things don’t go as well as I hope.

Please wish me luck with my new venture!

For my last design in 2008, I wanted one more small dog to complete my ‘mini’ set; a breed with a distinctive look to complete my trio…

The Miniature Pinscher is adorably also known as the ‘Min Pin’ – how cute is that?! My Min Pin is just over 6″ long and worked in worsted weight yarn and an E (3.5mm) hook. You could also make a one-colour Min Pin by just omitting the colour changes.

And here’s the complete AmiDogs Set 4 (Chihuahua, Miniature Pinscher, and Pug):

The Set 4 patterns are available individually for $4.50 each, or $11.25 for the set of 3 – all available from the store right now!

I just realised that, quite by accident, I seem to have developed a Christmas crafting tradition of making poinsettias.

In 2006, I made a kanzashi poinsettia:

In 2007, I designed the famous crocheted poinsettia:

Who am I to break with tradition, even if it’s one I invented myself? So allow me to present the 2008 PlanetJune Poinsettia. This year I’ve gone for a polymer clay (FIMO) variety! It’s just over 2″ (5cm) in diameter, and would make a lovely pin or fridge magnet, or just a pretty decoration.

If you’d like to try making one, I’ve put together a tutorial for you so you can give it a go. The good news is that it’s much easier than it looks! There’s no precision involved; in fact, the leaves actually look better if they aren’t all exactly the same size and shape. As the instructions are quite long (I’ve included lots of pictures to make it easy to follow), I’ve given the tutorial a page of its own: Polymer Clay Poinsettia Tutorial.

This is my first polymer clay tutorial, so I hope it’ll all be clear. Please leave me a comment if you like it! And would you like to see more PC tutorials in future? Let me know in the comments!

I’ve had a couple of requests lately from people who like my patterns, but want to make a larger version. So, the question is, is it easily possible to ‘size up’ amigurumi designs?

There are a few of ways I can think of to adjust a pattern, so here are my thoughts on this…

METHOD 1: Double everything. By this I mean, every time the pattern calls for 1 stitch, you make 2 (so e.g. if Rnd 1 is 6 sc, you will do 12 sc) AND double the number of Rnds (so you would repeat your new Rnd 1 with a second Rnd of 12 sc). Note: this is not my recommended method! It would be hard to keep track of your rounds and stitch counts, when you are turning each stitch into four stitches.

If you do want to attempt it, it should work fairly well, as sc is a square stitch (same height and width) so by doubling the length and width you are essentially making each stitch into a 2×2 square of stitches, but it’s not perfect – if I was designing a double sized animal I would even up the rounds – e.g. this method will give you stitch counts like this at the end of the rounds: 12 st, 12 st, 24 st, 24 st, 36 st, 36 st… If I was designing it I would even it up to something like 6 st, 12 st, 18 st, 24 st, 30 st, 36 st so the increases are made evenly and not stepped every 2 rounds.

METHOD 2: Use thicker yarn and a larger hook. If you compare the blue and grey elephants below, the greys are made with worsted weight yarn and an E hook and the blue is made with bulky weight yarn and a G7 hook. You can see this has made the blue elephant quite a bit larger.

METHOD 3: Double your yarn (use 2 strands held together) and use a larger hook. You can see the effect of this here:

The two turtles use the same pattern, but one uses doubled yarn and a correspondingly larger hook (L instead of G7). The result is a turtle that’s about 1.5 times the size.

Now you could combine methods 2 and 3 to make an ami that’s about double the size of the original, by using 2 strands of a bulkier weight yarn (than the pattern calls for) held together, and a much larger hook. This would be much quicker to make and easier to calculate than method 1, as you would follow the pattern stitches exactly as written.

The downside of using methods 2+3 is that, because each stitch is much larger, the space between the stitches is more noticeable because it’s correspondingly larger. The stitches are also more chunky, so it doesn’t give as smooth a finish as using the finer yarn and smaller hook.

You could also apply Method 2 in reverse to size down a pattern, by using a finer yarn than the pattern calls for, and a correspondingly smaller hook. You can go right down to crochet thread and a steel hook, as shown by bettika67, who turned my life sized guinea pigs:

into the most adorable 1-inch piggies, just by using very fine thread and a tiny hook:

So there you go, 3 ways you could increase the size of a pattern, plus one easy method for reducing the size. This advice isn’t limited to amigurumi (although Method 1 is limited to patterns worked in single crochet). For example, you could turn a pattern for something like a baby hat into a child-sized or even adult-sized hat, or reduce a full-size pattern down to child-sized, by using some of these methods. Hopefully this will give some of you more confidence to attempt some resizing of your own!