PlanetJune Blog: Latest News, Patterns and Tutorials

You probably get the idea by now from all my crochet designs that I’m an animal lover. This post isn’t crochet related, but it’s so lovely I had to share it.

A baby beluga whale has been born at the Vancouver Aquarium and the aquarium have installed a webcam pointed at the tank, so you can see the adorable sight of the mother beluga, Qila, and her baby swimming through the tank!

I’ve embedded the video feed below, but if it doesn’t work or you’d like more info, see the Vancouver Aquarium Beluga Cam.

UPDATED: The feed was slowing my site down to a crawl (oops!) so please click through to see the Vancouver Aquarium Beluga Cam. It’s worth a click!

Isn’t that a wonderful sight?!

If you see an adult beluga swimming past with no baby, don’t worry – that’s probably baby’s grandmother, Aurora. Keep watching, and Qila and her baby will come past shortly. (Oh, and Vancouver is on Pacific Time, so if the webcam is dark when you read this, it’s probably night time for the belugas, so please remember to take another look tomorrow – I promise it’s worth it!)

And don’t they look exactly like my AquaAmi Beluga Whales come to life? I’ve never had the opportunity to see a beluga whale in real life so this webcam is the next best thing for me. Thanks to the Vancouver Aquarium for making it possible for us to catch a rare glimpse of a baby beluga swimming with her mummy!

If I met you at the show yesterday, hello again, and welcome to PlanetJune.com! Don’t forget to check out my crochet tutorials if you need some help with techniques. I’ll be posting the Crochet Basics tutorials from my class notes up here in the next few days too.

I taught my crochet class yesterday at the Creativ Festival – my first experience of trying to teach more than one person at once. And it was a trial by fire: I had 20 students, and most had never crocheted before! Luckily I had prepared some step-by-step photo tutorials to show the basic crochet stitches, which helped a lot, as 20 people can’t all watch my hands at once as I demonstrate. My students were all lovely and very understanding as I ran around the room answering questions and helping where needed. It was a short class – only an hour and a half – so only a few students actually finished their toys in class, but I think by the end everyone understood the techniques well enough to complete their PocketAmi Bunny or Mouse toys (and they know to e-mail me if they have any difficulties)!

I spent the rest of the day at the A Needle Pulling Thread magazine booth (and Carla: thank you again for giving me this opportunity). My table looked similar to last time, but with some improvements (clipboard for mailing list sign-ups, business card holders, and cute postcard sets for sale). Here’s me at my display:

That white rectangle on my shirt is my super-large instructor’s badge

The seasonal corner (bottom left of pic) got a lot of attention. The pumpkins are the perfect size to fit in a hand, so everyone picked them up and gave them a squeeze! I’d sewn the three Halloween PocketAmi to a decorative cardboard base so they wouldn’t fall over or get lost, and that worked well.

Immediately after this photo was taken, just before the show opened to the public, my much-thicker-than-last-time portfolio/catalogue slid off its easel because it was too heavy to balance there. It turned out to be serendipitous though – laying the catalogue down flat on the table encouraged more people to flip through it. My new business card holders and signs did their job perfectly, and I gave out about 150 cards, so I’m hoping for some more business in the coming weeks.

In the (rare) downtime at the booth, I started a new project. I’m doubling my bulky weight yarn and using a huge L hook to make a giant version of my sea turtle. I got as far as making the shell top yesterday. For comparison, here’s a pic of the shell top next to the original sea turtle:

It’s already about 12″ long and that’s without the shell edging or the head and tail, so that’s at least half as large again as the original turtle. I can’t wait to see what the finished giant turtle will look like!

The one disappointment of the day was that I didn’t have a chance to check out all the other booths. There was a whole papercraft supplies area that I didn’t even see (missing out on some new inspiration for Folding Trees), and I’d hoped to get some more needlefelting supplies from the Bears and Bedtime booth. But I did get to meet some alpacas! They seemed unperturbed at spending a whole day in the busy convention centre:

And I treated myself to a set of ergonomic crochet hooks from Eleggant Hooks. Long-time readers will know of my hand pain problems, so I’ll be very interested to see how these work out for me – I’ll report back when I’ve tested them out!

All told, it was a huge success for me, although it was a veeery long day including the drive from Waterloo to Toronto and back. But I’m very happy I went and got to meet so many great people, and I’m already wondering if I should apply to teach again at next spring’s show…

It’s nearly here! The Creativ Festival begins tomorrow (Friday), and I’ll be there on Saturday. I’ve been really busy assembling my display and my class supply kits and I’m still not quite ready… but I will be!

The show now even has a video trailer (sorry, it takes a while to load, so be prepared to wait for a minute):

I think it’s fair to say that this show is going to be amazing. If you don’t live near Toronto, don’t you wish you did? If I wasn’t going as an instructor (or should I say ‘industry expert’ 🙂 ), I would definitely be there to check out all those craft supply booths. Maybe I’ll be able to steal a few minutes to peruse the aisles…

And if you are going on Saturday, this is your last reminder: don’t forget to come and see me at the A Needle Pulling Thread booth – that’s booth #1005.

I hope to see you there on Saturday!

or, Think Carefully Before Modifying a Pattern

With the cold Canadian winter approaching, I thought it was about time I tried crocheting another wearable. I thought the Tweedle Dee Jacket (Crochet World magazine, August 2008) would be easy, but I just can’t stop myself from making modifications to anything I make…

This is the only pic I can find of the original jacket – sorry it’s not more representative! I googled and checked on ravelry, but it looks like I may be the only person in the world using this pattern…

I also substituted Bernat Softee Chunky Twists for the titular Tweedle Dee yarn. It’s a similar weight, softer, washable, and 1/3 of the price. I couldn’t quite get gauge without going up to an N hook, which produced a really holey, open fabric that I didn’t like, so I stuck with an L hook and prepared to fudge the numbers a bit for fit.

I crocheted the back and one side of the front, lengthening the bottom of each by 3″. The sleeve instructions gave me a hugely wide sleeve, so I threw out the pattern and improvised, using a shop-bought sweater as a guide to the sleeve width I needed. I tried stitching all the pieces together for fit, and I saw that the armhole was now 3″ too deep for my fitted sleeve. So I unravelled the top 1/3 of the front and back pieces and made the bottom of the armhole 3″ higher. (Have you spotted my mistake yet? No? Neither had I…)

Now happy with the way the sleeve fitted into the sleeve opening, I crocheted the other front piece and the second sleeve. I sewed it all together, crocheted on the collar, added the edging, wove in all the ends (I was on a roll), and tried it on:

‘Artistically’ motion-blurred pic because I am too embarrassed to show it in focus

Oh. Somehow it was very very long and all stretched out over my hips – a horrible length for a pear-shape like me. It was about 3″ too long… Does that number sound familiar? Yes, only now did I see the mistake. Now, when it’s all finished apart from the buttons. *sigh*

I had added the extra length I wanted to the measurement below the armhole. Then I added another 3″ to that length when I raised the armhole, when I should actually have lowered the shoulder by the 3″ (which would also have been a lot simpler and required a lot less unravelling)! And to make it worse, the cardigan was worked bottom up, so removing length from the top would have been easy, but to remove length from the bottom? Not simple. Crochet can easy be unravelled from the top edge, but not from the starting edge.

What to do now? I didn’t want to start again… and I refused to give up when I was so close! So I figured out a way to remove rows from the starting edge. It’s actually not that difficult, but you have to be brave to do it. I discovered that you can snip through the row below the new bottom row, pull out each stitch in turn, and then pick up both loops at the bottom of each stitch in turn, to form a new sl st edging. You have to unravel the last couple of stitches though (not cut through them) to leave you a long ‘starting’ end to weave in – you don’t want all your work to come undone later!

The fix worked like magic – you really can’t tell that there was ever a mistake. I’m much happier with the length now (still have to add those buttons at some point though):

By the way, it’s not really wonky along the side there – it’s just the angle in the pic

I’ve learned my lesson about modifying patterns – think carefully before you make any changes! It’s just like ‘measure twice, cut once’ in sewing.

I’ve decided that, as the sleeve that I designed myself is the most successful part of the cardigan, I’m going to try to make my next sweater without using a pattern at all… Am I ambitious or just crazy? I don’t know yet, but I like a challenge!

You may have noticed the black papercut trees I made for the background of my Halloween design photos. I was wondering if I could reuse them somehow to create a new tutorial for Folding Trees, and I came up with the idea of using a candle to create a large shadow silhouette of the tree on a wall. The trees I had cut before weren’t suitable as I had cut them as background pieces at the edge of the scene (so there was only half a tree in each case!), so I drew and cut a new complete tree from black cardstock for this project:

And here it is by the flickering light of a candle:

What a transformation! I’m so happy with how it turned out! My papercutting attempts are getting better each time I try it, and I’m finding it easier to do simple freehand drawing without a reference photo too.

Oh, and if you’d like to see the finished tutorial, you can now find it below!

This tutorial was originally published on my old papercraft site, Folding Trees.

Use the magical effect of candlelight to turn a papercut template:

…into a striking shadow decoration:

In the following tutorial I’ll show you how to make a stylish decoration like the one I made above, using only cardstock and a simple tealight candle…

I drew my tree freehand onto black cardstock. To draw a tree, you need to remember two basic things:

1. Tree branches are thicker at their bases
2. Side branches are usually offset from each other

Firstly, draw the trunk and a few main branches, then add thinner branches coming off the main branches. Keep adding branches and twigs until you like the overall shape and effect.

Easy option: If you’re not comfortable with drawing, you could use a stencil to trace a shape onto the cardstock, or print a shape directly onto your cardstock (the card doesn’t have to be black; it just has to be thick enough to cast a good shadow). I think the branches of my tree make for a very effective shadow shape, but you could keep it really simple: cut out the silhouette of a cat or a pumpkin and just cut holes for the eyes (and mouth for the pumpkin) to give you some easy Halloween decorations.

Remember to give your shape a wide base (grass/bushes in this example, but it could be a plain horizontal band) to help it to stand up securely. Carefully cut out your shape with a sharp knife, being careful not to chop off any of the details!

Papercutting tip: In the close up photo below, you can see how I cut out the overall shape (the rounded shape of the bush) before cutting the fine detail (the leaves). From this stage, it’s easy to cut out each small triangular shape. I find this method much easier and faster than trying to cut the whole outline in one step.

Make a stand for your template by cutting a modified L-shape or a right-angled triangle from some card. Make sure it is tall and wide enough to support your shape. I used a leftover corner of my piece of card to make this simple stand shape:

Position the stand so the bottom is level with the base of your design, and the vertical edge is in the middle of the design. If you still have visible pencil marks on your design, make sure that side is face up for this stage, so the pencil marks will be on the back of the finished decoration! Tape one side to the back of the template:

Flip the stand over, and tape the other side to the template.

Now when you stand the shape up, the stand should stick out behind it and keep it upright.

Here is the finished papercut tree:

Now stand your template up on a table close to a wall, but not touching it. Place a tealight in front of it, dim the lights, and watch out for the shadow on the wall! You can alter the size and definition of the shadow by moving the candle and/or the template towards or away from the wall.

CAUTION: Candle flames and paper are not safe playmates! Never leave a burning candle unattended, and make sure your paper template is secure and will not fall or bend forwards towards the candle flame. For maximum safety, use an LED tealight (although you may find that it is not bright enough to cast a strong shadow).

I’ve decided to convert my free patterns to an easy-to-print PDF format. I hope you’ll find this a convenient option – I know it can be a pain to print directly from a blog. I’m going to send the PDF version to anyone who sends me a donation (of any size) for the pattern, as a thank you.

     

(Don’t worry if you already donated for a pattern – I have kept records, so I’ll also be sending out the PDF version to everyone who has ever donated for each pattern.)

So far, I have only prepared the Pumpkin and Poinsettia patterns. If you’ve sent me a donation for either of these, look out for the PDF in your inbox shortly! It’ll take me a while to convert all the other patterns – I’ll be sending the rest out as soon as they are ready.

If you’d like a copy of any of my free patterns, just click through to that pattern and send me a donation for as much as you feel is appropriate, and I’ll e-mail the PDF to you!

Can you believe it’s the end of September already? And you know what that means… time to get crafting for Halloween. So I thought I’d help you out with a bumper crop of brand new Halloween-themed crochet patterns.

First up, we have a new set of PocketAmi, especially for the spookiest time of year. PocketAmi Set 3: Halloween includes patterns to make a ghost, black cat, and witch. They are all under 3″ tall and work up in no time. An excellent choice if you don’t have much time!

The ghost and cat, like all the other PocketAmi patterns, are really simple to make. The witch is slightly more complicated, because of her curly witchy hair, but I’ve included step by step photos in the pattern, so even if you’ve never made doll hair before, it’ll still be easy-peasy with my directions.

PocketAmi Set 3: Halloween is now available in the PlanetJune shop for the bargain price of $5, and includes the patterns for all 3 spooky cute ami.

And that’s not all! I want to say thank you to everyone who has supported PlanetJune in the past, so I’m giving back to you all with a new FREE pattern: the multiple-personality amigurumi Pumpkin! The pattern is pretty simple, and makes a nice squishy hand-sized pumpkin. And with a few embellishments, you can create a realistic pumpkin for your Fall table:

…a cute amigurumi-style pumpkin for the kids:

…or a spooooooooooooooky pumpkin for Halloween:

Click through for the FREE pumpkin pattern! As usual with my free patterns, I’ve included a donation button on the pattern page. If you like the pattern, please feel free to send me a token of your appreciation – all donations are very gratefully received, and help me to create more free patterns for you all…

Happy crocheting, and happy halloween!

The Fall Creativ Festival is rapidly approaching… For anyone who may be in or around Toronto for the weekend of Oct 17-19, I recommend that you attend! It’s a vast show, with 200,000 square feet of shopping (fabrics, yarns, patterns, papers, jewellery supplies – you name it, you can find it there), learning about new tools and techniques, and the chance to meet creative and crafty industry experts.

And as if this wasn’t enough of a draw, there are still some spaces left at my amigurumi class, starting at 11am on Saturday 18th. You can learn how to make the PocketAmi Mouse or Bunny shown above – even if you have never held a crochet hook before. This is a fun project for new crocheters or amigurumi beginners, and I will be there to help you through every step. If you are planning to attend the show, I recommend you sign up for your classes soon – the spaces are filling up fast!

On Saturday 18th, I will be at the A Needle Pulling Thread magazine booth (that’s booth #1005) all day, except when I’m teaching, so please remember to come and introduce yourself…