PlanetJune Blog: Latest News, Patterns and Tutorials

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I just went to my mailbox, and look what I found inside (sorry about the photo quality; the sun is not cooperating today):

It’s a new book, Amigurumi Animals by Annie Obaachan! The book is very cute, and has lots of tips for how to design and make amigurumi:

It includes a menagerie of patterns you can make (with both written and charted instructions):

In the back is a gallery of amigurumi artists, and guess who has a full-page spread? 😉

Three large pictures, and a little blurb about me and PlanetJune.com. What really cracked me up, though, is I even made it into the index 😀

If you’re an amigurumi beginner, you could do a lot worse than picking up Amigurumi Animals (and not just to look at my photos!)

I’ve ordered business cards etc from VistaPrint before, so I’m on their mailing list for all their promotions. A couple of weeks ago they had an offer that was too good to pass up, so I thought I’d sample a wider range of their products. I designed PlanetJune postcards, magnets, sticky notes, a rubber stamp and even a custom pen!

Today my box of goodies arrived. I’ve never been disappointed with VistaPrint, and this order was no exception.

Lots of stuff!

These ‘business cards’ and ‘postcards’ are actually fridge magnets. My polymer clay Gingy wanted to get in on the fridge photoshoot too 🙂

The full order (click pic for larger version). Clockwise from left: postcard, rubber stamped images, pen, sticky notes, large postcard, business card magnet.

I think my rubber stamp design (my pink bear and the words ‘PlanetJune.com‘) may have been too detailed, as I’m having trouble getting a good print of the bear. I’m a stamping novice, though, so it could be the paper or ink at fault – I will experiment some more.

My favourite items from the order are the sticky notes (the pink bear image is faint enough to write over the top of it) and the large AquaAmi postcard. I made a border for the AquaAmi card featuring tiny images of all my designs, and I like the effect. I almost want to frame one of these and put it up on the wall in my craft room!

Although I have my new leather desk chair in my craft room, I stored my old chair in the basement, just in case. I saw a great post (‘save your old chair with a new look’) on IKEA Hacker a few weeks ago, and recognised my boring old Svenning chair given a fantastic makeover. Well, I do have two desks in my craft room, so having two chairs wouldn’t be a bad idea…

I went to the fabric store and managed to find some fabric in the exact colour scheme I used to crochet the throw for my other chair!

Holly’s method involved removing the old fabric from the chair, and then stapling the new fabric over the chair padding. I don’t have a staple gun, and after reading about Holly’s stapling difficulties, I decided to try a different method to attach the new fabric. I removed the backing fabric from the seat, and the plastic backing from the back rest, but left the original fabric stapled to both parts.

I stretched the new fabric over each piece and pinned it roughly in place so the dots pattern would be straight. Using a curved upholstery needle and strong thread, I stitched around the underside of the seat, sewing the new fabric to the old fabric.

I used a combination of running stitch for speed and backstitches for extra security every few stitches and around the corners. No need to be too neat – none of this is visible in the finished chair.

When I’d finished sewing, I trimmed the excess fabric, leaving about an inch beyond my stitches.

I reattached the plastic back to the back, and blanket stitched the original backing fabric to the seat, to hide the raw edges.

And the result? Better then new!

I love it!

You’ve probably noticed that PlanetJune has been MIA for the past three days. I’ve been having problems with my webhost – they suspended my site without notice for using too much bandwidth… Oops, I guess I am just too popular – isn’t that crazy?!

To anyone who e-mailed me this week via craft@planetjune.com, the e-mail account was also suspended so I haven’t received any e-mail. Please write to me again!

I’m not sure if it’s all back up for good, but fingers crossed it’ll be okay from now on. I think I have found a new host to switch to in the next few days and then PlanetJune will be bigger and better than ever!

Thank you so much to everyone who sent me concerned messages this week – I am fine, thank you 🙂

Ahhh, it’s good to be back…

Introducing the next addition to AmiDogs Set 3: a Corgi!

While researching the breed, I discovered there are actually two breeds of Corgi. The Cardigan Welsh Corgi is larger and has a long bushy tail.

The smaller Pembroke Welsh Corgi has a foxy appearance and no tail! I chose to make this variety 🙂

Queen Elizabeth II keeps several of these little corgis. I wonder what she would think of my crocheted version…

UPDATE: Looking for the pattern? You can find the AmiDogs Corgi crochet pattern in my shop.

For the Granny Squares theme on Crochet Along, I decided to make a throw to decorate the office chair in my craft room. I figured out I would need a long strip, 13 squares long and 3 squares wide. When I’d finished all the squares, I measured the finished squares against the chair and decided it needed a 4th column of squares to look better. I didn’t quite have enough yarn for the additional 13 squares, so I had a mad dash to Michaels to hope they still had the same dye lots in stock (they did with the linen colour, but not the brown, but I can’t see the difference so that’s okay).

The upshot of all this is that I didn’t finish the project during the theme time, but I’m only a week overdue. And here is the completed throw:

The throw also comes to the same length behind the chair, so it breaks up the expanse of black leather nicely. I’m especially pleased with the way one square is exactly the same as the width of the top of the chair, so the throw sits squarely on top of the chair and isn’t likely to slide about:

I found the Vanna’s Choice yarn pleasant and even to work with, although not as soft as the yarns I usually favour. But I think it will stand up well to use, and may soften with washing.

The rest of my craft room is still plain and undecorated (apart from the toy shelves), but I have grand plans! More on that soon…

We’ve just started a new theme on my other blog, Crochet Along. The new theme is Small Crochet – basically anything goes, as long as it’s small(ish). I’ve given 6″ or less as a guide for size, but it’s not a strict rule. We’re going for small stuff as instant gratification – it’ll be refreshing after making countless granny squares for the last theme!

Here are some examples of small crocheted items you could make:

• Amigurumi
• Small wearables: headbands, wrist warmers, etc
• Coffee mug cosies / iPod cosies, etc
• Baby booties
• Flowers & embellishments
• Small thread or wire crocheted items
• Anything else that’s small and crocheted!

We have free pattern links and advice to share. If you’ve considered trying crochet for the first time, this would be the perfect opportunity! If you’d like to join in, head over to the Crochet Along blog or drop me an e-mail and I’ll sign you up.

I watched the Westminster dog show on TV last week, and now I have about 20 ideas for dog breeds that I’m itching to design for the AmiDogs range! I was delighted to see that a beagle won Best in Show for the first time ever (yay Uno!), but of course I’ve already designed a Beagle…

So here’s the first dog for AmiDogs Set 3: a Siberian Husky (or is it an Alaskan Malamute? You take your pick!)

The grass is wishful thinking on my part – winter is almost over, isn’t it?

Woof!

I’m especially happy with his pricked ears and white-tipped tail. Hope you like him 🙂

UPDATE: Looking for the pattern? You can find the AmiDogs Husky crochet pattern in my shop.