PlanetJune Blog: Latest News, Patterns and Tutorials

This is the eighth post in my monthly series on the fascinating nature I encounter here in South Africa.

My biggest problem right now is deciding which photos to show you this month – between our adventures over Christmas and adding a birdbath and a new bird feeder to our garden, I have enough wildlife pics for at least three posts! But I’ve decided that this month I want to talk about the lizards in my garden. (Please don’t be squeamish; these little guys are totally harmless, and they’re really helpful to have around because they eat bugs and stop my garden from being overrun with insects.)

It’s hard to believe there’s such a variety of wildlife in one small back garden – I’ve found three completely different types of lizard, and and they are all very small (5″ long or less) and non-threatening. I love having them around – it’s fascinating to be able to watch them.

PS – keep reading to the end; I’ve saved the best for last!

Geckos

There are lots of little geckos in the garden, although we usually only see them when we move something they were sitting behind or inside, and then they run like lightning to escape to safety! That makes them very difficult to photograph; these are the best photos I’ve managed so far.

As you can see from the pics above and below, their colouration is quite varied, so I’m not sure if they’re all Marbled Leaf-Toed Geckos, or if we actually have a second species too.

Skinks

Our Cape Skinks are a little more scary looking – they have long smooth snakelike bodies and flicky tongues. It’s only when you spot their tiny legs that you know you’re not looking at a snake! They also move lightning fast, but if you sit still for a while they get braver and come out to sunbathe or look for insects. Of course, they only do that when I don’t have my camera handy, so even in my best photos, they are half-hidden in foliage…

A Cape Skink – or is it a snake?!

No, it’s definitely a lizard – you can see the leg more clearly here.

Chameleons

You can’t imagine my excitement when I looked at our wild peach tree one day and saw a bright green Cape Dwarf Chameleon looking back at me! Completely different from the other lizards, the chameleon’s camouflage involves moving veeeeeery slooooowly and swaying, so their motion looks like a leaf blowing in the wind. And it works! It’s very hard to spot, even when you know it’s there, but once you do, it’s great for taking photos. Just look at these:

How amazing is this?! Look at his two-toed feet.

Colour changing from bright green to blackish green (yep, it’s the same chameleon in both pics!)

Tongue shooting out to catch food – his tongue is as long as his whole body, with a suction cup on the end…

Perfect accuracy with the tongue grab – tasty insect acquired.

This pic just made me laugh – I feel like he’s about to reach for his top hat and cane and break into ‘Hello, My Baby‘ 😉

I still can’t really believe I took these photos in my own garden – it’s like having my own private zoo! I think it’s partly because we have an older house (1920s) so the garden and our big tree are very established, and there are lots of wildlife habitats. And it’s partly because I go outside most days and actually look for wildlife in the garden – I bet that, if you have a garden, there’s more interesting wildlife in it than you realise! (Although you probably won’t find anything as cool as a chameleon, sorry…)

I hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s photos! Please leave me a comment if you did – I’ll stop posting if/when you get bored with seeing my pics, so I’d really like to know that you’re still interested.

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In case these pics have inspired you to crochet a lizard of your own, my Gecko pattern might be just what you’re looking for. And I’m pretty sure there’ll be a PlanetJune Chameleon coming at some point in the future! 🙂

For the first time ever (as far as I know) PayPal has taken the side of the seller in a dispute over the sale of a non-refundable digital item. This is a very encouraging step in the right direction on PayPal’s part, so I want to make as many digital sellers aware of it as possible!

Here’s the thing: PayPal offers a very nice Seller Protection package that covers sellers in the event of disputes or chargebacks. But, this Seller Protection only extends to sellers of tangible goods (i.e. items that can be shipped). PayPal’s user agreement specifies that items/transactions not eligible for PayPal Seller protection, include “Intangible items, including Digital Goods, and services.” So if you sell PDF files, eBooks, mp3 files, etc, there’s no Seller Protection for you.

Rules that govern the sale and refund of physical items cannot apply to digital items: there’s no way to ‘return’ a digital item in exchange for a refund. For that reason, most digital sellers state that all sales are final.

However, sometimes a buyer files a claim with PayPal that the item was not what was expected, usually because they didn’t read the item title or description, just looked at the picture and assumed they were buying a ridiculously inexpensive handcrafted item (with no shipping charges!) instead of a PDF file containing the instructions to make the item themselves…

In these cases, PayPal seems to invariably side with the buyer (in the case of everyone I’ve spoken to about it, at least). They remove the money from the seller’s account and refund it to the buyer, thus making a mockery of the seller’s ‘no refunds/all sales are final’ policy. In this situation, the seller has no comeback: the buyer has the pattern and their money back; the seller is left with nothing but bitterness. Has this happened to you? Please share your story in the comments! I’d love to know how prevalent this really is.

In early December, one of my Etsy customers neglected to read the title or description and asked for a refund after receiving the pattern. I referred the customer to my ‘final sale’ policy but they wouldn’t accept that and launched a “significantly not as described” dispute against me. It’s taken over a month for PayPal to resolve the case, during which time they withdrew the funds from my account, but today, they found in my favour and returned my money to me!

If you’re a digital seller, you may find yourself in the same situation, so here’s my advice:

1. Gather your evidence

Why is the buyer’s claim flawed? Make a list of facts (and figures, if possible) that support your side of the story.

Here’s mine. I ignored my main shop when gathering my figures, as this dispute was over an item in my Etsy shop, so adding sales numbers from my own shop would be misleading. In my Etsy shop (at the time of responding to the dispute):

• I only sell crochet patterns
• 2919 crochet patterns already sold
• 88 other copies of the same item already sold (all 88 using the same photos and description) with no other misunderstandings
• 100% positive feedback
• I state “CROCHET PATTERNS” (in capitals) in the item title and mention throughout the description that it’s a pattern that will be emailed as a PDF file
• My Etsy seller policies clearly state that I sell crochet patterns, not finished items, and that all sales are final
• The seller confirmation email from Etsy also states that the pattern will be emailed, giving the buyer the chance to contact me prior to my sending the patterns if they had made a mistake

Pretty solid evidence, I think, that “significantly not as described” was not something that can apply here!

2. Present your evidence

The key here is to be professional. Imagine you’re presenting evidence in a court case – the most compelling response is an objective account of the facts you’ve gathered.

You only get one chance to respond to PayPal, so make it count. Don’t hit ‘respond’ and begin typing directly within PayPal; compose your response in your text editor of choice, and save it. Then step away from the computer, do something else, and let yourself cool down.

When you look over it again, edit out any emotional phrases and any waffly bits, so it’s concise and to the point. Make sure you’ve included all the evidence that could count in your favour, and end with a short, clear conclusion. Read it over again, and only then paste it into the PayPal response box and submit it.

3. Wait…

It took over a month for the case to be resolved. During that time, I heard nothing more from PayPal, and I assumed the worst. Then, yesterday, I got the email:

We have concluded our investigation and have decided in your favor. The listing accurately described the item the buyer received. Any funds that may have been temporarily held have been returned to your account.

Victory! I don’t know if this is the start of a change of policy by PayPal, or my evidence was just too compelling for them to ignore, but please feel free to use my case as precedent if the same thing happens to you: PayPal case number PP-001-585-575-355 (or just share the link to this post).

Digital sellers are not a small minority group any more. Digital sales is a massive and fast-growing sector, as books and CDs are replaced by ebooks and mp3 downloads, and self-publishing becomes ever-more prevalent. PayPal would do well to look after their digital sellers; we’re making them a lot of money in commissions.

I hope that my victory this week is a sign of better things to come…

If you crochet, the humble yarn over (YO, or ‘yarn over hook’, YOH, in UK terminology) is a vital part of every single crochet stitch. But are you doing it correctly? There’s actually a right and a wrong way to wrap the yarn over your hook in crochet, and it’s such a basic move that you may have been doing it wrongly for years without realising!

Let’s look at the difference:

• With a normal crochet YO, you place the hook underneath the yarn strand and then hook the yarn from below.
• With a yarn under (YU), you put the hook over the yarn strand and then hook the yarn from above.

Here’s how they look, if you’re right-handed:

And if you’re left-handed:

I think the confusion may lie in the name yarn over. In crochet, you don’t really wrap the yarn over your hook at all: you use the hook to catch the yarn, so the phrase “yarn over (hook)” would be more accurately named “hook under (yarn)”…

I’ve put together a video to help clarify this – the first in my new Crochet Quickies series of short (around 1 minute) videos to explain very basic or brief crochet techniques. (I’ll still be making longer videos too, for techniques that would benefit from a little more explanation.)

Crochet Quickie: Yarn Over (right-handed)

Click to watch this video on YouTube.

Crochet Quickie: Yarn Over (left-handed)

Click to watch this video on YouTube.

Note: The videos may look a little small embedded in the blog: if so, you can fullscreen them or click through to YouTube to watch them in full HD resolution 🙂

If you are crocheting – and this applies to all standard and Tunisian crochet stitches – passing the yarn over the hook is always the correct way to do a YO.

If you’re not sure which way you do it, grab some yarn and a hook. Pause when you’ve hooked a loop of yarn, just before you draw it up through the stitch, and see which way the yarn lies across your hook, using the photos or videos above for reference – you may discover you’ve been crocheting incorrectly! To try to tell if you’re doing it right in future, remember it’s called yarn over, so the yarn goes over the hook, i.e. the hook should pass under the yarn before you hook the yarn.

Exception

Now here’s the exception, and one I’ve experienced first-hand: this does not necessarily apply for knooking (knitting with a special crochet hook – see my review of The Knook for more information). With knooking, the way that you position the yarn across your hook varies depending on whether you’re knitting or purling. When I first tried knooking, I used a standard YO for all my stitches and they ended up twisted. Why this difference? Because knooking, despite using a crochet hook, is not crochet, it’s knitting with an unusual technique.

There may be other exceptions that require you to wrap the yarn in a different way, but the stitch instructions should always inform you if that’s the case. If all you see is “yarn over” or “YO”, the standard way is the correct way.

Does it really matter?

Yes and no! The difference is more visible with some crochet stitches than with others. For knooking and Tunisian knit stitch, it’s extremely important to use the intended YO/YU. For other crochet stitches, there is a difference in the finished appearance, but it may be much less obvious.

Simone from my Ravelry group worked up a test swatch in rows of sc, which shows a clear difference between the rows of YO and the rows of YU:

Rows of YO and YU (swatch and photo by Simone, used with permission)

You can see that there’s a definite slant/twist to the YU stitches compared with the YO stitches, and each YO stitch is more clearly defined – the YU stitches seem to blend more into a flatter finished surface. They both look attractive, but they are clearly not the same.

YU in amigurumi

I thought it’d be interesting to see what, if any, difference you’d see if you worked amigurumi (single crochet, worked in the round without turning) with YU, so I made two small amigurumi balls, worked identically except for the YOs or YUs throughout.

Almost immediately, I noticed something unexpected: a flat circle is actually flatter when worked in YU! Normally, the backs of all the stitches are larger than the fronts (because we aren’t turning the work between rounds), which makes a flat circle want to curl up slightly into a bowl shape, with the right side on the inside of the bowl. You can see that slight curling at the edge of my YO sample, but it’s missing from the YU sample! Very interesting…

Left: YO edges are curved up (the ‘v’s around the edge face upwards)
Right: YU edges are perfectly flat (the ‘v’s around the edge face outwards)

I found YO and YU equally easy to work, although of course I had to concentrate on every stitch with the YU sample to make sure I didn’t slip back into my usual automatic YO method. And now let’s look at the finished samples:

From the top (magic ring visible)

From the side (there are 2 rounds with no increases/decreases around the middle of each ball)

• YO has more obvious texture, whereas YU is flatter. The twisting of the YU stitches seems to actually fill the gaps between the stitches better and each stitch is less clearly defined.
• The twisting of the stitches is very subtle, but I can definitely see a diagonal slant visible within each YU stitch. The slant is more pronounced on the decreases – invisible decreases aren’t so invisible if you YU!
• My YU sample is noticeably smaller. Although this could be a tension issue because of the unfamiliar YU hand movements, it could also contribute to the smaller gaps between stitches.

If your amigurumi stitches don’t look like other people’s, and you’re definitely not working inside out, this could be the reason!

Conclusion

The difference between YO and YU if you’re making amigurumi is slight, but it is noticeable if you’re looking for it. The difference can be more apparent with crochet stitches other than single crochet.

If you’ve just discovered that you’ve always worked in YU, I don’t think you necessarily need to change if you’re happy with the way you’ve been working. There’s no law that says you have to crochet in the same way as everyone else. You’re free to crochet in a non-standard fashion (unless you’re teaching crochet, or creating patterns, tutorials, or crocheted samples for patterns/books) – if you like the finished result, that’s all that matters.

I can confirm (from trying it in reverse) that it’s not easy to make the change, and you’ll probably need at least a few hours of heavy concentration before the different hand movements become natural, or maybe longer if you’ve been crocheting for many years. I would advise that you at least try working a small piece in YO, to try it out, and see how it feels and how the finished piece looks – you may find that you prefer it.

Whichever method you choose, the most important thing is to be consistent, and not switch between the two methods. It’ll only look like you’ve made a mistake if you suddenly switch from one to the other within a piece, which will make some of your stitches look different from others. But if you’d like your stitches to look like everyone else’s, YO is the way to go!

Loved this tutorial? I have so many more amigurumi tips and tricks to share with you!

Boost your amigurumi skills with my latest book, The Essential Guide to Amigurumi, your comprehensive guide to amigurumi techniques and tips.

Do you find my tutorials helpful? If so, please consider making a contribution towards my time so I can continue to create clear and concise tutorials for you:

Thank you so much for your support! Now click below for loads more crochet video and photo tutorials (and do let me know what else you’d like me to cover in future tutorials…)

2012 is treating me well so far – I hope it’s going well for you too! I loved my holiday, but I’m enjoying getting back down to work just as much 🙂

Review and Win contest

December’s ‘Review and Win’ winner is Rianne d, with her Gift Boxes review:

I’m really happy with this pattern, it does exactly what the description says; it’s like magic how the box really stays square instead of rounding up like most one-piece in-the-round cubes! The instructions are easy to follow and all the special stitches are explained really well with a nice photo tutorial, I had no trouble at all with making the corners. And the end result looks pretty, of course. 😀

Congrats Rianne – I’ll email you to find out which pattern you’d like as your prize 🙂

To be entered into this month’s draw for a free pattern of your choice, just write a review of any product in my shop – thank you!

January CAL

The AquaAmi Crochet-Along is in full swing – come and join in at the PlanetJune Ravelry group! I have loads of patterns for you to choose from:

Other News

After my month-long designing hiatus I feel newly inspired. I’m midway through an exciting, ambitious design to be released later this month, if all goes to plan. It’s great to get back to crocheting after such a long (although much needed) break, and I’m looking forward to having new designs and tutorials to share with you soon! Watch this space…

I’m quite happy to bid farewell to 2011: although I’ve had some amazing experiences over the past year, it’s also been the most bizarre and difficult year of my life. Trying to keep my business going while moving halfway around the world and coping with 6 months of illness has been a tremendous struggle, but now the transitional year is finally over and I’m welcoming a new start in 2012!

All things considered though, I don’t think I did too badly on the craft front this year:

In 2011:

• I published 22 new crochet patterns across my amigurumi and accessories ranges, as well as creating my annual ‘art’ project (my amigurumi Columbo, a tribute to Peter Falk).
• I continued to create high quality crochet video tutorials, and detailed, honest book reviews.
• I took an educational approach to a spate of copycat designs with my posts on inspiration vs copying and tips for aspiring designers.
• I started a monthly series of wildlife posts, which I don’t think is too tangential on a craft blog, as they demonstrate my passion for nature – the inspiration for most of my designs!
• PlanetJune Crochet-Alongs took on a whole new direction
  and are now being run directly from the PlanetJune Ravelry group, which has also blossomed into a fun and supportive crochet community. I hope to see it expand further over the coming year!

Now I’m living in Africa, my priorities and my lifestyle have been forced to change. I no longer have easy/inexpensive access to yarn and craft supplies, books, DVDs or video games; instead I have easy/inexpensive access to amazing wildlife, and temperatures that let me explore nature year-round. The time that I once spent on weekly shopping trips to Michaels, I can now spend sitting in my garden and noticing those little magical things like butterflies hatching and fast-as-lightning lizards darting along the walls.

White-Eye eating an orange on the feeder in our garden

It’s a simpler, less materialistic life, and I like that. And, I can (with some difficulty and/or generous friends) import yarn, books, etc, but no amount of money can buy the amazing experiences I can have here. During our Christmas ‘staycation’ we’ve seen wild antelope, tortoises, ostriches, seals, mongooses, and more, all within an hour or so of our house – an endless stream of inspiration for my future designs.

My resolution from last year was to “to figure out what’s really important to me and to be true to myself in the decisions I make” and, although I’m still working on that, I’ve definitely made progress this year. I’m more aware than ever that my biggest barrier is lack of time, and I need to keep examining where I want to take my business and make sure I leave enough time to actually have a life too!

I worked myself into the ground over the past few months, trying to build my business back up after the move and sickness, and trying to keep up with my own ideas and self-imposed deadlines. I’ve spent days and weeks holed up in my craft room trying desperately to get things finished and having little time for anything else, which was, in retrospect, both unhealthy and a little crazy. So I decided to take December off from designing, and try to catch up with other things in my business and really think about where I want to go from here. And we took 2 weeks off over Christmas for a much-needed break.

Amazing white sand beach at Cape Point

I’ve had a bit of an epiphany: although I do, of course, want to have financial success with PlanetJune, I’ve realised that money is not my motivator. Most of the things I enjoy are free or inexpensive, and having the time to do them is far more important to me than making more money. Doing things well is what I value: creating beautiful designs, making high-quality tutorials, learning new techniques, and improving my skills.

So, my resolution for 2012 is to work smarter, not harder. I need to slow down and enjoy life, not let it pass me by while I’m working non-stop. I want to invest time into things that will, in the long run, save me time in the technical and administrative sides of the business, leaving me with a larger proportion of time to spend on the creative and instructional sides, and having a life apart from my work.

Helping people (both customers and potential future customers) is something that’s important to me, so this will hopefully allow me to continue to do that without having to spend all my time answering emails. I’ve already started with an expanded FAQ and a bank of canned responses to common questions I receive by email, and I’ll continue to build on both of those so I’ll be able to spend less time on admin tasks in future.

We picked the most delicious cherries ever at Klondyke Cherry Farm

I have no idea what 2012 will bring for PlanetJune. I have so many ideas and plans that if I could split myself into 3 people I still wouldn’t have enough time to implement everything! But I’m not stressed about that; I actually feel calmer than I have in a long time. I have no deadlines, no commitments, no big events on the horizon, and that’s a huge relief. As you can see from my photos, we’ve had a lovely relaxing break (our first chance to relax in a year and a half) and now I’m looking forward to jumping back into work – I wonder if my new tranquillity will show in my 2012 designs..?

I know I’m very fortunate to be in a position where I can support myself (from wherever in the world I happen to be), but it wouldn’t be possible without your support, custom and friendship, so thank you for following me on my journey! I hope you’ll stick with me for the next chapter 🙂

Happy New Year – I hope you have a very happy and healthy 2012!

Today I have one final 2011 crochet-along roundup from the PlanetJune ravelry group members to share with you, as November’s Accessories CAL was given an extension to give people more time to complete their projects (you can see the first roundup photos here).

Keep reading for details of the January CAL at the end of this post, but first, as promised, here’s the second roundup of PlanetJune Accessories projects made for the Accessories CAL…

(As usual, I’m crediting the participants by their Ravelry usernames, so you can look them up on Ravelry if you want more details.)

Enphra’s Climbing Eyelets Triangular Shawl turned out beautifully!

Here’s a great example of how different yarns can completely alter the look of a project – the following 2 projects are both the Lacy Bobbles Cowl, but made with very different variegated yarns:

Kid mohair/silk blend (with colours by the inimitable Kaffe Fassett) crocheted by my aunt. The mohair gives a fluffy effect and helps the colours to blend together.

klopferli’s cowl uses a wool/nylon blend, which gives great stitch definition.

CrochetChrisie’s Diamond Lattice Neckwarmer looks perfect with her winter coat 🙂

My Lip Balm holder pattern has been really popular this Christmas! A special mention goes out to Jana (saudistitcher) who crocheted an amazing 25 of them to give to all the teachers at her school, but didn’t have time to share a photo of them with us before going home to spend Christmas with her family 🙂

theMarkofSMB

BanuyeGharbi

CrochtColorJunkie

AKmtnnymph

Lightblue

Fatals-attraction

klopferli

Ami Paint Set made into a decorative photo frame, by Fatals-attraction

Scalloped Scarves by theMarkofSMB and CrochetChrisie

…and another by klopferli

BanuyeGharbi’s Plumeria pins

BanuyeGharbi’s pretty gift set includes Plumeria pin, Gift Box and Lip Balm Holder

I never get tired of seeing what people have made from my patterns! I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing them too. If you’re inspired by these photos to make any of these designs for yourself, to give as gifts, or even to sell, you’ll find all the PlanetJune Accessories patterns in my shop.

January CAL

By popular demand, we’ll be continuing with monthly PlanetJune crochet-alongs in 2012, with a vote to decide each month’s theme. The theme for the January CAL is AquaAmi. This includes all the patterns in the Aquatic Animals section of my shop (or you can get creative and modify any of my other patterns to fit the theme).

If you’d like to join in, you’ll find the AquaAmi CAL thread in the PlanetJune Ravelry group from tomorrow. We hope you’ll join us there for some CAL fun.

And that’s it from me for 2011 – Happy New Year, everyone!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS! I hope you’re having a wonderful day. What better way to celebrate than by looking through the wonderful projects made for the 2011 PlanetJune Christmas Crochet-Along? Thank you to everyone who joined in; as always it’s so much fun to see what you’ve made!

(For speed, I’m just giving credit with participants’ Ravelry usernames.) Let’s take a look:

AKmtnnymph made this clever Santa-themed Gift Box

theMarkofSMB used my Christmas Trees, PocketAmi Christmas, and Yeti and Bigfoot patterns to create this set of ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ characters

Fatals-attraction made this lovely group of Christmas Trees

arbitrarily’s PocketAmi set

Enphra made a set of 3 Gift Boxes embellished with ribbon roses

crochet-girl made some PocketAmi (with the Elf adapted into Santa)…

…and more PocketAmi by crochet-girl!

BanuyeGharbi made these two Gift Boxes but will be re-working the pink one at a tighter gauge so it holds its shape as well as the lovely blue one does!

jukatca made this sweet display of a Christmas Tree and Gift Box (and a collection of all my non-crocheted poinsettia tutorials!)

yaney used variegated yarn for her Gift Box

PocketAmi by esmerelda62

Lightblue made black-tipped Reindeer Antlers

CrochetChrisie’s Gift Box is topped with my felt poinsettia

Very effective use of rainbow-coloured yarn from klopferli

Candy Canes by theMarkofSMB

And now for a big pile of Poinsettias, Christmas Puddings, Candy Canes and Christmas Trees:

theMarkofSMB and Fatals-attraction

crochet-girl and BiologyJAP

rhianoran and mistyyarn

theMarkofSMB and Foxtrot400

Fatals-attraction and petrOlly

Fatals-attraction and rastakt

CrochetChrisie and petrOlly

Wonderful work by everyone! I always love seeing all the projects together like this 🙂

If you missed out on the CAL fun, don’t despair: the next CAL starts on January 1st, and there’s still time to vote on the new theme here (you’ll need to be a member of Ravelry but it’s free to join).

Prizes!

And now to the winners! I made a list of all the eligible projects and used random.org to draw 2:
First prize ($10 gift certificate) goes to Fatals-attraction – congratulations Linda!
Second prize (free pattern) goes to theMarkofSMB – congratulations Monica!
Runner-up prizes go to everyone else 🙂

I’ll email Ravelry message the winners with their prize details (and the runner-up prize discount codes to all the other CAL participants) within the next couple of days, but now it’s time to spend a quiet summer Christmas afternoon at home in the sunshine with my little family – I hope you’re enjoying your day too!

This is the seventh post in my monthly series on the fascinating nature I encounter here in South Africa.

This is the harbour at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.

Here you can find shops, restaurants, boat trips… and something else.

Have you spotted it yet? Let’s try a close-up:

It’s a big pile of Cape Fur Seals!

When we first saw them, I thought they were sea lions: I’ve known for years that the way to tell seals from sea lions is that sea lions have visible ear flaps whereas seals just have ear holes…. It turns out that’s not quite true, but I had to do some research to find this out.

Sweet dreams, little seal. Hang on, that’s an ear I spy…

Time for a very quick science lesson! Pinnipeds (“fin-footed” mammals) are split into 3 groups: Odobenidae (walrus), Otariidae (eared seals), and Phocidae (earless seals). The earless seals are what’s known as ‘true’ seals, but the eared seals category includes both sea lions and fur seals.

So what you should really remember is that the lack of ears is the way to tell true seals from sea lions (and fur seals). Not quite as memorable, is it?!

I think it’s a shame they aren’t called ‘fur sea lions’ instead of ‘fur seals’: these Cape Fur Seals look like furry versions of their sea lion cousins, and nothing like seals! Either way though, they are cuuuuute…

Now there is a bit of a sad side to this story, and it’s the fault of stupid humans. When you look closely at these lovely seals, you start to notice something a bit strange. Many of them have deep cuts on their shoulders:

These poor seals swim through plastic bands, fishing line, and other litter, and can’t free themselves. As the seal grows, the noose grows tighter and cuts into the seal, and can eventually kill it. I’m sure you don’t drop litter, but if you’re ever tempted to, and think it doesn’t really matter, look at these pictures and know that it does.

The poor seal above has a pile of litter and fish bones stuck to its noose. And when I zoomed in on the happy pile of seals from the start of this post, look what I found: the tiniest baby already has a noose around its neck! I try to post only happy things here, but I can’t gloss over this – it’s a truly horrific situation.

Thankfully, the local Aquarium is trying to help: they send divers out under the docks, to sneak up on the seals while they sunbathe and try to cut off the nooses, and have built a seal platform to help them contain injured seals while they break off the nooses with a long hook. But of course the only solution would be for everyone to stop littering in the first place.

Still, to end on a positive note, these fur seals do look happy, from what I can see, even the scarred ones. They live in the wild, and can sunbathe and swim and snooze all day…

Sunbathing…

Swimming…

Snoozing…

It’s not such a bad life!

***

In case these pics have inspired you to crochet a seal(ion) of your own, my AquaAmi Sea Lion or Fuzzy Seal patterns might fit the bill 🙂