PlanetJune Blog: Latest News, Patterns and Tutorials

This is the sixth post in my monthly series on the fascinating nature I encounter here in South Africa. I’ll be back with another crochet post tomorrow!

How could I possibly top last month’s wildlife post? Short of going on a safari, I don’t think it’s going to get much more impressive than penguins and whales and lizards and dassies, all in one day! So I’m narrowing my focus a bit and I’m going to show you something much closer to home (my own back garden, in fact) that’s an absolute miracle of nature.

As you may remember, a few months back, we noticed some weird blobs on the wall of our house, that turned out to be Garden Acraea butterfly cocoons. It turns out that we have a perfect butterfly ecosystem in our garden: we have a Wild Peach (kiggelaria africana) tree (unfortunately no relation to an edible peach) where the butterflies lay their eggs.

The wild peach is the larger, darker tree at the back. The butterfly wall (left of photo) faces the tree.

As winter ended and spring began (I’m in the southern hemisphere, remember), the cycle started up, and I’ve been able to observe the whole fascinating process just by stepping out into my garden!

Butterfly eggs

After hatching, the little caterpillars feast on the wild peach leaves (which grow back quickly – don’t worry about the tree). Apparently cuckoos eat the caterpillars, although I’ve yet to spot one on our tree. And when the wild peach fruits ripen (from February) they apparently attract a whole host of different birds, so I’ll report back if we see anything interesting 🙂

Baby caterpillars and munched leaf

When the caterpillars are fully grown, they find a convenient sunny wall to attach themselves to before pupating. They spin a silk mat and grip onto it with proleg hooks called crochets (of course, crochet means hook in French, so that’s not really a huge coincidence, but it still made me smile!)

You can see the silk mat clearly when the caterpillars form their chrysalises on a window instead of the wall. (This butterfly had just emerged from his chrysalis.)

So here’s the puzzle: how does that butterfly, with those big wings, come from that skinny little chrysalis?

Like this! As the butterflies emerge, the wings are curled and crumpled. They straighten and unfurl, in the slowest of slow motion. Here’s a sequence of photos to demonstrate:

This takes about an hour. At the end of this the wings are really frail and floppy – the slightest breeze makes them flap all over the place and almost pulls the butterfly from the wall! The butterfly rests with all her wings held together so the wind doesn’t catch them and waits for another hour or so while her wings strengthen. Then she abandons the cocoon and climbs slowly up the wall, flapping her wings to test them:

And then she’s off!

Flying back to the wild peach tree

Nature is pretty amazing, don’t you think?

Whatever else is going on, there’s magic everywhere in the world if you just slow down and look for it. Today I’m sharing mine with you – I hope you enjoyed it!

Update: The Scarf Sweater instructions, together with my Eyelet Ripple stitch pattern, are now available as a printable Donationware pattern. They are still available for free, but if you like them please consider sending me a donation to show your appreciation:

Send me a donation and receive the easy-to-print PDF version of the instructions and stitch pattern (with bonus assembly photos and instructions on how to wear it) as a thank you!

Donations of any size are much appreciated. Just add the amount you wish to donate, and, once you have checked out and paid, your pattern will instantly be available to download from your PlanetJune account.

The complete pattern and instructions are available below, regardless of whether or not you choose to pay for them 🙂

This is a PlanetJune original crochet pattern. Feel free to use items made from this pattern however you wish, but I’d appreciate credit as the pattern designer. Please do not reproduce the pattern anywhere else; instead post a link to www.planetjune.com/scarfsweater

Not ready to make it yet? Add it to your Ravelry queue:

***

Wow, I really didn’t expect such a great response to my Scarf Sweater – I linked it up on Ravelry and over 60 people have queued it already! Of course, you can use any stitch pattern to make a scarf sweater, but I’ve been getting questions about the eyelet ripple stitch pattern I used, so I thought I’d share some info about ripples and the pattern for my eyelet ripple.

Ripple Crochet Basics

Ripple (aka chevron) patterns in crochet take 2 basic forms:

• Solid Ripple: the peaks and valleys are formed by increases and decreases, giving a solid fabric with no holes
• Eyelet Ripple: the peaks and valleys are formed by chains and skipped stitches, leaving a hole (an eyelet) at the point of each direction change

Note: these are my names for them; other people may call them by other names or not distinguish between the two types at all!

All ripples are formed by a section of straight stitches, a peak to change direction, another section of straight stitches, and then a valley to change direction again. This forms a zig-zag pattern. The number of stitches in the straight sections determines the width of the ripple, and the number of increases/decreases or chains/skipped stitches determines the angle of the ripple.

June’s Eyelet Ripple Pattern

You can use this pattern to make a scarf, a blanket, or a scarf sweater like mine! This is a generic pattern, so you can make it any width you like. N is the number of repeats, not including the half repeat at each edge. So in the stitch diagram below, N=1 and the ripple has 2 complete zig-zags. (For my Scarf Sweater, I used N=3, so I had 4 zig-zags.)

Terminology

Pattern

Ch 12xN + 15.

Row 1: dc in 4th ch from hook (unworked chains count as dc), dc in next 4 ch, skip next 2 ch, (dc in next 5 ch, ch 2, dc in next 5 ch, skip next 2 ch) N times, dc in next 4 ch, 2 dc in last ch.

Row 2: ch 3 (counts as dc), dc in same st, dc in next 4 st, skip next 2 st, (dc in next 4 st, [dc, ch 2, dc] in next ch2-sp, dc in next 4 st, skip next 2 st) N times, dc in next 4 st, 2 dc in last st.

Repeat Row 2 until your piece is as long as you want.

Stitch Diagram

Scarf Sweater Joining

If you’re making this into a scarf sweater, when you come to seam the two short ends together, you won’t be stitching two straight lines; you’ll be matching up the zig-zag shapes at the ends of the scarf, as shown below. If you stitch neatly, the zig-zag disguises the seam very nicely – I tried to find my seam so I could take a photo of it for you, and I can’t actually find it!

When you join the two layers across the back, do take a moment to make sure you continue the zig-zag pattern across both layers, to make the seam less visible. You won’t get the eyelets along the seam, but at least the zig-zags can flow down across both layers.

I hope you enjoy this pattern. Please leave me a comment below if you do, and consider leaving me a donation. Thanks!

More PlanetJune Accessories patterns

If you’ve enjoyed this post, you might also like my PlanetJune Accessories crochet patterns: they all include stitch diagrams and clear written explanations so you can easily crochet elegant wearable accessories for yourself and to give as beautiful gifts. Here’s a taster of the range:

We’re also having a PlanetJune Accessory CAL on Ravelry throughout November, and you’re very welcome to join in!

Update: The Scarf Sweater instructions, together with my Eyelet Ripple stitch pattern, are now available as a printable Donationware pattern. They are still available for free, but if you like them please consider sending me a donation to show your appreciation:

Send me a donation and receive the easy-to-print PDF version of the instructions and stitch pattern (with bonus assembly photos and instructions on how to wear it) as a thank you!

Donations of any size are much appreciated. Just add the amount you wish to donate, and, once you have checked out and paid, your pattern will instantly be available to download from your PlanetJune account.

The complete pattern and instructions are available below, regardless of whether or not you choose to pay for them 🙂

This is a PlanetJune original crochet pattern. Feel free to use items made from this pattern however you wish, but I’d appreciate credit as the pattern designer. Please do not reproduce the pattern anywhere else; instead post a link to www.planetjune.com/scarfsweater

Not ready to make it yet? Add it to your Ravelry queue:

***

I saw an intriguing knitwear idea on Pinterest a few weeks ago, and had one of those ‘I could make that’ moments. Here are some examples I found on Etsy (the first picture is the one I first found – uncredited – on Pinterest, and used my Google Search by Image trick to track down):

Photo (and inspiration) credit L-R: Max & Melody, Pilland, Rumina

I just wanted to test the basic concept to see how it worked – it’s essentially just a scarf turned into a sweater by wrapping and stitching it together. It’s very simple, so while I won’t be creating a full pattern, I’ll share the basic method (below), in case you’d like to make one too! I crocheted mine, but you could easily knit one if you prefer.

My version is very simple – I just crocheted a long rectangle like a scarf, wrapped it around myself, seamed the two short edges, and seamed across the back. I used worsted weight yarn for speed and crocheted a basic eyelet ripple to add a subtle chevron pattern. I also made it a bit wider than knitted ones, as an experiment to see if that would make it more snuggly.

Update: I’ve published free instructions for my eyelet ripple stitch pattern, in case you’d like to use it to make your own Scarf Sweater, or to make a scarf or ripple blanket 🙂

I think it’s pretty cute, although a little chunky on my short figure. The nature of the design makes it a bit of a challenge to get into, and the shoulders are a bit constrictive – I won’t be raising my arms above my head while wearing this! But the best thing about it is that wearing it feels like a warm, soft hug; despite having no sleeves, it’s really warm and cosy.

If I planned to take this further, I’d refine the concept to make a more elegant, less bulky version. But I think this is the end of the line for my experiment – it was fun, it worked, my curiosity is satisfied, and I have a new handmade garment to keep me warm.

If you want to try making one of your own, here’s a mini tutorial to get you started. You can knit or crochet this, in any stitch pattern you like – all you’re doing is making a long narrow rectangle, just like a scarf:

Basic Scarf Sweater Instructions

1. Measure your back from where you want the bottom of the sweater to sit, up to your neckline (add an inch or two if you want to make a little fold-over collar like mine has or keep it shorter to be more fitted). Divide by two to get your width measurement.
2. Pick a stitch pattern and start crocheting (or knitting) a rectangle with the width you determined in Step 1.
3. You’ll be making a very long rectangular scarf, but the length depends very much on your figure! The easiest way to figure out how long you need it is to wrap it around yourself: it should go across the back of your shoulders, cross over down your front, around your back above the waist, and cross over again up your front to meet the starting edge. It’d be easiest to get someone else to arrange it on you and make sure the two wraps meet across the middle of your back, or you can do it yourself in front of a mirror and expect to wriggle a lot to get it into position (guess which I did!)
4. When it’s long enough, pin the two short ends together while it’s on your body, then seam together (or make a double twist and then seam the two short ends together).
5. Arrange it nicely with the seam in an inconspicuous place – mine lies on the lower wrap so it’s hidden. Ask your helper to pin the top and bottom wraps together across your back (or figure out where to stitch by yourself – it’s possible; I managed!), then seam them across the back, stopping just before each underarm.

Update: It just occurred to me that although you can use any yarn (and a suitably sized hook), it may be helpful for you to know the details of what I used for mine, as a starting point for yours: I used an H (5mm) hook and worsted weight yarn (Bernat Satin, in Denim Mist Heather). I used 2.7 skeins and I wear a size XS-S top.

This is probably the simplest ‘pattern’ there could be for making a sort of sweater, don’t you think?

I hope you enjoy this pattern. Please leave me a comment below if you do, and consider leaving me a donation. Thanks!

There’s been much talk lately about how to share on Pinterest properly: giving credit to the source of your image, and making sure the pin actually links back to the source correctly before you re-pin it. I have an excellent example of why this is so important. Yesterday, I suddenly got a massive traffic spike on my blog and lots of new comments on my shrinkydinks ring tutorial.

When I investigated the source, they were all coming from Pinterest and Tumblr – nothing weird about that. But then I clicked through to see the source, and here’s what I found:

Lovely! Except… not only is this not one of my shrinky rings, but a quick glance made me seriously doubt that it was a shrinky ring at all – there’s no way to make a seamless join with a shrink plastic ring, and this looked smooth and perfect. So why is it being linked to my tutorial?

I clicked through from Pinterest to see the source, and found this:

A tumblr site, with no attribution for the image at all. This is very common with tumblr – people ‘blog’ photos they’ve found online and there’s no link back to where they found the photo, or any information about it. This is why I avoid tumblr: it’s too frustrating to not be given any information about what you’re looking at.

But all is not lost! Thanks to Google’s new Search by Image function, you can enter the URL of a photo and it’ll show you where else that picture appears online. (It’s very useful if you want to see if anyone has been stealing your photos, as well as letting you track down the source for a creditless photo.)

To use the Search by Image feature, go to Google Images and click the little camera icon at the right of the search box:

Go back to your source picture* and grab its URL (right click on the picture; the exact wording of the option varies between browsers but in Chrome it says ‘Copy image URL’), then paste it into the search box:

* Edited to add: you can do this directly from its Pinterest page: don’t click the pin to go to the (supposed) source, just right click the image in Pinterest to get its URL.

After you click ‘Search’, you’ll see links from all over the internet, wherever a webpage uses the same photo. In this case, there are lots of results, and almost all of them are social bookmarking sites:

I ignored all those and looked through until I found one that sounded like it may be the original:

Bingo! And clicking through to Keri’s Autumn Bangle page informs me that this image is, in fact, nothing to do with either shrinky dinks or rings: it’s a bangle, “Designed as a one complete vector image then screened onto thin acetate. Next step, encase in resin for eternity. Sand, buff, wear. This bangle is for sale. If you’d like one, just ask!”

Now, just think how much business Keri may have received as a result of all this exposure, if only the first person to share her photo on Tumblr had credited this page, or her Etsy shop, as the source.

But instead, the anonymous image propagated, and, at some point, someone added the ‘information’ that it was a shrinkydinks ring, and someone else added the link to my tutorial… And, while I’m very happy to see my tutorial reach more eyes, I can’t and won’t take the credit for Keri’s lovely resin bangles! (If you’d like to order a bangle from Keri, her Etsy shop is Par Amour Design her web store is Omnia Oddities.)

A side note: in case you’re thinking of giving up on Pinterest as a source of inspiration, here’s an encouraging sign. Plenty of people are doing it right: a search for “shrinky ring” brings this:

Yep, 14 of those first 15 results are links to my tutorial – and there are many, many more if you scroll down.

So, three points to take away from this:

• Don’t believe everything you read online without question.
• Think before you share a link (whether on your blog, pinterest, twitter, facebook, or anywhere else) and make sure you’re actually linking to the most useful page for your readers!
• If a link doesn’t lead where you expect, a little sleuthing with Google can often turn up what you’re looking for.

Happy browsing… 🙂

A quick newsy post today, with a new winner, a new name, and a new deal:

Review and Win contest

October’s ‘Review and Win’ winner is Holly M, with her Detail Stuffing Tool review:

I make a lot of stuffed toys (some crochet, some sewn) and this is the only stuffing tool I’ve ever tried that helps me get stuffing into those really small tubes/arms/legs/etc. A chore that used to take literally hours sometimes, now takes minutes with this little tool! I really can’t say enough about it – love love love it! Makes stuffing small limbs a breeze!

Congrats Holly! 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!

* * *

Renamed: Amigurumi Essentials Kit

I realised months ago that having a line of patterns called PlanetJune Accessories and a kit called Amigurumi Accessory Kit was potentially confusing, but it took a suggestion from the ever-helpful ladies (and gents?) in my Ravelry group to make me do something about it. We didn’t have much luck coming up for a replacement name for the PlanetJune Accessories line (as I didn’t want the name to limit the scope of future designs – I think accessories is a good catch-all for everything except graded garments and toys), so we voted on a new name for the Accessory Kit instead.

So, as from today, the item formerly know as Amigurumi Accessory Kit is reborn as the Amigurumi Essentials Kit!

The contents is unchanged; you’ll still get:

• 1 Detail Stuffing Tool
• 5 Stitch Markers
• 2 pairs black 6mm safety eyes with washers
• 2 pairs clear 8mm safety eyes with washers
• 2 pairs black 9mm safety eyes with washers
• 2 pairs clear 10mm safety eyes with washers
• 2 pairs black 12mm safety eyes with washers
• 2 pairs clear 15mm safety eyes with washers

If you do want to order one (or more) as Christmas gifts, please be aware that mail from South Africa takes about 2 weeks at the best of times, and I imagine it’ll get slower as we approach the holidays, so please don’t wait too long if you want to make sure you’ll receive your package in time for the big day.

* * *

PlanetJune Accessories Custom Set of 3 Patterns

I launched this a few weeks ago, but just realised that I forgot to announce it! Thanks to another suggestion from my amazing Ravelry group, I’ve launched a PlanetJune Accessories Custom Set multipack (following the successful model of my AmiDogs Custom Set): any 3 patterns of your choice from the PlanetJune Accessories line for a special price.

If you’re considering joining the November Accessories CAL, maybe this is the incentive you need to get started..?

The Halloween CAL was the first crochet-along organised entirely by PlanetJune ravelry group members, and wow, what a success: page after page of projects, creative photography, fun modifications to the patterns… I can see why people enjoy CALs so much.

Don’t be shy – please join the group and participate in future CALs! November’s CAL topic will be Accessories – that’s everything in the PlanetJune Accessories range, and you can also use any of my other patterns to create accessories (e.g. a flower pin or bag embellishment, a fruit necklace). Look for the new CAL thread from tomorrow…

And now see the results of the Halloween 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.) You’re going to love these pics!

I’ve been planning this ambitious design for a couple of months, and it’s finally ready: a family of Emperor Penguins!

Emperors are the largest of the penguin breeds, and probably what most people think of when they hear the word penguin. They’ve seen some extra popularity in recent years as they feature in the cute animated movie Happy Feet and the stunning documentary movie March of the Penguins.

I’ve been wanting to make a proper, amigurumi-style penguin for years, but until recently, colour-changing tehcniques weren’t up to what I had in mind. If you look at other penguin designs, they either have a white back, or a white oval (crocheted or felt) stitched onto their tummy, and neither of those options appealed to me. I’ve pioneered a new technique for creating smooth colour changes between a tummy and back (debuted with my Kingfisher pattern) and the beauty of this technique is that all the magic is in the actual pattern – you don’t need to learn any new stitches or methods to be able to follow it! I love innovating 🙂

So now I have a clever emperor penguin design, but I couldn’t resist making a little fluffy baby penguin too. I love how they look so different to the adults, but equally distinctive. And, of course, brushed crochet is the perfect technique to bring this little one to life.

If you’d like to make your own sweet pengys, you can buy the Emperor Penguin and Baby Emperor Penguin crochet patterns from my shop, and I’ve also put them together as an Emperor Penguin Family multipack for a special price.

I hope you like my penguins!

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

In our mission to look for more whales (you may remember we spotted a whale’s tail last month!), we decided to take a day trip to Hermanus, a small coastal town 120km east of Cape Town, and supposedly the best place for land-based whale-watching in the world.

En route, we stopped at Stony Point, which is home to one of the only three land-based penguin colonies in South Africa. It’s a natural colony of wild penguins, but it has been fenced in to protect the penguins from leopard attacks, and there’s a boardwalk so that the clumsy humans don’t stomp on the penguin nests.

(I’ll put a jump in here – this is a long post so feel free to skip the rest if you’ve just come for the crafts and don’t like nature!)