PlanetJune Blog: Latest News, Patterns and Tutorials

Have you entered my contest to win your choice of Vanna’s Choice yarns and a PlanetJune pattern? It’s open until Thursday – don’t forget to get your entry in!

I thought you might like to see my new photo studio and a glimpse behind the magic (ha!) that goes into my crochet pattern photos. Things have changed for the better since I last showed you my light tent setup and tutorial photography setup. My photo setup in Canada included 2 swing lamps and 2 goose-neck lamps (all with daylight bulbs) and my light tent:

Light tent in the good old days

It worked well, and I was happy with it. The only problem was when I made something too large to photograph in the light tent (e.g. Reepicheep, dinosaur group shots): then I had to fall back on the (thankfully) good natural light in my craft room and wait for a bright, overcast afternoon to give me the right conditions to shoot in daylight.

My new craft room has no natural light to speak of – our house is on one level, the windows are small, and there are trees right outside my window, so it’s dim inside on even the sunniest day. (I’m sure this will be a blessing in the heat of the South African summer!)

Pretty view, but dark interior

As I couldn’t bring my old lamps with me (wrong voltage), I had to sell them all before I left and buy everything again at this end. There’s no IKEA or equivalent here, and 4 lamps and 4 bulbs at South African prices was not an appealing prospect. I also couldn’t find those daylight-coloured bulbs anywhere…

All these factors made a perfect excuse to upgrade my setup and invest in some professional lighting. I found an excellent local photographic shop, Studio22, who helped me to find a pro lighting solution that was within my budget. I bought 2 light stands, 2 fluorescent lamp heads (each with 2 sockets), 4x38W daylight bulbs (expensive, but they should last for years), and 2 translucent white umbrellas.

The new setup

And oh, what a difference!

• I can light my static scenes with an even light without having to fiddle with 4 lamps to get them all into position.
• The bulbs are cool, so I can shoot for hours without raising the temperature in my room.
• Without the confines of my light tent, I can light anything that fits on my desk, at any time of day or night.
• I can set up to shoot a tutorial or video and light the scene much more easily and evenly (and without roasting under the hot lights!)

Of course, nothing is perfect: my craft room isn’t huge, and those umbrellas take up a lot of room! When I have it all assembled, I have to pick my way around them to reach the computer. And this desk is also my sewing table, so I have to get everything out of the way if I want to set up my sewing machine. It’s really not a big deal, though: to dismantle, I just furl the umbrellas and move the light stands (still set up and plugged in) and camera tripod to the corner of the room. When I next need a photo, it only takes a minute to set it all up again.

Setting the scene (that’s my camera in the foreground)

On the desk, I create my scene. In this case, I have:

• My handpainted ‘dappled forest’ backdrop, stuck to the wall with sticky tack. (I painted this backdrop for my AfricAmi set in 2008, and I’m so relieved it survived the move without the paint cracking.)
• A fabric ‘ground’
• Fake foliage courtesy of the dollar store (I really miss dollar stores for buying props!)
• And, of course, the star of the show – my Aardvark in this case 🙂

I complete the setup with my camera on a tripod in front of the desk. I use the remote control (toe-operated!) when I’m making tutorials or videos, sat behind the camera with my hands in view, and otherwise take photos the regular way.

Hopefully my pattern photos will now be so irresistible that the business will repay my equipment investment in no time!

Note: Don’t miss the giveaway at the end of this post!

YarnCraft, Lion Brand’s knitting and crocheting podcast, will air its 100th episode on September 13th! You can catch up on any episodes you’ve missed at the YarnCraft blog, or listen directly through iTunes.

The YarnCraft hosts, Liz and Zontee, are on a celebration blog tour, and today they’ve stopped at PlanetJune for a chat…

June: When you’re not podcasting, what are your roles at Lion Brand?

Liz: I do the product development at Lion Brand, which means I am in the lucky position of getting to work directly with mills to produce our new yarns!

Zontee: I work in marketing on content and outreach. I edit our various email newsletters like The Weekly Stitch and YarnPlay, oversee our blog (The Lion Brand Notebook), produce the podcast, and develop content for our website. I also work on our programs at yarn conventions and festivals and work with artists and designers who use our yarns, which means I get to spend a lot of time getting out in the yarncrafting community.

June: You’re both very knowledgeable! Has working on the show broadened your knowledge? And what’s your favourite yarncraft?

Liz: Working on the show has definitely encouraged me to learn a lot more about yarncrafting. We have such great guests that all specialize in different areas, so we get a lot of great information from them. And our listeners always challenge us with unique questions, so we have to do our research to bring them the right answers!

Zontee: One thing I’ve learned about teaching others is that it makes you more aware of the skills you already possess and just how difficult it can sometimes be to explain them. Working on the show has made me more appreciative of people who teach crafts and teach in general, because it really is a skill. I don’t think either Liz or I can really pick a favorite yarncraft, since we’re both multi-craftual. I’m just going to say that I think every craft has its strengths and its place in the world.

June: What’s your favorite YarnCraft episode?

Liz: I love all the episodes with Lily Chin because I always learn something new whenever she’s on the show. My all-time favorite tip is taping your swatch to the wall to measure gauge to get more accurate numbers!

Zontee: I like the episodes when we answer listener questions, because I think that they’re the episodes that cover the most varied, and in the end, probably the most useful advice for our listeners’ daily crafting lives.

June: Liz, I mentioned on Twitter the other day that I was having trouble finding good yellow shades for my amigurumi and there was a lot of agreement. Is there a particular reason for the lack of yellow/orange shades of yarn?

Liz: Generally if it’s hard to find a certain color, yarn weight, or fiber, it’s because that type of product has not sold well for retailers in the past. Yellow and Oranges have typically not been strong sellers in yarn. Even though these have been trendy colors in fashion the last few years, a lot of customers are hesitant to wear yellow and orange, or use it in home décor. We have a great article on our website about Natural Dyeing with food and spices that produced some nice yellows if you want to experiment and make your own.

June: That makes sense; I wouldn’t want to wear yellow/orange shades either – I’d only use them to make flowers and animals! I’d love to try natural dyeing; unfortunately I’m sensitive to wool and acrylic won’t accept dye – it’d be a great solution for people who can work with wool though.

Thank you, Liz and Zontee, for taking the time to chat with me!

Win Vanna’s Choice yarn and a PlanetJune pattern!

I love to design amigurumi patterns using Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice yarn. It has more substance than many other worsted weight yarns, which makes for really nice shaping on my amigurumi, and there’s a huge range of lovely muted colours to choose from.

All these PlanetJune crochet patterns use Vanna’s Choice yarn

Liz and Zontee are giving one lucky reader three balls of Vanna’s Choice in the colour(s) of your choice, and I’ll kick in a free PlanetJune pattern of your choice too, to give you a project for your new yarn!

To enter: just leave a comment on this post, letting me know which shade(s) you’d choose for your 3 balls of Vanna’s Choice if you win (and as you can make at least two amigurumi from one ball, I’d recommend you choose a selection of colours!) and which pattern of mine you’d like!

The contest is not US only (yay!) – you can enter if you have a shipping address in the US or any of the countries Lion Brand can ship to. (If you’re from outside the US you’ll be responsible for any duty and/or import taxes on the prize.)

You may enter until 6pm (EST) on Thursday September 15th 2011. I’ll draw a random winner from all the entries after that time.

Good luck!

At a loss with the kids back in school?* Feeling the end-of-summer blues?* Let me recommend a crochet solution to lift your spirits, with a roundup of my Autumn, Harvest, Thanksgiving and Halloween-related patterns.

*Even if neither of those apply, crochet is always a wise choice, in my experience.

The free (donationware) Pumpkin pattern includes 3 flavours, so you can make a realistic pumpkin, a smiley kawaii version, or a scary Jack-o-Lantern for Halloween.

Animal Ears includes options for Mouse/Bear, Bunny, and Cat ears, and would be perfect for an inexpensive Halloween costume.

Fruit Bat amigurumi crochet pattern – cute at any time of year.

Halloween PocketAmi pattern set includes a tiny Black Cat, Ghost and Witch.

And, of course, you can join in with the Fruit-Along crochet-along running throughout September at the PlanetJune group on Ravelry. My Amigurumi Apples and Amigurumi Pears work up so quickly that people have started posting pics of their yummy-looking fruit already – fun! I’ll do a roundup of all the projects here once the CAL is over 🙂

Fruit-Along!

We’re having a little fruity crochet-along at the PlanetJune ravelry group, just for fun. Would you like to join in? It’s easy: just crochet one or more Amigurumi Apples or Amigurumi Pears from my free (donationware) patterns and post a photo in the Fruity CAL thread! Thanks to Judy for suggesting ‘Fruit-Along’ name 🙂

Why would you want to crochet fruit? Here are some suggestions:

• Make a mixed fruit bowl – perfect for Fall decor
• Give your favourite teacher (or student) a back-to-school gift
• Add safety eyes and embroider a smile for a kawaii toy or ornament
• Use them as stress balls (I’ve tried this – it works!)
• Add a squeaker or rattle for an interactive toy
• Make a mini version (finer yarn and smaller hook) filled with catnip for your cat
• Crochet a full-sized version from hard-wearing cotton as a dog toy
• …or share your alternative uses in the Fruit-Along thread!

Feel free to grab the image above if you’d like to post about the CAL on your blog, or, if it’s too big, I’ve made this mini button you can save for your blog or anywhere else you’d like to promote the CAL!

Amigurumi Galore!

In order to take the Fruit-Along photo, I had to unpack one box of my amigurumi so I could find my Amigurumi Apples. I thought you might like to see the state of my floor afterwards:

No, this is not all of my amigurumi!

It would have been faster to make a couple of new apples than it was to take all those out and then pack them carefully away again… (I really need to find the time to get some new toy shelves!)

Review and Win contest

Thanks to those of you who’ve already helped me to fill the blanks in my shop by reviewing my patterns, there are now only 10 patterns in my shop that don’t have a single review – wow! I’m carrying over the bonus entry promotion for those patterns forward to September’s Review and Win contest. (It’s mostly AmiDogs sets that are missing reviews now, and I’d really appreciate it if those blanks were filled by someone who has made those patterns…)

We had 25 reviews in August, and 9 of those were ‘firsts’ with bonus entries, so that’s a total of 34 contest entries. And the lucky winner is Guinevere M, with her review of PocketAmi Set 6: Pets:

These patterns are very detailed and easy to make. I love how they can be customized as well so that you make them to look like your favorite pet. The instructions are clear and concise, and the pictures really help when it comes to assembly. Also, I personally think that this is one of the best cat patterns that I have seen as far as the overall finished product. A fantastic set of patterns, as always.

Thank you so much to everyone who writes reviews, and congrats to Guinevere (I’ll email you to find out which pattern you’d like as your prize…)

I try to give you one free (donationware) pattern per season, and with fall approaching (for most of you; it’s spring for me!) I’ve designed a realistic, beautifully shaped amigurumi pear.

Can you spot which is the real pear? 😉

Crochet a bowlful in greens, browns, yellows, and/or reds, to make a stylish decorative centrepiece, or add a pair of safety eyes and an embroidered smile to make a sweet toy 🙂

The perfect pear shape

I’ve also included instructions for making a delicious-looking blushed pear:

Mmm, doesn’t it look sweet and juicy?

The pears crochet pattern is free for you to use. If you’d like to thank me with a donation, you’ll get a handy printable PDF version of the pattern as a thank you 🙂

Enjoy!

Go to Amigurumi Pears pattern >>

Do you find that reading a review for an online product really helps you to make a buying decision? I know I do, and I always wonder if there’s something terribly wrong with a product that has zero reviews: maybe it’s so bad that nobody has ever even bought it..?!

Lots of people find me through a google search for, e.g. “corgi crochet pattern”, and may have no idea who PlanetJune is, or know about the quality and detail I put into all my patterns. I think that seeing a review from a fellow crocheter would help reassure them far more than a sales pitch from me could, so, to help these people, I’d really like to have at least one review available for every pattern in my shop.

I’m getting close – there are now an amazing 273 reviews posted in my shop, covering almost all of my patterns and products, which is fantastic! I really do appreciate every review, and that’s why I host my monthly ‘Review and Win’ contest to reward you for taking the time to write them.

If you can help me reach my goal, I’d be ever so grateful. I’ll also give you a double entry into this month’s ‘Review and Win’ contest for every first review for a pattern you write. To make this less of a treasure hunt, here’s a list of all the patterns that (at time of writing) have zero reviews:

• Aardvark
• AmiDogs Basset Hound
• AmiDogs Boston Terrier
• AmiDogs Corgi
• AmiDogs Custom Set (any 3 patterns)
• AmiDogs Great Dane
• AmiDogs Jack Russell Terrier
• AmiDogs Labrador
• AmiDogs Miniature Pinscher
• AmiDogs Set 1 (Shiba Inu, Labrador, Dachshund)
• AmiDogs Set 2 (Boston Terrier, Jack Russell Terrier, Beagle)
• AmiDogs Set 3 (Husky, Corgi, German Shepherd)
• AmiDogs Set 4 (Chihuahua, Pug, Miniature Pinscher)
• AmiDogs Set 5 (Great Dane, Airedale Terrier, Boxer)
• AmiDogs Set 6 (Akita, Greyhound, Border Collie)
• Dimetrodon (Dinosaur)
• Ice Cream Bear
• Kingfisher
• Plumeria
• PocketAmi Set 6: Pets

If you’ve bought any of these patterns, please write a quick review in my shop so that other potential customers can know what to expect if they buy the pattern!

To write a review:

1. Click the link above to get to the item in my shop.
2. Click the Reviews tab.
3. Click the write a review button, and leave your opinion!

Thank you for helping me to reach this goal 🙂

I usually keep my designs a secret while I work on them, in case I fail to create what I can see in my head (it happens!), but last week, I was crocheting away on my new design and I spontaneously decided to host a contest on my Facebook page, to guess what the design would be. I released one text clue every hour, and people could guess again after each clue was released. It took 5 hours and almost 100 comments before we had a winning guess of Aardvark, by which time my design was well on the way to completion. It was so much fun to have people keeping me company with their guesses as I worked, I think I might do it again some time 🙂

I don’t know why the idea to crochet an aardvark popped into my head, but, once it did, I had to drop all my other projects immediately and get to work – that’s the way my crazy brain works. The aardvark is just so cute and funny and distinctive looking, I thought it would be the perfect subject for a one-colour design, where all the magic is in the shaping.

It was easy enough to draw my aardvark sketch, but turning that 2D shape into the 3D reality involved a lot of trial and error to get it smooth and perfect and in proportion. I think I succeeded though!

I also went for a change of scale with this design: I think Aardvark is one of my largest worsted weight amigurumi, at 13.5″ long from snout to tail.

Aardvark Fun Facts

• Aardvarks are found all over Africa.
• The name “aardvark” means “earth pig” in Afrikaans.
• Aardvarks live in burrows and eat ants and termites.
• They weigh over 100lbs and their tail alone is 2 ft long.
• Aardvarks independently evolved similar features to the unrelated Anteaters (who come from South America) – isn’t nature amazing?!

I hope you like my funny little ‘earth pig’. I’m hoping he’ll be a talisman to keep the ants out of my house; he doesn’t seem to be making much difference so far, but I love him anyway 🙂

If you’d like to make an aardvark of your own, pick up the Aardvark crochet pattern from the PlanetJune shop!

Before our inter-continental move, I pared down my wardrobe by about half, getting rid of anything worn out, badly fitting, or no longer my style. That’s left me with a very minimal wardrobe, and now I really need to replace some of the items I purged.

Shopping catastrophe

I went clothes shopping for the first time last weekend and it was an absolute disaster… Everything is far more expensive here than in Canada. I have a gut feeling about how much I’d be willing to pay for something that’s okay (not bad looking, functional, plain, fits well enough or can be easily modified, a good basic piece) vs something that’s perfect (I love it and know I’ll enjoy wearing for years, great style and/or detailing, the perfect fit) and these prices were far, far higher than my range. There’s no way I’m ever going to be able to justify paying more than my perfect piece price for a merely okay item.

I spent 2 hours browsing and getting more and more despondent. The only thing I even liked enough to consider was a t-shirt in a sale rack, but then I saw the price tag: reduced from $45 equivalent to $30 equivalent! I’ve paid $30 for a t-shirt once, but it’s my favourite top and has loads of detailing (fitted bodice, lace, pleats, gathered neckline) that, for me, justified the price. This was just a plain striped t-shirt… Um, no.

I left the shirt on the rack and gave up on the whole clothes shopping idea. On my way out, I stopped at the craft store and bought some beads, and then I went home to cheer myself up by making something…

Making is fun

(Please excuse my translucently pale skin – being sick for 6 months does takes a toll on a girl’s complexion…)

Two bracelets and a necklace for under $2 – now that’s my kind of shopping! And because I chose all the supplies myself, I could make sure that the necklace is subtle and will go with all my pink and purple tops, and that the bracelets are bolder and will look perfect next to indigo denim. Being crafty is so much more fun than buying mass-produced, over-priced stuff.

When life gives you lemons…

And that gave me the idea to try turning this disappointment into an opportunity: maybe I can make my own clothes in future..? I can take the time that I used to spend wandering malls looking for the elusive piece that has a June-approved style, colour, fit, and price, and use it to learn to stitch garments that I’m guaranteed to like. And so the idea for the Handmade Clothing Project was born.

This will be a huge challenge for me: I’m by no means an expert at sewing, and very inexperienced at making garments from scratch – shortening or modifying existing clothes to fit is more my level at the moment. But I have designed and stitched up bags, a skirt and a t-shirt from scratch in the past, so I think I should be able to do this, if I start with very simple items.

I made this simple skirt in 2008 and it’s still one of my favourites – plus I get the bonus “yay, I made this!” feeling every time I put it on.

Gearing up

I can begin the Handmade Clothing Project with almost no costs: I already have a moderate fabric stash (acquired over the years from remnant bins – I can’t resist a bargain), a wonderful sewing machine, and a small library of books to help me on my way:

• Teach Yourself Visually Sewing (by Debbie Colgrove), a really helpful reference for all the basics of using a sewing machine.
• Encyclopedia of Sewing Machine Techniques (by Nancy Bednar and JoAnn Pugh-Gannon), for more advanced finishing and embellishment techniques (if I ever get to that stage)
• Design-It-Yourself Clothes: Patternmaking Simplified (by Cal Patch), which should help me to draft patterns for clothing that will actually fit me (what a novelty that would be!)

Now all I need is to buy a voltage converter so I can plug my 110V sewing machine into a 240V socket, and I’ll be ready to go! This will obviously be a time-consuming process for me, and I’m still busy trying to get my business back up to speed, so don’t expect new clothing posts every week. But I will share my Handmade Clothing Project successes (and failures) here as they occur – maybe it’ll inspire you to try making clothing too.

Do you make any of your own clothes, or have you ever considered trying it? If so, feel free to join in with the Handmade Clothing Project. (You can still buy clothes too – this isn’t a hardcore “I will never buy clothing again” pledge!) There are no time limits or deadlines, and the only Clothing Project rules are to make stuff you can wear and have fun with it. Crocheting and knitting clothes counts too – you don’t have to sew. Just think how good it’ll feel every time you put on a handmade item – I’m pretty sure you won’t ever get that feeling from anything you bought at the mall…

Who’s with me?