PlanetJune Blog: Latest News, Patterns and Tutorials

This is the first post I’ve written using my new BlackBerry (although the photos were taken back in Canada a few weeks ago)! I hope this works, as I won’t have internet access for my laptop until our furniture arrives in a couple of months and we can move out of this temporary accommodation. Here goes…

Cutting Down (aka downsizing my wardrobe)

As part of our move preparations, I sorted through all my clothes and donated any that didn’t fit or suit me any more. We gave away over 8 garbage bags full of clothing (mostly mine) and I reduced my wardrobe by about half! In case this makes me sound like a clothes junkie, I should probably clarify that most of these clothes had UK labels, which makes them at least 8 years old(!) – I really don’t like to get rid of anything that I may find a use for some day…

I do feel the occasional twinge of regret about all the stuff I’ve donated, but, on the whole, it’s liberating to have reduced my wardrobe by so much. If you have the time, I recommend you refresh your wardrobe too. This is how I did it:

How to refresh your wardrobe

1. Try on every single item of clothing you own
2. Look at yourself in a mirror (full-length if possible) and pretend you’re in a shop fitting room
3. Ask yourself ‘Would I pay to buy this right now?’

If the answer is ‘no’, it’s time to repair/refashion/donate/toss it, and reclaim some space in your closet!

Cutting Up (aka mending and refashioning)

My plan was to pack only wearable clothes for the move, so I donated the larger ‘project’ items (like sweaters I’d had vague plans to felt and make into something at some point – i.e. I’d probably never actually do anything with), and concentrated on the simpler alterations I needed to bring everything else into wearable condition:

Exhibit A: Mending. New buttons attached, belt loop stitched back on, strap stitched back down. Quick and easy when you actually sit down and do it, and now I’ve rescued 3 pairs of pants and a top from the mending pile.

Mending: new buttons, fixed belt loop, fixed strap

Exhibit B: Extra-long pants. Oh look! I’ve been Americanised! I used to say ‘trousers’ – I wonder when that changed… It’s ridiculously easy to take up pants neatly, although I can never remember how to do it. Luckily, I wrote a really good tutorial for it in 2007 – it saves me from having to figure the method out each time! How embarrassing that I had 2 pairs I’ve never worn because they’ve been sitting, with the tags still attached, waiting for me to take up the excess length. 2 brand-new pairs of pants to add to my wardrobe – very nice.

Shortening: I cut 3″ off the bottom of these pants and re-hemmed them

Exhibit C: Too-short pants. As I’m 5’2″, I’ve made the mistake of buying “short” length trousers in the past, and worn them for far too long before I realised they were that awkward ankle length. I’ve donated almost all of these faux pas pairs, but I have these linen-mix jeans that I really love (apart from the length). What to do with them? I’ve seen tutorials for adding a decorative ribbon or strip of fabric at the bottom, but that’s really not a look I’d like to wear. So, I used my handy taking up trousers tutorial again, and converted them into capris! Same method, different result.

New capris: cropped pants from embarrassing ankle-length jeans

Exhibit D: Too-long skirt. I’m not going to subject you to a ‘before’ photo – let’s just say that this ankle-length skirt, circa early 90s, was not at all flattering on my short pear-shaped frame. But it fits nicely, I like the print, and you’d never guess how old it is (apart from the dated style). It’s a stretch fabric – always a challenge to work with – but I got brave with my scissors and cut it off at knee length, zig-zag stitched around the raw edge to stop it from fraying (I don’t have a serger), then turned up the bottom edge and stitched a new hem. I only folded the hem over once in this case to reduce bulk and weight. I skeptically tried the straight stretch stitch on my sewing machine for the first time – it really works! I now have a really cute knee-length skirt, and, added bonus, I have a sizeable piece of leftover fabric (which I packed with my fabric stash).

Swishy knee-length skirt from ankle-length horror (it was too cold to model it for you but, trust me, it looks good)

That’s the last I’ll see of my trusty sewing machine for a couple of months; it’s packed in our shipping container and (I hope) on its way to us! My efforts rescued 8 items of clothing – not bad for a couple of hours’ work. I’m particularly happy with Exhibits C and D: my new capri pants and knee-length skirt will be perfect for the warmer climate here in South Africa!

Mend, refashion, donate and/or toss – wouldn’t your wardrobe benefit from a little spring cleaning too?

It always makes me smile to see what people have made with my patterns, and hosting Crochet-Alongs is a great way to bring them together. Even though I’ve been largely absent for this CAL (a crazy move halfway around the world takes up a lot of time), I’m very happy to see that people have still participated – yay! I’d like to give a shout-out to the folks in the PlanetJune Ravelry group who keep the conversation going even when I’m not around to join in 🙂

It’s been quite a challenge to put this roundup together with my very limited internet access, but I’ve managed it. And now for the fun part – let’s take a look at the Easter CAL entries:

yaney made a cute PocketAmi bunny called Pip!

camaharet crocheted pretty daffodils in pink and white.

arbitrarily made this sweet Fuzzy Lamb with a colourful tummy!

Katalin whipped up a tulip and a bee to add to her daffodils to make a spring bouquet.

englishdormouse‘s Fuzzy Bunny looks striking with that lovely variegated yarn.

klopferli‘s  PocketAmi trio look like they are chilling out in a mini armchair!

CrochtColorJunkie crocheted a whole egg box full of Easter eggs…

…and she took her trio of PocketAmi bunnies all the way to the Griffith Observatory to take their photo beneath the Hollywood sign (okay, it’s pretty small, but it’s really there at the top of the hill!)

rastakt set up a cute backdrop for her sweet PocketAmi set.

I’m melting with the cuteness of Morgan’s adorable grey lamby!

saudistitcher made this duckling and ‘chocolate’ egg for her little granddaughter 🙂

Linda sent me this pic of her daffodil that she made into a pin (clever idea!)

The prolific winner of the Christmas CAL, jukatca, has been crocheting up a storm again, making the full selection of CAL projects! Fuzzy Lamb…

…a sweet Fuzzy Bunny…

…a collection of Easter Eggs (and don’t they look pretty in those colours?!)…

…a PocketAmi Easter set…

…and a vase of red and white daffodils. I used to love that variety with the red centres (narcissi, maybe?) – I haven’t seen them since I left the UK 8 years ago, so this brings back some memories for me!

And last, but definitely not least, Jolie made the daffodil pattern her own by adding some pretty embroidered embellishments.

And now the results of the random drawing:
First prize ($10 gift certificate) goes to Morgan S
Second prize (free pattern) goes to Linda S
Runner up prize (discount voucher) goes to all the other entrants – thank you for participating!

Please bear with me: I still don’t have internet access at home so it may take me a few more days to email your prizes to you, but I promise you’ll get them some time next week!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this roundup – I think all the projects are adorable! Happy Easter to those who observe it, and, for everyone else, don’t forget to go out tomorrow to pick up some cheap chocolate eggs 😉

As for me, I hope to get my Blackberry contract approved and get back online properly any day now – it pays to be patient in South Africa, as things happen when they happen here, and trying to rush them doesn’t help at all. I’m attempting to curb my frustration: I think a nice calm nature walk to look at some of the beautiful and exotic birds and plants that are everywhere here will take my mind off it! Here’s our temporary accommodation (actually, there are 3 identical pepperpot towers and mine is the middle one that you can’t see here, but you get the idea):

Down the hill (to the right in the above photo) is the city. And up the hill (to the left above) is nothing but a spectacular view up Table Mountain:

So don’t feel sorry for me – I’ll get the internet sorted out soon, and, apart from that, it’s pretty amazing here, especially for a big nature fan like me!

We’ve finally made it to South Africa! This is the view that greeted us as we stepped out of the airport – see the sunrise over Table Mountain in the background. A good start to our new life!

Just getting here has been an adventure in itself. We’ve had difficulties every step of the way: from selling the house in time; to getting our residency & work permits; to getting Maui’s travel paperwork in order – every possible thing always looked like it wasn’t going to work out, and then, at the very last possible minute, we got it sorted. It’s been the most stressful few months of my life, but, in what feels like a miracle, Dave, Maui, and I have all made it through safely and here we are, living in South Africa!

Just to give you an idea of the stress we’ve gone through, here are some highlights of the past week (skip this if you’re not interested in my travel adventures):

• We were 2 days away from losing our Canadian Citizenship application because the South African consulate had kept our passports for longer than anticipated, so our citizenship tests hadn’t gone forward to be approved by the judge, and the judge was now away for longer than we had left in Canada. I finally found an amazing lady at the citizenship office who went over and above for us and managed to get a judge in Ottawa to submit the approval by fax. We became Canadian citizens the day before we left, and, although we didn’t have time to enjoy it on the day – we had to head off to Guelph to get Maui’s export permit as soon as we left the ceremony – I’d just like to say that I’m very happy and proud to be able to say that I AM CANADIAN! I miss you already, Canada.
• When we arrived at the airport on Saturday, we took Maui to the cargo centre to be dropped off. I thought this was just going to be a formality – we had our official South African cat import permit, our official Canadian cat export permit, and the vet certificate to prove he’s healthy and doesn’t need to be quarantined on arrival. But it turns out they also wanted Maui’s rabies vaccination certificate because we were travelling via the UK, which has extremely strict policies on rabies, and apparently the vet certificate listing all his vaccinations wasn’t sufficient. The rabies form was currently somewhere inside our shipping container, already on its way to South Africa. What on earth could we do if they didn’t accept Maui?! After hours of stress and tears (on my part) I tried to phone our vet’s office, which was (extremely luckily) still open at 4pm on a Saturday, and they agreed to fax the missing paperwork directly to the British Airways World Cargo office where we were waiting. Fixed!
• The first leg of our long journey was fine: we arrived at Heathrow and spent 9 boring hours waiting for the next flight. We boarded on time, and then spent the next 5 hours sitting in the plane on the tarmac in London – apparently there was a problem with the plane, and they were trying to fix it so we could take off. As the engines weren’t running, neither was the plane’s air conditioning, and we were all sweltering inside the cabin. They handed out cups of water, but we had no dinner, and they wouldn’t let us out of the plane. At midnight, they finally decided we weren’t going anywhere, and let us off the plane. They found hotels for all of us, but it was 2am before we got there, and the hotel forced us to check out by 10am, even though our replacement flight wasn’t until 5.30pm. Dave checked on what would happen to poor Maui – apparently he would be looked after by quarantine vets overnight but there was no way we’d be allowed to see him, so we headed off for our hotel and a few hours’ sleep.

After another exciting day spent sitting in the comfort-free chairs at Heathrow, the replacement flight was uneventful, and we arrived at Cape Town airport in time to see the view at the top of this post! We collected Maui – in an amazing turn of events giving everything else that’s gone wrong, that involved nothing more than going to three buildings, signing forms and paying a fee, and then they handed over his crate.

I’d just like to say that Maui is the strongest, bravest cat in the world. He was immediately very happy to see us, and after a long drink, he seemed none the worse for wear for having been crated and away from us for 60 hours – poor baby! He’s settled into our new flat like a champ, and now he’s king of the world, sitting on the windowsill and surveying his new domain, and watching strange and unusual birds flying past the window. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have my boy back safely after all these adventures he’s gone through.

Maui! And, oh yeah, some city in the background…

The amazing view from our flat. Cape Town is looking pretty good so far 🙂

The only real downside is that we don’t have internet in this flat. I’m trying to get a Blackberry, but they won’t give me a contract as I don’t have a salary or 3 months’ South African bank records – I hope we can find a solution because it’s driving me crazy! Today, we’re visiting Dave’s new workplace, the Astronomical Observatory, and I can borrow their wireless while I’m here and post this. So, if I take a while to respond to emails etc, that’s why – please have some patience while I try to sort this out. If you need crochet patterns, please order through my fully automated shop and not Etsy, so you don’t have to wait for your patterns, and I don’t have to pay for internet to email them to you!

Once I fix the internet situation, I think I’m going to enjoy it here in Cape Town. I know this sounds lame (hello, internet addiction!) but I feel like I’m missing a limb when I can’t get online: not only am I in a strange country where I know nobody, but I’m cut off from my only link to my friends and family. I’ll lose that lonely feeling when I’m back online again, hopefully very soon.

And so begins my South African adventure…

Today’s PlanetJune Story is from Jeff McClelland. Jeff is the author of the comic book series Teddy and the Yeti, and he contacted me about a year ago to ask about a special pattern commission…

Jeff writes:

The worlds of comic books and amigurumi crochet probably don’t come together very often, but after discovering PlanetJune.com, I knew it was time for an old fashioned team up.

I write the comic Teddy and the Yeti and knew, as convention season crept up on me, that I’d want to take some material to shows beyond just the comics themselves – something that could catch someone’s eye as they walked by my booth. June’s patterns were just what I was looking for in terms of their unique, adorable appeal, so I contacted her about creating a new pattern based on the Yeti character from my book.

The final result was a pattern that was easy to crochet and cuter than I could have hoped for – the pictures don’t do the real thing justice. Now I have a Yeti doll – an official Yeti doll at that! – that brings people to my table at conventions; I’ve even had the pleasant experience of someone who might not be interested in comics liking the doll so much that he or she picks up the book as well.

Comic books are collaborative in nature: each creator brings along a different skill that results in a distinct final product. I like to think that the work I did in Teddy and the Yeti influenced PlanetJune’s Yeti crochet pattern ever so slightly to create a similar effect.

Thanks for sharing your story, Jeff. Your commission was an interesting challenge – definitely a departure from my usual subject matter, but I think we nailed it! For our collaboration I used colours inspired by the comic book yeti and added some of my trademark cuteness to the design.

Fellow geeks, you’ll love these pics Jeff sent from the 2010 New York Comic-Con:

Yeti takes over Comic-Con…

I know a Jayne hat when I see one, Jeff – very nice!


Yeti meets Thundercats’ Lion-O!

Story links:

• I’ll start accepting pattern commissions again when I’m settled in South Africa – email me if you’re interested in commissioning me.
• If you’d like to make a Yeti of your own, check out my Yeti and Bigfoot crochet pattern.
• You can order Teddy and the Yeti comic books through any comic store or online at Mile High Comics.

Do you have a PlanetJune Story you’d like to share? I’d love to hear it! Please email your story to june@planetjune.com, together with one or more high quality photos showing what you’ve made from PlanetJune patterns. If I choose your story to feature here on the blog, I’ll send you your choice of pattern from my shop to say thank you!

I can’t believe I’m leaving for South Africa in 10 days! April has really taken me by surprise.

I’ll try to get back on track by drawing March’s Review and Win contest winner… Taking the bonus entries for ‘first’ reviews into account, this month’s lucky winner is Mallaurie S, with her review of my AmiDogs Husky pattern:

The whole reason I started Amigurumi was to create a husky for my cousin; not a dog-a husky. I scoured the internet for a pattern-nothing even came close to this one. The pattern is beautiful, easy to follow and you give so much advice and reference points to make this husky the best it can be. And purchasing it was SOOO easy and fast! Once I found this pattern I didn’t want to wait, and thanks to the speedy billing-I was done in like less than 4 minutes. (I love the 3 for one deal…off to buy another!) Thanks so much for such lovely work! Can’t wait for new pups!! *ahem, maybe a bearded collie?* _3

Congratulations, Mallaurie, I’ll email you to find out which pattern you’d like as your prize! (And yes, I’ll be adding more breeds to the AmiDogs collection once I’m settled in SA!)

As I didn’t have time to promote the bonus entries in March, I’ll carry the bonus forward to next month’s drawing too. To encourage you to review products/patterns that don’t yet have a review in my shop, each ‘first’ review will get a bonus entry into April’s drawing 🙂

Easter CAL

With 2.5 weeks to go until Easter, there’s still plenty of time to crochet up some cuteness AND win a prize in the process.

As of today, I’ve only had one entry into the Easter CAL, although I’ve seen lots more projects posted on ravelry and flickr (don’t forget to submit your entry email, or you won’t be entered in the prize draw!) For prize details and entry instructions, see the Easter CAL post.

To participate, make any of these Easter-themed patterns and win:

• First prize: a $10 gift certificate to spend on anything in the PlanetJune store
• Second prize: a free pattern of your choice from the PlanetJune store
• Runner-up prizes: I’ll send a discount code to all participants, to use against their next order from the PlanetJune store.

Good luck!

You wouldn’t believe how crazy life has been around here for the past few weeks… We had planned to leave for South Africa on March 31st, the same day we close the sale on our house. But fate had other ideas: we’ve had delays with getting our permits and now we’re not going to be able to leave for a couple more weeks.

Our house… for 2 more days

It’s been insanely stressful. I still haven’t recovered from my bronchitis (it’s been well over a month and counting), and trying to find a local pet-friendly hotel where we could stay for over 2 weeks without sending us broke was proving to be an impossible task.

But, eventually, it all worked out for the best! Our lovely buyers have agreed to rent the house back to us until we leave, and the moving company were able to postpone our shipping container, so now we can stay put for 2 more weeks, together with all our furniture and belongings. How amazing is that?! I can’t even begin to describe what a huge relief it is.

From a PlanetJune perspective, I’ve been preparing for the move by buying up yarn to take with me (thanks to everyone who’s donated to my yarn fund!) – now I just have to decide how much I can fit into my suitcase and figure out which colours I’m most likely to need for the next few months until our shipping container arrives in Cape Town… It’s not easy to choose from such a beautiful rainbow of shades:

A small fraction of the yarn I’ve stockpiled to take with me

But our delayed move has given me a big advantage here too: I now have my photo studio for an additional 2 weeks, which is great news for my patterns. My plan is to get three or four new designs to the point of being completed and photographed while I still have the means to photograph them. Once we’ve moved, I can edit the photos and write up those patterns on my laptop, so there will be some new PlanetJune designs over the next couple of months!

A few mystery designs in progress

Once those have been published, I’ll start working on a new batch of designs which will have to wait for publication until I have my equipment back and can buy new lamps (with South African voltage) and set up the photo studio again. It’s all a bit complicated, but at least I have a plan now, and I think it’ll work out…

* * *

A quick reminder: if you haven’t yet voted for the 2011 Crochet Awards (aka the Flamies), tomorrow’s the last day to cast your vote. You can vote for me in 3 categories, if you’re so inclined: Best Instructional/Technical Crochet Book, Best Crochet Video (Amateur) and Best Crochet Blog. I’d really appreciate your votes!

Voting is now live for the 2011 Crochet Award from the Crochet Liberation Front (aka the Flamies) and I’m thrilled to have been nominated in three(!) categories this year:

• Best Instructional/Technical Crochet Book for my book
• Best Crochet Video (Amateur) for my YouTube channel
• Best Crochet Blog for this blog, of course!

Please check out all the nominees and then vote for whoever you feel is most deserving in each category (but I hope that’ll be me!) You’ll get an exclusive free crochet scarf pattern as your reward for voting, and you can leave any categories blank that you don’t have an opinion about.

There’s a wealth of crochet talent out there, and I’m very happy to be part of such a fantastic community. Please show your support for crochet by casting your vote for your favorite crochet designs, books, hooks, designers and companies!

Last chance!

A final reminder that TODAY is the last day to buy from the Eyes, Tools and Accessories and Signed Books/Bookmarks sections of my shop before I close those sections down so I can prepare for my move abroad. If you still need any of the items pictured below, today’s the final day to purchase them!

Today’s your last chance to pick up any of these pictured products…

…well, part of it, anyway.

Last chance to buy…

Due to my impending move to South Africa, I’ll be closing the Eyes, Tools and Accessories and Signed Books/Bookmarks sections of my shop on March 16th (next Wednesday). So, if you’ve been waiting to buy anything from those sections, don’t delay! I won’t have time to restock anything that sells out, so I suggest you order as soon as possible. There’s already been a rush of orders from my mailing list subscribers, and some items have already sold out.

It’s your last chance to pick up any of these products pictured…

What does this include?

• Eyes (black and clear) and noses
• Detail Stuffing Tools
• Stitch Markers for crochet
• Amigurumi Accessory Kits (only 15 left at time of writing)
• Signed copies of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amigurumi
• Signed bookmarks (FREE with any other shipped purchase!)

And remember, everything (except the eyes and noses) is a PlanetJune exclusive – you won’t be able to find them anywhere after March 16th!

Pattern orders:

As I’m sure you know, my shop is fully automated with instant downloads once you’ve paid for your patterns, so there’ll be no disruption in service at all! It’s only physical items that will be affected by my move.

In the future…

I do intend to resume shipping once I’m settled in South Africa, but that won’t be for a few months – I need to wait for all our boxes (including my supplies!) to arrive before I can even think about setting up again. And, of course, shipping to the US and Canada will be more expensive and slower after my move. (As far as I can tell, shipping to other countries won’t be much affected by my change of country.) None of this is set in stone yet, though, so I strongly encourage you to buy any non-pattern items you need from me on or before next Wednesday.