Crochet Life

This Designer Showcase features The Stitchin' Mommy! Amy has been designing for a long time and has contributed several squares to the MooglyCAL over the years. I'm excited to share more of her work with you here, including five of her free crochet patterns! Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. A Bit About the Designer […]

The post The Stitchin' Mommy: Designer Showcase appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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Time to crochet your next favorite bite size project - the Bubble Pop Dishcloth! If you're looking for a quick and satisfying make that’s both practical and pretty, you’re in the right place. Whether you’re whipping one up for your own kitchen or stocking your gift stash, this tutorial will walk you through each step. […]

The post Bubble Pop Dishcloth Tutorial appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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Introducing the Bubble Pop Dishcloth! Make your cleaning routine more fun with this quick and textured crochet dishcloth pattern, featuring playful bobbles and a pleasing texture – perfect for gifts or everyday use! Craft your own beautiful scrubby cloth with the crochet pattern below! Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links; materials provided by Herrschners and […]

The post Bubble Pop Dishcloth appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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MooglyCAL2025 Block 16 is a wavy, rippling square by The Cocky Crocheter! The Seven Deadly Sines Square is a great square for stitchers of all skill levels, and a great exploration of tall stitches! Get all the details for this free crochet along and the free pattern link below! Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links; […]

The post MooglyCAL2025 Block 16 appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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Welcome to August! The summer is flying by, and we're in the thick of it now. This morning, we're diving into another air conditioned Crochet and Catch Up - our bimonthly chat about yarn, projects, and all things crochet goodness. Grab your latest WIP and whatever keeps you cool, and settle in for a creative […]

The post Crochet and Catch Up with Moogly - August 6, 2025 appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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Amigurumi Critters: 25 Imaginative Crochet Designs for All Skill Levels by Amy Ting promises to help you "Master the basics and gain the confidence to take your crochet to the next level"! Check out my interview with the author, take a peek inside, and then enter to win your own copy, right here on Moogly! Disclaimer: […]

The post Amigurumi Critters by Amy Ting: Book Review and Giveaway appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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Time to sneak a little Raccoon Squish onto your hook? Whether you're a righty or a lefty, I've got you covered! In this video tutorial, I’ll walk you through how to crochet the trickiest bits of this adorable stuffed Raccoon Squish. So you can follow along with confidence! Just grab your yarn, hook, and stuffing, and […]

The post Raccoon Squish Tutorial appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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Today’s a big day!! I’ll be live on Joleen’s Happy Time Craftcast at 12 noon CST, and I’d love for you to join me!  In this episode, I’m chatting with Joleen about my deep love of crochet—how I got started, why I’m still hooked, and the joy of building a creative community. I also share […]

The post We’re Live Today on Joleen's Happy Time Craftcast – Don’t Miss It! appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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Summer is travel season, and whether that's to the coast or to the couch, we're bringing our crochet! I’m thrilled to team up with Furls to give one lucky winner their very own Venture Leather Travel Roll Crochet Hook Organizer! This top-quality, real leather hook organizer will make every outing feel special and give your favorite […]

The post Furls Venture Leather Travel Roll Crochet Hook Organizer Giveaway appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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MooglyCAL2025 Block 15 is a easy, relaxing square by The Stitchin' Mommy! The Keep It Simple 12 Inch Square is great for stitchers of all skill levels, and a perfect summer road trip project! Get all the details for this free crochet along and the free pattern link below! Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links; […]

The post MooglyCAL2025 Block 15 appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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Hello, and welcome! I hope your summer so far has been filled with fun, relaxation, and maybe a little stitching time too. This morning, we're diving into another cozy Crochet and Catch Up - our bimonthly chat about yarn, projects, and all things crochet goodness. Whether you're sipping something iced or hot, grab your latest […]

The post Crochet and Catch Up with Moogly - July 23, 2025 appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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Cute 'N' Creepy Crochet: 20+ easy amigurumi patterns for scary creatures, cuddly slashers, zombie brides, dangerous dragons, and more! by Donielle Broderick is here to help you create your own "spine-tingling snugglers for any occasion!" Take a peek inside below, and then enter to win your own copy, right here on Moogly! Disclaimer: I was […]

The post Cute 'N' Creepy Crochet: Review and Giveaway appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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Wrap yourself in elegance with the Twilight Haze Scarf! In the videos below, I’ll walk you through each step of the Twilight Haze Scarf pattern—available in both right- and left-handed versions so you can follow along no matter how you hold your hook. Let’s get stitching so you can add this lightweight one-skein wrap to […]

The post Twilight Haze Scarf Tutorial appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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I love crocheting soft and squishy Giant Amigurumi versions of my patterns using blanket yarn! They’re super fun and huggable, but giant amigurumi are more like decorations than playable toys: using a hook that’s wider than a finger always leaves gaps between the stitches that little kids could stick their fingers in.

So I started to wonder: what if I could crochet a version that’s still big and soft, but with the firmness and structure of a standard amigurumi? Could I use the same super bulky blanket yarn with a small enough hook to eliminate those gaps and create a perfectly cuddly kids’ toy?

I did some tests to find out, and here’s the result, courtesy of a not-so-Baby Octopus (from my Baby Cephalopods collection):

A double-sized octopus (left) has twice the size and twice the snuggliness of a standard-sized octopus (right)!

It only took me an hour to make my octopus, and I’m so happy with the result! Trying to see chain stitches in chenille yarn made the tentacles a little more challenging – I had to frog a couple of the arms and try again, but I got there in the end, and everything else came together beautifully.

I forgot how clean and simple these Baby Cephalopods are – such a joy to make! If you haven’t tried these patterns yet, I can highly recommend them. Set 1 includes the Octopus and Squid, and Set 2 has the Cuttlefish and Nautilus, or you can get the multipack that includes all four sweet tentacled babies.

Now, back to my experiment: I found that using a 6.5mm (K) hook gave the best results for toy-making:

• Smaller hooks make the gaps between stitches so small that it’s harder to insert your hook – especially with chenille yarn, where the texture makes the stitches harder to see.
• Larger hooks create the softer ‘giant amigurumi’-style fabric with more space between the stitches.

The K (6.5mm) hook was the sweet spot – small enough to make a satisfyingly sturdy, gap-free fabric, but large enough to offer an easy, enjoyable crochet experience.

And, as a bonus: working with blanket yarn and a K hook, you end up with an ami that’s almost exactly twice the size of the original (for a standard sized amigurumi, worked in worsted weight yarn with an E hook). To demonstrate, here’s a comparison of three versions of my Tiny Whale pattern: Standard, Double, and Giant.

As you can see, the Double whale (centre) is about twice the size of the Standard one, and significantly smaller than the Giant version. It’s a nice middle ground if you want something bigger and cuddlier than a regular amigurumi but not as yarn-hungry as a giant ami!

As this is the ‘goldilocks’ size, I’ve refined my amigurumi scale chart and replaced the old Mini Giant scale (which was such a clunky name anyway!) with the slightly smaller but much more satisfying Double scale:

• If you’ve bought The Essential Guide to Amigurumi, you’ve already seen the new chart – the Double scale was debuted in the book when it launched!
• If you’ve bought The Complete Guide to Giant Amigurumi ebook, I’ve just updated page 8 to reflect the new Double recommendation (and you can download the revised version from your PlanetJune account)
• And I’ve also cleaned up my online Scaling Amigurumi guide with the new Double scale, so everything now matches.

Have you tried making standard amigurumi patterns with blanket yarn? If giant amigurumi feel a bit ridiculous, double-sized amigurumi could be just right for you! They use much less yarn and create a lovely plush huggable toy.

And here’s the best part: all the techniques I developed for giant amigurumi work beautifully at this scale too, especially my game-changing secure magic ring that’s perfect for chenille yarn. If you have my Complete Guide to Giant Amigurumi ebook, you’re already equipped with everything you need to make Double-sized amis too.

I think double-sized amigurumi using blanket yarn and a K US/6.5mm hook might be the perfect fit for sweet cuddly toys – give it a go and let me know what you think!

The post How To Crochet Double-Size Amigurumi appeared first on PlanetJune by June Gilbank: Blog.

Here’s a new addition to my stemmed flower patterns: an elegant sculptural lily flower! With my new crochet pattern you can make Calla, Peace, or Arum Lily flower stems that look stunning in a tall vase and are perfect for modern floral arrangements, wedding bouquets, or Easter décor.

A fun fact about these flowers: the Calla Lily (or Arum Lily) from South Africa shares its elegant flower shape with the unrelated Peace Lily from the tropical Americas. Despite their names, neither of these plants is a true lily!

I made mine in classic white (off-white, actually – for that extra touch of elegance), the colour of Peace Lilies and the wild Calla Lilies that I remember from my time in Africa. You can also get creative with your colours: hybrid calla lilies come in a variety of colours including yellow, orange, pink and dark purple, so you can pick your favourites!

While a few of these stems look lovely displayed alone in a narrow vase like this, you can also mix and match them with my other cut flower crochet patterns to create your own custom bouquet:

Here are all my other stemmed flowers: Basic Rose, Daffodils, Carnations and Tulips.

As I like to reward people who chose to donate for my donationware patterns, the PDF version of the Calla Lily / Peace Lily pattern includes additional assembly photos, bonus tips if you want to make a more resilient flower, and my special technique for fastening off the yarn neatly at the base of the stem. As always, the pattern is free for you to use, and you need only donate if you’d like to thank me for my time in creating it, or if you’d like the easy-to-print PDF version.

Go to the free Calla Lily / Peace Lily crochet pattern >>

Or jump straight to donate:

Order the Calla Lily / Peace Lily pattern >>

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

The post free crochet pattern: Calla Lily / Peace Lily appeared first on PlanetJune by June Gilbank: Blog.

When we first moved into our forever home, we saw a pair of mourning doves trying to nest in next door’s porch. They failed. The sticks they piled on the ledge above the door kept blowing down, and, after a couple of days of trying, they gave up and moved on.

But this sparked my dream that one day doves would nest in my front porch. In all the countries we’ve lived, visiting doves (of different types) have always been a constant friendly presence, with their big eyes and soft cooing calls. These days, mourning doves regularly visit our garden: sunbathing and taking baths in summer; huddling together and fluffing up to stay warm in winter. Watching them raise babies would be a next-level privilege.

And I still can’t quite believe this, but my dream has come true, and it’s even better than I could have hoped for…

If you’d like to follow along in real-time as this year’s chicks hatch and grow, I’m sharing live updates and short video clips of my dove family in the PlanetJune Discord – more on that later. But first, let me take you back to how it all began…

Building the Nesting Platform

I did some research to find a dove nest box design that would work well (I chose this open platform design from 70birds), and asked Dave to build it. He recycled some of the wood from our old IKEA futon frame, which had finally fallen apart on the journey back from South Africa. (Don’t you just love the idea that our old bed has now become a dove bed?)

Dave also mounted a motion-activated security camera facing the platform so we could monitor anything interesting that happened.

The first year we put up the platform, nothing happened – with hindsight, that was my fault. I’d asked Dave to mount the box where I could see into it, which meant it wasn’t high enough for the doves to feel secure. Last year, we moved it much higher on the wall, and what a difference – a pair of doves moved in as soon as nesting season began!

Nest Building

For a few days, the male brought twigs, and the female arranged them. This was incredibly frustrating to watch – she placed the twigs haphazardly and didn’t anchor them at all against the wind, so every day we found a new scattering of sticks strewn on the porch beneath the nest.

But the pair persisted, and, with more determination than skill, they eventually had enough twigs to form a nest of sorts, and the female settled in…

Raising Babies

I’m so impressed with the dedication and care of the parents! Both birds took shifts all day to protect the eggs, and then the chicks, and mama dove kept them warm every night. It was hard to even get a glimpse of the eggs or chicks, as the parents rarely left them unguarded for more than a few seconds!

Here are a few key candid moments captured on the security camera:

1st egg laid… 2nd egg laid…
As soon as a chick hatched, the parents removed the shells to a safe distance (so they wouldn’t alert predators to the nest location)

The nest box was an unqualified success. Starlings, house finches and a robin took an interest, but the doves refused to give up their prime real estate! Within 2 days of the babies fledging, the parents would return to start their next clutch of eggs.

Doves always lay just two eggs, and with the exception of one infertile egg in the first brood, all our eggs hatched and were raised successfully.

Baby Dove Photo Gallery

Although the nest location and protective parents didn’t make photography easy, I did manage, with the aid of a stepladder, to get enough photos to show you the whole egg-to-fledge story (click any of the pics to see the full-size images):

The dove nest has been an absolute delight: saying hello to the doves every time we left the house; trying to catch a glimpse of a little head with pretty blue-lined eyes peeking over the edge of the platform; being serenaded by soft coos from the porch while we sat in our living room; and watching nine chicks grow and fledge over the summer!

Dove Nest Statistics

I studied all my camera footage to quantify the 2024 season:

Nest started March 31st First egg laid April 2nd Last chick fledged September 10th Egg hatch time 14 days* Chick fledge time 14 days* Time between broods 2 days* Number of broods 5 Total eggs laid 10 Fledged chicks 9

* Average times across the whole season

Congratulations to our superstar dove parents!

Dove Watch 2025

Now it’s nesting season again, and our doves (I romantically assume it’s the same pair) have already laid claim to the platform again. Hearing their warm calls once more and seeing them build their nest and settle into their egg brooding routine has reminded me of the joy I found in watching our dove family growing over the course of last year – I hope I’ve shared a glimpse of that with you in this story.

But this year will be even better! Last year’s video footage was good enough for me to monitor the doves and get some stats, but the clips were grainy and indistinct. We’ve just installed a new high quality camera with optical zoom, plus a server to store the footage.

As you can see, the new camera gives a perfect view into the nest, so I can monitor the progress without disturbing the birds, and save high quality video clips of every stage. I can already tell the male and female apart by their subtle differences in colouring – something I couldn’t see at all last year – so I can get a much better understanding of their lives and routines.

Once the season ends, I’ll have thousands of video clips that I can pull from to produce my own little wildlife documentary!

Follow Along in Real-Time!

The first eggs in the above image should hatch any day now, and I’ll be sharing progress reports and short video clips in the PlanetJune Discord. If you’d like to follow my dove family’s story as it unfolds over the year, please join us there, and you’ll get the first look at this year’s chicks!

Nature is amazing, and I feel so privileged to share in the life of my pair of beautiful mourning doves as they patiently and devotedly raise their chicks. I hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse into the life of our dove family, and that you’ll join me to follow their magical journey this year.

The post Nesting Season with Our Dove Family! appeared first on PlanetJune by June Gilbank: Blog.

I have a new (to me) knitting machine! The Studio LK150 is a mid-gauge machine, and a big step up from my Ultimate Sweater Machine, which is so basic it’s sometimes called a ‘toy’ (although it’s definitely not a toy, and I’ve made several sweaters with it).

My ‘new’ (to me) LK150 knitting machine

This machine had been in storage for about 30 years (it even came with a VHS instruction tape!), so I wasn’t sure how much maintenance it would need, but it was in pretty good condition: it was missing one needle and had a few more with slight rust spots. But the main problem was the sponge bar, which had never been replaced:

Most knitting machines have a sponge bar that runs across the tops of the needles and presses them down while still allowing them some flexibility as the carriage passes by. The sponge is a disposable part that should ideally be replaced every year or so when it loses its elasticity.

Tip: If you have a knitting machine, try tipping the whole machine forward. If the needles stay in place, your sponge bar is still good! If any of the needles slide forward, it’s time to replace your sponge bar.

You can see how flat the 30+ year old sponge bar is compared with its new replacement! The middle of the old sponge completely disintegrated as I pulled it out.

With a brand new strip of sponge installed, all that was left to do was to replace the damaged needles, clean and oil the machine, and see if it worked…

And it did! I’ve made two test projects so far: a new dog sweater with worsted weight yarn, which is pushing the upper yarn weight limit for this machine…

Maggie loves her winter walks!

…and a basic V neck sweater for myself using light #3 (DK) weight yarn – the first time I’ve tried to machine knit a sweater in a finer yarn than worsted weight.

This sweater may look familiar if you have a good memory – I unintentionally recreated this sweater – which was, coincidentally, my first ever attempt at using a knitting machine. But although the colour and styles of the two sweaters are almost identical, the yarn weight isn’t! Compare the stitch size of the new sleeve with the stitches in the old sweater body behind it:

On top: DK-weight sleeve; below: worsted weight sweater body

With the finer yarn, the stitches are much smaller, and I think the new sweater looks really neat as a result.

I prefer to finish all my knitting by hand – knitting the ribbed collar and cuffs on circular needles is almost as fast as converting plain machine-knit rows into ribbing, and knitting is much more enjoyable and relaxing than manipulating stitches.

For this sweater, I also used a centred double decrease to add a vertical bar in the middle of the V neck. I think I prefer it without the bar, but it does make a nice crisp centre line:

A centred double decrease makes a straight line emerging from the tip of the V

‘Machine knitting’ sounds like a fully-automatic process and not real crafting, but using a manual knitting machine is surprisingly hands-on: you’re still counting all the rows, manipulating the needles and yarn to place every increase and decrease, moving weights and checking for dropped stitches. And I find it to be quite exhausting manual work! The key for me is to notice I’m tiring and walk away before I start making mistakes – it can take so long to fix a mistake that sometimes it’s faster to start the piece again from scratch.

I really like my combination of machine and hand-knitting: by knitting all the stockinette parts on the machine, I still get to design the sweater pieces myself and spend enjoyable hours hand-knitting the collars, cuffs, button bands and any fancy stitches, but I get to speed up the overall process.

I’m very happy with my new machine, and now I’m trying to decide what I should make next! Something a little more adventurous next time, I think – although that means I need to do some serious planning and designing before I can start…

The post first mid-gauge knitting machine projects! appeared first on PlanetJune by June Gilbank: Blog.

I’m so excited to have a new addition to the PlanetJune Farmyard today, and a new addition to my crochet patterns inspired by fibre-producing animals…

Farmyard Sheep is a mix-and-match pattern that lets you choose the options you want, to make different types of rams, ewes and lambs:

• Horns: Add horns for a ram, or leave them off for most ewes and all lambs.
• Horn length: To make shorter horns, stop crocheting whenever the horns reach the length you prefer!
• Tail: You can choose to leave off the tail entirely.
• Contrast colours: You can choose to make the fleece a different colour from the other body parts, or make the entire sheep in a single colour. You can also choose to make the hooves in a separate colour (to match the horns, if your sheep has horns!), or to have self-coloured hooves.

You choose! Make any of my pictured options in any colour(s), or assemble your own custom sheep and lambs from the included options – it’s up to you.

Tip: To make a sheep family with smaller lambs, crochet them with finer yarn with a smaller hook (or scale up your adult sheep with heavier yarn and a larger hook) – see my Scaling Amigurumi article for details. About the Design

This pattern has been a long time coming – I’ve been adding to my notes with ideas for my sheep design since 2014 (that’s 11 years)! In that time I’ve tried several times to try to figure out how to make the fleece, but although my ideas all sounded promising on paper, none of them gave me a result I was happy with.

In the end, after a lot of experimentation, I developed my own crochet stitch to create a fleece that had specific properties I couldn’t find anywhere else:

• crocheted as you go
• finely textured surface
• firm amigurumi-style fabric
• no gaps between stitches where stuffing will peek out

I’ve called the end result the pip stitch, as it creates very small bobbles on the surface without forming a loose or gappy fabric. But even that wasn’t the end of the story; I still needed to figure out how to use this stitch to create the sheep design of my dreams, and that took the best part of another year to get right!

My first prototype looked very realistic, but just didn’t have my trademark PlanetJune cuteness, so it was back to the drawing board until I could find my signature blend of cuteness and realism… and I’m thrilled with the result! I actually gasped aloud when I added the nose and saw that adorable little face looking back at me for the first time.

And I’m delighted to report that those impressively-curved horns are achieved without any wires. All you need is yarn, a crochet hook, and a little technique magic – you’re going to love how it works!

Fun Fact: Unlike goat horns, which tend to point up and back, sheep horns usually curve around the head. Design Reflections

There is a magic in design… It doesn’t come easy for me – creating clear instructions is my natural forte, not imagination – but I keep going, trying different things and tweaking my prototypes until it all comes together and it suddenly becomes exactly what it was always supposed to be. Although I don’t know it until I see it, suddenly it’s completely obvious: how could a PlanetJune sheep look any way other than this?

From the end result, it looks simple and straightforward, but you can’t see the 90% of mistakes and failed attempts that form the hidden mass of my design icebergs. But the delight when it all comes together makes it all worthwhile – there’s no other feeling like this!

Ready to Crochet?

You can pick up the Farmyard Sheep pattern from my shop right now and start on your own cute spring lamb or curly-horned ram in your favourite sheep colours!

Or, if you’re not ready to buy just yet, please add my Farmyard Sheep to your queue or favourites on Ravelry, so you don’t forget about it:

I hope you’ll enjoy my Farmyard Sheep pattern as much as I enjoyed designing it! Which version is your favourite?

The post Farmyard Sheep crochet pattern appeared first on PlanetJune by June Gilbank: Blog.

Link easily to this tutorial in your patterns: www.planetjune.com/crocheteyes

If you’re looking for an alternative to plastic eyes for your amigurumi, there are lots of ways to make child-safe options: for example, you can embroider the eyes onto the head, cut out felt circles and stitch them on, or needlefelt a felt circle or ball of roving onto the head. But I’m most frequently asked about making crocheted eyes for amigurumi, so I thought I’d give you a tutorial today in case you’ve also been wondering how to do this!

Basic Method for Crocheted Eyes

Step 1. Crochet a Circle

1. Consult the Eye Sizes table, below, to find the appropriate hook and yarn/thread size for the eye size you want to make.
2. With black yarn, make a magic ring, ch 1.
3. Crochet 6 sc stitches into the ring, then pull the ring tightly closed.
4. Join the last stitch to the first stitch, either with a sl st or, for a neater finish, use an invisible join (see my Invisible Join tutorial for instructions).

Step 2. Add a Glint

• To add life to your eyes, add a catchlight – a ‘glint’ of light – to the eye with a small white stitch (see Glinting Eyes for Amigurumi for details and tips).

Step 3: Repeat

• Make a second eye to match!

Step 4: Attach

• Attach both eyes to your amigurumi. Crocheted eyes are basically tiny appliques, so see my Attaching Appliques tutorial for the neatest way to stitch them to the head.

My Gingerbread Man pattern uses crocheted eyes

Eye Sizes

If you want to replace safety eyes with crocheted eyes, you need to make eyes that are the right size for your amigurumi. The following table gives you the results of my experiments to crochet eyes that closely match the standard amigurumi eye sizes: 8, 9, 10, 12 and 15mm.

Please treat this table as a starting point for the eye size you’re looking for – it’s very likely that you’ll need to play around a bit if you’re looking to make an exact mm size! See the Size Adjustment Tips section, below, for easy methods to tweak the size you’re making.

Eye size Yarn Hook 8mm embroidery floss (5 of the 6 strands)
or #20 crochet thread 2.25mm (B) 9mm embroidery floss (all 6 strands) 2.25mm (B) 10mm #10 crochet thread 2.75mm (C) 12mm sport (#2) – DK (#3, light) yarn1 2.75mm (C) 15mm worsted weight (#4, medium) yarn 3.5mm (E)

1. I used Patons Grace yarn for my test, which is marked as a #3 weight yarn, but in my opinion it’s more like a #2.

Size Adjustment Tips

I tested out making a variety of eyes with different yarns, hooks, and stitch counts. From my experiments, I learnt that, as the entire eye is formed from a single round comprising just a few stitches, every stitch makes a big difference. This means that while yarn weight, hook size and number of stitches all play a part in the size of the finished eye, there are other intangible factors that will also affect the size, for example how tightly you pull your magic ring closed, how tightly you crochet, and the properties of your specific yarn, so it’s impossible to give an exact formula for an exact eye size!

But it only takes a minute to make another eye, so, if your eye turns out a bit larger or smaller than you wanted, you can just try again, using one or more of these options to adjust the size:

Slightly increase the size:

• Go up a hook size
• Use a (slightly) thicker yarn or thread
• For embroidery floss eyes, add one (or more) additional strands to your floss
• Add more stitches into the magic ring (see below)
• Use 8 or 9 hdc stitches in the magic ring instead of 6 sc

Slightly reduce the size:

• Go down a hook size
• Use a (slightly) thinner yarn or thread
• For embroidery floss eyes, remove one (or more) strands from your floss
• Add fewer stitches into the magic ring (see below)

Adjusting the stitch count:
Below you can see the results of my test making eyes with 4, 5, 6 (the standard), 7, and 8 sc stitches into the magic ring.

They’d all make acceptable eyes, and the overall size is definitely altered slightly by adding/removing stitches. But there are limits:

• 4 sc gives a more 3-dimensional ball-shaped result (after a little manipulation!), but the eye may start to look a bit square with so few stitches, so I’d recommend using 5 or more stitches.
• 8 sc gives a plumper result, but it becomes more difficult to pull the magic ring tightly closed as you work more stitches into the ring. Depending on your yarn, you may be able to pull an 8 sc ring tightly closed (if not, please adjust the size using one of the other methods above – don’t leave a hole in the middle of your eye!)

Much Larger or Smaller Eyes?

If you’d like to make even smaller eyes for your amigurumi, I recommend you use my Tiny Yarn Eyes for Amigurumi technique instead – it makes a maximum 6mm eye that can easily be scaled down further by using finer yarn.

Baby Snake using ~6mm Tiny Yarn Eyes

And, if you’d like to make larger eyes for your giant amigurumi, my ebook The Complete Guide to Giant Amigurumi includes patterns for 3 sizes of dimensional crocheted eyes (approx 20, 30 and 40mm) that have the glint crocheted right in.

Giant Tiny Whale using 20mm Giant Crocheted Eyes from the Giant Amigurumi ebook

Bonus Tip

I found that I prefer cotton yarn/thread for these small crocheted eyes, to give them cleaner edges without the slight fuzziness you can see on the acrylic yarn samples. If you look at my final samples again (below), all of these except the 15mm use cotton instead of acrylic, and you can see the difference!

I hope you’ll find this guide helpful if you want to make crocheted eyes for your amigurumi! And please don’t forget to add that glint to your finished eyes, to give them the spark of life – it really does make all the difference…

The post Crocheted Eyes for Amigurumi [tutorial] appeared first on PlanetJune by June Gilbank: Blog.

Writing my Year in Review post every year helps me to see what I’ve accomplished, think about what I’ve learnt, and decide what I’d like to do differently in the following year.

This is my 16th Year in Review blog post – one for every year of my full-time self-employment. Back then, I couldn’t have imagined what my life would look like today, but here I am, still loving the process of designing nature-inspired crochet patterns – and still in no danger of running out of ideas!

Although I only published 9 new patterns plus one re-release in 2024, almost all of them included multiple designs, so they represent a total of a respectable 21 new designs:

I’m adding a new section to these annual review posts: my top 10 best-selling patterns of the year! It’ll be interesting to see how the bestseller list changes from year to year…

2024’s Top 10 PlanetJune patterns:

1. Temperature Snake
2. Bearded Dragon
3. Polyhedral Balls & Gaming Dice
4. Tortoise & Simple-Shell Tortoise, Turtle & Terrapin
5. Baby Sea Turtle Applique & Hatchlings
6. Turtle Beach Blanket (Teal Ombre version)
7. Beaver
8. AmiCats Tuxedo
9. Emperor Penguin
10. Baby Sea Turtle Collection

Business Report

2024 has been filled with behind-the-scenes projects to improve PlanetJune and make it run more smoothly:

• Shop upgrade: I relaunched my shop with a complete upgrade and improvements to the photos.
• CAL automation: I automated the submission process for both the Team PlanetJune Ravellenic Games gallery and the Reindeer Games gallery, which removes my huge time commitment from running both of those CALs, making them much more sustainable (and fun for me!) going forward.
• Etsy app: I built a private app to semi-automate processing of my Etsy orders and customer service. (I keep my Etsy shop mainly for visibility, as many people only look for patterns there. I was spending more and more time answering messages, as Etsy prioritises their own messaging over the info customers actually need. My app helps me to send detailed customized messages to my Etsy customers in a timely fashion so they know what to expect, with a much reduced daily workload on my part.)

While each of those projects was a huge challenge that required weeks of my time (and far more than that for the new shop!), I’m already enjoying the results, and they should all continue to buy my time back for years to come.

And now I have a new business report to add here: my second business, the Turtle Beach Press publishing imprint! The first year of selling my masterpiece book, The Essential Guide to Amigurumi, has gone really well.

Even though I haven’t had the capacity to do any kind of marketing for it, word is spreading organically – thank you so much if you’re recommending it to new crocheters and amigurumi fans – and the reception has been fantastic! There are lots of amigurumi pattern books out there, but only EGA gives you all my tips and techniques to make the best amigurumi – from any pattern. And I’m especially happy that the left-handed edition is proving to be a treasure trove of dedicated help for new lefty crocheters. It’s so gratifying to see how much people are enjoying it! ❤️

Personal Report

2024 was a year of bucket list experiences right on my doorstep: an hour’s drive took us into the path of a spectacular total solar eclipse (and, more by luck than talent, I also managed to capture a beautiful photo!) and I finally saw my first (and second, and third…) aurora borealis. Amazing!

I made friends with a baby cow at a local cheese farm, and I finally achieved a long-term dream of having a pair of doves nest in my front porch. I’ll share the full story later, but my doves and their babies were a constant source of joy for me this year.

My health is an ongoing challenge: I’ve been dealing with chronic fatigue for many years now, and my energy is much more limited than my time. I also had my first run-in with COVID this summer, which has left me with some ongoing side-effects.

But we all have to play the hand we’re dealt, and I’m focusing on creating a simpler, happier life, and not beating myself up for the things I don’t have the energy to do. I’m learning that creative hobbies, enjoying nature and resting are all vital for giving me the capacity to do my best work while enjoying my life in the process.

In that spirit, I’ve been trying new things as well as enjoying my long-time favourite crafts and hobbies: crochet, gardening, baking, latch hooking, beading, dehydrating, machine knitting, candle making, yoga, diamond painting, birdwatching, reading, mushroom growing…

Top achievements for 2024 include growing 30kg (66lbs!) of vegetables (and fruits) in my garden, and making reading a priority – I surpassed my goal of reading 52 books in 2024, and feel so much better for making time to rest and read.

Looking Back

Going through this process is so valuable – I always feel like I haven’t accomplished much, but looking through all my photos and taking time to think about everything that has happened over the year puts that in perspective.

Last year, I wished for a simpler, more serene life: for making time for what really matters, and for leaving behind the things that don’t. And looking back through the year, I think I’ve mostly achieved that, and my first year of trying to respect my limits has gone pretty well.

There’s still a voice in the back of my head saying ‘Don’t waste time! Be more productive!’ but the most important parts of the PlanetJune magic – creativity and clear communication – are next-to impossible unless I have the energy to think clearly. I won’t compromise on my standards, and only I can do the work of bringing my ideas into the world, so the only option is patience for the process and accepting that everything I do will take a lot longer than I’d like.

Looking Forward

I feel like I’m on the right track with my goal of a simpler, more serene life. To bring my most creative self to my work, I need to prioritize looking after June the person first. Fewer hours of work and more time to refuel will not only help me manage my health but also make life more enjoyable.

I’ve realised that I’m much happier avoiding the noise of today’s social media (although I’ll always reply if you @ me!) Instead, I’m cultivating a quieter online community in the PJ Discord, that’s more like the old days of forums and early social media, where we can share thoughts and pics from our daily lives and build genuine connections and friendships. (You’re very welcome to join us there if that sounds good to you!)

I’m inching my way back into blogging, re-learning to share what interests me and trusting that there’s something there that you’ll also find interesting. I get deeply fascinated by the things I enjoy, whether that’s a new craft, the wonderful natural world all around us, learning how to grow delicious food, or developing new crochet designs and techniques. All those interests feed back into my crochet and give me the inspiration to create new work.

I’d also love to share some behind-the-scenes posts about the process of writing and independently publishing books, and compare that with traditional publishing. Going through the entire process has opened my eyes to what it takes to create beautiful, high-quality books, and I’d love to explore that with you.

Nerding out on what fascinates me in long blog posts doesn’t really mesh with the current fast, short-form, video-based trending content, and I think that’s okay! I don’t have the energy to create things that drain me, and writing slow, considered pieces is what I do best, so I’m going to lean into that.

In the end I’d much prefer to create a few richly detailed patterns, tutorials and blog posts in a year than hundreds of pieces of lightweight fluff. There’s a lot of noise and busy-ness out there – especially now with the rise of trashy AI-generated content, and constant ads – and not a lot that’s real. I don’t want to contribute to that noise; while I do need to earn a living, money isn’t my driving force. I’m looking for a simple, quiet, and valuable life, and that’s what I’m feeling my way into.

2025 Wishes

Re-reading what I’ve just written, I think the words that sum up my wishes for 2025 are calm, wholesome and honest. Wholesome isn’t a word I’ve related to in the past – my younger self would have equated it with being boring – but now I think it encompasses much of what I’m looking for: a healthy, positive and good-hearted life, both in my pastimes and outlook. I think the world could use more of that!

I wish the same for you too, no matter what your goals for the coming year may be, and I hope 2025 brings you health, happiness and fulfillment. Happy New Year!

The post 2024: year in review appeared first on PlanetJune by June Gilbank: Blog.