I've been intrigued by needlefelting for months, but I didn't think I'd be able to tolerate it as I am sensitive to wool. Turns out, it's not a problem for me (I don't know why but I'm not complaining!). So I picked up some roving and felting needles and had a go. This is the result; she is based on my childhood pet guinea pig Cinnamon (I worked from photographs):


I added round black onyx beads for eyes and embroidered the nose and mouth with embroidery floss, but apart from that she is all felted wool. I have a couple more pics on my blog too, and a bit more detail.

I love needlefelting! I can see why people find it so addictive 

I'm so bored with waiting for spring to finally arrive, I decided to change the season myself and inject some springtime into my house by making a vase of mixed daffodils:



If you'd like to make your own, I've written up the pattern and you can find it on my blog: http://www.planetjune.com/blog/free-crochet-patterns/daffodils/

What do you think?

My latest amigurumi is a sea turtle. I tried to make him realistic so it took quite a bit of work - he is made from 26 pieces sewn or crocheted together! (28 if you include the eyelids)

He is 11" long and his shell is almost big enough to be a cushion. He's nice and squishy too.


Click the pic to see him bigger at flickr.

And I also have more pics (including his cute little tummy!) on my blog.

The best thing about making dog breed amigurumi is that I'm never going to run out of ideas   My latest is the German Shepherd:



It's hard to make a black nose on a black face - it doesn't show up at all from the front, but at least you can see the shape of it from the side. And you can't see this from the angle of this picture, but the black on the back continues into the base of the tail.

This is going to be my last dog design for now; I need to make something different for a while, because I'm seeing dogs everywhere I look!

I hope you like him!

I've just finished designing a Pembroke Welsh Corgi pup:



Did you know that these corgis don't have tails? I was very surprised to find that out while I was doing my research for the design!

It's a sunny day in PlanetJuneLand and the doggies are coming out to play...



I just finished this husky. I think I'm having too much fun staging my photos these days

[UPDATE: Now with tutorial!]

UPDATE: Now with tutorial! It's long and has lots of photos, so I'll link to it on my blog instead of posting it all here: http://www.planetjune.com/blog/shrink-plastic-ring-tutorial/

I had the idea to make rings from strips of shrinky dinks, rubber stamped. The rubber stamps are only 3/8" long to start with, so the pattern on the finished rings is very delicate:



I think they look really pretty. I'm thinking of making some other matching jewellery. Earrings, maybe a charm bracelet or a pendant for a necklace - I haven't decided yet!

My sister loves rats - she used to have a pet rat, so I thought she'd love to have an amigurumi version:



I made him from Patons Divine (such a great looking yarn for making realistic animals!) with Bernat Satin for the ears and tail. I also put a pipe cleaner inside the tail so it's poseable.

SQUEAK!

More crocheted animals... I designed a beluga whale and then I had the idea to make a little grey calf for her. I've never tried resizing a pattern before but I think it worked pretty well:



By the way, for the photo I made the 'sand' from fleece fabric, and I painted the 'sky' on some bristol board

I challenged myself to make this sea lion with a curved neck and chest - all in one piece (except the flippers) and all in single crochet. I'm really please with how she came out: