Sonja

It is spring!

March 20, 2015March 21, 2015 Sonja

And I am celebrating it with two special spring & Easter offers. Aren’t they the cutest crochet animal couples!

These pictures I specially made for my spring and Easter offers. Both packs contain the patterns for the two animals in the picture and the pattern for the Easter eggs and basket is included in the rabbit pattern. You can find the packs in my shop. Unfortunately I couldn’t offer them in my Ravelry shop, as they rejected the listings. You can of course order them directly from me also. Let me know which pack you would like to purchase and I’ll send you a Paypal request. The packs cost $9,98 and they are available till good Friday.

It always is a delight to photograph my crochet animals. I prefer to use daylight and I do, but it can be a bit dark in my home studio. I do my very best to capture both the light and the animals at their best. I love dramatic shadows, but for these photographs there has to be a good balance.

*pattern update* My tiger pattern is coming along very well and I’m looking forward to share some first glimpses of the head.

Enjoy spring!

Art, Chit and Chat

Kiekeboe

March 16, 2015March 17, 2015 Sonja

Back, when I was in the holiday cottage, I tried to take some interesting pictures of Bunsie. I thought the result was not very exciting, but when looking through the pictures yesterday, this one caught my eye. Recurring visitors might recognize this bush as the bush in the drawing of the actual event. This is the bush the polecat ran past and I felt like sharing it.

Also, I wanted to give you a heads up about my upcoming pattern. A crochet tiger pattern. Some of you might think, ‘but that one wasn’t on your list’ and you are right dear reader. A while ago I joked to myself that if a certain person would see a tiger on his trip to India, I would make a crochet version. Later on I found it a rather silly idea, as tigers are more than just complicated to make in crochet. But the longer I thought about it and looked at pictures of this gorgeous animal, I decided it was not such a bad idea at all, and he did see a tiger. I definitely wanted to make a tiger, and a very good one! Now let’s hope I can succeed…

Patterns

Bunsie, crochet ferret aka polecat pattern

March 4, 2015February 25, 2020 Sonja

This time I have made a rather special creature. Meet Bunsie, my crochet ferret or polecat pattern. In Europe and Asia we know this animal as well as a wild animal, the polecat, as the pet version you Americans know too, the ferret. Polecats are the wild ancestors of ferrets. The English name ‘polecat’ is based on the French ‘poule chat’ which means chicken cat. I think we all can imagine why that name is chosen for this sneaky little critter.

Especially ferrets come in all kinds of colours. For Bunsie, I decided to use the dark colours of a polecat youngster. The most common colour in both polecats and ferrets is a white muzzle, dark brown line between the muzzle and eyes, a white line above the eyes and ears and a lighter brown for the rest of the head and the middle part of the body. I have tried several colours but absolutely loved these. The witty thing is, you can choose any colour you like, as I have created the right spots for them to go in.

It took me a while to design this animal, because the colour schemes were fairly complicated to make in crochet. I wanted everything to look perfect and at the same time, this crochet animal pattern had to be easy to make for all of you.

Here is another picture of Bunsie the ferret amigurumi, and below it you can find info about, and links to the pattern.

This crochet ferret is 5,7 inch / 14,5 cm tall. Bunsie is made with three colours of lett lopi, a 100% wool. The pattern for the head is written in stitch colour, so it is a piece of cake to make a perfect ferret yourself.

The pattern for this whimsical animal, you can find in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here. It contains a clear description of how to crochet and attach the animal with example pictures at the bottom to help you get everything right. In the pattern you can also find what materials you need, the Lopi colour numbers, in short, everything you need to know to make this special creature.

And heads up, the pattern has a one dollar release discount till March the 11th.

Art, Chit and Chat

Illustration of an actual event

March 3, 2015 Sonja

Last week the most fabulous coincident happened. We were on a short holiday in a little cottage in the woods. Every so often I worked a bit on my polecat pattern, so I could release the pattern this week. I was just about to start on the tail when I looked outside and saw the most amazing thing, an actual polecat running passed the window, followed by a cat! Full of utter joy, I shouted to my boyfriend, who was taking a bath, there’s a polecat outside!!!

What a coincidence. A real polecat, while working on the pattern of one. They are not the kind of animal you see very often, especially in daylight, so what a pleasure indeed. I quickly made a drawing of the short and special moment. And yes, the rabbit was sitting there too, not at all bothered by that strange event. I do wonder what that cat was doing there. It isn’t a very common place for a house cat to hang out, disturbing all the wildlife. Luckily, the Polecat did got away safely.

Art

So anyway

February 17, 2015February 18, 2015 Sonja

Last week I felt like painting a picture. I was still using a wintery white and snowy artwork as my laptop and iPhone wallpaper and longed for something more colourful and spring. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to create a new fairy tale painting with my crochet animals starring gracefully in it.

But oh my, it didn’t work out all that well. I guess my idea was not solid enough and I rushed into the illustration. Now, when it is finished, the only part I consider worth looking at is Finse with his umbrella and even that isn’t painted very well. As for the rest of the illustration, the colours are wrong, the background is too distracting and Floro looks utterly ridiculous.

The idea was to paint Finse and Floro in a stormy, between winter and spring landscape, struggling with the wind. Well, Finse does not seem to be struggling does he now? He seems more surprised his umbrella got flapped over for some unclear reason.

Anyhow, the painting is not at all ‘desktop’ worthy and I tossed it somewhere in a corner. What a pity, I even postponed my polecat aka ferret pattern for that silly painting.

Now let’s get on with it!

Stories

A little dilemma I had

February 4, 2015 Sonja

This time I’ll be making a rather whimsical animal. One of my favourite animal species are mustelids. The adorable polecat I’m going to crochet belongs to that family, together with badgers, otters, weasels and many more of these musky smelling creatures. Now polecats live in Europe, Asia and Russia but not in America. However, most of you Americans do know this animal as a pet . . . . the ferret that is. Yes, the polecat is the wild ancestor of the ferret.

But what is with the dilemma?

When I thought about making this animal, I had a doll in mind that was standing on four paws, something new and different. But while working on the sketch and some shaping test, I discovered this was not the nufty tufty creature I had in mind. It looked much too serious and not at all whimsical. I am not the type of person to give up easily, but this just was not my style.

In my notebook there where a bunch of unfinished sketches, just some silly looking polecat faces staring at me without bodies. For the fun of it, I drew a body underneath one of them, standing curiously on the back legs.

And there he was! A silly polecat that gives you a smile on your face when you look at it.

Art, Chit and Chat

In the field

January 30, 2015 Sonja

We are having this terribly dreadful winter, it rains, rains and rains, but the weekend after I had finished Lumi, some snow did fall. I gladly took that opportunity to make some nice pictures.

Enjoy your winter! I hope mine will get colder!

Note: I am already working on a new project, something a bit different and will tell more about that next week.

Patterns

Lumi, crochet arctic fox pattern

January 22, 2015February 25, 2020 Sonja

Lumi is finished and he turned out ever so cuddly and soft. I wanted this crochet arctic fox to feel and look soft, but not to have a completely fuzzy appearance. To get this result, I first brushed him, and then cut off all the long hairs, which gave the exact result I hoped for. You can still see the crochet stitches, but Lumi looks furry too.

Working on this arctic fox felt a bit odd from time to time, as I already designed a red fox in the past. I absolutely did not want this fox to look the same, but that seemed to be a bit inevitable, as they both are foxes and I do prefer my designs to have that realistic touch. Luckily, there are some major differences in the foxes and my fox patterns are vey different in shape and sizes although they look like cousins. This fox feels younger to me, whilst he also is more compact. Lumi has a very sweet appearance and I love his subtile colour changes.

Below the pictures of dear Lumi, you can find info and links to the arctic fox crochet pattern.

I choose to make this crochet arctic fox in two colours. A warm grey for the paws and edges of the ears and a milky white for the rest of the body. However, this fox would also look very good in just white. Lumi is made with Lett Lopi, a 100% wool. It is easy to brush and gets a very soft result, but acrylic yarns also look good when brushed. Lumi is sitting 5,5 inch / 14 cm tall.

The pattern for this utterly soft arctic fox, you can find in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here. It contains a clear description of how to crochet and attach the animal with example pictures at the bottom to help you get everything right. In the pattern you can also find what materials you need, the Lopi colour numbers, in short, everything you need to know to make this furry little friend.

And heads up, the pattern has a one dollar release discount till Januari the 29th.

Stories

White and fuzzy

January 6, 2015 Sonja

For starters, I wish you all a very happy New Year! My previous post was titled ‘It’s almost Christmas’ but that lovely period is behind us now. I had a jolly good time and still hear the Mary Poppins songs playing in my head.

I absolutely feel delighted to start the year with a new animal to make, a very wintery creature, the arctic fox. He will be very different from Flam the fox, as arctic foxes have much more subtile features. Their ears and noses are smaller than the ones of red foxes, to prevent them from freezing, and they have an incredible thick and fuzzy coat. I’m sure this little fox will have a brushed tail and maybe I will brush him all over to make him extra fluffy and soft. And if he asks me for one, I will make him a nice warm scarf like his red cousin.

For 2015 I have a lot of new creatures in mind. Hamsters and guinea pigs, a Mr. ratty, a polecat, maybe some more water creatures and much more. If anyone ever feels I am missing an animal, do let me know, I’m very curious what you think and maybe I will make the animal.

Stories

It’s almost Christmas

December 20, 2014December 20, 2014 Sonja

Every year, I make a Christmas card. Before I started Son’s Popkes, I used to paint humoristic illustrations of Santa having bad luck. Now, with Son’s Popkes, I have this fabulous new subject, my crochet animals. This year I thought long of what to paint. At some point I started thinking of taking some nice pictures, because I still hadn’t got the right idea for an illustration.

But then the idea finally was there. What about ice skating Popkes? That was a very fine idea indeed, so I started to sketch about and after some time I finished this Christmas card.

The painting is titled ‘A Popkes winter wonderland’ and is painted with acrylic paint on an 18 x 24 cm canvas board. I’ve grown very fond of this painted version of Falun, he looks so utterly adorable.

My Christmas holiday has started now. I’m going to enjoy it by finishing the book I’m reading, Roald Dahl’s ‘Going Solo’. My boyfriend and I like to go hiking in this wintery weather and in the evenings we will be watching our favourite movies. I always look forward to this time of year and wish you all a jolly good Christmas and a happy New Year!