Author: Sonja

Patterns

A little autumn pattern

Sonja

gehaakte eikels

This is a free acorn and nut pattern, for all of you who love autumn. I look forward to the autumn, with all those beautiful colours and leaves that flutter through the air. Even thinking of the moisty smell gives me a happy feeling.

So therefore and hereby, I’ve written a free acorn pattern in this post. The acorns and nut I made for Trin, but I thought it would be nice to offer them for free also.

Here’s the pattern.

Acorns

Bottom in mustard/ apple green or whatever you like.

1- magic ring of 4

2- (sc in next, 2 sc in next) x2 =6

3- (sc in next 2, 2 sc in next) x2 =8

4- (sc in next 3, 2 sc in next) x2 =10

5-6 sc in each around =10 (stuff acorn)

7- (sc in next 3 st, s2tog) x2 =8

8- s2tog x 4 =4, sl st and sew together, weave in end.

Top in dark green

1- magic ring of 5

2- 2 sc in each around =10

3- (sc in next 4, 2 sc in next) x2 =12

4- sc in each around =12, close with sl st and weave tail to top, so you can make a little loop (as stem), make sure your loop won’t close and use the rest of the tail to sew the top to the bottom of the acorn. I needle felted the loop at the top so it forms a tight stem.

Nuts

In brown and beige.

1- magic ring of 4

2- 2 sc in each around =8

3- (sc in next st, 2 sc in next st) x4 =12

4- sc in each around =12 (change colour in last loop and stuff)

5- (sc in next st, s2tog) x4 =8

6- s2tog x 4 =4, close and sew tight, weave in end.

Good luck and enjoy the autumn!

 

Patterns

Trin, crochet mouse pattern.

Sonja

My little friend of the forest, the adventurer mouse Trin, is finished.

gehaakte muis, amigurumi mouse

I’m very happy with the result. Making realistic crochet animals is fun, but designing a doll like this is exciting, because I create a completely new character, like a game figure. This crochet mouse amigurumi is an adventurer, travelling through the forest.

Trin is approximately 6.5 inch/16.5 cm tall when made with worsted weight yarn. I’ve used Istex Lett lopi to make this mouse, it is a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness.

Because this is one of my first patterns, it received an update in march 2018. The new pattern is written like the free ones here, in standard American crochet terms. It contains a clear description of how to crochet and assemble this animal, with extra illustrations and example pictures at the bottom to help you get everything right. In the pattern you can also find what materials you need, the yarn colour numbers, in short, everything you need to know to make your own adventurer mouse. All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings. You can buy this pattern in my Ravelry shop, Etsy shop and you can also order the pattern directly from me here.

The acorns you can also find in a free pattern here, ‘the oak leaves and acorns pattern‘.

Trin is extra special to me because he resembles the style of my illustrations. And he could easily be the character in a children’s book.

This mouse is called Trin because of the mouse we tried to safe from a cat attack in Trin-Mulin in Switzerland. The mouse died and the cat went home to his food bowl.

 

Face & expression, Tips & Tricks

Needle felted noses

Sonja

Finding the right nose for crochet dolls and amigurumi sometimes can be a bit of a challenge. Needle felting is a great way to make the perfect nose.

You probably know the shape and size for the right nose, but getting it isn’t easy. For some projects an embroidered nose ‘ll do great. But some crochet dolls need a more specific nose, like a little ball for a bear or mouse, or a flat triangle shaped soft nose for a cat.

I’ve tried many things like flat felt noses to sew on, embroider with a thick yarn till it was round enough, or putting yarn around a safety eye to get the right nose. That all didn’t work out too well.

A good and quite easy way to make a perfect and soft nose, is to needle felt it. All you need is a thin needle felt needle and a piece of foam. To felt with, you can use the wool you crochet with. Just grab a thread and fluff the part of it you think you’ll need to get the right size nose. Don’t forget to leave a long tail for sewing. Roll it into a loose ball and start pricking it, till it is the desired shape and firm enough. It really works well, you can even needle felt it tighter or more in shape after you sewed it on your doll his head.

Here’s an example with what you need, two loosely felted nooses and the firm felted nose I made for my Forest Mouse.

crochet doll nose

Stories

Project on hold

Sonja

Resuming from now!

Hi all, right after I started working on the forest mouse, we went on holiday. I packed a little mouse project bag, so I could work ahead in the evenings, but that wasn’t really possible. So the bag remains the same:

crochet in a bag

My holiday was amazing though! We went camping in Switzerland. Every day we hiked and saw the most beautiful and divergent landscapes. We saw a lot of Switzerland’s famous Murmeltiere, (ground hogs) and I just love them, they are such beautiful and funny rodents. One time I took a picture of one I thought, but later discovered there where four in that picture, all sitting like statues in front of their little houses. Hehe! But back to crochet, I was going to crochet in the evenings but it was too dark, or my light wasn’t bright enough….that didn’t work out. But I’m looking forward to the finished mouse so it won’t be long before he’s finished.

I hope you all had a great holiday too, back to normal life now….always tough after am amazing vacation.

   

Art, Tips & Tricks, Tutorials

What I like for my amigurumi

Sonja

My new projects, including the mouse, will probably have this inside:

Pipe cleaners. Why? Well, I really love to make artistic photo’s of my crochet dolls, like the one of Teddy a few posts back. But most of the dolls I’ve made so far are a bit ‘stiff’, I can’t really let them pose properly. They can just stand or sit or whatever, but I can’t really let them hug a tree or something.

Pipe cleaners are soft, light and very flexible. You can bend them as often as you like, so they are perfectly suitable to create movable arms, legs and necks for crochet animals. If you want your ami’s to be able to ‘move’, I would recommend them together with light stuffing. That way you’ll have a very flexible fluffy friend.

p.s. That painting is finished! I know this is my crochet blog….

It’s called ‘Water Friends’ and I made it after a good memory.

But back to crochet, I hope this pipe cleaner thing will be helpful.

 

Patterns, Stories

Mouse crochet

Sonja

After I’ve finished a painting I’m working on at the moment, I’m going to crochet a sturdy mouse, friend of the forest. He will be a grey, standing mouse, with cool boots and a striped little shirt. I’m thinking of making him something like this:

"mouse sketch"

And in these colours with a fuzzy wool:

I’m looking forward to having him :). But first that painting must be finished. I can’t stand unfinished work laying around.

 

"crochet bunny", "crochet rabbit", "gehaakte hangoor"
Patterns

Crochet lop rabbit pattern

Sonja

The crochet lop rabbit is finished! In my previous post I wrote about how I’d had some trouble getting everything right, but I did.

I’m proud to present my crochet lop rabbit, a crochet bunny with a true rabbit personality.

"gehaakte hangoor konijn"

"gehaakte hangoor, gehaakt hangoorkonijn, crochet lop rabbit"

I think this bunny is an improved version of my first crochet lop rabbit. He looks a bit more sturdy I think. I’m really happy with the result. Many lop bunnies are two coloured, so I made a two coloured pattern. Grey and white is probably more common but I preferred to use more ‘wild’ colours. Here’s a picture of the new and the old version.

gehaakte hangoor konijnen

If you’re going to make this crochet bunny, the crocheting part is the easy part. You can of course also make a one coloured version, or a normal bunny, if you make the ears a little bit shorter. When you assemble the pieces, you give your rabbit his character and looks, so do it carefully.

The rabbit is 6 inch/15,3 cm long when made with worsted weight yarn. The pattern is written in standard American terms and contains a clear instruction of how to crochet and attach the rabbit. It also contains many instruction images to help getting the right result. You can find the crochet lop rabbit pattern in my shop and in my Ravelry shop. You can also order it directly from me here. Have fun in making him and if you have questions or comments, don’t hesitate.

 

Patterns

It turns out….

Sonja

I’m making two lop rabbit patterns! You know it’s funny how the design process goes. I planned to make one better version lop rabbit, but that didn’t go the way I planned to. Whatever I’ve tried so far, it doesn’t look better than Boefje.

The new head looks great though, except when I attach it to the body. But I can’t just let the head go. It’s a sweet little bunny face that needs a body. So another kind of doll popped into my mind. This head asks for a more cartoon-ish body, like the bears, but with big flat bunny feet.

Designing stuffed animals can be a bit unpredictable sometimes. The sketches seem clear enough, but if it doesn’t work out in crochet I need to change plans, this time with a nice advantage. For the realistic lop rabbit I’ve found a solution too.