Uncategorized

I’m taking a break

May 20, 2015May 20, 2015 Sonja

Hi everybody,

It has been awfully silence here I know. Since I’m home from a wonderful holiday to the UK (Lake District and more national parks), which I will tell all about later, I am not feeling myself. I’m struck with an ear infection and utter exhaustion from lack of sleep. I must eat to feel better, but eating itself makes me feel nauseous, not a very handy combo….Between my downs every day, I try to answer mails etc. but that’s about it. I’m not feeling like crocheting at all.

I was going to design a rhino pattern after my holiday and after seeing an utterly adorable puffin at the Bempton cliffs in the UK, I postponed that rhino and looked very much forward to designing a crochet puffin. But at the moment that’s not going to happen. Things will get better. I’m not the kind of person to go and talk about my health online, but do want to give this update as my blog seems to have fallen silent. As soon as I’m feeling my old self again I will post a more happy update here!

This is pretty much my current state, lol. This was me last week in the UK, at the famous church yard of Grantchester.

See you soon fellow crocheters.

Uncategorized

Floro and Finse’s wondrous autumn

October 23, 2014October 24, 2014 Sonja

Every so often I feel like painting a picture, creating an image where everything is possible. My crochet animals are the perfect theme for these illustrations, as I can make them come alive in a fairytale world. For my ‘working self’ there is nothing more exhilarating than combining my work as an illustrator with my crochet designs like this. It is so much fun and inspirational.

‘Floro and Finse’s wondrous autumn’ is a seasonal Popkes painting, the third in a series of four illustrations. I previously made a winter and spring illustration featuring my crochet animals. A summer illustration should be next on my list, but as summer is my least favourite season that probably will take a while.

I thought it would be interesting to show you a slideshow of the process of making this illustration. As you can see, blue is my white and the painting slowly gets its full colour.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It is no surprise to me that this illustration is my best loved so far, as autumn is my dearest season, it is those colours!

Uncategorized

My Autumn

October 20, 2014 Sonja

It has been a while since my last post. I have been fairly busy working on an autumn painting and we have been on a holiday to Zuid Limburg, the most southern province of the Netherlands. We stayed in a very basic holiday house but the surroundings where astonishing. The part of the Netherlands where I live is utterly flat but Limburg consists of beautiful hills. We enjoyed many hikes through the countryside and also visited parts of the Eifel in Germany, where the hills gradually change into mountains and where autumn has almost reached its full glory. It was such a beautiful holiday and I honestly miss those beautiful hills.

Here are some more pictures.

This week I will continue working on my painting and when it is finished, I am going to start on my upcoming crochet pattern, a lynx. I’ll keep you posted about the progress.

Enjoy autumn!

Uncategorized

Brutus, crochet bat pattern

September 29, 2014February 25, 2020 Sonja

My crochet bat pattern is finished and what a lovely little scoundrel Brutus has become. I’ve called him Brutus, it sounded fun for a sweet looking bat.

Brutus is a very versatile crochet bat. He can both stand and sit and if you like a flying bat, you can have him hoover above your bed. This cool crochet bat can even close his wings when he goes to sleep, like this.

When I designed this bat amigurumi, I had to keep in mind the size of the wings. To prevent him from becoming a huge doll, I made his body and head just a bit smaller than usual, so the eventual bat would have a pleasant size. Brutus has a span width of 10.2 inch/ 26 cm and is sitting 5.9 inch/ 15 cm tall.

For my crochet bat, I chose to give him thin and flexible wings, which can be folded and played with. For those of you who want to make a hanging flying bat, I would recommend to make the wings double, so they are more steady and will not curl. All is explained in the pattern of course.

Info about this crochet bat pattern.

The pattern for this cool crochet bat you can find in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.The pattern contains a clear description of how to crochet and attach the animal with example pictures at the bottom to help you get everything right. Crocheting this bat isn’t all that difficult, but sewing the pieces together does requirer some patience. Brutus is made with two colours of Lètt Lopi yarn, a pure wool. In the pattern you can find what materials you need, the Lopi colour numbers, in short, everything you need to know to make this mystical crochet animal.

Uncategorized

Moser, a crochet mole pattern

September 2, 2014February 25, 2020 Sonja

He finally is finished, my crochet mole pattern. He is without doubt the most cartoonish looking crochet animal I have made so far. When I looked at the pictures in this post, I felt happy. Moser looks like a little digger and resembles a real mole, but he could as well be a character from a children’s book.

When I designed him, I kept in mind that moles are not natures most loved creatures. I adore them nonetheless, but I knew I had to design this crochet mole doll in a special way.

To give him that extra bit of character he needed, I exaggerated the size of his arms and legs. Especially when I finished the big feet I saw what I was looking for, they made him a very funny looking crochet animal. When I started working on this crochet pattern, I was a little bit concerned about how I was going to design the fingers and toes. I had never made such shapes before but felt it was an absolute must to have fingers and toes. Surprisingly, it was much easier than I expected and fingers and toes are easy to crochet for all of us.

After a year or so, I decided to make Moser a very handy accessory, a miners safety helmet. It’s something moles can’t go without. I added the miners safety helmet to the pattern, so anyone make him with the cool helmet. Here are some more pictures of the crochet mole. Below them picture you can find more info about the pattern.

crochet mole pattern, haakpatroon mol, maulwurf anleitung

Info about the crochet mole pattern.

Moser is 4.6 inch / 11.5 cm tall standing, when made with a worsted weight yarn. I’ve used 5 mm animal safety eyes and needle felted a very pink nose. The pattern for this cartoonish and wooly crochet mole you can find in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.The pattern 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 find what materials you need, the Lopi colour numbers, in short, everything you need to know to make this funny looking doll.

Uncategorized

Sheep along!

August 25, 2014August 25, 2014 Sonja

Recently I started my Son’s Popkes crochet animals group at Ravelry. It is a group for everyone who enjoys making my patterns. When you join the group, you can get pattern support from me and each other, show your finished animals, participate in crochet alongs, meet interesting new people and much more.

For starters, I have organized a first crochet along, the sheep along. It is a little tribute to sheep, the providers of our most used and beloved material. It is a CAL to get to know the hows and whos.

After the sheep along, there will be a longer crochet along, the autumn along, where you can choose from multiple patterns.

Do you feel like crocheting animals in a nice group of people, getting some extra help and more? Please come and join my group at Ravely and crochet along!