Stories

The tiniest bears…

Sonja

Ham1Are called hamsters, at least, that is what I think. When I was at the art academie, I had this Syrian hamster who looked like a tiny little bear. Even my mum, who is not so much an animal friend as I am, thought he was the cutest little thing. It was a murky brown hamster with a beige little snout.

He wasn’t very friendly though and started screaming whenever I picked him up. One time he bit my boyfriend in his finger, right before a gig he had with the band he was in and that bite caused him trouble playing his bass guitar. I found it kind of funny.

Ham2I just treated my hamster with care and gave him a fantastic big cage with different floors and lots of little pipes he called walk trough and a little thatched cottage. And, not to forget a hamster wheel for exercise. He was a happy hamster.

Now after making an elephant, I thought lets make something completely different. I kind of postponed making a hamster, because Lopi does not have a suitable pink for hamster hands and feet, so I decided to just add another kind of yarn and go for the crochet hamster pattern.

Uncategorized

Ollie, crochet Elephant pattern

Sonja

And yes, his name was announced as Bamse, but I called him Ollie in my head, so Ollie is his name! Here he is, my crochet elephant pattern. Buy now – directly from me 🐱

Elephant amigurumi pattern

I am so delighted with Ollie his looks. Every time I design an animal, I am a bit insecure if I will manage to get it right. Usually, when the head is finished, I feel more secure because the face already is so dear to me. And Ollie his face was, but because I designed the head a bit tilted, I had no idea how it would look attached to a body. Would this face work? It might have been more easy if I had made the trunk and head separately, but I really wanted it to be one piece. When a prototype body was finished and the head was pinned to it, I could breath easily again. It looked splendid, the head worked!

The arms and legs really had to have four toes I decided. But when I had them finished, they just looked huge. So, I made new ones, three toed this time, but as round as possible.

Now Ollie was almost finished and needed to be sewed together. Yet a smaller body was made and everything was attached. Strangely now, I found the feet a wee bit small comparing to the rest of the elephant. But that was not such a bad thing really, now I could make the feet four toed. It is a strange thing how parts of a doll can look so much different pinned on, than sewed on.

I think Ollie has turned out to be a very sweet looking elephant. When I took his pictures, I was slightly disappointed with the result. He just did not look like himself but a more serious version.  By change, I played a bit with his trunk and suddenly noticed that in the pictures where it was bended more upwards, Ollie did look how I wanted him too. It was just the position of the trunk that made him look older and wiser, and I wanted him to look young and curious. Voila, problem solved!

Here are some more pictures of Ollie and below them you can find info about the crochet pattern.

crochet animals son's popkes

Elephant amigurumi

About the pattern

Ollie the crochet elephant is sitting almost 5 inch /13 cm tall. He is made with my favourite Lett Lopi yarn, which makes him look very cute and cuddly. The pattern contains a clear description of how to crochet and assemble the elephant 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 your own magnificent little elephant.You can find the pattern to make him in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or directly from me with the link below.

This pattern has a permanent discount if you use this link. Patterns purchased directly from me cost 5,00 eur. I will have to email the pattern manually so it can take a bit longer, but I promise, you’ll have it in a day. If not, check your spam and if it is not there either, message me to wake me up, as I might have fallen asleep or something…

 

Art

What’s coming up next?

Sonja

Elephant-sketchHe is! I am designing an elephant youngster in crochet. When I started Son’s Popkes, I made all my favourite animals first. I worried a bit about what would happen when I ran out of them. But the worries were completely unnecessarily.

Even though the animals I am currently designing are not my personal favourites (I do love animals in particular and they can’t all be best-loved), I still ever so enjoy designing them in crochet. With every animal I make, I totally get sucked into the proces. How should I do this, what is the best shape for that. It always is an exciting thing to do and I enjoyed making every animal I’ve made so far.

This little elephant is already beginning to take shape. I am quite pleased with the head and ears I made and have a good picture in my mind of how to make the arms and legs. A crochet elephant is on its way!

Art

Winter Popkes

Sonja

crochet animal patterns

Last night, I realised I probably had missed my change to make a winter Popkes picture. But this morning, when I looked out of the window, I was relieved to see there was still a bit of winter left, despite the rain of the night and it being a few degrees above zero.

This time I did not hesitate and took some of my crochet animals with me on a trip to the forest. Luckily for me, it was very snowy still and the light was just dazzling in the low winter sun. The winter Popkes picture was made.

Enjoy the rest of winter. I hope you crafters in the east of the US will not have it too rough. Be safe!

Patterns

Lopi, crochet lion pattern

Sonja

Look! Now we all can become lion tamers, the pattern is finished. You have already seen the teaser picture of Lopi the crochet lion, but here he is in full glory. Buy now – directly from me 🐱

Lion amigurumi crochet pattern

amigurumi lion

This was a lovely crochet animal to design. The most intensive part of making this crochet lion was inserting all the manes. Before I started I had thought of different ways to make the manes. I could use a mane cap, or just sew in the manes. I decided to go for manes crocheted right into the stitches. It’s not very difficult to do and gives the perfect result. (You just fold a piece of thread in half and pull it through the top part of a stitch with your hook and then fold the tails of the thread through the loop.) When I had all the manes inserted, the lion looked rather silly with his reggae hair. But after brushing and cutting, and some more brushing and cutting, he looked absolutely marvelous. Even my first attempt had such a beautiful lion look. I decided to change the mane colour for the final version but definitely would use this technique. The rest of the lion was fun to make, especially the haired tail, which also looked splendid after the hairs were inserted.

This crochet lion is not very difficult to make. The crocheting bit is very easy but giving the lion the final haircut does require your own skills. I can’t exactly instruct how long each hair has to be. I explained it as good as possible and with help from the pictures I (always) add to the pattern, I think everyone will be able to give his or her lion a nice lion mane cut. Lopi is 6 inch / 15 cm tall when sitting. He is made with Istex lett lopi, 100% wool. The pattern contains a clear description of how to crochet and assemble the lion 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 king of the savanna.

Now, where can I get this pattern?

The pattern for this glorious and cuddly crochet lion, you can find in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or directly from me with the link below.

This pattern has a permanent discount if you use this link. Patterns purchased directly from me cost 5,00 eur. I will have to email the pattern manually so it can take a bit longer, but I promise, you’ll have it in a day. If not, check your spam and if it is not there either, message me to wake me up, as I might have fallen asleep or something…

 

 

Art, Uncategorized

A merry popkes Christmas

Sonja

Snow landscape painting

Howdy how! I wish you all a Christmas full of cheer and a very creative new year. To start the joy, I painted a Christmas card to amuse you all. It is titled ‘Popkes making a Snowpopke’.

My Holiday has just started and I’m going to do what I love doing. Hiking, watching movies and knitting a cardigan, a new hobby I have just discovered. Have fun too dear crafters!

See you in a few weeks.

Stories

A lot of Popkes

Sonja

These two photos I received from enthusiastic crocheters really made me smile. The dolls all are very beautiful made and the pictures are so amusing.

Christine has made many of my patterns, maybe even all of them and she’s incredibly good at it. I especially love how she gives her dolls their own character and uniqueness. For some of them she embroidered the eyes and with a gorgeous result. And this picture is just brilliant.

IMG_20150811_192456

Heather also made me laugh. I opened her email and tahdah, there were all these amazing looking Lumis! Look at them, aren’t they gorgeous? These also all have a different personality, just look at how she placed all the eyes a bit different. Some close together, others far apart. These arctic foxes make fantastic Christmas presents.

image003

I always enjoy getting pictures from finished dolls, but these two really stood out and I wanted to share them with you. Thanks so much Chris and Heather!

Patterns

Odi, little owl crochet pattern

Sonja

And here he is. Meet Odi, a crochet little owl. Buy now – directly from me 🐱

crochet owl pattern amigurumi

Never have I been so insecure during the process of designing a crochet pattern. Thankfully, now I am very happy with my little Odi. Why was this so difficult?

Well, I wanted to create a crochet owl that resembled a real owl species. There are loads of crochet owl patterns to find online, and you can see they are owls, but they don’t look like real owls, you probably know what I mean. And I wanted to make a little owl.

Giving it a sweet face, was the first obstacle I stumbled upon. I made several heads and they all looked quite unpleasant. When I finally had succeeded in making a sweet little face, I had trouble getting the size of the body right. At some point after taking things apart who knows how many times, I just continued working because of the amount of time I’d already spend on this project. And then there came a turning point. I had this lovely idea for the legs and feet and it did look so adorable, that the love for my crochet owl came back. I finished the feet and attached them to prototype Odi. It looked marvelous. Now I only had to make some wings and the little owl was finished.

But then, when I looked at the promotional and pattern pictures I had taken, I realized there still was something wrong with this doll. He did not look owly enough. His beak was much too big. After all this work I could not just let that be. So, I made a new tiny beak and took new photos. Now I can finally show you the result. I know Odi is not completely realistic looking. I did exaggerate the colours of the beak and feet to make him a more fun and expressive crochet owl. Just look at him!

realistic crochet owl pattern

How to get this whimsical crochet owl pattern?

Odi is 14,7 inch / 12 cm tall when sitting. He is made with Istex lett lopi, 100% wool. The pattern contains a clear description of how to crochet and attach the bird 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 lovely creature.

The pattern for this adorable and rather realistic looking owl, you can find in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or directly from me with the link below.

This pattern has a permanent discount if you use this link. Patterns purchased directly from me cost 5,00 eur. I will have to email the pattern manually so it can take a bit longer, but I promise, you’ll have it in a day. If not, check your spam and if it is not there either, message me to wake me up, as I might have fallen asleep or something…

Ok, this one is just for fun.

Odi-fun

Art

An owly preview

Sonja

Odi-sketchMy owl pattern is almost finished and just in time, here is a sketch of Odi to give you an idea of how he is going to look. I am not going to tell too much in this post about how the process went, that is for when I publish the pattern, but I can say this was a very difficult animal for me to make. Luckily, after all the work, I am satisfied now and can publish the pattern next week.

And the real Odi does resemble the sketch quite a lot actually. His face is a little different and he doesn’t have the surprised expression as the sketched Odi has, but yeah, this really is him.