Tag: art

Patterns

Koji, crochet tiger pattern

Sonja

My glorious crochet tiger pattern is finished. Meet Koji!

tiger amigurumi crochet pattern

This was beyond doubt the most ambitious crochet animal I have made so far. Yet, knowing that from the start, I was ever so excited to make a crochet tiger. I fully accepted I probably had to make many more test pieces than usual, but I knew that in the end it would be worth it. Well, at least I hoped it would be!

Making a crochet version of a complexed coloured animal like a tiger, comes with many dilemmas. I always fancy my animals to look as realistic as possible, but with a tiger, I knew I had to make some compromises. Certain characteristics of a tiger just are impossible to recreate in a small crochet version. For instance, a tiger’s face has many stripes, going in different directions. I only had room for two stripes at the top of the head and two at the sides. I had to find the right look for my simple stripes, to get that classic tiger face. Also, tiger ears are quite striking with light orange fuzzy front sides and dark backs with a white spot. But there was no way I could make a simple crochet version of such small ears, coloured like that.

Essentially, the whole proces went like that. Should I let the dark stripes of the body run over into the white belly? Nope, did not look good at all whatever I tried. Tigers have orange toes, black soles and white hair between the toes. What should I do to make that look best? Many questions like these followed, but it was very rewarding every time I found a good solution.

Koji has become a striking tiger doll. I think he looks playful, but also shows a bit of that tiger wisdom. Personally, I think he looks young and sweet in the first picture and more wise and mature in the picture below, that is really curious isn’t it!

Here is another picture of Koji and below it you can find info about and links to the pattern.

amigurumi tiger

Koji

This crochet tiger is 5,8 inch / 14,8 cm when sitting. I spend a lot of time writing an extra easy pattern to make this animal. There is a lot of colour changing, so I added a bit more info about it and wrote the pattern for the head and body in stitch colour, so you can even see from the lines how your rounds of stitches should look. Koji is made with three colours of lett lopi, a 100% wool. I would strongly advice the use of a fuzzy yarn, as it leaves much neater colour changes.

The pattern for this beautiful 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 tiger 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 glorious animal.

And heads up, the pattern has a one dollar release discount till April the 12th.

Art, Chit and Chat

Illustration of an actual event

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.

Actual-event

Art

So anyway

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.

Finse-umbrellaBut 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!

 

Patterns

Lumi, crochet arctic fox pattern

Sonja

crochet arctic fox pattern, amigurumi

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.

amigurumi arctic fox crochet

poolvos amigurumi, haakpatroon vos

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

It’s almost Christmas

Sonja

A-popkes-winter-wonderland

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!

 

Art, Stories

A pretty big cat

Sonja

LynxLast week I started working on my new crochet animal pattern, a crochet lynx. I am quite excited to make this animal. Before I start designing a new pattern, I always look online to see what other designers have come up with. First of all to be sure my pattern will be nothing like theirs but also just to see what is offered. When I searched for a crochet lynx pattern, there wasn’t much to find. This pattern might become rather unique, which makes it extra fun and challenging.

Lynxes are incredibly colourful animals. Their fur consist out of all kins of colour ranges and lynxes can also be spotted. To make the pattern simple and not to expansive for everyone to make, I will use three colours for this crochet lynx.

And one slightly silly note, I am quite awful in drawing cats. Drawing this basic sketch took me hours. I have no idea why that is, other animals aren’t a problem, but when I draw cats, they always look ridiculous. Fortunately this lynx does look fairly smart.

 

Art

It’s Halloween!

Sonja

crochet-teddy-witch-hat-

Unfortunately Halloween is not celebrated in the Netherlands but I always loved to pay some attention to it, mostly by making spooky illustrations and the like.

These days of course I design Halloween themed crochet patterns, like Mr. Creeper, that witch hat Teddy is wearing and this year I designed a bat crochet pattern.

The patterns for both the Teddy bear and the witch hat you can find in the sidebar if you scroll down a bit.

Enjoy your wonderful Halloween!

 

Uncategorized

Brutus, crochet bat pattern

Sonja

bat crochet pattern, flying fox, fruit bat amigurumi

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.

crochet bat pattern

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.

crochet animal, animals, haakpatroon vleermuis, halloween.

Uncategorized

Moser, a crochet mole pattern

Sonja

mole amigurumi, crochet mole pattern

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.

Moser2

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.

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.