Tag: art

Art

Finse and Jonesy’s night of fireflies

Sonja

night painting forest fireflies

As desktop wallpaper I most often use one of my illustrations. Untill yesterday, my Christmas illustration featured on both my laptop and iPhone desktops, which obviously was becoming outdated. I had many ideas for new illustrations, but didn’t find the time to actually make one. After Jones was finished I decided to skip crocheting for a few weeks to paint a new illustration.

First I thought of making a strictly seasonal spring painting but also had the idea of a big field with fireflies in it. And by all means, it had to become a Son’s Popkes themed illustration. I decided to go for the field with fireflies, and Finse and Jonesy.

When the illustration was finished, I was not happy at all with the result. Somehow the colours didn’t seem right to me. As usual I’m starting to like the illustration now. It is not perfect, but I love the atmosphere and the expressions of the animals. It is probably some kind of an artist syndrome, not liking the result immediately….it always takes time for me to really love what I made and then I’m absolutely proud. It is a weird thing.

Well, now I’m back to crocheting. On a whim I decided I’m going to design a panda. Two leftovers of yarn caught my attention and I decided they had to become a panda. (Hopefully there is enough for the whole beast.) After that I’m back to my list of otter, mole and red panda. I don’t know the order in which I’m going to make them and a rat or mouse also is on my mind.

Enough to be done!

Finse and Jonesy’s night of fireflies is acrylic on canvas, 24 x 18 cm.

 

Art, Stories

Upcoming spring pattern

Sonja

And now for something completely different. Well, perhaps not completely but a bit. My next pattern will be my first bird pattern. Last year I thought of making a duckling and decided to wait till spring this year. Yes, a duckling! I love ducks and especially mallards and white ducks and do think a pattern for a crochet duckling will make a perfect crochet spring project.

If the duckling is going to meet my expectations, I will also make his father someday. I very much hope I can make my duckling as whimsical as he looks in the second sketch. Looking forward to present my first little bird.

Eendjes

A little surprise pattern will follow soon……

 

Patterns

Wasby, crochet raccoon pattern

Sonja

What’s with all that racket? It is Wasby, my new crochet raccoon pattern. Here he finally is! I’ve called him Wasby, as raccoons are called ‘wasbeer’ in Dutch.

With a nice frontal picture, meet my crochet raccoon!

This crochet raccoon pattern was a bit of a tricky one to make. When I started, I had many ideas of how to make this animal. I didn’t want the head to be round but it had to have wide cheeks like a real raccoon. The thing I had in mind of how to shape those cheeks didn’t work out that wel, so I had to think of something different. Also, the raccoon should not become too chubby, but just a bit, which meant I had to make a bunch of bodies before I got the right size. I wasn’t sure about the right colour for the hands and feet….dark or light? I made some test versions and decided to go for light and added some extra little details with the dark yarn.

I am very pleased with the end result. Wasby has become the raccoon doll I pictured. He has the right proportions and I love his realistic looking face. The fun thing about patterns like these are, you can do whatever you like, if you prefer dark feet, just go for dark. I’ve chosen rustic colours to make this raccoon, but white, grey and black will do too. You could even give the raccoon a more brown fur colour instead of grey.

Here are some more pictures of Wasby and below them you can find info about and links to buy this pattern.

Isn’t he a ferocious little crochet raccoon? This is my favourite picture of him. Wasby is sitting 5.1 inch/ 13 cm tall.

The crochet pattern for Wasby the raccoon you can find in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here. Wasby is made with Lett Lopi, a 100% wool. I have chosen to use a light beige for the light parts of the raccoon and the darkest brown you can find for the dark parts. It gives him a more warm and rustic look. In the pattern you can find a clear and colour coded 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 whimsical raccoon amigurumi. All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings.

Patterns

Free mini Santa hat pattern

Sonja

This is a little gift pattern, a Santa hat for all our Popkes. I was making a little Santa hat for Falun, so he can wear it when he’s posing for my Christmas card, when I realised this could be a fun pattern for all of you.

crochet santa hat pattern

Flims agreed to model for this hat on this dark and cold day….

The Santa hat pattern is very simple and quick to crochet, you can make a bunch in a day if you like. Not all dolls are the same size, so this hat can be easily adjusted to fit every doll, by simply adding a few rounds (explained in the pattern). This hat does fit Flims, Falun, Danylion and Floro (however, Floro thinks it doesn’t look very good on him), if it’s made with the same yarn as they are.

Mini Santa hat pattern

To make this pattern you need worsted weight yarn and hook E US/ 3,5 mm. I’ve used Lett Lopi wool to make the hat, colours white 0051 and dark red 1409. You need sewing materials and a hard brush to get the fuzzy fluff ball and brim. You also need crochet animals to put the hat on.

free crochet santa hat pattern

The red part, work in rows.

1. magic ring of 6 = 6 (really?)

2. sc in each around = 6, close with sl st.

3. ch 2, (dc in next 2, 2 dc in next) x 2 = 8, sl st,

4. ch 2, (dc in next 3, 2 dc in next) x 2 = 10, sl st.

5. ch 2, (dc in next 4, 2 dc in next) x 2 = 12, sl st.

6. ch 2, (dc in next 3, 2 dc in next) x 3 = 15, sl st.

7. ch 2, (dc in next 4, 2 dc in next) x 3 = 18, sl st.

8. ch 2, (dc in next 8, 2 dc in next) x 2 = 20, sl st.

9. ch 2, (dc in next 9, 2 dc in next) x 2 = 22, sl st.

10. ch 2, (dc in next 10, 2 dc in next) x 2 = 24, change colour to white in sl st. If you need a bigger mini hat, don’t change to white just yet and continue like above by adding two stitches each round, till your hat is the right size. Keep in mind there will be white folded rounds (three rounds of sc’s) below the red part of the hat.

11. ch 2, (dc in next 11, 2 dc in next) x 2 = 26, sl st.

12. ch 1, sc in each around = 26, sl st.

13. ch 1, sc in each around = 26, sl st.

14. ch 1, sc in each around = 26, close with sl st and leave a tail for sewing.

Now fold the white rounds upwards, so your hat will have a nice and thicker brim. Make sure you don’t see red on the brim. Sew it tight with the tail you had left.

 Little fluff ball.

1. magic ring of 5

2. 2 sc in each around = 10

3-5. sc in each around = 10

6. (sc in next 3, s2tog) x 2 = 8, sl st and leave tail.

Attach the little ball to the hat by shoving the hat a bit in the gap of the ball. When it’s in the right place, carefully sew it tight and brush it. Also brush the brim of the hat. To get a real Santa hat effect for the white part, cut the too long hairs off so it’ll be hairy but not too much.

At the end of the proces, you can sew the hat together at a point to get it looked bend. I sewed it just above the white brim.

Thadah! It’s finished. Here are some more pictures of this cute little hat.

crochet santa hat

hat-inside

 Note: It’s not permitted to put this hat on real animals, they don’t like it, it reduces their self confidence and they don’t think it’s very funny either.

 

Art, Stories

New logo, improved patterns

Sonja

Logo-blogThis week I’ve been busy improving and refreshing all my patterns. When I started writing these patterns I didn’t have a good logo yet and did not use the sketches as more than just the sketch. Later I decided to make the sketches in colour and to add them to the patterns.

Also, the more animals I designed, the more complete the patterns became. Because I think good quality patterns are very important, the old versions were good, but the new ones just better(looking), I decided to give all my patterns the same layout. I also changed my Son’s Popkes name logo a bit, because I noticed some people couldn’t read it. And that is very important!

I’m glad I’m finished now with refreshing the patterns, it was a lot of work and not much fun to do. Everyone who’ve bought a pattern, will get an email from either Craftsy or Ravelry with a new and free download link for the improved version. It really looks better and I’m very happy with the result.

Here’s another image to show all the sketches that are now appearing in the patterns.

Son's-Popkes-sketches-blogHaha, Son’s Popkes! Thanks for all your support and I hope you like the improved patterns. If you’ve bought a pattern directly from me and want a new version, please let me know!

 

Patterns

Rupert, crochet reindeer pattern

Sonja

Meet Rupert, a distant relative of Rudolph. He’s a crochet reindeer that feels like winter, with hot coco and chocolate chip cookies.

crochet reindeer pattern, haakpatroon rendier, red nosed reindeer, rudolph

This time,  my goal was to create an original crochet reindeer pattern, which also easily can be turned into a Rudolph red nosed reindeer. When I choose the colours for Rupert, I almost couldn’t wait to see the end result. And he turned out exactly as I hoped for, I absolutely love the colour combination. He looks so rustic and warm. Also, a dark red nose will look beautiful with these colours.

I wasn’t sure to give Rupert eyepatches, because reindeer have these light eyelids but adding big eye patches did’t feel right, so I decided to go for simple embroidered lines neatly around the eyes. They make him look just as enthousiastic as in the sketch.

The antlers were also something I worried a bit about when I was working on this crochet reindeer pattern, because they needed to be in balance with the rest of the head. I was afraid they would look too big. But that isn’t at all how it turned out, they look perfect. I know real reindeer have much larger antlers, but it has to look nice on a crochet doll.

Here are some more pictures of this cute and rustic reindeer amigurumi and below them you can find info about and links to buy the pattern. As I mentioned above, Rupert is Rudolphs cousin and not in Christmas spirits all year long, but I did made him a nice bell he can wear around Christmas.

Rupert is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool. It’s a lovely rustic and fuzzy yarn and is perfect for this crochet animal. Rupert is sitting 6.7 inch/ 17 cm tall. The crochet pattern for Rupert you can find in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.

The pattern contains a clear and colour coded 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 rustic reindeer. All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings.

I hope Rupert meets up to your expectations, happy crocheting!

Stories

For winter

Sonja

Reindeer sketchAnother season based pattern is on it’s way. This time winter is the theme, obviously. I won’t stop enjoying autumn but I have to think ahead for my patterns. Here’s the sketch, just a basic one this time. I think it’s clear which animal this is.

A while back I bought lot’s of natural colours of my beloved Lopi yarn, so I would have suitable colours for many animals. All kinds of browns, grays, blacks and light colours. For this reindeer I am going to use a gray-ish beige, murky brown and chocolate brown. Only looking at those colours makes me longing for the end result. I love my Lopi.

I have to figure out if my reindeer will have a dark muzzle or a light one, and if the ears must have dark tips, but I see what happens. For the sketch I’ve chosen a light muzzle, gray body and dark paws. A little green red striped scarf might look very good on this doll, a little touch of Christmas….

Lett-Lopi yarn

For all of you who like to read, last friday my work was featured at the blog Illuminate crochet. It’s a little interview with me, about my favourite materials, stuff like that. I thought it was kind of cool she asked me.

 

Stories

A new project

Sonja

This time I’m going to make a hedgehog. I’ve thought much about how to give him a prickly appearance and still I’m not sure what I’m going to do.

There are two options I consider. The first is simple, brushing. If I’ll get the features right and you see clearly it’s a hedgehog, brushing is a good option and easy to do for everyone who’s going to make him. My second option is using a loop stitch and a mixed colour yarn for the spikes. I’ve never done a loop stitch and I have no idea what it will look like. Also, it’s a small risk to use this for a pattern, because it can hold people back from trying to make the hedgehog, because he might look too difficult. I absolutely think the end result is most important, but I have to keep in mind I design my animals so other people can make them too.

Well, I’ll try out both things, and first I must find a suitable mixed yarn. If that’s too hard to find, option two is ‘out’ already.

Enough text! Here’s the sketch. I just made one and loved him right away.

hedgehog sketch

Sometimes I make ten sketches for a doll and still I’m not satisfied, this one was enough, how that works, I honestly don’t know.