Tag: arts and crafts

Patterns

Flunsie, relaxed and realistic crochet badger pattern

Sonja

My experimental holiday project has turned into this utterly cute crochet badger! I proudly present to you this exciting new pattern for Flunsie, the realistic relaxing badger.

realsitic crochet badger

You’re right to think this took me a long time, because it really did! It started out as a summer project, to try out new techniques with a different yarn. It seemed like a fun idea to make myself a badger in this (un)charming pose that I often see when I watch videos of badgers taken with wildlife cameras. When they come out of their set at night, they’ll often sit in front of it for a while scratching and washing, and I just love that silly look. It seemed like the perfect pose to try out a new technique: short rows to make the head and body as one piece. But there was one thing I overlooked in my enthusiasm: my favourite animal has a striped head, and short rows combined with stripes aren’t the easiest combination when trying this for the first time. It was a disaster, and I gave up. It was only when I started working again that I grabbed my courage and decided to give it one more go. If it would work, how awesome would that be?! It had to become a pattern, too, not just a doll for me.

I decided to use my beloved Lopi yarn instead of the DK yarn I tried during my vacation, to have something familiar to work with. I also had the notes I had made, so I didn’t have to start from scratch. My idea was to go slow, one row at the time, because eventually the colours should line up. That approach worked well because I wasn’t feeling any pressure. I could undo rows as often as needed, and after many attempts, I finally had a head with a neck in the shape I desired and with perfect black and white badger stripes. I was so delighted!

Designing the body was easier because no short rows were needed there. I also made a drawing to scale, so I could lay the badger on top of it to check if the size and shape were good. Designing the paws was manageable, because I could use paws from other creatures have I designed and I only needed to adjust them. I also had the idea to make the feet extra special by adding ‘animal’ prints to them, and when I tried it out it looked amazing, very suitable it for this amigurumi badger.

When I was working on the pattern, I got a funny image in my mind of a knitting badger. I remembered this tiny knitted hat I have, added some toothpicks as knitting needles, took a picture, and posted it on Instagram. Every time I look at it I smile, and everyone totally loved it. So if you feel like it, you could make a knitting badger yourself! Here are some more pictures of Flunsie, and below them you can find more info about the pattern and links to buy it, so read on!

Info about & links to buy the pattern

I’m rating this crochet badger pattern as ‘advanced’ in my shops, but hope I made it so easy to work with that less experienced crocheters can make it, too. The short rows may sound difficult, but you just go back and forth sometimes instead of working into a continuous spiral. I added lots of instruction photos so you can see how to do the short rows.

This badger is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness. He’s 5.1 inch /13 cm high. The pattern contains a clear and colour-coded description of how to crochet and assemble the doll, with instruction images next to the text 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 badger amigurumi. 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 shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.

And heads up! This pattern has a one dollar release discount till Thursday, the 8th of October!

Patterns

Flisby, crochet kingfisher pattern

Sonja

This must be the most challenging pattern I’ve ever designed. I proudly present to you Flisby, the amigurumi kingfisher!

amigurumi kingfisher

Birds are slowly becoming part of the collection of crochet animal patterns I’ve designed. Because birds aren’t fluffy and cuddly, they somehow often miss my attention. Only the ones that are very dear to me make it into a crochet pattern. The kingfisher is an example of that. For the last few years I’ve been doing volunteer work as a fieldworker, basically I’m tracking animals so that the local wildlife organisations can map what lives where, to protect the animals and, for example, to create save passageways underneath roads, etc. I started in a badger team, but this year I expanded my work by collecting otter spraints (scat) for DNA analyses. That’s when I stumbled upon beaver tracks in an area they had not been seen before (it was fabulous, imagine how excited I was!). That of course led to a search for the beaver’s home, and that brings me back to the kingfisher. Practically every time I was following the beaver’s trail, which was an amazing adventure, I heard or saw a gorgeous kingfisher. They are birds of an exceptional beauty, and you always hear their cheerful shrieks before you see them flash by. I’ve been fortunate to see one sitting down a few times, and I was surprised by how small they actually are. Somehow I made them bigger in my mind because they are so beautiful.

So then came the challenge to create a crochet version. How was I going to mix realism and my doll-ish style in a little crochet bird? I started with designing the bill, which had to be as small and pointed as possible. If I got the bill right, I basically knew the size for the rest of the bird. I had in mind to make the kingfisher in one piece, so a seamless bill, head and body. But when I made the bill seamless, the shape was all wrong, way too flat. And when I finished the head with all the colour changes in the right place, I crocheted ahead to make the body, but I couldn’t get the shape right. So I started a new body, from the bottom up. When all the pieces where finished, I decided to keep it like this. I liked the seam between the head and body, the versions I had that were made in one piece looked stiff. My crochet animals must look playful, and for a bird that’s more difficult than a mammal. I think I managed to add a bit of doll-style in how I designed the feet and wings. Of course real birds have tiny feet, so I could have used a different material to create realistic feet, but I love the features of crochet, so I made the smallest possible, cute little bobble stitch feet. It gives Flisby the right personality, it makes him a Popke!

I could write so much more about this process, about how difficult it was to choose the right colours and the effort to create the perfect colour changes. All I’ll say is, I really love my little kingfisher. I love how the embroidered spots create that glowing shine of feathers, and I also love how this crochet kingfisher is about life-size when he’s made with the yarn I used, how about that! Here are some more pictures of Flisby, and below them you can find all the info you need about this pattern.

Info about & links to buy the pattern

This realistic crochet kingfisher is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness. He is 4.3 inch / 11 cm tall when made with this yarn. Despite the many colour changes for the head, this isn’t a very difficult pattern to crochet, as long as you follow the instructions to the letter and untangle your skeins after every round. The spots on the head and wings are easy enough to embroider because of the way they are placed. Assembling the animal and getting all the pieces in the right place will require some skill, but I guide you with the text and images in the pattern. As long as you take your time, you can make yourself a gorgeous little bird, I’m sure!

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. 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 kingfisher amigurumi. 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 shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.

This pattern has a one dollar release discount till Thursday the 21st of May!

Patterns

Woolfie, realistic crochet wolf pattern

Sonja

Never have I worked on a pattern for so long, and now I can finally show you Woolfie, my refreshing new crochet wolf pattern!

Realistic crochet wolf

Refreshing? Well, yes, I learned a few new techniques to make this wolf amigurumi. More about that later.

For quite a while I have wanted to make a fox that can sit but that has flexible limbs. Somehow it didn’t work out no matter what I tried, so at some point I gave up. But then came the news that a wolf had been seen in my country, and then another one and even more. Wolves have been extinct for a long time in my country, but these sightings meant that wolves were interested in living here. And then a female wolf settled in a rural part of the Netherlands and successfully raised three pups. Wolves have now officially returned! I think this is fabulous, and I hope it will work out. Of course I had to make a new wolf pattern now. I stepped back into the ‘drawing room’ and took another look at my fox sketches. It became clear that if I wanted to make a fabulous wolf, I would need to improve the technique I had tried to use for that fox. So I practised, making many sketches to visualise how everything should look. And then I started crocheting.

First I made the head. I figured that if I made a cute face, it would be difficult to quit and I would have to finish the rest. And it worked! After I made the head, I started trying out different body shapes. One thing was certain: the body and front paws needed to be seamless. Since I already had a long time to think about it after I stopped working on that fox, I soon found the right shape and size. Then the body needed colouring. I looked at many wolf pictures and decided that my wolf needed to have a light-coloured chest with a grey back. But when I finished the body like that, the front looked like a straight flat piece, very shapeless and not at all what I had in mind. I had to use my imagination to think of a solution that still looked realistic but added much more character. I grabbed my main sketch and started drawing again. After a few tries I found something I liked and worked it out in crochet, and it looked perfect.

But then I had a setback. When I started the body, I thought, ‘I’ll figure out the back paws later’. That wasn’t very smart of me. When I pinned the basic back paws I had made to the body, it looked all wrong. Now I had a complex-looking, seamless body with simple, silly-looking back paws. That weekend I had no idea how I was going to shape them. And then I looked at Boeloe the Koala and got an idea: what if I slimmed down the body and create paws like Boeloe’s, with a hip and a leg part? Would that create the flexible look I desired? Some quick math revealed that I only had to slim down the lower bit of the body to compensate for the bulk the hips would add. Because I didn’t want to end up regretting that I hadn’t made a seamless tail, I also worked out how to create a hole for that.

After all the effort and a pile of failed attempts, Woolfie now is sitting in front of me and he is so gorgeous! He looks more like an excited wolf pup than an adult wolf, but who cares about that? This is a win-win situation: I made a super-realistic new wolf pattern AND I learned a lot of new crochet skills. And the good thing for you is, the way these techniques are worked into the pattern doesn’t make it much more difficult to make, because you can just follow the instructions. I have figured out for you how to do these cool things the easy way!

Here are some more pictures of sweet Woolfie, and below them you can find all the info you need about this wolf amigurumi pattern.

Info about & links to buy the pattern

This realistic crochet wolf is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness. He is 6 inch / 15 cm sitting when made with this yarn. This isn’t a very difficult animal to crochet, even the seamless bits are quite easy to attach if you follow the instructions.

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 realistic wolf amigurumi. 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 shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.

This pattern has a one dollar release discount till Thursday the 16th of April!

Patterns

Boeloe, crochet koala bear pattern

Sonja

Many crafters are making koalas at the moment to give attention to this vulnerable animal that has suffered so much from the fires in Australia. I decided to join them and have designed a beautiful koala amigurumi pattern. This is Boeloe, a super-sweet and vulnerable-looking crochet koala.

realistic crochet koala bear

It really breaks my heart to read and see what has happened to animals in Australia. Not only koalas and other mammals but so many birds, reptiles and insects have suffered and died in the fires. It’s devastating! I really hope designers like myself can help rescue wildlife and restore habitats a little bit by designing patterns so people can make and sell the dolls to collect money to donate to Australian wildlife organisations. I will donate the earnings from the first six patterns I sell to Wires, an Australian wildlife rescue organisation. I know it is not a huge amount, but even small donations help.

When designing this animal, there were so many pictures of burned and suffering animals that it was hard to find example pictures. But I tried my best to create a cute and realistic-looking crochet koala. Very important to me was to capture its vulnerability, which was difficult. I figured that as long as I tried to make the face look as realistic as possible, it should work. When I posted a teaser picture on Instagram, someone commented “so sweet and vulnerable-looking.” I was really glad it showed! Despite all the devastating pictures, it was interesting to design this pattern. To me, koalas are kind of silly-looking animals, with their big heads and lack of tails. But they are incredibly cute and they have absolutely gorgeous, almost teddy-like fur. It was a fun challenge to design a pattern that matched that cuteness. I had thought about brushing the animal all over, but I decided not to. The texture of the Lopi yarn adds enough fuzziness, and I like it when you can clearly see that it is a crochet animal. Here are some more pictures of this adorable koala amigurumi and below them you can find info about and links to buy the pattern.

Info about & links to buy the pattern

Boeloe is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness. If you use the recommended yarn, your koala will be 4.7 inch / 12 cm sitting.

The pattern is written in US terms and contains a clear and colour-coded description of how to crochet and assemble the 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 vulnerable friend. 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 shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.

This pattern has a one dollar release discount till Thursday, the 19th of February. I hope many of you will make this pattern, just for yourself or to sell, so that together we can help Australian wildlife! If you like to see quick updates about my work, please follow my Instagram page.

Patterns

Crowly, crochet raven pattern

Sonja

I hereby present to you yet another dark and mysterious creature: meet Crowly the crochet raven, or crow, that’s up to you!

amigurumi crow

I’ve wanted to make a raven or crow for a long time, but until now I hadn’t gotten into it. Crows aren’t cuddly cute creatures, but they are very intelligent and compassionate. I’m fascinated by them, and I especially love ravens. For a few years now we’ve seen ravens in the areas we hike. Well, most of the time we just hear their ‘krok krok krok’ call.

Now why have I called my raven amigurumi ‘Crowly’? To be honest, I wasn’t sure wether to make a crow or a raven. I assumed crows would be more loved and popular than ravens, so when I first started I was thinking Crowly should be a crow. But because ravens are my personal favourite, I wasn’t sure what to choose. 

I think this pattern offers the option for the crafter to decide what it is. Ravens and crows both belong to the corvids (corvidea) species. There are differences between the animals, especially the size and the shape of the wings, but this pattern isn’t realistic enough to show them. The details I added for the wings will work perfectly for either a crochet crow or raven, or even a rook if you make the top of the beak black.

Here are some more pictures of this adorable crochet raven/ crow, and below them you can find info about and links to buy the pattern.

Info about & links to buy the pattern

Crowly is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness. If you use the recommended yarn, your bird will be 5 inch / 13 cm standing.

The pattern is written in US terms and contains a clear and colour-coded description of how to crochet and assemble the 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 cuddly corvid. 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 shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.

This pattern has a one dollar release discount till Thursday, the 25th of December, Christmas day! If you like to see quick updates about my work, please follow my Instagram page.

Patterns

Barnsby, crochet barn owl pattern

Sonja

I’m so excited to present you this pattern! Meet Barnsby, a super-realistic but too-cute-to-be-real crochet barn owl.

amigurumi owl

It has been such an interesting ride to design this owl amigurumi pattern. First of all, barn owls are wondrous-looking creatures with their flat dish-like-looking face. Basically, the face functions as a big ear. The flat disc catches sounds incredibly well, so that they can hear even the tiniest rustle of prey. The challenge for me was to create a flat face that would stay flat when attached to the head. Also, for this streamlined animal I wanted to make a design without too many bumps and attached bits. The owl had to be as seamless as possible.

And that was something new for me. This summer I’ve been experimenting with new techniques, and I had something in mind that could do the trick. I had never tried something like it before, but how hard could it be? I enthusiastically accepted the challenge. After a few silly-looking experiments, I learned how to use this technique properly. I’m not going to go into details, but attaching a body piece to an unfinished body and then crocheting ahead is a brilliant and super-easy way to get a seamless result. It won’t work for every animal or design, but it’s perfect for birds.

And the face! I got so many positive reactions about the owl’s face, so many people found it perfect. So very jolly you all liked it so much. The face is simply sewn to the head, and by pushing the stuffing to the back of the head and keeping the front practically empty, the face stays nice and flat.

I really hope the finished crochet owl meets your expectations! I can’t deny that I’m very proud of the looks and simplicity of this pattern. With this pattern I think even someone with basic skills can make this super-realistic-looking barn owl amigurumi.

Here are a few more pictures of Barnsby the barn owl, and below them you can find info about and links to buy the pattern.

Info about & links to buy the pattern

Barnsby the realistic barn owl is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness. If you use the recommended yarn, he will be 6 inch / 15 cm high. I would strongly recommend a fuzzy yarn, because it hides the seams of the colour changes.

The pattern is written in US terms and contains a clear and colour-coded description of how to crochet and assemble the crochet owl amigurumi, 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 wondrous owl. 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 shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.

Heads up: it has a one-dollar release discount till Thursday the 10th of October.

Patterns

Free crochet snail pattern

Sonja

Am I serious? Yes, I thought it would be fun to make a crochet snail, a little friend who can accompany the hedgehog in pictures. So why not make a free pattern as well. I know you all yearned for a crochet snail. Who doesn’t want to make a crochet snail?!

Crochet snail pattern

Before you start

This pattern is written in standard American crochet terms. It’s useful to read it before you start. If you use the recommended yarn, your snail will be 3 inch / 7 cm long. The yarn I’ve used is Istex Lètt lopi, a 100% wool. Use a stitch marker to mark the beginning of a round, move it up each time you start a new round.

Materials

For these snails you’ll need worsted weight yarn and an E US/3.5 mm crochet hook. You need 2 colours of yarn (left-over bits are enough): I’ve used light beige (0086) and acorn (0053) for the light snail and oatmeal (0085) and chocolate (0867) for the darker one. I’ve split a strand of the darkest colour to embroider a mouth. You will also need fibrefill to stuff the snail and a pipe-cleaner to bend the body is optional. Not really my style, but I painted the eyes, using acrylic paint. I couldn’t think of another way the create dark dots. (Needle felting could do the trick, but most people don’t have the tools for that.)

Accessories

Hook E US / 3.5 mm, scissors, embroidery needle, stitch markers or paper clips.

Abbreviations: ch = chain, sc = single crochet, st = stitch, sl st = slip stitch, hdc = half double crochet stitch, dc = double crochet stitch, s2tog = invisible decrease, dec = normal decrease.

Instructions

Shell

The whole shell (round 2 – 5) is worked in the backloops only, so the unworked frontloops form a visible spiral on the outside of the shell.

1. magic ring of 4 = 4

2. 2 sc in each around = 8

3. (sc in next, 2 sc in next) x 4 = 12

4. sc in each around = 12

5. (sc in next, dec) = 8, sl st in 1st backloop and leave yarn end for sewing.

 

Body

1. magic ring of 4 = 4

2. sc in each around = 4

3. (sc in next, 2 sc in next) x 2 = 6

4-9. sc in each around = 6

10. sc in next, s2tog, sc in next, 2 sc in next 2 = 7

11. sc in next, s2tog, sc in next 2, 2 sc in next, sc in next = 7

12. s2tog, sc in next 2, 2 sc in next, sc in next 2 = 7

13. repeat round 12 = 7

14. sc in next, 2 sc in next, sc in next, s2tog x 2 = 6, sl st and leave yarn end for sewing.

You can now insert a pipe cleaner if you like to use one. Sew the hole closed by putting the needle from the inside out through all the outside loops of the 6 st, clockwise. If  you do it correctly, you can now pull the end and it will close the gap. Weave in the end.

Make the eyes by attaching the yarn at the side of the head, between round 2 and 3. Ch 3 st, in 2nd ch from hook sl st and weave in the yarn ends as shown in the image. You can embroider the mouth between round 1 and 2.

Now stuff the shell and attach it to the body. Position the shell as shown in the image and sew between the frontloops of the last round so you don’t change the edge. I’ve sewn back and forth between the side of the snail. 

There, your not-so-slimy slimy new friend is finished! 

Stories

A barn owl pattern in progress

Sonja

Some of you know already I am working on a barn owl pattern. A while ago I posted a picture of the face I designed on Instagram and I’ve been busy working on the body. At the same time I’ve been working on other things and everything isn’t going as speedily as I had hoped for.

So here’s a little progress update. Last week I finished the barn owl’s body, thinking this would be the final version. But I am not completely satisfied just yet. I tried something new to attach the tail and wings seamlessly and it looks very neat, but new things take more time.

In the picture you see prototype 2. I want to use a lighter colour for the wings and back. Also, I don’t like how the spots on the belly are positioned, I tried to make them look random, but they’ve become quite geometrical on the right side (in this picture). And I think the chest needs to be a bit wider, the wings are too close to each other. I’m hoping to publish the barn owl pattern the first or second week of October and it looks like I am going to make that date!

I’ve also been working on a crazy little free pattern, a little creature many of us don’t like to have in high numbers in our gardens, but hedgehogs do. Yes, they will be cute! That pattern will be available here by the end of this week.

And what could it possibly be?

Flowers and bee amigurumi
Patterns

Free crochet bumblebee pattern

Sonja

I’m ever so excited to present to you this little gift pattern. Just look at these crochet bumblebee species!

bumblebee amigurumi

Last week I had a Spring holiday and suddenly got the idea of making a free crochet bumblebee pattern. The first bumblebee turned out so lovely that I decided to make more kinds of bumblebees. And when they where finished, I wanted to create a classic-looking image with the bees on a white background and their species name written next to them. In short, I had a lot of fun with my sweet little pattern and hope you will too! Bumblebees and insects are so important but their numbers are declining dramatically. Make these bees to show the world we must not forget about them! 🐝

Crochet bumblebees

Before you start

This pattern is written in standard American crochet terms. It’s useful to read it before you start. If you use the recommended yarn, your bumblebees will be 3 inch / 5 cm long. Because the size of the bee is dependent on the yarn you use and how tight you crochet, it’s useful to experiment with the eye size, despite my recommendations. I would strongly recommend a fuzzy yarn for the bumblebees. The yarn I’ve used is Istex Lètt lopi, a 100% wool. Use a stitch marker to mark the beginning of a round, move it up each time you start a new round. The colour changes are written after the description of the round, so read the whole line before you start. Always change colour in the last loop of a stitch, so the loop on the hook you end with is the new colour. That means the next stitch is in the new colour, not the one you changed in. At Son’s Popkes is a tips & tricks category. Here you can find useful info regarding my patterns.

Materials

For these bumblebees you’ll need worsted weight yarn and an E US/3.5 mm crochet hook. You’ll also need some lace weight yarn (Lopi Einband) for the wings: beige heather (0886). You need four colours of worsted weight yarn (left-over bits are enough): sheep or mixed black (0052 or 0005), yellow (1703), orange (1704) and light grey (0054). For the eyes I’ve used 7 mm animal eyes. You will also need fibrefill to stuff the bees.

Accessories

Hook E US / 3.5 mm, scissors, embroidery needle, stitch markers or paper clips.

Abbreviations: ch = chain, sc = single crochet, st = stitch, sl st = slip stitch, hdc = half double crochet stitch, dc = double crochet stitch, s2tog = invisible decrease.

 

White-tailed bumblebee (bombus terrestris)

Body

Bottom of bee

Start in black, change colour when indicated. To get neater colour changes, you aren’t working in a spiral but closing each round with a sl st. At the end of each round, sl st in the first sc of the next round, then ch 1 and sc in that same stitch. This is the 1st stitch of the next round. At the end of each round you will skip over the sl st and ch and crochet a sl st, ch, sc in the following stitch. Don’t cut the yarn  between the colour changes but carry it along.

1. magic ring of 4 = 4

2. (sc in next, 2 sc in next) x 2 = 6

Mark the stitches of round 3 in which you’ll make the 2nd and the 6th stitch with a coloured strand. (Insert the strand into the gap of the stitch you normally put your hook in.) When the strand is placed, just do the stitch like you always do. You’ve now marked where you later attach the eyes.

3. (sc in next 2, 2 sc in next) x 2 = 8, change colour to yellow in last st, sl st in 1st

4. ch 1, sc in same, [2 sc in next, (sc in next, 2 sc in next) x 3] in BLO = 12, change colour to black in last, sl st in 1st 

5. ch 1, sc in same, [sc in next 11] in BLO = 12, sl st in 1st

Attach the eyes permanently in the marked spots. It helps turning the piece inside-out when you attach the caps. After I attached the eyes, I inserted a little bit of stuffing between them, as shown in the images below. 

6. ch 1, sc in same, sc in next 11 = 12, change colour to yellow in last st, sl st in 1st 

7. ch 1, sc in same, [sc in next 11] in BLO = 12, change colour to black in last and cut yellow, sl st in 1st 

8. ch 1, sc in same, [sc in next 11] in BLO = 12, change colour to light grey in last and cut black, sl st in 1st 

9. ch 1, sc in same,  [sc in next 11] in BLO = 12, sl in 1st

10. ch 1, sc in same, s2tog, (sc in next, s2tog) x 3 = 8, sl st in 1st

Stuff the bumblebee.

11. ch 1, sc in same, sc in next, s2tog, sc in next 2, s2tog = 6, sl st in 1st

Add a little bit of stuffing if needed and then sew the hole closed by putting the needle from the inside out through all the outside loops of the 6 st, clockwise. If you do it correctly, you can now pull the end and it will close the gap. Make sure your bombus has a nice oval bottom.

 

Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius)

1-3. Follow the instructions for the white-tailed bee but skip the sl st and ch 1 and don’t change colour to yellow in round 3.

4. In BLO: (sc in next, 2 sc in next) x 4 = 12

5. sc in each around = 12

Attach the eyes in the marked spots.

6-7. sc in each around = 12

8. sc in each around = 12, change colour to orange in last and cut black, sl st in 1st

9. ch 1, sc in same, sc in next 11  = 12, sl st in 1st

10-11. follow the instructions for the white-tailed bumblebee.

 

Tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum)

1-3. Follow the instructions from the white-tailed bumblebee, change colour to orange instead of yellow.

4. ch 1, sc in same, [2 sc in next, (sc in next, 2 sc in next) x 3] in BLO = 12, sl st in 1st

5. ch 1, sc in same, sc in next 11 = 12, change colour to black in last st and cut orange, sl st in 1st

Attach the eyes in the marked spots.

6. ch 1, sc in same, [sc in next 11] in BLO = 12, sl st in 1st

7. ch 1, sc in same, sc in next 11 = 12, sl st in 1st

8. ch 1, sc in same, sc in next 11 = 12, change colour to light grey in last and cut black, sl st in 1st

9. ch 1, sc in same, [sc in next 11]  = 12, sl st in 1st

10-11. follow the instructions for the white-tailed bumblebee. 

Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum)

To make this bee, follow the instructions for the white-tailed, but make the bottom in orange instead of light grey. That’s all.

Wings

Make two for each bumblebee, use the thinner yarn with the same hook. If you use Lopi yarn but don’t have the Einband weight, split a lopi strand in half. Make the starting chain as long as the end, so you can use both ends together to attach the wings.

1. ch of 6, in 3rd ch from hook dc, dc in same, hdc in next, sc in next, sl st in next and leave yarn ends for sewing.

Use both yarn ends to sew the wings to the body. Sew them on top of the third round behind the head, as shown in the images. The head ends at the first round you do in BLO.

 

Wow, how cute is this? Have fun with your bumblebee collection. You now have the ability to make even more kinds! 

Copyright © 2019 by Sonja van der Wijk.

Chit and Chat

My favourites from you!

Sonja

Hi there, crafty people! It is a tradition of mine to post pictures of the dolls you’ve made with my patterns at the end of the year. I have to admit I have become a bit lazy typing blogposts, when there is such a handy medium called Instagram to give little updates. And it is Instagram I can use to easily find all your creations, as most of you use #sonspopkes when showing your work, how very pleasant for lazy me.

This year I’ve seen so many lovely dolls you’ve made with my patterns, and some of you even took the time to send me pictures of them, which I really love. Seeing what you have made gives me so much pleasure. Every doll is unique and has its own character, I really love that. They all have become personal dolls that radiate a bit of the maker.

Because I’ve seen so many pictures of your beautiful creations, I always have to make a selection. These are some of my favourites, but it was really hard to choose!

Some crafters bring the dolls with them on holiday and take the most amazing pictures, and others have a closet full of Popkes by now, what a joy! My editor Sandy always is the first to make a new animal, and sometimes she has to do it with a pattern that is still missing many images. She can completely surprise me with a beautiful finished animal, and the horse you see is made by her, with about half a pattern!

To sum things up, your work really brightens up my day and I totally love seeing it. Have a wonderful new year, sweet people, and embrace your inner Popke!