crochet animal patterns

A lot of Popkes

December 8, 2015December 8, 2015 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.

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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.

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!

Stories

Autumn Popkes

October 15, 2015October 15, 2015 Sonja

Most of you probably know by now Autumn is my most favourite season by far. I enjoy strolling through the forest beneath those magnificent threatening skies, while listening to the rustling of the beautiful coloured leaves that soon will fall and breathing in the scent of moist and mushrooms. It is the season I engage in with every sense of my body.

Last year, to celebrate, I made a Son’s Popkes artwork set in Autumn and this year I fantasized about a special picture like the one I made for Summer.

Yesterday I finally had the change to go to a park nearby and collect leaves in all my favourite colours. While gathering some chestnuts, I felt if someone was watching me, but I didn’t see anybody. But later, when I looked up into the trees to see if there were fresh chestnuts still there, I saw this gorgeous big crow sitting right above me on a branch, curiously looking at me. ‘Ah’, I said to him, ‘I thought I felt somebody watching me, it was you!’

Back home I arranged the leaves I collected and took the picture. Enjoy Autumn everybody, it is over before you know it.

The pattern I am currently working on is of an owl. It took me a while to create a sweet looking face (the first heads I came up with looked rather unpleasant and mean) and that is why I wasn’t able to post a sketch already. To be continued….

Uncategorized

A fragile one

August 24, 2015 Sonja

Recently I’ve started working on a new crochet animal pattern. The animal I am making this time, is a rather robust one, but sadly at the same time so very fragile too. It is the rhinoceros I am speaking of. And we all know why they are so fragile. It is abominable how people treat animals.

Before I decided to make the puffin I was going to make the rhino. So, I have already figured out how he should look. If I can manage to make him like the sketch in this post, he will be a very sturdy rhino doll.

This will be the first Son’s Popkes pattern of a not so hairy animal. But as we all like cuddly, fuzzy crochet dolls, he will be made with Lett Lopi.

Happy crocheting everyone!

Patterns

Plubby, crochet puffin pattern

July 27, 2015February 25, 2020 Sonja

With utter joy, I proudly present my crochet puffin pattern! Meet Plubby, a proud and happy fluffy crochet puffin.

When I saw a puffin while being on holiday to the UK, I immediately knew I had to make a crochet pattern of this spectacular bird. I had thought of it before, but never actually got to making one.

It was quite a journey, making this pattern. Mainly because I got ill and it took me a long time to recover from it. But now when this pattern is finished, I am ever so thrilled with the result.

The head was a joy to design. Finding the correct circled shape for the white parts was a bit tricky but very rewarding when it was finished and looking good. With the bill attached, I had a very striking puffin head. And blimey, it was even shown in BBC’s Springwatch Unsprung, what it thrill that was! But then for the rest of the puffin….

Halfway through, I got stuck a bit, because I had no idea how to make the wings. What I had in mind looked way too bulky and more realistic flat wings I considered not an option. I took a break and went on designing some other parts of the doll. The tail was such a pleasure to design. At first, I had in mind to make the tail in two pieces, but when trying it, it looked rather silly. Suddenly I had this idea of a one piece tail. I made a test version and it worked perfectly. The white bottom combined with a part of the tail sewed flat, created the perfect looking ‘feathered’ flap. What a few tiny stitches can accomplish!

When I pinned the puffin together, I realized I had to make simple, arm like wings, just like my other Popkes have, but a bit more wing like. That was the perfect finishing touch for the puffin. Plubby had come to life!

Here are some more shots of my dear Plubby. Below it you can find more info about this crochet puffin pattern.

Plubby is sitting 5,1 inch / 13 cm. He is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool yarn. I’ve used five colours to make Plubby, from which three are basic. Black, white and orange. For the grey and yellow colours of the bill, you only need just a bit. Like all my patterns that contain colour changes, the complicated rounds in which you need to de- and increase are written in stitch colour to make changing colour as easy as it can get. I would strongly advice the use of a fuzzy yarn, as it leaves much neater colour changes.

The pattern for this cheerful puffin, 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 puffin 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 crochet puffin!

And heads up, the pattern has a one dollar release discount till the 3rd of August!

Patterns

Koji, crochet tiger pattern

April 6, 2015February 25, 2020 Sonja

My glorious crochet tiger pattern is finished. Meet Koji!

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.

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.

Patterns, Stories

It is spring!

March 20, 2015March 21, 2015 Sonja

And I am celebrating it with two special spring & Easter offers. Aren’t they the cutest crochet animal couples!

These pictures I specially made for my spring and Easter offers. Both packs contain the patterns for the two animals in the picture and the pattern for the Easter eggs and basket is included in the rabbit pattern. You can find the packs in my shop. Unfortunately I couldn’t offer them in my Ravelry shop, as they rejected the listings. You can of course order them directly from me also. Let me know which pack you would like to purchase and I’ll send you a Paypal request. The packs cost $9,98 and they are available till good Friday.

It always is a delight to photograph my crochet animals. I prefer to use daylight and I do, but it can be a bit dark in my home studio. I do my very best to capture both the light and the animals at their best. I love dramatic shadows, but for these photographs there has to be a good balance.

*pattern update* My tiger pattern is coming along very well and I’m looking forward to share some first glimpses of the head.

Enjoy spring!

Art, Chit and Chat

Kiekeboe

March 16, 2015March 17, 2015 Sonja

Back, when I was in the holiday cottage, I tried to take some interesting pictures of Bunsie. I thought the result was not very exciting, but when looking through the pictures yesterday, this one caught my eye. Recurring visitors might recognize this bush as the bush in the drawing of the actual event. This is the bush the polecat ran past and I felt like sharing it.

Also, I wanted to give you a heads up about my upcoming pattern. A crochet tiger pattern. Some of you might think, ‘but that one wasn’t on your list’ and you are right dear reader. A while ago I joked to myself that if a certain person would see a tiger on his trip to India, I would make a crochet version. Later on I found it a rather silly idea, as tigers are more than just complicated to make in crochet. But the longer I thought about it and looked at pictures of this gorgeous animal, I decided it was not such a bad idea at all, and he did see a tiger. I definitely wanted to make a tiger, and a very good one! Now let’s hope I can succeed…

Patterns

Bunsie, crochet ferret aka polecat pattern

March 4, 2015February 25, 2020 Sonja

This time I have made a rather special creature. Meet Bunsie, my crochet ferret or polecat pattern. In Europe and Asia we know this animal as well as a wild animal, the polecat, as the pet version you Americans know too, the ferret. Polecats are the wild ancestors of ferrets. The English name ‘polecat’ is based on the French ‘poule chat’ which means chicken cat. I think we all can imagine why that name is chosen for this sneaky little critter.

Especially ferrets come in all kinds of colours. For Bunsie, I decided to use the dark colours of a polecat youngster. The most common colour in both polecats and ferrets is a white muzzle, dark brown line between the muzzle and eyes, a white line above the eyes and ears and a lighter brown for the rest of the head and the middle part of the body. I have tried several colours but absolutely loved these. The witty thing is, you can choose any colour you like, as I have created the right spots for them to go in.

It took me a while to design this animal, because the colour schemes were fairly complicated to make in crochet. I wanted everything to look perfect and at the same time, this crochet animal pattern had to be easy to make for all of you.

Here is another picture of Bunsie the ferret amigurumi, and below it you can find info about, and links to the pattern.

This crochet ferret is 5,7 inch / 14,5 cm tall. Bunsie is made with three colours of lett lopi, a 100% wool. The pattern for the head is written in stitch colour, so it is a piece of cake to make a perfect ferret yourself.

The pattern for this whimsical 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 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 special creature.

And heads up, the pattern has a one dollar release discount till March the 11th.

Art, Chit and Chat

In the field

January 30, 2015 Sonja

We are having this terribly dreadful winter, it rains, rains and rains, but the weekend after I had finished Lumi, some snow did fall. I gladly took that opportunity to make some nice pictures.

Enjoy your winter! I hope mine will get colder!

Note: I am already working on a new project, something a bit different and will tell more about that next week.

Patterns

Tuffs, crochet lynx pattern

November 25, 2014February 25, 2020 Sonja

The design proces of this crochet lynx went all so jolly well. It started when I was working on the head. How to get a fairly realistic cat face the first dilemma was. With a bit of experimenting and an extra nose patch, the cat face was there and pretty catty it looked. Even the ears had to be special, as lynxes have a rather particular white spot at the back of their ears. It took me quite some time to make this pretty face, but I was very happy with the result.

As for the body, it should not become too fat or skinny, nor too high or short, so a bunch of bodies were made and there was the right size. Then came the claws. How could I possibly make those very typical cat toes? I remembered a doll I made long ago with very special feet and decided feet like that could do the trick and they very well did. As last I made a tail, no two, the first one wasn’t right. I brushed some pieces of the cat and carefully sewed my Tuffs together. There he was, my dear and tufted, crochet lynx. I’m afraid this story makes it sound a bit more easy than it actually was, but this was a very fun proces with more ups than downs.

Here are more pictures and below it you can find info and the links to this crochet lynx pattern.

Info about Tuffs, the crochet lynx pattern.

Tuffs is made with a 100% wool and he is sitting 5,5 inch/ 14 cm. Crocheting this lynx isn’t at all that difficult. The special stitches for the toes are so clearly written, even my boyfriend could make them. The pattern for this tufty crochet lynx 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 also find what materials you need, the Lopi colour numbers, in short, everything you need to know to make this unique crochet animal.

And heads up, the pattern has a one dollar release discount till December the 2nd.