Tag: crochet animals

Chit and Chat

Summer Popkes

Sonja

amigurumi crochet patterns

The Popkes and I risked a heath stroke this afternoon, doing a photoshoot outside whilst it was 35 degrees celsius! Admitting, it was probably just me getting a bit over heated, they seemed to rather enjoy themselves really.

What a thrill, my summer holiday has almost started! Just relaxing, watching wildlife and doing long forest strolls are the things I am looking forward to so much.

I had to postpone the puffin pattern a bit, but not to worry. I think during all the relaxing and wildlife watching, I probably cannot stop myself from working on it every now and then. The puffin pattern will be the first pattern to be released.

I hope everybody is enjoying themselves as much as my crochet animals in the picture above. I wish all of you a lovely summer, cheers and see you soon!

Stories

A little dilemma I had

Sonja

This time I’ll be making a rather whimsical animal. One of my favourite animal species are mustelids. The adorable polecat I’m going to crochet belongs to that family, together with badgers, otters, weasels and many more of these musky smelling creatures. Now polecats live in Europe, Asia and Russia but not in America. However, most of you Americans do know this animal as a pet . . . . the ferret that is. Yes, the polecat is the wild ancestor of the ferret.

Bunsie-clean2But what is with the dilemma?

When I thought about making this animal, I had a doll in mind that was standing on four paws, something new and different. But while working on the sketch and some shaping test, I discovered this was not the nufty tufty creature I had in mind. It looked much too serious and not at all whimsical. I am not the type of person to give up easily, but this just was not my style.

In my notebook there where a bunch of unfinished sketches, just some silly looking polecat faces staring at me without bodies. For the fun of it, I drew a body underneath one of them, standing curiously on the back legs.

And there he was! A silly polecat that gives you a smile on your face when you look at it.

 

Patterns

Son’s Popkes pattern pack

Sonja

The Son’s Popkes pattern pack is a permanent offer that allows you to buy any three patterns and get a fourth pattern for free.

It works like this: buy three patterns at once in my shop at Ravelry or LoveCrochet and send me a message to let me know which pattern you would like to have as the fourth. I’ll always email you the fourth free pattern within 12 hours.

In my Etsy shop you can simply purchase the pattern pack listing and let me know there which four patterns you want. You can also purchase the pattern pack by ordering the patterns directly from me here.

Happy crocheting! Feel free to leave a comment here to let others know how your order went.

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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.

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Sheep along!

Sonja

crochet sheep, gehaakt sheep

Recently I started my Son’s Popkes crochet animals group at Ravelry. It is a group for everyone who enjoys making my patterns. When you join the group, you can get pattern support from me and each other, show your finished animals, participate in crochet alongs, meet interesting new people and much more.

For starters, I have organized a first crochet along, the sheep along. It is a little tribute to sheep, the providers of our most used and beloved material. It is a CAL to get to know the hows and whos.

After the sheep along, there will be a longer crochet along, the autumn along, where you can choose from multiple patterns.

Do you feel like crocheting animals in a nice group of people, getting some extra help and more? Please come and join my group at Ravely and crochet along!

 

Stories

The long longed project

Sonja

SketchThis animal is one of the first I wanted to make when I started designing crochet animal patterns. Somehow it got postponed again and again, for animals I thought should have priority.

But now I’m finally going to make him, one of our cutest looking, but not always loved animals, the beautiful raccoon. I do love raccoons and cannot blame them for their bad image. We took away their natural habitat and they had to cope with that.

Every time I’m starting a new project I’m worried I won’t succeed in getting the result I desire. I really hope I’ll get the raccoon’s head right….that is the hardest part. I have three beautiful warm colours of Lopi yarn lie ready, so I’m not worried about that. Let’s start and see.

There will be a new pattern here soon!

 

Stories

Popkes by you, Happy New Year!

Sonja

The new year has begun and I want to start it here at Son’s Popkes with a fun and inspiring post, dedicated to all of you who enjoyed and made my patterns. I proudly present a gallery full of pictures of the beautiful animals you all made. This post was a lot of fun to make and I did feel proud myself when I looked at all these lovely dolls. Cheers to your work!

When you click on the picture you can see who made the doll and find their site or blog if they have one. These dolls are made with my patterns, but each and every one of them has its own character. They all have a uniqueness to them, added by the person who made the doll. Something extra and personal which I really love seeing.

I also would like to give a bit of extra attention to Joanne from the United Kingdom, who bought all my patterns and made these lovely versions of them. Look at this, what an awesome bunch!

Joanne

With this post I want to thank you for your support! There will be lots of new patterns this upcoming year and I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as you’ve enjoyed these patterns. I wish you a fabulous and crafty 2014!

 

Stories

I’m all badger’y

Sonja

Yes, I can honestly say badgers are my ultimate favorite animals. For me it’s hard to choose one, because I’m fond of so many animals like squirrels, hedgehogs, ducks, foxes, sparrows, starlings, many rodents…..I just love animals.

But badgers are ultimate beauties. Their shape and colour, their playful character and little voices. There’s just so much to love about them. Unfortunately there is one downside about these fluff balls, they’re one of the toughest animals to crochet, all thanks to their beautiful striped head. But let’s forget about that for now, I’ll explain all about that and my plans on how to get it right in my next post. Yep, my next project will be a crochet badger pattern. I was going to make an adventurer badger first, but I just can’t wait to make a ‘normal’ badger doll.

Let’s now enjoy badger cuteness with a few pic’s I found online.

Wheeeeee!!!!!

931588

Badger from The Burrowers

These are both baby badgers. The second picture is from one of the badgers from the BBC program, The Burrowers.

For my smartphone I needed a new fabric case, so I made one with a badger. And….I recently discovered ‘Badger Balm’, how cool is that! It’s an American brand so American badgers, but they’re lovely too. The balms are completely organic and mostly of beeswax and olive oil. I adore the tins and the balms smell delicious.

BadgerB

And here’s something nice to close this post with, a badger painting I made years ago. Badger Castle.

badger illustration

Enjoy and I promise, this week I’ll post a first sketch of my crochet badger and I’ll explain all about the colour changes for this pattern and my vision about it.