Halfway YoP, how about that?

Hi lovelies! Hope everyone had as great a Christmas as we did? Ours was filled with yummy food & drinks and a lot(!) of downtime. We've seen a lot of movies, from 'The Sound of Music' to 'The Purge' to 'The Lone Ranger'  to 'Terms of Endearment'. And we started watching the 'Once Upon a Time - series'. Needles to say, I was able to do some crocheting and knitting, though I have to mention my pace was very relaxed....

I finished the Snuggle Wrap and decided it needed a crocheted border, and then the border needed an edging.. You can see some mistakes in my knitting, which I can accept since this blanket will also be donated to the animal shelter. I'm just happy I have a bit more knitting experience.

 

Hope, Love and Joy

Hello you. Are you ready for Christmas? We still have some groceries to do tomorrow, but other than that we're good! It's nasty outside, grey and dark with cold winds and rain, so I have no intention of going outside today. A lovely day for knitting and crochet!

I just finished my 'Boxing with Basketweave blanket'. It turned out to be a bit smaller than I expected, but I love the neon pink edging and I'm happy I learned a new crochet stitch. I'll donate the blanket to the animal shelter here in Amsterdam, since they're always asking for blankets.

Ready, Set, Deliver! // Klaar, af!

 

As you might know, we (friend+me) have been making wee little hats for Innocent from mid November (Original post here). The time has now come to deliver all the hats we've made so Innocent can put the hats on the bottles and distribute the bottled hats to stores all over the Netherlands! But how many did the two of us make?

 

(drumroll please)

 

161 hats!

ghosts, sleepy hats, striped beanies, witches hats, octopussies & kiwi's..

 

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

Fiance and me are getting more and more into the Christmas spirit! Just yesterday I made these potholders for our kitchen because I thought our potholders should be Christmassy too!

(free pattern here)

Even though I had already made these potholders earlier this week. I'm funny like that..

Houndstooth Potholder Pattern

Happy FO Friday everybody! I found this lovely potholder pattern, but since it was a Swedish pattern I had to translate it with Google translate. With a little tweaking of my own, I think I'm pretty close.

 

More Christmas Card Inspiration

More pictures to inspire you for your DIY Christmas cards, which one is your favourite?

DIY Christmas Card Inspiration

A few ideas to inspire you to make your own Christmas cards (pictures only)
 

Bits and Bobs

Hello there! How are you today?

I'm a bit tired, but happy. We put our tree up yesterday. It's a big tree.. a BIG tree.. We decorated with white, glass (I mean see-through glass) and silver Christmas balls and ornaments so it's a very traditional tree.. We also have colored ornaments but I use those around the house. I still have some decorating to do, but our house already feels very Christmassy.. I just wanna stay in and enjoy it!

 

Last week I won Faith's give away and I received her package this weekend. Yay! Here's a picture of all the goodies, isn't it festive? I like it all, but I especially love the green Christmas fabric and the ribbons. And I love that Faith calls them 'Bits and Bobs'. Now to decide what to do with all the loveliness...

 

Crochet Christmas Trees, free patterns!

Tell me, which one of these is your favourite?
 

Christmas 'Popsicle' Ornaments by Annemarie

 

 

A trio of Christmas tree cones... by Petals to Picots

And the winner is...

And the winner of my give away is... Susan Dougill aka Crochet Addict UK! Yay!

I will be emailing you soon so I can send you your package asap!

Congratulations!

Putting it away!

I've always wanted to be a bit more organized than... I am. For example with jewelry. I have never ever in my life been able to put all my jewelry in one place, looking orderly.. It's Always in a big pile looking very chaotic. Or - and I don't really like to admit this - I'd just put it 'anywhere' since there wasn't really a designated place to put my jewelry to begin with. Well no more I said! So (with a little inspiration of Pinterest) I created:

1) An Earring organizer (inside right closet door)
using a large picture (collage) frame from the eurostore, 2 hooks and a bit of lace

Hear that? That's my YoP list growing...

I will not add to my list. I will not add to my list I will not.. Okay, I give up.

Maybe it's the cold weather that sparks my enthusiasm to crochet and knit, maybe it's something else but I added ten items to my YoP list! Ten!

It all started with the mits.. Christine from itsaknittingthing made these amazing mits from this iGor Mittens pattern and I just have to make them for fiance! So onto the list they went! But once the ball got rolling I figured, if I'm naughty I might as well be really naughty! ..I really have no idea whether I'm going to be able to complete my list, but let's see what happens!

Not much progress on my WIPs actually, the Bag-Away Blanket is coming along slowly..
 

 

Happy Apples & Colorful Ghosts

Happy FO Friday everyone! I'm still feeding my addiction on the little Innocent hats. Wanted to show you my happy apples, and my colorful ghosts! Oh and don't forget to enter my give away!

 

Fijne Vrijdag iedereen! Ik ben nog steeds verslaafd aan die kleine Innocent mutsjes. Wilde even de goedgemutste appeltjes, en kleurrijke spookjes laten zien! Oh en vergeet niet om mee te doen met mijn give away!

100 Ravelry Projects! Give Away!

I didn't even see it untill today! But I have 100 ravelry projects! 4 WIPs + 5 froggies + 7 hibernations + 84 FO's = 100 Ravelry projects! Yay!

Is that cause for a give away or what?! Since it's nearly December, I thought the give-away should be a little bit Christmassy, no? For a little bit of last-minute Christmas crafting? I like it to be a bit of a surprise, but here's a sneak-peek of a few items that will be in the give-away!

 

 

As I said, those are just a few items that are in the give away.. If you'd like to enter please leave your email in the comment! You don't have to be on Ravelry, and I don't mind where it's being posted to so don't worry about that!

Give-away closes on December 5th!

A new addiction?

Inspired by a friend that was talking about making a scrapbook for her boyfriend, I made my own first scrapbook! We had holiday pictures gathering dust in our house, and I remembered that I also saved al the memorabilia of that holiday.  Airplane tickets, actitivy vouchers, hotel invoices, dinner menu's and so on... So I bought a bit of fancy-paper at the eurostore and I started scrapping!
Here's a peak at my work-in-progress!

 

It's my first scrapbook, so be kind judging me please..

Hat-Mania! // Muts-Mania!!

These little Innocent hats....
1) they're fun to make
2) they're easy to make
3) you can use your imagination
4) they're quickly finished
5) they're fun to look at
6) they're for charity
7) they don't use much yarn

All in all, making these make me feel giddy and happy inside! My partner in crime and me already finished 60hats! Hat-maniaaaaa!!!

One charity at a time..

Happy Sunday all! How's life?

I sometimes have a problem of being overambitious... And this week that overambitiousness reared its head... I wanted to craft for three charity foundations all at the same time!

Typhoon Haiyan.
I had this idea and was really excited: selling handmade scarfs to friends and family and donating the profits to a charity foundation for the Philipines!

Knitten.
Knit or crochet a toy and donate them to the animal protection services. They'll sell them and use the profits to save, shelter and protect kittens.

De Goedgemutste Breicampagne.
Info here.

FO Friday!

Bonjour mes amis! I just completed Baby Koizumi and Mommy and I am really excited to share!

 

WIP Wednesday

Hello you! I have so many WIPs at the moment, I thought I'd write a WIP Wednesday post!

 

Since my last YoP post on Sunday, I've been working on the basketweave stitch - crochet and knit version.. I wanted to learn the basketweave stitch and see the difference between the knit and crochet version.. Crochet works up bigger and quicker than knit, but the crochet.version was also a lot more defined then the knit-version. I´m not sure whether it was the yarn or just my not-so-great knitting skills, but I kept frogging and casting on again! In the end I decided I wasn´t going to do this to myself another time so I´ve decided I´m trying again - at a later time - with bigger needles and thicker yarn. Meanwhile hears a pic of the crochet-version! It´s called ´Boxing with Basketweave´ (which I thought was funny. lol!)

I think I have the hang of it now, and I´ll make this project into a snuggle-blanket and donate it to the animal shelter.

Helping the Philipines

Quote from Knit York City blog: "It’s hard to help every time disaster strikes around the world but hearing about the enormity of the damage done in the Philippines is really shocking.  The knitting community is always one of the first to jump in and make a difference. Often times it means monetary donations but we love making things for those in need. That’s something that I really love – we’re givers."

Couldn't have said it better myself! However, we need to make sure we are doing what is best for the disaster area. The people in the Philippines need water and relief workers, and right now, the best way to get that help to them is to donate money to a relief organization. Crafters are an amazingly caring group of people. Please continue the tradition of caring by doing what’s best for the disaster-struck region. Here's a list of knit-inspired fundraising:

Mason-Dixon knitting will give you 3 of their blanket patterns for free if you donate $20.00 or more to Mercy Corps (until November 24)

Ricefield collective decided to donate 10% of all theirr sales to local relief organizations in the region.

P/Hop has several crochet and knitting patterns to download, and you can donate an amount (of your choice) which will be used by Doctors Without Borders.

If you know any other fundraisers that should be added to this list, please comment!

De Goedgemutste Breicampagne // The Innocent Smoothie "Big Knit"

For every knitter / crocheter who lives in the Netherlands and doesn't know yet! Innocent smoothies invites us to make little hats for their bottles!


As many as 24,000 older people die needlessly because of the cold every winter. Many others spend the time lonely and isolated, unable to heat their homes and struggling to get out and about.
So ten years ago we had an idea. We asked some older people, and some younger people, to knit little woolly hats. We put those hats on our smoothies, and for each one sold we made a donation to het Nationaal Ouderenfonds.
For each behatted smoothie bottle we sell, we give 20eurocent to het Nationaal Ouderenfonds to spend on things like hot water bottles, blankets, hot meals and social gatherings.

For more information, click here!

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Aan iedereen die haakt en/of breit en het nog niet weet: Innocent Smoothies nodigt ons uit om mutsjes te maken voor op hun flesjes!


In januari dragen al onze kleine flesjes zelfgebreide wollen mutsjes. Voor elke verkochte goedgemutste smoothie gaat er 20 cent naar het Nationaal Ouderenfonds, die er gezellige dingen voor eenzame ouderen van organiseert.
Doordat veel ouderen wat slechter ter been raken, komen ze minder buiten de deur en daarom is er de BoodschappenPlusBus. Die komt regelmatig voorrijden om met elkaar (en de NOF vrijwilligers) iets gezelligs te doen. Zo kom je nog eens iemand tegen en ben je lekker buiten de deur. Het Nationaal Ouderenfonds heeft een aantal bussen in Nederland en die zijn allemaal een reuze groot succes.  De rekensom is simpel. Hoe meer mutsen, hoe meer we het Nationaal Ouderenfonds kunnen steunen. Nu kunnen we zelf geen 125.000 mutsen breien, dus we hopen dat jullie ons een handje willen helpen. Brei één muts, of honderd (of iets daar tussenin) en we maken er samen een succes van.

Klik hier voor meer informatie!

Projects Galore

This week has been crazy busy. Next to wedding-planning with fiance, I had tons of 'dates' with friends to catch up because we didn't see eachother for a long time, and one dinner with my niece who I hadn't seen for 6years! We both already felt bad for not seeing eachother for so long, but to make matters worse she'd moved to Amsterdam 2years ago and we're living about 6blocks from eachother! Luckily we both made it to dinner this week and we had a great time, like we'd never been apart for so long! And we've already made plans for our next get-together, so no more 6year-break!

Now, on to YoP 'cause I've been busy crafting too! There's been an abundance of projects! First off, I finally finished my Christmas Present Beanies for my nephews and nieces! Yay!

Crochet Converse Slippers ~ Anybody know Finnish?

Lovely Converse Slippers, and it's a free crochet pattern! Translated by electronic translator and it needs improvment. Know finnish? Hop over to Handimania.

Easiest boot cuffs!

The easiest boot cuffs ever!

It's a Happy Sunday!

Happy Sunday Everybody! I just have to say I'm really happy I decided to join YoP again, even if I entered late. It's nice to keep up with everybody, and it really keeps me motivated to start (and finish, even more important!) projects! So thanks guys for stopping by and sending encouraging messages!

Speaking of finishing projects, I finally finished my Sweet and Sunny Cowl! I took a picture but it's kind of dark and blurry.. I'll take a new picture soon.

DIY Gift Bags

Hi All!

Since I've been putting together a Christmas package to send to my family overseas, I've been looking for creative and cute ideas to incorporate into the package! I wanted to make some goodie bags and found this awesome tutorial!

Using my own paper, I could easily add "Dutch" details to the Christmas package! Here are my goodie bags!

Gifts Gifts Gifts

How's everybody?! Are you also 'enjoying' the fall weather? We (Amsterdam) have experienced a heavy storm with huge trees falling into parked cars and it even got a woman killed when a tree fell on her! Luckily, the weather's been behaving itself since then..

I got a bit delayed this week writing this post since fiance and I were so busy. We had a lot of family and friends coming over and I was especially busy with presents and gifts this week. First, I had arranged a 'high tea' for my friends at my house, and gifted them the Schnuggle packets I made for them. And, since one of my friends just had a newborn baby girl, I also made some cute headbands last minute:

 

Little Miss Impulse

Hey everybody! Hope you're having a great weekend! I'm not really sure what happened this week, but somehow, since last week, I made:

Toys for Nala:

Schnuggle packets and Cozy wraps experiments

The moment I made my first Rice Pillow, I immediately thought of making more of them as gifts for the holidays. I began experimenting with various sizes as well as researching for the best yarns and fillings. Here's what I found:

Completely in love

Hi everybody! I am so completely in love! I'm in love with my furry baby (kitten)! She's been with us a few days and her name is Nala. I'll be honest I'm very obsessed with her cuteness at the moment, but I promised myself I wouldn't go bananas with pictures of her today.. So here is one picture of her. And if you're also a furry-baby-lover then here are some more pictures of her..

 

Getting My Green On > Growing Lemon Seeds

Unfortunately, I wasn't born with green fingers/a green thumb. I'm grateful if plants in my house last over a year. I really try to care for them, but somehow I just can't keep them alive for much longer! As for my balcony, I usually buy the one-year bloomers because I know other plants won't last..
But I've decided I want to change that.. I only have a balcony at the moment, but hopefully one day I'll have my own garden. And by then, hopefully I'll be GREAT at gardening! And as they say: "practice makes perfect".

So when I found this photo tutorial on Pinterest, I decided to give it a try.

My first 3rd Year of Projects post!

Happy Sunday everyone! I´ve summoned up the courage to start and join mid-year in Year Of Projects! And this is my first post this year! Hurray! ...in my enthusiasm I started multiple projects of my list! So of course I have a lot of WIPS to show!

The projects I started:

Rice Hot Pack: So far very easy and fun to make, and quick to work up! I think I'll make a bunch of these as Christmas presents for my family in Canada (where the temperature can drop to -20°C during the day in winter, and even -40°C at night, yikes!) since they can be heated up in the microwave! free pattern here!

Another Year of Projects!

I'm going to have another try at the Year Of Projects!

The goal is to pick a number of patterns that you'd like to crochet during this period and try to do it!  It's supposed to be fun and help you get support from others withing the blog-along-group at Ravelry!

This Year Of Projects started 1st July 2013 and runs to 30th June 2014!  Exciting!

As Always... I'm a bit late joining, only 9months of YoP to go! But the main focus for me is having fun and being connected with people who love to crochet and knit!

You can find my list here! Can't wait to write my first YoP post!

A Star is born!

My lovely friend had a daughter! YAY! I was invited to see her and her daugher and I wanted to give her something special and handmade. I never had made something for a baby before, so I was kind of nervous!

I ended up using these patterns:
Baby boots (ravelry)
Baby hat

And this is what I ended up with!

 

And since I also wanted to make something for the mommy, I ended up making up a beanie for her, then improvised a smaller version for her daughter so they would have matching hats!

 

(grownup beanie pattern here)

 

Mommy was so happy with the gifts, she literally screamed with joy for a few minutes when she unwrapped the matching hats.. Isn’t that the best reaction you can get to a gift? :)

Catnip Ball and it's friend!

My friend has some adorable cats! I decided to make some catnip toys for her.. I had never made anything like it, so it was kind of an experiment! I just took my crochet hooks, used this pattern and when stuffing it I put some catnip (which I stole from her!) inside as well!



I made several sizes since, and gave the toys to her.

She then sent me this video of how one of her furry babies reacted to it!

I get so happy looking at him! It makes me want to make a catnip toy for all kitties I know! Have you ever made catnip toys? What pattern is your favourite?