More hats...

I'm trying to blog everything I've created but neglected to post.
Today two hats...

A puppydog hat for a friend's son. Joshua is modeling it...

And a Minionhat for my crazy "little" brother. He actually wears this to work, he does electrics on new builds, which is really chilly during winter...

Love, Caroline

Last Queensday

On April 30th we celebrated our last Queensday. Next year it'll be Kingsday, which will be celebrated on a different date..
Kinda weird, since I've celebrated Queensdag since I was a little girl, actually: Since I was born...

Because of the coronation of our King, there were some extra festivities on the days prior.

Joshua's daycare invited all the kinds and parents/grandparents for a High-tea.

We decorated a pictureframe, had our picture taken and ate lots of sweets...
Joshua even played with the big boys...
I got lots of compliments on Joshua's crown, which I crocheted using this tutorial I found on Pinterest.

Tradition on Queensday are thriftmarkets. In Almere these start the evening before, so I went thriftshopping with Elisabeth and Rebekka. I only went for about an hour and a half, and haven't seen 3/4 of the market, but I scored BIGtime...!

Queensday itself was spent in Harderwijk, more thirifting, with my mom and cousin this time...

Love, Caroline

Owl Hat and something matching

Remember the Owl Hat I made for Joshua last winter?

Guess what? It still fits...

















Sorta...

Well, last winter I also promised someone I'd make a hat for her daughter to wear next winter.

I got a huge pile of clothes for Joshua, and the didn't want anything for it, just the hat.

I started on the hat, but then spring came, and summer. And I never finished the hat.
But when summer neared it's'end, the crocheting-itch started to come back and I picked up the owl project.
I felt kind of bad for taking so long, so I made a matching surprise.


I think the little lady looks very happy wearing this!

Thank you Mariella for letting me use this picture!

Love, Caroline

Ripple blanket

Last year I found a tutorial for a ripple blanket on Attic24... I was instantly in love and wanted to make an big blanket for Joshua, for when he get's a big-boy bed (that gives me PLENTY of time to finish it!)...

I started a test piece, which was really easy. I just started crocheting then, and it looked really hard, but really isn't....


















After the testpiece, I felt confident, I picked 4 colors (initially 5, but the brown took away the vibrancy of the other colors...) and started crocheting. I can't remember how many stitches I chained and I made a few mistakes ending rows, so counting won't be really helpful... But believe me, there are a LOT!
The blanket is about 1,5 meters wide.

Progress is slow, I haven't crocheted a single row half of the spring and all summer, but I've picked it up again when the days started getting shorter and colder...
It is getting large enough that I can drape it over my legs and feel all warm and cozy while I work on more rows...
I intend to make it about two meters long, so when Joshua is all grown up he can still snuggle up under it...

Currently working on ripple number 23

















Love, Caroline

Pattern Writing in Progress

I'm working on it, the toadstool pattern.


















With a grumpy, whiny, tantrum throwing toddler around me...

Teething sucks, big time...

This seems to do the trick though...


Love, Caroline

Crocheted Toadstools

I found these really cool Toadstools on Pinterest.
It's a pattern in Dutch, by GrietjeKarwietje and she has loads more Dutch patterns.

But since I tough myself how to crochet via English tutorials, I'm not familiar with Dutch crocheting terminology.

I had a bit of a hard time figuring out what to do, but when I got a hang of it, the toadstool was finished fast.
Only: It's lumpy and has bumps where I decreased stitches...
I also didn't like the fact that the underside of the hood is red, real toadstools have white(ish) undersides...




So I started another toadstool and made the base larger, crocheted the underside white and broader and finished he hood in red.


I'm happier with this one, but still: Lumps where the decreases are...

And since you crochet round after round, without joining a row with a slip stitch  there is an awkward "dent" (can't find the right English word) where the white ends en the red starts.

After watching a Dutch video on YouTube, I figured out why I got lumps (Here is the English version). I didn't do the decreases the right way. That's what you get when you think you know how to do a stitch, deducing it from another stitch, but never actually look it up...

So I'm making another one.... Using what I know from crocheting Joshua's Owl-hat and applying that to this pattern.
I'm also trying to write out the pattern (using English crocheting terms, if anyone wants Dutch, let me know!).

That's it for now, I'll keep you updated on my Toadstool adventure!

Love, Caroline

Spring Cleaning III & some Sewing

A small update on the office/guestroom.

I actually can see the floor again!
Threw a lot out, or put it in boxes. Where it belonged..!
And I have a little desk space, which is currently filled (again) with my sewing machine.

Finally got the sewing machine back to work, the thread kept breaking, but I fixed it... Yay me!

This is what I made.

Finally, no more searching for my crochet needles or a scissor.
Found the tutorial on Pinterest.

The flowerfabric is a scrap of Tilda I had left from the bedspread, the white is IKEA, also left over from the bedspread...

Love, Caroline

Owlbeanie with earflaps...

I found this really cool hat on Pinterest and was instantly in love...!
But cheap as I am, I didn't want to buy the pattern (I was also afraid I wouldn't understand one bit of it...). Since you can find just about anything on Google and Youtube, I began my search...

Pretty soon I found this Youtube-video, which shows step-by-step, how to crochet an owl-hat.
So I started...!

I found out it's actually pretty easy to crochet a beanie. Once you get the idea, you can make it any size you want!
Next the earflaps were up. I didn't like the earflaps in the video, they were to straight and "sharp-edged" for my liking.
I played around with some decreases until I liked the shape.

Joshua happily modeled his new hat for me... And for everybody on FaceBook and Twitter... LOL...

I crocheted a yellow edge around the hat and added the eyes.
I also didn't like the embroidered beak, so I crocheted a small heart, altered one or two stiches and voila, a crocheted beak...
Last, but not least, I added two big breads to the earflaps and some tassels on the top and Joshua's Owl-beanie was done...!

And by the looks of it, he really likes it...!

Love, Caroline

PS I started another one... Daddy wants one to match...!

Crochet Cowls

I haven't started on the messenger bag yet, but I'v finished my cowl and started on another one for hubby! They aren't crocheted round (I've triend it and I failed miserably), but they are sewn together when I'm done...

Joshua is modeling mine... :D He's getting so big already...!

I'm crocheting my ass off at the moment, to finish the small x-mas-gifts for my colleagues...

And I'm planning on doing a give-away of one or two of the beauties I'm making...

So stay tuned...

Love,

Caroline

Two Boys...

I'm still on leave and Wednesday isn't Rebekka's workday, so I went over there for a visit...

Sietse was in bed when I arrived and Joshua was asleep too, so we chatted and crocheted uninterrupted.
About half an hour before I went home, Sietse and Joshua both woke up.
I changed Joshua's daiper and Sietse watched from a distance.

When I was done, Joshua started mumble and whine a bit, so Sietse brought him all kinds of toys to comfort him. Wooden cars and some pencils. He even wanted to share his Pepernoten.

When all that didn't help, Sietse did this:

 

How cute is that!

I hope to finish my scarf this week, so I'll show you when it's done...

After that I'm starting on a blanket, but I'm note sure which combination of stitches I'll use...

I'm trying to decide between this one and this one...

Which would you pick?

Love, Caroline

Bedspread and crocheting...

Yesterday I wrote about the bedspread...
And here it is.
The wall and bed don't match with the quilt, even the slightest, but we plan on partially redecorating the bedroom... I just don't know when yet...

I'd love to paint the "wood" on the bed white and I want the wall behind the bed in one color. Would purple match with the quilt?

I also started crocheting. I did Mieks first lesson, but impatient as I am, I went online in search of more.. Youtube is a great medium...! ! ! This is what I'm working on.
When I'm done, I'm sewing the ends together and it'll be a scarf (cowl?)

First I wanted to make a blanket, but I didn't use enought stitches te start with. And I didn't want to take it apart and start again...

If you want to try this combination of stitches (it's really cute when you use multiple colors), watch this video! It's really good and repeats each step several times!



Well, that's it for today!

Love, Caroline

PS Leave me a comment?

Crocheting

This is something I've always wanted to learn (along with knitting).I've been planning on teaching myself via YouTubevideo's, but somehow I haven't found the time to actually do it...

On Rebekka's blog I saw a button which says "Haakles" (Crocheslessons). That spiked my interest, so I clicked.
The button links to Miekes blog, to a new section in which she'll post crocheting-lessons!
I'm reaaaaallly happy with that!

So tomorrow I'm going shopping for the supplies I need, and I'm going to follow Mieke's lessons!

I've scrolled through Mieke's blog (not really read it, but just looked at the pictures) and there's more cool stuff on there... It is in Dutch though, but Google-translater should help with that, if you can't read Dutch (I've seen that I have some readers from other countries than Holland :-D)

Love,

Caroline

PS: I love comments, don't be a stranger if you happen to read my ramblings...!