Update

 

 

The Sea Colours Blanket is progressing nicely - it's about two thirds done now.

 

 

I ran out of yarn, so ordered more. Isn't that just a gorgeous sight, a basket full of yarn?

At Easter, we visited our friends at their new home in the Blue Mountains. I had brought the Lotus and Blossom Mandala I made for them, a hoop and tape, and on the first morning after we arrived I taped the hoop and stretched the mandala in the hoop, and they hung it on the wall straight away!

 

 

Doesn't it look great up there? 

 I might make another mandala once the Sea Colours Blanket is done - I just love how they look and I really enjoyed crocheting it!

 

 

We had a lovely time in the Blue Mountains. We spent one night at the gorgeous Carrington Hotel:

 

 

And we explored Katoomba, which is full of art deco buildings and has lots of street art - my kind of place!

 

 

More photos on my photo blog!

Lotus and Blossom Mandala 2

 

 

Yesterday I finished my second Lotus and Blossom Mandala (I showed the first one here). It's a housewarming gift for friends who have just bought a house in the Blue Mountains - we are going to visit them during the Easter holidays. I have ordered a hoop to stretch the mandala in, but will do that once we are there; I don't think it would look very good after two days in the car!

 

 

 

My friend chose the Whirl for this mandala, it's called Tasty Nom Nom.

 

 

I very much enjoyed crocheting this mandala (while listening to audio books) - as I said before, it looks complicated, but isn't very difficult, and the second time was easier than the first of course. It only took me 17 days to finish it. I wouldn't mind making another one!

SIL

 

 

Last year, when I had made an amiguruME doll of my BFF, my sister-in-law asked if I could make one of her. Of course!

 

 

She is a role play actor and asked me to make a doll of a specific character that she often plays: a cleaning lady. You can hire her to come to your conference or business event and she will appear at the end to summarise the day's events in a humouristic manner. So clever! You can read more about it on her website Lach op de Dag (in Dutch, obviously).

 

 

It took me a long time to finish this doll, but here she is! The eighth amiguruME doll I have made - you can see them all if you search for the amiguruME tag on this blog.

Progress

 

 

My Sea Colours blanket is progressing nicely - about one quarter is done now. I'm really enjoying crocheting it.

 

 

I ran out of white yarn recently and had to order more from Bendigo Woollen Mills. While waiting for that order, I started another project: a flamingo! My youngest son had asked me to make one for him.

 

 

The pattern is from the book Crocheted Wild Animals by Vanessa Mooncie. In 2019 I made an owl for my middle son from that same book.

 

 

I like having more than one project on the go, as when you get tired of one, you can work on the other for a bit. I'm about to start on a third project as well, a housewarming present for a friend. Just waiting for the yarn to arrive... Stay tuned!

New project

 

 

Last year I made a Bertie Baby Blanket as a present for friends who had their first baby (here is the pattern on Ravelry and here is my blanket). I really enjoyed making it - the pattern is simple enough to crochet while watching tv or listening to an audiobook, but not boring, and it looks so good! - so decided to make a large one for myself, in sea colours of course!

 

 

It's about 130cm wide and I'm planning for it to be 2m long. It should be finished when winter starts here in the Southern Hemisphere :-)

 

 

I got 10 balls of Scheepjes Softfun in sea colours. It's a lovely soft yarn, a pleasure to crochet with. The white yarn is cotton 8ply from Bendigo Woollen Mills, another favourite.

It will be my second Sea Colours Blanket - I made the first one in 2017, when I had just learned to crochet!

Sea creatures

 

 

We've painted the walls in our new house aqua. When it was still empty it looked like a big aquarium and I said I'd make some sea creatures to decorate it.

 

 

And so I did! I bought the book Crocheted Sea Creatures by Vanessa Mooncie and so far I have made a starfish and an octopus. I also want to make a sea urchin, and maybe a nautilus and a puffer fish...

 

 

The creatures look very good in our aquarium living room, don't you think? ;-)

The last post of the year

 

 

2020 is almost over, and like everyone else I am glad to see the end of this year. Although the Covid situation here in Queensland, Australia, isn't nearly as bad as in many other places around the world, the pandemic has still had a large impact on our lives. The worst thing for me personally was that I couldn't travel to the Netherlands when a loved one got sick and died back in July.

Crochet, along with reading and running, has been a good way for me to deal with everything 2020 threw at me. I finished 12 projects this year - big ones, like my Up North Cardigan and the Lotus & Blossom Mandala, and small ones like the four colourful dishcloths (the fourth one was finished yesterday!):

 

 

I didn't do any sewing, quilting or knitting in 2020. I did discover a new craft: embroidery. I made two pieces and I really like both of them, but I don't think I'll be making any more anytime soon.

 

 

 

The best thing for us in 2020 was that after almost 14 years in Australia we finally bought our own house!

 

We moved in a month ago and are very much enjoying making it ours. The mandala has found a spot in the living room:

 

 

While unpacking boxes I came across this quilt that I made many years ago. I put it up on the wall over the dining table - everyone loves it!

 

 

Wooyung, Thinking of Holland and My Calendar are in the hallway:

 

 

Cycle of Life is also in the living room:

 

 

And my whole amigurumi family is on display on top of the bookcase!

 

 

There are some other quilts that still need to be put up on the walls, and of course it's too hot at the moment to have quilts on the beds.

Meanwhile some new balls of yarn have arrived for my next crochet project...

 

 

 

I hope you will visit this blog again in 2021 to find out what I am going to make with these!

Having said that, thanks for visiting this year, I appreciate it. And I would like to wish all my readers a happy, creative, and especially healthy 2021 - here's hoping that life will become a bit more normal soon.

Lotus & Blossom Mandala

Yesterday I finished this project - it's the Lotus & Blossom Mandala, designed by Mark Rooseboom. I used a Scheepjes Whirl in the Blackberry Mint Chip colourway to make it. I very much enjoyed making it - it looks complicated but really isn't very difficult, and the pattern is well written. I had a lot of time to crochet after I rolled my ankle on a trail run a few weeks ago and had to put my foot up for a few days...

Small projects

It's been almost two months since I last posted here! I haven't been very creative in that time (I have been reading a lot though, and also keeping up with my running) - I'm still trying to decide what to embroider next, but decided in the meantime to do some small crochet projects. The pumpkin was a free pattern found here, a quick and easy make.

I also made another dishcloth. I have three now (and have started a fourth one), and really like them. I've used the other two since the start of the year and they hold up very well. I'm planning to make a few more and replace all my store-bought dishcloths with these handmade ones.

Using things you have made yourself in daily life is just such a satisfying feeling!

Kombi Van in a hoop

Here's my second embroidery project! Regular readers of this blog won't be surprised that it's a Kombi Van (in my favourite colour), as I am very fond of Kombi Vans and have made quite a few other items inspired by them - most notably the Kombi Van Sewing Machine Cover that I designed for Down Under Quilts in 2014.



To make this piece I used a photo I took in 2016, which is part of my Shutterstock portfolio:



I'm very happy with how it turned out, and can't wait to start on my next embroidery project. I'm not sure what it will be yet - I have so many ideas!

Mondrian's Lone Star in a hoop

It's finished! My first embroidery project, Mondrian's Lone Star 3 (you can see no.1 here and no. 2 here).

There's definitely room for improvement, but I'm still very happy with it. 

It's hanging on the bookcase in our bedroom. I love looking at it!

Here it is together with its big brother; Mondrian's Lone Star 2:

I have lots of ideas for more embroidery projects and can't wait to start on the next one. But there's also a crochet project that I need to finish.. Stay tuned!