Exciting news!

Hello, you lovely people, long time no see – I sincerely hope you’re all doing well!

I can’t believe it’s been three whole months since I last wrote a blog post; I’ve honestly missed blogging, and it sure feels great to be back here.
It must not have gone unnoticed that my summer break turned out to be a rather lengthy one. The funny thing is, it was all but a “break”: I honestly don’t think I’ve ever crocheted as much as I did in these past months.

You see…… I’ve been asked to write a crochet book, and that’s all that has been on my mind and desk this summer!
Late May I was contacted by a publisher whether I’d be interested to make a crochet book with them. Needing hardly any time to think about the fab opportunity they offered, soon enough I was on my way designing and crocheting to my heart’s content, all projects for my own book. A book that will have an isbn connected to my name: wow, how awesome is that?
The book will have a nice mix of projects for the home, as well as pretties to wear, and will be released internationally (in English) next Spring.
Almost all designs are ready: crocheted, their patterns written, charts drawn, and photos taken. Right now it’s all about testing, re-testing, crocheting projects in different colors and yarn, in short: adding the ever so important finishing touches.
Even though I’m close to the finish line, I still need to pinch myself regularly to realize, that, yes, it’s true: next Spring will see the publication of my very first crochet book!
All kinds of exciting, really!

This – of course – is the main reason why I’ve been extremely silent here and on other social media, and I’m delighted I can finally share my happy news with you.
Unfortunately I still can’t show a whole lot – a sneak peek here and there will be all, I’m afraid. But at least there’s an explanation for my absence (thank you, you sweet peeps for checking in to see whether I was okay), and the ongoing recycling of old work on my Instagram and Facebook.

Within the next couple of weeks I’ll start my “Treasury Tuesday”-posts again, and I’ll share the projects that I’ve made for CraftKitchen during the past couple of months (including the English translation of those patterns/diy’s), for instance the dream catcher you see in this post (↑), the cute knitted slippers (↓), and my latest, a felt Fall/Halloween-garland (↓

As I said, I’ve missed my blog (and YOU, my lovely readers) and I’m looking forward to spending time here again!
See you soon,

love,
Marianne xx

Follow-up Friday – “The Beach Bag”

My Fridays always have that little extra ‘pezaz’, when I have a finished project to share with you, and they’re even better when I can give you the pattern/diy of that project at the same time.

This Friday is all about the “Beach Bag”, my latest CraftKitchen-diy, simply made using an old pair of jeans, and some fun things to embellish it with.

You might remember the very first jeans bag I made last year – the “Flower Power Jeans Bag”.
The funniest thing happened right after I completed this one: I received an email from a sweet Italian lady, telling me she saw the bag on my blog, she loved it, and would I – please – be willing to sell it to her?
I don’t think there’s a better way to feel appreciated in the things you create! I was absolutely thrilled she liked it this much, and so totally unplanned and rather soon the “Flower Power Jeans Bag” moved to Italy!

Making another one, a bit differently shaped, was high on my wish list, and the big shopper-sized kind of jeans bag I had in mind seemed the perfect summer project for CraftKitchen: hello “Beach Bag”!

You can find the tutorial in Dutch on the CraftKitchen-site (link here, click on “werkbeschrijving”), and the English version is in the DIY/Tutorial-section of my blog (click here to get there).

I really hope I’ll be using my bag to go to the beach (or “Tuin11” for that matter) a lot!
All it needs to carry is my yarn&hook and the occasional book: perfect ingredients for the nice, long summer break that I plan to take!
I might pop in here every once in a while to show and share my monthly CraftKitchen-projects, but normal services will be resumed again at the beginning of September ;)

Wishing you all a wonderful, relaxed, happy and sunny summer,
love,
Marianne xx

Treasury Tuesday

I’m sure this will not come as a too big of a surprise: I love pink!
As far as I’m concerned, pink makes everything a bit better ;)

That’s why this week’s “Treasury Tuesday” has nothing but lovely, wonderful, pretty crochet in one of my favoritest colors.
And since I love crocheted shawls as well, these two are on top of my list this time around:

This one reminds me of Alia’s wonderful pattern – the “Monsoon Stole”, that I made last year (more on that here):
I really love the touch of grey on this triangular shawl:Have a wonderful new week – I’m looking forward to sharing my up-cycled jeans bag tutorial with you here on Friday!

Love,
Marianne xx

Hurray for Crochet Parties!

Starting a new week isn’t half as bad, when you have memories of a great weekend to help you get through it, and when the weekend involves a fa-bu-lous crochet party, oh-la-la …..Last Saturday lovely Lisanne and Miriam made it all happen at one of my favorite yarn stores, “Echtstudio”. Thanks to them, and the wonderful people at “Phildar” we – a group of 25 privileged bloggers and instagrammers – were able to get our hands on Phildar’s new winter collection.

And I mean “get our hands on” quite literally, since the festive and very stylishly decorated tables we were all sitting at, were loaded with the most gorgeous yarn….. that we were allowed to touch, fondle, and – best of all – work with during the party.

Miriam provided us all with a pattern for a very pretty shawl, as shown above (photo courtesy of Miriam); she designed it especially for this occasion. Soon enough the room was quiet, as we were all working on Miriam’s pattern.
The link to the (free) pattern can be found here.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: it’s so much fun to be with like-minded people! People that you share a passion with, that go nuts over a certain yarn, a particular color….. just like you!

Apart from the yummy yarn and fantastic company, there was a lot of yummy food as well….. ah…..sigh….. what more can a crafty girl ask for?

I brought my infamous “Death by Oreo”-cupcakes (link to the recipe here), plus two little handmade gifts for our splendid hosts – all well received :) When it was time to go home, we were all surprised with a Phildar-shopper filled to the brim with…. yes, the yarn we’d been oohing and aahing over all afternoon: lucky-lucky-lucky us!

Love,
Marianne xx

PS: for all photos of this “Phildar Crochet Party” posted on Instagram, just click here …..

Follow-up Friday – The “Tunisian Rose” Cushion

Yesterday my CraftKitchen project for the month of June came online. It’s a real fun recycle project with an old pair of jeans, and I’ll happily share a full Follow-up Friday post with you on it (plus the tutorial in English) next Friday.
In case you can’t wait – and don’t mind using Google Translate, since all CK-tutorials are in Dutch – you’re more than welcome of course to have a go at it already via this link on the CraftKitchen site.

I don’t know about you, but the busier my schedule, the more I seem to be right on top of things.
Believe it or not: I’ve already finished my CraftKitchen project for the month of August. No recycling this time: this one is all about……Tunisian Crochet!
My only tunisian crochet so far, was this cushion cover, made a couple of years ago.

Seeing more and more beautiful Tunisian Crochet pop up – for instance from the queen of Tunisian Crochet, the very talented Michelle/Poppy&Bliss – I felt like giving it another try.

To be honest with you: things did not go as smoothly as I had wanted/anticipated, grrr. For some reason I had the hardest time getting my stitch count right, and a lot (a lot!!) of frogging took place. Family members began to ask me why I was pulling things out ……AGAIN!!

Anyway, I’m not the kind of person to give up easily: I did get things straightened out eventually, and – sorry for the tease, can’t show yet – the August project’s looking rather lovely …..

The tunisian crochet-shenanigans did leave me with an extra piece of tunisian crochet, the size of a cushion cover….. It has some little mistakes, and was about to go on the reject-pile, but all of a sudden I thought: how about covering these little mishaps up with some cross stitch??
A rose pattern (what else ;) was found quickly (link here), and I set to work.

It turned out to be the perfect weekend project to finish the cross stitch part (an old love …), and to crochet a fun border. Envelope style cushion cover was sewn in a jiffy (no matching zipper in the house, too impatient to wait), after which I hand stitched the crochet part on to that, and: ta-dah! One new and cute cushion cover that will perfectly fit in “Tuin11”-‘s decor – very happy me!

Have a great weekend!
Love,
Marianne xx

Treasury Tuesday

After a rather promising start weatherwise this past Spring, Summer is not really doing what most of us want her to do in this part of the world.
I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one longing for lots and lots of lovely, happy-making sunshine!

Oh, well ….. when we can’t have real-life sunshine, we’ll just bring in some fake yellow solar goodness to make up for that, right?

I’m hoping this bright and sunshiny new “Treasury Tuesday” will lift your spirits, and inspire you to create something that will make you happy all week, no matter how bleak the weather.

My two favorite projects this week are these two garments; I love the vintage feel of the first one, and the fabulous craftsmanship of the second dress!
Wishing you a great week ahead,
love,
Marianne xx

Follow-up Friday – “Rico Bobble Granny Square”-cushion

It’s a bit tumultuous in the Dekkers household at the moment (not all bad, but not all good either, a perfect reflection of that thing we call ‘life”), and once again I’m very happy to have a go-to-hobby that has proven to be such a great de-stresser.
Crochet (and my long daily walks in the forest with Mila) continue to keep me in shape and ‘grounded’, and I’m very thankful for that.
Craft-as-Therapy has come to the rescue so many times already; looking at the continuously fast growing CAT-crowd on Instagram, it’s nice knowing I’m not the only one.

In my book crochet is always a good plan, and an immense and fulfilling joy is creating my own designs – mind you, baby steps, baby steps – and a big fat cherry on that cake is when other people actually use and love these makings too.

I’ve seen the “Bobble Square Granny” quite a bit on social media, and it’s wonderful to notice that other crocheters love “the bobble” as much as I do.

Given that “bobble-fondness”, I could not resist making another “bobble square”-cushion, using all different Rico Creative Aran-colors this time around, and following the continuous-join-as-you-go method to put the top together: worked like a charm!
The zipper-savvy gal that I now am ;), I sewed another non-envelope style cover, using some cute flowery fabric I found a while ago at Flying Tiger, inserting a pink zipper!

I’m very happy with the way it turned out – a lovely sibling to the earlier made “Red Bobble Square-cushion”.
I’ve just listed both of them in my Etsy shop, you’ll find them here (the Rico one), and here (the red one).

If you’d like to make your own, these patterns/tutorials might be helpful:
* “Bobble Granny Square”;
* Continuous-join-as-you-go;
* How I sew in zippers in my cushion covers;

Have a fun and creative weekend!
Love,
Marianne xx

Treasury Tuesday

There’s most likely no way around it: when you’re a crocheter you accumulate not only lots (and lots) of yarn, but hooks as well.

I doubt it’s just me who started out with a simple steel crochet hook – it worked just fine at the time.
However, once it turned out crochet was not an occasional fling for me, and I was seriously hooked, I began looking for hooks that were a bit more comfortable on my hand.
Soon enough I found my very favorite: this kind, by Prym.
When I discovered Lanagrossa carried a whole set of hooks that looked and felt exactly like my favorite hooks, I invested in this beautiful bunch a few years ago: one of the best investments ever!

These hooks have a simple soft grip, just how I like it. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t hook a stitch with the more sophisticated, ergonomic hooks like “Addi Swing” or “Clover Soft Touch”, even though I know there are many fellow crocheters that swear by these.
Talented blogging friend Shelley once wrote an interesting article about her quest for the perfect crochet hook (here‘s where you’ll find it). It’s all a matter of personal preference, isn’t it?

I realize this is a rather lengthy intro to the point I’m trying to get to ;)….
I’m sure you’re all the owner of more than one, two….. ten crochet hooks, but: do you have a case/pouch/bag that keeps them nicely in one place as well?You can always try the free “Bobble Square Hook Case” pattern I shared here not to long ago (you’ll find it under “Crochet Miscellaneous”), but how about a little more crochet hook case inspiration? An all new “Treasury Tuesday” has 16 lovely alternatives!

Lover of color that I am, this week I opted for two favorites that both have more muted colors. I like the classy touch they have…..

Happy hooking!
Love,
Marianne xx

Follow-up Friday – “Rose Party Triangles”

A few weeks ago someone in the CraftKitchen-organization got married, and of course we – the CraftKitchen blogger team – wanted to give him and his lovely wife-to-be a present, preferable a personal/handmade one.

Being the crafty people that we are, we came up with the idea of making a festive wedding garland.
Since the 5 of us live in different parts of The Netherlands, the idea was that we would all crochet 4 motifs for the bunting – in the same color, off-white – and send them to Lidy, who would then make one pretty garland of the 20 little flags.

And, I’m telling you: it turned out so, so nice! We were all chuffed to pieces to see the photos Lidy and Miriam took in Miriam’s luscious garden when it was ready!
Plus: it was so much fun to make something this pretty, as a team! It goes to show that you can achieve a lot in a relatively short time when you work together: I absolutely love my CraftKitchen buddies!

Should you want to give this a go yourself, I’ve tried to track down as many details on the garland’s motifs as I could:
Liza created her own granny square heart pattern (link to chart here), Lidy crocheted her flags from a crochet snowflake book, Lisanne followed her own “wallhanger” design (pattern comes as a bonus when you buy her book), and Janneke adapted her own “Lente Granny Square” (free pattern for the squares here; it’s in Dutch, but has clear step-by-step photos, so you lovely non-Dutch should be ok with it as well, you need to click on “werkbeschrijving” for the tutorial).

I did exactly the same thing as Janneke: I modified my “Rose” granny square (pattern&tutorial here) to a “Rose” triangle. I love how it turned out – whether made in off-white, or happy colors.
Upon request, I’ve written up the pattern to share with you on the blog.
Simply click here, and make your own festive garland with these “Rose Party Triangles”!
Happy making, and a happy weekend!
Love,
Marianne xx

Another museum visit – Kunsthal Rotterdam

Last Friday Quinn and I made good use of our “Museum Jaarkaart” once again!
I love it that whenever we’re thinking of having a “mother-daughter”-date, a trip to the museum comes up most of the times – it’s absolutely wonderful to share our passion of all things creative and artistic.

Since Quinn has a special love for photography, as well as for the artist Salvador Dalí, the Rotterdam Kunsthal was a must visit. Their special exhibition on photographer Philippe Halsman, who worked with Dalí for many, many years, seemed perfect, but was about to end. So, off to Rotterdam we went!

We both enjoyed the exhibition tremendously! Halsman photographed covers for Life Magazine for a long time, and it was fun seeing some of the photos he took next to the Life Magazine covers in print.

The photos done with Dalí were amazing: at a time when no person had ever heard of “Photoshop” yet, Halsman was able to create images that actually make me think, he was secretly testing and playing around with Adobe’s first Photoshop version.

The last part of the display showed Halsman’s famous “jump” pictures of celebrities; celebrities I would have considered very unlikely to appear in a photo jumping, like the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and Richard Nixon.
Halsman said this about his “jumpology” (his philosophy on jump photography ;): “When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears.” I think he was right about that!

We also saw another expo, the “All you can Art” exhibit, on our way to the Halsman photos, and I loved its imaginative – and colorful ;) – installations full of humor.And just when you think this is a blog post without any crochet at all: will you just look at this adorable crocheted bow tie I encountered in the museum shop?
It’s by “Granny’s Finest”, a wonderful organization (more information here)!

The morning was ended with coffee, a minty lemonade (loved the peonies on the restaurant’s tables), and a couple of quirky photos with one of the three huge bunnies that adorn the Kunsthal grounds – we returned home happy and invigorated!

Enjoy your day!
Love,
Marianne xx