“Alles is Haken” – party and book review

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maRRose - CCC --- Book reviews-25Gosh, I love parties, and when they’re of the crochet kind, they’re right up my alley!

It seems like us crafty people are going from one crochet party to another here in The Netherlands – and I’m definitely not complaining.
We just celebrated the launch of Lisanne’s new book (more on that here), and exactly two weeks after that lovely event another dear – and super talented – crochet friend released her new crochet book.
I’m sure you all know Saskia Laan, successful co-author of the “Haken&Kleur” books, who recently ventured out on her own, and boy, did she do a great job!maRRose - CCC --- Book reviews-41

Her new book, “Alles is Haken”, is just marvellous, I love it, and here’s why: the great variation of projects, the – mostly vibrant – colors used (no surprise I adore those, after all “colorful crochet” is part of my name ;), the photography, and the atmosphere she created in “Alles is Haken”, and as a bonus she has thrown in some nice crochet & color tips as well.maRRose - CCC --- Book reviews-40

Even though the book’s in Dutch, I’m sure that wouldn’t be a problem for any non-Dutch crochet lover. You see, the pictures are very inspirational, plus all patterns have charts; if you know how to read those, you can crochet all the lovely projects in this book!

Last week I played around with some small pieces of wood (idea seen here) – found in my beloved “Amsterdamse Bos” – some beads and yarn, trying to come up with an ‘one-of-a-kind’ little present for the party girl. Picking colors I know Saskia loves, I made the blue&green-brooch for her.maRRose - CCC - Crochet Brooches-14

By the way, Saskia shared a fun video a few days before the event, showing us how she decorated the room where the book launch took place with all of the fab “Alles is Haken”-projects – this is where you can watch it :). Also, “Koffie & Wol” will air an “Alles is Haken”-special, so you might want to keep an eye out for that (link to all shows here).

One of the many yarn and crochet loving people who attended the party, was Tialda, who wore this a-ma-zing granny square dress, that she made herself! She graciously allowed me to take her photo, isn’t it (and isn’t she) lovely?maRRose - CCC --- Book reviews-31The book party being held in yarn heaven “Wolplein” in Zaltbommel only added to my festive mood; it’s always a treat to browse the gorgeous products they have on display.maRRose - CCC --- Book reviews-43 maRRose - CCC --- Book reviews-42Meeting crochet-soul-mates while cruising the Wolplein-grounds was also a premium, and I’m sure you can imagine I returned home a happy crocheter, even more so when I checked the contents of my goody bag!
maRRose - CCC --- Book reviews-39Don’t you like it when your biggest problem is not knowing what beautiful project to start first?

Love,
Marianne xx

10 thoughts on ““Alles is Haken” – party and book review”

  1. Het boek is inderdaad superleuk!! Ik heb hem van de week voor mijn verjaardag gehad. En dat feestje klinkt echt geweldig!!!!! En zoals je al zegt, op een top locatie!! Ook ik weet niet waar te beginnen met al die leuke projecten………voorlopig lekker bladeren een genieten van al het moois.
    Groetjes Sandra

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  3. OH Marianne, dear Marianne, what a lovely post for a Friday evening here in Australia

    I loved watching Saskia setting up her studio for the shoot. So much fun and heaps of colour – just perfect for us all.

    I’m going to finish knitting some socks so I can say I have completed yet another pair. How is your sock making going?

    I’ve decided not to do the last issue of the magazine. it has been so disappointing all round, I can’t tell you how upset it has made me. To go through interviewing four more people, to format and create the 32 pages of the magazine is just too much for me to do -hours and hours of work for just 12 subscribers. No, I just can’t do it any more and I’m most upset but I tried and gave it my best shot. It didn’t matter what I did really but it didn’t help that two of the last featured artists didn’t even post a pic, not one, of their article. That hurt me a great deal. it was costing me hundreds to print for as you know – you have to do a minimum run anyway and the more you do the less it costs but even when I did the best financially, it still cost a lot and takes me hundreds of hours to create, including inserting photos, editing them, downloading them from IG and so on. I thought that heaps of people would want to read about their favourite we creators and makers but I was wrong. I still don’t understand it – a magazine costs as much as a cup of coffee and a piece of cake and yet I couldn’t sell it. People want things free, I think. Well, if only a magazine could be created by clicking your fingers instead of all the hours that go into it. :-(

    Heike was the most wonderful support to me when I mentioned to her that I had to go digital since I couldn’t justify the cost any more with no more subscribers coming on board and hoping to sell a few here and there. So very disappointing. She said her sock book had only sold 20 copies (?????) and look how many people she has on her IG account!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was shocked and she was very disappointed too.

    There have been some family issues here that have made me take stock of my life. It’s not worth creating a fourth when it’s been so poorly supported. But, oh, I have loved the magazine, that’s for sure. I thought it was such a great idea. As it has a short run, it was always going to be hard to get any advertisers to help pay for it and I understood that – ads need a high distribution rate so they are worth putting the money forth…if there are only 250 magazines, that’s not proportional to the cost an ad might be so I never put ads in it. I felt that it was important to make every page count by having projects, recipes and interviews on every page -that way it was worth the money. Many magazines have many pages of ads so people aren’t really getting what they paid for. And then there was the postage here- it increased by 40 percent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I was so upset, and I was then told that with the changes, magazines coud take four weeks to arrive when they were already rtaking that so people were contacting me saying, where is my magazine?? And some got LOST!!!!!!! I had to resend for free and incur the postage costs for overseas. A small independently published magazine can’t cope with all of that without going downhill. I’m sure you understand. It’s been hard. And then, with the higher costs and change of weight, I had to cut the magazines on three sides so it fitted in with the postage rates – I was horrified to be honest. I discovered that there was a mix up with the printing company and they used heavier paper which pushed it over the basic limit making it almost as much as the cost of the magazine to POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I felt sick to my stomach that week and could only cut the sides to reduce the weight, which of course makes the magazines sitting beside each other as a little collection, look very unprofessional. Yes, it’s been a difficult time. But the content was good and I felt proud of that.

    Thank you again for the most sweet heart. It came at a good time for me and made me feel a lot better. I love you dearly, you’re so kind and thoughtful.

    Love lu xxxx

    ________________________________

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    • Thanks, Lu – the party was so much fun, I so wish you could have been there (we need teleporting badly, don’t we?)! The book is wonderful as well – as I said: Saskia has done a wonderful job!

      Oh, my goodness, darling….. what a disappointment about your magazine! I feel so sorry for you. Well, all I can say is: I truly loved it, and am ever so proud to have been one of your featured makers – thank you again for the opportunity!

      Take good care of yourself – I love you too!
      Marianne xx

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