Pun intended

I love British humour. Especially its use of puns is something that always gets me. Sadly, most of these jokes are hard to translate into Dutch, making some of the puns impossible to understand if you’re not all that versed in the English language.

I always thought this was something mostly done by the British, until I came upon the crochet patterns of DenDennis, a Dutch amigurumist. He has been able to capture some almost ancient Dutch words in crochet, with an amazing sense of humour. In this post, I will try to convey three of them.

First up is ‘Snotaap’:

The word Snotaap can be literally translated to Booger/ Snot Monkey. It’s a word that is mostly used for children that are a bit rude or cheeky (I believe ‘Cheeky Monkey’ is a term that is used in English). DenDennis decided to actually design a monkey with some snot hanging out of its nose.

Then there is ‘Sloddervos’:

Sloddervos (as literally as possible translated: Sloppy Fox) is the term we use for people who are a bit chaotic and don’t neatly put away their things. They will usually have a lot of stuff lying around their house or room and will most of the time have a hard time finding items. I’m not entirely sure what the English term for someone like that is. The one that comes to mind is a pack rat or hoarder, but then again, those people usually also collect a lot of items, which isn’t necessarily the case with a Sloddervos. The amigurumi that fits this description is, of course, a little fox composed out of some different colours and with little patches sewn onto its body.

And lastly, there is my personal favourite: ‘Ouwe Taart’

Ouwe Taart (literally: Old Cake) is a term the Dutch use as a bit of an insult to elderly women. Old hag or old biddy (which is a little less offensive) are the terms that I can think of when trying to find the English equivalent. DenDennis brilliantly translated this term into amigurumi by basically making a grandma that is dressed up as a fruit cake.

There are many more great amigurumi puns in DenDennis’ two books: ‘Prettig Gestoorde Amigurumi’s’ (Totally Insane Amigurumi’s) and ‘DenDennis Viert Feest’ (DenDennis Has a Party) which are both available in Dutch and German (the second one is scheduled for release on the first of August) but sadly, not in English. Hopefully, in the future, these patterns will be translated so that more of the world will get to know a little bit of our Dutch puns. Because frankly, I wouldn’t want the world to live without amigurumi’s such as ‘Partypooper’, ‘Pakezel’, ‘Kletsmajoor’, ‘Soepkip’ and many, many more.

Edit: shortly after posting I got a message from DenDennis stating that he does have his characters and patterns from the first book translated to English, but that he is still looking for an international publisher to publish the books in English. So if you happen to know of such a publisher, don’t hesitate to point them in the direction of this great Dutch designer!

In the meantime, you can surely enjoy other patterns from DenDennis. He has several free patterns and some paid, which can all be found through his website.

Cheers, Lydia

PS: I know I have not posted anything for a long time. A lot of things have been going on and I simply haven’t had the time, energy or inspiration to update. If you want to know what’s on my hook, give my FaceBook page a like. Here you will regularly find pictures of recent projects ^_^

Projects, projects everywhere!

I’m back! And still insanely busy… In between the holidays, a very busy time at work, getting sick a couple times, and having my birthday, I’ve been working on loads of little projects that just didn’t seem to want to be made into a blog post. Thus, I’ve decided to try and put them all in one.

So here’s a quick overview of what I’ve been up to:

I made a bunch of stuff to sell with Tegendraads at Gamepitcon last January.

Finished work on the blanket I started back in October/November (still need to somehow attach the fleece that I bought for the back)

Made some cute felt owls with a kit I bought way back at the Kreadoe

Went to the Haakathon for the Dutch leprosy relief and made a couple ‘red cats’

Went to the opening of a new Crochet store by the girls behind Briljant Crochet (they seem to really be living the dream!)

Made some cards with a kit I got for my birthday.

And together with my friend Doretta, we taught two more people to crochet ^_^ I hope they enjoyed it and are still working on their skills.

Right now, I’m working on Vlad the vampire bat by Lalylala. Using this:

A ball of awesome ‘magic swing’ yarn from Briljant Crochet. It’s got a little sparkle mixed in it ❤ but I have to work it together with my normal yarn, which made for some hard work. Thankfully it's almost done now!

Magic swing in action, it’s a lot of fun to watch the balls of yarn taking shape.

After Vlad is finished, I’ve got a couple projects lined up already (african flower crocodile, a froggy coin purse, actually really finishing the blanket, maybe even start on another blanket with the Stylecraft CAL in April) I hope to be making more blog posts again in the future! I’ll probably elaborate a bit on the Haakathon in a later post ^_^

Plus, something totally not crochet or craft related, I got a new fish tank!

What have you guys been up to?
Cheers, Lydia

Elephant Snuggle

This was a quicker project than I thought it would be, especially since it was my very first time actually making granny squares. But thanks to the links provided in the pattern (DenDennis is ever so thoughtful) it was much easier than I anticipated.

The pattern can be found here, by the way ^_~

The yarn I used is Katia Mississippi 3 for the head and arms and Scheepjes Softfun for the blanket-part. Especially the Softfun is very soft and has a kind of velvet-y feel to it. It took a lot less yarn than I thought it would, so I have plenty to make more in the future ^_^

There is only one thing I hated about this pattern and that’s the fact that you have to weave in so many ends of yarn! And to make it so that they’re nearly invisible and almost impossible to get loose… But I managed and it’s certainly not something to keep you from making this adorable security blanket ❤

Cheers, Lydia

Upcoming projects

Inspiration has struck and now I’m drowning in plans for things to crochet! So I guess what I’m going to put here will be my to-do list for the coming few weeks ^_^

–Elephant Snuggle

Free pattern by DenDennis

This pattern by DenDennis is so insanely cute that I wanted to make at least one as soon as I saw it. Sadly, no babies in the future in my group of family and friends. A coworker of mine made me very happy yesterday by asking if I could make something for her. Friends of her have a lovely baby girl and she wanted to give her a snuggle/security blanket. Do I ever have the right pattern in line for that! So yesterday when I came home, I started on the elephant part, since I need to get some yarn to make the blanky part.

This is how far I’ve gotten yesterday

It’s a pretty quick and easy pattern, I guess that’s what I love about DenDennis (he’s got a book coming out this march, I need to get my hands on that!)
Today I have a trip planned to the market to see if they have the yarn I need. As I’m writing this, I suddenly realise I might as well pay a visit to the local yarn store, they might have what I’m looking for as well and I haven’t been there in a while ^_^”

– Baskets (Dutch!)

Free pattern by EchtStudio (Dutch!)

I’ve been looking for new and bigger boxes to store my stash of yarn in. And even though I have considerably lessened the amount of yarn I have laying around, I still want some more storage space. My eye had fallen on some nice boxes from Ikea, but they didn’t have the right one in store at that moment. Then I came across this free pattern from EchtStudio and realised my mistake. Instead of buying something, I could just as easily make something myself! And I fell in love with the colours of the yarn: Lammy Hawai. So I need to put in an order sometime soon ^_^

-Boyfriend’s scarf
I need to go to the market today either way, because I really want to get some work done on the scarf I’m making for Boyfriend. Lately, I’ve been pondering just frogging the whole thing and making a slightly shorter one. But that does mean starting all over again.. Oh well, I’ll see what I will do when I get my hands on some more yarn and am able to continue.

– Own patterns
I’m not entirely sure why, but I really feel like making some Legend of Zelda characters! I really love the games. The Minish Cap was the first one I ever played (yes, I’m a late-bloomer)
I searched around on the web to find suitable candidates for me to turn into crochet. I’ll keep it a secret for now, but I do have three characters/enemies/weapons/whatevers planned, so stay tuned!

Today will be filled with taking up stock and getting the yarns I need and want to keep myself busy.

What are your crochet-plans for the coming weeks? Anything big, or just quick little projects in between?

Cheers, Lydia

Pin-cushion piggy

Yesterday, I decided it was about time to retire my old pincushion:

This little whale was my very first crochet creation, but because of that, the stitches aren’t very tight. The result? He tends to eat my needles ^_^”

Now he can spend the rest of his days safely on a shelve, not needing to worry about accidentally filling his belly with sharp objects.

A while back I got a nice goodiebag from Echtstudio. In it was a cute little pattern from DenDennis for a “porcupine”.

Being a combination between a piglet and a cactus, this little critter is just the perfect candidate for my new pincushion! I might even start using pins now that I’ve got them at hand instead of somewhere at the bottom of my big box of ‘stuff I might need while crocheting‘.

He can even hop out of his little pot, but he prefers not to (since he’s a bit unstable when he does, he still needs to hold on to the rim)

What do you use to hold your pins and needles? Just an everyday pincushion, your current projects or something you made especially for them?

Cheers, Lydia

Shopping Spree

Yesterday was Amigurumi Day at Echtstudio. With discounts, Dutch crochet celebrities and goody bags!

Of course, I had to work 😦 But a friend of mine lives near the shop and she went in my place (so awesome!) ^_^ I had a small shopping list of things I’d been meaning to get in the near future and now was as good a time as any.

The stuff I bought:

The latest pattern book by Tessa van Riet-Ernst: “Amigurumi & Mini’s” which has loads of patterns for actual tiny amigurumis. Some fluffy yarn and normal white yarn for a pattern I have yet to purchase, but really want to make in the future and some other normal yarn to add to my stash. I was out of black again already, so I figured two skeins would get me through some projects for now and the red is for a project I have yet to figure out.

The best part:

Free translation: “To Lydia, have loads of crochet-fun with these mini’s, Tess”

My friend got the book signed by the author ^_^

With my purchase, I got a goody bag with loads of fun stuff inside:

The goody bag came in the form of a cute and huge knitting bag from Phildar with loads of patterns inside for all kinds of small and cute amigurumi, some cute postcards and a bag of stuffing, which is always a good thing. I go through so much stuffing in one month, every little bit I can get for free helps ^_^” I pretty much immediately fell in love with the pattern for a “Stekelvarkentje” by DenDennis. It’s pretty hard to translate the name, since a porcupine (the actual translation) isn’t really the same. As you might be able to see in the picture, it’s a combination between a piglet and a cactus and it is totally cute, so I can’t wait to get started!

I have got loads of planned projects for the near future, but I don’t really know how I will execute half of them. For now, I will stick with completing the My Little Pony set. Apple Jacks body is complete and now I’m working on Twilight Sparkle’s. I haven’t done the hair yet, I’m kind of keeping that till last, since I’m not entirely sure how I want to make it..

After that, I want to start working on a design of my own to enter into this competition.
Plus, I want to make all the mini-gurumis from my new book ^_^

Don’t worry if you don’t see many posts the coming weeks. I’m pretty much booked for October by my job, which isn’t such a bad thing, since I will make more money to spend on crochet-stuff ^_~

How are you spending your weekend?

Cheers, Lydia

PS: I entered my previous post, with Crocodile Steve, into a BYATWF contest over at Echtstudio. The winner gets free tickets to a craft-fair and a meet and greet with DenDennis, which would be totally awesome! So wish me luck 🙂

Bring your amigurumi to work friday

This is a pretty fun concept thought up by DenDennis. Basically, what you do is: you bring your amigurumi to work on the first friday of the month.

Seeing how today was the hottest day in the history of the Netherlands, I thought it fitting to bring the newly finished penguin 🙂 she had loads of fun checking out our new fall/winter collection!

If the shoe fits…

Helping out at the register

Pretending to be shoelaces

Promoting the brushes

Free publicity for my employer 😉

Have a great weekend everyone! And remember to bring your amigurumi to work next month!

Cheers, Lydia

Ps: the penguin pattern is from All About Ami 🙂

Sneak peek ^_^

Because I don’t want to end this day on a negative note, I worked real hard to finish up on the penguin. So here’s a little sneak peek:

Tomorrow is “Bring Your Amigurumi To Work Friday” a great concept by DenDennis (man, I’ve been talking about him a lot, haven’t I?) So I think I will bring this little buddy with me and take some fun pictures 🙂 check back tomorrow to see more ^_~

Cheers, Lydia

Just keep swimming…

I finished work on the big minion that was requested by a friend of mine a couple days ago and now I’ve already finished the goldfish! I’m pretty glad that it turned out to be a quick project, even despite the slightly difficult pattern. I really needed something that didn’t take me a couple weeks to finish. (Even though work on the minion didn’t take nearly as long as the last time)

I think maybe the eyes came out a little too big, but I still really like this fish. Especially the fins and scales have been brilliantly thought up!

I’ve got quite a couple projects going on, more in my head than in real life, since I have been able to keep myself from starting too many things at once. I kind of feel like I’m starting to drown in my own work and that can’t be a good thing. But then again, I can’t seem to be able to stop crocheting >_<”

Right now, I’m working on the penguin from All About Ami and tonight I’m going to another Hook-In at Echtstudio, where I can get the yarn I need to get started on the afghan I want to make during my vacation.

Actually, I’m pretty excited about tonight, since DenDennis will be there. He has created some very cute crochet patterns and I’m pretty curious as to what he will be making in the future. If you like anything from Mario to Star Wars to original designs, go check out his blog! I’ve still to buy one of his patterns, but I think I will do that either tonight or after my vacation ^_^

In the meantime, while I haven’t been sitting still, neither has my blog. I guess someone mentioned me on Facebook, since a lot of people got directed here in the past few days. I haven’t been able to find out where they came from, but I want to take this opportunity to thank whoever linked here and everyone who liked it enough to take a look!

Well, I guess it’s back to the grindstone. Have a great everybody!

Cheers, Lydia