I bought the softest yarn in ages. And I started on a new crochet project: a new scarf. It has neutral colours in soft off-white, green and blue. The pattern is very easy, just rows and rows of double crochet. I think it is quite cool to see how such a simple pattern is still attractive in it's simplicity. The scarf is quite long, so it isn't one of my fastest projects unfortunately. Can't wait to finish this one, and start on another in light pink colours :)

This weekend we had an extra two days off! Yay lucky us.

So on Thursday and Friday we paid a visit to Gent, a fabulous Belgian city, with lots of history and sites to visit.

And Gent even has its own medieval castle, in the middle of the city centre!

Of course we did a little shopping too. Gent has a Phildar store! I was able to control myself and not buy loads of yarn. Instead I bought this crochet magazine with summer essentials.

I added some more to my To Do list ;)

I think it would be fabulous to crochet my own dress!

And a scarf is always handy, for a chilly summer evening.




If you happen to be visiting the Netherlands or Belgium, make sure to pay Gent a visit. Two or three days should do. We really enjoyed ourselves and are already planning another trip later this year.




XX Anne-Marie

A friend of mine gave birth to twins: a baby boy named Luca and a baby girl named Valentina. I made some cute little shoes for the twins here. I also wanted to make some clothes for them, and I used this pattern from Yarny Days (who also has great pictures on her blog). Aren't these the cutest little outfits ever? It was so much fun to make them! 

Here's a close up of the buttons.

The pattern is very easy, and you can basically make it as small or big as you need. If you scroll through the blog of Yarny Days you can also see a bigger version for a girl of 2 to 3 years old. Seems to me it is just making more rows in the beginning to create a wider chest and arms, and then follow the same pattern until you have the desired length.

See you soon!

xx Anne-Marie

It's great summer weather in the Netherlands, finally! Time to get some colourful crochet started. I came by the beautiful blog of crochet for the home. There are some very pretty and inspiring photo's on this blog. When I was scrolling down I found this mandala pattern. And I couldn't wait any longer - my first mandala was on it's way. Here it is!

This was a very good first attempt, and I will probably make some more :)

Do you have a nice mandala pattern to share? Let me know.

Have a great week!

xx Anne-Marie

An almost finished crochet work in progress. This is a giant doily rug using Zpaghetti yarn (t-shirt yarn).

The pattern I am using is this one by Creative Jewish Mom. I think the rug only needs three or four more rows before it's finished. Yay!

After creating the baby boots (here and here) it is nice to get pictures of the babies actually wearing them : )

The first baby to try my shoes is little Vesper (yes, she is named after the Bond girl :) Vesper got to try two versions as the first pair was too small already. I adjusted the pattern to make the shoes longer. Now I can make baby shoes for new born babies as well as three month old babies.

Next one to try my larger version is Olivier, with shoes in white with a blue flower. Don't they look cute on those tiny feet?

Have a great day!

Xx Anne-Marie

After making my first two pairs of baby Mary Janes I have created loads more. It seemed that lots of my friends are getting pregnant or are delivering babies to the world, so new baby boots needed to be added to my stash urgently.

This first pair in white and blue was for Olivier, a baby boy.

The next pair is again for a baby boy, named Pako, of a colleague of mine.

The next one is for my friend Mar at the sewing café (Naaicafe) in Rotterdam. The pair is for her new grandchild. As I didn't know if it was a girl or a boy I kept the colours quite neutral in white with a green touch. Mar was very happy with it :)

The last pair is again for a colleague of mine who went on maternity leave last week. As you can see she is expecting a girl :) This is a new version of the Mary Jane with a strap in the back instead of the front. In this way the shoes won't come of the little feet that easily.

Which version do you like best? The ones with the strap in the front or in the back?

Have a great day!

Xx Anne-Marie

I have been pinning a lot of crochet projects lately. So it was about time to actually start on a crochet project instead of only pinning them ;) So I decided to make these nice candle light holders from mason jars. They make a nice gift and they are very easy and quick to make. So I am planning to make a lot more - just need enough empty mason jars :)

Most of you have probably seen this cute elephant on Pinterest. I have used this pattern from Jam Made (Thanks Jam!) to create the elephant. It is quite some work counting the rows en putting all the parts together. I am pretty happy with how my first elephant turned out. Next time I will make one in one colour to save time in making it, and adding colour at the feet, snout and ears for contrast. Also, I want to make the body more round, as it has more of a long shape now. I like my elephants a little bit more bulky :)

Having a little breakfast with my new fluffy friend :)

Look at these adorable little shoes. How cute are those? I made the little shoes with Drops cotton light, pink (nr 18) and blue (nr 14). For a pattern I turned to Ravelry. Lots and lots of baby projects on Ravelry, but I still found it hard to find the right pattern for these little baby shoes. I finally ended up with this pattern by Hayley Missingham (and pinned some others for my never ending to do list on Pinterest ;) In hindsight I might have better used a different pattern. I have the feeling that the pattern is not completely correct, and that the number of hdc's that you have to do each round does not add up. So if you decide to pick this pattern anyway, you have to get a little creative :)

These beauties are being shipped as we speak to a friend of mine who is having twins!