Happy New Year!!!

Free Pattern - Ziggy Hat - love, love, LOVE!!!

Happy Christmas! As promised here is my Christmas pressie to you! My Ziggy Hat as a free pattern! 

I love it, especially how to yarn changes color in the rows. 

Hope to see loads of pictures of finished hats on my blog, facebook or Ravelry!

You can download a copy of the pattern here!

You can find it in my Ravelry and Craftsy shops as well!

Woodland Animal Series: Fox!

I have finished my first Animal of the Woodland Family. My Fox!

Isn't he adorable? I'm going to make him a whole family of woodland animals!

Fox! is for sale in my Etsy, Ravelry and Craftsy shops.

I have a special introductory price for the first week of Euro 2,50 in my Etsy and Ravelry! So hurry on over to get your copy!
          
                     

More pics after the break!

Stories about love, labour, creativity and recognition...

Once upon a time... at a market, a man came up to me with 3 kids. The kids loved the hats I had made. The man came up to me and said: "12.50 euro is a good price for these 3 hats, you make amazing things and you can see you love what you're doing." And handed me the money.

I looked at him and asked him what he did for a living. He was a painter. So I asked him if he liked what he was doing. And yes, he loved it so much he went into business for himself and he did well. I asked him if he could come over to my house to paint a room. Sure, he said, let's talk business. I explained what I wanted done and asked him how many hours of work would that be? He replied and said it was at least a day's work.

8 hours then? I asked and he replied yes. So I gave him 4 euro and asked if he could come by the week after so I could get the paint for him. He looked at me weirdly and asked, what the 4 euro was for. I told him that was his fee and he started laughing. Are you crazy, he said, I work for at least 25 euros per hour without the supplies I need.

So I looked at him and asked: So why do you expect me to work for 50cents an hour?

This is just one of the many little stories I can tell you about about how a lot of people look at Handmade items. They are willing to pay hundreds of euros for machine made items, because it has a special label/brandname on it. But for something that took hours to make by hand with love, it couldn't be more then a few euros.

Another story I can tell you is about a photographer. This guy makes the most beautiful pictures of your new born and or family. I met him at a market and he loved my hats. So I contacted him, see if he would make a deal with me. I would make him some photo props (cocoon, hats, whatever he wanted) that he will be able to use over and over again. And all I asked for in return was one picture of my children together.

He came back to me with a proposal. I would make him 2 cocoons and 4 hats (images included) and he will give me exposure. Because a picture of his would be worth so much more than 20 hats in total. So I was a bit shocked and asked him if he really charged 400 euro for 1 picture. I was puzzled at how people could afford a whole set of pictures.

So I thanked him for his offer and told him politely no thank you. And no I don't need his exposure.

Because I don't drive to the office every day or collect a steady paycheck at the end of the month, doesn't mean that what I do is not work.

I love what I do. And I put a lot of time and love in what I do. And I think what I do is worth something...

99c Patterns

Some patterns are free, some patterns you have to pay. That's the way it is.

I started out with selling patterns. I needed the income to pay for my yarn addiction! And now that I'm doing ok (not ok, like hubby stop working now, I'll support you.. Ok as in, I can buy myself a nice box of yarn every now and then...) I have been publishing some of my patterns for free. And yes, my free patterns perform waaaay better hahaha.

But I just can't publish all of my patterns for free, some hats will take me weeks to get the pattern right. And yes, sometimes even then, when I think they are perfect, there will be a little mistake (patternblindness). I have my little group of crazy crochet ladies, who test and read patterns for me (you know who you are, *bow* very grateful, xxx).

But some patterns are not like the big patterns, such as my Minion, Turbo, Smurf, Ponies,etc etc. So I decided to create my 99c (that's eurocent! $1.40 converted, still have to pay my fees!!) category. So a lot of my patterns will go in to that category! Yay!

I started out with my Triple S Beanie. I will lower the price of more items in my shops! And a lot of cool new patterns coming up!

So hope to see you there!

Granny with no name... Free Pattern!!

Help, my granny has no name!

I was just playing around today, after a week full of &^%$£ I was in no mood to do anything.

Yes, I need to make a gazillion Christmas decorations for my tree, that is going up this weekend. It's going to be a bare tree, with my few crochet Christmas baubles and few felt hearts. But no, I was in no mood to make Christmas decorations. I already finished a hat yesterday (the pretty little baby Triple S hat, I will show you on my blog very soon). So no, in no mood to make another hat from a pattern. All my Simpson's Tapped Out characters were hard at work (another addiction), no work for me there. Kids were in school, dishwasher and washing machine were running, freezing cold outside and I was just staring outside watching the hail, the wind and grey clouds go by. I love winter, but I wanted it freezing cold, no wind and no rain/hail. Not this Dutch weather, where plus 10C feels like minus 10C!!!