Tag Archives: dendennis

Crochet Induced Insomnia

Posted on October 13, 2014 | Leave a comment

Last night I couldn’t sleep. I’ve never been a great sleeper, but since my daughter was born two and a half years ago, my old friend insomnia hasn’t been around much. Physical exhaustion has won the day mostly. But last night I couldn’t switch off. All I could think about were the mounting crochet projects that I have on the go, plus a mass of life business.

I’m in the process of applying for permanent residency here in the Netherlands, and I have to find the time to fit in a trip to Amsterdam to have my photo taken and to be fingerprinted (that’s new). Plus a host of my actual career projects that have to be done all at once and some semblance of a social life that I need to keep going – If I don’t, I’ll be out of friends! There’s only so long you can say “I’m so sorry, I’m just too busy!” before people stop believing you.

So needless to say, last night I was awake with my brain racing and trying to process everything that’s going on in my life while I was frantically adding items to my Must Do list. In and in an attempt to distract myself, I did what any social media freak would do, I checked Facebook, Instagram and then Pinterest. I had quite a few Pinterest alerts to check and was gobsmacked when I saw that one of my pins had been repinned 999 times!

View this post on Instagram

999 repins?! This pin just can't stop giving. I made this snuggle ages and ages ago from a Free(!) pattern by @dendennis and #Pinterest clearly loves it. So does my website stats, I have to tell you! Go pin it yourself, and follow me while you're at it. I have great taste 😉 http://pinterest.com/missneriss #croche #crochet #craftymama #haken #snuggle #pinterestaddict #igcrochet #amigurumi

A post shared by Nerissa | Crochet | Haken 🇦🇺🇳🇱 (@miss__neriss) on Oct 12, 2014 at 1:31pm PDT

I’ve talked about this pin before, back when it had around 200 repins and I was amazed at that number, but now this morning it has cracked 1000 repins, and just won’t stop!

I have a few pins that I see getting a lot of (P)interest daily, including

and

Incidentally, I’ve never made this monkey. I just pinned it because I thought it was so cute.

The Dickie Birds are also doing well:

Ok, now I’ll shut up about Pinterest, sign off and go start work for the day. That To Do list won’t do itself!

Oh, and PS. If you want to pin the Elephant Snuggle yourself, you can:

Fresh off the Hook – Elephant Lovey

Posted on February 5, 2014 | 20 comments

When a friend asked if I would make her something for a baby boy, all I could think of was this beautiful Elephant Snuggle by local Amsterdam designer Dendennis, so even though the request came through at about 9pm and I was planning on an early night, I couldn’t wait to get started.

In real life the elephant is even better looking than in the photos!

Best news of all, the pattern is absolutely free!

-> Get the Elephant Snuggle here <-

I used Drops Paris for this project, which you can order via Wool Warehouse* and Caro’s Atelier*.

If you’d like me to make you one of these, feel free to shoot me an email from my contact page, and don’t forget to follow me on Facebook and Instagram too!

*Affiliate Link

20 Comments

Posted in Drops, Pattern, Projects

Tagged amigurumi, baby, craft, crochet, dendennis, DIY, elephant, family, hand crafted, kids, love, MissNeriss, snuggle

Anyone say headless chicken?

Posted on December 2, 2013 | 2 comments

That’s how busy I am. I’m running around like a headless chicken and only seem to bumping into stuff and making a mess everywhere.

Work has had me run ragged; changing jobs has been a wonderful step forward for me although a couple of weeks ago some of my most trusted and beloved colleagues were made redundant as a by-product of the business’ strategy shake up. It was devastating to have them sitting across from me one minute and gone the next. I’m still quite shaken about it all, I can only imagine how they feel about it.

Christmas orders have also been keeping me out of trouble – I’ve been working on some lovely amigurumi projects which I’ll link upon finishing and a load of hats and even a doggie hoodie! Here’s a peek:

In time for Christmas, I found this super adorable Santa bust on the Dendennis Facebook page. Dendennis is a local Amsterdam amigurumist (with his first book coming out next year) and he posted an entire set of winter themed patterns, all for free!

If you haven’t heard of Movember before, it’s an awesome cause I get behind in one form or another every year. Last year I convinced my dad to shave off his moustache for the first time in years to raise money, and he managed to raise more than $1000 AUD. Amazing, hey! This year my husband jumped on the wagon and part of his campaign was to take photos of himself in any pose requested. He topped it off with an incredible homage to Freddie Mercury:

He’s managed to get himself into the top 100 nationally (Netherlands) and donations are still open for a few more days, so go on. There’s perhaps no better cause than Men’s Health.

Here’s my mo.

Ages ago on the Winkieflash blog I saw a post about an amazing skein of yarn from Knit Collage. I really wanted to buy it, but at 30 plus euros I couldn’t justify it. Until I visited KreaDoe in Utrecht and nearly went bananas with all the pushing and shoving and the inability to do or see anything that I really wanted to do. So I bought myself a skein of Gypsy Garden as a reward, and this hat is the result. It’s deliciously warm, I’m wearing it every day. The photo unfortunately doesn’t do it justice, it’s much nicer in person!

Here’s something I’m extraordinarily proud of; Lucie Bunny. She began as a pattern from Sidrun that I posted earlier, but over time she has become less someone else’s pattern and much more my own design. It’s such a shame that I’ll never be able to list her as a pattern for someone else, but that just wouldn’t be fair on the original, original designer.

I just love her, especially in the muted colours that I’ve made her in. Such a contrast to many of the amigurumi animals and dolls I see every day.

And finally, an owl hat. I love making these. I’ve made quite a few now (but not photographed them before sending them out the door). This is one that I managed to make too small and still have at home, hence the photograph! It’s a free pattern that is probably one of the most widely used owl patterns, from Repeat Crafter Me. She has loads and loads of seriously cute hat patterns, enough to keep anybody busy for months. And just about everything is free!