Yes, that’s right – I’m participating in a wonderful KAL, hosted by Sarah from Crafts From The Cwtch and pinkundine from Misadventures in Craft!

I taught myself how to knit when I was ill a little while ago, and it stuck :-) My project baskets were empty, and I was in need of a ‘big’ project, so imagine my surprise when I heard about this KAL on Twitter! I asked Sarah if it was a suitable project for beginners, and she reassured me that it shouldn’t be a problem. That’s all the encouragement I needed! ;-) I immediately got on my bike and went to the nearest LYS to score some 4ply yarn.

I decided on Rico yarn: white Creative Sport DK as the main color, and variegated emerald green Fashion Tasai as the contrast color. I’m knitting on 4mm circular needles, as specified in the pattern. The yarn calls for a 5mm needle, but I found that the 4mm works just fine and creates a fabric that is not too dense or too loose.

I had some start-up issues when I started knitting; I did the M1R increase wrong. But after I started over, I quickly got the hang of it! :-)

I was so proud that I accomplished this! And quickly, the first green stripe materialized…

And the second one…

Isn’t it gorgeous? :-) I can’t stop looking at it, and stroking the fabric… It’s sooo soft, I am going to love wearing this when it’s finished!

I still made a little error: I cut the yarn, instead of carrying it. So now I have this bundle of ends that I don’t know what to do with… I’m carrying the yarn from now on, and I’ll deal with those pesky ends later.
My knitting speed is really improving; I made the last green stripe within an hour (it took me three days to make everything else). But I still have a lot of catching up to do with some of the other ladies, who are on their 5th, or 6th stripe even.

If you want to join, head on over to Crafts From The Cwtch for more info and a nice, detailed FAQ :-)

xo,
wink

It took me a while to finish it, and so I apologize for the late post. But I promise you: this was definitely worth the wait :-)

Remember those two skeins of Noro I bought a while ago? Well, they decided they really wanted to become a bag, and not just any bag, nooooo; they had their minds set on becoming another Fat Bottom Bag! And really, who am I to deny them that pleasure? :) Of course, one does not make a FBB with just two skeins of Noro (I wish!). So I ventured onto the interwebs, in search of more skeins in the colorway I already had. Guess what? Turns out that colorway is discontinued… Crap. Alright, no biggie, there are more gorgeous colorways out there! I ordered three more skeins; each skein being a different colorway. All the skeins had more or less the same colors in it; browns, reds and greens.
I crocheted a large granny square (28 rounds instead of the 30 the pattern calls for), and then I ran out of yarn! I still needed at least one skein to finish the top and the sides, so I took a quick peek on Etsy and found 3 more awesome skeins in a colorway I hadn’t used in the bag yet. The good thing about Etsy? The skeins were almost 20% cheaper!

Alright, long story short: I finished the bag! :-D Ladies, and the occasional gentle man, I present to thee: my beautiful bohemian, Noro-powered fat bottom bag!
(click for a bigger image!)

(yes, I went a bit crazy with Photoshop, but this bag is so dreamy that the background just had to match the feel :-))

The Stats
Yarn used: Noro Silk Garden, colorways 265 (x2), 314, 282, 299, 84
Skeins used: 6
Pattern used for the bag: Raverly page with a link to the pattern, click here
Pattern used for the puffy flowers: Eclectic Gypsyland’s Puffy Daisies tutorial
Hook size: 5mm
Lined: yes, double sided lining plus an inner pocket for knickknacks
Time to make: all in all, I guess 2 days. One for the crochet part, and one for the sewing and embellishing part.
Total cost: 6 skeins of Noro averaging 9 euros a skein, 10 euros for the lining fabrics, 8 euros for the handles…
So in conclusion: priceless! ;-)

I lined the bag with some fabric I scored at a local market, where they sell left-over pieces of fabric for discount prices. I made the lining double sided, so that the checkered fabric would be on the inside, and the brown fabric on the outside, showing through the holes in the crochet. From that same brown fabric I created a little pocket on the inside of the bag, to keep my lip balm and pens in place.

I created the little logo using iron-on paper, and then sewing around the edges to give it that label-look. This is a great way to personalize anything you’ve made!

The top of the front and back are embellished with two different ribbons I got from the fabric market; one emerald green scalloped ribbon, with a smaller brown angled ribbon sewn on top. I sewed these on when the bag was still a square.

I used a lot of different beads to make this bag extra special. On the front I made two tassels with beads: one in an orange hue and the other in a green hue. On the back of the bag I used brown ribbon to string up some glass beads I won in a giveaway (thanks again Barbara!).

And of course, no bag can be complete without…
… a matching journal! I had a lot of fabric left over and I wanted to pimp my notebook with it. It’s really cool, when my journal is inside the bag, you can hardly see it: perfect for keeping secrets ;-)

I didn’t really have a good picture of the handles, so I’ll just tell you that they’re made from red rosewood and are super light and sturdy. Also they’re not too smooth, so they don’t slip off your shoulder when you wear the bag. Definitely a plus!

Because of the high costs for the materials for this bag, I am going to keep this baby for myself. My little bohemian guilty pleasure. I’ve only worn it outside for the first time today, and already got a bunch of compliments! :-)

Have you made something super dreamy or bohemian lately?

xo,
wink

Last weekend was the Africa Fair at my sister’s church. She and a bunch of people are going to South Africa this summer to help out orphans whose parents have died of are suffering from AIDS. To raise money for when they get there, they organized a fair last Saturday. There were lots of people there selling different things, such as water bottles, homemade chocolates, kids clothing and what not, and there was also an auction! The day was super fun, I sold a LOT of my products, and in the end the amount they raised was well over 5000 euros :) How cool is that?

Me at the fair with my little table of products

Next to me were two ladies who were selling handmade bags. They made them from thrifted vintage woolen blankets, have you ever seen something like that before? I feel instantly in love with all the bags, and I was eyeballing them all day to see if some of my favorites were selling ;) I guess you can guess what I did at the end of the day, when a gorgeous yellow bag hadn’t sold… That’s right, I snagged it! :D I figured that since I sold so much, and half of everything was going to Africa, I might as well purchase something, you know, for the greater good ;)

This bag is lined with vintage sheets, you know those really soft ones… She finished the bag by using velvet ribbons, wooden beads and some lace. My favorite part is the soft yellow heart! <3

If you want a bag like this I recommend you check out www.froekus.nl, where you can see all the fabulous bags she has.
Like this one…

Or this one…

So pretty <3

Oh and also cool about these bags is that they’re big enough to hold your knitting needles! ;)

I’ve been knitting a little since last time and I still love it! I cast on a cowl on circular needles, just to see if I can master them, and because I love this yarn!

I just love the colors!

I also got some DPNs to be able to knit these:

These are from One Sheepish Girl, and she used this pattern to make them. I think I’ll try to make them without Fair Isle first though; knitting with 4 needles is enough of a challenge for me! ;)

xo,
wink

I have this yellow vintage suitcase in my living room that I use to store and display all my magazines.

Now I only ever buy/read two magazines: Mollie Makes, which I get delivered from the UK, and Flow, which is a Dutch magazine quite similar to Mollie Makes; it’s super crafty and all about things like mindfulness and taking time to do what you like. It often comes with ‘freebies’ such as little notebooks, coloring pages, window stickers and what not. It’s really awesome; if it was in English I’d totally recommend it to you!

Anyway, I’ve been reading these mags for a while now, and the pile is really starting to build up in my suitcase.

Now combine that fact with these two links that I found the other day (via Pinterest I believe, I can’t remember):

• http://dispatchfromla.typepad.com/dispatch_from_la/rotdoci.html 
• http://www.flickr.com/groups/purexperimentation/pool/with/4210181639/

I was SO inspired after seeing all those wonderfully creatively made journals! I really want to take this course, but my birthday isn’t till May, and I can’t wait that long ;)

So here’s what I did. I went through the ENTIRE stack of magazines, and cut out everything that I like, so; images, headlines, words, entire pages, stickers etc; just anything that inspired me and I wanted to keep for later. I ended up with a pretty big stack of papers; happy wink! :)

Next I took a big folder that used to be for my mortgage papers (I keep those somewhere else now) that I had lying around, and also gathered some different sorts of fabric from my stash, buttons, ribbons, zippers, lace – all things I already had in my stash.
I measured the folder and made a paper version of a cover, to see if I had gotten the measurements right. I did, so I cut the same shape out of very sturdy, pink fabric. And then… I just let my mind go wild! What followed was a 3-day insanely creative process of picking out images and embellishing them with buttons & ribbons, and sewing everything together on the fabric to create the most awesome scrappy book EVUR!

Ladies I present to thee: my scrappy book of awesomeness! :) This will be my go-to place for inspiration, a place for me to wind down after a long day, a place to be myself and be surrounded by things that I love.

A collage of all the images I used on the cover, embellished with buttons, ribbons, felt and lace. All sewn on my machine with different stitches & colors.

Inspirational quote on the spine.

Stickers on the inside of the spine.

Great image on the inside to conceal the fabric flaps. The ribbon is a bookmark that I won in a giveaway; it fits perfectly in my scrappy book!

On the inside is a pouch where I can store papers.

I used the leftover ribbons to make one big ribbon; I sewed it to the back and can now be used to tie the book. The one with the houses on it came with an issue of Mollie Makes.

The entire inside of the book.

The outside.

Because this was such a creative process I didn’t take pictures of the process. However, I am thinking about making a small version of this book, like a scrappy cover for a Moleskin notebook. Would you like to see a tutorial on that? Let me know in the comments! :)

I had the best time ever making this. I am currently filling it with scraps of paper sewn together. On some of them I put some lined paper so they double as journal papers. Because sometimes you just have to write about stuff :)

The thing I like best about my scrappy journal is that it’s 100% recycled! I made it with things I already had, I didn’t buy a single item for this. I think if we all look around our crafty spaces we can find incredibly inspiring things, just waiting for us to do something with them! :)

Well I’m off to go pack for tomorrow; I have a fair to attend to! :) My little sister is going to Africa this summer to help out orphans whose parents have died or are suffering from AIDS, and the church is having a fair to raise money for the trip. How awesome is that!

xo,
wink

I got the flu last week, a serious case of the flu I might add – it has been a long time since I have felt *that* ill! It took me well over a week to get over it…

But I am all better now, healthy as can be, and I’ve got something to show you! :)

Let’s start with some in progress-pictures that I took with my iPhone and posted on Instagram…

I gotta tell you, the bag really looked finished to me as soon as I sewed on those little puffy flowers! This bag was totally fun to make, even though it starts out as a giant granny. Once you crochet the edges and it starts to look like a proper fat bottom bag, you’re hooked!

So without further ado, I present to thee; my first real FBB!

Pretty enough to be in a fashion magazine, right? ;)

The Stats
Yarn used: acrylic yarn from my LYS
Amount of yarn used: 2 skeins of grey, and about 1/4 to 1/2 a skein for each color ( I used 5 different shades of pink)
Rounds worked: 30 granny rounds, plus 10 rounds of sc’s for the edges
Handles used: leather handles embellished with wooden beads, bought at a craft fair
Time spent: about a full day crocheting the entire thing + flowers ( I spread it across 3 days; 1 for the base, 1 for the edges and 1 for the flowers)Finished size: 40 cms wide, 30 cms high; 75 cms high including handles
Pattern used for the bag: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/29-210-44-striped-bag
Pattern used for the flowers: http://gipsybazar.blogspot.com/2011/08/puffy-daisy-and-free-tutorial.html
Happiness: over the moon! 

I love this bag! I think I’ll make another one just for me, using my fancy Noro yarn (as soon as I find 3 more skeins in the same colorway) and embellish it with lots of scraps of lace, buttons etc – it will be bohemian chic!

If you’re interested in owning this bag, please email me: winkieflash [at] gmail [dot] com. The bag is fully lined.

So as mentioned earlier, I was ill last week, and what’s a person to do when you’ve seen every movie and series out there, and you just finished an awesome crochet piece?
Right.
I taught myself how to knit! :)

What this is? Well, my first knitted pair of wristwarmers!

I have to say, I really dig knitting! It was never for me; it was too slow, too complicated when dropping stitches, and generally just uncool.
Well, I really came back from all that; knitting is heaven! :D And once you get into the rhythm of it,  it really goes quite fast. Knitting still holds lots of secrets for me, but I intend to just keep going and learn all about them. I love knitting :)

xo,
wink

Ladies (and gentlemen), I present to thee; my mom! :)

I knew she was super creative (it’s all in the genes, right?) but I had no idea she was *that* good with a hook and some yarn. Since I started to crochet about two years ago, she picked up her long lost skills again. But unlike me, she didn’t need an adjustment period. She just went *BAM* and started making these amazing garments, from scratch, without a pattern or anything! True rockstar quality people.

Let me ease you into what she makes, starting with a simple shawl. She made this using very cool yarn with lots of colors, giving it a playful and light look.

Pretty groovy, right? :)

And ofcourse, she also made a poncho. We’ve all made that poncho, ammiright? ;) She used lots of different kinds of yarn for this one, using her favorite colors: blue and white.

I really like the tassels she made!

Okay, on to the more serious stuff. My mom used to make clothes for me and my siblings when we were little, so she has a lot of experience with making garments. And that shows in her crochet work!

This bolero was one of the first things she made when she started doing crochet again.

Simple yet stunning. I love this bolero :) (oh and by the way, my mom just got back from two weeks in the Caribbean, so she’s very tanned. It really shows when she’s wearing white!)

Next  up is a shirt, made using granny stripes combined with that cool yarn from the shawl in a different color (blue, ofcourse!). I think she made this with a 2 or 3mm needle.

It’s awesome, right? :)

And last but certainly not least, this vest. She used a different color from the white frilly yarn she used in the bolero, and a tan, slightly glittery cotton for the body.

I love the stitch she used on the body!

Well, there you have it. I have a creative mom! Because crochet is not all she does; she also happens to be an exceptional painter…

Creativity runs in my family; I have lots of creative aunts, uncles and cousins. I plan to write more posts about this topic, showing off their talents! ;)

Do you have amazingly creative family members?

xo,
wink

I love Pinterest. Just the other day, when I was browsing for inspiration (cause you know, my ‘always-there’ big project is now finished, so I have empty project baskets! eek!) I came across this beauty from Eclectic Gypsyland:

… and I am still swooning over it!!! It’s so awesome and gorgeous and bohemian looking; I think it’s the perfect fat bottom bag EVUR.

I can’t believe I never saw it before; from what I read on Eclectic Gypsyland it was quite the rage a while back, and looking at Ravelry I’m definitely not the first one to swoon over this bag! (I present to you Exhibit A)

So naturally, I wanted to make one ASAP. Luck be it that I just happened to have some random granny squares in my basket, and I just picked one and expanded it.

The pattern is the easiest of easy. You just make one big granny square, about 30 rounds, and then you add a couple of rows of sc’s and you’re done! :) For anyone interested, the pattern PDF is here.

I really like the colors in this one :) So I’m on row 30 now, and unfortunately I’ve run out of grey. So I’m going to make the last round in pink, and then the edge in sc’s also in pink, but a darker kind of pink.
I went to an arts & crafts fair Saturday, and picked up some awesome leather bag handles to go with it! :) All I need now is to find a perfect lining… Also, I want to make a couple of flowers for embellishment, and maybe add a row of lace. We’ll see how it turns out :) I expect this bag to be finished in the near future!

Oh, and a picture of what I also picked up at the fair yesterday…

My very first skeins of Noro Silk Garden! <3 Don’t know what I’ll use them for, but I saw a couple of extra skeins on eBay for half the price of what I paid for these two… I’m thinking about making a Noro-licious fat bottom bag… Don’t tell my bankaccount ;)

xo,
wink

ps I’ll be back later this week with an awesome feature on someone very special, who just happens to be a crochet rockstar! Stay tuned…

I started this blanket way back, exactly one year ago. I had just gotten my order of Stylecraft Special DK from the UK and I couldn’t wait to get started. However, I wasn’t the avid hooker I am today, so after 6 rows I quickly got bored and also overwhelmed! I just couldn’t believe there were actually women out there that crochet entire blankets!?!?!
So I hibernated the project for a long time, until last month, when I decided that it should be time to finish it! And this time, it was a breeze :) Row after row after row of delicious hooky, the stitches just flew off my hook and before I knew it I had the entire thing finished! Then it only took me another two hours to get the border on and it was officially DONE.

So ladies, without further ado, I present to you: the granny stripe blanket!

The Details
Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK, I got the Lucy pack from Masons
Hook size: 5mm/H hook
Rows: 120 (or 60 color changes)
Pattern used: the well-known Granny Stripe from Lucy’s Attic24
Border: one row of grannies, two rows of dc’s, one row of sc’s and one picot-row
Happiness: 100%! I loved making this blanket despite some start-up hickups
Side-effects: the uncanny urge to start making more blankets & afghans!

Yes, I used the exact color scheme Lucy did when she first made her blanket. When I started this I just wanted the exact same thing, and I had the yarn so I just went for it. The only thing I changed was the border; I used different colors for it.
Today, I would never do that again, just copy someone else’s work. Having said that it was kind of blissful, working with a set color pattern :)

The blanket is getting a lot of use already; me and D can snuggle up under it together and it’s so nice and warm! Very welcome during these cold, cold days.

So I got two, nope, three! Versatile Blogger Awards the other day, courtesy of Hazel, Stocki and Helen!

The rules for the award are:
1. Add the award to your blog.
2. Thank the blogger who gave it to you.
3. Mention 7 random things about yourself.
4. List the rules.
5. Award to 15 bloggers.
6. Inform each of those 15 by leaving a comment on their blog.

So, 7 random facts about me… Let’s see.

1. I have a slight headphones addiction. I currently have about 20 pairs and counting!
2. I still sleep with stuffed animals.
3. I’m addicted to reading. Currently I am rereading the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson. (maybe it’s re-rereading; it has to be the fifth time already!)
4. I also have a slight obsession with anything Woodstock related. Whenever I feel down, I just pop in the ’69 extended version DVD and voila; instant happy/hippieness! :)
5. I don’t subscribe to the magazines I read. (Flow and Mollie Makes are my regulars) I like the experience of going down to the bookstore and finding them on the shelf.
6. I’m an extremely slow starter in the morning. I need at least a couple of hours to get my thoughts in order before I can meet people ;)
7. I am a night owl.

Alright, on to some awesome bloggers who I think don’t get enough attention and deserve this award! :)

Now I realize some of you have gotten this award before and/or recently; please don’t feel obliged to anything! :)

Alright, I’m off to put something warm on my shoulder and neck. I felt the pain in my muscles luring all week, and after last night it finally happened; I have a stiff neck :(

xo,
wink

Okay enough with the pleasantries, we all know why we’re here. The giveaway has officially ended, and it is now time to draw the winners!

Assistant, please hand me the box with the names…

Thank you. And now, let’s shuffle those names one last time…

Everybody ready? Here we go!

Winner number one, who’ll be getting a heart headband of her choosing, is… *drumrolls*

Karrinne! Come on down, and congratulations! :) *yay* *clapclapclap* (and I am SO sorry for misspelling your name!)

Alright people, settle down please. Winner number two, who’ll be getting cherry blossom bobby pins, is… *more drumrolls*

Ilda! Congratulations! :) *hurray* *huzzah*

And last, but certainly not least, winner number three, who will receive a whopping 14% off the entire acreativebeing shop, is… *final drumrolls*

Heidi Hengel, come on down! Congratulations! :) *massive applause*

Ladies, please email me your addresses. And Karrinne, please let me know which headband you would like to receive! :)
You can reach me at winkieflash [at] gmail [dot] com.

I was supposed to do a little project-update today, and post the January mosaic, but I haven’t had the time to properly take care of those things. So that’s all scheduled for later this week!

In the meantime, can you believe that I, over the weekend, got not one, but TWO blogawards? :D I received the Versatile Blogger Award from both Stocki and Hazel’s Crochet! Thank you so much ladies! :) I will do a proper thank-you blogpost later this week to tell you a little something about myself and to give the award to 15 blogs I admire!

xo,
wink

Those lyrics were the anthem of the past few days while I was in Aruba :) I had such a blast! We went to Aruba to get out next scuba license, PADI Open Water, and I am happy to report that all six of us succeeded admirably :)

Me and D getting ready for our second boatdive

Unfortunately, we had to go home at some point, so we left this behind, beautiful Baby Beach:

And traded it in for this: (photo c/o my SIL’s mom)

Yes, that’s right, snow!

When we left Aruba we had temperatures of over 30°C (86°F), and when we got back to Holland it was -10°C (14°F)! Honestly, when we got off the plane we were all wondering why on earth we had left Aruba in the first place :’)

When I came home, there was a big pile of mail waiting for me, and in that pile were a couple of big, brown envelopes. I love those, because they almost always contain something awesome!
Right before I left, I won not one but two giveaways, can you believe it?

The first one was from Pixie from The Crafte Nook, who gave me a very cool ‘small felted knitted ring thingy’ (yes, that’s actually what it’s called):

And the second one was from Kate from Signed With an Owl, who made me this awesome mug rug!

Both ladies also included cute cards & kind words; I just love getting those! :D

Thank you so much ladies, for brightening and warming up my very cold first day after the holiday :)

So the giveaway is still open for all of you who haven’t entered yet! You have till tomorrow to comment for your chance to win one of three awesome Valentine’s Day items! :) Just click on the banner below to go the the giveaway.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a belated January mosaic, the 2-a-month-project update and ofcourse, the giveaway-winners! :)

xo,
wink

ps There were over 800 unread RSS items in my reader when I turned on my computer. I read all of them, but because of the volume I was unable to leave comments everywhere, I’m sure you’ll understand. But, I am now back up to speed and will start leaving comments again. Thanks for understanding :)