Some Dutch Crochet Adventures… (Part 1)

We’ve just returned from a week in The Netherlands. There was so much crochet inspiration and crochet related things to share that I’m going to do two blog posts about it. So here’s Part 1…

I had a BIG birthday at the end of July and I wanted to celebrate it in the country where it all began just 40 years ago and be with my family. So we packed the campervan and trailer and off we went…

I managed to crochet this cushion cover for the campervan just in time before we left! It was wonderful to be in a place which is dear to me surrounded by my close family and look at the cake that awaited me…

And just look at some of the VERY special crochet related birthday gifts that I received…

This is a beautiful piece of old crochet.

‘The Crochet Book’ is a book which is an identical reproduction of a very old book of crochet patterns published before 1923… it’s really wonderful! And the ‘Coastal Crochet’ book is a photo book containing a selection of photos that I’ve shared either on this blog or on my Instagram account! Such a thoughtful surprise gift!

And yes, that’s a set of Tulip Etimo crochet hooks that I’ve had my eye on for so long… they really are divine. Such quality and smoothness at my fingertips. I set to using them straight away and what better to test them out on than with crocheted flowers…

And when I’d made a lot of flowers I attached them to the dog bicycle basket we have for Salty! We did a lot of cycling and she travelled with us on the back of my bike in the basket…

 

 

We visited Amsterdam for one day and I decided to leave a little yarn bomb… just a small gesture to add some prettiness to an already pretty city…

Now that it’s holiday season I’m trying to get back to crocheting samples for the International Diploma in Crochet course. It’s been a while since I submitted anything as I’ve been busy with other crochet projects. But it was great to get back to some samples. It always pushes me to try new techniques and get out of my comfort zone. Here I am beginning a piece of Tunisian Crochet using a double ended Tunisian crochet hook…

Yes, we took a little boat trip and I left the rest of the family in complete charge of navigation and boat control whilst I got just a little crochet done…

Tunisian crochet tends to curl but by using a double ended hook and turning the work at the end of each forward pass you get a fabric that doesn’t curl and I really like the effect when using two colours (one at each end of the hook). It’s a dense fabric but would make great cushion covers or a scarf and someone on Instagram mentioned using it for seat pad covers which I thought was a great idea…

We visited family and my aunt has some crochet in her home that I just had to photograph…

As you can tell, I love The Netherlands so much and the flat landscape makes for easy cycling and with uninterrupted views there are fantastic skies – just look at these clouds and sunsets…

And of course no blog post about crochet in The Netherlands is complete without a photo of some ‘gehaakte gordijntjes’ (crocheted curtains)! Sadly I didn’t see as many as I usually do… those that have hung since the seventies are no doubt gradually coming down 🙁 …

So there you have a little crochet inspiration and some crochet stories shared from our recent Dutch holiday! And yes, I did visit a couple of yarn shops which I’ll share more about next week. One was Stephen and Penelope  in Amsterdam that’s been on my wish list for a long time…

Here’s a little sneak preview photo for you!

Until next week…Happy Crocheting! 🙂 🙂