Usually I’m the kind of person who plans things pretty meticulously, my blogging included. Not today, and not this blog post however! I’m still so stoked about yesterday’s Durable Yarn Party, I just want to share some of that with you right now.
Durable Yarn is actually an old brand stemming from the early 1970’s that very recently got a fab make-over. A big crowd of Dutch bloggers and instagrammers was invited to see, feel, and work with all Durable yarns during a fun and very well organized party yesterday afternoon.
(photo credits: “Anna Haen”)
Held at a lovely and very picturesque venue – “Anna Haen” in Abcoude – we were not only treated to a delightful goody bag (with lots of Durable yarns in the color scheme of our choice – pinks for me of course 😉 – and some neat crafty tools), but to a delicious high tea as well. Long tables, elegantly set with vintage plates and cups, really beautiful flowers, a glass of bubbly on arrival: very seldom have I felt so welcome.
Add to that about 40 amiable people who are all as passionate about yarn and creating as yourself, and there you have it: the fantastic and festive afternoon that I’m still a bit high on to tell you the truth.
Lidy prepared a cool project for us to work on, involving one of the neat crafty tools we were gifted: a hairpin lace loom (more info here), “guimpe haak vork” in Dutch (tutorial here). I love how she has found a new, hip&trendy way to work with this rather old fashioned tool and technique.
The cushions you see here are all made with Durable Yarns, and designed by two other CraftKitchen-colleagues. The ones you see above are Liza’s/ConfettiLab designs (free pattern of one of them here) and made with Durable Cosy Fine. The gorgeous one below is Janneke’s/JipbyJan design, made with Durable Coral (free pattern here).
(photo credit: Janneke Assink)
When I’m with so many crafty friends, there’s two things that kind of go wrong (not really): I simply cannot sit, concentrate and work with the materials there and then….. All I want to do is catch up and talk to preferably everyone attending, and there you have the second issue that I do not take care off well enough: I forget to take loads and loads of pictures, to reminiscence over later at home, and share with you here on the blog.
You’ve gotta love social media and hashtags though, because just by clicking these hashtags (here and here) you’ll get to see all photos taken and can feast your eyes on the loveliness of this awesome party!
Love,
Marianne xx
It is hard to believe it has only been two years since the lovely&talented
In the meantime her second book (
Make sure to check out 
(to read this blog post in Dutch, please click 
Before I knew it I was on my way designing beautiful and fun projects for the book-to-be, crocheting at the speed of light.
It’s a good thing I’m busy organizing some pretty cool festivities to celebrate the launch of the book, otherwise I think I’d be sitting on a chair next to my mailbox all day – crocheting, of course 😉 – waiting for the hard copies to arrive here all the way from Turkey. It can’t be long now……
Festivities? Yes, yes, YES! There will be an amazing blog tour around the globe, starting here on May 20th. I’m so pleased and honored that a top-notch selection of the Dutch and international crochet community will be part of this blog hop. Previews and projects from the book will be shared and……there’ll be many a chance for you to win a copy of the book: I can’t wait to kick things off!
Is May 27th is not a good date for you? No worries! The delightful 
I think I have found a solution to the 
I have crocheted her 
Alia’s “Sunday Shawl” has been a huge hit with crocheters ever since its release, and that is not hard to understand at all. Apart from being gorgeous, the design allows you to play with color any way you want (and you know how I love to do that).
My most cherished season of all – Spring – must have subconsciously influenced me picking the mostly pastel colors I used in mine, and I couldn’t be more contented with the way it turned out.
Almost all of the yarn I used is the beautiful 
My first – and most certainly not my last – “Sunday Shawl” is comfy, cosy, and “springy”, and truly a joy to crochet: happy me!
Now that my life is slowly getting 
I feel a bit silly finding this out now, but it goes to show there has not been much else going on at “maRRose Headquarters” other than book related things, haha.
I thought it would be appropriate to go out with a bang by showing some of my and your favorite “Treasury Tuesday”-collages, from the very first TT (
If you want you can still look them up on the blog (via 
Be inspired & happy crocheting!
Do you sometimes find yourself bursting with ideas, eager to start new things, but at the same time having the feeling you’re not getting a whole lot done? Well….. I guess that’s me at the moment. I’m sure it has to do with the fact that the major part of the work I needed to do on my book is finally ready; everything is in the safe and capable hands of my publisher now.
Besides that, I’m still knitting my Ice Yarns Shawl (progress on that one is slow, very slow), ánd I’ve knitted and mailed two “pussyhats” for 
A new crochet shawl has been started as well.
When I found out through Atty’s thoughtful and sweet blog post (that you can read 
And then I’d like to tell you about 
There was such an inspiring, creative, and happy vibe, I cannot help but smile when I think of how much I enjoyed “Creative Life”. I’m already looking forward to next year’s edition (March 23/24/25, 2018).
A poignant “Creative Life” quote: “being creative is not a hobby, it’s a way of life”; I couldn’t agree more, how about you?
As I already told you in 
A very special magazine; you see, we – the 17 Borgo-babes, lol – have all donated our patterns, and in return Borgo de Pazzi is donating part of the proceeds of the magazine’s sales to a charity of our choice. Knowing how much we, the-not-so-elderly-yet, enjoy and benefit from crafting together, we quickly and unanimously picked the Dutch foundation for the elderly, 
There are times when you know and feel everything about a certain project is right, and this is definitely one of them! I love our awesome group of makers, our mutual passion, the fun times we had, the a-ma-zing projects that everyone came up with, the fact that so many of us invested a lot of extra time (think: coordinating/overseeing the whole project, translating patterns in English, styling and photographing the projects created, designing the layout and putting the magazine together, etc). Also, we proved everybody wrong saying women can’t work together: there was nothing but a marvelous sense of care, love, wanting to help one another, as well as humor in this group of 17 women.
I’m also proud of the project I made for the magazine, my “Al Paco”-blanket!
“Let’s Get Chunky” will be on the shelves at the beginning of April (through Borgo de Pazzi-retailers, check 
This project sure was a trip down memory lane, and a lovely one for that matter.
You see, when I was a little girl, I made a couple of 
It goes without saying that the cross stitch part is pretty straightforward; no counting is necessary, your only worry is that your stitches all face the same direction.
This is exactly why this a very “mindful” project. Even though I really like any kind of creative challenge, for balancing’s sake it’s equally nice to work on a project that gets you in a carefree-just-do-flow, don’t you agree? Well, this is the one!
Enjoy!
Crochet, geometric patterns, and a challenge….. what’s not to like?
Color swatches were quickly made, and so was my decision to go with the bolder combination. As you can probably see, the blanket is crocheted following the “tapestry technique” – nothing to be scared off, really. In my Norwool Blanket-pattern I’ve included some links to helpful videos, as well as my own tips. One important hint is how to carefully (and easily) “manage” your working and non-working yarn.
The mindful Norwool Blanket-making took place over the holidays, and I’m so happy I can finally share it with all of you!
You can find the – free – pattern in Dutch 
And you know what? This coming week/weekend you can see my Norwool Blanket, and lots-and-lots of other CraftKitchen projects “live” at the 
Two (and on Saturday even three) of The CraftKitchen bloggers will be there each day throughout the event (Feb 9 – Feb 12), and we’re all looking forward to seeing you in our creative kitchen, showing our latest projects, giving tips, etc. I’ll be there on Friday and Saturday (working on my second Norwool Blanket), please come by and say “hi”!
Energized and happy, is how I’m kicking off this new week.
Last Saturday a group of fellow bloggers/Instagrammers and I were invited by my sweet friend 
We were all given our goodie bags at the start of the afternoon, to enjoy working with the yarns we were to take home right away.
Always a tremendous pleasure to visit, and they could not have picked a more apt name: so much yarny goodness all in one spot …. inspiration-galore! Wolplein did not let us go home empty-handed either: is it just me, or does the sight of these lovely skeins alone make you happy as well?
By the way: Wolplein’s “Koffie&Wol” captured the lively event nicely in 
After this fun party (proof of that 
(above a little preview of my Borgo-contribution, a knitted blanket)