quaggan !

quaggan is an amphibia like creature from Guildwars2, a game my boyfriend plays. 

It's a very cute creature, especially it's hatchlings.

I crochet one of these hatchlings using a pattern found on ravelry 

http://crafts.madhat.ru/2015/02/baby-quaggans-crochet-tutorial-eng-ver.html

I made the quaggan with cotton light from garnstudio/drops.

This garn was pretty cheap and looks nice (although it has some synthetic fibers in it) unfortunatley it splits very easy. I crocheted with a ergonomic addi 3mm needle.

"Knorrie" or piglet

As child I got a piglet. 

Which I really liked.

I liked it because I also was small and a bit scared 

Then another one with sinterklaas and another one with christmas

On and on this went.

resulting in a collection of pluche piglets

Which I cherish to this day

And sometimes get extension

One piglet is my perfect pillow.

It's a flat piglet with a (almost scary) smile I bought in Japan.

I couldn't get a better pillow than this pluche toy.

I think it's due tot the firmness of the toyfilling instead of cushionfilling (Therefore my neck doesn't fold down. Due to my eds my neck can fold down at odd angles resulting in neckpain).

But unfortunately pluche has the property to wear.

Therefore I decided to copy this toy by myself

 (I could make another shape  but the smile of thepiglet makes me happy ;))

This Is the result:

I copied the pattern of the original piglet on a newspaper and made this piglet from fleece plush.

I used 3 colors and cut pieces for another piglet.  In total I bought 3 * 0,5m*1.4m. I  sewed the piglet totally by hand. 

Here you see the original piglet and it'd new "copy" (The old one is dressed to protect it against wearing)

I've tested and the new one sleeps as good as the old one ;). 

Cat for grandmother

I finished a knitted cat for my grandmother yesterday. My grandmother will be 90 within a couple of weeks and is a real cat addict. 

The pattern comes from zijmaakthet.com

It is a mies from mies, kees en teun

The pattern isn't very difficult but you need to know how to do a magicloop or knitting in the round with sockneedles. Sometimes picking up stitches is a bit fiddling.

I knitted the cat with lifestyle from Schoppel.

It is a nice very soft super-wash wool yarn.

I used about 250m (1,67 hanks)

The colour is blue pot. It is a special blend of colors with it's brown, blue and black-white; a mixture of real cat colors together with blue.

I filled it with synthetic pluchefilling so the cat is washable. Normally I prefer to use sheepwol due to it's warmth and structure but this takes much more care when washing.

I bought the pattern end of january and have knitted this cute cat in about 3 weeks in between other things so it isn't a lot of work.

Elfenwoning Atelier Anke or FairyHouse and crafting

Another project I recently finished: a fairy house made from felt.

This project was really a lot of work but it was it worth!

The house is made from felt with cardboard inside.

Everything is stitched by hand, the tree stumps were hell in that, the bark is totally made with stitches. I used almost two strengs of embroidery yarn.

It is a pattern from Atelier Anke, a dutch designer of feltkits. I have also made some fairies from here (which I will still blog about some time here) and I will definitely made her nice Dutch winter scene in the future.

For my felt crafting I mostly use patterns from Atelier Anke (very detailed), pop en plank (lovely antroposofic/waldorf style with do-it yourself felting) and Tintangel (very sweet mice).

All the designers have really their own style. There are designers that use wooden beads as heads, these patterns I avoid...  It is very easy but it doesn't look nice, than I will gladly put a little more effort in it to make a nice fabric, wool head :).

With these dolls, felt houses etceteras I create a seasontable.

I also make bigger dolls regularly, real Waldorf dolls. It is nice to create such a huggable doll, especially when you made someone happy with it.

Together with knitting (and sometimes crocheting or sewing clothing) these are the crafting things that form one of my main hobbies. Due to my EDS I can't sport (except some biking on the tandem or so) and need hobbies I can do sitting so my body comes to rest. My hands, wrists and shoulders give also some troubles however, not handy with crafting.  Therefore I use silver splints (I will blog about them sometime) and like to use thin needles, light weight yarn, circular needles, ergonomic crochet hooks etcetera so I'm sill able craft ;).

My EDS is also the reason I don't sew clothing very often; cutting and sewing bigger parts of fabric is very heavy for me...

But luckily I have enough other things I can do!

         

                                         Pattern: Elfenwoning, Atelier Anke

                                         finished begin of january 2014

Lyssia

I finally finished this cardigan a couple of weeks ago.

It wasn't much work but I did many things in between so nothing got finished ;)

I'm very happy with the end result.

While knitting I thought it would come out to small but it pointed out to be very well fitting instead!

It is warm but very light weight due to this lovely yarn made from alpaca.

I had to made this pattern because of it's butterflies made with cables of course

Yarn used: Drops Alpaca mix

Pattern Lyssia: http://www.twistcollective.com/collection/component/content/article/130-shop/spring-summer-2013-patterns/1418-lyssia-by-marnie-maclean
Size made: 30 inch, no adaptions (my yarn was thinner but the gauge same enough, a little smaller but compensated through the yarn's strechiness )
finished 8 january 2014

Wat is hms/eds?

HMS, hypermobiliteitssyndroom, is een erfelijke bindweefselaandoening waarbij onder andere de gewrichten "te los" zitten. Hierdoor is er meer kans op luxaties en moeten de spieren de gewrichten bij elkaar houden waardoor deze de hele dag een stuk harder moeten werken dan andere mensen. In feite doe je de hele dag aan topsport. Bij mensen met hms overstrekken veel gewrichten dat is eigenlijk het meest opvallende.
Gegeneraliseerde hypermobiliteit wordt dan ook vastgesteld door middel van tests zoals de beighton test, te zien op het plaatje. Iemand kan maximaal 9 punten scoren en vanaf 4 bij mannen en 5 bij mannen is er sprake van gegeneraliseerde hypermobiliteit:
1 1 punt voor het met gestrekte knieën met platte handen de grond aanraken
2 1 punt per elleboog die minstens 10 graden overstrekt.
3 1 punt per knie die minstens 10 graden overstrekt.
4 1 punt per pink die in 90 graden of minder gebracht kan worden met de handrug.
Men hoeft niet perse klachten hiervan te krijgen, maar als iemand klachten van hypermobiliteit krijgt dan wordt gesproken van hypermobiliteitssyndroom.

Bij hypermobiliteitssyndroom komen gewrichtklachten voor als pijn door overbelasting (doordat spieren voortdurend aan het werk zijn om de gewrichten bij elkaar te houden), overstrekken, luxaties of subluxaties. Verminderde kracht of het niet uit kunnen voeren van handelingen door luxaties, subluxaties en overstrekken. Een klein voorbeeldje: bij typen overstrekken bijvoorbeeld mijn vingers waardoor ik langzaam typ (ze moeten eerst weer in 180 graden strekken voor ik de volgende letter kan typen) en het ook pijnlijk wordt, gelukkig zijn hier oplossingen voor.

Verder komen er ook regelmatig andere problemen voor op andere plekken in het lichaam waar ook bindweefsel zit (dit is dus overal) bijvoorbeeld:
Soort van gewrichten:  Verzakken van voetbotjes waardoor platvoeten ontstaan, scoliose door scheefgroeien ruggenwervels. Maar ook zaken als darmproblemen en huidproblemen (blauwe plekken, slechter genezende wondjes, fluweelzachte huid, hele rekbare huis) komen veelvuldig voor.

Hypermobiliteitssyndroom is zeer waarschijnlijk hetzelfde als ehlers danlos syndroom type 3. Het is op dit moment nog een beetje afhankelijk van welke arts je ziet welke diagnose je krijgt. Er zijn artsen die alleen de diagnose eds type 3 geven wanneer er ook sprake is van huidproblemen.