The Acorn Cowl - my very first pattern is now on Ravelry

Hello dear blog friends,


After a long break i am back!

I have got exciting news to share : i just published one of my own crochet patterns for the first time on ravelry.

It is called the acorn cowl because the pattern resembles rows and rows of colourful acorns!


The Acorn Cowl

For a very limited time (until midnight - European time Monday 02 October 2017) it is available for 25% less with coupon code Intro25.

Please follow this link to the pattern where you will find details, you will need to be logged in (Ravelry is a free website for knitters and crocheters):

The Acorn Cowl pattern link

This pattern is available for €5.86 EUR  buy it now

Inspired by nature walks in beautiful forests, this cosy lacy cowl has a lovely autumn feel.

This cowl features rows and rows of colourful acorns in different shades and colours; ranging from soft pastel hues to vivid autumn shades.

This pattern is suitable for advanced beginners who want to build on their knowledge and for intermediate + crocheters who enjoy a mindful project.

There are lots of helpful tips for adapting your cowl.

This pattern includes an 8 page photo tutorial (please check before printing this out - save trees!) It is probably better to see the details on your computer screen, where you can see it in colour and are able to zoom in, if needed.

New pattern - introduction offer valid until end of 2 October 2017, with coupon code Intro25

Enjoy making and wearing this cowl!

And don’t forget to share your creations via ravelry (make a project page with photos), instagram, pinterest and other social media with #funkycrochetacorncowl, #acorncowl, #funkycrochet .

copyright Ingrid Kopka 2017 (Pattern including all photos) 
For personal use only. 
Please do not copy or share this pattern in any way or form. 
Thanks for your support!

This is all for now, i hope you like my new pattern!
I'm hoping to publish more in the future; there will also be free patterns!

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New Blue Shawlette

Hello my blog friends,


Thanks so much for all your lovely comments and birthday wishes*, much appreciated!

Meanwhile I came up with another idea for as shawl and got started straight away!

I had some Drops Delight sock yarn in different shades of blue which seemed like a good choice!
To be on the safe side, I did order some extra, just in case!

Since this is fingering weight yarn, a 3.5mm hook is recommended, but I went with a 4mm as I wanted it to be more lacy! Also, I crochet a bit loosely, so another person might get the same result with a 4.5mm if they crochet tightly!


Blue Shawlette


My design started out with the longest side of the shawl. This meant I had to decide how large I wanted to make it. I decided to go with a shawlette size, something that is large enough to wrap around the neck and wear at the front, or alternatively, wear it open and just over the shoulders.

I started on Wednesday and finished it this afternoon. By that I mean that the main body of the shawl is complete, but it still needs to be blocked and then I will design a border that goes with it.

So, this is the shawl - as it currently is!!!

(pictures are in reverse order!)

Blue Shawlette 08.01.2017

This afternoon...

This morning - in the snow and wearing my new boots!

I enjoyed creating this design and part of the fun is that the rows get shorter each time! :)



*My birthday

I had a lovely day, spent it mostly with my youngest daughter who baked an(other) fantastic cake! Later we went into Antwerp and I bought some things with my birthday money! In the evening we went for a Mexican meal!

So, that's all for now, until next time!

Have a great week!!

Shiraz Top

Welcome back!


By the time you read this, it will probably be my birthday (6 January)... :)


I promised you another post about a second project, here it is!

Again, this took 24 hours from the idea to the finished item!!!


This time I decided to make a short length top to fit over my new grey Linen dress by Plumo.

I always fancied making a new Granny Square top, you might remember that I made a Summer Top before?

I did some stash diving, and finally found the ideal yarn: Rowan Cashsoft Chunky in a beautiful burgundy colour called Shiraz.

I had this quite a long time, even before I moved to Belgium. It has been discontinued.

I wanted to make an unfussy, simple but pretty top!

One side incorporates the Finnish Granny Square Design by OmaKoppa aka Virpi Siira from her blog and her book 'Moderne Granny Squares' (published in German so far).

If you look back in my blog posts, you can see I have tried this pattern before: Finnish Granny Square links for more info.


So, here it is - my Shiraz Top

this is how far one ball of yarn lasted!

Is it a mandala?

Finnish Granny Square

Blocking to 40cm

Finished Shiraz Top - front view

As you can see in the first photo, the reverse view is just a normal granny square that I made into a rectangular shape. The top has got short sleeves, I just kept going until I ran out of yarn (only 6g left out of 12x50g balls).

The pictures also show you that the circular pattern needs to be transformed into a square! I did my best to block it, but afterwards it started to go round again! However, assembling the top helped to keep the shape better.

What I like about this top is that it is simple and versatile, it can be worn over a dress or even in summer over a short top.

Details: circumference : 132cm x 40cm long. Sleeves are only 5cm but appear longer! (I just had to take it off to measure, been wearing it since the moment I finished it!! It is very comfortable!!

Yarn: Rowan Cashsoft Chunky, 50m/50g x 12 balls. 57% Wool, 10% Cashmere, 33% Microfibre.  Hook used: 6mm.

Ravelry - Shiraz Top

As you can see, I am driven to design and create, I have an idea and I just got to run with it!!!

I'm hoping to find the time to write down my patterns, I have already had a request on instagram!!

Meanwhile, let me know what you are working on at the moment! What are your crochet (or knitting plans} for the New Year?

Feel free to leave your comments below.... :))

Peony Crochet Cowl

Hello Blog friends,


I am trying to get back to regular blogging, so I will keep these posts more bite size!!!

Since I have already finished two projects in January, I want to show them to you.

For today I will tell you about a new lacy cowl I made over New Year's Eve.


The Peony Cowl


I went through my stash to look for some mohair yarn and came across two balls of Wendy Air Mohair Yarn, each weighing 25g.

I wanted to make a soft and fluffy cowl, ideal for this cold weather!

I started to experiment with different stitches and came up with this enjoyable pattern.

The yarn is held double throughout, a 5mm hook was used.

Here is what my finished cowl looks like, it took only a day!

funkycrochet - Peony Cowl 01.01.2017

Cowl details

Starting with Fuchsia Pink colour

Finished size: 60cm circumference x 29.5cm deep.

Wendy Air: 70% Mohair, 30% Nylon. 200m.

This yarn feels extremely soft, even worn next to the skin.

Here is the link to my Ravelry page, I will add more details at a later date.

Ravelry: Peony Cowl


Hope you find this useful for inspiration, please let me know what you think!

I will tell you about my second project in the following post!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU!!!

Hello!!

It's been a long time since I last posted.... I hope you are doing ok?!!

Since it is New Year's Eve here, I thought how much I would like to wish you all the very best for the coming year!!!

Here is a gallery of some of my favourite makes - they are all from November and December! I made a lot of Xmas presents myself, so it has been a busy time!

And here is a gallery of 'selfies' from the last few months, together with me wearing some of my makes!

So, for now all that remains to say is:

HAPPY NEW YEAR - Wishing you all the best!!!

Quick knit - totally triangular scarf

Welcome back!


Just a very quick post to show how I managed to finish my knitted triangular scarf! I already wore it!!!

If you missed my initial post about this project, don't worry, you can find it here! It also contains the pattern link

I decided to add some matching beads to my scarf

Finished! With beads added!

Selfie time with my youngest daughter 

Hope you enjoyed this short post, maybe you fancy knitting a similar triangular shawl, it is not difficult to make (garter stitch, increase and decrease stitches).

Of course you could also make a crochet version!!??

What do you think?

As always, I enjoy reading your comments , thanks for those you left on my last post! Feel free to comment below... :)

Return to crochet - Rowan Denim Granny Stitch Shawl, Tahiti Bubblegum Shawl, a book, Granny Square Day 2016

Hello my lovely blog friends,


Thanks so much for your kind comments and patience! And welcome to my latest followers!


I can tell you that my plaster cast came off last Tuesday and that I got a wrist brace now so that is a great help. I'm also doing physiotherapy and I still got a long way to go to regain full movement and strength in both my wrist and elbow.

Still, the good news is that I started back with doing crochet, hooray!!


Return to crochet

The day before I broke my arm, I had actually started a new project - a granny stitch shawl.

Last week I picked up where I left off and I have been working on it since.


My Rowan Denim granny stitch shawl


Can you believe it that I never made an actual granny stitch shawl before? I had some wonderful Rowan Denim yarn (made from cotton) that will fade when washed, just like actual denim fabric.



Starting my Denim Granny stitch shawl on 15.07.16

back to work on 23.08.16



3 different shades of Denim yarn



Crocheting on the balcony with Jasper last night

It is such an easy and soothing pattern to follow. As you can see from the photos, I had started with the slightly darker shade of Denim (6 balls), then I had only 1 ball that was called original Denim which was a tiny shade lighter and now I got some even lighter Denim, all from Rowan. I love that it gives an ombre effect! I'm using a 4mm hook.



A second Bubblegum Shawl - Tahiti Bubblegum Shawl

Does this surprise you that I also had to start a new Bubblegum shawl ? The pattern by Katia Loeffler (see Ravelry) is brilliant, and I knew that I wanted to make another.

Here you can see the new beginnings:

3 different shades of Tahiti yarn by Schachenmayr

Yarn cakes!



Started 28.08.16

What else has been going on? Well, I ordered some crochet and knitting books. This one deserves a mention:

Agnieszka Strycharska - Crochet Blocks (60 east to make motifs and 15 stunning projects)

As you can see from the cover image, Agnieszka also loves colour and is a crochetgirl after my own heart. The photography in this book is beautiful, each motif is given a large colour photo with written and graph pattern! As I prefer graphs, I can skip straight to them and get started.

The yarn she uses is Natura cotton which is a lovely yarn to work with.

On Saturday morning I just picked a motif and tried it out!

In the third photo you can see some of the book, and the two blocks that I made with the cotton I had at hand! It shows how versatile these motifs are, they look great in different colours!

I want to play about with more of these motifs!


Oh, and something else happened - International Granny Square Day!!!


As before, on instagram crocheters all over the world could contribute by photographing one or more of their granny squares under the tag #grannysquareday2016.


Foolishly, I didn't want to miss out despite my painful broken wrist/arm/elbow and so I made just one square! For me it was a real achievement at the time.

My granny square made on 15.08.16

Here is a collage made just from a small number of all the contributions, isn't it amazing?

You can find more images here on instagram under #grannysquareday2016







Ok, I can see you starting to look a bit tired over there, 4 subjects are quite enough for one blog post!!!

Don't worry, there is still more to come and you can look forward to some interesting posts! I'm hoping to write up a pattern tutorial and I am thinking about doing a give away!

Meanwhile, take good care of yourselves and your loved ones, enjoy the little things wherever they find you and love life!

I hope you found a tiny bit of inspiration and would love it if you manage to leave me a comment, I enjoy reading them all. And hopefully I can manage to type some comments to leave on your pages now that my arm is slowly healing.

Rhododendron flowering in August!!