King's Day Hats

I must have found these somewhere 2016.  In the colours of our Dutch flag, red, white and blue, but with the orange brim they are a typical thing to wear on the national celabration, King's Day. I photographed them in december to sell for the celbration in 2017. Without success. Yet I sold one on a market once, but forgot when or where. It can't have been on the free market on the day itself as shifting a few days earlier after Queens Day April 30since 2013, it had always been too cold for me and my friend to go for it. Sure thing is I got no more than €0,50.

With the day coming up this Saturday I dug up the remaining three and brought them to the thrift shop. Happy to make place. Though from moving around and storage their condition has slightly deteriorated, I saw one regular customer falling for their specialty. It's real straw, hand made, vintage and nothing like Chinese cheap plastic that is sold commercially. He happily walked out with two paying €1 each.

Now I'm going to post a Facebook message for the shop hoping the last one will go tomorrow. If not so be it. But the the sale made my day today.

My Dress Dummy II And A Free Scarf Pattern

I still had to show you a better picture of my dress dummy.

Now before I give you the secrets of this lovely scarf let me tell you how I fixed the foot of the dummy. Well very simple: with a cast out old floor fan foot and an aluminium rod, probably a curtain rod. Stuck the rod in the foot and placed the dummy over it (she has a hole underneath, rod sticks through the whole body). Done!

The scarf is crocheted in a bow or net stitch consisting of 5 chains per bow, but you can vary that number as long as it's uneven. The stitch is most commonly used for triangular shawls or net bags, so I thought I'd do something different.

For this scarf I used the small batch of mohair yarn I bought at the Queen's Day Market in 2005. I used a hook number 3,5 (mm) or D (US). With ten bows per row I got a width of about 20 cm or 7.85''. But you can make this design in any gauge you like, make a swatch if you want to measure out the width exactly. The beads are plastic with large holes. A present from a friend who emptied her attic when she moved abroad.

ch: chain stitch

sc: single crochet

Ch 40 (or any number devidable by 4) + 5. Make a sc in ch 37 (so skipping 3 from the beginning point). * Ch 5, sc in the next 4th st. Repeat from * till end of row. * Turn the work, ch 5, sc under the middle ch of the previous bow. Repeat from *. Make as long as you like. Crochet one row with 3 ch (only first bow is still 5) instead of 5 to make a straight edge. Cast off and work in loose ends.

Fringes: thread 10 (or equal to the number of bows in each row) beads on your yarn. Start to work from the sc of the last row, * ch 10, pull up one bead, ch 1 around it, ch 10, sc in the next sc. Repeat from *. End in (not under, to keep it better in place) middle ch of the 5 ch bow). Repeat on other side. Note that you're working from the upside down here and your ending is in ch number 40 of your starting chain.

The non-crafty among you can purchase the scarf in my Etsy shop.

Queen's Day Finds

Despite Thursday's tragedy street partying went on as usual almost everywhere. Even with modern communication it takes a while before such information reaches all corners and I guess by then half of the country was already too drunk too be stopped or to be in shock. I suppose the real blow came for many when during the next day(s) the number of deaths (seven including the driver) was announced plus the fact that this was officially now confirmed as an attempted attack on the royal family.

As said in my last comment (previous post) I'm not a royalist at all, but it killed my festive mood and especially my pride over that story I wrote for the Etsy blog. So I just had to go over there and announce the premature end of our beautiful celebration.

But when I arrived in the park to see the boys I found they knew not much yet and I heard the usual noises coming from town as if nothing had happened. So from there later on the BF and I went for our tour for market leftovers as every other year. This time I mainly looked for books because since last August I have a venue at Bol.com to sell them on line. Collection was quick and easy. First corner we found the leftovers of a book seller and I loaded up my cart with about 50 copies. About half of them turned out to be good for the shop, the rest will go to the 'exchange box'.
Further on we found some clothes from which one was a good sweater for unraveling. Nice blend of material too: 60/40 cotton/acrylic. Plus a nice reusable zipper. Then I decided that was enough and we went home to suck in the news reports.

Queen's Day 2009

Today we're having that wonderful party again in Holland. For this year's celebration I had the honour of being asked to write a story about it on the Etsy Blog in 'The Storque':

http://www.etsy.com/storque/handmade-life/celebrate-orange-koninginnedag-dutch-queens-day-april-30-3829/

If you want to know more about how I will pass the day check my previous posts on the subject. I sure hope to come home with a lot of great finds tonight!

ADDITION (2.15 pm): I'm sorry to report that just before noon local time here a bizarre car crash near the bus of the royal family happened. At this moment all festivities are being slowed down and will be cancelled altogether during the afternoon...

Queen's Day 2008 (and More Clothing)

Last April 30 was our national celebration again. If you don’t know yet what Queensday in Holland is all about see my earlier post about that here.

I used to love to scour the flea market, but these days I can’t stand crowds anymore, so as usual we stayed home, just enjoying the holiday while the rest of the country was out celebrating. But like every year, towards the end of the day we ‘do’ a few streets near our neighbourhood to taste the party atmosphere and to see what goods departed vendors have left behind.

As it is I’m still in the process of a giant decluttering of my house so I didn’t want to take too much. With so much stuff found over the past few years I can afford to be selective. But it’s a tradition now that we bring our Queensday Trophy home. It’s our way of celebrating.

As always there were lots of books, but I didn’t even stop to look at them. Though in passing I saw some interesting titles (one Oriana Fallaci for example). If you remember my post about books you know I still have a complete case to read. Well I haven’t had much time to read with all that blogging :D and I haven’t even finished my first Ludlum yet (progressing though!).

Then when we took a left turn into a narrow street (I think it was the same one where last year I found my orange H&M tank top) I saw a trash bag full of textiles that seemed worth looking at and I picked out a this fine long jeans skirt and an all natural looking clutch made of some sort of rope.

I’m not so keen on these bleached out leg marks but in reality they don’t come out as strong as on this photo. When I tried it on it turned out to be the stretchy fabric, so it feels a lot more comfortable than it looks too. Oh and yes, amazingly as always, it’s just my size and fits me like a glove. It’s not even too long for my short legs!



The clutch isn’t for me, I don’t use that type of purse. Just plain it was a bit dull, but with one of my crocheted flowers in a matching natural colour added it’s perfect to sell in my Etsy shop as a reclaimed/handmade item.

The BF picked up a black beret somewhere (he’s hat-crazy) and that was that and we went home. We’re not greedy…

Nooooooooooooooo… Just after writing my concept for this we went on our Sunday trash excursion and I came home with two large trash bags stashed full of clothing. They weighed a ton! At home I found out why. It was for 90 % brand new tightly folded clothing, some even with tags still on them, probably leftovers from a shop or so. It all smelled a bit musty from storing it for years in a humid place but still had that shininess of new fabric. Now what did I say about decluttering? Well I want to keep only the cutest items for myself, but there’s also a lot that’s not my style that I’m seriously thinking of putting for sale in my Etsy shop as well. Really gorgeous blouses and tunics! They don’t weigh much, so it won’t be too expensive to ship them overseas.

If you hadn't read yet about why I wear and collect discarded clothing you can find that post here.

Queen' s Day (including crochet tip!)

One great way of getting great cheap stuff is visiting one of the 'Freemarkets' held in most big cities (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Den Haag, Rotterdam among others) in Holland on the day we celebrate the birthday of our Queen, Beatrix. It's held on April 30, but that's not her actual birthday, but her mother's (Juliana). Beatrix' birthday is January 31, but we Dutch like outdoor parties, so when she ascended the throne in 1980, she decided not to change the date of our national celebration, simply because of the weather conditions.

There are all sorts of happenings all over the country, but the 'freemarkets' are traditionally the biggest attractions.

What happens? The centres of the cities change into one giant flea market, where anybody can sell whatever he wants, as long as it's not foods that could decay. It's our way of having a yard sale, only the whole country does it on the same day. Some people plan the whole year for it. Only commercial sellers have stalls or booths, private sellers who live nearby carry old tables out to the curb, others just display their stuff on a blanket or sheet.

The main park of Amsterdam (Vondelpark) is reserved for children only. See more pictures of Queensday in Amsterdam here. All US thriftshoppers who read this, believe me, you'd have the day of your life. I've come home with great buys and I've sat there myself and sold stuff too.

But I don't do either anymore. I can't stand the crowds nowadays and I don't have the energy anymore to get organized to sell. If it's a nice day, my BF and I go to our local park and sit there with friends and neighbours. But between five and six, when the market starts to close up, we go to the streets that are nearest to our neighbourhood to pick up stuff that sellers who have already closed up left behind. It sounds a bit unfair or just too stingy, doesn't it? But the thing is, a lot of sellers really don't care to take their unsold stuff back home. And at seven the city cleaners come to shove it all in the big trucks. So, here we come to rescue it...

It's usually a quick tour through only one and a half street that results in four big plastic bags full of books and clothing. I'm sitting here right now in a Kappa sweater that I got that way. For my BF we once found a brandnew black jeans jacket. And it's not that I just want free stuff. Two years ago a guy was just packing up, but understanding what we were doing told me I could take anything I wanted if I gave him two Euro's. He had some interesting yarn that was worth that alone, beautiful turquise mohair and thick strong cotton) but we also ended up with loads of books, a lamp, a fruit bowl and more. I haven't done anything with the lamp yet, but it turned out that there was a working energy saving bulb still in it. Those cost between four and ten Euro's!

This is what I made with some of the yarn I got that day. These potholders are for sale in my Etsy Shop if you're interested.

To end I want to reveal to you how I make these perfect flat rounds. It's maybe not a secret but I made some alterations to the patterns I found in books. Please read the whole thing before you start, as there are several options.

You start with a chain of 4 which you close with a ss.
First row 6 sc.
Second row double those to 12.
Third row a double sc in every second stitch. You get 18 stitches.
Then you keep adding 6 stitches every row, but to avoid getting a hexagonal shape, just must alternate the places where you put the doubles.
That means: forth row, a double in every third stitch, but you put the first double in the FIRST stitch.
Fifth row: a double in every fourth stich, as normal.
Sixth row, a double in every fifth stitch, but you start in the SECOND.
Seventh row, a double in every sixth stitch, as normal.
Eighth row, a double in every seventh stitch, but start in the THIRD.
Got it? And so on.
Of course if you do want a hexagonal form, put all the doubles on top of each other.
If you work in a spiral, make sure you have the starting point marked.
If you work in circles (which I do), here's a trick to make the seam less visible:
Closing the row, you normally make a ss sticking the needle under the chain stitch which started the row. Instead, stick your needle through the loop, not under it. This way you get a flat seam, otherwise it will lay on the work as a thick line. Don't forget to start every row with that cs if you want to work in closed circles.
If the work doesn't get flat enough to your liking and gets a slight cone shape, try starting with 9 stitches, which you then double at once to get 18. The rest is the same. Note that working in a spiral or not may make the difference to this, as the seam in fact adds one stitch to the row. My advice: spiral start with 9, circles start with 6.
But it also depends on the material you use and your personal 'handwriting', so it's a matter of trial and error.

My favourite decorative border is a sc worked from left to right. Literally translated from Dutch it would be the 'lobsterstitch'. If anyone knows the proper name for it in English, please let me know! To finish the potholders off I make a loop from 10 cs, with 16-18 sc worked around it.

sc: single crochet, ss: slip stitch, cs: chain stitch