Friday, November 8, 2013

The Best Of HEMA Breiboek



getting my vintage crochet style going with The Best Of HEMA Breiboek. to all of you who don't know HEMA, it's a famous Dutch store. hmmm how can I describe it best. it has been around for a long time, you can get anything there from cute stationary and washi tape to bath towels and curtains, baby and kids stuff, clothing and skin care products. cake and sweets, candles and tableware. all pretty. it's the store Dutch expat ladies miss the most when living abroad. Do you get the picture? 

by the way, I am sorry non-Dutch readers, I am afraid the book is in Dutch. as far as I know it won't be translated to English. it might be available in their German, Belgian and French stores but I am not too sure.

anyway, HEMA used to carry yarn and related products until 1992 as I read in this book. and recently they have been reintroduced. yay! they published their own pattern books for knitting and crocheting from 1976 till 1992. now you can get The Best Of HEMA Breiboek that includes, I quote, "timeless classic designs, as well as designs that suit today's fashion".


they even released a new small collection of yarns and one of them is a 100% fine cotton, worked on needle size 3mm. I picked a vintage/ traditional looking set of 5 colours to give some patterns a go.


there are projects ranging from giant capes and baby suits, to pillows for your couch and potholders.


just to try them out, I started crocheting the potholders listed on the last page of the book.
so cute, don't you just love that flower design? and the colours, quite vintage looking but also, they get me a little in that jingle Christmas mood…


and of course I had to get my accidental matching nail polish in the picture, haha.
with these potholder patterns they recommend to use double the yarn and that will make them of course in a bigger and more practical size. the ones I made suit my nieces' play kitchen better I think.

the yarn seems nice, just a tad less shiny and soft as the Catania I am used to. but it crochets nicely and comes in fun colours too. this is the link to the full HEMA online knitting and crocheting collection. I used the colours donkerblauw, turquoise, beige, wit en rood.

have you found the new HEMA collection yet? how do you like it? 

wishing you all a happy weekend! 


5 comments:

  1. I had no idea! I love Hema! They have a great craft section! And a great sense of timing ;-) ! Thank you for the tip!

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  2. It is interesting to see how the styles and tastes vary in different countries, I'm not sure that I have seen designs like this in English books/magazines. Thanks for sharing this, very interesting to see. xx

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  3. Well, I wish we had that HEMA here too! But we also enjoy seeing you play around with their stuff ;-)

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  4. Geweldig, dat is nostalgie voor mij. Is dit een nieuw boek? Wist helemaal niet dat ze dat nog maakten. knufzz....peebee

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  5. I have the feeling that I'm missing something really cool, isn't it? ;oD
    happy weekend, xxxx Ale

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~ sweet thank you for your lovely words ~