Holland Designs is Born

With the arrival of my baby girl, Holland, in March, 2008 (so named due to her father's Dutch heritage), I became a stay-at-home "mum." I was absolutely delighted to have a little girl because now I could crochet her pretty baby dresses and cute pink sweaters and booties, etc. After the 1st few weeks of adjustment, I found time to get out my crochet hook and began my 1st project, a "Holland Designs Original", my Pineapple Lace Party Dress.

I have been crocheting since the age of 5 and have been designing my own patterns since age 21. Holland became my little model and after I'd designed something for her, I decided to e-publish my patterns and sell them online. A friend told me about the fabulous website, http://www.etsy.com/ and so I set up shop at http://www.hollanddesigns.etsy.com/

Since that little beginning, it seems most days I have a crochet hook in hand and some project or design in the works or in my head. I am generally a "left-brained" artist...but I guess when you begin to focus your mind on being creative, the right-brained side can really be activated. Creating a new pattern is definitely a right-brained activity, but being able to then write up the instructions for someone else to follow and use--that's a left-brained task, so lucky me, I've got that covered! :)

The neat thing about designing is hearing from the crafters who buy my patterns. One of my designs, my "Flower Petal Mary Jane Booties" was created after a fellow crafter asked me to create a custom Mary Jane bootie pattern for her to sell in her online craft shop. She was a little overwhelmed by all her orders--they became a "must have" item and she was having to raise her prices just to keep customers away! She was praying for another pair of hands to keep up!

I've been selling my patterns online locally in New Zealand and have been learning a bit of the geography of my new home. I'm orginally from the States, so I'm also learning a bit about crochet terms outside the USA--refering to hook sizes in mm and "wool" in plys rather than weights. It's all very interesting and educating. :)

So, I've begun a blog to talk about my latest designs and meet others who love to crochet. Feel free to convo me and talk about all things crochet. :)

Lisa van Klaveren
Crochet Designer
http://www.hollanddesigns.etsy.com/