Marion Verloop

About me

Category: ‎‌Marion Verloop

  • Silver Play Button

    Silver Play Button

    On February 19, 2015 I made my first video. I didn’t know anything about making videos back then (and it shows 😂).

    I wanted to show somebody in a Facebook group how to start a Mochila, made the video, posted it on YouTube and that made it easier to share.

    About 1,5 years and a few videos later, my husband heard that I had 30.000 views on my videos. He said: You have to turn on monetising. Our sons said: That is a lot of effort for only a few bucks.

    My husband turned it on anyway and I kept making videos.

    At first I couldn’t make a decision about what language I should speak, Dutch or English, so I didn’t speak at all. Of course it also took some guts, to start talking in the videos. Cause lets be honest, it is strange to hear your own voice. Finally I decided to speak English, so more people could understand me.

    Nowadays all my videos have closed captions. That means that on the YouTube website you can turn on (good quality) subtitles in many languages. Unfortunately this option is not (yet) available in the YouTube app.

    On February 15, 2021 I reached the incredible number of 75.000 subscribers. That made me so happy and proud. My sons then told me that when I would reach 100.000 subscribers, I would get a Silver Play Button. I said: A WHAT? I had no idea what it was, so they showed me a picture. 

    For the past year I kept a close watch on the number of subscribers. There were moments that that number grew very fast and then there were moments that it didn’t go so fast anymore.

    February 1, 2022 was the day that I reached 100.000 subscribers. I kept refreshing the YouTube Studio app to see the number of subscribers jump from 99.999 to 100.000 😅

    On Februari 22, 2022 I received a creator award, The Silver Play Button. I am so proud.

    In my videos you see my hands and you hear my voice. What you don’t see is all the work my husband, Cor 😘, does to improve the quality of the videos. Thank you for all your support hubby.

    I also want to thank everybody who subscribed to my channel, everybody who watches my videos, everybody who follows me on Instagram/Facebook/Ravelry and everybody who bought my patterns. Without all of you, this would not have been possible.

    YouTube Silver Play Button awarded to crochet and weaving creator Marion Verloop.

    I hope to publish more videos to help you create a beautiful Mochila.

    Thanks everybody 🙏🤗

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  • Sometimes you feel like you need to make a gift.

    Sometimes you feel like you need to make a gift.

    In November 2019 I started designing and making coasters as a present for my friend Marieke Kranenburg for her new weave studio.

    Marieke and I often give weaving lessons together. We used to do this in her kitchen and living room. 4 students in the kitchen and 4 in the living room and Marieke and I running back and forth between kitchen and living room to help everybody

    Last year she got a great opportunity to buy part of a building, adjacent to her backyard. She transformed it into a beautiful weave studio, big enough for 12 students.

    By the time the studio was finished, our country was in lock down because of Covid 19 and unfortunately Marieke had to cancel the opening of the studio.

    In July it was finally possible to start giving weaving lessons. The only downside was, it was only possible to have 4 students at a time because of social distance. So she did not need my help to give the lessons 😔

    I did see pictures of the studio, but that is just not the same as seeing it for real.

    Last week I was finally able to go to Marieke to admire the studio and give her the coasters for her studio. She did a great job, it has become very beautiful.

    Normally I show everything I am working on to Marieke, so it was very hard to keep the coasters a secret.

    Handmade crochet coasters and a small crochet basket — a personal gift for a new weaving studio.

    When the coasters were finished, I thought; This would be a nice beginner project. So I decided to write a pattern for the coasters. That turned out to be a lot more work than I anticipated. The pattern is available in English and in Dutch and it is the longest pattern so far (42 pages).

    All the coaster patterns have written instructions for 10 and 12 increases and I have also added graphs for 10 and 12 increases with the increases marked.

    I want to thank my son for making the graphs for me.

    Reference: Coasters

    Marieke Kranenburgs new studio

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  • Congrats with your 50.000 YouTube subscribers

    Congrats with your 50.000 YouTube subscribers

    Hi Marion,

    Congratulations with your 50.000 YouTube subscribers!

    A long time ago you knitted a lot. You made a lot of nice things like, scarfs, gloves, dresses, socks, sweaters, animals and bags.

    Later on you started crocheting Mochila bags. They were hard to make and you did not know how to do it, so you figured it out yourself and used internet for that too.

    A collection of hand-knitted animals, including various soft toys, displayed together as examples of past knitting projects.

    After a while you wanted to help other people and made the video “Mochila, the beginning, 8 increases”. It was so hard to get a flat bottom with 8 increases so an instruction video was a good idea. As far as I can remember you started the bottom all over again at least 15 times.😫 Put books on it and even jumped on it to get the bottom flat (or is the last one mine imagination😉).

    On 19 Februari 2015 you proudly uploaded your 1st YouTube video.

    After a few month you told me how many people already viewed your video and I was surprised. This video had been viewed 35.000 times. At that time I thought 35.000 different people watched it, but that was just a noob thought. Now we know, people watch instruction videos more than once to figure out how they have to do it right.

    Anyway, you had many ideas and made more videos to help others.

    Your crocheting technique improved and you started to add new things to the Mochila bags like a Kumihimo cord, crab stitch, double Moss stitch and you made several kinds of bands for your Mochila bags resulting into new videos.

    A lot of people struggle with the yarns when crocheting and an amazing amount of people like your video “Mochila, how to prevent the yarns from tangling”.

    At that time your English was already very good (especially compared to mine (96 versus 7)) but talking in your videos was a step too far for you, so I added a survey to one of your videos. The outcome was clear. By far the most people preferred you to talk in the videos. Yeah, I know, you were not happy with my survey🤪

    B.t.w. later on I also regretted it, as I had to put a lot more effort to edit the videos, especially the sound.😒

    And now? I am still very proud, so proud I write this blog to you.

    Between 2015 and 2019 you published 54 videos and more will come. It looks like a lot of people appreciate your videos and 50.016 subscribed to your Youtube channel.

    Love,

    Your hubby🤗😘

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  • Painful fingers

    Painful fingers

    In my videos you see me wearing a thumb ring.

    I get many question about my ring. For example:

    Wow, what a great ring. Where can I get one?

    Oh I think I need a ring like that, I have … Where did you get it?

    Can you please take off that ring? It is distracting.

    My ring is not a fashion statement. It is a brace, a beautiful one, but still a brace. The ring is called a Silver splint. The joints in my fingers and arms are hyper mobile, this means that they can bend the wrong way.

    For many years this was no problem. I even liked it as a kid. I could do some amazing tricks with my fingers. Now that I am getting older, some joints are starting to hurt.

    Close-up of a hand wearing a silver splint ring on the thumb, used as a brace to support hypermobile finger joints.

    Some of my fingers bend 90 degrees backwards, my husband’s fingers bend zero degrees backwards. We used to argue about who is ‘normal’. Of course we both thought we were normal.

    A few years ago my fingers started to hurt, so I went to a specialist. Unfortunately she told me, my fingers are not normal 😔 I still believe my husband’s fingers are also not normal though😄

    When I do not wear the thumb ring, I can not crochet without pain. I have more rings, but in the videos I only wear my thumb ring, otherwise you would only see silver 🤨 then it would really be distracting.

    On a daily bases I wear another ring, on the dip joint of my right hand middle finger.

    When I crochet with thin yarn, I wear 2 more rings on my left hand index finger. One for the dip joint and one for the pip joint. These joints used to bother me a lot, but now that I wear the thumb ring, those joints don’t hurts so much anymore.

    Scary, right.

    Close-up of a hand wearing multiple custom-made silver splint rings on the finger joints, providing support for hypermobility.

    Silver splints

    My rings are custom made by a company called WeDesign. I am fortunate that my health insurance payed for the rings.

    I have seen silver splints on Amazon. Some look good, but I also saw some very thin versions. I don’t think they are strong enough to last more than a day.

    If you think you need a Silver splint, please do some research. You don’t want to spend money and then be disappointed.

    A Silver splints can be used for several reasons, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Arthrosis, Hyperextension and luxation of the joints due to Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Hypermobility Syndrome, muscle dystrophy, collateral ligament instability and Multiple Sclerosis.

    If you have any questions about my rings, feel free to ask me.

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  • From stuffed animal beds to Mochila bags.

    From stuffed animal beds to Mochila bags.

    Many times my husband said: Why don’t you make a site. I always said something like: No I wouldn’t know what to put on a site and I am not going to make a blog.

    Finally my husband decided to make a site for me. So here I am writing my first blog post 🙂

    When I was little, my mother was always knitting. When my grandmother came to visit us for a few days, she was always knitting too. Once she knitted a sweater for me in 3 days. I loved that sweater. It was orange and it had a hoody. I wore it for years. I was really mad at my mother when I found out she threw it away. It still looked great in my eyes 😃

    When I was 5 my mother taught me how to knit. I knitted little sweaters and beds for my stuffed animals. Later I knitted sweater for myself.

    When I was about 15 years old, I wanted to learn how to do cross stitch. My parents didn’t want to buy it for me. They said, finish what your sister started, when you still like it after finishing it, we will buy new materials. And so I finished what my sister started. It was something with violets.

    After that I made a lot of cross stitch paintings.

    When a baby was born in the family, I made something with cross stitch. I made paintings, a growth chart and a baby hooded towel. I embroidered on the hoody of the baby towel.

    Stuffed animal beds.

    Stuffed animal beds. (I still have them)

    When my brother and sister in law announced that they where going to have twins, I started knitting again. I bought circular needles and made cute stuffed animals for my nieces.

    In 2011 my mother taught me how to crochet.

    In 2014 I started making Mochilas. I have been addicted ever since.

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