Latest Forum Posts by: Bastelfan

Good morning everyone,

I tried out a new stitch pattern again in between, which I found online. It’s so easy, and the effect is huge.

I hope I can explain it reasonably well.

You always crochet 1 round of hdc (half double crochet) and 1 round of sc (single crochet) inserted lower down.
You start with a round of hdc, next row 3 ch, insert into the top of the stitch from the previous round, pull up a loop and immediately insert 1 stitch lower into the stitch where the hdc was crocheted, pull up a loop and draw it out long, then pull the yarn through all 3 loops.
Always alternate rounds 1 and 2.
If you then crochet two squares like this and sew them together, you have a super-thick potholder or something similar.
You can also use the back as the front, and maybe thread cords or colorful ribbons through the stitches there.

This is what it looks like (sample piece)

Good morning, everyone!

Yes, I’m up early today. I just couldn’t sleep anymore because of the full moon.

I baked again yesterday. I tried adding the apples directly into the batter this time. It tastes delicious.
My cake turned out a little flatter because I pinched off some batter for that tiny little cake in the background.
It was my husband’s birthday yesterday, which is when I got the idea. I love doing things like this to surprise others, even if it was just the two of us celebrating.

We’ll have the rest today.

I’m still on reduced hours due to the pandemic, so I’m at home, and I’m here on the forum pretty often. It’s my only connection to the outside world.
I feel right at home here.

I’ve heard that spring-like temperatures are prevailing in Germany.

Unfortunately, we can’t enjoy any sunshine here in Norway. It’s thawing, everything’s wet, there’s leftover snow, and the weather is foggy and gloomy. That doesn’t exactly tempt me to go outside.
I want spring, and sunshine, and to sit outside. *looks sad*

I wish you all a wonderful afternoon

Every time, I’m excited to see what you’ve been working on.
Arni, your Olaf bag looks absolutely awesome. I love Olaf—he always looks so funny. You did a great job with it. That would be another great idea for one of my crochet projects.

Ines, wow, your bathroom turned out really great—you wouldn’t even want to leave it. Everything’s so beautifully decorated, with colors that go together perfectly. In my mind, I’m picturing a warm bubble bath—lying in the tub—and letting my gaze wander around the room—and enjoying everything you’ve created. All that effort and perseverance paid off. I’d love to have a bathroom this pretty, too. That idea with the box shelves is great. I think
the butterflies are pretty. Are they made of fabric or metal? Just looking at the pictures of your bathroom already makes me feel at ease.

Monika, your DF project is looking really pretty already, and that cute mouse motif—great.

I’m back to working on my mosaic crochet project. I’ll post pictures later when it’s finished. So far, I don’t know what it’s going to be yet.

Karsdorf (cement plant)

All the best on your special day today. Good luck, good health, and let yourself be pampered a little.

Warm regards

Hi everyone,

oh my, Marlies, that sounds pretty intense. I can believe that’s really taking a toll.
It’s pretty wild how some people behave when they’re shopping.

It’s a good thing we have this forum here—we can share our thoughts, get things off our chests, and motivate each other… that helps a bit.

But what I miss most of all is the personal closeness with my family—hugging, doing things together, going for walks, or this or that…
WhatsApp is only a small consolation.

I’m still on short-time work until further notice; it’s been extended through May. How on earth is all this supposed to go on? I have no idea.

Hey Alela,
your checkered scarf already looks great. The pattern is really easy to make out. It would even be a good pattern for me to get back into knitting. It’s knit and purl stitches plus a seed stitch pattern, right, if I’m seeing it correctly? I like that.
I’m curious to see what it looks like when it’s finished.

Best regards

Hey Josefa,

When the craft project is finished, you feel happy to have accomplished or completed something again. 
Since my hands can’t sit still, I start planning the next project right away. However, the selection is so huge that it’s hard to decide, which is why I sometimes work on several projects at once—depending on what kind of yarn I still have in stock, since I’m on a “yarn diet.” For now, that means only smaller projects are in the running.

We’ve had gloomy, foggy thawing weather these past few days. So I thought I’d bring a little bit of spring home.
So you can enjoy it too, I’m posting the bouquet right here in the middle of the forum. Here you go

Weimar

The way Sonja explained it, that’s how I’d read it too. I actually crochet a lot from English patterns.

“bs” could be a bobble stitch, i.e. a bobble stitch or popcorn stitch.

Good luck

Best regards

Hanau

Thank you so much, Marlies. I really enjoy doing these kinds of word search puzzles every now and then, too.
I’ll print this out when I get a chance and take my time searching for the words.
Everyone could time themselves to see how long it took them and then compare results here.

Have fun!

I do try to avoid plastic from time to time, but it doesn’t always work out. It starts with grocery shopping. For example, when I buy apples here, they come in these cardboard containers, with another layer of plastic wrap around them. For a short while, they were sold without the plastic wrap, which I thought was more eco-friendly.
When we go shopping, we always bring our own washable bags so we don’t need plastic bags.
They even have trash bags here for organic waste that decompose—very practical.

Nuremberg

Have a lovely Saturday afternoon, everyone

Mmm, your apple cake looks delicious. Good idea to fold the apple straight into the batter or grate it. I’ll try that sometime. Thanks for the tip

Thank you for the impressive photos. I’m always interested in things like this—how things used to be.
That sewing machine at the very bottom of the three-photo set looks a lot like my mom’s “Pfaff.” I practiced on it once when I was a kid—it wasn’t that easy with that belt drive. But it was interesting.

Thanks, Petra. Warm regards back to the Bavarian Forest.

Although I wouldn’t mind some spring blooms either. It’s still a while until they bloom here.

I found the video. Thank you.

It smells delicious in here.

Thanks, Akela, for the recipe. Sounds good. I’ll give it a try soon.
But I’ll use this dry yeast. Can I use regular sunflower oil too?

Your marble cake looks absolutely delicious. I’d love to try baking that one too.
Afternoon coffee without cake just isn’t the same.

All these delicious treats are making me hungry.

Hey Akela,

your bread looks delicious. Three of them, no less.
Just today I also found a video about baking bread. Was it a Russian video, and did it require a lot of prep time?
It was more along the lines of white bread. It was pretty interesting. The guy in the video managed to bake two loaves.

Well, enjoy your meal!

Have a great weekend

Today we’re having muffins again, fresh from the oven

Thank you so much. I’m sure there will be even more flip-flops. *hihi*

Petra, your knitting project already looks great. I love that wavy edge. I can’t wait to see how it looks when it’s finished.

Dresden

I wish everyone here a lovely afternoon and a relaxing weekend.
We still have plenty of snow.

Monika, you wanted to know what’s different about the new crochet hooks.
For one thing, the handle is longer, so I think they fit better in your hand. My other ones are much thinner and shorter. I just couldn’t get the hang of the Addis.
The new ones in the case have a flatter handle—not round. I’m getting along just fine with them.
See the difference for yourselves

It looks so beautiful again today. When the snow glistens in the sun like that, it looks so amazing.
Have a great weekend, everyone!

Rostock

oh dear Wollbaerli, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you that it's a negative result and that you haven't caught anything despite the vaccination.
Here, it will still be a while before it's our turn to get vaccinated. This week it's the 80-year-olds' turn.
I'll be so relieved when we can return to normality again. Everything still has to be taken with caution. The only thing that helps is distraction with crafts.

Thank you very much for your feedback. Yes, crocheting little things in between is fun. You get quick results, but now I'm thinking about which granny square I'll crochet next, or maybe something completely different. We'll see.

Arni, Your chick parade looks great. It makes me look forward to Easter and spring, which are still a long way off here.
Ina, Your new balls of yarn look interesting. My favorite is the orange one. I haven't worked with virgin wool yet. What does it feel like? Can you crochet with it too? Virgin wool is hand wash only, right? How thin is it? I could imagine making a lace crochet scarf from the orange one, with lots of openwork pattern and still soft and cozy, I think.
Monika, Your summer sweater for Sternchen looks so sweet. I like that color gradient too. Summer can come now.

I wish you all a lovely evening

Hi everyone,
you’ve all been so hard at work again. My new book is finally here—in English, though—and I got started right away. I’ve been crocheting with Jaerbo and Catania yarns. I’ve also added a few slippers to the mix. I’ll keep those for now and use them as bag charms or on my keychain.
My new crochet hooks (including ergonomic ones) arrived yesterday—I couldn’t get the hang of the others either. These ones have longer handles.

Here’s what things look like at our place today. I only crocheted a few small things today since my muscles are sore from shoveling snow.

Drammen (the next major town near us)

I feel much the same as Monika. The beautiful colors are slowly running out, and the amount is often only enough for small projects. Those are usually good for blankets, pillowcases, or using up scraps, like the flip-flops… since I’m also on a yarn diet. I’m trying to hang in there a little longer.
Sometimes I find myself eyeing new yarn, but then I know for sure that if I bought any, the “old” yarn would just sit there unused.

I like to crochet often with mercerized cotton yarn from Järbo (it used to be Bianca yarn, but that’s no longer available), Schachenmayer Catania (I only have a little left—I bought it in Germany once), then these bobbles (a cotton and acrylic blend), and yarn from Katja (Jaipur)—
so mainly cotton yarn. The more colorful, the better—both bright and pastel colors.

I rarely crochet with dark yarn.

Velpke

Naumburg/S.

Oh dear, this makes me sad too now that I’ve read this. I only knew her as Elizzza, and I liked her videos. I also have patterns by her.
Now all her “little sheep” (that’s what she called her crochet- and knitting-loving fans) will be mourning her. I just can’t get over it. Rest in peace.

Wow, what a beautiful display of flowers. That really lifts my spirits in this cold weather.
Thanks for sharing—it gives me a little taste of spring, which is great.

A little something in between

Just a little something I crocheted again from these Amigurumi yarn balls. Super quick to crochet. I checked the time—it took me a good hour to make one flip-flop.
My husband snatched up the yellow-and-purple one right away because his road bike is exactly those colors. He says it’ll go on the back of the saddle.
I just couldn’t stop crocheting, which is why I made so many. The one with the flower on it is for me.

Here you go

Wow, I Googled it too. It’s amazing what this woman does—and especially how she makes it. And the result still looks authentic, not cheesy. Really good.
That’s actually high-level crochet art.

It would also be a great project for using up leftover yarn.

Thanks, Petra, for clearing that up for us.

Have a wonderful, creative weekend, everyone!

Hi hi,

Monika, your DF Easter bags look amazing. The effect is incredible. I like them.

Ines, your egg warmers are getting prettier one after another. They really make you feel like spring.

I can show something again too, a leftover yarn project. It really lasted right down to the very last stitch. I only had this one ball of yarn, not even quite 50 g. The handles are made from another leftover.
The ball of yarn looks so unassuming, and then while crocheting, the wow
effect
My question: I wanted to sew this flower on too—on the side or in the middle, or leave it off completely? What do you think?

Do you mean this, ines?
I made the pretzels in the shape of rolls. Same ingredients.
https://www.crazypatterns.net/de/forum/topic/136804/brezelrezept-von-marion
Hope it turns out well.

Hello dear nostalgia fans,

I found a few more treasures that were in my cassette box.
Among them were badges for “good knowledge,” “Collective of Socialist Labor,” and even old GDR checks.
A birthday card to me from my grandma, who has since passed away,
my old insurance card, and my car registration card for a Lada 2107 back then. Oh man.
The little metallic notebook was a gift from my aunt once (sadly, she is no longer alive either).

Hi everyone,

wow Sonja, your Easter bags look absolutely adorable. I’d love to just snatch them right out of the forum. So cute.
I can’t quite pull that off yet.
I’m already excited to see Monika’s results. They’ll surely look just like the original. She’s practically a pro, just like you.

That new hat for your husband is really something to be proud of. I mean, if your husband doesn’t like it, then I don’t know what will. It’s got a little pattern but is still understated—I definitely like it, even though I’m not really a hat person myself.

Well then, happy crafting!

Hey there,

Krea_Tina, yeah, I know what that is. I also like to write by hand, and when I take notes somewhere—like a baking recipe or something similar—I’ll copy it out in calligraphy afterward.

It’s true, we have so few opportunities to write these days. If I find a crochet pattern online that I might not be able to copy (sometimes that’s not possible), I write it down by hand. I have special A5 graph paper notebooks at home where I keep all those patterns.
Or if I’m drawing (those Zentangle or doodle drawings), I use these adult coloring books. So I have plenty of opportunities to hold a pen in my hand.
It’s a lot of fun.

Even back in school, I used to love drawing letters on graph paper with those colorful highlighters and adding sort of “shadows” with a black pen. I still enjoy doing that today.

Hi Belinda,
if it’s the Emily doll with the purple sweater, I have that pattern too.
The body is crocheted starting right from the legs.
So, crochet both legs, join them with a chain stitch, and keep crocheting straight up—that forms the body. Take another look at your pattern.
Otherwise, as Monika already suggested, write to the author directly.

Best regards

That’s lovely, Marion, how you’ve bundled up your little Mäx. With this weather, he definitely needs a warm sleeping bag like that.
We don’t have quite as much snow here (though there’s more further up), but it’s freezing cold. It definitely felt like -20 degrees, but at least we had some sun.

I can totally relate to you guys shoveling snow, and it makes me smile a little, too.
Spring is definitely on its way.

I always think it’s wonderful when you still have your autograph book.

Just like you, Marion, I had two. The first one (which was completely filled) got lost during one of our moves. It’s frustrating because it had the most beautiful pictures and sayings in it. I still haven’t found the other one. Unfortunately.

That makes me admire your old treasures all the more. Exactly—we used to collect and trade these pictures, especially if they had glitter on them.

Exactly, Marion—butter and jam on top; that’s how I like them.

Easter bunnies sound good. Thanks. I’ll make them.
I had to search for your recipe here in the forum again. I’d forgotten to write it down.

Since I didn’t have anything to go with my coffee, I quickly baked some. My husband will be home soon, and then we’ll really enjoy them.

I wish you all a lovely afternoon

Good afternoon,

Your snowy landscapes look really interesting. I can’t help but laugh because you’ve gotten more snow than we have here in Norway.
Today we have glorious sunshine and blue skies, which I love so much, but... it feels like -20 °