Latest Forum Posts by: Bastelfan

Thank you all. I was happy to do it.

Monika, no, I didn’t win anything. The ticket cost the equivalent of less than 3 euros. It was a total waste. I would have been happier with some candy.

I’ve been following along with this mug gift thing. They even have the names of the months on them. I’m so happy for you, Monika. It really is a lovely gift. Enjoy your coffee in them.

Warm regards

Well, I don’t want to get involved here, but I’ve also bought patterns from Polly and Paul, and I haven’t had any problems. I have to stick up for Polly on this one.
We’re like one big family here—everyone respects each other—and I find your tone very hurtful. There are other ways to express your frustration.

These pictures were taken in mid-December, when I went to Oslo to pick up my Julegave (Christmas gift) from the hotel—brace yourselves, it was a scratch-off ticket



Best wishes from Norway
Andrea

First of all, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas.
Here’s what it looks like where we are right now. These photos were taken one day before Christmas Eve.
A December walk along the Drammenfjord. The dark photos were taken against the sun—that was intentional.

   

I used to embroider a lot of cards with thread art like this; now I do it every once in a while.

Your card looks really chic—not too “overdone.” The recipient is sure to love it.

Happy birthday today—stay healthy.

Best wishes

Hi everyone,
it’s amazing how quickly you’re finishing your projects.

Monika, I’m thrilled—that looks great. I really like the dark-and-light-blue color combination. I can’t wait to see the finished hat.
ines, your yarn has such a pretty color gradient, and it looks so cozy. I would definitely have crocheted a cozy scarf or a triangular shawl with it—I love those shades of purple.

So keep on crafting, everyone, and enjoy your coffee, stollen, or cookies.

Warm regards from me

ines, I’ll join in with the congratulations. Your cake looks delicious—I’d love to try a slice right now.

Diana, pretty new profile picture, I like it.

Best regards
Andrea

No, I didn’t eat it all. There’s still enough left for everyone.
Over the next few days, I might bake that sheet pan gingerbread again.

Tomorrow I’ll prepare our rolled roast for Christmas, and the day after tomorrow I’ll pre-cook the sauerkraut and red cabbage so things don’t get too hectic.

Have a good night, everyone!

I’m so happy about that. Here you go

Hi Josefa,
I admit, I don't have one at all, even though there are various versions and beautiful shapes.
Sure, it annoys me when the ball of yarn rolls off the table. As a cheap alternative, I use regular plastic containers. I have a tall round one with a Christmas motif; a Bobbel fits in there too, and that works really well.

Best wishes and have a lovely afternoon

My bundt cake is fresh out of the oven. The whole apartment smells like it. For a change, I didn’t bake cookies.
Even the sun is coming out today. We’ll enjoy it later with our coffee.

That shop probably doesn’t even exist anymore. I can’t find it either.

Ines, your chef looks great, too.
Thanks for the feedback. I wanted to show you this newspaper duck here—it was from an English pattern.
As for my test piece, I don’t know what to do with it yet.

But I wanted to show you this as well. It actually came together by chance. It’s actually two UFOs: a little star and a gingerbread man’s head. With the hat on, arms, and legs adorned with beads, my little star man is complete—made with glittery yarn.

The blanket looks really great, Ina. The subtle colors go together perfectly. Did you knit each row with a new color? I could also imagine this as a runner in the hallway or something similar.

Hope your Stollen tasted good :-)

I found this online. I’ll call him Fridolin. Done. He looks kind of funny, doesn’t he?

I just finished a little Christmas decoration as a gift for our landlord. She always gives us a little something, too. I don’t think I can go wrong with this. Just add a little card, and it’s done. The little toadstool really spices things up. I still had some decorative moss left over.

Good morning, everyone, or good afternoon

Crafting is really wonderful—and when you can bring joy to others with it, it just makes you feel so much better.

Oh, little Nala the kitty is just so adorable. I love cats, and little ones even more. I hope she gets used to her new surroundings quickly.

I’ve finished another sample piece. This is the pattern by Streifgetier, the SnowWhite scarf. That’s 50 g crocheted so far. Unfortunately, I only have one skein left. My main goal was to test the pattern—I’d tried it before, but it didn’t work out so well. But now

I did some research myself and looked up “temperature blankets” online. It’s pretty interesting.
Here in cold Norway, we’d probably only use “cool” colors because it never gets that hot. :-)
But I had an idea. You could put together a color scheme on a scale of 1–12 and use two dice. Every day, you roll the dice once, and whichever number comes up—that’s the color you’d crochet or knit. It’d definitely turn out really colorful.
It would make for a fun forum CAL for everyone. At the end, everyone shows off their finished blanket.
I imagine that would be a lot of fun.

I have the entire bottom row of our Kallax unit filled with yarn. That’s 6 of these fabric boxes full. Sorted by yarn cakes, cotton crochet yarn, thin crochet yarn, leftover yarn, unfinished projects, and crochet magazines.
So it’s easy to keep track of. That’s a lot of yarn by my standards, though it’s slowly dwindling thanks to my “yarn diet.”
I actually take up much more space with my bead boxes and accessories.

Thank you all so much for the positive feedback. I always crochet these squares together—it’s more fun than sewing them together.
I’m already thinking about what to crochet next.

Monika, your flamingos already look great, and they’re so neatly knitted. I can’t wait to see the final result.
ruth, your penguin and the little pig look so cute, even with the baby—awesome!

Well then, I wish everyone a cozy evening. See you tomorrow

Bye-bye
Andrea

unfinished cardigan finished

Here are my crocheted pieces before they’re finished

You’ve all been so productive again. You’re really making me curious about this double-faced knitting. I looked into it for crocheting too—knitting seems easier to me, but I’m a bit out of practice with knitting. I’ll stick with crocheting for now.
But I have to tell you, my bath mat project using leftover yarn is finally finished. At one point I almost gave up, but I bravely persevered. Some of the leftover yarn was really just barely enough for a few rows.
I’m going to add a non-slip
rubber mat to the back, which I’ll then sew on.
Here’s the finished piece.

That’s lovely, Marion. Just give it a try, and I promise you won’t be able to stop because it’s so much fun once you get the hang of it.
I also crochet a lot from photos because the great patterns inspire me.
I’m already looking forward to seeing what you make.

Best wishes and have a lovely week
Andrea

Good advice was hard to come by. But...

Thanks, Ines, for the seltzer tip. I know that from seltzer cake—it turns out nice and fluffy. I’ll try that next time, but for now I had to bake another batch of my S-cookies—they were all gobbled up. Cookies are just sooooo delicious, and they disappear fast.

Well, Ina , I don’t know either. Maybe your scale is broken :-) :-)

Thanks for sharing. I like your mushroom better than mine. Your mushroom cap looks more natural, and the decoration is lovely. Great!

the needle broke

I didn’t check in here for just two days, and so many great things have been created.
Monika, your teddy bear Oscar looks cute in his new sweater. The colors and the pattern—great.
Ina, your capes look absolutely gorgeous, and that pretty ball gown on the middle Barbie. I’d love to be a model for you, too. Awesome.
Bergli, your suitcase full of slippers looks so funny. Hope you have good sales.

I’m still working on my project—crocheting with leftover yarn. Now it’s time to crochet around the edges and then join the individual squares together. It might turn into a bath mat. We’ll see. So I still have some work to do.

Dear Josefa,
and everyone else here in the forum, I also wish you a lovely Advent weekend, with homemade cookies, little candles on the table, the scent of mulled wine, cappuccino, or a winter tea blend in the air, or the fireplace crackling away.
Make yourselves comfortable, keep your needles clicking, listen to Christmas music, and so on…

With warm regards from Andrea

wow Monika, your Oskar is getting a really smart sweater. It reminds me of a camouflage look. Looks great. What is the yarn called? It looks fantastic knitted up.

You have all been so busy again. I’m still using up leftovers. I crochet a bit here and a bit there, depending on what I feel like doing. My yarn stash is only shrinking slowly. That’s a good thing too; then it will last me a while longer.

Wishing everyone a lovely, relaxing weekend and already a happy 2nd Advent.

Best wishes from Norway

I open door 18, and inside I find a big, real “Dresden Stollen”—mmh, delicious

in front, and suddenly

Good morning,

Arni, your reindeer looks great with the string of lights—and it’s so big! How much stuffing do you need for something like that, roughly? I only crochet small things.
Monika , those socks look pretty. Your friend is going to be so happy.
Ina , I hadn’t even thought of the idea of a crocheted saddle blanket. It looks great.

Well then, I wish you all a pleasant Thursday. The weekend is coming up soon.

I’m so glad I was able to whet your appetite. I used a yeast dough similar to the one for apple turnovers.
The pretzels are, of course, unfilled and therefore a bit dry, but with the sugar-cinnamon mixture they’re nice to eat. Well, we like them.

Here’s the recipe for you to try: (I got 2 baking sheets out of it) about 40 pieces, depending on size.

300 g flour
150 g quark      First put the dry ingredients in a bowl,
1 packet vanilla sugar and 2–3 tbsp sugar  then mix the quark, oil, and milk with the         dough hook
40 g oil .
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
40 ml milk

Roll long strands on a floured surface and shape into pretzels (don’t place them too close together on the baking sheet; the dough will still rise)
Place the pretzels on the baking sheet (line it with parchment paper or dust with flour), then brush the pretzels with a little water and sprinkle a little sugar-cinnamon mixture over them. You could perhaps also brush them with egg yolk and then add the cinnamon mixture. I’ll try that next time.
In the oven at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes (convection)

Then good luck

I’ve been baking again. I tried out a recipe: quark pretzels sprinkled with cinnamon. I’ll serve them with coffee. I haven’t tried them yet—they’re still warm. I used the quark yeast dough.

Door 4: I’d like large Bobbel yarn cakes in gorgeous pastel colors

her memory made

Good afternoon, everyone. You’ve all been so hard at work again.😉

Oh, Ina, I had to smile at Oscar’s felties, too—brilliant inscription. He’ll surely be happy about that.

Here’s my first test piece—a two-color c2c. I’m not quite satisfied with it yet.
How do you guys manage the color change so it’s not noticeable? Do you have a trick? I have to carry the second color along, don’t I?

Ina, hmm, potato salad and sausages—we always had that on Christmas Eve, too. It’s quick to make and tastes great. It was almost a tradition, or that fricassee—I didn’t like that one because of the capers.
Akela, I wanted to try that once because we can’t really buy dumplings here the way they’re made in Germany. My husband would really like to have some for Christmas.
I don’t have a grater or a press either, but I do have one of those juicers—and that should work (to grate the potatoes finely), since the water practically runs right out. I won’t need to squeeze them. It’s worth a try.
I make my own mashed potatoes, too. So, if the dumplings turn out well, I’ll send you a photo.

Have a nice evening, everyone!

Just saw this—I’d also like to belatedly wish you a happy birthday, good luck, and hope everyone is—and stays—healthy. Hope you had a wonderful special day.

Hi everyone,
yes, winter can be so beautiful—especially when the sun is shining too. That’s become a rare treat for you. I’m happy for you, and for the kids it means running around outside.

Petra, good question. We live between Oslo and Drammen. So it’s about a half-hour drive from Oslo, if there’s no traffic on the highway.
The funny thing is, often when we drive 10 minutes from our place to the next town, there’s already snow there, but nothing right outside our door. It varies depending on the elevation.
Last year around this time, there was already snow. Things just change. I don’t need any snow just yet.

Have a wonderful evening, everyone, and enjoy the rest of St. Nicholas Day and the second Sunday of Advent!

Oh Petra , you’ve got such a cozy little spot there. I’d love to be a guest there too, just like Monika. The crackling of the fireplace can be so soothing. Put your feet up with your crochet project, maybe with a glass of mulled wine—though here it’s only available without alcohol. Unfortunately.

So the two of us will also be making ourselves comfortable at home on the sofa, maybe watching “Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella” on DVD—that movie’s a must at Christmas, even though I’ve seen it so many times already, but who cares. No one’s
coming over. I’ll decorate my little potted Christmas tree a bit, and we’ll have a plate of Christmas treats for the two of us. For Christmas, I’ll roast our “Juleskinke”—it’s a kind of rolled roast—and I wanted to try making authentic Thuringian dumplings myself, along with red cabbage. I’m not sure about the other days yet. Whatever the fridge has to offer.
As Petra already said, it’s really just a day like any other. This year, everything is “more subdued” anyway because of COVID-19. I haven’t really gotten into the Christmas spirit yet—I’ve put up a few decorations and baked some cookies, but other than that, it feels kind of strange this year.
All in all, it’ll be very relaxed. I’ll definitely be crocheting.

Warm regards from Norway

Hi Ruth, sorry. Belated happy birthday! Hope you were able to celebrate a little and had a wonderful birthday.

Best wishes
Andrea

Hi everyone,
thank you for your feedback. I’m really pleased.

Petra, wow, that’s a pretty nativity scene you have there. I really like it too.

Today is all about lazing around in this dreary, rainy weather. Gray and dark. It hardly makes you feel like doing anything.
I’ll read along a bit more here in the forum.

Wishing everyone a pleasant, cozy afternoon anyway.

Best regards
Andrea

You’ve all been so hard at work again. Monika, your sweater looks great with that touch of red. Really awesome.
I’ve only finished one little thing. I made a small pillowcase out of my mosaic granny squares. I’ll add a snap as a closure. Here’s a look at the front and back.

That’s right, Monika. You should enjoy the here and now—who knows what the future holds? None of us will live forever, so we might as well make things a little nice and cozy for ourselves while we’re still here.

They look really delicious, Akela.
It’s just the two of us, too, but we still polish everything off in no time. I’m lucky that I can eat anything and not gain weight. I’m a real “sweet tooth.”