Latest Forum Posts by: Bastelfan

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So she went to the store to buy a yarn cake with a pretty gradient, but with so many options, how are you supposed to decide...

Theater ticket

“I can keep crocheting without a worry,” she thought.

"skirt pattern"

And so the gloomy thoughts and lint were blown away, and the wonderful bobble yarn she’d been searching for so long came into view, and that’s when an idea struck her...

Running shoes

A wonderful Wednesday, yes, because I still have the day off, and with this lousy weather (sleet, strong winds, and fog), I don’t have to go out today. So I can keep crocheting my tunic (photo coming as soon as I’m done). I’m not even sure yet if the tunic will turn out well (pattern from Crazypatterns here).

I’m going to enjoy the rest of the day until my sweetheart gets home from work, and then we’ll have a nice cup of coffee or cappuccino together.
And of course, I’ll be reading along here in the forum and getting some inspiration.
Have a wonderful rest of your Wednesday, everyone!

Right now, crocheting

This coloring trend has already caught on here in Norway, too. You won’t believe it, but I’ve already bought some of these adult coloring books—some of them I ordered online.

They have pretty designs—landscapes, animals, flowers (to color with fineliners)—and I also have a paint-by-numbers coloring book (the number corresponding to each color is listed on a color chart), and at the back of the book, there’s a picture showing what the finished artwork looks like.

I’m sure you’re familiar with those pictures where you have to connect the dots. I have one of those, too. I find them very relaxing to do in between other things, when my hands start to hurt from crocheting.

Of course, best wishes for the New Year are also coming to all of you here at CP from way up north. Have a great start to the year, and I hope the coming year will be just as full of creative ideas here at CP. Thank you so much for all your hard work creating new patterns.
It’s really fun to check in here, and everyone is so nice and helpful. Keep up the great work.

Warm regards from Norway
Andrea

Exactly—you have to make time for your hobby, even if it’s limited. It’s a way to “unwind” and “relax” at the same time. Otherwise, something’s missing.

That all sounds pretty delicious—it’s making me hungry just thinking about it.
There are just the two of us, and I have to work over the holidays, so we won’t be doing anything out of the ordinary. One day we’ll have rolled roast with red cabbage and dumplings; on New Year’s Eve, bratwurst with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes; and for the rest of the days, we’ll see. We also like to just have a mixed salad sometimes, or that good Norwegian salmon with rice.

I was born in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, lived in Saxony-Anhalt for a while, and now I feel at home here in beautiful Norway (near Oslo), with its fascinating nature, fjords, and waterfalls. The forest is right outside my front door. The air here is so clear, and this dry cold is more bearable.
But of course, I’m always happy when we visit Germany and the whole family—including the kids—is together again.

Belated birthday wishes from me, too

I’m 53 years young.
Young at heart, too. I just flip the number around and feel like I’m 35. I look younger, too. I’ll probably never grow up—I’m always up for some silliness.
I think the forum has a good mix of ages.

https://www.etsy.com/de/listing/71476205/grosse-rosarote-panther-ein-crochet
Here’s a crochet pattern in English that I found for purchase

I found this page. Give it a try.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/amigurumi-pink-panther

When you click the link on the page that opens, it takes you to a Thai website.

The explanation is this (I’ve already crocheted several patterns like that):
an “X” means 1 stitch (e.g. 3X means 3 single crochets), an “A” means to crochet stitches together, and a “V” means 2 stitches in one, so an increase.
But as for the head, legs... I can’t make that out either. It’s all crocheted in pink anyway.
Give it a try. Hope I was able to help a little.

Hey there, I just read this here. Well, I once tried embroidering a small design (a fish) with beads. I just used a piece of canvas (one with a slightly wider weave because of the seed beads) or some embroidery ribbon, and instead of doing a cross-stitch, I stitched diagonally—from one corner of a square to the other.
So, start from the bottom by piercing the fabric with the thread, bring it out at one corner of a square, pick up the desired bead, and pierce back through the opposite corner of the square. Continue like this row by row, just like with a regular embroidery design. Always stitch the thread in one direction; that way, the beads all lie in the same direction, which looks better.
I hope this explanation has helped clarify things a bit. Maybe someone else can explain it even better.

Best wishes from me, too—I hope you had a wonderful day.

Dear Michaela, my condolences as well. I just read about it. You’ll need to be strong tomorrow. After that, I hope you’ll be able to find some peace with a little crocheting or knitting.


At the moment, I’m crocheting the little Christmas elves by ursulapetra. I think they’re so cute. I’m crocheting them with thin yarn and a 1.0 mm hook, though. That makes them even cuter. The first one is almost done.

Thank you all so much. Yes, I had a wonderful day, and thank you for the inspiration. CP is just great.

Andrea / Bastelfan

Well, I’ll chime in here too. As I’ve realized, nobody’s perfect.
I’m pretty versatile when it comes to crafts and handwork, but there’s one thing I absolutely can’t get the hang of: knitting with a set of double-pointed needles—that is, with five needles, like the ones you use for socks, I think. I’m just too clumsy with them; the needles slip out of my hands, and the stitches often fall off.
I used to even knit lace and small cable patterns with circular needles. These days, I can only manage straight pieces—knit and purl—or simple triangular shawls or scarves knitted in knit stitches.

I prefer crocheting—that way, no stitches can fall off, and the lower rows don’t unravel too. Although I do think knitted items look better and feel softer.

I’m currently crocheting “Peppa” the pig for a coworker—it’s something she’s been really wanting. I wasn’t familiar with this character at all, so I had to Google it first, but I’m not really a fan of its overall shape.
Actually, I’d really like to crochet something for myself, so I have to hurry up and finish this pig to make someone happy.

Other than that, I’ve got several projects going on—otherwise, things would get boring.

This all sounds kind of familiar to me, too. It’s a good thing I’m not the only one who feels this way.
You start something, then your enthusiasm wanes because you’ve found another cute pattern, and then I get all fired up and want to try out the pattern right away. So the rest gets put on hold again.
Now there’s a 70th birthday coming up, so I have to finish that gift, and yet another UFO gets put aside. It all adds up over time.
Somewhere I still have an unfinished teddy bear lying around that just needs to be sewn together.
A half-finished amigurumi UFO is sitting in a bag because I didn’t write down where I need to continue crocheting, and I don’t want to unravel it yet. So one thing leads to another.
Once you’ve finished the UFOs, the joy is all the greater—and then the next pattern is already underway. :-)

It’s a really great idea—this way, the work of pattern creators is rewarded in some way.
A post here in the forum discussed the creation of patterns and just how much work goes into a pattern like that. That certainly deserves some recognition.
There are already some great patterns here. A heartfelt thank you to everyone for that.

That’s true—variety is a must. You just work on whatever you feel like doing at the moment, or maybe there’s a celebration coming up and you need to whip up a gift quickly.
My relatives really appreciate homemade gifts because they come from the heart.
The range of crafts is wide, just like in this craft forum. The great thing is, you can fully express your creativity and share it with like-minded people. It’s totally awesome.

As I can see, I’m not the only one with so many hobbies after all.
Thanks for all the nice replies. Reading through these reminds me of a few things I used to tinker with a long time ago.
There was this Keramofix stuff where you could cast plaster figures and then paint them.

I also have a sewing machine at home, but I rarely use it—just for mending clothes.
Though I do have quite a few fabric scraps; I’ll need those for the linings of my crochet bags.

Decoupage was also one of my old hobbies, as was crafting with those little clay pot figures, embroidery with thread, or beadwork.
I used to make bracelets and necklaces with those bead looms. Oh well, it never gets boring—it’s just that eventually you run out of space for all your craft supplies.
And next year we have to move. You know what that means. :-)

I’m more of a night owl myself. I don’t go to bed early and I don’t get up early.
Getting up early isn’t really my thing, but I have to because of work.
I can’t fall asleep before 11:00 p.m.—I have to be really tired first. I lie awake for a long time until I fall asleep, and when I do, I’m awake again after 2–3 hours.
After work, my eyes start to close when I’m sitting on the bus.

The funny thing is, though, when I have the day off, I actually want to get up earlier so I can make the most of the day and pursue my hobby. It’s crazy, isn’t it?

I just wanted to show my first amigurumi (picture), and now I’ve ruined the whole forum. Sorry, this is so embarrassing.

It’s nice to hear that you have several craft hobbies, too.
Oh yeah, Window Color—that’s right, I used to do that a lot with my kids back then. We’d stick things everywhere: windows, doors, the glass porch in Grandma and Grandpa’s garden, the bathroom tiles at home...

I have some Fimo clay too, but I haven’t found the time to work with it yet. Back in the day, it was Suralin.

The “artichoke technique” was also a big thing for me at one point (crafting with ribbons and Styrofoam), or tying friendship bracelets (the regular kind)—Kumihimo wasn’t around yet back then.
The things we try! Not much has actually changed—just the abundance of great options and inspiration.

Something went terribly wrong on my end—how can I delete this?

Do you know that feeling? You already have enough hobbies, and then suddenly you find something new.
There are these coloring books for adults. I’ve always loved to color, and now I’ve bought one of these books. Everything else is on hold for now—it’s time to color. It’s incredibly relaxing, and you can still be creative.

My question for you: How many craft hobbies do you have? Do you switch things up every now and then? It’s good to keep things varied, and you’ve got more than enough ideas.
I hope I’m not the only one who feels this way. As long as it’s fun.

I also wish you all the very best and send my warmest congratulations on your special day today. Let yourself be pampered and enjoy the time with your loved ones.

@ Pe-Ka
That sounds interesting too, with the model helicopter. My husband still has a little quadcopter like that; he flies it every now and then, equipped with a GoPro camera, and we get wonderful pictures from above (discreetly, of course, not filming any neighbors or anything, just the landscape and us). There really are some amazing things.

Here in Norway, the landscape is ideal for shots like that. The gorgeous waterfalls.
The forest starts right behind the front door, with a babbling spring right in the middle.

There are so many beautiful posts here that come from the heart and bring tears to my eyes.
Oh, and I’m definitely more of a family person, but since I moved to the far north, all my friends, parents, relatives, and of course my own kids are far away.
So I’m really happy in moments like these when we can Skype and see each other again and know that everything’s okay. When I’m on vacation in Germany, I give everyone a big hug right away.

There are so many happy moments—like when you finally have a vacation again, can relax, don’t have to stress about work, pull out your crochet projects, enjoy a leisurely breakfast with your partner (with eggs, warm rolls, salmon, cappuccino or coffee…), go on a bike ride together… Happiness has many sides :-)

I just found these posts and read through them, so I’m not bored either. With all the cute patterns here on CP, you can always find something you want to crochet.
No sooner is one crochet project finished than you already have the next one in mind. My to-do list is soooo long—there just aren’t enough hours in the day for everything I’d like to do.
Besides crocheting, I also have my beading hobby, which is currently on a “break.” One thing at a time. Then I get orders from coworkers asking me to crochet something, and every now and then there are milestone birthdays coming up, so I make greeting cards (which, by the way, was my third hobby: crafting with paper, beads, and embroidery thread), and that’s practically how I use up the leftover materials I have.
Every now and then I need a break because my hand hurts from all the crocheting, but I want to get soooo much done. But don’t worry—I don’t stress about it; on the contrary, it’s relaxing.
After all, I have to use up all that yarn.
But the best part is that my sweetheart has his own hobby too (model building). So we both craft, and in the end we check out each other’s work or give each other tips—like, “How would you do that?” or “Do you like this color better, or that one…?”—or we swap craft supplies that we can use right away. For example, snap hooks for wire, or nylon thread for old CDs (which can be used as the bottom of a bag). It’s actually pretty funny sometimes.

I’m joining in late as well. Happy Birthday. Hope you had a wonderful day. All the best to you
“Gratuler med dagen,” says the Norwegian.

Andrea

I think early 2017 is a good time to start.
I’d also like to participate—without granny squares. I’m not very good at designing my own patterns.

I just found these posts here and read them with interest. So I’d like to join in, too.
I’ve read about these kinds of CAL projects online before, and I think it’s a great idea. There were pictures, too.

Most people would probably prefer a granny square blanket, but I’m leaning more toward a crocheted blanket with rows of different patterns. You just need to specify what number the stitch count should be divisible by so that the pattern works out. That way, you can create a patterned blanket in all sorts of colors.
Or a crocheted bag. The latest trend is tapestry crochet (two-color patterns made entirely of single crochet stitches), e.g. squares, triangles, or hearts (crocheting with color changes) [image removed]

I’m not that good at designing my own patterns yet, but it would be worth a try.

It does get very fiddly with small crochet projects, that’s true, but I do it just like Mario (Haekelkeks). I just count the stitches and make tally marks, or note which row I’m on.

Oh my goodness. This is the first time I’ve seen this. Oh dear, that really doesn’t work at all. I don’t like it, but the patterns are original.

Hi everyone,
I came across this forum through a CP link in another forum and recently signed up here. I’ve already found what I was looking for. There are so many lovely things to admire here.
If I have any questions... should I post them on the forum? Thanks in advance.
Best regards, Bastelfan

 

Yes, berli, it worked this time. Thank you

Oh, thanks berli, I gave it a try.

Hey, I just came across this post. I had the same problem crocheting with fringed yarn. It’s difficult, it doesn’t look great, and you have to hunt for the stitches. Since you crochet the right side row and wrong side row the same way, you never get that fluffy effect. When knitting, for example, you knit the right side row and purl the wrong side row as the stitches appear—that’s how you get the fluffy effect.

Best wishes, Bastelfan

Hi there, I’m new here and don’t know how this forum works yet.
My question is: in the “Gallery” section, are we allowed to post pictures of our crochet projects, even if the patterns aren’t from Crazypatterns but were purchased from other shops?

Best regards, Bastelfan