Latest Forum Posts by: dievomdeich

Dear Tatjana,

Belated happy birthday and all the best for the year ahead. 🌷🌼

Warm regards
Marlies

A very big thank you also to Michaela and Jana.

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you for sharing your beautiful photos.

Get the “undead” out of the basement and check whether they still work spookily. 

And there it is...

There was actually even a second one there. 

Well, you still have exactly three months left, Inge. 🎄😊

Such beautiful roses, Petra. The wild rose, in particular, is a sight to behold.

Over the last three days, we’ve only had about five drops per square meter, but today we’ll get a bit more—though it’s still nowhere near enough.

That looks really good on Steffi, Inge.

Dear Steffi, that’s her problem, not yours. You’re one of those people where people assume that “no” actually means “yes.” I’ve been there too, which is why I can understand why you feel bad about it.

I guess you just have to accept that manipulative people exist and learn not to blame yourself. The best part is: it gets easier with time! 🤗

Very cute, Inge. My Amelie is going to be jealous.😉

I actually always wear socks, though I might wear sneaker socks once in a while. If I don’t wear socks in my shoes, I immediately get chafing or blisters. I only go barefoot when it’s really hot or when I’m wearing flip-flops.

I made three beef roulades with a delicious sauce, potatoes, and braised bell peppers.
Enough to eat for two days, and I froze the rest.
I had the leftover sauce with pasta on Tuesday.

Your can dress looks great, Inge. I crochet around cans. It’s also a great way to use up scraps.

When I made the footed bag for my nephew, I used a piece of plastic tubing for the loops. It worked great. That was all the rage over 30 years ago, but today I’d only use it for decorative items that aren’t meant to be played with.

Thanks for your comments!

Just saw this at the neighbors’ place: seven (!) bulging yellow bags from three people with no pets.
Garbage pickup is every 14 days.

Best regards, Marlies

My new kitchen curtain still needs to be blocked and starched.

That looks really good on Peterle, Inge.

You’ve sewn a very pretty little dress there, Inge. The panties are, of course, very important 😉
Your Steffi looks adorable.

Love, Marlies

That turned out great, Inge. Your husband is truly an artist.

Best wishes, Marlies

My oldest wool is a skein from 1948/49. My mother-in-law used it to knit sweaters and socks for my ex-husband.
I also have two bags of blue and beige bobbles that are about 30 years old.
I still have some leftover yarn from sweaters I knitted or crocheted for my daughter 40 years ago.

Thank you so much, Monika. Things just go a little slower with all these breaks.

Best wishes, Marlies

What a cute little bunny, Inge. Someone’s going to be very happy.

Get well soon—take good care of yourself.

Love, Marlies

You’ve all been very hard at work and have finished some really beautiful pieces.👍👍

My scarf has already come in handy. At 190 x 40 cm, it keeps my head, neck, and chest/back warm.


My colorful curtains are finished, but unfortunately the hooks don’t stay on the window frame. I’ll have to get some others when I go to Stade in early March. I hung one on the kitchen window (which is wider).






I haven’t gotten around to the hat yet—I stumbled upon instructions for a door wreath...

Love, Marlies

Dear Julia,

Warm congratulations and all the best for the new year of your life. I hope you had a wonderful day.

Best regards
Marlies

Hi Anja,
thanks for the good wishes. The two of us are certainly in good company with Michael Schumacher, Sergio Leone, and J.R.R. Tolkien.😉😉

Dear Monika,
thank you so much for your kind words, too. 😊 I hope all this “shoveling” comes to an end soon. My shoulder’s already giving out 🙄, and I have so many plans to work through my mountains of yarn.

Warm regards
Marlies

Once you’ve learned something, it stays with you—even after a long time, it’s tucked away in some corner of your mind.

When I was in school, I knitted a lot for my little sisters. Then I switched to crocheting and didn’t knit for a long time.

Eventually, I started making socks, sweaters, and ponchos, and since I’ve been with CP, I’ve made lots of dishcloths (including for curtains, etc.) and blankets.
The cable patterns from back then probably don’t come as easily anymore, but I could still manage them if I tried.

I’m glad I could help, Christina. I find this list handy, too.

My grandma taught me to sew buttons onto a thread loop. This is especially helpful for jackets and the like.
Dental floss also works well for sewing on buttons.

As long as it hasn’t come off completely, you can repair it. It works pretty well up to about a third of the way, maybe even halfway, but if it’s more than that, it won’t fit as well if sewn by hand.

Drawstrings are easy. Pull out the old elastic, thread the new one back in using a safety pin, sew it together, and you’re done.

The boundary with the neighbor. There used to be a beautiful beech hedge here, almost two meters high. Trimming it is a lot of work, so it’s gone (just at the end of February), even though the birds were already flying around with nesting material. My landlord isn’t too concerned about that...




Looks like summer on the patio is off the table 😥
This is what was left after the clearing operation. It’s supposed to stay like this until fall, and then the rest will be removed. With such a clear-cut job, they might as well have taken everything away at once.
Supposedly, it’s better for the house… Sure, now the sun, rain, and storms hit it directly—not to mention the loss of noise and privacy protection.



         The mirabelle plum blossoms are starting to bloom.




My corkscrew hazel is still standing—we’ll see when they pull that one out.



A few actually survived the caretaker’s operation from last year.

A good pattern must be well-organized and free of spelling errors. Photos are nice and sometimes helpful, but please don’t include one for every single stitch.
Information on yarn, needle/hook size, yarn usage, yardage, sizing, required stitches, and other materials should be clear.
A crochet chart and written-out instructions would be desirable, as would a printer-friendly version. I bought a 34-page pattern that was crammed with unnecessary photos and ads. So I typed out the actual pattern text myself, and lo and behold: one A4 page would have been enough.
Free patterns are wonderful for testing an author’s style. If every author did that, I would have saved a lot of money by now.
Over time, you find your favorite authors here and look forward to their new releases.

At home, I wear my old sweaters that are three sizes too big. That’s fine here.
As long as they don’t hang like a wet sack, I’m okay with it. But if they’re too baggy… oh dear, the Michelin Man says hi. That just ends up emphasizing what you were actually trying to hide.

Just like last year, we couldn’t hear a thing today. The day before yesterday there was an alarm, and you could hear it clearly then. Everything’s fine here, though.

This one is just too cute to resist hugging! You did a great job, Annabell. 😍😍

Did you follow a pattern, or is this your own design?

Best regards
Marlies

Thank you so much, Marion. I just couldn’t say no to him.
Yes, Niklas is going to be a spiral-sock kid. I’ve tried on several pairs of shoes. None of them fit right. But I haven’t given up yet...😉

Thanks to you too, Monika. With his brown hair, he looks completely different than when he’s wearing a hat. Whether he’s wearing a hat or not, when I look at him, the sun comes out.🤩
I’m experimenting a bit now. With pants, the back actually needs to be a little higher than the front. Since his right arm is bent, the sleeve doesn’t need to be as long as the left one.
Well, I’ll get it right eventually.

Knitted cables come in so many variations and look great. But I don’t really like knitting with those auxiliary needles anymore.
I haven’t crocheted a cable pattern yet, but I’ll probably give it a try on a baby cardigan or sweater.

Petra, that looks really cute. 🤗

Every kind of handicraft is a form of therapy. I used to be more of an avid crocheter. I only knitted on rare occasions.
Then, thanks to the lovely dishcloth patterns and especially Sonja’s beautiful blankets, I discovered knitting for myself. Since I knit relatively quickly, I get quite a lot done, and it relaxes me (a little more than crocheting).
I recently read in a “Rentner-Bravo” magazine that knitting has even been proven to lower blood pressure.

Dear Elke,

belated happy birthday from me as well.
I hope you had a wonderful day.

Warm regards
Marlies

Nautical colors are, of course, a must for a girl from the coast. 😉
I like things to be colorful, but I also really like wearing black—either all black or mixed in with other colors.

Over the last two school years, I’ve had some adventurous color combinations (a yellow blouse, a green, hand-knitted miniskirt, and dark purple knee-high socks). A classmate said to me back then, “Ben, when I look at you, I go blind.” But he survived it just fine...
I’ve also knitted and crocheted colorful pieces for my daughter and little sisters.

I’m done with resolutions. It’s so depressing when yet another resolution bursts like a soap bubble.

These days, I only make short-term plans. You should live every day as if it were your last anyway. That’s been working pretty well for me for the past year.

Have a wonderful rest of your Sunday.
Best wishes, Marlies

Thank you so much for your kind words and greetings. I was really happy to receive them.

@ Marita  No, for me Christmas and my birthday were separate, thankfully. One of my sisters was born on Grandpa’s birthday. She always had to take a back seat because “you never know how long Grandpa will live.” When she was little, of course she thought it was awful.

@ Ina  Congratulations to your husband and all the best. My son’s birthday is today, my granddaughter’s is on the 9th, and my daughter’s is on the 11th.  But I don’t have any contact with them anymore.  When my son was born, my parents and siblings came to visit. One sister (6 at the time) said to me, “Where did you hide the baby yesterday on your birthday?” You can imagine the laughter...

Once again, a huge thank you to everyone who sent congratulations for the kind words and many good wishes.🤗🤗
Best regards
Marlies

You can also create patterns using the front loop and the back loop, for example, my pumpkins.

      

I’m working on Sonja’s “Wunderwelt” blanket right now. With a little perseverance, I’ll finish it today. Then there are still a few little projects I’ve started lying around. Ideas for my big box full of “Venia” are already swirling around in my head. I need to sort them out and put them down on paper so I can get started.

Thank you so much for the beautiful photos, dear Petra! Yes, it’s amazing just how many varieties of pumpkin there are and all the things people build and craft with them.

I’m going to make some pumpkin soup and then can a few jars. I love pumpkin bread. I think you can put just about anything on it. Unfortunately, my oven is broken, and a new one isn’t in sight.

Oh, Ina, what a lovely find. That’s a real little gem.🤩🤩

I remember something like that from my grandma and her stove. Everything tasted so much better when cooked on it.
Later on, I had a stove like that, too. It was always cozy and warm in the kitchen, and there was always a teakettle sitting on top of it.
Those were the good old days.

There aren’t any haberdashery stores here anymore either. Just like at Ruth’s, there’s a small selection here at the supermarket or drugstore. I try to get more specialized items in Stade, but most of the time I end up having to order them online, unfortunately.

Home economics class at school was a nightmare. The girls had to come in extra in the afternoons, and the boys would mess around by the window because they had the afternoon off.
My home economics teacher said I’d never in my life be able to make a straight potholder. (Mine ended up being triangular 😁) But she also never showed me what I was doing wrong.

When I was about 12, my younger sisters were born. That’s when I got interested in crocheting. My grandma taught me some things, and I figured out the rest by reading instruction booklets. I even crocheted a christening gown.

My son was in preschool and was really encouraged there. He then came up with the idea that he wanted to learn how to crochet and knit. I taught him a lot, and he threw himself into it with enthusiasm.

When children want to learn to crochet on their own, you should encourage them. Forcing them to do it doesn’t accomplish anything.

That works great.

My dear mother-in-law always did that, and it looked great. Sometimes even better than before.

I’ve finished my diamond painting, except for a few tiny bits left and rolling it out.

Now I’m waiting for my sister-in-law to get her act together about the crocheted curtain.

Yesterday I went shopping early because I wanted to let another load of laundry dry outside. No sooner had I gotten home than the first downpour hit. Starting at noon, it rained very heavily almost nonstop. On top of that, there was a dreadful thunderstorm that lasted nearly 1 1/2 hours because it wouldn’t move past the Oste River. Thunderstorms and I—we just don’t mix.😨
Today doesn’t look very promising either, and it’s cooled down quite a bit.