August Projects and July Projects, Part 2: the Crazypatterns Crafting Group

Keep reading here:
September Projects: the Crazypatterns Crafting Group

Dear users, dear authors,
so here is Part 2 of the July projects.

You can read the earlier posts via the link.
July Projects and June Projects 2020: The Crazypatterns Crafting Group

UFO Week:
August 24–31, 2020
Awards ceremony
Early September 2020
More info to follow.

I’m currently working on my St. Nicholas stocking.
Maybe I’ll be able to finish it this month.

Are you ready for UFO Week?

Marlene, your St. Nicholas stocking looks promising. :)

Josefa, my UFO is already finished. Thanks to this thread, I no longer have any long-standing UFOs.

I wish everyone here a wonderful weekend!
Today I’m celebrating my 28th wedding anniversary with my husband, and this morning he picked this beautiful bouquet of flowers for me in our garden. He knows I much prefer something like this to any store-bought bouquet. :) Here are a few photos of it...

Monika, I’d like to offer you my heartfelt congratulations! Celebrate this day and enjoy spending time together!

The colorful flowers are beautiful! When you have such gorgeous flowers in your garden, you really don’t need to buy any!

You got a really beautiful bouquet to celebrate the occasion, Moni :)

Now I’m working on the foot.
This time, I’m going to embroider the word “Nikolaus” on it using the dark yarn.
I knitted it into the shaft.

Dear Monika, from me as well—heartfelt congratulations on such a wonderful special day. I wish you both many more beautiful years together—colorful and varied, just like the bouquet you received.

Ohh, thank you all so much for sharing in my joy and for your congratulations! :) I’m truly touched....
It was a wonderful day with beautiful weather and everything that goes with it.
Our neighbor and friend spoiled us with treats. And I even managed to get some knitting done, so the sleeve of Linja’s sweater is almost finished...
Yes, I’m truly happy and very grateful to have such a wonderful husband.

Marlene, I can’t wait to see your boot once it’s finished.

I finished the gift today. It won’t be needed until early next year, though. I just felt like crocheting a filet pattern and found this pattern here.
It’s a perfect fit—my friend is a camper.
It still needs to be blocked.

With “shadows” or without?
I’m undecided right now.

So, I think it looks better without the shadow. 🙂

Me too.

I actually like it better without it, too.☺

Marion, that’s so pretty! I’d like it too (as a camper) :)

Marlene, if by “shadows” you mean the red part, then I like it better WITH the shadows. It somehow stands out better, and the red goes well with Christmas.

Yes, Moni—that means the red embroidery thread.

Luckily, I still have a little time to decide.
If I do decide to join in, I’ll see which embroidery stitch would work best.

Until I’ve solved my St. Nicholas stocking problem, I’m working on my Persian Tile.
Current status:



Worked on these during the two weeks of vacation, plus half a little fruit net.

I’m in the process of crocheting my Persian Tile again.
The first version is made of cotton.
I’m currently working on the second one using a cotton-polyacrylic blend.

Now I just need to write the pattern.

Wow, you’ve all been so hard at work and have knitted some amazing things. Marlene, that looks fantastic. What are you going to do with it? Will they be coasters, or are you going to hang it on the wall?

Christina, you’ve been hard at work too—everything looks great.

I’ll be adding the second sleeve to Linja’s sweater tonight. Tomorrow I’ll start on the neckline. I’m not sure yet whether it’ll be a rolled edge or maybe a collar.

So, I have something to show again....

The first party favor for the kids’ birthday party. A Kinder bar or something similar will go inside. 

It’s supposed to be a fire extinguisher...
It could also pass for a fire hydrant 

I haven’t thought about that yet, Moni.

For now, probably as a coaster.
But it could also be hung on the wall in a picture frame.

I like the fire hydrant idea, Sandra.
Not everyone has one :)

Your Persian Tile has a really beautiful pattern, Marlene. How big did it turn out to be?

Sandra, I think the fire extinguisher is a great idea! I’m sure there’ll be plenty of “firefighting” going on at the birthday party. And Anton is the fire chief who tells everyone where the fire is!

And I’ve finally, finally finished my embroidery. It really dragged on toward the end. Time and again, I kept discovering individual little crosses that I hadn’t stitched yet. There were 74,700 crosses in total, and I worked on it for 11 months.
This is what it looked like in mid-September of last year:

And here’s how it looks now:


Now it just needs to be stretched and framed, and then it’ll go in my bedroom.
I’m proud that I stuck with it, but I won’t be doing any embroidery for a while.

At the same time, I was able to finish up a new pattern. May I introduce: Mauzi the Cuddly Kitten:

Dear Monika, I’d also like to offer my heartfelt congratulations on your wedding anniversary.
I knitted myself a skirt and a top. I thought the color was just great. There’s a tiny blue lurex thread woven into the yarn—unfortunately, you can’t see it in the pictures. 

When I click on the picture, I can see the thread shining through. The dress turned out great.

  The kittens are just so adorable. Is that a fluffy yarn?

Hats off to the embroidered picture. At 11 months, you really stuck with it for a long time. But it was worth it.

Sandra, your fire extinguisher turned out great as a surprise container for sweets. How many guests are coming?

Since I’m a big fan of granny squares, I naturally really like this one, too. 

These kittens are just too cute! I have to have them!

Thank you, dear Ruth :)

It measures 14 cm and weighs 14 g as well.

Wow, there’s really a lot going on here at the end of the month! I’m impressed!

Sandra, you’re making some really elaborate party favors. They’re going to be a hit!

Ruth, you’re definitely going to be crowned the queen of perseverance and diligence. That was an incredible amount of embroidery work. You’ve shown a lot of patience. And the result is truly impressive. Your kittens turned out very cute, too.

Dear Gabriele, thank you so much! :) Your two-piece set looks absolutely fantastic. I’d love to have something like that for myself, too.

Tomorrow I finally want to finish Linja’s new sweater. I started knitting the neckline today, but I unraveled it again. I didn’t like how it looked. Tonight I’ll crochet around the edge. Let’s see how that turns out. Then I’ll weave in the ends and it’ll be done. I want to get that finished by tomorrow. In August, I’ll start a new shawl for myself and a sweater for little Juna.

Ruth: That picture is amazing. You can be really proud of yourself.
The kittens turned out great, too. Very cute.

Gabriele: I could see the subtle sparkle, too. It looks very chic.

The last July project is finished

Fireman Sam with a 3.



Now it’s on to the fire-extinguisher gifts.

Petra: There will probably be 3–4 kids

You captured Sam really well, Sandra!

Sandra, your Sam turned out great. Really awesome. It’ll be a lovely memory of his birthday for Anton.

Sandra, Sam is totally cute with the 3. Anton will definitely be happy. Once again, you’ve done everything perfectly.

The sweater for Linja—I’ll have to get back to that tonight. I didn’t like the collar, so I unraveled it twice. It’ll probably work out on the third try, I hope. Then I’ll take a photo tomorrow.

Today I also knitted the first swatch for my new shawl and am testing how it looks when it’s a bit bigger. I’ll show it to you sometime in August, once I’ve made a bit more progress.

Now I can finally show off the finished sweater. This is Linja’s favorite color.

I’d wear that sweater, too, Moni :)

I just came across this conversation and am wondering what the UFO Weeks are? ;)

In the last week of each month, Josefa always encourages us to finish our unfinished projects
(UFOs). You can then earn a winner title for that. Check out this thread:
https://www.crazypatterns.net/de/forum/topic/126212/endspurt-und-siegerehrung-juni-ausgabe-2020 
The goal is not to leave so many unfinished projects lying around at home. 

Thanks for explaining, Ruth.

@_lovelyyarns,
everyone is welcome to join in the UFO Week.

I also made good use of July and, after a long time, finally finished and blocked my virus shawl. I think it turned out beautifully, and the beads crocheted into it look very pretty.
Best wishes to everyone

Wow :-)

Welcome to our community.

Thank you, dear Josefa.
I always enjoy reading your posts and looking at your beautiful photos. Today I thought I’d like to contribute something myself :)

Thank you. I'm glad you like it.
I think that's great. Your shawl looks really professional.

Thank you—I absolutely love being creative.

Hi yvi-paul,

welcome here with us.
Your shawl looks great—you’re definitely not a beginner. 😉
We’re sure we can look forward to more of your creations. 😀

I’ve been doing needlework my whole life—I learned a lot from my grandma when I was just a little kid.
I’m glad you like the shawl—thank you 🙏

The finish on the virus shawl is great. I also crocheted one a very long time ago, but I simply stopped when the pattern ended. It looks great. 

Welcome, Yvi! It’s great to have you here.
I think your shawl is absolutely amazing, too. A lot of work and love went into it, and it really shows.

I’ve never heard of a “virus shawl” before… can someone explain to me exactly what that means?

I’ll finish my new shawl today, which means I’ve set a personal record: a shawl finished in just 10 days. I’ll post photos of it tomorrow.

Next, I’ll be knitting a new pair of leggings for little Juna out of sock yarn. I’ve already started the gauge swatch.

Thank you 😊

The Virus Scarf is a classic; the pattern is easy to follow.
You can easily find the patterns online.

It’s called the “Virus Shawl” because the pattern spreads quickly “like a virus” 

That’s right, a friendly virus 😊

Well, that’s something nice about the “shawl virus.” ;-)

I wish you all a wonderful day. I’m heading out to the garden now—to knit, of course.

I already harvested our little nectarines this morning—almost 4 kilos, and all from a small, scrawny tree! And now I always have a bowl of raspberries in my cereal in the morning—so delicious! They’re really starting to come in now—over a 12-meter stretch. Soon it’ll be about 1 kilo per day.

Here’s about half of our nectarines:



And here’s a photo of my finished shawl (I just need to weave in the ends):

Monika, your harvest of nectarines is amazing. Are they sweet, too? With fruit trees, I think it’s such a shame that not exactly the amount I can eat ripens every day. That way, you could enjoy the fresh fruit for longer. But this way, at least you have jam, cakes, and preserved fruit to last a long time.

Monika, your shawl will definitely go great with your morning raspberry muesli ;-)) You can drape it over your shoulders when you’re having breakfast outside in the morning and it’s still a bit chilly.

I finished a quick project today: pencil toppers for my granddaughters, who are starting school in September.

With this heat, I don’t really feel like tackling any long, drawn-out crochet projects.

Petra, the nectarines are sweet and tart—just the way we like them. They’re a hit in our muesli along with our daily raspberries! I gave some to our neighbor as a gift, and we’ll be eating ours over the next few days. Since they’re smaller than the ones we buy at the store, we can manage that without having to preserve them. On Sunday, our friend from the north is coming back to visit for four weeks. I’m really looking forward to it. She’s also looking forward, apart from seeing us, to the many raspberries and to our garden, where we’ll be sitting as often as possible.

Ruth, the pen toppers are a great idea—they look fun. It’s so warm here right now that I don’t even need a shawl in the morning. I’d already worn the blue one several times when it was still cooler. I’ve only just discovered my love of shawls. They’re really super practical. By the way, it’s dark red, but unfortunately that didn’t come out very well in the photos.

Once again, you’ve all created some amazing things. I’ve finished the birthday invitations—there are three of them.


And now Fireman Sam’s helmet is finished, too.

Great job, Sandra—you really went all out! Just make sure that expectations for future birthdays don’t get too high! 😉

You’ve all been so hard at work again.
ivy your shawl looks great. I once started a shawl like that too, but then unraveled it because I needed the yarn for another project.
Arni, that helmet looks awesome — the recipient will surely be delighted. I even like Fireman Sam (that’s what he’s called here in Norway).
Monika, the color of your shawl goes perfectly with your raspberries. It already looks great.

I’m currently crocheting an owl baby (pattern from CP), but I can’t remember the name right now. I’ll post a picture in the gallery later.

Keep up the good work, everyone, and have a lovely weekend.

Greetings from the north
Andrea

Ruth: Yeah, my husband already said that, too. 🙂... but I still have so many ideas... we’ll see.

For now, though, I’m working on a project for Anton’s kindergarten class. He’s moving up to the older kids on Monday, but his teacher asked me to crochet a firefighter’s helmet as well. That one will be completely different, though. Anton’s helmet is supposed to be one-of-a-kind. 

I’ve spruced up some old items with chalk paint again

Wow, Sandra, I’m blown away by everything you’re creating for Anton. It’s turned out uniquely beautiful and very original once again. I totally understand how you feel with all your ideas just waiting to be brought to life. Did you crochet the helmet from a pattern, or was it your own idea?

Petra, your cabinet looks great, too. I love wooden cabinets like that.

Now I’ve got two projects underway again. With my sweater, after finishing the cuff, I’m not quite sure how to proceed. And no sooner had my friend arrived than she gave me a great idea. I’ve had a specific project in mind for a while, but I only knew what it would look like when worn. I hadn’t figured out how to knit it yet. What can I say—she happened to have exactly that kind of piece with her. And now I was able to take a good, long look at it and measure it, too. Yay, a new project is born!

Now I just have one problem… I need 400 g of yarn for it. Since I don’t want to buy any yarn, I’m going to knit it using sock yarn in different colors. It’ll be a piece that looks different on the front than on the back—so pretty original. Mostly solid blue with colorful stripes on the front. It’ll be a mix of a shawl, a poncho, and a scarf. Let yourself be surprised.

That’s how wishes can come true really fast.

Now I’ve also finished something that I can show you.

I haven’t been able to get much done this month because of my hand.




.

The scarf looks nice and colorful.

What happened to your hand?
Get well soon.

The helmet for the kindergarten group is finished:


With neck protection at the back.

You’ve all been very hard at work again, despite the heat.

Marion, your loop turned out great. Those colors… absolutely beautiful.
Ruth, I admire your perseverance with that embroidery—it was definitely worth it.
Monika, even though it’s been a while, 28 years together is just wonderful. Happy anniversary, and here’s to many more years together.


I haven’t been here very often these past few weeks, but I’ve still been crocheting and finished my Tunisian-crocheted poncho.

I just don’t have any good pictures of it yet...




Lately, though, it’s been too warm for me to crochet, so I molded my first concrete goblin head.

It turned out better than I expected....











We spent the weekend visiting my in-laws for the first time in a long while; they both turned 80 this year, and despite the pandemic, we let ourselves be persuaded to go… it was really nice to see them again.

The goblin was promptly adopted by both of them and is now sitting in their garden.

Marion, your loop scarf has great colors. What happened to your hand? And your right one, too :-(

Sandra, your firefighter outfit is awesome. Perfect for the kindergarten. I’m looking forward to the birthday party.

Claudia, your goblin turned out great. I’d really like to have one in my garden, too.

I’m just crocheting away and trying out different things. Most of it gets unraveled again because I can’t make the idea work. We’ll see if anything actually gets finished someday. 

Thanks for liking my loop, too.

But your projects all turned out great as well. The goblin turned out fantastic—a great idea.

  The metacarpophalangeal joint on my right thumb has been giving me trouble for a while now. It’s inflamed and hurts, too. I don’t have to wear the bandage all the time, but it helps. Now my thumb is undergoing radiation therapy. I’ve been through this with my other hand before. It definitely helps.

Now it’s just a matter of getting more rest and not doing so much handwork.

Marion, you knitted my infinity scarf absolutely beautifully. You’ve directly inspired me to knit one like that too, using similarly colorful yarn. I actually have some lying around and wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. Now I have an idea. Unfortunately, the colors of my friend’s scarf were pretty dark, so you can’t really see the pattern very well.

In any case, I hope your hand gets better soon and that you’ll be able to use it again soon with joy. For me, that would be a total disaster—not being able to knit or type on the computer.

Sandra, you’re really amazing with your ideas and projects for the kids.

Claudia, thank you so much for the congratulations. I immediately missed you here.
I admire you for crocheting such a big project in Tunisian crochet. That’s absolutely not my thing—at most, I’d do it for tiny little projects.

I really like your goblin. I love figures like that in the garden. 

Marion: then definitely you.

Claudia: I would have adopted that little goblin too.

I’m done with crocheting on the fire brigade theme for now... I still have a few craft and sewing ideas, but that will come later.

Anton is getting my old toy shop from my parents for his birthday:


The thing was built for me about 35 years ago by one of my parents’ neighbors. And Dad sanded it down for Anton.

Of course, he can also use lots of things from the kitchen for it.

I’ve just crocheted a few sweets:

My goodness, Sandra, do you ever get any sleep? You’re always working tirelessly, and you keep making such beautiful things. The candies look delicious, and the toy store is just amazing! It’s exactly the right thing for a three-year-old. And you’ve already stocked the store perfectly. Great!

Marion, I hope you get well soon and that the radiation treatments go well.

Sandra, your play store is great. We also played “shop” a lot with Jax. Our inventory kept growing. More and more little samples and empty packages kept piling up.

I crocheted candies, cookies, and ice cream. And I made potatoes out of old pantyhose. 

Petra: Do you have a photo of the potatoes? That sounds good and fun. 🙂

Sandra, I’ll look it up online, and if not, I’ll send you a message and tell you how they were made. They’re really easy to make. 

Thanks for the compliments, everyone.

Sandra, your fingers must be practically fused to the yarn by now... you’re incredibly productive and make such great things for Anton.

Monika, I also found the Tunisian crochet project with cake yarn pretty exhausting—I had to stay so focused to make sure I caught every strand. To be honest, I’m glad it’s finished.
But I really like the result now... 

Marion, get well soon and hang in there—it’s always frustrating when you can’t do what you’d like to.

I’m crocheting with felting yarn again—I need a project that moves along quickly.

Hello, I’ve also been reading your posts for some time now and enjoy looking at your crafts. So I thought I’d contribute something myself and would like to present my fall decorations in the form of pumpkin dolls.
Right now, I’m working toward the pre-Christmas and Christmas season—let’s see what ends up coming out of it.

Thank you so much for your kind get-well wishes—they really make me feel better right away. 😊😊😊

Being patient isn’t so easy for me (Aries 🐏), but I don’t really have a choice.

I do enjoy reading along here, though, and I’m thrilled to see your amazing creations.

Now I wish everyone a wonderful weekend, whatever you have planned.

Dear Ines, it’s great that you’re joining us here now. It’s always nice when we get new members. That makes things even more interesting. Your pumpkin dolls look cute—I really like them. :)

Now I’ll show you what I’m knitting at the moment. But just a little peek at the pattern. I really like this color combination, and I’m already looking forward to the final result. It looks like I’ve got another UFO to bring along (the sweater I started). I just need to have several projects going at once—one that I can work on without thinking, and others that require a bit more attention.

Hi, dear mowi19, I’m glad you like the Pumpkin Dolls—sometimes I’m pretty unsure about them when I see the amazing figures you all make. I haven’t been crocheting for very long, but it’s a lot of fun to design figures. I usually get advice on whether something works or not from my daughter, who isn’t interested in crafts at all, haha....When I show her something, either her eyes light up or she says... “Nope, do it differently...” That’s exactly what’s happening with my winter project right now, but I’ll show it to you as soon as I’m a bit further along.....

I wish you all a wonderful Sunday

I think your pumpkin dolls are cute, Ines!

Your sweater is probably made from sock yarn, Monika? Is that a single color, or are you mixing it with blue?

I just crocheted two little guardian angels for my two granddaughters, who are starting school in September. One loves “Elsa colors,” the other prefers pink. The little angels are meant to protect them on their way to school as bag charms on their backpacks.

Thank you, Ruth!

Well, you’ll probably have to make a few more of those Ranzenbaumler—they’re sure to be a hit with your school friends. I think it’s a lovely idea.

Ines: The Pumpkin Dolls sure look funny.

Monika: I really like the pattern.
I usually only crochet in the evenings... but it’s like an addiction 😃

Ruth: The backpack charms turned out super cute... they’re great little companions.

I have something to show again, too:

A shopping net for the play store:

Cherries:


Croissant:

How are your UFOs coming along? Are you ready for UFO Week, where the goal is to finish as many UFOs (unfinished craft projects) as possible so you can score big at the awards ceremony?

Unfortunately, I don’t have the energy or motivation for handicrafts in August—it’s just too hot for me, or I’m too tired in the evenings.
I hope I’ll get back into it in September (I have to); I have a “long list” of projects waiting, especially embroidery. In November, I’d like to go to a craft market. 

Thanks, Arni, I’m glad :)

I’m also tinkering with something right now, but I don’t have anything to show yet because this time I thought to myself, “This isn’t going to work,” so I did some unraveling and started over. I didn’t get much done over the weekend, as is sometimes the case....

Wishing you all a great start to the new week

Oh, Ruth, that’s such a lovely idea with the guardian angels for the first day of school.
Yes, I’m knitting with sock yarn and some solid-color yarn as well. But it won’t be a sweater. I won’t reveal any more than that just yet. ;-)

Sandra, your new creations turned out great, as always.

I hope you all have a lot of fun with what you’re doing. I’m going to pick some raspberries now, and then we’re invited out tonight.

How are your UFOs and projects coming along right now?

I’m working on UFOs right now, but I won’t finish any of them in August. That’s partly because my girlfriend is visiting, and I haven’t had much time to knit.

• Here’s my finished elf hat for my best friend’s birthday. She loves the classic pointy look on her clothes—especially when they have little bells. Orange/yellow and red are her colors. I hope she likes it. What do you think?

If these are your friend’s colors and style, then this hat is definitely a great and unique gift. I think it’s awesome, and it’s definitely a real eye-catcher. 

Gabriele, I really love the hat—those are my colors, too. I’d actually wear it myself. It’s truly something very special.

Thank you, Mowi and Petra, for your feedback.

The weather has really taken on an autumnal feel. So I went ahead and crocheted something for my breakfast table:

 

For a change, I sewed something small again: From now on, I’ll be carrying my masks around packaged like this!

Hi there, dear friends.
Things are slowly starting to feel really autumnal here in the forum...
I really like these warm colors, and the weather over the past few days fits right in, too.

We spent a few days at the coast, let the wind really blow through our hair, and enjoyed the time out.
A few impressions from that:





While I was there, I finally wore and photographed my wrap, which is partly Tunisian crochet... It’s wonderfully cozy.

You’ve all finished some lovely projects again.
Claudia, thank you for sharing your impressions. Those are some very nice photos.

Wow, you’ve all been so busy again, and such great things have come out of it.
Thanks, Claudia, for the great photos. Unfortunately, we still can’t travel the way we’d like to.
That’s why I crocheted up some leftover yarn today while enjoying the sunshine on the patio—it was up to 16°.
Two more coasters: “Forget-Me-Not” and “Lilac.”

Yeah, it’ll probably be a long time before we’re traveling as usual… we spent 6 days on the Dutch coast, about 2.5 hours away by car… unfortunately, the vacations we’d actually planned also fell through.
It’s pretty chilly here in the “Pott” now, too, which I don’t mind at all. The yarn works better this way…
By the way, your coasters are pretty—they look really cheerful.

When it rained there, I crocheted a new Gustav, and taking photos on the beach was really fun.
Thanks to the storm, there was quite a bit of flotsam lying around, which I used as decoration.

Gustav is so cute! I really like him, Claudia.
Marlies, your duck is turning out really cute, too. And your pretty coasters just remind me that my friend wants some. She’ll get them to take home when she leaves next Saturday.

In addition to my unfinished projects, I’ve come up with a new idea for a keychain. I still need to tinker with it a bit and try it out. As you can see, I’m not getting bored, even if I don’t have anything to show right now.

Oh, you’ve all made some great things.

Gabriele: Your friend will definitely be thrilled with the hat. It’s really unique and beautifully made.

Christina: The mask pouch is great—I always just use one of those lousy plastic bags.

Claudia: Your Tunisian wrap looks great on you, and your photos are gorgeous too—and Gustav is so cute. 

Andrea: Your coasters are really cheerful, and your little duck is sure to be cute.

I have something to show, too. Over the weekend, Anton and I did some crafting:


A giraffe. It’s a gift certificate for my mother-in-law for a trip to the zoo.

Then I also worked on the birthday decorations for Anton:


A flame garland

Of course, I also did some crocheting—it turned into something for the play shop again.

Plums:

And cherry tomatoes: 

Continue reading here:
September Projects: the Crazypatterns Crafting Group