2021 Introductions: It’s more fun to join in than to just read silently

Dear users, dear authors,
are you new here or have you been around for a while? Who’d like to say a few words about themselves? Who’d like to introduce themselves? Who’d like to share something about this forum or about crafts?
Have fun, everyone.

Who’d like to go first?
Even the “old-timers” are welcome to say something.

Well, I’ll go ahead and start.

I’ve always knitted doll clothes—first for my daughter’s dolls. Then I learned filet crochet during a training course at the employment office (though that wasn’t the main focus of the program).



Later on, I made clothes for my grandchildren’s dolls. I find crafts to be a meaningful way to spend my free time.

Best regards, Gabi 

Well, I’ll go ahead and write a little bit about myself....

I’ve been doing crafts since I was little. I used to visit my grandma on the weekends, so I learned to crochet and knit before I even started school. My love for it has always been with me—sometimes more, sometimes less.

  Ever since I found out I was going to be a grandma, that passion has been fully reignited. Since I’ve always worked from my own ideas but couldn’t replicate them because I didn’t take notes, I started keeping notes on my projects in 2016. In January 2017, I published my first pattern on CP, and I’ve been happily active on this forum ever since.

Crocheting and knitting (and my garden) are my way of unwinding from my job and during stressful times in my daily life. It helps me—it’s my outlet. Others need therapy; I need yarn and a needle or two.

And my first crocheted and knitted projects are still sitting in a box in the basement, reminding me of happy times with my grandma. My grandma knitted herself a jacket, and I was allowed to knit a pair of pants for my doll out of the leftovers. I started with the scarf on the right back then. 

Well, I’ll write a little something about myself, too.

I’ve been doing crafts ever since before I started school. Although, back in school, I really hated what we had to do in class.
But I’ve been crafting, crocheting, and knitting my whole life. Over the last 10 years, I’ve focused almost exclusively on crocheting.
I’ve treated myself to lots of challenging patterns. Until, at some point, I started designing my own projects—mostly amigurumi.
It took me a long time to actually start sharing them, though. My husband always told me I could do it too, but stubborn as I am, I didn’t listen to him for a long time.
Until a classmate of mine, Moni—who was already here before me—encouraged me to publish my work here.
Since I also enjoy working on the computer a lot, I was able to combine two hobbies that I really enjoy.
I have to say that I always really enjoy being here on crazypatterns.

So I’ll go ahead and tell you a bit more about myself and my background when it comes to crafts, etc. When I was still in school and even as a young woman, crafts were a total nightmare for me, because at first I couldn’t get much to look good. Back then, my craft teacher and my mom told me I was simply too dumb—or untalented—for this craft. So I stayed away from it for years—after all, if nothing decent ever comes of it anyway, why stress out and get frustrated afterward? In the ’80s, I had the opportunity to retrain as an industrial women’s garment maker. After discussing it with my husband, I decided to pursue this training, because my oldest daughter had already been apprenticing as a women’s garment maker in a small workshop for about seven months, and the more I saw, the more interested I became. My daughter and I both took our journeyman’s exams that same year—I just took mine a few months before she did. Ever since then, I’ve never been without my sewing machine, and now I sew all my own clothes.
I’ve also been knitting again since Christmas 2009, because people always told me I wasn’t cut out for it—my mother used to say, “You’re better off not trying; you’re too clueless for it anyway.” (She did custom knitting jobs and was really great at it, but she had little patience for me.) Three days after she passed away, I was in town and bought myself knitting needles and yarn. Since then, I’ve been knitting jackets, socks, hats, scarves, etc. Okay, I’m not so great with patterns, but my sister keeps coming back and asking me to knit her a jacket.
During the pandemic, I probably would have gotten depressed without my sewing and knitting—it allowed me to immerse myself in the work, especially since I also enjoy designing and learning as I go. During this *dark* time, I learned how to design and sew dolls, for example, and gave many of them to my family as gifts.

Love, Inge

Handicrafts have been a part of my life since childhood, sometimes more, sometimes less intensely. My mother and my grandmother taught me to knit when I was about six. Socks, sweaters, and doll dresses were part of my repertoire. I’ve also always loved embroidery (cross-stitch). Aside from the occasional doll dress, I’ve never designed anything myself—there have always been so many great patterns out there, which you can sometimes adapt a little to make them your own. For a while, my sewing machine was also in heavy use: I made clothes for my daughters and for myself, as well as small Christmas gifts. Right now, I’m mainly alternating between knitting and crocheting, but I’d like to start using the sewing machine again soon.

Hello everyone,

I’m brand new here and have already shared a bit of info in my profile.
I’m excited to be here and hope I’ll have time to check in on the forum more often and contribute. 

It’s nice to learn more about you all.
Who else would like to say something?

Hi everyone,
I’m 33 and have been sewing for about four years. I took up crocheting two years ago.
Both are a nice way to unwind from my job as a software developer.

I love sewing clothes best—mostly for myself.
I don’t really have much use for crocheted items myself—after making my first hat for myself, I gave away a few little animals, and I’ve been collecting my crochet projects to donate (so far, hats and now a second top in small sizes). I’m pretty slow, though, and I’m at odds with hand-sewing^^

I think I’ll start participating in the forum every now and then.

Hi!

I learned to knit, crochet, and sew as a child—partly from my mom, who was crazy about crafts, and of course partly in school. And until my career really took over, I did a lot of sewing and knitting, but then I let it all fall by the wayside.
Now I have a lot more time, and thanks to the pandemic, I had so much free time that I really got back into it—and now I’ve pretty much stuck with crocheting. 
The problem with sewing is that I’d have to set everything up on the dining table—which I do every now and then—but it’s often too much of a hassle; an extra room wouldn’t be bad....
I knit socks for myself pretty regularly, since my feet are always cold.
But crocheting is what I’m enjoying the most right now.

I was born in 1962.
I learned to crochet and knit at age 10—at school and from my mother, respectively.
There were times when I rarely picked up my needles and instead indulged in silk painting, perspective drawing, and macramé.
Although I have a sewing machine, we’ll never be real friends.
Since I often had to modify purchased patterns because of my petite frame, I took the plunge in February 2017 and started posting my own patterns here.
Another passion of mine is photography.
Other than that, I help proofread texts—such as application letters—on another forum.

Well, I’ll join in too. I was born in 1963, and I’ve loved crafting and painting ever since I was a child. We had needlework classes in school, and that’s where it all started—crocheting pot holders and learning to embroider with that school yarn.

I can still remember that as a child, I was once given a kind of Barbie doll as a gift (we didn’t have those in the former GDR), and I sewed clothes for her by hand out of fabric. I made a bathrobe and even sewed on little pockets. I also had scraps of curtain fabric and trims—everything was put to use somehow.
I crocheted little dolls and placed them in the middle of the bed as so-called “bed dolls” for decoration, complete with crocheted ruffled skirts and little hats.
Later, during my apprenticeship, my mom taught me how to knit, and I even practiced knitting motifs (a children’s sweater with Pumuckl on it), as well as small cable patterns on my own sweater. Back then, those glittery fringed yarns were all the rage. Today, I can’t really get the hang of them anymore. Simple patterns, sure.
I’ve become more into crocheting ever since I Googled “amigurumi” one day to find out what it was—and ever since then, I’ve been hooked on those little crocheted figures and dolls.

I’ve tried a lot of things, including through former coworkers who did crafts (casting and painting with plaster or Keramofix, paint-by-numbers, decorating Styrofoam shapes with ribbons [the “artichoke” technique], Window Color paintings, and cross-stitch patterns). As a child, I had an embroidery kit (small pre-printed handkerchiefs or doilies that you could embroider) and a weaving kit (a wooden frame with wool inside).
Then I remember a kit where you could thread leather straps through holes around the edges to make coasters out of a kind of leather.
Most recently, I’ve taken up bead crafts. I’ve always been interested in glass beads and glass buttons because they sparkle so beautifully.
You’d need a zillion hands to do it all. Diamond painting is also “on hold” again—I still have two pictures waiting to be finished.

I also bought a sewing machine for my own use after I did a job creation program at “Bad Kösener Plüschtiere.” It was so much fun once you see how a stuffed animal or doll comes to life—from the design, through shaping, to the sewing. I picked up a lot of tips and sketched them out myself, since they’re not allowed to share the patterns (trade secret).

That’s how it is with our beloved hobbies. Lots of ideas, little time, but plenty of variety.

Have fun!

Hi, I’d also like to join in here and tell you a little bit about myself......

I was born in 1966 and come from near Leipzig.
As a child, I must have been very easy to look after, since I usually sat quietly with my art supplies among the guests my parents were entertaining.
Later, I was absolutely thrilled with a Barbie doll I got from relatives, and since my grandma was a talented hobby seamstress, there were always fabric scraps I could and was allowed to use—so I sewed my Barbie’s clothes myself. Later, my grandma gave me an old Pfaff sewing machine—one of those foot-powered ones—and after a few tentative attempts, I started sewing some clothes for myself, and later my own curtains, which I’d look up in a catalog (from the West, of course, haha) and try to recreate.
My mom had a knack for working with wool, whether crocheting or knitting, and I wanted to learn that, too. And that’s how I got into this hobby.

I just enjoyed coming up with new designs—first on paper and then with fabric and yarn. My dream career was born, but to pursue it, I probably would’ve had to repeat a grade in school, haha, because that very year, no bespoke dressmakers were being trained—back in the GDR, that program ran every two years......So I ended up working as a textile finisher at Wäscheunion and then turned my hobby into a side job, sewing and occasionally knitting for other people.

Through a friend, I discovered amigurumi crocheting; later, I found CP online, and after making a few projects based on patterns from various websites, I thought I’d try my hand at creating my own patterns.

My biggest wish would be to have a few more hands so I can bring all my ideas to life...

Warm regards, Ines

Who’d like to introduce themselves?

Well, I’ll tell you a little about myself:
- Born in 1969, married for over 30 years, 8 children, 3 “gifts” (sons-in-law), and 3 grandchildren
- we live on a mountain farm with mother cows, alpacas, chickens, cats, and a dog,
- We sell our meat directly
- I love my family
- I really enjoy crafts, whether it’s knitting, sewing, embroidering (with a machine), digitizing images, crocheting, processing our own alpaca wool (all by myself: shearing, washing, carding, spinning, knitting, or sewing a duvet)
- I really enjoy patchwork, whether sewing or knitting 
- last year I took my handmade items to a Christmas market - it won’t be my last 😊

Nice introduction :-)

Would anyone like to introduce themselves?