Google Turns 25 / Crafts Without the Internet

Dear users, dear authors,
happy birthday, Google.
Can you still remember life without Google?
How does crafting work completely without the internet?

Only 25? Wow, I would’ve guessed it was older. But I can still remember life without it quite well, too. And life without a cell phone or a GPS—back when I’d just moved to Cologne and drove through an entire tank of gas trying to find my way back home. 🤣🤣
Sure, you could get by without any of it—no question—but I definitely find things much more convenient these days.

So Google has been around a few months longer than my daughter.
I wouldn’t have thought so.

I used to recreate projects from magazines and books.
Although some things had to be painstakingly recalculated to fit my measurements.

Life without the internet was pretty cumbersome.
Quickly look up a schedule from A to C via B?
Forget it! Since there wasn’t just one public transit authority but several different ones in charge, that meant sifting through various schedules to find exactly the right connections.
In my job back then, “booking hotels for colleagues and others” meant—if I was unlucky—several phone calls. Especially if there was a trade show going on in the town in question.

I don’t have to go through that anymore, and I’m glad the internet exists.

I would have thought Google had been around for much longer.
Without cell phones, the internet, and all that—hey, we survived; we managed just fine without it. We didn’t know any better back then, and we didn’t miss it either.
Sure, it makes a lot of things easier for us today.

There were also crochet magazines, embroidery patterns… and pattern sheets to roll out. It was pretty interesting.
Looking up train connections—that famous Deutsche Bahn timetable comes to mind, where you had to spend forever searching for connecting trains, or the woman at the ticket window would help you out, and the tickets were made of cardboard that got punched. Those were the good old days.

Yeah, that’s right—the craft magazines. My mom always bought “Constanze.”

Without the internet?
I learned crafts from my mother, my older sister, and also at school. We had magazines lying around at home, too; I still have one that I just can’t bring myself to part with. I’d have to check how old it is.... 
There are some things I wouldn’t want to be without anymore. A lot has become easier, yes, but also more impersonal and—in my opinion—more interchangeable and quicker to go out of style.
Best regards 
Karola 

I learned crafts the old-fashioned way in school. Back then, it was a subject I absolutely hated.
Later, my mother-in-law taught me to love crafts. That was in the ’80s. Then, for some reason, my interest in crafts kind of faded away. When my nephew was born, I started knitting again—that was 40 years ago. All of that happened without Google, the internet, or Facebook. We just picked up what the older generation did. That’s how it’s always been—from generation to generation.
Young people today have it easier. They can Google anything. But isn’t it nicer when you have someone sitting next to you, showing you how to do it, so you can learn that way?

People today have gotten used to looking everything up online. There are also many people who learn their crafting skills from video channels.

When I learned to knit at around age 14, I bought a magazine called “Modische Maschen.” Right at the front were small diagrams showing the different types of stitches. I sat down in front of them and copied them exactly. You could buy craft magazines, but they came out only once a month and sold out very quickly. I also borrowed some from the library every now and then and just tried them out step by step.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have anyone in my family who could have taught me how to knit. My grandmother was very good at it, but she passed away before my passion for knitting was awakened. At least she passed that talent down to me.

In today’s society of abundance, you can find everything you’re looking for—and even more.

We can still compare: what it was like back in the day before the internet and before Google, and what it’s like today. It’s definitely been a rapid evolution.

How did it work? Well, like this: buy or borrow a magazine or book. The library had some too. Buy yarn, finish the project. Then start knitting or crocheting the next one. No one had mountains of yarn like we have today. Maybe a few scraps...
For embroidery, there were ready-made kits too. Coming up with something yourself. I learned to knit socks from Grandma, along with so many other things. Grandmas are at least as good as YouTube videos. And just as patient.
Grandma, knitting socks, I can’t do that. Majelche, come here, I’ll show you. In return, when Grandma could no longer see well, I picked the stitches back up for her. In general, people did more things together.
Needlework class at school. Oh no, I didn’t like that. Boring potholders and never-ending scarves. I liked the gloves a bit more; I could see the point of those. I preferred crocheting skirts for my dolls. Of course, I made them up myself using leftover yarn from Grandma or Mom.
It all worked, and it worked well too; we didn’t know any different. Hardly anyone had store-bought things.
We were creative too, maybe more than today. Today you can buy any pattern. Back then, you had to try things out yourself. I still remember tracing the pattern for an embroidered tablecloth for Mom from a photo in a magazine.
I still have that cloth.
I also still have my grandma’s pattern book. It survived the flight and the camp. Written in a school notebook.
Best regards, Marita

My sewing classes had thoroughly ruined my enjoyment of sewing.
I saw absolutely no point in finishing the edges of a tiny baby bib with bias tape.
Nor did I know what to do with the bib.

Several years later, I did venture back into sewing with patterns.
The pieces were wearable, but the sewing machine and I never became friends.