Thursday, August 10, 2006

Hello Knitting world - here I am! :)

I am a new blogger, so please have mercy with me and forgive all my little mistakes I'm making on the way. I'm always told I have a lot to say, so I guess this is my way of finding an outlet and to let everybody know about my accomplishments in live, especially the ones that have to do with crafts.

I'm a crafter since elementary school. I was tought knitting and crochet in school. Even boys had to learn, before they got to move over to woodworking. Hey, some women love men that know how to sew on their own shirt buttons. My dad does! Anyway, I've been knitting pretty much most of my live. Over the years I branched out and explored other crafts, that's how I got to add quilting, cross-stitching and many other things to my list. Most of them have something to do with needles (doesn't matter which one) and strings.

I'm also a military wife that has moved around a lot. I've signed up with the military 16 years ago when I said "I do" and have been sticking with my husband eversince. We move a lot, like everybody with this job. He picked me up on his first tour in Germany, got stationed in Fort Stewart, GA (actually he got deployed back then) and I made my first trip to the states all by myself. He didn't come back until 7 months after Desert Storm and I had found a job, an apartment and had a crash corse in what it means to be in the military. Since then we went back to Schweinfurt, then to Fort Irwin, NTC in CA (we had our first son there), back to Germany, Baumholder this time, back to San Diego, CA for recruiting (not so much fun), managed to have another baby boy while on recruiting duty, from there back to Schweinfurt, Germany and now the Army sent us back to Fort Stewart, GA, where I started. Do you still follow me so far? Good.

Anyway, we got back to the states about a month and a half ago, where lucky enough to find military housing right away, but are living in an empty house eversince. I have to admit, I'm getting really tired by now sleeping on air matresses and sitting on bean bags for a couch, but all this is going to change. On monday I'll finally get my furniture and everything else that belongs to me. I'm thinking of not even telling my boys, just to let them come home from school that day and find all those boxes. It was kind of a shock to them when we got packed up last time and they came home to an empty room. This time it's the other way around. It's almost like christmas when you unpack one box after another, all labled as "KnickKnacks" by a careless packer and wonder what will turn up next (and when you'll finally find that one thing you've been looking for since yesterday). We should really be used to it by now, but it just always amazes me to see how much stuff we drag with us every time. I guess if we wouldn't be moving every couple of years and have a chance to weed out all our junk it would be even more. Ebay, here I come. I'm planning on getting rid of some stuff on ebay, once I'm done with all my boxes and sell some of my boys' toys that are in good condition.

Also, I can't wait for all my crafting stuff. I went through a phase of withdrawl when I got here. I had finished the pair of socks I brought with me and didn't know where to turn. Luckily I found Keri's blog and made my first friend with mutual interest in knitting here in Georgia. Last time I was stationed here I was so desperate for something to do, I took up cross stitching. In California I started quilting and now I'm back to knitting. I also have a nice collection of scarves, baby socks, booties, blanket and a set of crochet Pooh and his friends coming. I used to sell those in San Diego and my neighbors couldn't get enough of them. In Germany I had no success with them, but everybody wanted knitted scarves made of that eyelash yarn. When I open my boxes I'll update with pictures of all my treasures that crawl out of those boxes.

Right now I finished a felted bag for Catherine. I testknitted it for her to avoid any possible mistakes. Keri made the little version of it. I can't believe how much it shrunk. It was almost the size of a sweater, when I threw it in the wash this morning, now it's a nice size bag. Somehow it made it's way out of the pillow case. I guess it has a mind of it's own. Creepy.

This tour I picked up another new hobby. I started spinning, literally. In a moment of weakness (and stingyness) I made my own little spindle, fought over roving at ebay and jumped for joy when the mail got here. Then I stood there and wondered "What was I thinking, this looks like a colored sheep". Well, I guess I didn't do so bad after all. I'm done with the first half of it and it looks 40 % like yarn und 60 % like a bad perm;) I'm comitted, so I'm going to spin the second half of it also, double it up to make sure it doesn't fall apart on me while knitting and make a booga bag. I found a cute one at the Wild Fibre yarn store in Savannah last week and figured I can do that too. Plus once it's felted nobody will see how good or bad my spinning actually was. Hey, what comes out at the end is what counts, who cares how long it took or how many times I had to rip it out. I guess I learn from trial and error the best. Just like I never took a quilting class in my live. My first quilt I cut with a cardboard template, a pen and sciccors. I never heard of a rotary cutter then. My husband still makes fun of me when we think about the first time I basted my quilt by chasing the spoon on the floor under the bottom layer of the quilt to make the basting needle come back up. I don't do that anymore, I pinbaste now, but it sure is fun thinking back. What I was trying to say was, it's not falling apart and I'm using it, it's not for display and it's been washed plenty of times. I must have done something right then.

Wow, you are still reading this? I guess you must really be interested in what I have to say. I wonder how many people read this, this being my first attempt to communicate with a knitting world out there, I didn't know about. Maybe we can find some of those knitters here in Fort Stewart and Hinesville area we've heard about, but never managed to run into.

Well, I hope you'll check in with me again sometime, especially once I have all my stuff back. I can't wait to get it all unpacked and use my sparetime to create new crafty stuff. I got lots of yarn and fabrics coming to me and I can't wait to put my sewing and my knitting machine to work again.

Thanks for reading. I'll talk to you later.

3 Comments:

At 9:56 AM, Blogger Catherine Kerth said...

How awesome are you?! I like reading your background and what makes your crafster bomb tick! yeah you are an official blogger! and I read every word you wrote ;)

 
At 9:58 AM, Blogger Angelika said...

Thanks for the encouragement. Positiv feedback is always welcome.

 
At 11:14 AM, Blogger Knitty Gritty Thoughts said...

Loved your intro..welcome to the blogging world! =)

 

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