Marta's knitblog

NEW KNITBLOG!

2004-07-10T16:34:00.000+02:00

Finally I have my new knitblog:

-----> GO HERE

Book Quiz

2004-07-09T13:24:00.000+02:00

You're One Hundred Years of Solitude!

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Lonely and struggling, you've been around for a very long time.
Conflict has filled most of your life and torn apart nearly everyone you know. Yet there
is something majestic and even epic about your presence in the world. You love life all
the more for having seen its decimation. After all, it takes a village.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Photolog

2004-07-08T19:01:00.000+02:00

I am still working on my new knitblog in order to get its layout how I would like it to be.
I am experimenting with Movable Type and, althoght I was scared at the beginning since everything looked so compliceted, I am happy to announce that I now have a
PHOTOLOG!
I want to use it like a sort of gallery for my pictures, especially for my FOs.
Have a look at it and let me know if you like it!

Bad Ass Knitter

2004-07-06T13:16:00.000+02:00

I love it! Have a look here:

Thank you Wendy for this funny idea.

My Movabletype-Blog is installed, thanks to the wonderful Becky who helped me for a trade. Yet I have to experiment a little bit with the templates before posting there.... It is not as easy as I thought. Be patient, I will probably post there very soon!

On the knitting side of life there is not really something new. I have been in Hamburg during the weekend, so I did not have so much time to knit. More in the next days!

Biopsy survived + some knitting

2004-06-30T13:37:00.000+02:00

First off, I would like to thank all the people who sent me good wishes in the comments or by e-mail. Thank you so much, it is supportive to know that someone think of me.
The biopsy was quite painful, but not unbearable. Afterwards, I was a little ashamed that I did not really behave like a hero.... I was trembling like a leaf and could not help showing my fear. Just imagining that they are going to drill your bone and sucking out your marrow....AAAARGH! Just thinking about it made me die with fear.
But now I am here, quite exhausted and with some pain, but I am still alive.
I will get the results just in three weeks, but the doctor told me he is sure he can exclude cancer. This is positive. The bad new ist that I probably suffer from essential thrombocythemia, a chronical desease. You cannot heal it, but you can live with it.

Well, enough bad news. Let's talk about knitting!

Yesterday, after my visit to the doctor's, I had some time to rest and knit, so I made some progress with my second chickami:

I decided to add some white, too. The next green stripe will be much larger.
And have a look here:

My knitting has become much more even. Did I tell you already? I have learnt another method to hold the yarn and now I have a better tension.

My husband also made a progress with the cat blanket:

And now a quiz:

Which Silver Screen Siren are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

A FO, a new WIP and something else

2004-06-28T18:39:00.000+02:00

Still waiting for my movable type to run, I am posting here again hoping I can show you some pics....

Let's start with my first bottom up BOC:

(Well, it seems to work with the pics....)
I am happy I have been stubborn and finally succeed ;-)

Then, lacking of new ideas and hoping that the real summer comes, I decided to knit another chickami:

The colours will be like this:

I think I'll make some stripes.

Here my hubby's progress with the cat blanket:

So, please forgive me if I am not very loquacious today, but tomorrow morning I have my appointment for the bone marrow biopsy and I am so nervous that I am happy I can find the letters on my keyboard....

Another entry without pictures

2004-06-23T17:15:00.000+02:00

I know, I know, entries without pictures are boring.... but at the moment it doesn't work and I have no idea what is the problem. So I will keep posting without pics - I don't wanna risk that you readers don't come any longer and forget me...
As I have already hinted at, I will soon move with this and have a brand new blog. Just be patient!

On the knitting front, I can tell that, stubborn as I am, I started the bottom up BOC again and this time I was successful not twisting the yarn as I joined to work in rounds. Please be proud.

This evening I will have a litle time for knitting finally! So I hope I can show you a FO when I have the new blog.

I don't know what is happening....

2004-06-21T10:03:00.000+02:00

My domain has been moved to another host and now you cannot see the pics! I cannot understand why..... but there are many computer-related things I don't understand....
But don't worry and come back again soon: I'm getting MT installed on my server, so that I will have a new knitblog of my own. I will post the link as soon as it is running!

Knitting bleah

2004-06-20T18:50:00.000+02:00

Yes, you hear it right, I have a knitting bleah. And a blog bleah and a general life bleah. Does it depend on the weather? It is COLD and it's raining like crazy....
But I wanted to post just to say that I am alive.

The knitting bleah certainly also depends on the fact that my last knitting project have not been very successful. The blog bleah is a consequence of this.... but I'll have movable type installed very soon and I will come back with a brand new blog!

Have a nice Sunday evening.

Ripped, ripped, ripped

2004-06-15T22:07:00.000+02:00

I am too stupid to knit a bottom-up BOC. Really. After some knitting evenings and several rows I finally noticed that I had twisted it again! Can you believe it?
This is the second project I am giving up in the last few days.
I can simply not concentrate at the time being. I have to let a bone marrow biopsy done on June 29th and I am so afraid of it that I cannot sleep, cannot eat and cannot concentrate on anything.

But as a little consolation I got this today:

If you don't know this little book, have a look here.

Knitting hubby

2004-06-14T10:13:00.000+02:00

As you can see, I have a knitting hubby:

...and he knits continental:

(I knit English).

He is knitting a cat blanket using some bulk weight wool my sister-in-law bought from Ecuador and using 8mm wood needles:

The blanket will be knitted in garter stich, since Chr. hates to purl (who does not??). We will felt it then.

As far as I am concerned, on the weekend I had not - as usual - much spare time for knitting, since we have been on some salsa parties... As you maybe already know, I am a salsa dancer. My husband is a salsa DJ. If you understand German you can have a look at
his homepage. There you will also find pictures of the last parties.
Anyway, I have cast on for my bottom up BOC and knitted some rows:

I have also some news about my blog and my homepage:
I have been quite unhappy with my host in the last weeks, for some reasons I am not going to list. I decided to change to another one (which offers PHP, Pearl & other stuff for even a cheeper fee!).... you see? Pearl, PHP.... This means I am going to use Movable Type! I am not so confortable using a gratis host for my blog and here I cannot make the things I want. I have e.g. to upload the pictures to my site and cannot change their dimensions.
I am not familiar at all with Pearl and Co., but the company offers to install the software on your server for a fee if you don't use the free version of the software and purchase a license. I think I will do it.
....Or is there anybody out there who would install the software for me? :-)))) Just kidding.
Don't worry, as soon as I will have another domain for my blog I will inform you, so that you (one? maybe two people?) can bookmark my new site.

Have a nice week!

@PJ from San Diego

2004-06-12T14:29:00.000+02:00

PJ, I tried to send you a e-mail, but it bunched back. So, if you read this, please contact me!

Poor Tina....

2004-06-11T16:00:00.000+02:00

This is how Tina looks like now:

Surprised? Yesterday evening I finished it - and it was too small. The body was too tight and too short. But the biggest problem was the neck: it was so tight, that just the head of a Barbie doll would have passed through. Surely not mine. I ripped it and re-knitted it twice, than I got angry and ripped all out.

Afterwards, I cast on for the bucket-o-chic. After some rows I realised that I had twisted it. And ripped it out.

So, yesterday was not a very successful knitting day. Luckily, the weather was wonderful and Camilla and Didone liked it very much:

Today it's raining like crazy. German summer :-((

Here I am again

2004-06-08T15:53:00.000+02:00

The problems with the server seem to be solved at the time being, so that I can post pictures again - and you can see them.

I have just little progress to show. My sister-in-law (who lives in Ecuador, South America) visited us and I had not much time to knit and crochet.

I got some GGH Roma cotton from this ebay shop:

I don't know what I will do with it, yet. I wanted to knit or crochet something for a birthday present, but I have found something better in the meanwhile. We'll see.

A little progress with Leaf:

And I started the front of Tina:

The front is knitted much more regularly than the back. This is due to the fact that I have experimented a new way to hold the yarn and with this method I have a better tension! Unbelievable that I get this kind of inspiration after so many years of knitting.

My next project will probably be the bottom up BOC.

Oh, I have added some pictures to my homepage. Have a look here for some "static" pics and here for dancing pics.

And now I go and sit in my balcony, since it's finally sunny and hot!

Server problems again.

2004-06-08T13:07:00.000+02:00

No, I haven't forgotten you. Yes, I have some knitting progress to show. And yes, I cannot show it because they have again some problems with the server to which I upload my pics.
Please be patient, I will be back as soon as this problem has been solved.

Tina's back finished

2004-06-02T09:26:00.000+02:00

I have a free week and my purpose yesterday was spending the whole day and evening sitting on the couch in front of the TV and knitting. Nope. I had to make the laundry, to go to the police for translating and as my husband came back from work we decided to go to the movies. I of course accepted with enthusiasm, since I love going to the movies and my husband never wants to. We saw Troia and I liked it very much. But I am convinced that 80% of the people sitting in the cinema didn't even know what it was about. Young people are quite ignorant.... don't blame me if I say that. It's not their fault.

Nevertheless, I was able to complete the back of Tina:

Here is another pic taken without flash - it's blurry but the colour is more real:

I haven't made any progress with Leaf. But I decided that I will swatch for a cotton bottom up BOC. This will be the cotton I'll use for it:

(can you recognize my curious Camilla on the left?)

It's a cheap cotton I bought last year at Junghans in some different colours.

And here a picture of Didone's paw I would like to share with you - 'cause it is soooooo cute!

(under Didone's paw you can see a crochet blanket I made a couple of years ago)

Modeling Audrey

2004-05-29T13:02:00.000+02:00

I haven't had much time for my WIPs, but I found the time to put on my Audrey and to model a little bit. I have to say that I am not photogenic at all, so that my hubby had to take a unbelievable number of pictures in order to get a few that I can show in the blog.
Here they are:

Yesterday it was so cold that I could wear Audrey at work. But I am a little disappointed by Rowan Calmer: I have the impression that the yarn keeps losing its elasticity while wearing. Is it just my impression? It feels wonderful on the skin, and it is a pleasure to knit it, but if my impression gets confirmed I don't think I will use this yarn again. It is too expensive not to be perfect. Maybe I shoud have used thinner needles and knit it tighter, but since I got the gauge with my 5mm needles, I kept knit it with it. Well, post-work-wisdom doesn't help anymore.

This weekend I will not have much spare time for knitting. But next week I am on vacation and I will have time to dedicate to things I like. The last weeks (months?) were so stressful, I really need it.

Have a stressfree and knitful weekend!

Just in the case you're curious....

2004-05-27T15:26:00.000+02:00

I have added 100 things about me.

Tina

2004-05-26T18:30:00.000+02:00

In spite of all the projects I had in my head (and in my sidebar), yesterday evening I decided to knit Tina.
I cast on and knitted a little:

The colour you see in the pic is NOT the real colour. I wish it would! The real colour is much more pinkish. As I often read in other people's blogs, digicams seem to have problems with some red shades.

I am using some Schachenmyr nomotta cotton from my stash - I purchased it last summer in some different colours through ebay. I liked the colour but I didn't know what to do with it. Tina seems to be a nice and fast project to knit.

I would finally like to knit a bottom up BOC, but yesterday I realised that I don't have the right sized needles for it and I have ordered them.

I also made some progress with Leaf:

I usually just work on one project at the same time. I am not good in multitasking and - even if I knit for the fun of knitting - I am always impatient to get the project finished as soon as possible. Since I am a quite slow knitter, I then prefer to concentrate on one project. This time I want to try two projects at once, and I think that a knit and a crochet one are the right ones to start with.

Finished!

2004-05-23T19:24:00.000+02:00

Yesterday evening I finished my Audrey:

Sorry you cannot see my face, but it was late at night as I compelled my husband to take pictures and I was looking awful...
But my Audrey is nice, isn't it? It is a little big... maybe I should have knitted it in XS instead of S, but it's ok. I am happy with it.
I wanted to wear it today, but - you will not believe it - the weather was too cold for it. I really hate the German climate.
I am proud that I have knitted this beautiful sweater and I think it looks quite good, even if not really perfect.

Now I have to find another project to knit! There are some things I am thinking about, but maybe I will knit a pattern of mine. In my university time, as I started to knit - I NEVER EVER followed a pattern from a book or a magazine, I always created patterns by myself. Well, just 50% of them were wearable actually.... But since I have some beautiful sky blue cotton with a gauge that does not match to any of the magazine patterns I like, I will perhaps try to use my own ideas. We will see.

I have also made some progress with "Leaf", but I will save the picture for one of the next days...

But I don't want to spare you my kitties....
Camilla is hiding herself:

and Didone looks satisfied:

And since you cannot see my face up there, here a picture of my husband & myself that someone took last week at a salsa party:

Server problem

2004-05-20T14:00:00.000+02:00

There is a problem with my homepage server at the time being, so you can not see the pics....
I will post again as soon as the prob is solved. Please be patient.

A new week has begun....

2004-05-17T16:07:00.000+02:00

...and luckily the sun is shining again. The rain was making me sicker than I anyway already am.

As foreseen, I did not have much spare time for knitting during the weekend.
I crocheted a few rows on Leaf, but they are not worth a picture yet.
I started the neckband of Audrey, but I had to rip it out twice! I usally have no problems with lace patterns, but I seem to be out of exercise. As usual, I was knitting and watching TV at the same time, so I got distracted and made a mistake. I wanted to rip out just a couple of rows, but I wasn't able to pick up the stitches again, because of the yfwd-stiches. I got crazy and ripped out 9 (---> nine!) complete pattern repeats the first time, two the second time. Then I stopped knitting and went to bed. I have to try again when I am less tired and more concentrated.

Leaf

2004-05-14T12:43:00.000+02:00

I'm still sick and I hate it. Friday is my favourite day, since I usually work until 12:30 and in the night, after giving salsa classes downtown, I go dancing with my friends. Today? Nope. I am still weak and have a sore throat. I hope I'll feel better tomorrow, since there is a big salsa party in Ulm organised by my husband, who is also the dj. We will see.

Yesterday I made some knitting, even if I wasn't feeling well. I made a little progress on the 2nd sleeve of Audrey:

But I'm getting tired of the ribbing. I'm looking forward to knitting the neck, seaming it all and wearing it.

So I decided to start a new project. This time I will crochet again. Crocheting is fun, because is not so hard for my poor hands and arms and the progresses are quite fast. I'm anyway a better crocheter than a knitter... a pity you cannot do many fashionable and wearable things crocheting.
Do you remember this?

It is a cotton crochet skirt I made last year using a pattern of Junghans Wolle and varying it a bit.
The picture is blurry, but here you can see a detail:

Actually I get a lot of compliments when I wear this skirt and nobody believes I crocheted it by myself (people are convinced that knitting and crocheting do not match with my character).
So I decided to crochet another one using the new green GGH-Roma cotton I got some days ago from ebay:

I made more progress yesterday evening, but I had to rip it out completely, since I was so stupid and twisted it!

And since all bloggers give their knit and crochet works a name, I decided to call this skirt Leaf because of its colour. I'm relieved that I have a name so fast, I am not that creative with names...

Have a nice (and healthy) weekend!

Sick again

2004-05-12T11:53:00.000+02:00

I'm sick again and I am lying in bed with a sort of flu. This is the third or even the fourth time this year! I cannot believe it.
Of course this is no excuse to me to neglect my blog, so here are some pics.

Blocking Audrey, I realised that the result is a little tighter and quite longer than it shoud be. My gauge was right! Misteries of knitting. It must depend on the fact that the sweater is ribbed and the gauge was plain stockinette stitch. Mmmmh?

Even if it has been very unconfortable knitting in bed, I finished the first sleeve yesterday. Here a detail of the dicreases:

And today I got this with the mail:

This is 500 gr of GGH Roma cotton. I bought it at ebay for just 9€! I still don't know what I'm going to do with it.

Well, I feel weak now..... go back to my warm bed.... ::cough::cough::

Just another manic Monday

2004-05-10T11:55:00.000+02:00

My weekend wasn't relaxing, since we had some health problems in the family. So I had not much time to knit. Last week I finished the front of Audrey (did I mention it??) and started the first sleeve. Yesterday I knitted for just about two hours, this is the result:

Audrey's first sleeve

Didone keeps loving Calmer:

and Camilla still doesn't care:

I hope I will have more time to knit this week, since I am longing to finish Audrey and to wear it (it is so cold right now, it would be the right sweater!) and I would like to start a new project soon. Mmmh... but which one? Anyway, I'll probabily rip out the poncho, since it is simply too boring to knit. I must find another pattern for it.

Have a nice week!