Hi!

I'm a 29-year old female (it doesn't feel right to say woman, 'cause it doesn't make sense and I'm way too old to be called girl, so let's stick with female) and I'm living around Ghent, Belgium.

What's going on so far?

OK, let's start. I'll try to recapture my life in a couple of sentences.
You allready know I'm 29 and female (duh!). I come from a very messed up family and that's probably why I'm so messed up too (and that's one of the explanations for all the 'interbrackets' and stuff). My dad is a nice guy, but nothing more and my Mum, well, she's my Mum (weird, I just noticed the Capital changes, well, just visualizes it perfectly). I left the house the day I turned 18, and that says enough.
The moving-out was a blessing for our relation, since I had the means to keep her out of my business and to leave when the conversation went sideways. No bad things about her, she's just who she is, and I've learned to live with it, but it's difficult sometimes. But she's allways there when I need her and I'll allways love her for that.
Whoo, getting a bit emotional there, sorry about that. That sums about my childhood.
Since then, the usual, a couple of good jobs, a couple of crappy jobs, a couple of good relationships, a couple of bad relationships.
The important stuff happened in around the last 5 years: I quit my crappy job at McDonald's and went to college again. I didn't graduate highschool before, but managed to get it through exams of the Ministry, so it was now or never, I was almost 25, hating my job, having a great girlfriend (yes, you read correctly), so I found the courage to do it.
I went for a Bachelor-degree in Education, I wanted to teach Music in highschools and solmisation in after-school Music programs. But my piano skills were too inadequate and my timetable too busy (I had to go from Ostend or Bruges to Ghent every single day by public transportation, which is HELL!) to continue the solmisation-part, so I switched to Music and English for highschool in the third year (I would have to do my second year over for Music and start my first English that year).
In those two years that had passed I joined a fraternity (yeay! ), and quit my good relationship (sad ) and got into a few flings within the fraternity and flung right into the arms of my now fiancé (yeay!  ).
I quit my studies, well, actually, my finances ran out, so I had no more means to get to school, and I had to get working again.
The new relationship went well, so we moved in together and moved from Ostend to Ghent, where his family lived. You can think that I didn't really need to have mine around the corner, so I had no objections, his family is really, really nice.
Found a new job 2 weeks after the move, in Ostend....  So the trainrides from hell were just finished and they started all over again, but in the opposite direction. And guess what? It sucked as much as it did the first time!
But on personal matters is everything blooming, we're getting engaged (no date set, and no priority) and thinking about family-expansion (natures doesn't want her date set and priority).
My soon-to-be brother-in-law and his wife are off course expecting right away from the moment they start talking and she's stopping her pill, we're not having such luck, and that is sometimes a bit frustrating.
My ex-boyfriend (one of the other good relationships and is still a very close friend of mine) knew of a good jobopening in the governement. We all know that those are the ones you're looking for if you don't have a degree above highschool in these fantastic economic times. So I applied, and what do you know, I got in!
Out of 200 applicants, they had 5 vacant functions, and they chose little ol' me!
The job is a very new world to me: marine navigation (so sorry if I blab about boats or bridges or ports or other weird stuff). And there's a whole course attached to it... Yeay, out of the schoolbanks, into the schoolbanks.
But happy me, a couple of very frustrating months later and we're now, present day. The course is almost finished, and I'm getting ready to do my actually job, alone and single-handed.
And that's exactly what it is: alone and single-hande, 'cause I'm all alone in the room, mostly even all alone in the building.
And there's not allways that much to do. So I need a time-consuming hobby, that's easy to pull away attention sometimes and easy to carry around.
And so we come to an old love of mine: knitting. There's a baby coming into the big family, so perfect!

The knitstory

I learned to knit, like so many of us, in elementary school. I actually was kinda not bad in it, which made it the first 10 I actually deserved in arts and crafts (I was an 10 ++ student somehow and I got a frustrating 10 even if I didn't complete the damn things they made us do).
And I actually kinda liked it too. So I asked for my Mum, who knitted regurarly, for some woolies and needles and started my very first ambitious project. I must have been around 7 years old or so? I started my own hand-knitted scarf for my dad!
I learned quickly that I didn't care much about knitting sockinette (it's boring), so I asked my Mum for some advice. She showed me some knittingbooks with a variety of different stitches. (How motherly of her to give me some books, again screwed up family, screwed up relationships.) So I started to experiment with the patterns and some colors (I had gotten two out of her: pumpkin-orange scruffies and some light grey scruffies, but hey! they matched, so I didn't care much, I was knitting!). So I quickly learned it was all just combining knits and purls or switching threads and I was doing intricate patterns and jaquard-stuff.
But long story short, I didn't have a lot of patience, I was knitting very slowly, and it took my about 7 years until I decided it was finished and it measured about 70 cm long (given it's with of 30 cm, it was a ridiculous thing). But dad pretended to be happy and it probably ended up between Mum's woolies, but it was the thought that counted.
With those last stitches my love for knitting got in hibernation. I made some cross-stitch cussions in the past decades but, that's it.

The blog

But now where here: I need my new hobbie and we're about 15 years later. The allmighty internet has arrived. Even people without knitting-friends can find easy acces to tips and helpfull tricks from all over the world. And that's why I started this blog too.
On one hand to help people like me, who don't really know anyone to help them in person, and rely on the web to find their way around difficult patterns, or that one little mistake you can't find.
And on the other hand: it's a way for me to blab about my progress to people who might actually care. I love my fiancé very much, but he tends to tune out of every conversation his attention is not really required and is about something that he really doesn't give a damn, like knitting, and such. And my walls don't seem to have ears. So I'm lending your eyes instead. Hope you don't mind.
I look for everything now on the net, in post like these and other websites, so please, feel encouraged to throw in your thoughts.
Every piece of advice, little trick or hint can be helpfull.

I hope you have a good time reading my (sometimes twisted) thoughts.

Bijlagen:
http://www.ravelry.com/people/antheabe   

This is a really fun little project.
I picked up my hook and the same evening it was finished.
It's actually my bf's fault I started this one,   I was just starting my new knittingfase and he said: "I learned to crochet in elementary, give me that hook, I'll try it again."

Offcourse, he gave up after about 5 tries and asking to show it about 300 times. But those 300 examplary stitches made me realise that crochet is fun and easy and quick and way less painfull then knitting in the beginning. So I picked up my book with my knittingpattern and looked for a little crochetproject. And so I found this springbonnet.(See patterns)

I only had my 3.5 hook and I used a semi-similar yarn and I did'n really care about the gauge, because it was just for trial.

But it went great and the same night it was finished and it even looked good enough to actually cut the thread of the skein! (For other 'just for fun/trial'-projects I don't allways really finish them of, because I make them just for my own pleasure and I don't know who else I could give it to. So I just pull them out again and start a new project!)

So now my little niece-on-the-way has a present ready, just in case the blanket I'm also working on doesn't get finished in time of her  birth :D

Bijlagen:
http://www.bloggen.be/woolandwater/archief.php?ID=1624244   

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I've got my needles and my book and my everything I need to start my brand new knitting-fase (read the about me for more about that part).

So I'm thinking present for my niece-on-the-way, I'm thinking, not to easy, not to difficult, so I'm getting to the pattern of a square ajour babyblanket. Perfect! I get to knit, and my sister-in-law won't have a problem with a blanket, people don't actually have to see the baby in it.

Okay,first having a look at that pattern. Looks do-able, let's try it out first before I start up for real.
Sounds simple enough, right? Yeah, well, that's what I thought so too, but my fingers start hurting every 2 rows I'm doing and my arms keep cramping up. Great idea I had, start knitting again, you idiot!

But, we are stubborn and I have my mind set on knitting as my new hobby and I know all that stuff will go away with time, I just have to take it up 10 minutes at a time.

So, we're set, the pattern works, the gauge kind of works well enought to cast on. So taking a further look at the pattern. Starting off with the rim in simple basic casting on of a whole lot of stitches (and I hate counting!) and after finally getting the right amount on the needle a simple basic tricot rim of 3.5 cm high. Basic, basic, very do-able, sounds good so far.

And then I look a little further up the pattern: cast on a additional 16 stitches ON BOTH SIDES! Hey, wait a minute! On both sides evenly, as in, in the same row??? Oh damn, I'm starting to panic! Every way I know how to cast on will make it uneven - OR - I have to cast on with a new thread, what I refuse to do! (Yes, I can be very stubborn about very fussy things)

But thank goodness, I'm going to Ostend this weekend and I'm not far from where my Mum lives and I'm not in a real hurry that day (visits there tend to stretch out like a bungeecord). I can ask her for advice!

13/01

So pack up everything, stuff that had to be done out of the way, on to Mum's for a cozy knittingsession. What was I thinking?

Off course she wanted to help! Gladly!

-What's the problem? Casting on? No problem, dear, give me your needles and wool.
-Casting on isn't the problem, it's casting on on both sides, can you show me how to do that?
-But off course, dear, no problem, come closer I'll show you. How many, do you say?
-It's 162 stitches for the pattern, Mum, but I just need a proofie to show me.
-Oh, but that's no problem, that's done in a quickie. (Starts knitting away like a space-rocket)
-Mum, I just need you to show me the trick. Can you go a little slower, please?
-But off course! (Proceeds casting on at the speed of F1-racecar)
-I'm sorry, I can't follow, a little slower, please, I just got knitting again and you're going pretty fast there!
-Wait, I'm almost there, what's next, you said? Tricot for 2 cm?
-3,5 cm, Mum, but you don't have to do that, I just have trouble with the cast-on.
-No trouble at all, it's done in a jiffy, than I can show you where they actually have to go on the work. Can you take a look at my laptop now, I have messed up the thing again.
-Yes, Mum.

Mum knits away like I've never seen before and I start my routine standardprocedure with visit's to Mum: the unmessing of the (again brand-new and not-affordable) laptop. She has an unbelievable talent of messing up everything with electronics (TV and phone are next in the procedure), but is very determined to use them anyway and pressing on buttons she doesn't know the meaning of.

After the starting up of the damn laptop, Mum goes: finished, what's to happen now, did you say?
-Wait, Mum, I'm coming! Okay, show me slowly.
-(Casts on F1-style)
-Wait, hold on! Step by step, please!
-(Casts on Freewayspeed)
-Wait, where did you put that needle?
and so on and so on.

I can't explain how we managed, but I got in, trying to learn a new cast-on and came out with 3.5 cm tricot + additional stitches, having learnt nothing, having seen and being confused a lot, with a big head-ache as a bonus.

Like I said, routine, standardprocedure.
And, okay, the tricotpart of the first 3.5 cm looks splendid, but the additional cast-ons look very loose and I knit pretty tight and I don't dare to take them of, because - 1: I don't know how to put them on again, and 2: my Mum might see the finished product and notice! (I did mention we have a pretty screwed-up relation, right?)

So knitting on a couple of extra rows of my own now (and I wanted to have MY OWN HANDmade gift for the little one). And, what did you expect... the difference is VERY noticable!

14/01

Rest of the brim, yes! My turn! And I've found the perfect way to knit without getting sore, watch the overload of recorded movies and not having to zap trough commercials! I knit through them! And that's about the time I can manage to knit without cramping up and having done about a row - maybe 2.

By tonight, I can start on the ajourpattern!

20/01

Wow, that pattern is more difficult than I imagined. It's going, but I'm not superhappy with it. But the mistakes are not too visible. It's not actually that the pattern is so difficult, it's just the concentrating on following it. I'm not memorizing it too well, I guess.

25/01

We're leaving for the long-expected skiing trip. And I can't take my blankie with me, because sis-in-law is coming too and she can't know! But I got my new supplies in that I ordered online and I'm eager to try them out too on the trip.
Progress of blankie is a good 30 cm in total, so it's happy to wait for my return.

12/02

Back from skiing trip and back from a bunch of other projects and back to project 001: Blankie!!! It's a little late at night and I don't have too much time before bedtime, but a couple of rows managed. Starting tomorrow, you're coming with me to work!

Bijlagen:
ajourblanket.jpg (274.9 KB)   
ajourblanketdetail.JPG (4.2 MB)   
blockingblanket.JPG (4.4 MB)   
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/antheabe/baby-blanket-ajour