1. Year Blog Anniversary!

Let’s see what Wikipedia has to say about “blog":




A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.
Blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of most early blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.
The term "blog" is a portmanteau, or, in other words, a blend of the words web and log (Web log). "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
In November 2006, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 57 million blogs.

This being my first blog anniversary post, and the 211th post as well, I learned from past mistakes and wrote it in MS Word first, just so I don’t loose it again! (No pun intended).

A little more then a year ago, I felt the urge to start my own blog. I’ve had been reading blogs for a while and thought, why not? I started to have a look around for a free account. At first there was “My Space”, which turned out to be something I didn’t like. Word Press was next, I even set up an account, but being new to it all, I didn’t find it simple enough. My son suggested “Blogger” to me, and I’ve been here ever since. It’s not really a surprise to me that I stuck with it, since I’m like a tick, when I’m interested in something. 100% all the time!

Some numbers: I signed in at Google Analytics in mid February. There where

March 2007: 6152 visitors,
April 2007 up to April 7th: 1,216 visitors to my blog. Hello-o! Big wave here! (and a smile)

One of my first posts was about the recovery of Sam and his first knee surgery, as well as a scarf I made for my friend Roswitha. First post .

I learned a lot, about blogging, and the blogging community. My knitting advanced not just with baby steps, but with huge steps in all directions. With the help of the internet and all its helpful hints, tips and tricks, it’s easy to find information on whatever topic imaginable!

I learned knitting as a kid in school. As I was looking through my photo albums I realized that I did quite a lot of knitting. I made a lot for my children when they ware babies and toddlers, but stopped knitting, after I learned about quilting. (I knit a sweater for my boyfriend, now husband, and have the picture to prove it!) I never stopped knitting socks though, just plain old stockinette stitch socks. One year and a half ago I started up with more socks and dishcloth knitting, and one thing let to another, and here I am today.

All that thinking about my past knitting let to this little story about one particular piece I made. I’m real sorry that I don’t have a picture of one of my sweaters I made when I was 17 years old. I’ve got some very natural sheep wool from my aunt. They had a small flock of sheep and never knew what to do with the woolly stuff (I guess the sheep were for eating mostly). Anyway, she gave me this bag full of stinky sheep wool, coarsely spun too. I wound the hanks into balls, where my fingers got all sticky and smelly. I didn’t care. I made myself a knee long!!! “Sweater-dress”. It looked like a sweater knit with brioche stitch on top and the mini skirt part was some kind of ribbing. It weighted a ton, and I looked probably like a sheep on two feet. I remember hiking to the next village, which was 12 kilometers away. It was a sunny winter day, and I just felt like it. Once there, I sat in a coffee shop, reading and sipping – probably coffee( or tea). At first I didn’t think much about the looks I got. But it suddenly occurred to me, that something must be wrong with me. Since I was schlepping this thing on my back for miles, I got used to the smell. Once inside and warming up I must have spread the scent of an old randy ram, which made me laugh. I must have looked something like a female yeti. I took the bus back home. I don’t think I wore that thing too often!

But I do have some pictures of a sweater I made, when I was 18 years old. I was visiting Venice in 1983, during off season. I know that, because it was real cold, and I wore mitts. Look at those! I attached fringe all around them. Totally forgot about them. The sweater was made with a golden colored yarn. It was very soft and very expensive, surely NOT acrylic, but more than that, I can’t remember.

Back to the present: I made some cyber space friends, even have regular readers, (Hello!), and people who leave comments regularly as well, thanks!

That leads me to the winner of my little contest:

It’s Angie aka Dipsy Doodle ! Congratulations!

(I pulled your name out of a hat, very scientific like)
I hope you like the book! Thanks for playing! Please send me your mailing address via e-mail!

It’s always nice to have some feedback; otherwise it’s like talking to oneself. There’s Linda from NYC for instance, which dropped me a line or two recently, and sent this pictures of her White Shepherd Gulley. She was reading my blog with him by her side. You can see Biko’s head on the screen! Thanks for your kind words, Linda! I appreciate hearing from you; it makes it all worth it!

Now, usually I don’t harbor deep thoughts. But during the last few days I was thinking about this past (knitting) year and what it meant to me, and what it means to me right now, and what I want to do during the upcoming year.

I think a natural next step is to give spinning a try. I’ve been thinking about it more and more lately, and I want to give it a try. I’ve been in contact with Amy of Boogie Knits . She’ll put together a starter kit for me, and I trust her experience and am looking forward to the whole package! (She’s even dyeing some roving in colors I like). See, talking the talk already!

I hope I can learn spinning on my own. I don’t know anybody who spins yarn, but I’m confident, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can ….

Then, there’s some knitting I’d like to do, namely for myself. At least a vest and/or a cardigan, socks don’t count. I’ve seen so many nice designs and it’s about time anyway. Also, I’d like to design a real pretty shawl and write the pattern. I don’t think that is easy, especially with the charts, but that’s what I want to do. The one I’m working on right now, doesn’t count. It’s just an easy - breezy one. Other then that, there will be a lot of sock knitting, but you’ll never know. I might catch the spinning bug real bad, and don’t have as much time for knitting as I would like too have. We’ll see, don’t we?

I finish up with a picture of my two stinky dogies (as I call them lovingly): It’s a few years old, I think Sam was one year old that spring.





Thanks for listening, reading, and commenting!

Monika