Needles on the Move

Thinking about blogging

We have been nominated by the lovely ladies over at Tea Reads as a Thinking Blogger. Thank you! It is a great honour to know that people are inspired by what we write.

When I first set out to blog I was merely writing down semi-interesting things about my life and my knitting. Gradually, as I began to read many other blogs, I realised that I was learning from the wide and wonderful blogosphere out there: I decided that I too wanted to try and inspire others and pass on some of my knowledge. Since Heather joined me in blogland she has also been adding snippets from her incredible store of knowledge and experience.

In deciding who to nominate, I started thinking about the blogs I read regularly and found I could categorise them into three areas:

Inspiration: These blogs keep me hungry to try new things and quite often make me go Wow! Sometimes I think: I could do that! and sometimes it’s more: Well, not everyone can be a genius! Pink Lemon Twist falls into this category.

Entertainment: Some knitting blogs are hilarious. On a blue day I know that some time trawling through archives in blogs like The Yarn Harlot will soon cheer me up. (She also counts as inspiration).

Friendship: Living in the centre of eight million people can make me feel very far away from everything at times. No matter where my friends are (from Pennsylvania to Tasmania) I can keep up to date through reading their blogs. A comment on a post often gets a quick response and sometimes leads to a protracted email conversation which is almost like the real thing. Cairi and Amanda are examples of great friends who I have never met in the flesh but nevertheless feel very close to.

So, nominations. As this is a shared blog I will nominate 3 blogs which make me think, and leave 2 for Heather.

1. I have to include See Eunny Knit!. This girl is amazing. Her genius is enhanced by her attention to detail and she is not above sharing her knowledge freely (really freely) with anyone who cares to read it. She has been recently named the new editor of Interweave Knits so will probably be blogging less, but I can’t think of anyone more deserving.

2. Carrie of My Middle Name is Patience deserves a mention. Every time I read her blog I get inspired again to read ‘proper’ books. We have chats about authors and she encourages me in my writing.

3. I have been lurking around Two Left Needles since I first started reading blogs. I think I left my first ever comment last week. For spinning inspiration and information I’ve never found a better blog, I have learnt a lot reading this one.

Here are the rules for those who have been nominated:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to the thinking blogger post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (here is the silver or gold version ).

Finishing

When did I last finish something? If you click on the ‘Finished objects’ category I think you get the beginning of February. Then there was Bronte’s Mitts which somehow never made it up here, you can see them over here. And I finished a pair of socks which I haven’t got around to photgraphing, oh and a teddy bear sweater (incidentally, that was for a finishing class). I guess it’s more than I think. Trouble is, a lot of things get either gifted or left at work so it seems that there’s nothing around.

I seem to be pulling in two directions at the moment between process and product. I tell myself that I’m a process knitter - I’m pretty sure I am - recent evidence being that I frogged all three balls knitted so far of the Blue Sky Shrug and started again from scratch with a completely different pattern. Hey, it’s really nice yarn to knit and I know I’m going to like this design better…

There’s such glory in a finished item though. There’s the moment of snipping the last darned-in end and smoothing it out on your lap and saying “aaaah”. Then there’s the running around to husband/flatmates/blog/forum/strangers walking past the front door saying “looky what I made!”. Then there’s the first wearing, preferably at a Stitch ‘n Bitch or other knitting-related event where you can say “What, this, yes I did make it actually, feel free to tell me how amazing I am”. All these things are really cool.

So occasionally I get a bit frustrated with my tendency to restart, unpull, deviate from and put aside for something else. Ocasionally I just want to finish something and wear it and strike it from the list. “Aha!”, you say, “Diane’s about to make a declaration not to start anything new until she’s finished some things”.

Sorry, not today. I am coming to know myself too well. Every time I make declarations they collapse into a screaming heap as soon as I walk past some Koigu. And I just bought a bamboo, koigu-sized crochet hook especially for the flight next week (just try and take that off me, go on!). Instead, I would be very appreciative of your suggestions for finding more knitting time in the day. An extra 27 hours or so would be good.

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P.S. To those of you who are becoming bored with my current Koigu obsession, I do apologise. I expect I will get over it someday.

Don’t Give Up Your Day Job…

Today I gave up my day job. I am no longer a primary school teacher: I am a writer, I am a designer, I am a knitting/spinning/crochet teacher and, funnily enough, I enjoy all those things more than being sworn at by snotty little kids who I will never get any joy from as I’m only there for a day.

My Reasons (apart from being sworn at):

1. The book wasn’t getting done. Mum read through the plan last week and said “um, this says ‘proposal to publishers end Feb’ … it’s the end of Feb now…” so we pushed the proposal date back. And I realised that that was going to happen a lot if we didn’t actually do some WORK.

2. I can’t be a famous (or even struggling) writer/designer if I don’t submit anything. If I had gone to school today I would almost certainly have missed the Knitty deadline which snuck up on me and went BOO! this week.

3. Stomach cramps on Monday mornings.

4. Getting up early on Monday mornings.

5. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut feeling.

Incidentally, I haven’t actually quit my agency, I just don’t intend to call in for a while. It’s there in reserve in case I find I’m missing the pitter patter of medium-sized feet (hah) or I start to starve.

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I may write more on this later, at the moment I need to go earn a buck.

Ciao!