Happy Blogiversary to me!
Whew, that year went fast. For someone who wasn’t certain she should do this in the first place, I’ve sure been tapping on the keys a lot. This blogging thing isn't so bad. I’ve gained a few new friends, and found that blogging makes a nice daily writing warmup before I move on to the real work of the day. But it’s more than that.
Del wrote recently about how blogging’s made her a better knitter. I had to stop and think about that. I was a knitter long before blogs existed. Has blogging affected my knitting?
The surprising answer--surprising to me--is yes. It has. I didn’t expect that, but I have become a better knitter since I’ve started this blog. There is, of course, the concern about how things look in the photographs. If a whole bunch of people who don’t know me are going to see something I’ve made, I’d better do a good job on it. There are also tremendous resources online, which you pay more attention to if you’re blogging and reading other people’s blogs: hundreds of patterns, yarns that don’t appear in the LYS, video or photo tutorials which go beyond what printed instructions can offer.
But it’s more than all that, too. Blogging has made me think more deeply about my technique. Why do I do things the way I do them? Is there a better way, and can I learn it? The exchange of ideas plays a big part. There are far more knitters with ideas than there are knitting books and magazines. Even with a vast library, no knitter could gain as many different perspectives as there are floating around the blog world. The monkey-see, monkey-do factor doesn’t hurt, either. As human beings we’re all subject to it, and it’s impossible to resist trying a new technique or pattern or great idea seen on somebody else’s site.
The more I see what other knitters are cooking up, the more I want my own knitting to become wonderful and exciting. Writing about my knitting on an almost-daily basis has really made me pay close attention to the quality of my work. I’m forced to think about the what, why and how of it, the story of it and why it’s important to me. And it is important to me, to who I am as a creative person.
So, I’m working on my knitting. Better finishing and blocking. More attention to stitch technique, fit and design. New skills, like dyeing. There’s a ton of stuff to learn.
I started this blog with the idea that I could quit in a few months if it wasn’t working for me, but I think I’ll keep it going. And in honor of my First Blogiversary and all the goodness I’ve gained from doing this, I’m giving away yarn! (You were hoping that was coming, right? Presumably that’s why you bothered to read this far.)
Leave me a comment on this post and let me know what blogging’s done for you (if you have a blog) or what reading blogs has done for you (if you don’t have a blog) and I’ll throw your name into the hat (probably a ceramic pot, in reality, unless I can find an interesting hat). I’ll accept entries through Sunday, November 11th, 2007. On Monday, I’ll draw a name and the winner will receive some yarn from my overflowing stash. What will it be? I don’t know! But it will be free yarn, and that’s what counts, right? Because we all need more yarn. Especially if it’s free. New readers are welcome to enter, and I do hope you’ll stop in again to see what nonsense I’ve gotten myself into here at the Mystery House, whether you win or not.
