Meta

I've been thinking a lot of blogging lately: the different kinds of blogs, the ones I like, the inspiration and news and ideas I get from reading blogs. And then I always come back to this blog and how…hard it’s been this year. Hard’s not even the right word. It’s partly because I don't know what I want to write about here: should I include the personal stuff? Do I simply want to keep track of the craft inspirations I find on the web or record my crafting projects? I originally started this blog to record my various projects and to track my improvements and the lessons I’m learning. I love that I have this record, but sometimes I worry that it’s boring. Then I worry that I’m too concerned with what anyone else thinks, if it's for my own record who cares if it's boring? Then...I worry some more.

All this thinking about what the blog is has kept me from just doing the blog…just recording my projects and lessons and inspirations. Also, the advent of Ravelry, which is a fantastic template for recording projects has really taken away the impetus for this little ole blog. I never feel like talking about here after I've gone through the trouble of listing it there.

On top of all that, I really love “project blogs” (this is what I call them, I’m not sure if they have an official name)…a blog in which the blogger takes on a project/challenge and records it. I also love the blogs of small businesses and artists, where I can learn more about the process behind the products. So sometimes I wonder if I would enjoy the blogging process more and would be more to write with that sort of focus and purpose.

I find that I need to know, just for myself, what this blog means to me and what I want it to be for me. Lately it’s been sort of undefined and nebulous and although I’ve been thinking about it, there’s something about writing it down and sending it out there, into the world. Which is really why I started this blog, so all my knitting To-Dos, all the projects I saw on other blogs or yarns or I wanted or whatever would be all in one place, written down into something concrete and traceable. I’m smitten with Mae Jane’s idea of documenting this quarter-life crisis…but I find that when I do that, I get frustrated and confused about what it is I’m doing here. Which is silly, because what I’m doing is pretty straightforward: in recording my projects and inspiration, I AM documenting me, at this point in my life.

My life is a jumble now and confusing mostly but the good parts and the moments filled with yarn, needles, pets. The photographs of a beautiful sunset, the knitting pattern I want to try, the article on technique…these are things this blog was meant to record. The crafty wanderings of me, sometimes well-written (I hope) and regular but sometimes sporadic or just plopped down here so I won’t forget. And my project for today is to be ok with that.

And for my records, the things I’ve been thinking about, the subjects I’ve been meaning to blog about:

• Mystery Holiday Gift-along and what I’m designing for it
• Feminism and it's relation to handwork and the books I’ve been reading on the subject
• Books, in general, that I've read this summer
• My Fall To-Do list