It all started a year ago today. Under pressure from Minou and instruction from my father to write more, I started this blog. I'm not entirely certain if this is what he had in mind when he suggested that I do more writing, but as Calvin says, "I obey the letter if not the spirit of the law."
It's hard to believe that through writing and knitting, (what are both so often solitary endeavours), I have brought so many people into my life.
Moving from a small town where everyone knows you to a city where you can spend a day out running errands without ever seeing someone you know is never easy. When you're an introvert it's even harder (I know, it's hard to believe that I can be introverted). It took me a while to find my place in HRM, especially after a certain friend moved away to go to university. Eventually though, I found a kindred spirit or two at work with whom I could share my newfound love of yarn... an old friend moved back to town just in time for the knitting to begin but left before it got intense... and then through knitting and this blog, I met other "real" people both in my LYS and on the road.
May I present, in honour of my year of blogging, a list of "Free Bits Of Happy" stemming directly from this blog and knitting:
1. Being linked by a well-known knitter and writer. That was the day I installed a site meter
2. Participating in a yarn swap with someone who lives in a place I have always dreamed of visiting.
3. Receiving a yarny gift in the mail from an amazingly kind person and fabulous knitter. (The yarn that is still in the "it's so beautiful I have to find the perfect project for it" drawer of my "yarn storage unit")
4. Getting up in the morning to check to see if there are any new comments on my blog and finding I have an audience.
5. Being part of a world wide community of knitting obsessed people and realizing that it's not so freaky.
6. Reading about she who needs no link, buying her bookbookbook and giving it to my Grandmother.
7. Having my grandmother tell the entire family about my knitting.
8. Seeing my dad wearing the hat I made for him the first Christmas I tried to knit for everyone.
9. Receiving comments from my Uncle K.
10. Meeting local knitters and being brave enough to start a Stitch and Bitch group of my/our own.
11. Really, really liking those knitters. Every single one of you.
12. Being able to send a baby gift that I made to one of my oldest friends and knowing that although I can't be there, I've wrapped my own version of a loving hug around her newborn daughter.
13. Teaching a good friend how to knit and then watching as she knit her first sweater!!!!!.
14. Having that friend be obsessed with knitting too so that "Yarn Crawls" become part of our roster of "fun things to do without the boys".
15. Meeting my grandmother and her two sisters at a yarn store and seeing their faces light up just like mine does when I see good yarn.
16. Hearing that my SM loves the shawl I made for her.
17. Learning so much about myself by just sitting here with a keyboard.
18. Learning that the bizarre thoughts that pop into my mind ("hmmmm... a knitted rug... that would be cool" - right JAK?) are not all that bizarre.
19. Hopefully inspiring my Auntie K to learn to knit.
20. Having something I wrote appear on the CBC lock out website. (Oh sure, I help them picket and they take the Roundup off the air. I feel as if I have done no favours for this country.)
21. Making a great friend in my LYS owner, my fellow LYS employee and many of the customers.
22. The yarn... ok, the yarn isn't free, but squooshing it while it's still on the shelves at the shop... that's still free. Although I do think Sheryl could charge admittance.
I think that's all I've got for now. It's been a treat, this year on the web. Who woulda thunk that the girl who took Computer Ed in 1990 (and learned BASIC) would be on the internet?
Oh, and for those of you who are around this weekend... Tangled Skeins will be open on SUNDAY and yours truly will be guiding the destiny of the yarn in the shop. Please come by, say hello and FOR HEAVENS SAKE, IF YOU HAVEN'T STARTED THE ARAN CABLE KNIT SWEATER THAT YOU PROMISED TO MAKE YOUR 250 POUND UNCLE MEL FOR CHRISTMAS, YA MIGHT WANNA STOP IN AND PICK UP THE YARN. No pressure or anything. It's just that you don't have much time before the holidays.
Home heating status: It's now 12:04am on November 4th and we still haven't turned on the heat. I'm wearing the same fleecey outfit as the other night, only I've added a touque.
It's hard to believe that through writing and knitting, (what are both so often solitary endeavours), I have brought so many people into my life.
Moving from a small town where everyone knows you to a city where you can spend a day out running errands without ever seeing someone you know is never easy. When you're an introvert it's even harder (I know, it's hard to believe that I can be introverted). It took me a while to find my place in HRM, especially after a certain friend moved away to go to university. Eventually though, I found a kindred spirit or two at work with whom I could share my newfound love of yarn... an old friend moved back to town just in time for the knitting to begin but left before it got intense... and then through knitting and this blog, I met other "real" people both in my LYS and on the road.
May I present, in honour of my year of blogging, a list of "Free Bits Of Happy" stemming directly from this blog and knitting:
1. Being linked by a well-known knitter and writer. That was the day I installed a site meter
2. Participating in a yarn swap with someone who lives in a place I have always dreamed of visiting.
3. Receiving a yarny gift in the mail from an amazingly kind person and fabulous knitter. (The yarn that is still in the "it's so beautiful I have to find the perfect project for it" drawer of my "yarn storage unit")
4. Getting up in the morning to check to see if there are any new comments on my blog and finding I have an audience.
5. Being part of a world wide community of knitting obsessed people and realizing that it's not so freaky.
6. Reading about she who needs no link, buying her bookbookbook and giving it to my Grandmother.
7. Having my grandmother tell the entire family about my knitting.
8. Seeing my dad wearing the hat I made for him the first Christmas I tried to knit for everyone.
9. Receiving comments from my Uncle K.
10. Meeting local knitters and being brave enough to start a Stitch and Bitch group of my/our own.
11. Really, really liking those knitters. Every single one of you.
12. Being able to send a baby gift that I made to one of my oldest friends and knowing that although I can't be there, I've wrapped my own version of a loving hug around her newborn daughter.
13. Teaching a good friend how to knit and then watching as she knit her first sweater!!!!!.
14. Having that friend be obsessed with knitting too so that "Yarn Crawls" become part of our roster of "fun things to do without the boys".
15. Meeting my grandmother and her two sisters at a yarn store and seeing their faces light up just like mine does when I see good yarn.
16. Hearing that my SM loves the shawl I made for her.
17. Learning so much about myself by just sitting here with a keyboard.
18. Learning that the bizarre thoughts that pop into my mind ("hmmmm... a knitted rug... that would be cool" - right JAK?) are not all that bizarre.
19. Hopefully inspiring my Auntie K to learn to knit.
20. Having something I wrote appear on the CBC lock out website. (Oh sure, I help them picket and they take the Roundup off the air. I feel as if I have done no favours for this country.)
21. Making a great friend in my LYS owner, my fellow LYS employee and many of the customers.
22. The yarn... ok, the yarn isn't free, but squooshing it while it's still on the shelves at the shop... that's still free. Although I do think Sheryl could charge admittance.
I think that's all I've got for now. It's been a treat, this year on the web. Who woulda thunk that the girl who took Computer Ed in 1990 (and learned BASIC) would be on the internet?
Oh, and for those of you who are around this weekend... Tangled Skeins will be open on SUNDAY and yours truly will be guiding the destiny of the yarn in the shop. Please come by, say hello and FOR HEAVENS SAKE, IF YOU HAVEN'T STARTED THE ARAN CABLE KNIT SWEATER THAT YOU PROMISED TO MAKE YOUR 250 POUND UNCLE MEL FOR CHRISTMAS, YA MIGHT WANNA STOP IN AND PICK UP THE YARN. No pressure or anything. It's just that you don't have much time before the holidays.
Home heating status: It's now 12:04am on November 4th and we still haven't turned on the heat. I'm wearing the same fleecey outfit as the other night, only I've added a touque.
Woo-hoo! Congratulations on your first anniversary! I'm very much looking forward to year two :)
ReplyDeleteHappy blogiversary, Steph. You DO know you are the reason I'm wearing devil horns on the web for all to see, right? And the picture of my crooked ankles and fingers? Your fault too.
ReplyDeleteIt's made a big difference having other knitters in my life.
Happy blogiversary! I can tell you that your blog regularly gives me more than a few bits of happy -- looking forward to another year of it!
ReplyDeleteA whole year of bits makes a lot of happy! Congrats, and keep going.
ReplyDeleteThat perfect project will reveal itself someday, and when it does it's going to be great. In the meantime, the yarn is aging nicely, like a fine wine that will never peak and turn to vinegar.
Happy Blogiversary and thanks for all of the happy! PS- I checked a book out at the library (Simple Knits for Sophisticated Living) and it has a pattern for an Aran rug (now, it may not fit Uncle Mel...) so thinking about a knitted rug is perfectly normal.
ReplyDeleteI'm at work it is 2:18pm the heat is ON and I am wearing two sweaters, one of those big puffy coats, two scarfs (one I knit, one from winners), and - as sheila calls it - a bobble hat (touque with a pompom) and I am still cold.
ReplyDeleteDid I mention the heat is on and the sun is shining outside. Someone please take me back to L.A.
I'm glad you have your blog so I can keep tabs on you. Makes me feel like I am still only a 5 minute walk away.