Ten Years of Blogging

I made my first post on this blog 10 years ago and this one makes number 780! That's a lot of pictures and writing.

My first post was about starting the Hawaiian Star Quilt

I made it as part of a "quilt club" at the local quilt shop (the one that closed over the past summer). It hasn't been quilted yet, by the way.

I've shown and talked about knitting, quilting, beading, weaving, crochet, road trips, sewing, set backs and triumphs. I've posted almost 60 sock and slipper projects alone.

My first post has 22 "views". I don't think I was sharing my posts on Facebook at that time. These days my average views are 50 - 80. And then a post about my sweater haul from Goodwill in Feb '09 has over 2,000 views. Who knows why it was so popular. Or it could have been a hit from some bots.

A post I did in Nov '10 definitely wasn't hit by bots with it's 4,600+ views. It was a demonstration of garter stitch in the round with no purling. I demonstrated on the Honey Cowl, which was a super hot pattern at the time and there was a lot of interest.

And I can't ignore the time I was pranked by Reddit and my first ever video upload to youtube received over 155,000 views and 4,000 comments in a couple days. It now has over 221,000 views and 10,000 likes. My 15 seconds of internet fame.

The blog has also chronicled 10 years of participating in the county fair. Remember the first year when they called me after I dropped off my entries and told me that machine knitted items were not eligible? Umm...I don't have a knitting machine. But I guess you could say I am a knitting machine! :) (I'm still convinced they thought I was lying the first year, but they have have learned since.)

10 years of the Ravellenic Games:
2010: the Whistler sweater (not finished til May)

2012: one pair of socks (it was the summer games...meh)
2014: so many (smaller) projects!
2018: the Celestarium shawl (not finished til April)

And my sister sends the best medals ever:

(It's chocolate. Say no more.)

And it's been 10 years of travel: three trips to the magical Squam Art Workshops;

trips to AQS quilt shows in Des Moines and Grand Rapids and the Shipshewana Quilt Show;

travel to Kentucky, Banff National Park (Canada),

the Netherlands, and Iceland, where I always bring my knitting with; and a family crafting retreat in Ontario;

and who could forget Vogue Knitting Live in Chicago last Spring?

Walking the Reader Runway

I started writing the blog in the wave of when everyone was doing it. As it still says in the description: "I'm blogging to keep my projects organized, share them with others, and get feedback and advice if you've got it." And that's still what I hope to get out of it - organization, sharing, and connection.

The scarf I sent in for the 2012 Super Bowl
in Indy ended up around the CEO's neck and
on the cover of Indianapolis Woman!

The organization works pretty well. Between this and Ravelry, I can usually nail something down pretty fast if I have to look something up. The sharing works pretty well. Several of my ideas or patterns have caught on and are included on various websites.

The connection is hit or miss. Some come for the techniques and some just want to look at pictures of what I'm working on. Either is ok with me. But when someone comes up to me and congratulations me on my latest finished socks and the post they are referring to was titled something like, "My Socks Are A Complete Disaster", then I feel the opposite of connected to that person.

On the other hand, when someone recognizes my stuff at the fair and tells me they read my blog, that feels pretty amazing.

The blog is a lot of work and takes a lot of time. Keeping organized and making connections always takes work, right? But it also serves as a motivator. Sometimes I want to get something done so I can write about it. It can also remind of things I've done before - different techniques or ways I've solved problems.

What about you? I suggest you leave a comment with how many years you've been reading and a favourite project, suggestion, or story from the blog.