Wednesday Wonders Lucky #13: My Blogs

Don't be afraid of today's photo! I was looking for a picture that evoked how I feel today, and this one does. It's me in late 2003, wearing a felted hat (from Lamb's Pride bulky, knit doubled) that I made for a friend in Maryland. I made 5 or 6 of them for her, and she then mailed them all over the world as holiday gifts--little bits of Knitting Suna all over the world. And that brings me to the other way I send little bits of Knitting Suna all over the world...

Today’s Wednesday Wonders aren’t people, but they are the ways I communicate with people: My blogs! Today is the 4th anniversary of my blogging adventures. My personal blog goes back to April 1, 2005. It is always good, I think, to start a Fool’s Journey on April Fool’s Day! That blog mixed my everyday life with my knitting adventures until May 2007, when I had to separate into two blogs, one that shows up on search engines and that I give out links to strangers to, which is for my knitting thoughts, and one for life updated, chatting and opinionating for an audience of just friends.* So, you may think I’ve only been blogging for a couple of years, but that’s because two years are hiding.

To my dear readers: If you are interested in more on my family, my work, my non-knitting activities and my rather nonstandard, but friendly, thoughts on life, just let me know where I can send you an email link to the other one! If you leave an email address in a comment, I will delete it before publishing it, so it won’t be broadcast all over the earth.

I am really grateful that someone thought blogs up, because I have always been one of those people who kept diaries, journals, logs and other kinds of personal records. I don’t have the best memory for details, so it’s helped me that I wrote a lot down in my past (and grrr to the ex husband who threw away my graduate school journal). It helps remind me of what I have learned from my mistakes, and what joys have popped up among the sorrows and drudgery. I love having these bloggy records of what I’ve been going through the last four years. I get a lot of laughs looking back!

And from a knitting perspective, I am really grateful that I can share with others whatever little ideas and insights come to me, so they can take what works for them and leave the rest. I get so many ideas from other people’s blogs, too (and oh, I wish I were as clever and creative as some of them, but I really don’t mind—we are who we are, and we each have our gifts!). I use my own blog to complement the records I am keeping on Ravelry, so I can check the process that went into making this project or that. I realize most of that is just of interest to me, but I think most diarists write primarily for themselves and count any audience who shows up as a bonus. Still, I hear that some people have learned things from my blog, too, and that makes me happy—as a teacher, I would like to teach at every opportunity.

And of course, there’s one more reason that my blogs are Wednesday Wonders: they have introduced me to people I’d never have gotten to know otherwise, and I treasure the chances I’ve had to get to know some of my readers, and to at least get glimpses of some of the others. Where else but in the “blogosphere” (which I think of as the place mean and somewhat ill-educated people who pick at news-makers live, but I realize also includes US) can you keep up with the daily lives of fascinating women and men from California to Wisconsin to New England, or from Denmark to Pakistan…to right down the road! I know I’ve said it before, but it’s time to do so again: thank you all for reading, and to those of you whose blogs I read: thank you for writing!
I really enjoy blogs. They are as dramatic as novels, but they feature real people. They are as educational as textbooks, but funnier and more “real.” Blogs are human, and they bring people together. There’s so much that separates us today—so much “us vs. them” thinking, so it is great to see how people with different views , of different backgrounds and from different places do share so much in common. We love our families, we love knitting, we respect others.

Hmm, on an email list (another thing I like!) today someone asked what makes us happy. I guess my answer is my blogs, who are four years old, and the blogs of all my friends, mentors and knitting companions!

As an anniversary gift, feel free to share what you like about blogs and blogging, or just wish the blog a happy birthday. It's also Wendy Johnson's blog-i-versary, so it must have been a good day to start blogs (hers started way before mine, though!)

*We had someone who was a bit messed up mentally following the blog and imagining all sorts of “reading between the lines” things from some of the entries, so Lee and I decided to take away the public availability while we were dating. At least all the other stalkers have either been kind or silent!