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Why Blog?

This title does seem to pose a rather silly question at this point; I have been blogging for nearly 18 months and now I decide is the time to think about blogging?  This post is not about why I started blogging but rather a reassessment at this point.





If you know me, you know my attention span (especially associated with non-work stuff) is short.  So it seems right that after doing something for a year and one-half the time is appropriate to step back and review whether this adventure is a good use of my free time?  So here goes my current thinking:
  1. The blog tracks my life by providing a venue to talk about knitting and its role in my life.  I am generally surrounded by non-knitters and since I've started blogging they hear less and less about my knitting adventures.  Perhaps you heard that small sigh of relief from here when I started.  Paul and Mike, the cat, are probably the biggest beneficiaries although neither ever complained; they are both saints, both the silent type. (One more so than the other, you can guess which is which.)
  2. My blog allows me to share the ups and downs that are inevitable when attempting new knitting or crocheting techniques, tools and approaches.  If I learn something by working through my mistakes/problems perhaps sharing that process might help another knitter or crocheter avoid the same.  And there are plenty of mistakes so the learning could be rich and deep! 
  3. The blog is a record, in words and photos, of my projects before they leave here to their new homes.  Knitting projects, for me, are meant to be given away; all the enjoyment comes from the process and the creativity that process allows.  The end product is just an added bonus.  Maybe that explains why there are so many WIPs, the joy in the process is gone and I am not vested in the end product.  (BTW, this supports #6.)
  4. I'm leaving some sort of odd record of who I am for yet unborn relatives to check out after I'm gone.  This might be the most tenuous and unsubstantiated reason for blogging, but only time will tell if this supposition holds.  And if it doesn't, who cares, I won't be here to know.
  5. Blogging's a way for my friends and family, who are far flung, to check into what's interesting me at the moment.  Anyone who really knows me knows my interests regularly change for things like yarn crafts, hair and food choices.  It's not that I'm trying to keep people guessing, see my statement above, the attention span thing is real for certain aspects of my life. 
  6. Blogging makes me face the real me, in at least one small slice of life, but this is better than not at all, right?  Because I know I'm being recorded here, even if it is self-recorded, I'm having to be more honest with myself.  For example, it is now easier for me to determine how long a project has been abandoned because I have an actual start date recorded for it.  Or, I have publicly stated how big my stash is and that impacts my impulse yarn buying, OK perhaps only somewhat, but it does have an impact. 
  7. Having to come up with post ideas, since I'm not the fastest knitter around, helps me stay connected with different types of knitting options, like chat rooms, other blogs, websites, guilds, and so on.  A happy consequence of blogging is I'm now much more connected to a community of virtual knitters than I've ever been, even though creating a knitting community was never the purpose.
  8. I do have Mike, the cat.  It seems that having a cat is a prerequisite for other knitting bloggers.  While he doesn't knit; he does contribute, to a certain extent, to the blog because he is so willing to be photographed.  Luckily Mike can't speak, or more importantly, write because he might suggest he's forced rather unwillingly into photographs.  But then what does he know, he's a cat, and a 14 year old cat at that.  Apparently he is 72 years old in human years. (It is so easy for me to become unfocused, I really know how to prove my own point, don't I. )  
That makes eight good reasons for me to continue with this adventure.  But perhaps the most important reason to continue blogging is it makes me happy and as far as I'm concerned that's the best reason of them all.  So continue I shall until it no longer makes me happy.   

         My blog is more like this                                                                                     
                                                                                               


than this:





        

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