Blog

A fresh start

We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves, otherwise we harden. — Goethe 

 

Six weeks ago, my seventh blog-iversary went by. Seven years of blogging? It’s hard to believe. When I first started this blog, I was just a punk with some strong opinions about knitting. I had one kid in elementary school and twins who were still in diapers. I had the desire to be part of the knitting industry, but was just figuring out where and how that might happen. There was a hell of a lot I didn’t know about the way the industry works and I hadn’t met most of the people whose designs or yarns or magazines I was talking about. But I loved yarn and I loved knitting. And I loved to write.

Fast-forward to now. I’ve been extremely fortunate: in the past seven years, I’ve written three books. I’ve had designs and articles published in books, magazines, pattern collections and online. I’ve taught at various knitting shows and local yarn shops. I handdye yarn and sell it. I publish my own patterns. I’ve been a guest on podcasts and made YouTube videos. I’ve met many people who used to be just names on the pages of my favorite patterns and books, and  built relationships with them, both professional and personal. I’ve learned that like most things in life, the knitting industry is more complicated than it looks on the surface, and I myself have encountered some of those gray areas firsthand.

Over the course of the past six months, I’ve been working with a fabulous graphic designer to revamp my website. I wanted an integrated website, so that you could find all of my fiber-related pursuits in one place. She did a terrific job, and on this new, improved Black Bunny Fibers website you can find out all about my dyeing, my designing, my writing and my teaching. I hope you’ll take a minute to look around and enjoy the new set-up.

One of the logical steps in the web-building process was moving my blog directly to my website, rather than having it appear in a different place, with a different internet address (like blogger.com or typepad.com). During the course of the website-building process, I thought a lot about the fact that I would be moving my blog and actually got a little wistful about the change. My wistfulness was exacerbated by one of the stylistic issues that came up: should I import the existing blog here, or start fresh, with a new layout? My graphic designer and I discussed the pros and cons, and we also discussed the pros and cons of bringing the name “Go Knit In Your Hat” along for the ride.

Blog anniversaries tend to trigger reflection in me. In past years, I’ve mused about the nature of the internet; about how the process of blogging has changed me; about feedback from readers (both constructive and otherwise); about privacy issues that arise from revealing one’s thoughts and opinions on the web; and about the nature of going from an outsider in an industry to something of an insider. It’s much easier to lob criticism, even well-intentioned criticism, when one is an outsider. And when you become aware of the complexities of a business, you start to see how things don’t always look the same from the inside as they did from the outside.

So when I thought about how to present my blog on this spiffy new website, I decided it was time for a fresh start. I decided to retire the “Go Knit In Your Hat” name and blog under the Black Bunny Fibers name instead. I’m still going to post lots of knitting book reviews, previews of new yarns and magazines, recaps of my knitting trips and funny stories about my kids. I’ll still tell you all about the books I’m reading, and maybe even start talking about the movies I’m watching (knitting samples means I’ve been watching a lot of DVDs and streaming video lately). There will be lots of juicy yarn porn photos when I update my Artfire Studio, and links to the projects I’m working on as soon as I’m allowed to show them. There will be plenty of bunny photos — and kitteh photos too! (More about that soon.)

 

I hope there will still be times when I make you think and even more times when I make you laugh. But it’s time for me to embrace the fact that I am no longer an outsider. And my blog needs to reflect that.

Welcome to the new, improved incarnation of my blog. I hope you’ll stick around and I hope you’ll leave comments from time to time. I’ve loved getting to know you over the past seven years, and I hope you’ll stick around for at least seven more.

Tagged , ,

7 thoughts on “A fresh start

  1. I cannot tell you how hard it was for me to change the blog address – Go Knit in Your Hat was the first blog I ever started to read and the one that encouraged me to start my own.

    But you can’t get rid of me that easily – so onward here, and congratulations!

Leave a Reply to Jennifer Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.