jumble of a making life

My blog is so bluish.  It's the curse of the Portland winter photos.  Everything will now look bluish until March or April.  Grinning orange yarn, deepest red velvet cake - even a photo of the sun itself - will have a requisite grayish cast for the next five months.  It's like that trite thing about how eskimos have XX billion number of words for snow.  Only in Portland we have 28 words for gray.

The blueness here is making me swoon over gorgeous non-bluish blogs, very red and orangey and fallish.  I love how Siri and suzen mix photos of nature, knitting and objects.  Each post is a gorgeous little photo essay explosion gem. *

I've been thinking a lot about blogs like theirs.  And blogs like my topography that mix art and family life fluidly.  And about photos and projects and artists that inspire me, about art and craft as the same and not the same.  Really thinking about the complete jumble of my making life.  And why I have a blog.  I have pushed myself to try to keep the blog about knitting, when in fact I want to record so much more than that, and not feel like it doesn't fit.

I've decided to really change this blog, from a knitting blog to a blog about making.  In fact, I think I'm going to just call it making.  The reasons I want to keep a blog are to:  gather and keep things that inspire me, record my own projects, record my journey with Sebastian and how it intersects with this other stuff, and have a community and audience of people to share it all with, and to draw participants from when I get ideas for things that take participants.

It's going to encompass knitting, dyeing, work art, sewing, cooking, writing (if ever any, look out), baby changes and stories and happiness, and links to and pictures of all forms of inspiration.  More about artists, about the materials themselves, and about just pictures of stuff that may not be knitting related but may have a direct bearing on art and life, because of color or shape or desire or anything. 

Including a LOT of color, and not all northwestwinterblue.

OK, now (here in reality) I need to learn to stack the photos up like that on typepad (Siri?) and I need to start taking my camera around with me, the way Sarah does.  She's always photographing a patisserie or baby or something, every minute of every day.  Sometimes I love being like that, and then sometimes I need to not document anything.  Oh and I need to show you my elf hat, write a big grant proposal, and make packing cases for the lawyer project; it's being picked up at 3 today.  There's more. So much more. Ugh.

* Please send me more blogs like this!  I've always loved photo-heavy blogs with good colorful photos, and I've striven to make mine that way.

Comments

[Caren]

I totally relate, well except for the baby part, since I don't have one... I digress.

I am constantly struggling to find the balance between the things I find interesting outside of my knitting life and when I find a blog that seems to meld the two perfectly, I'm always jealous. "Why can't I do that?" But then I realize, that like most things in life, it's a process and someday I hope to get close to it being where I say "Perfect!"

[shelley]

One Web site I really like is http://www.yarnstorm.blogs.com/

[Daphne]

I only started reading your blog a few months ago and appreciate its variety, so I'm really excited to hear you're loosening the bounds and going for it.

[Janice in GA]

I'm with you on the camera thing. Since I've been driving more and walking more, I keep seeing things and thinking "If I had a camera with me, this would be a GREAT picture for my blog."

I enjoy reading your thoughts on making things. Go for it!

[Katie]

I really love the colors in that yarn those are the colors that I love to work with.

[Melissa]

I think you have a great idea in the works. I struggle with the same issues (sans child and doing other artistic things besides knitting!), and I'm excited to see how things turn out with your new blog1

[anja]

Well I use a lot of photos, I'd be glad to have you visit :) I also love Camilla Engman's blog, http://www.camillaengman.com/misc/index.htm

[Julia]

I'm in the same mental place. I want to redo the blog. The blue must go, and the content must expand. Remember it can be anything we want it to be. And you already do most of what you want to, now you just want to do it more. (I always love your photos.)

[donab]

Hi, I just followed a link to your blog today, to this post saying you are changing it, and I'm excited to see the blend of life and art and I'll keep reading. I do something similar on my own blog (though I've been a bit quiet recently) - come visit!

[Anita]

I'll keep reading! Your blog is my favorite and part of the reason I started blogging (though school is really putting a damper on that). I am excited about your changes too! I was hoping to incorporate bits about vet school as there are no vet student blogs out there but I found out: vet school is a time dump!

I have found your pictures to be great and I was going to suggest perhaps trying a flickr.com account. You can sample it for free and start posting pictures from it without using up your TypePad space. The best part is that you can see SO much photography from others and then have groups/friends/contacts/favorites....I just love looking at the pictures randomly!

[Cara]

I've been wanting to redesign my blog myself. I'm so torn about the whole camera thing. Part of me wants that camera with me all the time - part of me wants to leave it home. I end up leaving it home most of the time. I'm not an everyday picture taker I've decided.

Whatever you make of your blog, I'll be reading. ;-)

[Melody Johnson]

Altho I am supposed to have a quilting blog,I have more knitting pictures than anything else. My readers complain sometimes, but I love to see the pictures on a blog and then read the captions.

[krista]

Those are some great links that I hadn't visited before, so thanks for that. My blog is pretty new, so I think I am still developing my identity with it. Sometimes I think the other knitting bloggers won't read it because I don't talk only about knitting, but then I just remind myself that I started the blog for myself to have a creative outlet, not to be liked by random strangers on the internet. Although, the interaction is part of what makes it fun.... Anyway- I look forward to "Making" in all its eclecticism!

[sarah gilbert]

i love this idea - it's fluid and creative and i love me some photos :)