Hello and Welcome!

It's funny how one thing leads to another in life, isn't it? I have been contemplating buying a digital camera for a few months now, and I finally took the plunge last week. I bought it from Amazon, and while I was waiting for it to arrive, I realized that I had a newfound desire to blog. I think the connection is that a blog would give me somewhere to display all of the pictures of my knitting and crocheting that I intend to begin taking. So after some more thought and research, here I am writing the first post of my newly created blog!

Before I explain what I hope to accomplish with this blog, let me tell you a little something about myself. I have been knitting and crocheting for just about my entire life. I honestly don't remember learning either craft. I was raised by my mother and grandmother, and they always had one project or another going. I just picked up the skills along the way.

Almost 10 years ago now, I received a Ph.D in American History. As you can imagine, graduate school didn't leave a lot of time for crafts. Unfortunately, the job market for freshly minted doctoral graduates was rather tight when I graduated, and I was unable to get an interview, much less a job as a full time college professor. As luck would have it, though, about a year after I graduated, I found a part time job at my local public library, which morphed into a full time job in about 5 months time. I have been there ever since.

Since I have entered the work force and stopped studying all of the time, I have rediscovered my passion for knitting and crocheting. Actually, one of the best things about working full time is that I have money to buy yarn with! So when I began thinking about starting a blog, I knew that it would need a focus, but I also knew that the focus would need to take into consideration all of the parts of my life.

So here is what I would like to do with this blog. In addition to posting about my WIPs and uploading photos of my work, I would also like to offer some background (history, if you will) about the various types of knitting and crocheting I am trying out, from both the internet and some of the books in my collection. More and more novels seem to be set in yarn shops or feature the fiber arts prominently, so I also think it would be fun to compile a list of noncraft books that feature knitting and crocheting. Finally, I hope that this blog will build a bridge between those who only knit or only crochet by bringing resources from both crafts to everyone's attention. I realize that this is an ambitious agenda, and I am sure that I will refine my focus as I get used to blogging. But it seems like a good starting point for now.