Wherein One Ponders Blogdom

Oh, dear, I seemed to have missed the sixth anniversary of my blog, 6 October. I don't think I've ever managed to celebrate it, but for some reason I needed to see a post from the first year, and while I was there, I checked the date of the first post and there it was, and I missed it. Damn.

When I first began writing this here blog-thingy, there were several blogs which I followed, and for which I created links in a section on the right-hand side called "fibre folk" since they were blogs by people who did things with fibre (there's another list of "non-fibre folk" for blogs that have nothing to do with knitting and fibre). In the six years that I've been writing this blog, I've noticed that fewer and fewer blogs are being updated at regular intervals, and several seem to have been abandoned completely. I regret the passing of Franklin Habit's blog, The Panopticon. It was witty, interesting, and fun to read. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is still writing Yarn Harlot, but not every day like she used to. And I'm certainly not counting myself in their august company. 

I blog because I enjoy it. I like writing about my knitting, I like writing about the yarns I love to use. I am pretty sure that very few people read this blog, since I can count the comments on it in any given year on one hand (this does not include my comments back). I read other people's knitting blogs because I am interested in what other folk are doing with fibre. Sometimes I'm impressed, sometimes I wonder what they hell they're doing, and sometimes I am inspired. 

I honestly think knitting has shot its wad. It was wildly popular for a few years in the previous decade, a popularity that lasted from about 2002 to about 2010, and then some new fad came along. The diehards kept at it, and those who were never really committed to it have moved on to something else. I think this is reflected in the closing of many yarn shops. In Boston, from about 2011 til when I left about five shops closed down, and no new ones opened up. 

I am one of the diehards. I have kept up with knitting, and have such a big stash that I probably don't need to buy yarn for the rest of my life. Just the other day I finished one project and looked through my yarn catalogue to find yarn for the next. I like to knit with others in a group, I like to knit alone, I like to go to cafes and knit in public (*gasp!*). To paraphrase Robert A. Heinlein, "A person who knits in public may have other nasty habits."