1. When did you start your knitting blog?
I started in 2001 when I launched Chic Knits. It languished for months and it wasn't until November when people started visiting it.

2. Why did you start it? The urge to write about knitting overwhelmed me - I *suffer* from the disease of Startitis. Many behavioralists recommend keeping a journal to manage your cravings and acting out. You can go back and read and understand the triggers that cause you to pick up the needles and that new ball of yarn when seven other projects are littering the couch and surrounding floor...

3. What do you get out of it? The thing I like most about knitting is almost the thing I like most about writing. When you blog, you take words (lines and scratches, symbols, punctuation)and record your thoughts and the mental progressions of your creative ideas. If you're lucky, this vaporware becomes a conduit into someone else's reality. And, drumroll please, COMMUNICATION is achieved. You've reached out and touched someone using the most mysterious, ancient art of signing.

For me, blogging took my rather solitary experience of creating and pushed it out on the horizon. I've met many wonderful people and have been inspired by their like efforts. Commonality with manners - all of the group seem like people I'd have over for dinner, with knitting afterwards, of course...

4. How much time do you spend a week working on it? Although I worked nights for many years, now I am an early riser because of my job. I have to ease into my day with a pot of coffee, email, and blogging. I'm drinking coffee and writing this at 6:50am. I usually have 15 minutes or so to do it.

5. What do you get out of reading other people's knitting blogs? The inspiration, elevation and soulfullnes I've discovered in our corner of bandwidth is astounding! From ideas for new projects, to the sharing of life events, the experience has pushed me into a more forward plane. It is just HONEST. We share our triumphs and tragedies like butter on bread, served up plain as day. Blogging = Maximum Mental Refreshment... Knitting IRIE!

originally written for a Bust Magazine Survey
November 22, 2002