Creative Blogger Award Nomination

About a month ago, I got a comment that both surprised me and made my day. The author of Healing Handcrafting, a blog that never fails to inform and inspire, gave me a nomination for the Creative Blogger Award! I’m not familiar with the origins of this one, but healinghandcrafting included the rules and routines on her “acceptance speech” post here.

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I didn’t start this blog because of any grand ideas of taking over the world or anything. I just found I wanted to talk about knitting a lot (like, a lot) more than the people around me wanted to hear. Since knitting is also, for me, a source of solace, pain relief and a coping strategy for depression, I’ve also talked about its healing effects. I’ve been pleased and surprised by the lovely supportive comments I’ve gotten over the past year. In an unforeseen twist, the community I’ve gained from writing here and reading others’ blogs has become as much a source of support as the actual knitting has.

That connection between creating and healing was what drew me to HealingHandcrafting in the first place. Her blog covers that relationship in detail and is beautifully written, to boot. That is why I’m re-nominating it for this award (see below).

So, the rules:

1. Nominate 15-20 bloggers and add their links.
2. Thank the person who nominated you and include a link to their blog.
3. Share five facts about yourself.
4. Notify the bloggers you included.
5. Keep the rules in your post.

I’ve linked to HealingHandcrafting at the top of the post. Thank you very much for the nomination! It’s humbling to receive such a compliment from someone I admire!

Five facts. Hmmm.

1. I love making music. I still consider myself a musician, even though all I do these days is sing along to the radio. As a kid and young adult, I played several different instruments. I sang and studied flute for many years, but also played the tenor sax for a bit (and really, anything else I could get my hands on). When I was about five, I took piano lessons. However, I apparently refused to practice, so my parents stopped sending me. I’ve always regretted not being able to stick with it, as I would love to be “fluent” in piano. In first grade, my whole class took violin lessons. In second or third grade, I switched to flute and quickly learned about a whole new world. For about 15 years, starting from when I was around 16, I sang with an intergenerational Anglican cathedral choir, which was an amazing experience. A few years ago, I got a guitar and set about trying to teach myself how to play. I’d like to pick it up again when my back issues have resolved further. Recently, I looked around online to find singing groups in my area. I found one that looks very promising and am planning on auditioning to join.
2. Even though I can’t do it right now, for a number of reasons, I love to travel. I was lucky as a kid as my family was able to travel a lot. We took regular car trips from Delaware to Florida to visit family. We went camping and hiking often. I went to Europe for the first time when I was 13. My mom and I went to visit my brother, who lived in Germany at the time. In college I did a summer study abroad session in Paris. About five years ago, the wife and I (before we were married) took an epic trip to Vancouver Island. We stayed at an amazing B&B and, in the space of about a week, put 963 miles on the rental car. We just got out and did so much amazing stuff! That’s not my complete travel history, by any means, but it’s at least some of the highlights!
3. I love thrift shopping and bargain hunting. It’s the thrill of the hunt that is interesting to me. I love finding amazing deals of pretty much anything, but particularly yarn. I’ve stumbled into some amazing stash addictions that way. I blame it on my mom–she taught me everything I know.
4. I’ve been thinking for a while about getting back into sewing. I have an amazing sewing machine that was my grandmother’s. This week, I actually dusted off some of my skills and started making baby/toddler bandana bibs (more on that in a future post). It was really fun and, even though I had a serious spike in pain levels afterward as it was apparently too much leaning/bending, I really liked doing it.
5. I drive a stick shift. My family always had stick shift cars when I was younger, so that’s how I learned. Even though there’s no longer any benefit in gas mileage or car price, I still prefer it and will “stick” with it as long as I can.

And, the nominees are…

1. HealingHandcrafting. No need to do another post unless you’d like.
2. The Dartmoor Yarn Company. Great conversations about knitting, goals, and working with beautiful British wool.
3. the desert knitter: learning to bloom where I’m planted. Beautiful knitting, beautiful scenery.
4. fiber and sustenance. Lots of beautiful knitting paired with equally beautiful photographs.
5. knit equals joy: Thoughts about the creative process and all that is good in our knitterly lives. Carol is a beautiful knitter, designer and photographer, and one of the all-around kindest people I know.
6. Knit Potion: Good for What Ails You. Lots of stuff about knitting with astute observations on life sneaked in for good measure. Plus, she also made a giant blue rectangle!
7. Lauren the Human: Adventures in Knitting. This blog covers the trials and tribulations of knitting as well as the joy of progress!
8. Lime Scented. I went for the beautiful socks, and stayed…for the beautiful socks.
9. Some Daft Thoughts: Ramblings of a crazy cat lady. Another blogger who explores the relationship between knitting and healing.
10. Spin A Yarn: yarn hoarder…accessories fanatic…lover of all things creative. Paula documents her lovely knitting and crochet projects here. (Psst…she currently has 98 followers. Think we can help her break 100? Not that numbers are important, but it’s just a nice feeling!)
11. The Sweaty Knitter, Weaver and Devotee of Other Fiber Arts: Interweaving life with fiber arts! A wealth of information about fiber arts and how they connect with our lives, now and in the past.
12. This Knitted Life. Posts on knitting, designing, life with a small child, with a healthy dose of humor.
13. unsophisticated + jejune: quilts + knits. Creative quilting, knitting and life…including a recent giant move.
14. Welcome to Knitting in France. A blog by a prolific and expert knitter who also has a business dyeing lovely yarn.
15. Wolfberry Knits: adventures in creativity. A wealth of information about knitting, dyeing, crafting, and the amazing nature in Australia.
16. Wooly Cakes and Wooden Spoons. A lovely blog about cooking, knitting and all things crafty.
17. Yards of Happiness: A blog about knitting and the things that bring me joy. The name pretty much tells the whole story. IamDWJ knits and posts with an unapologetic joy that can be contagious. I don’t know how she juggles a job (and soon grad school), a family, pet ownership and still knits about a sweater a week, but she does!
18. Yarn, Books & Roses: life with a chronic disease and a really big stash. A blog about knitting, spinning, the injustices that “pet” cats face, gardening…just about everything.

As with any blog award, please don’t feel like you have to participate if you don’t care to. I just wanted to nominate you as a way of saying I appreciate your blog and all you do. Also, this is not an exhaustive list! There are a ton of other blogs I love that I wasn’t able to list here.

Happy blogging, and happy knitting!