My audience of three

Until recently I used to worry about why people were no longer reading my blog posts. I know this from my blog stats delivered each month to my inbox. They tell me I have a regular audience of 3, which I can pretty much guarantee are my mum, my sister and my best friend. Like I said, until recently these stats would have caused me some agony over why, what to do, etc, etc.

2010 has become my year of reflection, not by my choosing, but nonetheless many insights have been gained and lessons learned. One of these insights has been that really I had lost sight of my reasons for blogging and in turn my blogging audience. When I started blogging several years ago it was to provide regular stories about my crafty dalliances and our lives in Melbourne. My audience was then 3, yes those same three who I no longer could share regular physical get togethers as they all reside in Adelaide. Over time I, somewhat surprisingly, gained other readers and an a new online community open upped to me. The excitement of finding like minded people encouraged me to blog more, to read more blogs, to join this community. However, at the same time I was battling post natal depression and as has now become apparent blogging became a way to hide from my daily struggles. Spending much of my time online became not quite an obsession but a habit.

As part of my recovery from PND I began to back away from my online world. My real world needed my attention, my involvement. It has taken a long time to regain a balance between my real and my online communities. It has taken a toll on some of my personal relationships. A toll that I now look on with sadness and bewilderment. Reflection has felt like I have had my blinkers and rose colored glasses removed. It felt brutal to start with but as sometimes can be the case, a good dose of reality has become strangely liberating. So now I feel I can blog with more freedom again, as I am aware that these posts are really for an audience of 3. But for those of you that also drop by from time to time, I heartily thank you for providing some bonus online hugs!

Until the next post, x Sam

Taking the Granny challenge

In the few quiet moments to be found at Whizzme central these days I wanted to be able to craft something that could be toteable, not too brain taxing but resulted in a finished item (sheepishly she looks at the list of wip's). So when I came across Pip's suggestion to join her Granny A Day, I knew I had found the answer. The grannies are progressing at the required rate which is something of a record for me and joining group things! Also I am slowly using up some of the beautiful but odd balls of cotton I have. I think I have spoken before about my preference for using cotton to wool when crocheting (but i can't be bothered to find that post in the archive), softer and cooler in our hot summer to work with.

I am surprised how much I have enjoyed picking up the hook again (although it has reminded me of these that are ambling along at what can only be described as an extremely sedate pace), how satisfying it is to have a finished square each day. It also reminded me to visit my favourite crochet inspiration blog MOONSTITCHES. Alex is a German girl who lives in Japan, you can read about Alex in her lovely words.

Over the years Alex has provided some beautiful photos of her projects and life in Japan, but it was when she first posted about hexagons that I was lured into the large crochet project.
She has even provided an excellent tutorial for joining hexagons as you go (see her side bar for the link). Beyond the call of duty, Alex came to my aid via email when I couldn't get my hexagons to look the same ( small problem reading instructions on my part- the down side of being self taught!). My personal favourite is her Rhubarb Scarf shown in one of her own beautiful photos below.
You can see more beautiful images at Alex's moonstitches Flickr account.

At this stage though my goal is just to stay on track with the grannies...famous last words!