Four Reasons Why Knitting Is Good For You

| Katie

Not so long ago, I went into my colleagues’ office and declared I was going to propose a research project for an upcoming professional learning day.

“Who’s going to join my project on Knitting for Mindfulness and Community Connection?” I asked.

Surprisingly (or, hopefully, unsurprisingly), I had a lot of support. The only down side is that I’m pretty sure Knitting for Mindfulness and Community Connection is not a priority in a school. People tend to want to focus on topics such as curriculum or anything related to the whole teaching process. You know, the actual focus of a school. It’s a shame, because I reckon my project would do a lot of good. Continue reading →

#sewingvloggerlife

| Katie

Once upon a time, I had a normal life.

A relatively normal life.

OK, fine, a semblance of a normal life that’s actually a bit nerdy and old-fashioned and packed full of random roadtrips.

Now? Now, I have a #sewingvloggerlife.

There was no gradual change to this new life. No, it just rocked up on my doorstep, let itself in and made itself at home. And just like that, I went from someone who liked a little bit of sewing and knitting and also happened to own a camera to someone with a #sewingvloggerlife and an ovewhelming suspicion that nothing was ever going to be the same again.

But what does a #sewingvloggerlife look like?

In my case, it began with showing everyone my underwear. Continue reading →

Seven Tips for Beginner Vloggers

| Katie

Welcome to the shiny new home of Katie Writes Stuff! To celebrate this move, I thought I’d kick things off with something a little different: a sewing vlog.

This may not make a lot of sense, given that I’m meant to be introducing you to my all-new, all-singing-and-dancing blog home. However, this vlog neatly combines most of my favourite things: roadtripping, vintage knitting and sewing, and op shopping (or thrifting, or whatever you call it in your neck of the woods). And if you add in the fact that I recorded it on a camera, then I’ve included photography as well. So it has a little bit of everything, which is coincidentally exactly what you can expect on the blog.

(I’d love to say this was my plan all along, but I really just thought of it a moment ago.)

But why a vlog, all of a sudden? Continue reading →

And now for the news

| Katie

It may not have escaped your notice that quite some time elapsed between the publication of my previous two blog posts. Almost five months, in fact, if we’re counting (and if we’re using our fingers to count, this fortunately leaves the other hand spare for a cuppa).

Now it’s easy to imagine I’ve spent that time gallivanting about the countryside, visiting all of the op shops while knitting and sewing with wild abandon. And to a certain degree, that’s pretty much what happened (although I was obliged to turn up for work on a regular basis, which puts somewhat of a crimp in the gallivanting).

However, given that I’ve attracted a whole bunch of lovely new followers thanks to an unexpected shout-out from Phil at The Twisted Yarn*, I’d like to avoid giving the impression that gallivanting comes first and blogging comes second. Except in the logical sense, where I can’t blog about gallivanting unless I have first gallivanted. Continue reading →

I’m Knitting it for Myself

| Katie

There’s a duet of questions you get asked whenever someone discovers you knitting and it goes a little like this:

“What are you knitting?”

Every knitter loves hearing this question – it’s exciting to be able to share our obsessive habit crafty skills with people, mainly in the hopes that we’ll induct them into the Secret Society of Knitters and thereby advance our plan of introducing world peace by getting everyone to sit down and knit.

Preferably with a cuppa.

Or wine and cheese; we’re pretty flexible that way. Just… don’t bring your lacework or fair isle to these ones. And… possibly expect to un-do a lot of the knitting you do at these ones. Actually, it might be best to stick with tea. Continue reading →