What Makes a Good Knitting Blog?
Saturday, May 27th, 2006Tags: This Blog is Self-Referential
I’ve spent the past few days trying to figure out what kind of a knitting blogger I want to be. I’ve been exploring the knitblog scene for a while now, and I think I’ve learned a few things about what it takes to be a good ylogger. (That’s short for “yarn blogger.” I’m trying to coin a phrase.)
The interesting part is that success in knitbloggery isn’t dependent on the same things that decide success for a regular blog. People don’t go around saying “knit bloggers like reading about knit blogging,” as they do for the regular blogosphere. The great thing about knit blogging is that the most successful folks are the people who actually have talent and engage in the things they’re talking about, rather than just writing about them. I think that’s why I’ve been so enamored with the ylog scene these past few months.
I’ve been going through the knitosphere’s most popular blogs and thinking about what makes the finest hump rise to the top of the camel. Here’s what I came up with:
- Pedagogy: neat techniques, patterns for free or for sale. Personal experience as warnings or guidance to upcoming knitters. Something to offer to the world other than yarn porn.
- Pictures with a narrow aperture (or, alternatively, pictures on a slant). Yarn porn.
- Non-threatening sass.
- Link love/ encouragement love.
- At least 3 projects on the go.
- An obvious, almost desperate love of needlecraft.
I did a post about knitting niches a few days ago that wasn’t completely bereft of tongue in cheek, but I’m actually serious about developing my own niche within the knitting blog subculture. I have a few ideas that I’m pawing around:
- Knitting 2.0: bringing Web2.0 applications to the knitting scene. WordPress plugins for knitters, various other PHP-driven knitting solutions.
- Being scholarly: examining knitting research. Unfortunately I did a Google Scholar search for “knitting” and came up with a bunch of Japanese, some articles about chemistry and all of it dry, dry, dry.
- A combination knitting/photoblog with various gimmickry attached, like “I will take a photo of my project every day at 3am and I’m going to cutely hold it in front of my face like it’s a mask!” I like this idea because my favourite knitting blogs are the ones with BIG pictures, and because it will also help me improve my photography skills.
- More of a short story format than a “this is what I did today” format.
- 24/7 [[John Searle]]! Oh Baby!
If you’ve made it this far into my post, I value your responses. What should I do with this new blog? It is putty with which to be molded. BY YOU!
I do love the banner graphic. Nice play on needles and really rather appropriate since it is the best addiction around. And is it really rude to say I hate the “this is what I did today format and even though I’m allowed 25 points a day on Weight Watchers today I only consumed 20 of the 25.” A good sense of humor and general snarkiness is a good thing but judging by your posts I think you’re definitely in the snarky club.
Comment by amandaMay 29, 2006 @ 2:34 pm
Ha! Not rude at all. I say to say such a thing is necessary.
Comment by EveMay 29, 2006 @ 5:04 pm
I vote a big fat yes on the WordPress nerdiness. Let’s hear it for PHP and fiber arts Web geeks! I love the snot out of the plug-ins idea.
Also: wide-aperture photography is key. Washed-out, overexposed, crummy pictures of indistinguishable lumps of fuzz are — let’s just say they’re sweet. It’s charming that people are so excited about crafting that they’ll post pretty much any photo, whether you can tell what the subject is or not. I do get tired of looking at the results. For good photography: Wee Wonderfuls, http://weewonderfuls.typepad.com. Boy, howdy.
You didn’t say if pet-free blogging was on the menu. Please say yes? If you already blog about a pet, um ..forget I said anything, and oh, what a sweet little furry/feathery/scaly darling!
Comment by arletteJune 14, 2006 @ 12:01 am