At some point last year, after having consistently blogged for over a decade, I just kinda stopped. I blame the pandemic and the overwhelming feeling that everything was just too much and I felt like I could just barely keep my head above water. Treading water was the best I could do and I had to let go of some things in order to stay afloat. That sounds very dramatic but honestly isn’t that kinda how we’ve all felt this past year? TFA is no exception. So there was that need to let go of anything that was requiring more energy than I had to give but there was also this other thing… this HUGE thing called Instagram! Man has the gram ever changed EVERYTHING for small businesses and the way we engage online. I love Instagram and have grown a significant following over there. Posting is so quick and easy and it is at the same time both super quick and efficient and also the biggest time suck in my life! The thing is, it’s crucial for my business and also I just love it. Conversations feel like they’re happening in real time, there’s lots of back and forth and I have discovered so many amazing artists and made actual friends through the platform. So, I love Instagram BUT it’s not the blog. In a pinch, when I felt that I only had the bandwidth to do one or the other, Instagram won out but over the past few months I’ve realized how much I’ve missed blogging.
So, this is the thing, when I asked my Instagram followers if I should make a return to blogging or podcasting the vast majority (like close to 80%) said that they preferred the YouTube podcast. And I get it! You sit and knit and watch a podcast and that’s fun! Chris and I loved making the vlogs too. And I think we will again, it’s a really fun way for Chris to be involved. For me however, the blog gives me so much more that’s kind of hard to describe. Sitting down and writing a deep dive blog post makes me spend an hour or so focussing on one thing. I feel like without the blog I haven’t had an opportunity to sit with a complete thought. In my life I’m always jumping from one thing to the next. Getting thoughts out of my brain and onto paper (or screen) is very cathartic for me. It clears my mind and I think does for me what journalling does for many. Which makes a lot of sense since I consider this blog my personal journal. I love writing and though short Instagram captions do the trick for a quick post they don’t fill my cup the way writing out a long blog post does.
So there you go. That’s why I’ve started blogging again after an unplanned break. Just writing this has me excited! I’m going to keep it mostly to knitting but I may throw in the occasional home post or family update - TFA is a home based family business after all! There will almost definitely be some overlap between blog content and Instagram content - and I’m ok with that. I spent a good amount of time fretting over whether posting the same thing in 2 places was redundant but I’ve decided to let you decide where you want to view your content and not worry about it. I asked for blog topic ideas over on Instagram and got lots of good stuff, but if you have any topics you’d like to see my cover here I’m all ears!