Respect

I have respect for many people. That respect grows whenever I try to do something new and actually see how much work they do.

Writing Patterns
The first time I wrote a knitting pattern I discovered the HUGE amount of work that goes into writing something all (or at least most) people can understand and use. Back in the late 70's I wrote patterns for the Yarn Shed. I worked there part time for a friend of our family. She gave me the opportunity to try writing, teaching, and spreading my wings. Back in the 90's I got serious. I quit my job as a dietitian and started my own business. Jill's All Sew Knit. We had knitting and sewing stuff. Mostly machine knitting because hand knitting was in a decline at the time. At that time I started designing and writing patterns. This let me go around the country teaching at seminars, writing for a few of the magazines and basically enjoying my craft. That's where the respect grew. People that write for a living work really, really hard. My way of writing patterns was to turn on the tape recorder and talk my way through everything I did then use that babbling to write the pattern. Then you have to figure out all sizes, what words to use that will work the best, pictures, graphs. The list of things to do just keeps growing.

What all of us can do to show our respect for these people taking the time to write patterns and books for us is simple. Buy the pattern - don't copy it from a friend. So many of us in the 90's had to give up our businesses because we couldn't pay the bills. Let's not lose the creative people because of copiers!

Knitting Blogs
Here's my latest heightened level of respect. I go to about 6 blogs every day to "get my fix" and visit with some new friends. These friends don't know me but I know them. I know about Lucy and her latest antics from Wendy Knits (Wendy - Chief is still looking for a girlfriend!). I know how The Yarn Harlot is surviving her latest book tour. I know what's going on the Annie as she tries to settle into her new home just down the road from me. There's others I like to check in with that I'll add to a list some day.

These ladies deal with a busy life and still have time to blog almost every day - complete with pictures. The respect I have for them can't be expressed other than to say THANK YOU!