Post away!

Hi there!

I think it's fun to blog.  I've always been a journal person....I probably have 6 journals from my teen years tucked away in a box in my closet (which my husband and I have entertained each other with by reading entries in a valley girl voice, because, ohmygosh! I, like, totally sound like that in, like, my teenage journals!) I've also kept a "family blog" for the last 11 years.  It began as a way of keeping my extended family caught up on what was going on with my little family since I live 2 hours away from our closest relatives and many live out-of-state.  But I've kept it up as a way to chronicle the life that our young family is leading.  I love being able to look back 3 or 5 years ago and see what we were up to on a day-to-day basis back then, and I know that when I'm an old lady I'll love reading the entries I write today.

But you know what makes a blog the totally most funnest of all?  When your readers interact with you.  When you put a thought or a picture or a story out there, and people write back to you.  It is super-fun and makes you feel like you're not just writing for yourself or for the three people in your family who will read anything you write.  And it's not that I'm not totally thankful for those three people, but it's always a thrill to know you're reaching people beyond your immediate circle of family and friends. 

That was the main reason I enjoyed the Jazz Hands give-away so much.  Having 8 people comment on a blog post was Very Exciting.  It encouraged me to keep posting because I knew people were reading.  A few people also sent me messages on Ravelry saying, "I want to comment, but I don't know how to sign in"!  At the time I didn't know how to change my comment settings to make commenting easier.  But this afternoon I did a little poking around and did just that.

I'm hoping that the new "open commenting" won't make this blog a target for spammers, and I hope that people at least leave some sort of name (even if it's just a first name or your Ravelry ID, or even just a fake name so I can reference you if I want to respond.)  There is now an option that says, "Name/URL.  You can leave both your name and your website, but you can also just fill in the "name" box before you hit "Continue".  You can also use the "Anonymous" option, but I really hope you don't.  I want to get to know my readers and if you just post anonymously, then I have no idea if you're someone I've corresponded with in the past or if you've commented in the past, and I'll never really get to know anything about you.  Plus, I like to live by the Golden Rule of the Internet: "Don't post anything that you wouldn't sign your name to".  It just makes the Internet a nicer place to be! :) 

So comment away!  Try it out, say "hi", then get ready to come back later this week for ANOTHER GIVE-AWAY!  Yep, you read that right, this time it's a brand-new pattern set and the yarn to make it, and one person is gonna win it for free!

Happy commenting!