Happy New Year!

And welcome to my new blog!

My name is Jennie, and I'm - as the about-the-blog says - a writer, crocheter, photographer, and general all-around crafter. I've recently started a new phase in my life and in my crafting, hence the new blog! Part of this new phase is a new transparency, so in that vein, you can also find me:

• At my old blog: No Tension Knits
• At my old design blog: No Tension Designs
• On Twitter: JennieMcStotts
• On Ravelry: JennieMac
• On NaNoWriMo: JennieMac
• And on Etsy: JennieMacCrafts

You probably noticed the last one is not a link. I'm still putting some more work into my store and my stock before I launch it. I want to do it right the first time! But in lieu of that, I will push an e-friend's etsy shop: CassQuotes. She rocks as a person, and her products are very clever. You can also find Cass (Shut Up! I'm Counting) and some of my other favorite craft-related blogs in the sidebar.

Part of my reasoning for starting up a new blog rather than continuing the old is that NTK was named for the reason I started crafting, not the reason I keep crafting. When I began, with loom knitting, I was looking for something to occupy my brain and my hands when my stress and tension got out of control. Long time readers of NTK might remember that I was stumped when my doctor asked me what my hobbies were. Hobbies? Who has hobbies?

Honestly, I'm still not sure I have hobbies. Creating things - whether designs or essays - has now become an integral part of my life that has sustained me and pulled me through a number of major changes in the last year. My goal with this blog is going to be to let my inner-crafter loose to talk about my craft process - especially when it fails! - and my changing life, as well as to explore craft and creation as a process.

A favorite writing professor of mine says, "Don't waste my journey without revealing yours." At the end of reading an essay (or a blog post), he says, the reader is twenty minutes closer to death. Was that time spent worth it?