Why Plum Texan?: The real first post.

Allow me to get right to the point: I began this blog because I met the Yarn Harlot on Saturday.

It's not that I hadn't thought of it before, or that I don't have anything to say...I have plenty to say, as anyone who's ever met me (and several people who haven't) would know. But my interests tend to shift frequently, and I worried that a blog would become another half-finished project.

Enter Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot. Most anyone who uses pointy sticks for knitting, and who has been anywhere near a computer in the last two years or so, knows the Harlot. She's taken the knitting world by storm, started some amazing worldwide collaborative efforts, and written three books and a blog, all of which crack me up regularly. When I met her at her Austin appearance last Saturday, Stephanie was as funny and engaging and real as one might imagine. She recognized my name from comments on the blog. And when she wrote me down in her book, and I had no blog of my own to which she could refer, she deemed me "sadly blogless."

That's right: after months of peer pressure, blog envy, wanting a "public life" place to share my thoughts, and dithering...I started a blog because I didn't want to disappoint the Harlot. Hey, it's good enough for me.

So here's where it all begins. Features I'm planning include:

- Knitting news: WIPs, FOs, stash enhancement, events
- New endeavors: dance classes (with the husband!), sewing, organization (no, really)
- Running tallies: books, projects on the needles, space taken up by my yarn stash...
- Reviews: yarn, accessories, books (fiction, knitting, cookbooks, etc.), Web sites
- Fangirlie-ness: Alton Brown, Scottish Mayhem, the Harlot

Additionally, expect much randomness and special features to be named later. Check out my links and my profile; tell me what you'd like to hear about. (If I don't have full knowledge, I may at least have random useless factoids.)

My highest intent is to get more practiced at regular writing, maybe to work myself up into actually getting published. At the very least, I should be less lazy about it than I have been.

I also admit I'm curious to see if I can gain any notoriety...the good kind, anyway. It's what most every writer really wants in the end: readers.

And finally...accountability. Maybe knowing that there are folks other than my husband, my mother, and my 5 closest friends cheering me on will make me a more active knitter, reader, cook, writer...and maybe the desire to not look dumb will inspire me to do things as well as I can.

So there's your introduction. Stick around - this could get interesting!

Up next: a detailed account of the Austin Harlot-Stalk. With pictures and everything. And Stephanie, if you're reading this: thanks - for the appearance, for being so kick-a**, for remembering my posts and liking my gifts - and for inspiring me to do this.