Happy Blog-O-Versary

This month is my one year anniversary on this blog. Its such an important event that I accidentally noticed it only yesterday. Yep, it was last August that I made my first post here at Roving Crafters.

Don’t bother to read that first post. I’m certainly not going to. A while ago I was told that bloggers should never go back and read their older stuff because they will likely hate it and be tempted to pull it down. That sounds like good advice and I’m following it.

A Whole Year of Babbling on the Internet

I actually started blogging, in a very half-hearted sort of way, on a site called onemorestitch.net. That site is gone now. The domain expired I guess or maybe it was taken down. I’d made three or four posts over there before I realized that if a person didn’t know it existed and have a direct link, they would never find that blog at all. The entire site was being blocked from google for inexplicable reasons. (Actually the reasons are not inexplicable they are just inexplicable to me. Jess has explained more than once how and why some sites get blocked from showing up in google searches but I didn’t understand. After her third try I quit asking about it.)

Upon finding myself in procession of vintage 1970’s acrylic yarn sent through a time machine from a box in Jess’ closet, I knew instantly what I wanted to make.

Once I realized that I my stunning wit, charming yarn-y adventures, and adorable kitty pictures were being kept from the world, I was grumpy. I didn’t want to post any more. I was griping and complaining and officially Not Happy. So Jess stepped in and set me up on a freebie wordpress blog (which was the rovingcrafters.wordpress.com). A few months later I had outgrown that and made the move to a paid-for wordpress blog (which is what I have now).

Now its suddenly been a whole year and I’ve outgrown this place too. Its time to move the blog again. I know that its time and I have known that for a while. I’ve been slogging through self-hosting-blogging guides and secretly comparing blog server plans for weeks. I even forced Jess into sitting down and helping me pick a new server provider. She tells me that I can keep my domain name, and all my old posts, (for less that what I pay now) and that ya’ll will never even notice the difference.

What could be more appropriate for 1970’s yarn than a crochet poncho? Only an enormous granny-square that you wear as a poncho!

But I’ve been scared to pull the trigger and actually do it. What if I break my blog? What if I can’t figure out how to ever make a new post again? What if evil spammers find me and eat me?

I think this is a bit like what a beginning knitter feels when they have to pull out their needles and rip back 10 rows. Me and that beginning knitter know that we can’t go on with things they way they are now. But we also know that we may be creating an enormous disaster that will be beyond our abilities to fix.

Sometimes I can’t come up with a new or creative way to say that my Feline Overlord is adorable and I love her but she is also a big pain in the butt. So I’ll just let the pictures say that for me.

I always tell that beginning knitter to go for it. Take a deep breath, I say, and do it. Don’t be afraid to dive into the deep end of the pool.

I’ve been telling myself pretty much the same thing and you see how effective its been, right? Right. But now that I realize I’ve been blogging for a whole year, I feel like I can take the plunge. Maybe I’m not such a beginner any more. I’m going to try a blog out there in the wild, wild digital world. If it all works out I’ll be able to get these annoying, nonsensical ads off of here and (maybe) replace them with ads for stuff that people who read a yarn blog are actually interested in. I won’t have to worry that every time I recommend a good book, it will be mis-interpreted as an attempt at a back-door affiliate deal. On an independently hosted site, I’ll be able to make honest and open recommendations and if I do actually get a few pennies out of it through an affiliate deal, I’ll be honest and open about that too. And maybe (maybe, just maybe) I can get a comment management system in place that isn’t such a pain in the neck to use. 

I was showing this off this week (and had big expectations) and among the “ohhs”, “ahhs”, and compliments I got this: “Is that a Christmas tree skirt?” and “But you not going to do fringe right?” No it is not a Christmas tree skirt and Oh Momma will there be fringe! Can’t have a retro, crochet, granny-square poncho in acrylic yarn and not.do.fringe. That would be a crime. A misdemeanor at least.

So I’m going to do it. Right after I hit publish on this post. And get a fresh cup of coffee. And backup the site. And take a deep breath.

Then I’ll tell the nice people at Arvixe that they can take over hosting my site and let them do their complementary web-site transfer which they claim will be completely painless and invisible.

I hope I see you one the other side!