The Knitblog is Dead...Long Live the Knitblog
Just a bit of random canoodling...read at your own risk.
So January One posted her thoughts on the state of knitblogging today and I have to say that I agree with her in many ways. She recognizes the impact that Ravelry has had on knitblogging; I would even go further and say that it's probably had a huge impact on the flow of knitting projects, that projects and KALs might pick up more interest on Ravelry in communities than on individual blogs. I can't remember when I last read a KAL post on a group of blogs.
There are all sorts of blog types; googling "types of blogs" brings up different ways to classify them. Knitting blogs, to me, generally fall into the category of "personal blogs." The author(s) share their current projects, happenings in their knitting and personal lives, show us what they're doing, where they've been, who they went there with, who they met there, what they learned along the way. Knitbloggers share personal experiences and the bloggers we are most drawn to have distinct personalities. We read them because we want to know them, see what they're up to, hear what they have to say, share our opinions with them, share our projects, share their projects, share their joys and sorrows, share.
Bloggers put themselves out into the ether(net), hoping that someone will read what they have to say. They show, they tell, they exhibit. Blog readers return to the exhibitions they find most compelling, interesting, amusing or they follow people they know in real life (which doesn't mean the blog is uninteresting, just that the motivation for regular reading takes on a different character).
In the end, I don't think the knitblog is dead...yet. I do think that for some, the desire to blog was born from a desire to share projects and to have dialogue about projects, to document their knitting lives. Ravelry has now provided the ideal place to document, share, and dialogue; the only thing missing is something blogs never had anyway--a chat feature. So many bloggers, the bloggers for whom these were the primary activities desired, are likely to post less frequently. I know that I really don't feel compelled anymore to share knitting projects on the blog. I take little interest in blog posts about projects. The blogs I read are the ones where I feel a connection to or have an interest in the personality of the blogger behind it. I go to Ravelry to find the information I'm seeking about projects, yarns, patterns, communities. I go to blogs for people.
As long as we're interested in people, and as long as people with good writing chops and interesting things to write keep writing, knitblogging will be around. I think we'll just be shifting from knitblogging as something we do as a community, as an activity that defines us and connects us to knitblogging as one of many forms of electronic communication that knitters use to share, keep in touch, tell stories. Another means of connecting.
