The Odometer Rolls Over

I've had 10,000 page views on this blog since December. I realize that's peanuts to a lot of people in the big global Internet blogging world, but it sounds pretty good to me, especially since I've not yet made a custom banner, attached the blog to an easy URL, set up an RSS feed, a blogroll (which will be voluminous, and I have to figure out how to organize it properly) or any of that stuff. So I really want to thank everyone who has visited and especially everyone who has commented. I feel lucky to know you, and I do feel connected to a global community of extraordinarily creative and interesting people.

As far as I can tell, viewer #10,000 was someone googling for John Robshaw Textiles , a company I've written about.  I was just at that site the other day, wishing I could buy one his exquisite duvet covers and looking to see if they were hiring for any marketing/pr/global textile explorer positions. Sadly, they are not.

Meanwhile, I saw this week that the current issues of both Vogue Knitting and Vogue Patterns magazine have feature articles on sustainable and "green" materials and supplies. They're both good resource articles. Some of the hyperbole (i.e. bamboo, the perfect fiber) gives me a green headache and green fatigue -- weren't we all exhausted with Earth Day hype and ready to go smoke cigarettes and litter and boldly throw a glass jar in the regular trash by the time it was over this week? And tired of celebrities claiming that they've always been really green, for decades, and deeply concerned about the planet? Really? Anyway, it worries me that too many exaggerated claims will ultimately leave people disillusioned.

But most of the information in the VP and VK articles is very good, and I'm thrilled to see it in the knitting and sewing mainstream. I'm writing an article on organic and sustainable fabrics myself, for a new sewing magazine to be out this summer that I think will be very creative and inspiring.

I also received my review copy of Sustainable Fashion: Why Now?, a book of essays edited and conceived of by the brilliant Janet Hethorn, a professor at the University of Delaware (which offers a graduate certificate program in the business of sustainable fashion) and Connie Ulasewicz of San Francisco State University. This is intended as a textbook (with a big textbook price) but it looks very readable and very enlightening for anyone thinking about a clothing business or just a better understanding of clothing and textiles in our lives today. I will read and review.

Now, though, I'm going to go finish a skirt that's been on the worktable forever so I can move on. I have a long list of projects and need to complete some craft and make some art.

One more thing before I go -- I've been resisting watching The Last Lecture because, you know, it's become such a thing, and also I knew it would hit close to home -- my father was a scientist who died of cancer at 63, and we lived in Pittsburgh for a few years, though he didn't teach at Carnegie Mellon but at the University of Pittsburgh. This morning I read the transcript. It is, as everyone says, very poignant, sweet, funny and smart, and truly well worth viewing or reading. Share it with your kids and take the time to watch. I promise you will laugh and cry. Randy Pausch is still with us, and though his prognosis is still terminal, I hope he's here for a long time. Now go be well and follow your dreams.

Comments

[sharonb]

Congrats on your readership - Well done!
By the way you automatically have an RSS feed as it is part of the wordpress software. I read your blog via my reader otherwise I would never remeber to wing by.

[harmony]

Congrats!!! I wanna know how to sign up for the RSS mentioned by sharonb above.

[Judy Martin]

Elaine, I am really pleased to have found your blog as so much of what you say rings true for me. Your recent post re: threads connecting you with a community and yet needing time to be by yourself as well - well me too. Congratulations on your readership. You certainly deserve a large following.