Tides Are A-Turning

Good evening!  When last we spoke, I was talking about how I was having a banner month on Examiner.com and how I hoped it would continue.  Well, continue it did.  I finished out the month with a story that was not meant as an obituary, exactly, but whatever it was, it pretty much got a life of its own:

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-death-of-knitpurlgurl-demonstrates-the-use-of-internet-for-comfort?cid=db_articles

So I slept during the day, after posting the article.  Then I went to work, and when I came home, I checked my stats for the month.  I had over 600 hits on that one story alone, and it put me well over my best month ever.  Then, for the first week of December, it was the gift that kept on giving.  That one, the "It Takes Balls to Knit" article (which got picked up somewhere), and Kelly Fleek's article (which has over 480 recommendations on StumbleUpon) all brought enough traffic to my pages where I'm now ranked Number 4 in the country for Hobbies Examiners.  I'm up to Number 11 in Chicago, which means that Pop Culture Examiner is in my sights!

I've found that with my new schedule, I have to stockpile my stories and send them out one at a time.  I get home at nine in the morning, and leave again at six the next night.  The problem is that I'm having trouble sleeping, so on most days I wake up at three in the afternoon if not sooner.  Then, I feel like a bona fide zombie until I go to work...it's not conducive to writing.  If I spend my days off writing multiple stories and release them on different days, I have the entire general public FOOLED.

But of course, now that cat is officially out of the bag...ha ha ha.

Over 100 people have downloaded my free pattern to date.  That feels nice, but I actually like the fact that FINALLY someone posted a photo of their progress on the pattern...it's always a relief when you see that someone else makes something that looks like what you designed.  Maybe I'll send the design to Malabrigo and see if they are interested in putting it on their website.  Hmm...

This month, I currently have nine stories in the hopper.  I also was sent a second book from Chronicle Books to review...

Oh, and I'm going to Vogue Knitting Live New York.  With press credentials.

So while my life isn't exactly "fixed," it sure is headed in the right direction.  I see a business venture or yarnie entrepreneurship in my future.  I might not ever be the Yarn Harlot, and I might not ever be Debbie Macomber, but maybe I could just be The Fiber Friend and be perfectly happy.

Of course, I still haven't finished the December shawl sample.  Pattern finished, sample not.  Every moment I'm not writing, I'm knitting.  It's just a bit more involved than your typical around-the-neck-once scarf.  I don't mean to be a tease, but it's more like a Winter Wonderland Lacy Stole and I didn't anticipate the knitting time involved with such a thing.  Duh.

I have direction!  Yay!  Thank you as always for your support, and of course, please let me know what support you need from me in return.  I'm so grateful for what I have, and even more grateful I'll have much more now that I've started to pull my head out of my tooshie.