The Knitting Fiend

While visiting QueerJoe’s Knitting Blog, I read this question by Tracy:

Tracy asks, “Are there any blogs that you would recommend for new knitters who are hoping to branch out of their very confined comfort zones?”

Like Joe, I can’t answer Tracy’s question. But, it’s a common one, and lots of people are interested in finding new blogs. Of course, you can ask a knit blogger. That’s probably one of the least efficient ways to find a new blog.

Why? Because bloggers who blog constantly generally have jobs. They knit and write blog articles in their free time. This takes time. That means they read fewer blogs than other people! So, if you ask a blogger, they are going to give you the obvious answers:

“Visit mine!” Or “Visit my friend’s blog.”

Now, even though I’m a blogger, and therefor, a poor source for information, I am going to give tips.

• Visit Technorati. You want to look at the blogs that recently posted articles tagged “knitting”, and the ones Technorati recognizes as being about knitting. I particularly recommend looking at the blogs that use the knitting tags– those will have fresh entries. Technorati is admittedly buggy, but it’s still the best resource for finding knitting blogs I know of.
• Scroll down to the bottom of my blog, find knitting rings and click “random”. It loads a little slowly, but a new blog will open in a pop-up window. If you hate the blog, close the “go away box” on the window and click “random” again. Bookmark the ones you like.

  If you do this 5 times a week, you’ll eventually visit a whole bunch of new to you blogs without wasting too much time. If you have a blog, add the new blog to your blog roll, then you’ll remember the address.

  Oh, heck, why should I make you scroll down, I’ll just replicate the links here and edit to make the “random” link obvious. Click “random”; that will open a new window, and you’ll see a brand new blog.

  
  

  knitting blogs Previous | Random | Next

• Visit my enhanced blog roll.

  I want to improve this– and if you want to be added tell me. But, meanwhile, I try to categorize by “type” of blog. If you like technical ones, like mine, click on the technical page. (BTW, If you want me to add one, tell me. Suggest an existing or entirely new category. If it makes any sense at all, I’ll add it. )

• Use Google’s new blog search tool. Like Technorati’s tags page, you’ll find blogs with new entries; it’s not biased towards old entries. If you use both Technorati and Google, you’ll find different blogs because, while Technorati relies on tags, Google just relies on content. If the blog entry uses the word “knitting”, google will list it under blogs using the word “knitting”.
• Finally, why not just run a Google search on whatever knitting topic interests you? Add “blog” to the search terms. For example, why not try knit shrug blog?

  Ok… if you clicked, you know that was shameless self promotion. But, I bet the second and thirds blogs on Google’s list are probably blogs that discuss knitting shrugs at some point. Plus, they are blogs that at least a few people have linked to. So, if you like shrugs and blogs that discuss shrugs, you’re all set.

  Try the search term you like. Why not “knitting lace blog”? With a small amount of creativity, you’ll quickly find a knitting blog that discusses a topic you care about.

That’s all I can think of for now. But, with any luck, my readers will add their own blog finding tips in comments. They probably know a few; after all, they found my blog. They probably found other blogs, and the fact is, I’d like to find blogs more efficiently.

So, if you know any good tips, spill! Ok?