hats off!

Here's the hat I'm donating to charity as part of my Lexington adventure. I knit it last weekend-it's my design- (just a few hours, aren't hats great?) as part of my preparations. I'm going to drive 150+ miles each way this Saturday to hear the Yarn Harlot speak. If all works well, I'll hear Stephanie Japel of Glampyre Knits and Ann Hood, too.

I don't get out very often and "mix" with other writers or designers. That's mainly because it's a lot of effort to find them! They don't just wander through my (relatively small) town, and I don't usually go to big knitterly conventions or writing events. However, I love seeing people one on one, or at small events. I'm sure this thing in Lexington will be huge. However, I can always hop back in the car and go home if I'm feeling overwhelmed. Most of the time, I force myself to leave home, the dogs, and do this stuff. I return feeling so thrilled I've gone. It's an adventure, it's stimulating, and it's very different from my normal routine. All in all, it's worth it.


The professor convinced me to do another big thing. On April 24th, Kentucky Writers' Day, there's a big shindig at the State Capitol. They plan to honor people like me, who've won Kentucky Arts Council fellowships and other honors. It's yet another several hours each way in the car to go to the state capital in Frankfort, so I wasn't so excited. The professor's teaching that day, so he called up my parents and --suddenly!--my mom's hopping on a plane and travelling here from DC to go with me. "Wow, ok," I said. Guess I'm going...

When I called to accept the invitation --they'll reserve seats for us with our names on them and everything-- I realized this was kind of fun. I'm flattered. Also, even though this grant was a very big deal in terms of my small yearly income, so far, the acceptance letter and the check are the only parts of it where I've communicated with anyone else. That's it! So, maybe the professor was right. He thinks I need a little positive reinforcement. You know, the kind where kind people (thanks, Annmarie!) remind me that I should keep up this writing and designing thing... That it makes a difference to them. It turns out that sometimes, these little positive moments keep me afloat when I'm in freelancer limbo land. (will something get accepted? Should I design more? Is it cost effective? Will I manage to sell this? Should I stay up even later or get up earlier to make this thing I'm submitting on spec. work out?)

This is, of course, in comparison to my lovely hairdresser's response. Joanne (her name is Joanne too!) said she wanted to write a book, and I explained the whole process for writing non-fiction book proposals, and how it works. Especially the W-A-I-T-I-N-G part and the income. (nil) She'd given up on the whole thing by the end of the haircut! She almost said, almost, but not quite, since I was still sitting there..."PFFFFW! Why Bother?!"