Reflection

I have been extremely busy and have a lot going on. I am very overloaded right now and have neglected certain things over others. I'm still hoping for my buyout date from Ford to come up soon. I miss my daughter as she has to spend the week at my Mom's while I work night shift. I don't get to take her to school and only get to spend a couple of hours with her a day on the days I work. I have a stack of classes to start on so I can finish my Bachelor's degree and that is gathering dust fairly quickly as well. I wish I didn't need sleep, I could get so much more done. And then the loom knitting. I miss it. I haven't had much time for it either. I've managed to do some gifts for people but as far as creating new things, there hasn't been much time. I still have quite a bit of things I have to finish up from projects I started in the past. I realize I haven't been part of the groups for quite a while either. I miss the encouragement I used to get from all the wonderful people on there. I feel left behind and forgotten but I know that is my own fault. I need to find a way to manage my time better and ask for help when I need it. I am not Superwoman. If anyone has any good advice or ways to help with time management please send it my way!

On the subject of the loom knitting...I have noticed that there has been a stir about making gloves on the loom. Last October I made my own set of looms specifically for the creation of gloves. I am posting a picture of the first glove I made on them. It still has a few quirks but I hope to soon be able to work those out and be able to offer the pattern. I am hoping to be able to have the set of looms available for purchase as well. I have decided that I will either sell the pattern with woodworking plans so that people can make their own set of looms or sell the pattern with the actual looms already made. I haven't posted pictures of the looms because if I did, then someone else would be selling a replica in five minutes. I cannot afford to patent it. The initial cost just to file for a patent runs up to $500. Then the cost for a lawyer to research for you runs close to $10,000 or more. Of course, I could do research myself but like I said above, there just isn't time. So, I'm sure someone else will take the idea and make their own version as well.

I have also come to the conclusion that I am being ostracised by several people in the looming community. It was brought to my attention that a new online loom knitting magazine was going to be up and running soon and that they were asking for pattern submissions. I was never asked or even hinted to about it at all. This all goes back to many moons ago when I first started my website. I posted some techniques which others felt I didn't have the right to do. I asked permission and now have the instructions on there. I feel it ended up being a very catty situation. It is all very ridiculous to me to be truthful but there is nothing I can do. My aim with my website was to provide as much information about loom knitting as possible so that everyone involved: vendors, designers, beginners and anyone who loves loom knitting as much as I do could find the information they need. I do sell my patterns. I pay for everything myself, I don't have sponsors or any yarn companies throwing yarn at me. I pay over $50 a month to keep it up and running and truthfully make (if I am lucky) $4 a week from patterns. I don't think anyone can say I'm out for profit, that is just not happening. I am very glad to see the creation of this magazine and hope they add a lot more to it in the future. The more we put out there the better our loom knitting world gets. More people with more ideas and ways of doing things. I just hope that others in the looming community were not ostracised as well. There are other vendors and designers that I did not see on there that I feel should definitely be there. Maybe they just decided not to participate, I don't know. We'll see. I guess this just means I'm not putting forth my best effort in providing what I need. So I need to step up. My plans as of right now:

1. find someone to help me organize and spruce up my website as I don't know how to do alot of the fancier tricks with the web pages

2. organize all the instructional pages into one downloadable booklet which would be free for anyone

3. figure out how to place web movies on the site with my new camera and make videos of a lot of the basics

4. add more information about books on loom knitting that are available

5. add more links to blogs and websites with instructions

6. find more designers who may be interested in adding their patterns on the site as well

7. and of course produce more patterns. I would like to make booklets for specific areas (baby, toddler, preteen, adult, home and pet patterns). I have all the ideas in my mind and a lot on this computer, just not complete, organized or ready to be put out there.

8. USE this huge stash of yarn I have sitting around the house before my husband has a coronary

These are my goals for the loom knitting part of my life. I still have to outline my goals for my classes and getting the house, barn and pastures up to par. If I could only duplicate myself. And last, find the time to be with my daughter the way I should be. She's growing up way too fast.