The New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival

Yesterday, my daughter Jen took me to the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival for Mother's Day. The one hour drive was delightfully spent chatting with my daughter, I was knitting, she was driving. Bright and sunny, it was a chilly, windy day. Many people commented about the cold, but I was much happier with a cool day than a hot and muggy one.

It was a fun event to go to as a knitter, but it also gave me a lot of ideas for my writing as The Boston Knitting Examiner. I had already written an article about the Festival before the event, actually being there gave me lots more info.

Different kinds of yarns were displayed in many varieties. Fibers included wool, alpaca and rabbit, many weights and styles of yarn, endless colors, and fibers in all stages of completion including raw fleece, roving, and undyed yarn.

It was also interesting to see all the products related to knitting. In addition to patterns, there were buttons, jewelry, spindles, spinning wheels, lotions, dyes, knitting machines and more.

Although there were lots of tempting items, I ended the day only buying a T-shirt. Jen got a drop spindle kit - something I had suggested she might enjoy. It included a simple drop spindle, some lovely dyed wool roving, and an instruction sheet. We enjoyed watching a demonstration of how to use a drop spindle. She also bought some alpaca roving in lovely multiple shades of brown.

Next week, on May 15 is the Annual Rhode Island Wool and Fiber Festival at Coggeshall Farm Museum, Rt. 114 Bristol, Rhode Island. For a list of more fiber and knitting events this summer, check out my article Summer 2010 Knitting and Fiber Events in New England.

Writing motivation

"What motivates people to write?" my daughter Heather asked me. "Why write about something other people have already written about?"

I thought about it for a moment. I talked about how writers use their own voice to express themselves. When you write, you choose what to put in and what to leave out, you organize it in a way you think makes sense. Writers infuse pieces with their own bias.

When I said those things, she looked at me and said "It's like a piano! There are 88 keys but there are infinite variations." Not only the combination of which keys to play, but rests, tempo, tone and more. When playing a piece that has been played before, each musician adds their own style to it, and each new performance will sound different.

I think it is a wonderful analogy. Putting things into your own voice - writing your own composition - helps give meaning to what you create.

Writing on Examiner

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I've been writing online for The Examiner. The Examiner has editions in over 100 cities. Each writer focusses on a particular subject.

I am the Boston Knitting Examiner. I write about knitting in general, and about knitting in New England (as far as I know there are currently no other Examiners in New England).

The Examiner suggests that writers post 3 to 4 articles a week. Articles can be of any length, articles are often relatively concise.

The articles I have been writing are a little more formal than blog posts, but not much more difficult. Three to four articles a week may sound intimidating, but I have found it easier than I expected. Between reviews of stores, websites and books, New England knitting events, techniques, patterns, charity projects and more, there is plenty to write about. As needed, The Examiner gives support and help to writers.

Examiners get paid based on page views and a few other parameters. They pay about 1 cent per page view. This may not sound like much, but it can add up - especially when you do some promoting. In contrast, other writing websites give upfront payments, but only pay a penny for every seven to ten views.

The articles written for The Examiner get published as soon as you post them. They don't have to be approved before they're published, and they are not rated. There are people working for The Examiner who oversee your work, but - so far - I've been given free rein to post what I want to.

Some New Yarn

I haven't bought any new yarn in a while, but I finally succumbed a few days ago. We were running some errands and I decided to stop by Michaels. Last week at the Billerica Library knitting group - The Libraryarns - one of the other knitters was working with a new yarn she bought at Michaels.

I found some beautiful colors I thought would look great in scarves. The picture below shows the yarn I purchased and the beginnings of a scarf I am making.




The name of the yarn is Impeccable and it's made by a Canadian company called Loops & Threads. It is a worsted weight acrylic, 3.5 oz/100 g and 192 yards/175 m. The texture is not as rough as some yarns, but it is not the softest either. I think it will work great as a scarf. With 21 stitches on size 9 (US) needles, it's about 5 inches wide. I'm not finished, but I think one skein will make a scarf about 5 to 6 feet long.

Charity Knitting: The Mother Bear Project

I just published a new article about The Mother Bear Project. Knit or crochet a bear to go to a child with HIV/Aids - this looks like a fun project.


My plan is to periodically feature a charity product. There are so many wonderful causes to donate to. It's a win-win activity, you get to enjoy making something for someone who needs it. What a great feeling - you know that you're project is being loved.

Do you have a favorite cause or project? Let me know, if I write about it I'll include a link to the website of your choice.

Happy Birthday Jen! and Olin College Open House

Today is my daughter's 19th Birthday! Boy, does time fly. Birthdays can be bittersweet for moms. It's so wonderful to watch our children grow and thrive, but I sometimes miss the little girl.

My youngest daughter and I went to visit Olin College today. They had an open house for prospective women students.

Many people haven't heard of Olin. It is a small engineering school in Needham, Massachusetts, and it has only had three graduating classes. It has an amazing program that emphasizes hands-on, collaborative, real-world projects. It is well-funded with amazing resources. Up until this year every student received a full tuition scholarship, it has been reduced to half for next year - but it's still an amazing deal. The kids leave there with an excellent education preparing them for just about any field they want to go into.

I posted an article yesterday called "Acquiring knitting needles and yarn without spending a lot of money" In these economic times, we need all the help we can get!

Writing Online

So, it's time to catch up!

I'm going to write up my experiences with writing, and other ways to earn money online, in several posts. I never thought of myself as a writer, but I'm often told that I have good ideas. My mother always encouraged me to write about some of my experiences, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

This post will be a general one about writing online. In subsequent posts I'll give more detail about each site.

There are a number of sites online where people can write articles and earn money. For Helium and Associated Content, the minimum number of words is 400. That's not very long - about 4 or 5 paragraphs. On Examiner there is no set minimum, but 300 to 400 words is recommended.

Writing for the internet is different from other kinds of writing. I have learned that the majority of internet readers will not read very long or complicated articles. The general guidelines suggest writing at about an 8th grade level. These guidelines are for general internet writing, there are sites geared to professional fields for which other styles would be appropriate.

How do you make money? There are two ways to earn with internet articles. You can get upfront payments, and/or income based on the number of page views your articles receive.

How much money can you make? It obviously depends on how much you write, and how much you promote. I've been writing for about five months, starting in March of this year. I've written about 165 articles, and in total, I've earned about $300, and I haven't done much promoting. For the sites where you earn based on page views, your articles continue to earn so as you add more articles there is a cumulative effect. There are people who are earning much more than I have been.

What can you write about? Between the different sites, I can write about practically anything. The upfront payment from Associate Content is more for areas where there are not a lot of articles. Helium will let you write about anything - again there are some restrictions and rules regarding what you get paid. I am the Knitting Examiner for Boston, so the articles I write there all have some connection to knitting, and at least some of them are about happenings in the Boston area.

When you go to the links for my writer pages, you can continue on and explore the sites. That's the best way to see what people are writing about.

More questions? I'd love to hear them. Send me a comment, and I'll give you an answer!