Breaking the Vacuum

One of the things I miss, living where I do, is a sense of community.  My “community” right now consists of my husband and our two cats, and the container garden on the porch (which really doesn’t offer much in the way of interaction).

Blogging has helped that feeling of isolation a lot – particularly the wonderful people that I’ve gotten to know through my other, warcraft related blog.  But, as I’m sure any of you who play video games know, there’s more to me than just video games, and so I’ve been looking for ways to find that kind of support in other parts of my life.

SCA, obviously, helps a lot.  Getting to hang out with people who are also crazy and interested in stuff you like is really fun, and I’ve made some amazing friends.  But that happens (at best) once a week – since those friends live somewhat of a distance away.  The rest of the time, finding motivation for the myriad of hobbies/projects I have going can be tough.  I’ve never really gotten particularly involved in Ravelry, because the forum structure is SO big, and moves at breakneck speeds sometimes (and crawls along like molasses at others).

Recently, however, folks such as TJ got me looking at Plurk (especially since Twitter had a bunch of downtime – and is still struggling with serious overload).  And, oddly enough… there are knitters on plurk.  And spinners, and crafters, and soap-makers, and weird twitchy cleaners and people that are strangely willing to converse with me on the finer points of making dill and cheddar beer bread. (and why, like every other thing I make in my demonic oven, it didn’t rise).

And through those wonderful, crafty people, I ran into a link that Miss Violet (of Lime and Violet) was working on starting – a plurk community based on Mary Jane Butters’ Farmgirl Sisterhood.  And while, quite honestly, I don’t really care much for joining the official sisterhood (I did my girl scout thing; I don’t need or want merit badges, or someone to tell me that I’ve progressed enough to earn a (whatever) level in Underwater Basket Weaving), the idea of a community of people who were interested in similar things that I’m interested in – cooking, sewing, crafts, sustainable living, gardening, spinning – really piqued my interests.

That, and it’s a lot easier to stay motivated on the long slog through a stockinette sweater back when you’ve got other people who are a) asking about it and b) encouraging (as they’re also slogging through their own projects).

So here’s to friends, old fashioned goodness, baking bread, growing herbs (and veggies), sewing, knitting, and maybe even wearing an apron.  (gasp!)

I do live in Texas, after all… (but no, I don’t have big blonde hair)