Hi there. Your friendly neighborhood blogger and podcaster here 🙂 I didn’t grow up being a crafty girl. I remember failing art through third grade and being SO RELIEVED when art was no longer compulsory starting fourth grade. I believed that I wasn’t “artistic” and eschewed after those negative experiences anything i perceived as “crafty” or “arty”. Instead, I grew up writing, which felt more like a lifeline. And I never felt like I was missing out on anything.

In my early adulthood, married way too young and feeling pressure to conform to a lifestyle I didn’t really understand, I learned to quilt, cross stitch, crochet and sew. To my surprise everything except the cross stitch felt pretty good. I remember coming home from an aggravating day at work and sitting to crochet on a blanket for half an hour and by then feeling like I no longer wanted to murderlate anything 🙂 Or after a day of words, words, words and writing, writing, writing, mathing some stuff for a quilt and making precise cuts and having a moment of feeling my brain relax. As with many new crafters at new crafts, I was so proud of my early makes and gave most of everything away. I also got such a charge out of producing something useful or memorable or needful. I could do those crafts and enjoyed them but I wouldn’t say they translated into a “needful” thing for me to do or a craft addict. Fast forward many years and life experiences, and about 8 years ago, I learned to knit (after several false starts). And that was it – my needful thing.

When I’m knitting, I relax and relax and relax until there’s just a small happy hum in the back of my brain. And it’s a feeling I rarely have otherwise. There’s something about the use of both of my hands, slowing down, watching something be created out of string and sticks. That I or a loved one can wear or use. It’s grounding. It forces me to be in the present moment, which is such a gift because my brain is otherwise so.damned.noisy!

Mostly saltyjoknits is a knitting blog and podcast with some other crafts because I enjoy several crafts these days. I also include some deep thoughts in my episodes. Sometimes, but not always, is that segment related to craftiness. It’s always at the end, so if it’s not your thing, you can get all of the crafty content and drop off when I hit the deep thoughts section.

Before I podcasted, long, long ago, I also actively blogged. It’s something I have thought about getting back to because, if you’ve listened to the podcast, you know that words are my jam. With a variety of other issues that have cropped in the last year or so, I’ve decided to expand my blog beyond frankly half-hearted shownotes 😉  This is a work in progress over the next few months, but it’s my intention to get turn this space into my personal ravelry alternative for project tracking and memorialization and a place where I can share more of who I am and what I love.

Feel free to leave a comment or email me as saltyjoknits at gmail dot come if you’d like to get a hold of me.

You can find the podcast at: http://saltyjoknits.libsyn.com/

and on iTunes at:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/salty-jo-knits/id1173…