Featured Blogger Interview: Bells from BellsKnits.Blogspot.com
November 19, 2009 | By
Here’s a Featured Blogger Interview for all your knitters and fiber lovers out there! Bells devotes time to knitting every day, and shares her adventures (fiber related and otherwise) with readers on her blog. Let’s take a minute to get to know the thirty-something writer and artist behind Bellsknits.
For our readers new to your blog, please tell us a little bit about yourself and your blog.
My name is Helen. I live in Canberra, Australia. By day, I'm a government employee. The rest of my life is devoted as much as possible to knitting. I'm not sure there's been a day in the last few years when my thoughts haven't in some way been consumed by knitting.
How long has it taken you to establish your blog?
I think it really took off in its second year, 2007. I never really thought too much about how it would go. I just knew I wanted to be part of the community. I figured out early on that to establish an audience, you need to write in a way that invites interest and participation and have good photos. My early photos were awful! A big change happened when I met and hooked up with RoseRed. We started collaborating on projects such as Southern Summer of Socks and Mouthfuls of Heaven and that made us better bloggers.
When did you start knitting, and what made you want to start a blog about it?
I learned as a child. Then I crocheted as a teen. Then I did nothing. I dabbled in my 20s but didn't feel very satisfied with my blundering attempts. In 2003 I picked up the needles again, right after I gave up writing fiction, which had become a draining and painful experience. It was a couple of years before I started to blog. I didn't even look up knitting on the internet until early 2006. Soon I found blogs and I seem to recall I started my own within a month or two of discovering the blogging community.
Tell us a little bit about your Blogtoberfest experiment, which just ended last month. How was it posting a new 
blog entry every day?
I've participated in Blogtoberfest twice now. Loads and loads of bloggers join up each year and do their best to stick it out for the month. I find it really hard. I give myself strict instructions to avoid filler as much as possible and to provide the best content I can every day for a month. As a writer and communicator, I love the challenge and with the exception of a few days where it starts to feel like a real chore, I throw myself into it with real enthusiasm. My own standards for what constitutes good blogging keep me in check for the month, but boy, I'm glad when it's over!
Where do you receive inspiration for your posts, and what do you do when you experience writer’s block?
I've been doing it for so long now that I'm becoming pretty attuned to the little moments in daily life that make for good blogging. Even though I don't write fiction any more, I still consider myself a story teller, and if I can find a way to tie in knitting or one of my other interests with some small reflection, I'll do it. I think I struggle less with writer's block when I remember that it's about the small things, the little moments that unite us as people first, and knitters second that makes for good blogging. For me it's not about just recording what I'm knitting. It's about constantly exploring why I, and by extension the readers, make things, why we are creative and what meaning it gives to our lives.
Did you have any experience blogging prior to starting Bellsknits?
None at all. I didn't even really know much about it apart from a few knitting blogs I visited before I started my own. I had no idea how big blogging was.
What’s a fun fact most readers don’t know about you?
I find it quite fun to be recognized from my blog. It happens periodically and it's always fun. My sisters tease me and say they want to be my minders at knitting events. The level of amusement we get out of it is completely out of proportion with the number of times it happens but it's good to have something to keep us amused.
Last but not least, why do you believe that supporting handmade and indie is important?
Because there's evidence everywhere that it makes people feel so happy and connected. Anything that generates that much positivity is fantastic and should be supported and celebrated.
If you enjoyed reading Bells’ interview, you’d bound to enjoy her blog too! Be sure to Check out BellsKnits for more posts from Bells.
Sara Moore is the Head of the Content Department on ArtFire.com.
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