We have so much going on it’s going to be hard to fit this all in one post!

Well, guys, I’m absolutely stoked to be the first to tell you that we are putting together what could be the best knitting contest EVER. EVER. I’m serious, I’m not just flapping my lips because I run this little shindig and I’m proud. No seriously, I actually contemplated quitting my job yesterday just so I could enter the contest too.

I can’t give full details yet, but be sure to keep checking back because we will have the full details of the contest up soon. What I can tell you is what our fabulous prizes will be.

Fabulous Prizes:

1st Place Prize will be a selection of yarn valued at $500, and a little blurb about them on our home page and in our blog.

2nd Place Prize will be yarn valued at $300.

3rd Place Prize will be yarn valued at $200.

I can also tell you that the contest will involve knitting one of our patterns but making it uniquely your own. So get your motors runnin’, ya’ll, it’s going to be fun!

We have also started a group on Ravelry where anyone who is knitting or wants to knit one of our patterns can have a place to chat on Ravelry. Our group over there is located at ADHD Knitters.

We are going to be revamping our own forum on our site as well to include a chat room so that we can offer real time help from our designer, Gail.

We’re working on developing new patterns as well, and you can see some of them that are slated for development in our Gallery under the ‘Upcoming Projects’ gallery.

Gail has started a poetry corner in our forums, and the only guidelines is that the poetry be your own work and somewhat related to knitting/fiber/crafts/art or mental illness. If you wrote a poem that corresponds to something you made, be sure to post a picture along with your poem. Submitted poems may be featured in a weekly blog post as well!

I’m going to be putting together some new blog features as well, that will include input from our readers, so I’ll be posing a few questions every once in awhile, you can contribute to our site by posting a comment on our blog with your answers.

Today’s question: What else do you do when you knit? Some examples might be; read, listen to music, dye your hair, read knitting blogs, talk to your Mom on the phone, pet the dog with your feet, help your kids with their homework, etc.

“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”

-William Shakespeare

I thought it might be interesting, for the sake of keeping a history of ADHD in it’s many phases, for me to blog a little about how the business is coming along. It might be interesting to those of you out there that will someday (fingers crossed!) read this blog on a regular basis to know about how this whole thing came to be. So we’ll start with some vague updates about things.

Yesterday I was able to log into this blog as well as the back end of the ADHD Knitting website in general. I began writing content for the page and got the blog going a little. We’re coming into the home stretch of being able to launch this little enterprise to the public, hopefully by the beginning of January.

For the last three months we’ve been feverishly writing patterns, test knitting patterns, ordering yarn, trying to seam things up, weave in ends and other wise make the samples picture pretty. We’ve spent countless hours planning layout, functions, ideas and concepts and swishing them around in our little group until they grew into full blown ideas and plans. We’ve got a forum that I’m hoping will be the epicenter of activity for anyone knitting an ADHD pattern, as well as a great resource for knitters and/or crafters looking to swap new and unique ideas, tips and tricks. I can’t wait to get Gail in there and set her loose to throw out her ideas that she has and to help anyone who needs an extra set of eyes on their WIP.

For those of you who haven’t been eagerly chomping at the bit for Gail to release her patterns and may not know much about Gail personally, I can tell you this: that woman is chock full of ideas, tricks, work arounds and inspiration. Her mind is on the needles, wrapped in yarn and constantly working out new ways of doing things. She barely sleeps and her house is a shrine to her craft; she literally eats, sleeps and breathes sticks and string. That is when she does actually sleep.

It’s starting to sound redundant, but we seriously have so much to share with you guys I just can’t wait to get this baby up and running! I’m so excited for these patterns to see the light of day, and for this website to be a source of information and inspiration. In addition to the patterns and information here, we also really want to be a welcome refuge for anyone who feels that they are ’strange’ or ‘different’, whether you’ve been diagnosed with something or not. We here at ADHD Knitting revel in our mental illness, take strength in the fact that our brains process information in a unique way and often list of our medications or diagnosis to unwitting strangers. There is a marriage between mental illness and creativity and we recognize and respect that marriage. So, even if you don’t share our bizarre brain chemistry, take comfort in the fact that you are taking part in supporting a group of lunatics that really wouldn’t be able to go out and get ‘real’ jobs. So a big thanks to you!

That’s all for now from me, I need to get back to the writing of the web content and the implementing of strategy. It’s kind of like running my own little asylum.

Until next time remember:

“The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they’re okay, then it’s you.” - Rita Mae Brown

Happy Knitting,

Your Resident President

-Dani

Well, well, we’ve finally made it official! ADHD Knitting has a home on the internet AND it has a blog

We hope that this is the beginning of many many years of interesting, informational, emotional, hectic, creative, overwhelming and heartwarming posts. We’ve got lots planned and a lot yet to do before the site goes fully live. So strap in, sit tight and hold on, the ride is about to begin! We’ve got lots of fun stuff coming very soon and we can’t wait to share it with you.

Love ya!

(This is Shadow, he’s the ADHD Knitting mascot.)