Crochetville is sponsoring a great blog tour this month for National Crochet Month AND National Craft Month. As a part of the tour, I thought I would share with you what a “day in my life” looks like. Keep reading until the end for a special surprise.
What do you mean, “a typical day”?
Some days I’m mostly a writer, some days a math geek, some days a fiber artist, some days a knitwear producer, and some days a teacher and fiber-arts cheerleader. Most days I’m a little bit of all those things, and some days I’m none at all. I work for myself as a self-published designer, and I get paid by others as a crochet and knit designer, writer, teacher, and technical editor. Earning a living as a freelancer means taking on many roles and maintaining the self-discipline to balance them all.
A “typical” day depends on what’s on my work schedule. If I’m on deadline for a book, for example, I’m not doing much more than working on the book, eating, and sleeping and my studio is a mess.
Other times I may be traveling to shows, going to a book signing or a photoshoot, or teaching on a cruise. (BTW, all that is not as glamorous as it sounds.)
When I’m at home, however, I do a mix of things throughout the day, and I try to maintain some sort of schedule. If I really could stick to a schedule, it might look like this:
6:50am Get up, have breakfast, get dressed.
8:00am Be at my desk ready to work. Mornings are usually spent on tech editing or pattern drafting, i.e., Brain Work. I do my best math in the morning.
Too much sitting at the computer is a Bad Thing, so I set a timer and take a break every 50 minutes or so throughout the day. Ten minutes or so to stretch, put in a load of laundry, make a bed, play with the dog, or something semi-active makes a huge difference in my overall productivity. Two or three times a week I take a (much) longer break to attend a yoga class.
1:00pm-ish Spend about 30 minutes for lunch. In reality, this “lunch break” often happens about 2:00 pm when I’m starving, but I’m trying to actually stop work and eat before I get quite that hungry. I try to eat standing up, since I spend so much time sitting.
1:30-2:30pm-ish Answer emails, arrange teaching gigs, do bookkeeping/office work.
2:30-4:00pm This my the low point of my day. My brain gets fuzzy and I lose focus. This is the time to walk the dog, go to the gym, run errands, or do some productive but mindless stitching while listening to an audiobook.
4:00-6:00pm Design or write or edit or knit/crochet or create a new class….Even though it’s late in the afternoon, this seems to be my most creative time. Most days I’d keep working through to about 7:00 pm if there weren’t family obligations.
6:00-8:00pm Family time
8:00-11:00pm I usually spend this time actually crocheting or knitting on the couch while listening to audiobooks or watching TV. Our dog loves to lie on my closed project bags and he seems to have a knack for knowing exactly which bag has the curent working yarn in it. Once he decided a whole box of yarn was a nice place for a nap. I snapped a picture, then told him in no uncertain terms that that was NOT ok. But he did look comfy, didn’t he?
11:00pm Bedtime!
Wow. Having read that over, it makes my life sound so tidy and organized. Believe me, it’s not quite that squared away, but we all have to have goals, right?
Donate to Project Night Night
This blog tour is asking that you donate to the charity Project Night Night, a 503(c)(3) organization that provides over 25,00 packages containing a stuffed animal, a book, and a security blanket to homeless children each year. After you donate, please visit this form to add your donation to the group total, so we can see how much we can raise to help.
National Crochet Month and CGOA
The National Crochet Month is sponsored by the Crochet Guild of America (CGOA), a national organization dedicated to crochet. It’s a good way to connect with other crochet professionals and to discover educational materials to further your knowledge of crochet.
Blog Tour
To learn more about this blog tour, visit the introduction on Crochetville. Yesterday the tour visited Mary Jane Hall and Lindsey Stephens, today it is with Shannon Mullett-Bowlsby and me, and tomorrow you will get to hear from Jennifer Cirka and Annette Stewart.
Special Offer Just For You
To celebrate Nattional Crochet Month, and to encourage you to enjoy my crochet patterns, I have a limited-time promotion in my Ravelry store. Use the discount code MARCH on any of my patterns from today until the end of the month and receive 20% off your new purchase. (Previously-purchased items are not eligible. One use per customer.)
Please also join me on your favorite social media outlets: Facebook, Twitter, and/or Ravelry.
Happy stitching!
