About Barbara W. Klaser
I’m a blogger, book lover, novelist, editor, lifelong journal keeper, knitter, servant to cats, and lots of other things. I blog at The Journal Project as well as a few other blogs.
About Swatches Yarns and Frogs
I started this blog as a place where I can curate everything I love related to knitting, including books, people who knit, designers, yarns, tools, videos, and other blogs, to share with others. I’ll also post some of my projects, though that’s a lower priority for me at the moment, because I’m not that prolific a knitter, though I hope this blog will also serve as inspiration and maybe an excuse (do I need one?) to knit more. Much of what I knit right now is fairly plain or simple, or for cats, or just not really that spectacular. I seem to find the spectacular everywhere else, and this is where I want to link to and keep track of all that, and share my thoughts, loves, and fascination with this process we call knitting.
It’s also a place to share, to a much lesser degree, other needle crafts like crochet, tatting, and even some sewing and embroidery. I don’t do much of any of those recently — though I used to sew a lot of my own clothes. But this will be a place to gather all of that as well. Feel free to join in with your comments, and if you have a blog or website, please share that as well.
My Other Blogs
Mystery of a Shrinking Violet
Mystery of a Shrinking Violet focuses primarily on books I read, writing (mostly fiction writing), books about writing, and some writing niches I’m currently interested in. I’m an introvert with a tendency toward shyness, thus the name. This blog is an update and refresh of an older blog by the same name that I kept regularly between mid-2004 and and the end of 2009. The new version of MSV will gradually recover some older posts as well that I find relevant, once I’ve updated them or checked for obsolete or broken links. Those will be backdated or revised to post as new articles. I’ll decide that on a case by case basis. In the mean time I’ll focus on books I’m reading now, as well as on thoughts about writing as a craft and a lifestyle. But the primary focus will be on books.
The Journal Project
The Journal Project is a new blog that will focus on journaling in all forms, from the most personal type of journaling one might want to do, on paper or digitally, as well as visual journaling, to bullet journals that are mainly planners. It will also cover the memoir, which generally is a result of journaling, or itself a very public personal journal. I’ll cover blogs as well, since they’re another sort of public journal. People have kept commonplace books and various other types of journals since writing began, so there’s a lot to cover. I’ve personally kept journals since I was a teen, and I’m now in my mid-60s, so that’s a lot of time working with them. I’ve read quite a bit about journaling as a practice, and now I want to do some exploring of this vast topic by way of The Journal Project blog.
Spirit Blooms
Spirit Blooms is a blog I started in 2005 as a place to study the Tarot, to post some of my poetry, and to blog about various interests that didn’t seem to quite fit my author/writing blog. Some of what’s there will seem dated, and some of it is more personal than you’ll find on my newer, more topic-focused blogs. I’ve learned a lot since then! But it still holds a place in my heart, and if you wish to visit it, you are most welcome.