ooooh new blog. i'm really looking forward to seeing how whip up shapes up.

i'm not a huge reader of blogs, i track a few in bloglines, but in general i don't do the whole blog thing. this site was conceived as a stand-alone craft journal before i really knew what blogs were, and i just don't have the time or inclination to follow the whole social side of blogging.

but as a fan of everything on topic i have to say whip up looks unmissable. i've had a very pleasant afternoon meandering between the contributors' various sites and i've taken some form of inspiration from every one. i particularly love the fact that it's international, hopefully that should give an interesting interaction of perspectives.

so far the pick of the bunch for me is yarnstorm: great pictures (and easily navigated galleries), relevant chat, uk based and - something i see on so few blogs - she has categories. i can't emphasise enough how important that is to me, it makes the site a permanent resource rather than something ephemeral. i challenge anyone to explore a blog just by trolling through the archives month by month - it's tedious and you give up after a page or two of tatting or whatever else it is that blogger does that goes straight over your head. give me some categories and i can happily scamper back and forth for hours, and then come back and look again when suddenly i see the light and realise that tatting is what i've been waiting for all along.

and on that subject we now have a blogs category. i'm hoping that when i eventually go back and recategorise all the past posts it doesn't haul them all back to the top in bloglines.