blogger interview #4 - Stacie Barton

I first came across Stacie at Mommy Mosh Pit when I was doing a search for The Flaming Lips and I became a fan of hers right away. I think it might have something to do with the feeling that we would have been friends if we had known each other back in college. I can easily see her hanging out with me at Hampshire or taking a trip into Northampton on the Smith College bus, maybe catching a show at the Red Barn. She's an insanely prolific blogger who writes about knitting, crafts and food and (occasionally) being a mom, snapping photos along the way. Seeing as I can't cook, can't knit, can't make a craft to save my life and have managed to make it this far without reproducing, it's a fascinating mystery to me.

What made you start Mommy Mosh Pit? How has it evolved since you launched it?

I started blogging out of sheer boredom and loneliness! I was home with my baby and toddler, in the winter, in NW IL . . . New to the tiny town I live in . . . desperate measures!

You actually combine quite a few things in one blog: knitting, crafts, parenting and food. Mom bloggers and knitting bloggers are both strong communities -- do you identify more with one than the other?

The knitters. My kids aren't really the main focus of my blog. They are in real life though! Blogging is where I go to have fun, and tell funny stories about them!

I am meant to be a contributor to Do You Have One of These?, but I have been a serious slacker. (Sorry.) What made you start it and why do you think so many people have signed on -- and continue — to be contributors?

I met a guy into geocaching and I thought about the ways the Internet is becoming part of the real world. The ways we form communities in new ways through the Internet, and the ways in which our real lives overlap. I just thought it would be fun to see what kind of stuff we all have!

And now you've started Knitted Toys this month as well? How do you manage to maintain so many blogs? Most people can't figure out how to maintain one!

This is not my blog. It belongs to Jenn and I am just an a-longer!

Where do you write most of your posts? Is there a favorite place or time of day for posting?

In my upstairs office. Day, night, whenever the kiddos will give me a minute! Have you ever stopped what you were doing because you were inspired to post to your blog?

Yeah, like the house work and child rearing!

Have you ever met the person behind a blog after having read their blog for a while? What was it like?

Nope, but I'd love to!
Do you have friends that give you a strange look when you tell them that you blog? Are there people whom you deliberately do NOT tell that you have a blog?

My friends and family are looking!

Did you have a zine when you were younger or did you read zines? Do you see a relationship between zines back in the 90's and blogs today?

I loved zines and comic books! Love and Rockets, Dirty Plotte, Hate were my faves. Yeah, definitely a newer, better, easier form of the zine!
Is there a blog out there for which you have blog envy? If so, why?

Lolly Knitting Around. She is the Queen Hostess with the Mostess! What an organized blogger! and I'm Mad and I Eat, that is the best title anywhere!

Do you check your traffic stats to see who is coming to read your blog? Do you have a sense of who your readers are -- even if you don't check your stats?

I'm always surprised at the numbers, I figure there are about 10 visitors to every commenter. I can't shut up, so I can't understand the readers who are not bloggers, but hey, I'm glad they find my life interesting!

Tell me -- or my readers -- about a blog that you discovered in the past month.

A recent fave is Sourdough Monkey Wrangler because it's a "he", and he tells long tales of cooking, mostly with his kids. Another fave is Knit Me A River because the awesome yarn porn!