I’m taking a few minutes today to look back on my summer, including a few accomplishments, almost-accomplishments, and just general fun times. School starts back for me full-time and then some on Monday, so that means my leisure crafting will become much more limited. As the typical book-nerd, part of me is excited to be back to the school grind. I get a chance to teach two sections of a totally new class for me (a technical communications class), and I took a class I’ve been teaching for many years and completely changed my approach. All this newness also means more work, but it means not doing the same ‘ol same ‘ol, which can become stale both for me and my students.

It’s been fun to be home so much, spending time with my menagerie as well as cranking out a lot of jewelry and crocheted items. I even got some sewing done over the summer. Earlier in the summer, I cleaned out a lot supplies, packed them up, and donated them to a few groups. This lead to some reorganizing and at least a brief period where I had an amazingly neat and organized studio.

All this does not mean I will be cutting out crafting. It just means that crafting will just take on a different, less-leisurely feel. For example, I won’t be sitting in front of my PC, cat sitting on either side of the computer, crocheting for an hour or more as I listen to crafting podcasts. Basically, the change means crafting turns into more of the job route as I craft projects for my site and other side jobs. This is by no means necessarily bad versus good; it’s just different.

Anyway, I know I’m not the only crafter headed back to academia next week. I hope all of you crafting princesses and princes enjoy the new school year and still manage to carve out time for your beads, yarn, or whatever it is you enjoy.