Top 5 of 2012: Inspiration

I'll be honest:  I've been struggling to write this post for many days.  Like Kristin, I'm loath to list five blogs that inspire me, because then all the others would be left out!   I'm sure it has a lot to do with all those years of being a school teacher, striving to make sure everyone is included.  So instead, I thought I'd take you through my morning routine, and discuss some of the sites I look at every day that inspire me.

My morning begins when Hubby brings me my coffee in bed.  Isn't that just the best?  I'm a lucky girl.  He also makes much better coffee than I do!

Once the aroma and the first few sips have brought some semblance of coherence to my brain, I sit down on my knitting chair with my computer and get down to business.  I usually check my email first, although I'm generally not awake enough to actually deal with any of it!

Next stop is Google Reader.  Like many of you, I read (or at least look at) a LOT of blogs every day, and I do look at my reader several times a day during odd spare moments so that it doesn't get too backlogged.  I'm usually not awake enough to make comments first thing, so I pull up the posts I want to comment on and save those for later.

I have an extensive blogroll in my sidebar, and this has been imported directly from my reader.  I try to update it every few months to keep it current (I just did this last week), so these are usually the blogs I'm following at the moment.  Blogs that haven't posted in several months often get removed, as I figure that the raison d'etre of the blogroll is to share the inspiration and I don't want to send anyone off on a path that doesn't really go anywhere!

The reader takes up the majority of my surfing time in the morning.  After I've finished with it, I head over to Ravelry, where I check in on my friends' activity.   I sometimes look at the finished objects in some of the groups I belong to as well, although now that my reader takes up so much of my time, I'm not doing this as much.  Looking at these helps me become aware of patterns I may not have noticed and ways that different knitters have altered patterns to make a project their own.

Once I'm done with Ravelry, I move on to Pinterest.  There's lots of inspiration there, and I've discovered a couple of really great blogs by clicking through on pins that look interesting.

A new addition to my morning surfing is BurdaStyle.  I joined almost 2 years ago, but only recently started looking at the website (and even more recently, adding my own Burda projects).  I really enjoy looking at the projects page to see what people are making and especially how they interpret some of the patterns from the Burda magazine. 

And finally, I check out my group activity on Flickr.  I'd have to say that Flickr is largely responsible for me getting back into sewing over the last few years.  Several years ago, I was hooked on the Wardrobe Remix group.  I didn't participate with my own pictures, but I looked at the pool every day and was really impressed with some of the clothes people were making for themselves.  I think it was also through Flickr that I discovered Colette Patterns, just before Sarai had started having her patterns printed.  And it was through Flickr that I became aware of the sewing blog community.  I've added lots of blogs to my ever-growing list by clicking through on projects that have caught my eye in some of the Flickr groups:

Like Gillian's!  Which brings us full-circle, don't you think?