A few years ago, I taught a first year college seminar class to help introduce students majoring in chemistry and biochemistry to some essential skills for succeeding in college. One of our major units focused on career exploration, and I tasked the students with thinking about three career paths:

• The career path they were on, if everything went according to plan.
• An alternative career path, if things did not go according to plan.
• Their path if they were unbound from societal and family pressures.

The first two paths were pretty typical for students, with many students focused on healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and chemical industry. The third path was always the most interesting, with students choosing anything from “food blogger” to “freelance artist” to “baker.” This was how I really got to know my students and what their interests were, and it was so cool to learn all of their unbound plans.

Of course, I always shared how I would have answered those questions. The career path that I was on in college was to be a college chemistry professor and involved earning not only a bachelor’s degree but also a doctorate. Following graduation with my Ph.D. in organic chemistry, I enjoyed working in that career path for almost a decade. My alternative career path, as I answered when I was starting college, was to go into banking because I loved math. Now, of course, my answer would be to work at my LYS (local yarn store).

My “choose anything” career path is to be a professional knitter, so I always say that I am an “aspiring professional knitter,” even back when I was introducing myself to my organic chemistry students.

These days, I am a very lucky stay-at-home-mom to a 7-year-old and a 3-year-old and wife to the incredibly talented TechnicoolDad, and I couldn’t be happier. I am still an “aspiring professional knitter,” and I spend just about every free moment knitting (or reading, sometimes both at the same time!). The car line to pick up my daughter from school is one of my favorite places to knit, where I’ve got about half an hour of quiet time when I can really focus on my projects. My spouse makes it a priority to be home when possible so that I can attend my local knit night and spend THREE WHOLE HOURS knitting and chatting with my friends, making me feel spoiled and refreshed.

Sometimes, inspiration strikes, and I design my own patterns. I love this creative outlet, and in 2023, I managed to design, knit, write, and publish SEVEN new patterns, including four pairs of socks, a cowl, a shawl, and a hat. I have a few designs lingering from last year and on the needles that I hope to finish up soon and get published as well, but my family is my top priority and I am a “mood knitter,” so my design process can be somewhat sporadic. All of my paid designs are professionally tech edited to ensure maximum clarity and minimum confusion, and each pattern is tested by generous fellow knitters to catch anything that my editor and I have missed.

I’m planning a series of posts to discuss the origin of each of the ideas for these designs. The design featured at the top of this post is my Concentration Shawl (yes, it’s a chemistry thing) pattern that I absolutely adored knitting and designing, so look for a post about it soon!