This journal has had a number of iterations since I created it as an undergrad back in 2003. If my memory serves, I made it to be a writing journal for NaNoWriMo. I never finished the novel, nor got very far with it. In 2006 I reused it as a draft journal for a short narrative class I took my spring semester of my senior year, and I found it fairly helpful. This journal remained more or less in statsis until this past December when I realized I needed a place to be able to write about my beginning work as a fan-scholar and craft historian.

And so, some history. I've been in and out of different fandoms since about 2000, mostly literature based (The Dark is Rising Sequence, Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes). Sometimes I write not great fic and play in some RPs. As an undergraduate I majored in Medieval/Renaissance Studies and minored in Philosophy, focusing specifically on medieval Christianity and Christian thought and Greek Philosophy. I graduated in 2006 I went to work for a Telecomm for 3 years doing Tech Support in Western New York.

While I was in college I rediscovered knitting and making things, something I'd largely given up on while in high school, and once I graduated and had some more disposible income I was able to indulge my obsession a little more. I also realized how interested I was in the history of knitting and how important handicrafts have been to people (especially women) throughout time, and realized I had finally discovered what I wanted to study in graduate school.

I started as a graduate student in UW-Madison's Design Studies program in Fall 2009, originally to study Victorian women's handicrafts and the history of textiles. Since then, my work has shifted slightly to incorporate my obsession with love of pop-culture and fandom and a newfound interest in material culture.

My master's work focuses on fan craft, craft objects made by fans. These include everything from Harry Potter scarves, Jayne hats, Doctor Who scarves, knit daleks, fetish boxes, altoid tin altars, tetris quilts, nintendo inspired bags, character plushies, and many many more. The goal of my research is to survey these objects both to create a record of their existence and to begin to link them to the larger maker-culture and DIY craft movement in order to show both the ubiquity and unique nature of fan culture and how it can exist within the same object.