In addition to my job as a Mountie, I’ve decided to embark on a couple of side projects. We all know that government jobs don’t pay so well.

Side project #1: Teaching legal writing. I’ve been doing this with my partner, KRGP, for some public defenders in the state, but we’re considering extending the practice into a side consulting business for other lawyers (hopefully the ones with a little extra cash).

Side project #2: Writing a knitting book. My partner in crime and I are starting to get the ball (of yarn) rolling over at Fiber Smarts. The idea is that we’ll use our status as rhetoric professors as part of the gimmick. We’ll be the Knitty Professors, offering insights and occasional historical/literary illusions. More importantly, I plan to translate my experience as a technical writer into knitting patterns you can actually understand, since many of them have obviously not undergone user testing. The knitted items themselves will be as intuitive and user-friendly as possible, too. For instance, any color pattern will make sense and will allow you to know what you need to do by looking at your work rather than consulting the written pattern continually.

Anyway, I’m wondering if these side projects are really a good idea? Do any other academics out there have side project or opinions on them? I’m of course not going to let them distract me from my main job but it does seem like fun to work on something else for a change.