In December I decided to take a mindful break from podcasting and social media. I would check in on Instagram now and then, but I had the app deleted from my phone and I didn’t spend very much time on youtube. I wasn’t feeling well physically (for very happy reasons which I will share on the podcast this weekend 😉 ) and I felt sapped of creative energy.
2021 was a year brimming with hand-making joy. I designed my first pattern, knit the sweater of my dreams, discovered needle felting, and connected with a community of kindred spirits within the fiber arts community. When it came to my crafting life I existed in a near constant state of summertime, but as the holidays approached I felt the winds beginning to change. In my quiet moments I was drawn to things other than my needles. For a couple of days I tried to resist the cooling weather. I’d turn on a video and tell myself to just “get 30 minutes of knitting in” so I’d make progress on a project. I tried casting-on something new. I pulled out my drop spindle. It was no use. I had been here before and I knew the signs. In what is usually prime knitting season for me (the holidays, cool and quiet January) I was entering my knitting-winter; a season of creative and hand making dormancy.
I think most of us have seasons like this in different areas of our lives. Times when we experience lulls in inspiration and creative desire. Times when all making “mojo” disappears. I had been in a rhythm of harvest for such a long stretch of time (in the form of inspiration, learning, and creation) that this facet of my spirit was feeling used up and in need of rest. In the past I would have worked through that feeling- misdiagnosing the cooling of motivation for discouragement or laziness. I am also familiar with those states of being but the remedies are very different. Working through this lull in my desire to create would have inevitably led to frustration, and ultimately stolen from other areas in my life where discipline was truly needed. For me, hand making is meant to be a place where I find rest and joy, not a place where for any kind of fretting. So I prescribed myself a rest. I put down my needles and forbade myself to pick them up until I felt a fresh springtime craving for making again. I did other things in the mean time which inadvertently filled me up with an abundance of excitement for knitting and all kinds of hand crafting.
The time without my needles made space for lots of reading, listening to audiobooks as I did housework, time with my family, and a return to a journal writing practice that I have been loving. I also avoided the distraction of social media. I had been wanting to take a longer break from instagram for some time, and this seemed like the moment. I checked on through the web-version periodically but mostly kept away. The quiet was wonderful.
Slowly the dormant roots of my hand making desire began to awaken, and I felt a pull toward a project that had been sitting for weeks. I stole away to knit a couple of rows, and the meandering cabled stitches enchanted me afresh. I took out my knitting basket and took everything our to organize it and sparks began to fly. I found the half finished sketch of a colorwork chart and a lovely little bouquet of minis from my dear friend Alexandra of November Woods Fiber Co. . Truly unable to resist, I splayed the yarn out in front of me and continued on sketching until I was satisfied and then I cast on. The first buds of springtime are peeking their heads out and I am enjoying the creative sunshine again. Still slow moving, I am savoring this return to my knitting practice. It is oh-so-sweet to be back again and I can’t wait to see what other projects await.
Merryweather Living 