What a time to be alive! What a time to launch into something new! What an exciting new precipisse! So say the astrologers and cosmonauts…

While there have been many personal changes over the last two years, the short of it is:
I’m teaching now, and so have strictly carved out time for creating and strictly carved out time for the gremlins. 

Feels great spending frivolously on supplies again for projects ad infinitum, but alas, my energy levels doth protest.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

The biggest challenge this side of 2023 has been trying to take a stratospheric view of everything and deciding how exactly to parse out my energy bucks equally. I’m finding that even on those days off that I was hoping to attack with vigour, my energy is loooow. It’s frustrating, but I’ve come to accept it. My stubborn solution to this conundrum has been to take up knitting, the perfect meditative filler for when I feel like a slug and a great way to both recoup my calm and be quietly productive.

Now, it has only been since January that I launched into knitting, but I am already on my third project. The first was a mock-neck raglan sweater that my boyfriend accidentally shrunk into oblivion. The second, a very luxurious in-progress cardigan made of baby merino and silk mohair, which is proving to be a great time-consumer (and will be guarded fiercely from the communal laundry basket). And finally, a charming little baby alpaca sweater vest that I am so very close to finishing. Of course I need one more skein and it is no longer available at BHV, so must be ordered online…

Basically, I have fallen in love with knitting. It’s hypnotic and consuming, in the best way possible. I’ve wanted to get into it for years, but always had this idea that it was somehow impossible. Around December, I resolved to give it a focused try, with the goal of knitting a sweater or two, then if the results were good, onwards!

Currently, I’m taking a little pause with sewing simply because I’m struggling with having the energy to set it up and take it all down everyday. I just don’t have the same drive as the last year and a half. Twenty-twenty-one was a very focused time of sewing (honestly it has been ever since I bought my machine summer before), so I think a little hiatus is alright. I’m seeing so many new projects in my head that combine both skillsets of sewing and knitting, so I don’t feel that there’s any loss here, only a whole lot of potentials opening up. 

Laser-Focused Something

I did have a thought the other day, inspired by one of my work colleagues who is also knitting up a storm; to basically create a project journal, something that includes sketches, swatches, details on composition. Something that might look like this:

Seems like a good idea to catalogue projects as they are in-planning / progress and completion.

I admit to having a little problem with unfinished projects piling up, so I wonder if this will help keep me focused on finishing them. Strangely enough, this seems to be much worse with sewing that with knitting. That initial dopamine hit that comes with pattern cutting seems to dip once I get to assembly (which can be quite finicky sometimes). I don’t really get the same ups and downs with knitting… JUST A STEADY HIGH WEHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOoUUuuuuuu… Just kidding, it seems a lot more mellow for me, for some reason… 

So there you have it. Next stop: a schedule for creating. Better yet, a goal.