James - and thoughts on being a beginner

Meet James. A lovely new pattern by Amy Miller. Well written with a beautiful simple shape that is sure to become an extremely well worn part of my wardrobe. James is knit in 5ply and I found a stunning 5ply called Blue Sky Metalico in Silver which has meant a lovely lovely result. The classic formula of simple classic shape and beautiful yarn and right sizing = true love!

Anyway I wanted to introduce my version of James in response to a lovely commenter on my "Mistakes are how you learn" post from the other week. Katisma said that she kinda thought that people who make how I make, don't have to deal with mistakes.

 The comment Katisma left on the other post was this

"Thank you! I think what you say is even more inspiring and strong in effect because it comes from one of those seemingly perfect professionals. Who we learners who may be new to doing crafts assume to get to goals without having to try out and naturally make mistakes, processes that don't work out at once."

Which is not true at all. Many mistakes are still made regularly. But it got me thinking some more about the nature of mistakes, how it changes as you learn to craft and how your expectations change, as does how you deal with mistakes. 

So James. I found him a bit of a pain to knit really. Not because of the pattern but because of me. This project has followed me round over the last few months of The Craft Sessions preparation. Simple enough to knit, with little concentration required once you get past the beginning. And that was the problem. I knit about 10cm of the yoke and ALL the short rows TWICE. Hours and hours of knitting because I kept making mistakes.

Now these days I know how to fix mistakes and most mistakes are fixable. I drop the stitch down to where the mistake is, pick it all up and then knit on. I knit quite quickly and so if I do have to rip something out I just rip it out and redo it. Which means that I don't see mistakes as that much of a big deal anymore. A little disappointing but generally not that heart breaking. This was not that kind of mistake. Both times I knit the yoke it was the kind of mistake that either fixing was not possible OR you would have been left with a big scar on the fabric. 

What this project did was humble me - again and again. Me and my cocky, I can fix mistakes attitude. It took me back to my feelings of frustration of being a beginner knitter. Both times I had spent hours and hours on the trickiest part and thought I had past it before realising the issue. It was demoralising. And I had forgotten quite what that felt like. It almost made me not want to start the jumper for the third time. And got me thinking about how it feels to be a beginner. 

I love the aline-ness of the pattern. 

So good for me and for the lovely commenter. Because it has prompted me to state the obvious and offer a few possibly helpful thoughts.

Mistakes are much harder to deal with when you are a beginner. 

And there is a few reasons for that. The main one is that you are not able to be confident that when you do it the second/third/fourth time that you will get the result that you want. It is a big leap of faith. It requires bravery and trust and stick-to-it-ness. And sometimes because there isn't the foundation knowledge yet embedded in your brain, you might not even be sure if you are making a mistake or not. The whole thing feels a bit uncertain. Again with the faith and the bravery.

The second thing is related to the first which is the barrier that is due to self doubt that comes up when you are learning. There is a tendancy to wonder if you have what it takes and to possibly think that other people have more natural ability. To this I would say that a lot of craft is simply about practice, like riding a bike, driving a car, cooking etc etc. Yes some people have a greater natural ability but with practice most people can do it really well.

Another big thing I think when you are beginning, is the time it takes to make something (because it takes a little longer) means that if you make a mistake it feels like you have wasted all of this time!!  But the learning what you get out of that is so very important, even if it doesn't feel that way at the time. You end up knowing (really knowing) that there is joy in the process, even for those of you that think you are more product crafters than process crafters. Because if there was no joy in the process you would just go and purchase a quilt/jumper/soft toy. Am I right or am I right??

So I wanted to offer some encouragement to all you beginners out there and say that it all does get easier, the learning and even the mistake making. You make them less often and when you do make them you often know what to do to fix them. The emotional energy required to crack on in the face of mistakes decreases with time and experience and practice.

I also wanted to say don't worry if you don't understand half of what the person in the craft shop is talking about when you are buying supplies for your latest great idea (thanks Jen and Martine for reminding me about this issue). Get in there and make. Craft involves incremental learning. Learning that isn't often visible or earth shattering. The "ahhh" moments when you think "I get that now" come semi-regularly when you are just starting out and they are oh-so satisfying. That feeling is fun and I encourage you to really enjoy it at the beginning. Later on you have it but it is less frequent and probably less important. 

And finally just in case you were thinking that having to knit the yoke three times wasn't really all that bad, let me tell you about what happened right at the end of the knitting. The sting in the tail so to speak. The final thing you needed to do in this pattern was to bind off the neckline loosely. I did it waaaay too loosely just in one weird bit. Which would be fine except that it is on the neckline, in the middle and off to one side, in the front. You may not have noticed in the pictures above but go back and have a look. It droops right in the part that people would look at on this super-simple-nothing-else-to-draw-their-attention jumper. Spare a thought for me as I had just finished a whole jumper in 5ply.... Anyway, so at this stage I am calling James finished even though he actually isn't. When I pull myself together emotionally I will get around to fixing it. It might take me a week or two. For the moment I am happy to wear it and trying to remember that noone will really notice the slightly more rolly neckline other than me, and now you. Shhhh! 

See the droop on the right hand side.

Notice the too rolly neckline.

Everyone makes mistakes.

Which takes me back full circle to "Mistakes are how you learn so embrace them". Something good for me to have felt again even if all I learnt was that I really need to concentrate while doing short rows and increases at the same time.....

BTW - James would be a great one for an adventurous beginner sweater knitter that is confident knitting, purling, increasing and decreasing and working with 5ply, but really wanted to practice their short rows. The lovely shaping in the neck of this pattern is due to many many short rows. 

Have a go. The result is worth it!

Felicia

Why all crafters need a visual diary

So I've started with a big statement - ALL crafters need a visual diary! And by visual diary I mean a notebook and pinterest and an inspiration board. Now before you switch off and say something along the lines of "visual diaries are for artists, not for me. I just do a little bit of crafting".....hear me out.

Once upon a time I was the kind of person who said "I'm not creative". I thought that I did a bit of sewing, but that wasn't really creative as I was just following a pattern. Really creative people made stuff up, from their minds, using their ideas and they were called artists. And artists needed visual diaries to record their thoughts. Right??

Now obviously time has moved on and over time I have been shown how terribly wrong I was. I now truly believe that everyone is born creative and sometimes life gets in the way and tells some of us they aren't. Because being creative just means we have ideas - and everyone has ideas right? 

I wrote a post last week about the importance of passion and how to recover your passion when you are feeling overwhelmed. A lovely knitter left a comment saying that "I find that passion is fuel for my creative fire. I try to kindle it whenever I can, even if it's not always the practical thing to do."

And I really think that is so so true. You need to follow your ideas when they arise as a way of playing and making crafting about the joy to keep the passion flowing.

But ideas are tricky things. They aren't always good or useful and the best one doesn't always naturally float to the top. So what does this have to do with visual diaries?? Put simply, a visual diary can help you organise your ideas.

I have a lot of ideas. My friends who are crafters also have a lot of ideas. Ideas about what they want to make and how they could make it and who they could make it for and what they will make it out of. And all these different ideas are swirling about, singing their own praises about what fabulous ideas they are and how you should make them rather than something else. Fine. You pick and idea. You go to the store. The store is full of a heap of pretty pretty things. All of which start singing with even more ideas. Yippee. Good for them, but not so good for you. Because you are trying to get started. You are trying to pick something. And what happens is that you pick up something pretty at the store and buy it. Because it is pretty. 

Herein lies the rub. I do this ALL THE TIME, and what I have found is that on the one hand it really is great. I am following the muse of the day - working with the passion. On the other hand it is ABSOLUTE RUBBISH. Terrible. Annoying. Time-wasting. I end up making random things based on the idea of the day or what was pretty. And I don't make the things that will make me the happiest in the medium or long term. 

A somewhat sad fact of life is that there aren't enough hours in this lifetime for me to make all the things I would like to. And when all my energy is spent following the little idea I have had on any given day (again following the passion - which is great!) there is a massive downside. I don't make the things that I really want to make. The things that would be super useful and give me pleasure every day. And a lot of this is to do with the fact that the ideas that mean the most to me, are the ones that involve the idea being fully developed, which needs some thought and time.

And then there are those slippery ideas that come, are loved and then run off and get forgotten. Or get lost in the sea of new ideas. Sometimes it is just plain difficult to be able to tell if they are any good. Or if they will stand the test of time. Sometimes ideas need to brew for a while to become the best idea they can.

A swatch on my inspiration board taht has been waiting for the perfect project.

Anyway so with all the crazy thoughts I had about creativity and artists then how did I come to have a visual diary. 

I am lucky enough to have a lovely friend called Anna. You may have heard me mention her before - because she is an artist who is super smart, very creative and is helping me with all this stuff (the ideas). I was talking about this idea I had for an embroidery and another one for a quilt. And I couldn't start them because I wasn't quite sure where to start. And Anna suggested that I start a visual diary (meaning that she lovingly harassed me into it). She said anytime I have an idea I should draw it, write it down, and see what happens. It seems obvious now but I wasn't doing it. She then suggested that when I found something I like the look of then I should try to develop it. Colour it, collage it, paint it, whatever. 

Now many of those words scared me initially and I was a little bit (very) resistant. Visual diaries are for artists remember? And she was a bit insistent and I did it. AND it has been life changing!! I have learnt so many lessons from going through this process.

I now understand that visual diaries in their many forms are simply a way for you to organise your ideas. Simply very clever.

Why you need a visual diary

1. Visual diaries help you identify and prioritise which idea to make

When all your ideas are in one spot you can organise and prioritise based on what you most want to make. Not the random shiny idea that came to you the night before because it is most fresh. You can choose to make things with forethought and planning.

I was very inspired the other day by Sophie's wardrobe planning. I love the idea of consciously planning what you need to make for your wardrobe. I'm not there yet - but I like it.

2. The visual diary allows your ideas to develop over time.

Ideas often become better ideas when they are a little bit organised. By writing things down, sketching them, and working on them as they appeal to you they have the chance to improve - not get lost in the sea of other ideas. Sometimes you get perspective and additional inspiration over time, and other times you decide they need to be tossed. Both valid options.

Using a visual diary was essential to how I made my quilt - something I made recently that I love more each day. I drew it, and then did another drawing of something slightly different, and then another, over weeks and weeks. And then I made a start based one of two designs. I was going to do a big circle in the middle and then randomly fill it in with random crosses. OR I was going to do a big circle in the middle and quilt the circle with rings. I put the quilt together, basted and then drew the circle onto the fabric. And then started quilting. And what came out was different again. It was simple lines of quilting horizontally about a half inch apart. And when I went back through the visual diary a few weeks later I found that there was about three different drawings of the quilt that I ended up making. It was a design that kept coming up over and over again. I don't remember drawing it but there it was.

What I ended up quilting.

There are also ideas in my book now that I really liked when I drew them, but that I don't like a few months later. Coming back to things after a while seems to be showing me what will stand the test of time.

3. Visual diaries provide clarity about what your brain really likes - which helps you make better things.

I love this part of it. By having a whole heap of inspiration and ideas in the one place I am able to see more clearly what I like.

What I like is often not visible to me. I think some people are really good at this. I'm not. I get distracted in a store by all the pretty things and buy things that look appealing however my attraction to them is often short lived. What I like and what I make/buy seem to be two different things sometimes. I have fabric in my cupboard that I look at and can't fathom why I purchased it. Not always but often enough to make it a problem. 

Pinterest is wonderful for this. As I pin things I like, I do it in an almost unconscious way. I pin clothes I love the look of, things that I think might work for me and things I would love to wear. However my wardrobe looks somewhat (very) different to my board. It seems the things I like are not what I buy. I get confused when purchasing or making and that is why Pinterest has been such a godsend. By pinning a board over time I can see what truly appeals to me. 

For example it turns out that I really like skirts with a stripe that changes direction in the body of the skirt. Who knew? Have a look at the board to see what I mean. There are many other things that appear too when you look at the board as a whole. I like similar shapes, colours and styles. My wardrobe doesn't currently look like this board but by observing over time what I truly like, I am shifting it. It is inspiring and exciting.

Another example of where Pinterest is helping me to decide what to make, is on my knit board - there are lots of boyfriend cardigans appearing that are long and a bit slouchy. There is also a few garments appearing using semi-solid yarn. I have the yarn swatch sitting on my pinboard and I have been looking for a pattern for a while to modify (as I am a little lazy and don't feel like making up the numbers). This cardigan idea has been a slow burn - but now the idea has set I can't wait to make it as I can see it will be exactly what I want. This is opposed to how I used to do it which is to knit the latest pretty pattern on Ravelry - which I have proven does not work for me (choosing a sweater pattern).

My cardigan swatch in beautiful Shilasdair DK. Colour is natural dyed with Hawthorn.

So to summarise this long and winding post, a visual diary will help you organise, prioritise, and develop your ideas. Over time it will help your ideas become the best versions of themselves. Personally I'm loving the clarity it is giving me about what I like, and over time I can see it providing more and more insight which will mean I make more and more things I love. How ace is that. It looks like all those artistic types were onto something.

So visual diaries - are you a fan, not a fan? What do you use them for? What do you get out of them? How do you use them? I would love to hear.... 
 

Felicia x

The importance of passion

At this time of year I find the lists start to overwhelm me. Lists of to-dos for life, lists of to-dos for the kids, lists of to-dos for Xmas and the lists of crafting that fit in to each of those categories. And I find what happens is that I freeze up and kinda stop making. My production (that is normally fairly ongoing because I stick to my lists) slows to almost nothing and I wander about the house and my sewing room a little aimlessly. It's almost as if I have nothing to do when in fact it is the complete opposite.

Hang on a sec - it has been an hot day here and I might grab a beer to keep me company....

OK. Better. So to illustrate my point, on my crafting list at the moment are 

Must dos

• Three pairs of kid shorts from Happy Homemade with the fake fly and pockets (as opposed to the 1hr plain ones)
• Three pairs of matching Xmas pyjamas
• Two frocks for my darling niece
• The birthday dress for my middle small. Her birthday is just two weeks before Xmas which always ups the ante.

Should be done

• A cardy needs to be finished for my SIL
• The almost finished wedding present for my very good friend who got married 2.5 years ago
• Mending etc etc etc.

Just for fun

• A dress for me
• Another scrap cardy for the small (who needs another cardy - not)
• Blah blah blah blah. This list goes on and on and on

Even reading the paragraph above makes me start to feel a little traumatised. Crafting suddenly becomes a chore due to the weight of "have tos" and "should really's" and the "want tos". What is funny about it is that I really want to do all those things. The only reason they are on the list is because I want to do them....and I even have time to get them all done by their deadlines. But not if I don't shake this thing I have going on - the not-doing-ness, the lack of inspiration, the overwhelm, the not knowing where to start. It is a disease.....

So what to do. The answer for me is one that I haven't consciously come up with. So it isn't my idea but it is what happens. Suddenly something snaps. Some 15yr old I-wanna-do-what-I-wanna-do angst comes flying out of my soul, I pick up some materials and decide to craft something completely random. Something that isn't on the list and hasn't even been pondered to this point. 

Case in point. In the last month there have been two.

Project 1:

A hat. What is so odd about that I hear you say? Nothing except that we are heading in to summer and I already have about 5 knitted hats. Today was 27 degrees - (about 80 for those of you who like your temperatures in F) - but this is what I threw in the bag on the way to camping. Random. Who wants to do a tubular cast on while bush camping with no access to the internet to remind her of how to do one - me apparently. What makes it worse is that I am not even sure that I like the colours...

Project 2:

Patchwork. Same deal as above - what is so odd about that? The biggest thing is a little bit tricky to admit - I don't really like doing patchwork (sssshhhhhh!). I really like it when other people do it, it can be just stunning! but I don't enjoy it myself. On the particular day in question I had many other hideously boring things to do like vacuum and make (another) (nutritious) dinner. I was feeling a little antsy so gave myself 25min to play. I had seen an instagram photo from the lovely Arounna from Bookhou the day before and felt inspired to do some linen patchwork. Random. And the thing is that once I started I couldn't stop. Or rather my 15 year old self didn't want to stop. I took the kids out to takeaway for dinner, didn't vacuum even though we had guests arriving and did my first ever log cabin. I have no idea what for....

But that is the thing about crafting and passion. When you have lost it, sometimes you need to do something random to get the juices going. For some people it might be walking away completely or doing a different-to-you craft, but for others it might just be to start something new. In my case giving myself the space to follow a couple of random ideas which weren't on the list meant that I felt a little bit of freedom. Free of the lists and the have and should and want tos. Free from the responsibilities of life which allowed me to just Craft. Y'know?? And that little bit of freedom seems to have been enough to get me back on the crafting horse. I cut out two pairs of kid shorts last night and they are already 1/3 sewn up.

Bring on the passion!

Anyone else out there a bit stuck? What do you do when you are feeling crafty list overwhelm or just a loss of your passion? I'd love some more ideas....

Felicia x

Mistakes are how you learn...

One of the things that was discussed a lot on the weekend was making mistakes. People's fear of them. How demoralising they were and how much tension trying not to make mistakes caused. How annoying it was to rip stuff out and how people didn't try things for fear of doing it wrong.

And I felt so chuffed we were talking about it. When I first was thinking of why I wanted to put this event together I wrote a list of things I wanted to say. I'm calling it our manifesto. And one of the main messages I wanted to get across is about mistakes.  

"Making mistakes is how you learn, so embrace them - they are also often very pretty." 

In my initial email to some of the teachers at The Craft Sessions I wrote the following 

"One of the big drivers behind this event is teaching people craft in a way that is not stuck on technique. Helping them to get over the idea of "doing it perfectly" or "doing it right" because I think this means that people are scared to have a go for fear of making mistakes."

I think that there is a tendancy out there in blog land to post pictures of the pretty things people have made - which is great, because I love a pretty picture - but when we surf the web looking for inspiration I sometimes feel like we look at other people and only see their sucesses. We don't see all the little errors that make the thing handmade because they aren't being pointed out to us. It leads to comparison and also the idea that there are craftspeople who make beautiful mistake free work. Which they don't.  They just don't necessarily post pretty pictures of their mistakes.  And the idea goes a bit further - that we learners or non-perfectionists or crafty dabblers are not capable of making such beautiful things. Again there is the idea that the person must be "so talented". But instead I think that we just aren't seeing the whole process. It is just a snapshot of pretty without context. 

See that distortion in the top rows of colourwork. Again me ignoring rules I already know. Knit your colourwork as loosely as you can. Loose! Otherwise your work will distort. By the time I realised how bad it was I was too lazy to rip it out. The lovely Martine told me that she likes that row as it looks like old school Atari or Pacman. Not sure how I feel about this. But I left it in. And I learnt. Loose!

Maybe to make the pretty thing on their blog they have thrown four muslins in the bin. Maybe they didn't take a photo of the pants that they threw into the bin when the shape was soo super bad they were unwearable, and instead took a photo of the successful pretty pants (this was me!). Maybe they can't show a photo of the three times they knitted the same neckline of that perfect sweater in order to make it work (again me!).

Everyone makes mistakes. Embrace them. You learn stuff.  

One of the reasons I have loved and followed Elsie Marley's blog for so many years is due to this post with pretty pants. You see the pretty pants, you scroll down and then she shows you the waistband. So encouraging. I love that she didn't unpick it. She just said "play on!"

There should be more of it - and by that I mean more visibility of the process and the disasters. 

Everyone is different in how they approach their craft and how they learn. Some like to play by the rules and some don't. Some want a perfect outcome and some don't. Sometimes it's about the context - the craft needs to be more perfect than other times - for example a wedding present rather than a pair of kid pyjamas. And I think that some people are more about the end product than about the process which means that mistakes often just feel like setbacks, which effects their willingness to make them. 

The lovely hatching on the linen runs vertically and horizontally, which beautifully shows just how distorted my stitching has made the linen. Would get you a better photo but it is late. You can see it in the top two rows of stitching that are in focus. It is much worse in the middle of the quilt.

For me personally - in order to really "learn" something I need to test it out myself. I know  that you need to start in the middle when quilting and quilt to the edge. I know that when you don't do that the fabric distorts and you get a lumpy quilt. And yet, when it came to the making of the pretty quilt in the picture I still tried to see if I could outsmart the rules. Like they don't apply to me ( I truly was such a fun teenager!?!). My thought process goes along the lines of "so if I try really really hard to make it straight then it will be straight". Yep - see I proved to myself beyond a doubt that "you can't outsmart the linen". The linen distorts and then kicks you again by showing the distortion. But I tried and tried again. Three different ways in a single quilt and each time resulted in a mistake that I decided I could live with. One of the lovely participants at the weekend looked at my quilt after hearing all about the mistakes and said "but surely you could just unpick that". My reply "I could but I am a really really lazy crafter and I can live with the mistake". I learnt something from making it. I like that the mistake is there as it reminds me, and will remind me for years to come that "you can't outsmart the linen". (....and possibly that I should pay some attention to the rules some of the time?)

And I found a better photo. Look at the hatching wander back and forward across the quilt.

I really truly believe that the best way to learn is to get stuck in. To try, sometimes succeed and sometimes fail. To rip out the mistakes you can't live with AND to live with the mistakes you can. Making mistakes means that you learn about structure, process, what you like and what you don't and where your tolerances are. Looking back on the mistakes you have left in reminds you later of the journey and how much you have learnt.

To prove the point I've posted a couple of my latest "mistakes" above. And before you kind women say anything, yes, I know they are still pretty. That is my point! Mistakes are part of the process - the part where we learn things about our craft and about ourselves. And they are often pretty. How super is that!

What do you think? Mistakes - love them or hate them? 

Felicia x