Today is the day! The retreat starts at 2pm and we can't wait to meet you all.
Follow us on instagram and Facebook. We will be using the hastag #thecraftsessions.
See you back here on Tuesday with some pictures.
Felicia x
In an atmosphere of growth.
A camping project we set the kids up with one afternoon. She is making a turtle. She was totally in the zone.
The best source of books we found while travelling was in secondhand bookshops in capital cities. It makes sense – they are places where there are lots of English speaking travellers. A couple of weeks ago while perusing what was on offer, I stumbled across The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. It was published in 2009 and the jist of it is that Gretchen spent a year testing out different theories around how to be happier. Pretty early on in the book she comes up with what she calls her First Splendid Truth.
“To be happier, you have to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.”
That last bit struck me as a really interesting part of why I (and you?) make and create. It’s the learning. The nutting stuff out. The not-understanding that then becomes understanding. Such an all-consuming, sometimes frustrating and ultimately joyful process.
A lot of the craft that I’ve done while I was away was craft as comfort. Easy, thoughtless, habit based craft. It’s kept me company and helped me stay calm through the chaos, and lately, the queues that have been part of many of our every days.
But the craft that really made my heart sing was the colourwork jumper. I made mistake after mistake (I’ll show you some of them another day in a post about colourwork) and the finished product is far from perfect. But I learnt things about colourwork technique (which at the start I didn’t know anything about) and about combining colours. The exciting part was not that I achieved perfection (I didn’t) but that I worked it out. As my friend Anna’s friend Gina would say – It was the piece you need to make, so that you can make the piece you really want to make.
Something else I heard in a podcast this week was that "clarity comes from engagement not thought". Such a useful idea. I often spend way too long thinking about projects rather than getting starting. While project planning is really important, it was a great reminder that I can’t always learn what I need to learn, to make what I want to make, just by thinking about a project. I often have to make to learn, and through the making the idea takes shape. There is something about the physical process of working with your hands to make an object from materials, that clarifies an idea in a way that just thinking about it can’t. Even if that means that the thing I really want to make is still one more project away. Practicing in the gap has taken me a step closer.
Growth requires focus and in the focus we find the joy.
Felicia x
PS. There are only three days to go!!
On my way home.
So I'm finally heading home and I wanted to thank you all for being so patient and sticking with me through the stop-and-go-ness that has been life over the last five months. I did miss the odd email (so very sorry!) and sometimes I took a few days longer than was totally acceptable to reply to emails and comments. But for the most part The Craft Sessions is coming out the other side unscathed, with an amazing event that is just about to happen. Eleven days to go!.
When our big potential life change was shaping up last November we had a few stressful chats about whether I was going to be able to plan the event while we did what we had been talking about doing for many many years - travel! In a way it felt incredibly selfish to want to work in the face of our family having time and space for the first time in a long time. But as I was just coming off the joy of our first retreat last October, I couldn't really see cancellation as an option. With the very kind support of my family, I made a choice to take a chance and try to do it in spite of the circumstances. And although I have had to struggle with my nature a little (which sometimes involved chanting "perfect is the enemy of good" like a crazy person) I am so glad I made the choice I did. This year's retreat is shaping up to be amazing. Registration went wonderfully and everyone seems so excited - which is just a total joy fest for me!
Sicily
As so many of you have kindly commented on our trip I thought I'd fill you in on how it went. After we left Australia in April, we travelled from the UK to Denmark by ferry before driving down through Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece. We then took a ferry to Italy and spent a few weeks there before driving quickly back through Switzerland and France two weeks ago. And I'm sitting here about to get on a plane to come home, not knowing how to tell you what it was.
We didn't take a guide book and we didn't have any plans, which felt incredibly luxurious after years of work and schedules. We travelled slow, much slower than we thought we would, mainly in response to the kids. Many mornings we awoke not knowing where we were staying that evening. We ate simply and locally. We ate a lot of gelato, and it became more of an "everyday" food than a "sometimes" food. Our car Rex and our tent Starlight, truly became our home, with well established systems. Rexy had her windows smashed twice, and we broke down just once (in beautiful Bosnia). We walked and walked and walked and climbed many many stairs. We saw so much everyday beauty.
Rome
And then we saw showstopping, breathtaking beauty over and over again in places we had never heard of.
Croatia
We skimmed many stones and swam many places. We got used to looking super weird with our rashies and hats among the almost nude Europeans.…. and well I feel like I could go on and on.
We saw over and over again that most people are doing their best to have a happy life. And that most people are good. I feel totally chuffed that my kids really got this.
They became champion walkers!
I met this lovely woman a few weeks before we left who said to me "Wow - that will totally change you as a family!" and I do believe that is true. It feels like we have had a reset. We have had time to talk about the stuff that we normally only discuss on road trips. About our values, about what we want for our family, about where we are failing and about how we can change, about what makes us feel the joy. So so good.
Anyway this post was me simply trying to say a big thank you for your patience with all that was. It was truly appreciated.
Felicia x
PS. THANKS to each and every one of you who commented on my last post (with the swearing!) It really did make me laugh and cringe. Which I so needed.
PPS. UPDATE - I've woken up realising that in my late night going-through-pictures rosy-eyed view I forgot to talk about the hard. And the meltdowns. There were so many meltdowns…. me included! ;)
The post with some swearing.
Alrighty then. So this isn't what I was going to post about AND I don't want to actually say it out loud, but it was suggested to me (by my friend Tiger) that maybe if I blog about it I might feel better. I'm sorry to say that I can't see how that would be possible but I am going to give it a go.
I bl*&dy well just totally bl$#dy f*&king well felted my favourite ever knit. Just now!!
I spoke about James here but you don't even need to go to that post to see just how perfect she was. She was the perfect sweater. I wore her all the time. All the time! I loved her and I am sad.
And just a tad angry with myself. An experienced knitter and handwasher and I f#$king felted her. FELTED!!!
Perfect fit and she was made from Blue Sky Metalico which is the most beautiful naturally shaded Alpaca Silk blend.
Perfect amount of flare.
I know all of you lovely knitters must have done it at some stage in your knitting life. So I'm putting the call out - can you please tell me some felting stories to ease my pain…. Make them painful. Make them funny. I don't mind….
yours in solidarity and pain.
Felicia x
Making as a habit
Taking photos as a habit.
I often get asked how I make so many things….. “especially with the three kids and the travel – I don’t know how you do it?” A while ago I wrote a blog post that describes many of the ways I fit in crafting time. But last week I read something that made me think that that blog post had missed something rather important. Yes - all those ways to fit in craft are totally true. For example I do craft on-the-go and make sure I have things dotted around the house. But I think there is a better way to sum up my productivity and that is – I have made craft a habit.
This year I have been trying to start running again. Since having my third kid (many years ago!) I haven't been exercising regularly and I really want to fix it. I try in spits and spurts but nothing really sticks. Then this week I came across this article in an old magazine about this idea called #runstreak. With #runstreak you commit to running a mile a day, every day, for as long as the streak lasts (some people do a year, some a month etc). No days off. Part of the idea is that by making a commitment to do the streak, you turn off the internal “should I, shouldn’t I, maybe today I will, or I won’t” rubbish that goes on when you have days off, and over time running becomes a habit. Now I know this internal dialogue is a barrier for me – I find excuses and make it hard when it doesn’t need to be. It is as simple as a. put on sneakers then b. walk out door.
I got to thinking that while at the moment running isn’t a habit, making and crafting totally is. I always pick some craft up on the way out the door along with my keys, wallet, mobile and camera. I pick up some craft when I have my mid-morning coffee or am watching a movie, or when I have completed a good run of housework. I always knit at school pickup, while the kid is at violin, while I am a passenger in the car. I always try to sew a few seams while they are in the bath.
Making habitually is littered throughout my life. Almost like breathing. I just do it, without thought. It really is just part of my everyday.
That is not to say that everything I make is like this. Obviously some things require thought and planning, time and space, but I always have projects underway that can be done without thought. Which is how the majority of my making happens.
Taking photos for me is now also the same; habitual. The camera is often in my hand as we travel, and I do it almost without thinking. Sometimes I consciously put it away in order to make sure I don’t take photos and am able to just be. And it is the same with my craft. If I want to be sure I don't pick it up then I need to put it away as the habit is so ingrained.
One of those times when the camera was put away on purpose. This photo was all I took when walking from Vernazza to Corniglia in the Cinque Terre.
I cast on the cowl in the photos for this exact purpose – to have something to make habitually. At the time everything else I was working on required thought. The cardigan was also made in the same way. Easy knitting to be done with my fingers and not with my head.
Suggestions for how to make crafting a habit.
1. Start small
One of the articles I found while reading about #runstreak gave 29 ways to successfully ingrain a new habit. The jist of the article was that habits are hard to change and so you need to start small and only try to change one thing at a time. Start with just 5 minutes a day of your new activity. The idea is that the new habit would slowly become like having a shower or brushing your teeth.
2. Choose a trigger activity
Another suggestion from the article (when adapted to crafting rather than running) was that you should choose one thing that you want to be a trigger – tv, cartrips, school pickup. Just try to have a project ready for that activity each time you do it.
You will be surprised what you achieve by doing a single stitch here and there.
Is your crafting habitual or do you try to carve out crafting time? For many of you I am guessing that like me it is both?
Felicia x
