Freedom to Create

Nothing, and I mean nothing, is ever exactly as you envision it – ever.  Sometimes it is better.
            ~Natalie Chanin, of Alabama Chanin, writing in EcoSalon.com

It's all in how the colors are arranged..... As Mary said, the top one looks like clown barf and the bottom one looks great.

Six women participated in the 3-day Design Your Own Fair Isle workshop last weekend. My workshops are just that: not a time of passive accummulation of knowledge, but a chance to plunge in and create. The 3-day workshop takes the design process from germ-of-an-idea to defined-goal-and-a-swatch. Doesn't sound like much when I put it like that, but it's a real challenge for most people.

Including me. 

I don't think there's any substitute for persistence. Sure, the inspiration is important—the heart, the love, the enthusiasm. The joy.

But these rarely get us through the hours of creation. Somehow the idea has taken hold that creation is the moment of inspiration, that the follow-through is sort of an after-thought, something to be farmed out to someone else. Less important. The "craft" side of the "art." 

I'm as guilty as anyone—I love the playing with colors, the swatching, the sketching. I tend to fall flat on the completed garment side of the equation. Witness the baskets of half-finished sweaters lining my windowseat.

So what do we need to get the project done?

• A strong vision of the completed project.
• A desire to see it completed.
• A commitment to learning the skills to complete the project.
• Awareness of the mental demons that attempt to derail anything that involves effort and a loud inner voice to counteract those messages.
• Systems to support the project—for me, I have my mini-journals that allow me to return to projects when life has forced me to step away for awhile and I have my baskets to organize the projects. 
• Probably some other qualities that don't come to mind immediately..... Feel free to chime in!

Please notice that money, and time, and innate ability don't appear in this list.

Shadow, on the other hand, is totally uninterested in such discussions. Here he models the art of relaxation. 

 

 

Comments

[Deb]

I will be printing off your list, making it large, and hanging it in my creative space. Having taken your class, I know how easy it is to come away exhausted but pumped with enthusiasm - only to end up in the bog a given amount of time later - and the difficulty of pulling one's self out. Refer to the physics concept of "entropy" now gently applied to mental processes. The only thing I would add to the list is a "personal" sense of humor - the ability to laugh with one's self as well as treat the foibles with gentleness and compassion. THANKS for the reminders!

[Pamela]

I like the colors in the first picture; they have a polka-dotty look that is lively and fun. But I just Love how they look put together in the more rainbow, or ombre way. I respond very well to colors when they are arranged that way, each one next to its color wheel neighbor. I think it has something to do with the possibilities. I find that I prefer yarn stores that display their yarns that way, also.
I guess I'll have to take the Fair Isle plunge sometime soon!

[Francesca]

Just got home after my twelve-day trip and I am itching to get back to swatching with my beautiful shetland colors. I had hoped to make progress while on the road, but it turned out impossible.
I enjoyed your workshop and the other knitters in it very much. Thank you again for the great time and inspiration. :)