Making Time for Making

I like long, slow projects. They help me refresh my energy and creativity and help me just "make it" through the day. I've been thinking about it a lot as I reach the end of my Chasing Butterflies Shawl.

Some long projects have repetitive elements that people may consider downright tedious. Other projects are more playful and experimental in nature. Both can boost your spirits in different ways.

Settling into a meditative rhythm

The Chasing Butterflies Shawl is not a project for the faint of heart. I did the math and the larger version of the shawl has 246 rows, a total of 36,599 stitches, plus the edging. If you knit 22 sts per minute the main shawl takes just over 28 hours to knit. Let's just round up to 30 hours to include the edging and active blocking time.

Knitting repetitive stitch patterns, like the ones used in this shawl, give me an opportunity to unplug both my electronic devices and my overactive brain. It's like a sort of meditation. After a few stitches my breathing calms and my attention is focused on the mantra of the row... 1, 2, 3, slip-knit-pass... 1, 2, 3, knit-2-together... 1, 2, 3, yo, 1, 2, 3, yo...

I'm no longer thinking about the dishes on the counter, the weeds in my garden, the appointment I need to schedule, or the other 100 things that I'm stressed and worried about. I'm only thinking about the yarn running through my fingers and stitches clickety-clacking along my needles and it feels good.

Playful problem solving

Making creativity a daily habit can be hard, especially when you're going through the doldrums. Over the summer I was in a bit of a knitting slump and couldn't get excited about picking up my needles. Then I said yes to a convergence of events. A local friend asked if I would like to learn how to work with raw fleece and an online friend asked if I could/would make her something like my L'il Chilly Dog.

First, I learned how to scour fleece. I hope it will eventually lead me to a full sheep-to-sweater project. In the meantime, I practiced my scouring prowess in small scale on some samples. Then I set to work needle felting a little owl with the newly scoured wool combined with wool from my stash.

Of course there were problems along the way. The shaping wasn't easy, I didn't know what to use for the eyes and my first attempt at feet was a fail. By working on it a little each day I was able to overcome each obstacle and building my creative confidence along the way.

Like with the shawl, I was able to settle into a nice rhythm of making. Working with a familiar medium in a new way also gave me the mental space to get the creative juices flowing again. By the end of the project I had a list of ideas that I wanted to get on the needles.

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