Passing Creativity On...

Yes... I did break down and buy some new wool in Geneva!

I took today “off” from teaching since Erin’s exam had been rescheduled to this morning after Friday’s snowstorm.  It was great to be in my own home, download photos and finally get to show off the results of knitting in airports.

Here are the socks I’d been meaning to finish for ages.  Getting stuck for ages in airports is a wonderful incentive, great conversation starter and even had one “lapsed knitter” thinking about checking out some of the new yarns...

I also found the circular needles for this project easy to pack.  Here is a peek at the last of several baby blankets I’ve been working  on for staff members at schools I work in who are expecting babies soon.  It is basically just a larger version of my favourite dishcloth patterns but using baby yarn instead.  It was great to work on when the kids were watching a video or while I was talking to people.

When we see someone being Creative, it can inspire us to try something ourselves.  This is how so many people learned crafts and other creative trades over the years, by watching someone else practice in front of them.

I bought a craft book about sewing for Bethany as a Christmas present that has fascinated her for weeks.  While I was away, she started one of the projects with her grandmother, but yesterday showed me a picture of some felt hearts and asked if I could help her make one.

Ah the memories!  My mom had a huge stash of felt and used to let us play with the scraps to sew into all kinds of shapes.  I took Bethany down to my felt stash and we pulled out a few colours that she liked and cut out the shapes together.  Step by step, I walked her through things as I knit beside her on the couch.  As I showed her how to do the blanket stitch about the outside edge, I had a sudden flashback to my own childhood and all of the times my mother or grandmother had shown me how to do something.

Here’s to those who help to pass Creativity on!

INHALE: The wonderful thing about the Internet is that you can find all kinds of helpful clips out there on YouTube or other websites to help you learn how to do something, but there is still something unique about sitting down with another person, especially someone more skilled in an area that you want to improve in, and learning from them.  Being shown how to do something is a very powerful way of learning that stays with us in a different way from book knowledge.  To “learn by doing” makes a skill or Creative act your own.

EXHALE: There are many skills that are becoming “lost arts” these days.  So many children don’t know how to sew a button on when it falls off clothing, sand or carve a piece of wood into a shape, cook a meal from scratch, knit, nail, crochet, saw, fix or sew.  What used to be learned from family or through earning badges is being replaced by gaming and computer skills.  There needs to be room for both in our lives.  What skills do you have, what Creative passions can you share with someone from a younger generation?  If you don’t have anyone to share with right now, think back to some of the earliest crafts you enjoyed and revisit them.  Get out some felt or popsicle sticks and just see what you can put together as you rediscover that sense of Creative Play from your childhood.