Freaking Non-Knitters Out...

Yesterday’s Inhale and Exhale wouldn’t post properly, so I will try to add them in a post edit. There are days when it won’t let me make the icons as small as usual as well, so I am learning to go with the flow and tame my inner perfectionist.

I also posted about the two scarves that I’ve been working on since acquiring new wool in Toronto.  If I hadn’t been teaching classes there and staying up so late at night, but the weather is getting cold since my return home as well, so the urge to knit new things for my neck is just too strong to ignore.

When I worked on this one in the staff room at lunch yesterday, I had several people come over to feel the combination of the two yarns put together.  I also had a few teachers ask me how many things I knit in a year.  This might be because I’ve already knit 3 baby blankets for half of the staff that is pregnant and they’ve also seen me working on my socks. I don’t think I’ve ever kept track of the number of projects I knit in a year.

I also took out the scarf during Guided Study period.  This is a half an hour period for enrichment, extra help or catching up on homework that changes every 5 or 6 weeks as the marks are handed in by teachers and students who are struggling or excelling are identified.  I’d planned to read a bit since every student who doesn’t have work to do is encouraged to bring a book, but I realized that I couldn’t keep an eye on the entire class that way. Hence the knitting.  I knit by feel.  I’ve always been able to handle basic knitting stitches (anything short of cables and patterns with lots of counting) without looking since University when I would knit and study or knit and watch TV.  This has come in handy when I’ve had to divide movies into which ones I need to watch (knit) and which ones I can listen to while glancing up now and then (stitch).  It also keeps me from being a nagging passenger on long car trips and I can knit in the dark if I have to talk to Nick to keep him awake at the end of a long journey.  It is also really good for freaking high school kids out.

I began to knit while the kids were working on their projects.  Every now, one of the teenagers would glance up and find me watching them while my hands knit.  Whispers began, nudges as I continued to glance around the room surveying them.  Finally, one brave girl put up her hand and spoke. “Excuse me, miss, are you doing that without looking down at it?”  I just grinned and nodded.

Who says knitting is boring!

Even when you are fairly well practiced at a skill, you can also continue to learn and be inspired.  While I was up in Toronto, I found this wool for Bethany that brings a  hint of orange into the blue, white and pink mix.  The soft colours will be perfect for her and they also tied in nicely with my “use more of the colour you like the least” challenge.  By now, I am actually growing a little fond of orange.

While I was in Toronto, Jocelyne was knitting a cool scarf pattern before one of the classes.  When I commented on the pattern, she showed me how it was a  short pattern that you repeated on EVERY row until you either ran out of wool or got sick of knitting the scarf.   You can find it on Yarn Harlot’s website here .  This is what mine is starting to look like:

Go ahead... practice being Creative in public and see what happens!

INHALE:  Being Creative in new ways or learning a new variation of a skill we already posses can bring a deep enjoyment into our lives along with an excitement that keeps us hooked.  When things become routine and predictable, they can also become boring.  I don’t ever want what I create to bore me. If it does, then it’s time to find something new to try.

EXHALE:  Which hobby, craft or skill do you feel most confident in?  It may be one that you have practiced for a long time or one in which you developed a sense of mastery quickly.  In order to keep this well-practiced skill from growing stale, try one of the following.  Try starting something that you have never attempted before (a new style of pattern, a new stitch, a different technique).  Visit a craft store, website or guild meeting where you could learn from someone else who practices this skill and get inspired.  Look through books and dare to try something you think might be too hard for you.  When we push ourselves, we can grow.  Or, find something new that absolutely delights you, as I did with this scarf pattern and savour the new experience.

Tiny Steps, Tiny Tastes... One Little Strand.

In all the preparation and chaos of getting ready for the CreativFestival in Toronto next week, I found it MUCH harder to catch my breath and take time to play.

I wanted to find a way to blend the colours that I love with one that I am not so fond of... and since there were piles of floss spread about the house as I prepared kits for classes I teach next week, I decided to fall back on an old favourite pastime.

I first started making Friendship Bracelets as a teenager because it gave my hands something to do while I was watching TV shows like the Hardy Boys, Buck Rogers, Love Boat or Battlestar Galactica (am I dating myself yet?).  The bracelets were fun and quick to make as I pinned one end to my jeans and then knotted in various patterns almost by feel.

For those of you who have never tried this craft, your can find basic instructions on the DMC web site and also on a variety of sites like this one.  As I roamed around the Web looking for the patterns I remember doing as a teen, I came across the ULTIMATE site for bracelet creativity. OMG!  Oh to have known about a site like this as a teen when I had a LOT more time on my hands... but that was back when we got excited about a computer called the Commodore 64.  Right... there was no Internet back then!

So I picked out a group of my favourite blues and then one sample of orange.  I cut 2 meter/yard long strand of each blue and then one strand of the orange, knotting them all together to start turning them into a band like this.

Oddly enough, I actually LOVE how the orange sings and causes the blues to look more intense. Hmmm.  Maybe I really do like this colour!

As for the incredible web site I found,  I will probably be tempted to try a few of the really complicated patterns on this site just to see if I’ve still got what it takes... but AFTER Toronto!!

INHALE:  Sometimes, the best way to get used to something is in small doses.  Erin had to have a vaccine at school this week, our province is promoting both flu vaccinations and I am learning to be creative with a colour I always thought I hated.  Small doses, like ONE strand vs. 8 of a colour I adore, was a great way to ease into something.  It’s like sticking your toe into the water rather than doing a cannonball.  It’s like trying a tiny taste of a new food.  You never know... it just might become your new favourite.

EXHALE:  If you’ve never made a friendship bracelet, go to a craft store or a needlework store and pick up some embroidery floss.  Pick out FOUR colours that you really like and ONE that you think you don’t.  Braid them, twist them or learn from the sites above how to knot a really cool band for your wrist or even as a bookmark.  It will be fun and it will keep your hands from snacking when you watch TV at night!

Learning to Wait, Sharing the Joy and Encouraging the Dance.

When I started this journey, I thought I would be the one mapping out the topics and that Life would just fall into place.  I imagined that I would be the one imposing my new Creative order on the world around me.

Go ahead and laugh!

I am now discovering that Life offers me topics to muse about all the time, sometimes so many of them in a single day that I am torn between which one to focus on first.

The van had to go in for servicing today and since I’d booked the day off, we agreed that I would take it down to our Toyota dealership.  Once the girls got on the bus, I drove down and told them that I would WAIT while the 32,000 km servicing was being done.  Stitching in hand, I headed for the large, comfy couches in the waiting area then settled in to get some work done.  It was amazing to see how many people came over to see what I was working on!  Knitters and quilters, stitchers or people who knew someone who crafted struck up conversations about what I was working on.  This gave me the perfect opportunity to ask some of them what crafts they enjoyed, creating a cascade of stories about fabric stashes, the feel of yarn in your hands, hiding places for craft supplies and the number of stitches per inch in a quilt.  These conversations just confirmed my philosophy that Creativity lies within us all and that sharing that Joy binds us all together as human beings.

The time flew by and I got lots of stitching done.  I plan to volunteer to take the van down again... those are great, comfy seats to stitch in!

Bethany also headed off to her first Middle school dance tonight, full of enthusiasm and excitement.  My two girls are so different.  Erin hated going to dances but Bethany just loved dancing to the music tonight.  She pointed out that it isn’t so much about who is the best dancer, but who is able to just let go and have fun.  She’s absolutely right!  It isn’t always about how much talent we have, but how well we are willing to give ourselves over to the moment and the act of being Creative, whatever it may be.

It also makes long waits infinitely more bearable...

INHALE:  Most of us have very little patience for waiting.  We grumble when we have to wait in lines, children wiggle and whine when the service at a restaurant is slow, some honk at people in front of them who do not move quickly enough etc.  Today, I discovered that waiting can actually be very peaceful and productive.  Dozens of other people were dropping off their vehicles and complaining that the shuttles weren’t running often enough to get them to work.  Each time a harried driver appeared to ask who was waiting for a ride, eight or nine people surged forward.  I sat there, stitching contentedly for an hour and a half until the van was ready. Having something creative to do instead of reading a magazine or glancing at my watch made the time fly by instead of drag.

EXHALE:  Go through your favourite craft stashes. See if there are any tiny projects that could travel with you the next time you have to go to a meeting, to the doctor’s office or anywhere you might have to wait.  Ziplock freezer bags are sturdy enough to keep your projects safe and even let you label them on the outside. Many crafters are already experts at taking stuff with them.  I’ve seen them knitting and stitching in airports and hospital waiting rooms.  But taking the time to sort and prepare means that creativity will be at your fingertips the next time you need something to make the waiting a joy instead of an annoyance.