Today I’m going to be writing a bit about something I’ve been both experiencing and thinking about over the past few weeks. The title kind of gives it away, but it starts with me lacking some motivation to craft. When I first started knitting and then for the past few years, I’ve done nothing but knit. Okay, slight exaggeration, let me refine that statement. Any free moment I had, I was knitting (#IfImSittingImKnitting). Can you relate?
I couldn’t control it! Any moment that I wasn’t knitting, I felt like I was wasting time. I hated sitting somewhere and not knitting. I couldn’t watch tv if I didn’t have my knitting. I realize this is partially crazy, so ya know, there’s that, but here the rest of this out. In recent months, a lot of that has changed. I can blame it on having my Etsy shop, which took away a lot of my free time, but you would think that would make this feeling stronger! Instead, I find myself okay with not knitting. I can go a day or two without knitting and not even care.
I’m probably in a good medium place now where I can enjoy my knitting when I have it and also enjoy time when I’m not knitting too. But I also can’t help but think that maybe I’m not as motivated to knit as I once was. So here’s what I decided to do. I changed it up.
I started spinning. Daily. I almost completed a braid that I have had on my wheel for years. Every day after work, I would spend 30 minutes or so listening to an audiobook and spinning. I loved it. I was back to my old self of spending my day thinking about when I would finally get to spin. Full crazy level achieved.
I started crocheting. I have to say, the addiction wasn’t completely there, but I certainly enjoyed a new craft. I crocheted up a scarf (check back on Friday!) fairly quickly. I was back to crafting whenever I could again.
Now that my habit of crafting is back, I sat and thought about what just happened. I worked on things that I used to put on the back burner because knitting was all I could think about. By changing my mindset and picking new crafts to focus on, I became creative again. I have my sock recipe, I know the shawl styles I like, I’ve knit sweaters. I wouldn’t say I’ve mastered knitting, but it was becoming monotonous. By changing up the craft, I changed up my mindset. It really made me feel creative again.
I don’t think I’ll ever stop knitting, but never say never. I think it’s just a good reminder that just because I’m not feeling it today, doesn’t mean I’m over it. Knitting will come back, dreaming of sweaters and drawers of socks will come back and if today that means doing something else, then I’m going to do something else. Creativity will come in more than one avenue and I’ll just follow whatever is fun today. This IS supposed to be fun after all.