After lots of busy, happy, crafty days of my #Crafting365 project I've found myself beset by a case of the winter "ughs", wanting to just curl up under a blanket in the evenings instead of flexing my creative muscles.
I did a bit of blanket square knitting on day 74, finishing the bright squares for my rainbow blanket and starting the blue yarn...
... and on day 75 I stitched a few flowers onto my floral cushion:
I was poorly on days 76 & 77, and only managed to knit these few rows. Not much, but better than nothing, right?
On day 78 I knitted some more blue squares and took some photos to celebrate the rainbow loveliness of all those colours together.
(Including one which, rather annoyingly, I had to unravel and re-knit as the yarn had a small flaw which I'd not noticed while knitting squares in the gloomy evenings)
Again, this was better than nothing, and I was excited about moving towards finishing my rainbow blanket one square at a time... but: ugh. After many days of having no urge to make stuff other than knit simple blanket squares, I was beginning to really want that creative spark back again!
I gave myself a week off from my 365 project, but a week after that all I'd done was knit yet more blanket squares in the evenings (mini ones this time for my scrap yarn blanket).
With almost three weeks without taking a daily crafty photo, I think I have to admit to having paused my #Crafting365 project. This is kind of embarrassing! But hopefully it will only be temporary.
I'm pressing pause for the moment and will (fingers crossed) re-start my daily making and photographing challenge sometime in the New Year. Taking a break mid-way through the year may seem antithetical to the idea of a year-of-daily-crafting project... but I think it's actually in keeping with the spirit of the project.
I set myself the #Crafting365 challenge to help kickstart my creativity and lately the small amount of crafting I've been doing has not been at all creative. The point of #Crafting365 isn't to force yourself into doing some crafting every day for a year simply for the sake of it, it's to encourage and spark creativity and at the moment that's just not happening! Much better to take a break, then re-start the project when I can actually do it properly.
In the meantime I'll still be making stuff and working on work and personal projects (of course!), just at my own pace until it feels like the right time to re-start #Crafting365.
7 comments:
Breaks can leave you feeling refreshed and revitalised. Th knitting all looks lovely. Enjoy your break and Christmas too. x
This might sound a bit mad, but I can't work with blue for long periods. It makes me down and depressed. It's so difficult for me to finish crocheting items that are blue. I'm not a particular believer in colour theory. It also seems to be a question of dissipating your creative energy, rather than trying to focus it. Rest up, and replenish the well at leisure xx
Enjoy your break!
I've found out that breaks are good for the creative spirit. And even if you put aside a project for a long time, it's not so bad. I sometimes feel nostalgic about my old crafts that I don't do anymore but now I make something I really want to make and become better at so that's my goal :)
I find that instead making crafting part of my ENTIRE day I try to do something creative for just 20 minutes a day. It may not sound like alot of time but it kind of condenses the amount of time you feel obligated to spend on a project and gives a definite start and stop time. On the plus side if the creative bug does hit you, just keep going past the time you set aside :)
Thanks for the comments & kind words, everyone! xxx
Anon - that doesn't sound mad at all! I find brown projects quite a slog to get through, they don't actively make me depressed but they definitely sap me of a bit of my creative enthusiasm (I much prefer bright colours, as you've probably guessed from my blog!)
bairozan - yes, there are only so many hours in the day / days in the week / etc, it's always best to focus on making things you really want to make :)
Rebekah - that sounds like a great way to squeeze a bit of craftiness into your day!
Wow! I love your purse! Do you sell this?
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