Project: Clean up

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I’ve decided to restart my creativity by restarting my work. See all the bags in this picture? Every single one of them – 9 in total – contains a knitting project that I started and abandoned. I had the best of intentions but never went anywhere, and I think part of the reason why I’m struggling to pick up my work is because I’m paralyzed by decision making. Which project do I go back to first?

The short answer is going to be “None of the above”. They’re all getting fogged. I’m pulling apart what I can, reskeining the yarn, and deleting the project from my Ravelry notebook. If I really want to work on that particular pattern, I can always go back to it. But I can’t keep sitting here waiting for one of these bags to call to me. I need to be more proactive about clearing out my mental backlog.

Fresh start means fresh creativity.

Searching for Creativity

Today is the official start of my search for creativity. My muse is out there, somewhere, waiting for me to call her home. I just have to find her.

When the COVID quarantine madness first started for me in March 2020, I lost my workout routine. The gyms were closed, and I wasn’t leaving the house to go to work anymore, so it became very easy to become very lazy. I can’t exert any effort or energy – I’m on lockdown! A few months later, as my body started to atrophy and my mind became foggy, I realized that getting some semblance of a workout routine back into my life was needed to maintain my sanity. And because it can be done anywhere without any special tools, I veered towards yoga. I started practicing yoga daily, for at least 10 minutes per day. Even though it’s not a high-impact activity, it makes me feel like I’m accomplishing something and it keeps me from hunching over like an old lady.

With that in mind, it only makes sense that my search for creativity heads in a familiar direction. There’s a lot of literature out there that says that yoga can greatly benefit creativity.

Perhaps the greatest benefit is to those burnt out creatively. Working too long or hard at one project can leave a person even more stressed that when they started. Through yoga, we can reattune ourselves to the emotions that inspired us in the first place. We can unwind from the physical stresses work can put on us. This is especially true if the creative practice involves repetitive motions or physical activity. Even if it’s a mostly stationary job, moving your body even a bit can release some tension built up.

https://www.tomorrowsworldtoday.com/2019/01/08/january-8-using-yoga-to-boost-creativity/

Any time I’m looking for a new yoga routine, I head straight to Yoga with Adriene. Her YouTube channel is jam-packed with routines for any situation. Need a break during the middle of your workday? There’s a chair yoga routine for that. Need something quick to wake up your muscles in the morning? There’s a routine for that. Need something to help clear your mind and balance stress, reduce anxiety, or lose weight? Routines for all of those. Thankfully, creativity is right up there as well. This 40 minute Yoga for Creativity routine should help to centre my energy, loosen my muscles, and awaken my mind. And, as an added bonus, I actually find yoga to be an enjoyable activity! I’m going to try going through this every day for a week, and see if it makes any difference in terms of how I look at my knitting bag.

Oh, and once I’m back in the knitting groove, Adriene also has a yoga routine for loosening up your fingers, hands, and wrists. Perfect for people who hold knitting needles for extended periods of time!!

Back at it……in theory

Ever have that moment when you stumble across something that you used to work on, and you can’t remember what happened that made you leave it behind? That was me, today, with this site. Why did I step away and stop posting? I honestly don’t remember.

Lately I’ve been struggling with my creativity. I don’t know if it’s because of the quarantine and my resulting depression/anxiety issues. I don’t know if it’s that I’ve become bored with my knitting and I need a new challenge. What I do know is that I need my muse back. Maybe this site is what will spark that fire again? Maybe I need to talk about knitting and think about knitting to help focus my knitting? Who knows. I’ve been in lockdown for weeks with another few weeks to go, so if I’m going to explore the boundaries of my inspiration, this is probably the time to do so. It’s not like I have anywhere else to be.