Plutonium Muffins

In my previous blog post I talked about how for the last year I’ve found it hard to find my writing mojo. Today I’m going to chat about the loss of my crafting mojo. Or, not the loss of it, but rather the way it changed. I’ve still been creating as much as I ever did – but the way I do it and my reasons for crafting are very different.

Where did my mojo go?

At the same time as Nanowrimo last year, I realised I’d lost my inspiration for crafting the way I had been for the previous six or seven years. For a really long time I was completely part of the knitting/spinning/fibre world. I went to regular shows, ran a podcast, blogged regularly, sold fibre and drop spindles at markets, and taught spinning privately. I went to knit nights at Loop in Islington, then Hulu Crafts in Modbury. I had friends who I could talk craft with non-stop, and every time I saw them, an inspiring show-and-tell happened. I was constantly exposed to beautiful patterns, yarns and techniques.

Since moving out of London, and more specifically to Bristol, I’ve done hardly any of those things. I had to give up the podcast when I spent a year in Devon in a place with Internet so slow I could barely upload photos on the blog, let alone upload audio files. When we arrived in Bristol I didn’t have a regular group that was easy to get to, and I didn’t know anybody I saw on a weekly basis to craft with. With a new job, full time for the first time in a while, I didn’t go to any shows for a really long time. I lost my writing mojo.

I have been doing YouTube videos (shameless self promotion right here) but even that has dried up in recent months because editing videos is hard. In July this year I also started a new professional qualification and am now finding my time is increasingly taken up by things that are not crafting, but rather studying relentlessly.

I somehow found myself without a community, lacking time, and with little motivation to talk about the things I was doing.

Why create?

The reason I make stuff has changed massively in the last two years. I used to love to create things for my friends and family. Don’t get me wrong, I still love doing this, but there are only so many hats, socks and scarves people want! It’s also been quite disheartening when I’m wearing something knitted and someone says “oh nice, did you make that”? The answer is normally no. I only have three hand-knitted jumpers! I hardly ever see my friends and family wearing my hand-knits, so all the energy that I’ve put into them seems to vanish the second something leaves my hands.

(Just as a caveat to that – I know they wear things, it’s just I don’t always see them so there’s less opportunity for me to see my creations getting used.)

Finally, I’ve been totally overloaded by projects. I used to be totally project and craft-monogamous, but somewhere along the way – probably when I was really inspired by all those activities I was taking part in – I became completely multi-craftual and polyprojectable (it’s a new word, go with it). I’d see something I liked – a new knitting pattern or a novel spinning technique – and immediately cast on or fill an eighth of a bobbin. I’d start a new thing, and halfway through get inspired or distracted by something else.

My WIP baskets (I have four), as a result, are now full to bursting.

From a non-knitting/spinning point of view, I have the same problem. My paper crafting boxes (two huge ones) and my fabric boxes (two huge ones) are full to bursting. I’ve become proficient enough at crochet to teach it. My spinning wheel collection expanded to three. I’ve also recently got into candle making in a big way. My various stashes are about the only things that haven’t massively increased, because I’ve made a concerted effort not to buy new stash.

This year I’ve worked mostly on really big projects that have taken a long time. It’s not that I’ve not been making – mostly that I haven’t been finishing anything that was a quick win, and as a result I’ve had time to reflect on the projects waiting to have some attention paid to them, not getting finished.

Return of the mojo

It’s really important to me that I’ve realised how overloaded my various WIP baskets are. In September this year, I decided I was no longer allowed to start any new projects, with a couple of exceptions. As a result of this decision, I started working on finishing or frogging, and also trying to journal my accomplishments. This list is by no means complete (I have 43 unnamed cross stitch WIPs as a result of Stitch Maynia last year), but it is helping me to manage my workload.

The use of that word has highlighted an important change in the way I think about my WIPs; because they are Work. They’ve become unpleasant, and I hate that.

In the last year I’ve completed three huge projects, two cross stitch and one quilted. I haven’t blogged about any of them (yet), but the significance of the finishes helped bring home to me the fact that I want more focus, more finishes with fewer projects in limbo, and to take more pleasure from the process of making.

So, here’s a mid-month, end of year and untimed resolution to see me through the coming months: whip those WIPs. The only new projects I’m allowed to start are gifts for new babies (of which there are many on the way!) – everything else has to come from stash, an existing WIP, or bought until I can get my load down to zero.

A final qualifier: I’ll allow myself one project per craft, because sometimes I don’t want to spin, other times the desire to cross stitch becomes everything. Other than that, I’d like to stop cheating on my projects with other projects.

We’ll see how long that lasts!

Much love,

Corrie xx