just one anna » knitting http://justoneanna.com with way too many hobbies. Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:51:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Priorities http://justoneanna.com/fiber/priorities?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=priorities http://justoneanna.com/fiber/priorities#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:49:06 +0000 Anna http://justoneanna.com/?p=254

Left Mitten, unblocked. Pattern is Bella’s Mittens, by Marielle Henault.
I’m just now casting on its opposite.

Yarn is Malabrigo Merino Worsted (single spun) in colorway Pearl Ten, held double. Knit on size 8 circular (yes, I know the pattern calls for a size 11 needle. I knit loosely, and my intended recipient is not a large person. These fit me, so I know they will fit her.)

These mittens are the reason I’ve not done any NaNo writing. They’re the reason we ate pizza for dinner last night. (I’ve managed to get a crock-pot dinner going for tonight.)

They are a gift. A last minute gift, and they need to be done by Saturday morning. I have two busy evenings tonight and tomorrow, and so everything else is on hold while I cram-knit to get them done. I’m really /really/ hoping I get finished.

]]> http://justoneanna.com/fiber/priorities/feed 3 Creativity http://justoneanna.com/navel-gazing/creativity?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=creativity http://justoneanna.com/navel-gazing/creativity#comments Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:05:41 +0000 Anna http://justoneanna.com/blog/?p=138 I’ve always been fascinated with art – for as long as I can remember really, even back as a tiny little thing, I’ve had a great deal of envy for people with visual creativity.  The closest I’ve ever come is tactile type things – and not creative as much as re-creative (following someone else’s pattern/design). I suppose you could argue that words are a form of creativity, but word-skill is not the same as word-art.

I think that’s why I’m currently both fascinated and petrified by Art Journaling (that and I know I’d start and then quit doing it after a couple of days when it dawns on me that 1) I suck and 2) I have a blog to journal in already).

Doesn’t keep me from looking up stuff about it on the internet though, and pondering whether any of the multitudes of old spiral notebooks and journals that people have given me would work, or if I have any colored pencils (I don’t, though I do have a pack of crayola markers and a couple of prismacolor markers I picked up secondhand).  And then convincing myself that I really do have enough projects (I do), and I don’t need another one right now (I don’t), and that I’m not really starved for creative outlets (I’m not).

I suppose it’s good that I can see my own patterns:

  1. hey that’s cool
  2. I should try it
  3. this is fun
  4. then I get distracted like a magpie in a mirror factory and find something else that looks cool… repeat ad nauseum

At the same time, forcing myself to work on one thing while I am interested in doing another isn’t all that great either.  It’s hard to explain the random impulses – and I wonder if I shouldn’t just purge all the craft stuff entirely and force myself to pick and stick with one (which would probably be sewing/needlework) – and then I look at the yarn and my spinning fleeces and think how lovely they are, or the various books teaching various things, or my giant and ever expanding recipe bookmarks folder… and it just doesn’t happen.

And then I wonder if I should just stick with writing – since I seem to do that every day, both for fun, for semi-work, and for work – and try to cultivate an appreciation for various forms of creativity that I don’t have, rather than immediately wanting to TRY all of them.

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