Our Fall with SweetGeorgia Make Along 2016 started this week and I am so excited to see the directions people are taking with their chosen craft. Whether you are knitting, spinning, weaving, or fiber-felting, we hope you are savoring the beginning phase of this maker-process.
I’ve spent the first couple of days nailing down exactly what I wanted to make. And, honestly, it has taken several days. It’s a sweater idea that’s been in my head for several months now, so this is really the perfect time to develop it into reality. Before starting the MAL, I swatched and ripped, swatched and ripped .. it’s a messy process, this whole “getting started” thing, isn’t it? I mean, we have a vision for what our end result should be, but when our first attempts don’t feel right, we might waver a bit. Or give up. Has that happened to you?
What if I told you that every artist in the world feels this way? That every artist, at the very beginning, just as the yarn touches the needle or the pen makes its first line on the page, feels as though it is too risky to try. That there is this little lump of fear in the back of the throat that they aren’t good enough to attempt such a thing, much less share it with anyone else. Ahh…. but there is something there, something in that fear that is the secret to success. That secret is …
Curiosity.
Elizabeth Gildert wrote, “Passion is a tower of flame, but curiosity is a tiny tap on the shoulder — a little whisper in the ear that says, ‘Hey, that’s kind of interesting…’ Passion is rare; curiosity is everyday.”
Oh, what joy that lines fills me with! Because, suddenly, the stakes are lowered. There is no pressure! Like a sweet toddler, looking back once at her mother, I can walk into that playground to play. Curisority is less about “deciding” and more about discovery, less about final results and more about exploration. And it is how every creative endeavor finds fruition. So, when I swatched and ripped more than once, scribbled and crumpled up my drawing more than twice, I chose to listen to the voice that said, “What if this happened instead?” And suddenly, because it is quite sudden, my playful musings turn into something real, something exciting, and I’m ready to try out the next thing. It’s this way in everything I do, from knitting to the hand lettering I am trying to learn these days.
Where will curiosity lead you today? What little thought have you had that you’d like to explore a little more? Share your thoughts here in the comments or head on over to the MAL Thread in our Sweet SweetGeorgia Ravelry Group. It’s a topic I’d love to explore with you.
