Process versus product
A few years ago I realised that I am a process and not a product crafter. I enjoy the process but am not motivated by the finished object. I've knitted and crocheted all my life and yet own very few of the items I've made, most were gifted away at the time. At the peak of my yarn acquisition, I would justify the expense (addiction to hand dyed sock yarn from the US when the dollar was not as strong as it is now) by making socks for gifts. That way, I at least got to play with the yarn as I knitted, even if I didn't get to keep it - which wasn't really important to me, being the process knitter that I am. There is satisfaction in completing a task ... at some point.
But some time after I moved in here, and I was unpacking or tidying up my study or similar, I looked at my yarn stash. It's huge. I vaguely priced it. And freaked out. I put a ban on more stashing, since I wasn't even really knitting anymore. And I felt bad that with all the money I had spent, I had very little personally to show for it. I must have knitted over 20 pairs of socks but only have maybe 5 myself. And truthfully lots of the yarn in the stash was still intended for projects for myself.
And then I moved onto crossstitching, I think (another stash, let us not speak of it today). And then onto quilting, the craft I spent most of 2010, and some of 2009 on. I've been building up some fabric collection - I like to stash. But also I love fabric. But I've kept this stashing down, sort of. The yarn stash remaining being somewhat of a reminder. That's partly why I am working on so many quilt projects - not wanting my fabric stash to be a stash but rather a moving queue of projects I really am making.
But still, I am a process crafter. The photo to the left is the stack of finished blocks that I spent the last couple of days at maelkann 's place putting borders on. There's three projects in there and I have kinda promised myself that I will sew borders as I go from now on.
I've almost finished the blocks for the quilt made in the Stitchwitches quilting circle. I thought I'd add 3 extra blocks to the 6 that I received to make a top of 3 by 3 blocks. Last weekend, I sorted out the fabrics for these 3 blocks and figured out the patterns I wanted to make. One of them is this one here, below. As I was making it up, I suddenly fell in love with the fabrics - I'd not had a chance to work on them til now and I suddenly felt sad that I didn't get that much of a chance to play with the patterns and textures to see what I could do with them. And I really love the chocolate and the pink and the blue palette.But I'm also struggling with the goal - make the quilt, finish the quilt, move onto the next project. Because I do get split in focus and end up moving on before finishing things, having gotten whatever it was I needed from the experience already before finishing it and thus not feeling a need to. I need to start finishing things because otherwise there are days when I wonder just what I've spent my time doing. And there is a nice feeling when walking past a finished item and just getting to appreciate that you made it.
Here's my problem though. For some reason, just as I am really starting to get stuck into my quilting projects (and maybe because this involves finishing things off rather than designing or starting new things), I'm feeling vague urges to get back into knitting. I've been listening to Cast On Podcast again. I've been following the Yarn Harlots links to various things, including GORGEOUS mitten patterns. I've been thinking about actually doing a project from the Rocking Sock Club. And I've been perusing yarn online. All signs of a switch back to knitting.
And my problem is this, I want to do both - quilt and knit - but I have never managed to balance two crafting obsessions at once.
Have you ever managed this? And how do you do it? I want to have a couple of knitting goals for 2011 but I don't want to do this if it means I end up abandoning the quilting, which really feels like it's finally hit stride.
But some time after I moved in here, and I was unpacking or tidying up my study or similar, I looked at my yarn stash. It's huge. I vaguely priced it. And freaked out. I put a ban on more stashing, since I wasn't even really knitting anymore. And I felt bad that with all the money I had spent, I had very little personally to show for it. I must have knitted over 20 pairs of socks but only have maybe 5 myself. And truthfully lots of the yarn in the stash was still intended for projects for myself.
And then I moved onto crossstitching, I think (another stash, let us not speak of it today). And then onto quilting, the craft I spent most of 2010, and some of 2009 on. I've been building up some fabric collection - I like to stash. But also I love fabric. But I've kept this stashing down, sort of. The yarn stash remaining being somewhat of a reminder. That's partly why I am working on so many quilt projects - not wanting my fabric stash to be a stash but rather a moving queue of projects I really am making.
But still, I am a process crafter. The photo to the left is the stack of finished blocks that I spent the last couple of days at maelkann 's place putting borders on. There's three projects in there and I have kinda promised myself that I will sew borders as I go from now on.
I've almost finished the blocks for the quilt made in the Stitchwitches quilting circle. I thought I'd add 3 extra blocks to the 6 that I received to make a top of 3 by 3 blocks. Last weekend, I sorted out the fabrics for these 3 blocks and figured out the patterns I wanted to make. One of them is this one here, below. As I was making it up, I suddenly fell in love with the fabrics - I'd not had a chance to work on them til now and I suddenly felt sad that I didn't get that much of a chance to play with the patterns and textures to see what I could do with them. And I really love the chocolate and the pink and the blue palette.But I'm also struggling with the goal - make the quilt, finish the quilt, move onto the next project. Because I do get split in focus and end up moving on before finishing things, having gotten whatever it was I needed from the experience already before finishing it and thus not feeling a need to. I need to start finishing things because otherwise there are days when I wonder just what I've spent my time doing. And there is a nice feeling when walking past a finished item and just getting to appreciate that you made it.
Here's my problem though. For some reason, just as I am really starting to get stuck into my quilting projects (and maybe because this involves finishing things off rather than designing or starting new things), I'm feeling vague urges to get back into knitting. I've been listening to Cast On Podcast again. I've been following the Yarn Harlots links to various things, including GORGEOUS mitten patterns. I've been thinking about actually doing a project from the Rocking Sock Club. And I've been perusing yarn online. All signs of a switch back to knitting.
And my problem is this, I want to do both - quilt and knit - but I have never managed to balance two crafting obsessions at once.
Have you ever managed this? And how do you do it? I want to have a couple of knitting goals for 2011 but I don't want to do this if it means I end up abandoning the quilting, which really feels like it's finally hit stride.