CRAFTNICITY

Funk Buster Deadlines

There's nothing like a deadline to get you out of a creative slump.

I've had the opportunity to do three designs for the Yarn of the Month Club.

Each month, this membership club sends out enough yarn to create swatches, a pattern using one of the yarns, and a newsletter. 

So yesterday was my deadline to submit a pattern, in spite of it all...and I "forced" myself through it. I needed to get through it. (I'll show more of the design once it has been sent to club members.)

Rather than feeling oppressed by deadlines, I'm going to allow them to bust up the funk. Every month, I'll post a pattern or creative project on the blog.

On the surface, it'll be Craftnicity's own project-of-the-month club. Internally, I'll reflect on and celebrate what it took to meet the deadline.

How do you handle the deadlines in your creative life?

Marianne Isager On Ethnic Knitting

(Following is an excerpt from the Winter 2008 issue of Black Purl Magazine.)

Ethnic knitting (also called global or worldly knitting) describes ethnic knitting techniques and traditions around the world.  However, technique seems to be just one way of looking at it.

Like any art form, individual interpretations vary.  Ethnic knitting is as much about the designer and their inspiration, the yarn, and the landscape as it is about technique itself.

To discuss ethnic knitting, I was joined by knitwear designer Marianne Isager, author several books, including Out of Africa, Japanese Inspired Knits, and Classic Knits. Our virtual get-together brought about provocative and enlightening discussions on inspiration and passion and on what moves her to create beautiful knitwear.

On inspiration…
"I don´t use the ethnic techniques. I still knit exactly the way I learned to knit as a young girl. I’m often amazed to see knitting techniques from other cultures, such as the knitting men from the island Taquile in Peru, with their very thin and fine needles  I do, however, feel very inspired by the ethnic patterns. This can be patterns found in woven or embroidered textiles or even in pottery, which I have used a lot in the INKA book. I am not so much into techniques but more inspired by the visual feeling and the colours I see. It also inspires me that I find the same symbols and patterns all over the world, just used in different ways."

"I guess it just talks to my feelings. Like a child who has just learned to draw and wants to copy what she is seeing, some of these patterns are so plain and knittable—you just have to make it. I am not inspired by the complicated patterns.  It is always the plain and simple patterns which touch my fantasy. And working with knitting, I want the work to be nice and simple to do. It gives a more beautiful result in the end if the knitter has been able to relax and have fun during the work. I don't want the yarn to be forced into patterns which are not natural for the structure of the quality. The aim is always to have the yarn, the pattern and the knitter working together. This gives the absolutely best result."

On passion…
"It is not so much the knitting technique that shakes me, but more the tradition and the patterns being given from one generation to the next, sometimes and hopefully with a new twist. I am not knitting the way my mother or my grandmother did…Oh yes, the stitches are the same but I use these stitches in a new way. This is the thing which always shakes me when I study patterns—the little twist from one generation to the next. Even my daughter, who is also a knitter (www.amimono.dk), works with the same patterns as I do, and she just finds another way to use them."

Inspiration for the Moody Crafter

I don't think I have ever been as stressed out as I have been recently. Rather than getting lost in the bath of creativity and allowing it to soothe and cleanse me, I haven't done anything.

When I can walk past books and not read them, ignore hooks and needles that are waiting patiently for their familiar rhythm of creation, and fail to be stimulated by yarn and fabric, well, I've got knitter's block -- I've lost my mojo -- my groove has gone -- the muse has left the building...or so it seems.

I figured out that I've been letting my moods determine what I won't do. What if I allowed my mood to influence what I will do? In order to get over this hump, I needed a strategy.

Rather than throw creativity out the window during challenging times, accept its fluidity, like the fluidity of life and plan for different kinds of projects for different kinds of moods.

Gosh, I love an ah-ha moment!

If you're a moody crafter, here are a few steps to take towards welcoming creativity back into your life:

1. Make a list of several types of creative projects you enjoy. Skill level is irrelevant. This is one example of where being a "jack of all trades" could come in handy. I enjoy doodling, embroidery, sewing, knitting, crochet, writing, brainstorming, and drawing.

2. Create a mood meter chart, create your own mood ring, download a mood meter widget...any method that will allow you to to check in with how you're feeling over a period of time.

3. Much has been made of the connection between mood and food, that is, your mood can affect your food choice. Explore the connection between the projects you enjoy and your moods. For example, when I'm angry or frustrated, I like to doodle. When I'm more focused and centered, those doodles could turn into an embroidery project.

4. Organize your projects according to moods. This could be just what you need to finish up those lingering projects.

Over the next few days (or weeks) I'll share the connections I've made between my moods and projects, and experiment with organizing them. Just not today, 'cause I'm too tired.

(Photo courtesy of rick)

What Can You Learn from Crafts You Dislike?

I was so inspired by this unique take on learning that I decided to adapt the exercise to crafts.

Choose three crafts or creative projects that you have very little or no interest in. Then spend just five minutes researching each of these, just enough time to find out something you didn't already know.

I chose:

• Lace knitting (especially lace shawls) -- beautiful and ornate, but it seems so tedious that I think I would lose my mind.
• Rubber stamping -- my narrow minded view is of cutesy stamped cards
• Metal working -- visions of lots of bending and pounding to create a copper rooster to put in my yard; again, admitted narrow-mindedness.

I learned:

• From Eunny Knits, I learned a bit about the history of lace knitting. "The oldest, most famous motifs and patterns, astonishing in their delicacy and beauty, are the invention of rough fishermen's and farmers' wives..."
• By combining stamped words and images on cloth, you can create your own signature fabrics.

• According to the Copper Development Association, "If you live in a single-family home, you most likely have 439 lbs (199.127 kg) of copper surrounding you right now." Copper is everywhere and can be recycled to make an assortment of art projects including jewelry, home accessories, bird feeders and other yard art, self-portraits or sculptures.

Having a different perspective changes you and opens you up. It's refreshing!

Okay, haters! What three crafts least interest you and what can you learn about them?

In the Studio with Prudence Mapstone

Though we’ve never met, I feel as if I've known fiber artist Prudence Mapstone for years.  After all, in the world of freeforming (a method of knitting and crocheting usually worked without any patterns), Prudence is a maverick.  Prudence lives in Australia and travels extensively, so I was thrilled that she took the time to speak with me about her work. (Excerpt reprinted from the Fall 2007 issue of Black Purl Magazine.)

How did you come to freeform?  That is, had you always followed patterns and tired of it or simply wanted to free yourself and try something different?
PM:  I have been knitting for almost as long as I can remember, having been taught by my mother when I was a small child.  I could read knitting patterns and was making sweaters by the time I was about 10.  I started crocheting as a teenager in the ‘60s, when hippy garments were in fashion.  But I didn’t ever buy a crochet pattern, and didn’t know the names of the stitches that I was ‘sort of’ duplicating just by guesswork.

I managed to crochet round medallions and join them together for ponchos and such long before I figured out how to create ‘corners’ in my motifs…so I went out in granny circles when everyone else back then was wearing granny squares.  In the ‘80s I designed and made a lot of complex intarsia picture-knitted coats….but making too many of these for too many years eventually led to a lot of pain in my arms.  All of my freeform experimentation came about as way to still be able to do what I loved doing, without putting too much of a strain on all the muscles that were objecting due to overuse.

Your work mainly focuses on crochet and knitting.  Do you do other needlework? 
PM:  I recently completed a coat where I first fulled an old commercially-knitted fair-isle sweater in the washing machine.  I cut it up into organic shapes and crocheted various bits and pieces onto the edges to create random patches, and then joined everything together using a combination of lacing and needle-felting. 

Do you ever incorporate other needlework in your freeform pieces?
PM:  In the past, I have also added surface embroidery and beading to some of my other creations.

What is your biggest challenge in teaching freeform techniques? 
PM:  Sometimes beginner knitters or crocheters take to freeforming more readily than those who have already learned all the ‘rules’, but that is not always the case.

I would imagine that people want to hold on to getting it right and learning the stitches.
PM:  In workshops I usually start people off with certain stitches and motifs that I know will give them a good feel for freeforming, but will still enable them to make a patch that doesn’t go out of shape.  It is by no means necessary to keep the work flat and in shape, especially if you are making a cushion, wall-hanging or a very theatrical garment

But for those who want to eventually wear their creations, most times they would wish to avoid unintentional lumps and bumps that will add on the inches!  And normally they wouldn’t want sections of fabric that aren’t going to drape well or feel comfortable to wear.  It takes either experience or a certain innate talent to be able to keep things flat when you are working multi-directionally over a large number of stitches whilst using a lot of different yarns.

But working with just a few stitches at a time in any direction, and gradually building up smallish patches, makes it easier to create areas of freeform fabric that are flat and flexible.  Once you have enough of these patches the possibilities for joining are almost infinite.

How does your life in Australia or the landscape of Australia show itself in your freeform needlework design?
PM:  I think that the intense light in many parts of Australia makes us see color in a different way to people in other countries.  When I taught in Denmark I’m sure that a lot of the knitters couldn’t have ever imagined themselves wearing anything as colorful as some of my garments.  In the back of my mind I always felt that people would want to dress in bright colors to cheer things up in gloomy weather, but it appears that we mostly dress to blend in with our environment.