Yo-Modo

Don’t get too attached.

It’s probably a very common warning among creative types, but it’s something that I find very important in continuing to love my hobby. Many people when they start a project—any project—really just want to see it complete. Personally, I love knitting for the process. (Otherwise I would have gotten bored of scarfs and hats years ago.) But many people, once they’ve started something, and especially when it’s almost done, can’t bear to “lose” that progress. Some folks might even just finish for the sake of finishing, even if the end result is virtually unusable.

Don’t be afraid to rip it out!

A lot of projects you end up doing twice. If at first you don’t succeed, and that awesome orange hat you’ve made for your big-headed boyfriend is too small and pinches his head, rip out the stitches and start anew. It’s never a waste do something right, even if it takes a couple of times doing to get it there.

Love what you do.

As I said before, I love the process. I love yarn shops. I love yarn. I like the simplicity of knits and purls. It’s a quick easy meditation. It keeps my hands busy and my mind at ease. It’s beautiful, simple, and a wonderful thing to share. And if you love it, it’s not going to matter how many times you knit it.

And, yes, I have to knit that hat again. All told it was a few rows too short.

I was driving home a couple of months ago, passing several little corner shops—you know the ones, that mostly carry soda, cigarettes, and beer—when a stop sign gave me a second to pause and look around at my surroundings. What I found was life, art, creativity, a vibrant excerpt of a unique urban experience.

Everyone has their own idea about what constitutes art. My mom always complained about a guy who peed in a jar and put a crucifix in with it. I agree, not art. Kind of disgusting really. But I’ve seen some…interesting examples of art in the numerous galleries and coffee shops and studios around town. I’ve also seen some pretty amazing graffiti. What I found I think measures somewhere in between.

So trying to sail again proved to be detrimental to the healing process. Apartment is FINALLY, mostly put away. Code school is in process, but everyone needs a break from school now and then, right? What to do . . . . . . . . .

GET CRAFTY!!!!!

I have to say, I’m a kind of loving the crafts I’ve been making the last few days. I haven’t had the opportunity (for whatever reasons) to really pull out the scissors and glue, knitting needles and fancy yarn, for quite some time. One, it feels nice to have them in my hands. I love the process of creating. I love working with my hands. I like being busy in this way. Two, it’s really nice to have the time for this little escape, a little break from whatever was keeping me to busy to get busy. Crafting.

I’m happy with the results, though concerned with issues of consistency. Possibly need to re-measure, re-make my template. But results are looking pretty!

I’ve done it! Well, I’ve nearly done it. I’m just waiting for a few more things to come in that I ordered online earlier this week, and then I’ll have done it. What? Oh, “It”. It’s envelopes! Ok, it might not sound like the most exciting thing in the world, but here’s my thinking. You know that large stack of really nice stationery you bought yourself 3 years ago? And those dozens of cute notepads sitting around the house just waiting to be used? I think for most people, it would seem the practice and fine art of letter writing has gone a bit the way of the dodo. So my recent crafty endeavor is how I plan to solve that problem—at least, for myself.

The Woodgrain Collection

I think these beautiful new handmade envelopes are just the thing to get me charged up again for some handwritten missives, newsletters, and love letters. Break out those dusty pens and stationery paper, it’s time to get WRITING again!

And, if nothing comes of having them up on my Etsy shop, they’re gonna make great gifts. 😉

It’s time to get crafty!

I think one of the reasons I have been a little slow to craft this week is because all of my initial ideas from last week were put on hold. Plus, my boyfriend’s apartment is too small for all my ideas all at once. 🙂

This past week I have spent a large amount of my time researching different items I need to complete my crafting “whims”. I suppose hours of research on supplies might seem to take some of the whimsy out of it, but that work actually appeals very much to my left-brain paths and programming. Being organized before I get messy makes me feel more comfortable with the idea of getting things done. It helps me approach my failures—because there have already been some, hence the need for research and more supplies—with a feeling of exploration instead of mistaken or misused time.

Part of my research has led me to realize that what I want, and what I can get are probably going to be very different things. As an example: I’m looking for a closing agent—something that acts like the peel and stick strips that come on mailing envelopes. I researched double-stick tape, but none of those seemed to have a backing that you could stick one side down and then preserve the other side for later use (the peel later part). I came across bonding tapes, transfer tapes, mounting tapes (no jokes, please); fabric, rubber, or acrylic tapes; tapes with permanent hold, or ones that were repositionable; tapes for low surface energy or high surface energy (LSE/HSE) materials, ultra or very high bond (UHB/VHB) double-coated tapes; and, yet, I am no closer to finding something that works for my needs. Well, I did find one thing by 3M, but the only place I can find to buy it sells it in 1000 yard rolls in case packs of 12. Ummmm, I don’t need to cover my house in it.

Amazon did me a few things good, and those are all on the way. Christmas gift cards from friends and Birthday gift cards from family make shopping there a lot more fun. Delivery estimates say, Wednesday, March 28. Until then it’s simply self-healing cutting mat wishes and pink X-acto knife dreams.

Last week, I was on a roll. I was coding, I was writing, I was crafting–I was getting shit done! Now……not so much. Today I’m finding it difficult to really get motivated. I’ve combed over some of the information that I needed to get through. (I.e. I pared down my bookmarked list of possible jobs from ~150 to ~30.) I took a nice long walk. (To do: Exercise. Check!) But what happened to that fire?! That passion?! That drive to get those other things on my list DONE?!

inspiration | inspəˈrāSHən | noun | 1 – the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative

Lists vs Flow

Again, I’m going to blame it on my left-brain-ness. That “something creative” part is the hard part for my brain to recognize. I have my checklists and my boxes and arrows drawing out the Visio map for today; I just don’t see the creativeness in it—I don’t find it inspiring.

My accomplishments and productiveness today are nothing to sniff at, but I need to find something that motivates my crafty side. Where does a left-brain find inspiration? Where do you find inspiration?

So I’m sure many of you have already seen the very beautiful visual representation of how the left brain works and how the right brain works (and what I didn’t know was a Mercedes Benz ad–bravo to them, by the way).

The dry left and the colorful right.

Most of you were probably already aware of the general notion of the left-brain types being the analytical and logic-motivated types of people–the math brains. Leaving the fun and very creative Art world to the right-brain set. Maybe that’s why I’ve always felt like I’m not any good at creating. Very early on in life I exhibited left-brain tendencies and was immediately placed in that camp. People (see: Mother) have since told me I have my own type of creativity, but I never really bought that. What I do? It’s math, it’s patterns and geometry, it’s repetitive and specific; it does not draw out of emptiness or blankness the thing that the a lump of clay or canvas and paint already is.

“Compared to this what I do is liken unto paint-by-numbers,” I thought. To tell the truth, I also never “got” most art, so how could I create it? And, so, not until a short while ago, when I started dating a VERY right-brain artsy kind of guy, did I realize, “I really AM creative!” My math brain just makes it look different than the capitalized type of art you go to see in museums and galleries and chichi coffee shops and wine bars. The art I create is a visual representation of what is inside my math equations brain. It is the soft and colorful edges of my sharp analytical mind. It comes from the same place and emotion and amount and space of love that right-brain folks create from, it simply looks very left. 🙂

I promise there is no more meaning than its geometry

I construct art, I do not create it.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

Yo-Modo

Category Archives: Creativity

A Knitter’s Tip

Street art

It’s time to get crafty!

Success!

What time is it?

The source of inspiration

Left-brain art