May: Creative Blocks

My long absence in this space has brought me back to a place where I am nervous and scared to open up and share through words. For a long time I wasn't sure how I wanted to treat this space, in-fact for a long time I wasn't sure how I wanted to proceed with House of Knot. Being a Maker/Creative/ Knitter has gotten very noisy and I found it hard to find my own unique voice in a sea of "Oh wow! I can do that too!" 

 The pandemic has been so hard in so many ways, and creatively I definitely felt at an all time low where I couldn't even look at my knits anymore.  I was heading down a dark space when I remembered a friend once asked me "when was the last time you felt joy in your work?" I closed my eyes and I thought about my knitting, the wool and the designing. I opened my eyes and I felt an insane pull to dig out all my packed away design tools and materials and dream up whatever came to mind first. I remembered a time where I was just creating for the sake of creating and I needed to reconnect with materials that I once loved. In the same way that I am nervous to share my process, I was nervous to dip in to random creation. With no purpose and no end goal, it is hard to know what you are accomplishing and some days I honestly was not accomplishing much. 

 

Through the mess of creation my mind was beginning to open up, I was beginning to see what I still loved and what I didn't and I was starting to gain interest in new ideas that I never thought of before. Being immersed in colours and textures and projects that had no purpose or timeline gave me the freedom to think beyond the small business machine and back to the joy I always felt when creating. 
My creative slump taught me a few things, 1. Taking a break or putting pause on your passion is not the end of the world. It will be there for you when you are ready to come back to it 2. Don't underestimate the power of the unplanned. 3. It can not be said enough, trust the process.
In hopes to help another person out, here are my top three ways to push past a creative slump.

 

 1.  Pick something: It's probably the hardest part of the journey, to actually pick something to start, but I try and just narrow it down to one thing that I know I want to try or that I know I will enjoy. Just pick it and set your mind around making it happen. Whether it is setting out actual time or planning the space that is needed. Setting your mind around it creates the mental space for you to start.

 2. Buy the materials: This sounds obvious but I can't count the number of times that I set my mind around a project and then I con myself into thinking I already have "something similar" and "that will work, no problem" but just like setting up your mind, you need to set yourself up for success. I remember I wanted to start working out more and pieced together "something that would work" and I HATED every minute of the workout and to top it all off I looked terrible. It sounds silly, but I know that if I had some new workout gear I would feel like a superstar even if the workout was hard. BUY THE PROPER GEAR. Especially if your wanting to try something new make sure you set yourself up for success.

 3. Try Try Try again: It can not be said enough that you need to keep an open heart and mind when moving through a rough creative stage. You need to keep trying all kinds of different methods, and make TONS of errors before you really know what works and what doesn't. I was once told that you need to make 100 mistakes before you can have 1 success. I am a firm believer that through the mistakes is where you learn and gain strengths you never thought you had.

 I hope this might encourage some of you when you might not feel encouraged, and if you do try one of my methods I would love to hear about it, what worked and what didn't?