I'm guessing that our harsh wake up and bumpy departure to get Calvin out the door to school today was not the only such messy start felt across the land today! Similarly, I sat down to get cracking on the next issue of Taproot, and though I worked some last week, I still had to pause for a moment to remember my passwords, and brush away the cobwebs, so to speak from getting started.
Similarly, I think, that's happening in my studio, in craft world. There was so much non-stop knitting and crafting right up until the deadlines for holiday giving, there was hardly time to even think about what I was doing. As soon as all of that was done, and my spaces cleaned up from the tornado in the wake of all that crafting, I paused thinking, "Well, now what do I do?" And for all the daydreaming in December about making something else, those plans suddenly disappeared. I found myself each day last week wanting to make something, but not quite landing on any one thing. It was a bit of a dabble into everything I could possibly have going on, trying it on for size, feeling out the right next project with which to get a good rhythm going again. Ah...
There was a single skein plied, ready to go.
A check-in with my latest sweater project, just to make sure she was still there, waiting for me (it's the Portland Pullover, in the latest issue of Taproot).
And I looked at all the fiber yet to be spun.
And counted all the quilts-in-progress, so close to being finished (I spied three).
And in the end, do you know what I did? I spent hours -and hours - making pom poms. For absolutely no reason at all, and with no intention of doing a thing with them (although now, in hindsight, I do have some ideas...). Given all the other options of what I could have made, it appears that I needed to kick it all off with a little mindless, mindful, making just for the sake of making.
And with that basket now full, I'm off and running, I think, for all the making that will come in 2016! I don't know as though I've ever set crafty goals for myself at the beginning of a new year, but I do have some great hopes and intentions to work on my spinning this year. I am finding myself blessed with so much fiber at the moment and for the foreseeable future, and wanting to make the most of my lovely ladies fleeces. This year, I'm sure I'll find my spinning groove.
And in the meantime, I am very much looking forward to the "finish it" vibe that seems to always come in January - the desire to clear out and wrap up and finish some things that have been lingering for a while. Of that variety, I have plenty of projects that I'm eager to see complete.
Oh, the start of a new crafty year! It's exciting. And I can't wait to see what we make in this one....
