Making something with your hands, something beautiful or useful, with no expectations or pressure on yourself, turned out to be the best thing to fight perfectionism. Somehow when I try something completely new, there is no posting anxiety, no worry I will do it wrong, no barrier of sharing imperfect results. It is mostly just a pure joy of making, learning and keeping my hand busy. It is absolutely satisfying and provides a great balance if you like me, work with your head 9 to 5 and a then when you come home. On the top of that, introducing new techniques is broadening your creative tool kit no matter what you do or how irrelevant the craft is to your job. AND on the top of everything, there is something freeing and magical about doing or making something just for a sake of it. Not for picture for Instagram, not for your work or other commitments, just because, just for a pleasure.
That is why I decided to try 12 different crafts in next 12 months, documenting my journey under hashtag #ouryearofcrafts and hoping you will join!
This all started slowly last year. I was trying to learn and explore my creativity and my friend had an idea to test 12 crafts in 12 months. It was later in the year so I did not manage but still did much more then usual. I tried macrame, crochet, paper crafts and more and it was just so much fun. I have always been creative and tried to make something out of nothing, I even had my own shop at one point, selling my products to lovely customers (but about that some other time). When I moved to Norway 5 years ago with one luggage and nothing more, of course I didn’t bring my craft kit and sewing machine. But slowly I felt I need to honour my crafty soul and start again.
So this year, focusing on exploring and creativity in all dimensions of our life, I decided to challenge myself and you, to try 12 different crafts in 12 months. The rules, if there are any, are simple. Devote yourself to one craft only for whole month and see what happens. It can be something you have already tried before but never had quite enough time to create anything or something completely new you want to explore to learn new techniques. There is something magical about focusing on one thing, I believe single tasking is a forgotten art these days which keeps us quite sane though, so we better practise.
There are so many reasons why you should try it, although you might be absolutely busy, aren’t we all? My way of doing it is to try and keep going with my craft of choice every day for one whole month. Some days you might have whole afternoon, some days five minutes and that is fine too. For me personally it is about exercising creative routine and not giving up. You can choose crafts related to yours, for example if you are knitter, you can just explore different garments, stitches or techniques. Or you can choose crafts absolutely unrelated to delve into a little creative adventure. It is up to you but trust me, you will not regret it.
January: knitting
For first month of 2019, I chose knitting. Yes, I do know so knitting from before, but I have only learnt a year ago so there is so much more unexplored. Together with my love for sustainable fashion and a fact I have 1 jumper, I decided to knit. The plan is to knit one cardigan and one sweater and hopefully a hat (turns out I suck in knitting hats so 3 hats I already made are all somehow wrong). I have never made a knitting piece of clothing so that is new and I am also learning new stitches so it feels like a completely new craft anyway. I am sharing my progress on Stories.
I would love it if you join, you can use the hashtag #ouryearofcrafts which I created and is not very specific, so you can use it for any kind of art and craft and also, regardless if you are joining for whole 12 months or just here and there. I hope we will inspire each other and create fabulous creative community! What do you say?
