Just "Making Stuff Up"

I recently read a blog post about a designer's struggle with paper, pencil and computer to express a knitwear idea through to the chart stage. As I read I felt weighed down by the seriousness of her task, struck by the absence of needles and yarn in her process.

By contrast at the "Canary Knits" blog it seems her needles are conduits out of which pour pattern after young, fresh, flattering, quickly knit and wonderful to wear pattern. Visiting there feels liberating and fun.

In her most recent post the prolific Annie Modesitt calls playing around with her tools and materials "Doodling" and says many great designs and ideas come from her doodling time. When people ask her what she is "making" when they see her doodling away she says she is "making" herself happy.

Like Annie and the "Canary" the kids in my knitting class also jump in and start, in their words "making stuff up". No pressure, just open minded confidence and enjoyment with genuine anticipation at what will result.

My mind works like the first designer - methodical, careful, cerebral but my knitting and I would benefit from a CanaryAnnieKid approach.

I did a bit of it with my Olympic Sweater last month and over the weekend tried to do more doodling on a project for The Class to work on later this session.

Its prompting me to try out some new ways to cast on and to think about functionality beyond fit with yarn I would never have picked for myself and with colours I would not usually put together.

I would not be considering these things if limiting my knitting to the pattern supported projects in my queue. I have no interest in designing. Too serious, too much like a job to apply to a beloved hobby.  It seems I do have an interest in making stuff up. Fun and stimulating and appropriate to have in my leisure time activity of choice. Its an interesting and liberating distinction I tried to keep at the forefront of my mind as I clicked away during the evenings this past weekend.

I am going to work on keeping that approach in my mind in the week ahead. In fact I added a Doodling list among the sidebar elements to remind me that with or without the need to Doodle for The Class, I am going to try to keep some Doodling in my knitting basket all the time.

Thanks for dropping by today! Happy Monday!