Step Away

image © Lion Brand Yarn. learn to knit.

In the Ted talk that I posted on Wednesday, Elizabeth Gilbert talks about taking creativity out of ourselves. Basically unburdening ourselves with the responsibility that it is part of us. She calls on you to think about creativity as a muse that sits in the corner of your studio, or maybe within its walls. I love this idea. If you are working like a professional, you are showing up at your desk everyday. Undoubtedly there will be days when the ideas don't flow, when no matter how hard you try, it just. wont. gel. These are the days, Gilbert says, you can turn to your muse and say (and I'm paraphrasing) "I'm showing up. I'm doing the work. If you want this to be good, I'm going to need some extra stardust." And if your muse happens to be busy at that moment, well then you have to step away. This is what happened to me yesterday, my project was just. not. working. I thought I had a good concept, but it was falling apart in the execution. I was going to a bad place in my mind, so I decided to step away. I walked over to the yarn store, and bought a pound of sunny yellow yarn for another project. I was so excited about it, that I started knitting as soon as I got home, and magically, I was no longer in that bad place. My mind was still working on the solution to that original project, and hopefully my muse was as well, because I'll be sitting down on Monday to solve it, and I'll need the extra stardust.
PS - I just started knitting. It's a story for another post. I'll photograph my project next week.