Sometimes it can be hard to restart a stalled or dropped project out of feelings of perfectionism or the pain of looking at past mistakes. This week, Janine and Shannon discuss how Janine recently faced down her many abandoned knitting projects and how rejuvenated she was by the process. She’s excited to get back to regular knitting after letting go of less-than-fulfilling works in progress liberated her to restart.
Discussion topics include:
- Janine’s adventure in revisiting her knitting projects
- How visiting dashed knitting dreams turned out to actually be enjoyable
- The benefit of actually facing down abandoned projects
- Letting go of perfectionism so that unfinished projects don’t feel like failures
- How this process of discovery rejuvenated Janine’s enthusiasm for knitting
- How American Ninja Warrior fits into all of this
- An imperfect explanation of Portuguese knitting
- Shannon’s recent decluttering of her t-shirt collection, which she accomplished after overcoming feelings of fruitlessness about the effort
- Shannon’s delight at her decluttered t-shirts (and her strategies for keeping the clutter at bay)
- How the notion of restarting can work in so many areas of our lives
- How restarting is an excellent time to get in touch with what’s important to you.
- Letting go of the things that keep you from loving what you want to do
- Allowing yourself to restart and to get back to why something is important to you rather than focusing on perceived mistakes
Links:
- Untangled: A step-by-step guide to joy and success for the modern yarn lover, by Shelly Brander
Note from Janine:
I was hoping to post a photo of the finished cowl, but I didn’t manage to finish it. But here’s a photo of Bix inspecting my love seat full of unfinished projects before the decluttering began!
And here’s a photo of some of the reclaimed yarn!
I laughed at your “having a knitting practice” comment. I don’t have a quilting practice; I just practice quilting (because I never get it right). Quilting is sort of a theme for me as I was listening to your podcast. A couple of years ago I told myself that I couldn’t buy any more fabric for projects until I finished the quilts I had already started. Last Christmas I was able to give all my friends quilts! I used to be perfectionistic about my quilts until a friend who is an amazing quilter told me, “Christy, if you can’t see a mistake from the back of a galloping horse, it doesn’t matter.” It freed me up to finish a ton of quilts. I think that by next year I will be able to start a new project, and I’ve already got the fabric purchased for it (obviously, the you-can’t-buy-any-more-fabric rule didn’t stick. But I’ve only purchased one kit because I had regretted 15 years ago not buying this particular pattern when I saw it, and I never saw it again until this past June.
Your T-shirt dilemma is one that I have as well. I have too many, so I make T-shirt quilts out of my old, well-worn T-shirts that I love. I made three quilts for my mom from her world-travels collections of T’s. She was very happy with them, and I’m so glad I didn’t wait for a special occasion or holiday to give them to her. She passed away a few months after I gave them to her, and she slept under them every single night. If I had let my perfectionism rule me, Mom would never have had the joy of my making her gifts for no reason. She was very happy, and that makes me happy. Now I’m going to pass them on to my cousins who all loved my mother very much. I am ready to release them into the wild.
Thank you for sharing your experiences, Christy! I love that this episode resonated with you so much. (This is Janine typing.) Your comment that your mother would not have enjoyed her t-shirt quilt had you let perfectionism rule you is very powerful. I appreciate your sharing it.