An Awareness of Time Passing

At the beginning of this month (aww crap it’s already next month, nevermind) January I wrote out a sort of plan for production of creative things for the year. And already, I’m behind. I thought of time passing, about how I now have just 11 months to feel accomplished about my year!

And then I said no. I am not going to beat myself up about this. I know this happens. It is not a real problem and I am not actually upset. I think, in fact, that I’ve soldiered quite bravely on in the face of some disappointing problems that require fortitude to correct. You see, sometimes when I encounter a problem, I solve it by just getting rid of the problem. You have to admit, it is a type of solution. However, when the problem in question is something you’ve spent hours or days working on, it’s not so easy to just get rid of it. Actually, I think it would feel physically painful to try to throw something away like a sweater I crocheted.

The red sweater is a good example of this. After my last post, I sewed up the sides.  As I suspected, the sweater does not fit – the arms are too small and it requires decreases in the yoke. I am going to have to rip out the entire yoke, detach the sleeves and start on this part again. I do not want to. It makes me want to throw a two-year-old’s tantrum. But I will finish. Later. When I’m not so irritated that just looking at the problem makes me feel a little, ok a lot stabby. It’s a long version of that “count to 10″ recommendation for people with tempers.

Then there is the case of Jeremy’s Mountain Hat.

First, I made a mountain crochet chart. The chart is awesome. Then I made a beanie crown. The crown was … meh. Then I started making the rest of the hat, and encountered HAT FAIL. (1) I didn’t like my color changes, and (2) somehow I lost 10 stitches around. That’s right. I went from 72 stitches around to 62. The yarn that I’m working with is bulky, and when you carry yarn, sometimes the stitch the color changes on ceases to look like a stitch, so I ended up accidentally skipping it in the next row. I thought I was losing my mind.

PLUS -(3) the crown color yarn is slightly less bulky than the other two yarns, and I’m using tapestry crochet (where you carry 2 strands of yarn) for the pattern part. Ergo – there’s a significant fabric difference between the Not-as-thick-single-strand-crochet of the crown and Thicker-two-strand-crochet of the pattern. It was not attractive.

So I frogged the whole thing.

I going to start over. And when I’m done, it will be a thing of joy and beauty.

Just you wait.

The value of skill

One of the blogs I read, Bobulate, contained a musing on the importance of skill the other day, drawn in turn from a Boing Boing article. The relevant quote is

Ever since Andy Warhol made “ideas without skill” fashionable back in the 60s, it seems to me that popular culture has been playing a game of “skill limbo”. How low can we go? How badly drawn can a cartoon be and still be considered a cartoon? How many drum machines and sequencers can we stack up to avoid having to learn a real instrument? How much plastic surgery does it take to make acting skills unnecessary? I really don’t know the answers to those questions. Every day is a new horror.

But when I see someone who has both an idea AND skill, I’m reminded just how doggone powerful and dynamic a creative artist can be. I’m sick and tired of accepting “half a loaf.” (Boing Boing)

I wonder, sometimes, what value we place now on skill in the current crafting arena, the arena that’s visible on so many blogs and internet stores today. Is it enough to have a good idea? How necessary is it that skill be involved as well to render an idea well? I wonder about the cross-section of skill and art as well.

There is of course value in that I can pick up an X-acto and try something new one day – because we all have to start somewhere, sometime. In the middle is my own sewing and crocheting, which I’ve practiced for years but still, I’m nowhere near satisfied with the skills I have. On the other end of the continuum are people whose practice of a skill go back years. My grandmother, who has been sewing and quilting her entire life, whose seams are a marvel of precision and her garment fitting a thing of wonder. The 70-year-old crocheted potholders I have that astound me with their intricate attention to detail, evidence of a long life of practicing fine handiwork.

I think about the sweater that I am struggling to finish, the hat I’m now making for my brother, the needlework that I do, and I wonder myself about what value I place on my own skill. Do I turn away from the hard thing or persevere, hoping to add another aspect of a skill to my arsenal? Do I place enough value on my crafting to put in the work it takes to be really good at something, to really understand how it works and be able to use it as a tool for expressing my ideas?

Just some things I was thinking.

p.s. The mountain in question, as guessed correctly by my brother who has been there, is Denali. Because Denali is awesome.

p.p.s. This hat I’m making for Jeremy also features mountains.

I get ideas while I sleep …

On Saturday morning I woke up with an idea to do a papercut. The subject I wanted to do is not actually this, but when I try something new I usually do flowers the first time, it’s a recurring theme. This was one of those usual times, so I did this.

It was fun. Papercutting. It was nice to think of something and do it in one day. Most of the things I think of take a lot more time. It looks nice with light behind it … so I’m trying to think of a way to mount this so I can have space in between the two layers and allow some light to filter through as well. I sense a trip to a framing store coming on.

While I was doing this one, I was talking to my brother. He saw the final and liked it, so I said I’d make him one. I figured I could handle something a little more complex on time 2. His request was expected – he also has a usual theme that he requests on a regular basis, and it’s not flowers. I’ll give you a hint, his email signature is “I fear flat planets.”

Can anyone guess what mountain this is? If you follow the picture to Flickr, you will see, but if anyone can guess that would make me happy that I got it sort of right. The inspiration for my original pencil sketch was a great photo by birder7 I found on Flickr. This one also does well being backlit. An Jeremy, once I figure out the frame, I’ll send this to you.

Papercutting is fun, if a little hard on the fingers holding the X-acto knife. Next time, I’ll investigate using a thimble on my forefinger. All those tiny trees! The backgrounds are watercolors. I’m not sure if I’d like these as much if they weren’t transparent colors.

Since this wasn’t exactly the theme I had in mind – I have a scene in my head I’m not sure how to execute – I think I will try a couple more (once my finger recovers) and see if I can really manage to put on paper (or cut out of paper) what I was thinking of. Ooh! Just thought of another one too …