I love knitting things. Lots of things, different things, same things, unique things, things of my design and things that challenge my abilities or teach me new skills. I love it all.
Well, mostly I love it all.
There are a few things that sometimes slow me down. Not because they are technically challenging, but because I don’t like doing them. I dodn’t find them fun, engaging, entertaining or otherwise of value to my dancing monkey mind.
Personally, I don’t think linearly. Coloring straight lines and staying in them are not in my skillset. I bounce between things depending on what I need at the moment. Working on that garter stitch throw when I need calming. Making my way through the shaping when I need to gently focus on something outside my day-to-day. Navigating my way through the complex lace or rows with 3 colors when I need to pull my head out of my a**. My knitting is where I go to reset my brain, my attitude and my intentions.
While this means I make progress on multiple projects at a time, it also means I get stuck and sometimes replace a project rather than complete it. I asked myself where, when and why does this happen? At what point do I abandon something to the WIP (Work In Progress) pile?
Inevitably, the answer was the same: Projects got abandoned when I reached the point of having to do something I don’t find joy in doing. A prime example of the power of negative thinking…if I don’t think I will do it well or that I won’t like it, I simply won’t do it. I knit to find my joy.
How to fix this? How to downsize the WIP pile? How to keep myself from starting something new when I have a similar, pre-existing project languishing? How to get past the negative perception of the next steps?
Easy, sound-bite, marketing answer: Just do it. Thanks, Nike but that just isn’t enough here. We humans are much more complex than that. Our brains need engagement, purpose, entertainment…we are digging for that dopamine!
So, how to get it when looking at these pain points in a project?
Seek my joy and I will find it. Find the little things that I can love and wrap the unloved ones up in them.
Now, where to find those?!? I hear you asking. You’re right, it’s not as simple as just saying I’ll do it and the direction to take, I have to come up with practices that help me do it. Need to get to the ‘how?’. This is a battle with myself and I will need some support to win it.
I found two parts to the solution that, when used together, seem to let me move through these tasks with a positive feeling — before, during and after.
“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time” – Leo Tolstoy
The first part is competence, when I feel competent about my capabilities I am more likely to do them. Competence comes with time and practice. I have to do the thing to know how to do the thing. Doing it help me practice my patience, my focus and my skills.
The second is technically called ‘gamification’, I have to make it fun for myself. Need to ramp up my personal head games for this one. Engaging my creativity to find a way to do that feeds my joy.
I have some things that I know slow me down, so I’ll take a one of those and share how I approached it. Think about the ones you have (I know you have them) and how you can inject a little more joy into them. Hopefully, this will spark some ideas for you too.
Seaming — I found it frustrating at times for several reasons:
I struggled to find the right place to put the needle through — mostly on curly-edge selvage stitches.
I worried about tension — if I make it too tight, the seam will pucker, too loose and the seam will gap.
I felt slow — seaming with long threads led to tangles and sometimes fuzzed-up seaming yarn, short ones led to lots of end to weave in.
How to fix?
Competence: Set myself up for success by doing the prep I might need. Blocking large pieces is a must to smooth out the knitting and make that curly selvage more manageable. I use blocking wires run them down each side, in and out between the bars that will be used in the mattress stitch. This accomplishes 2 things: a) the spot where my needle goes through becomes more visible and b) the knitting lays flatter, more easily letting me adjust tension to match the rest of the body. There is no good reason to take shortcuts here. The goal is to minimize frustration while maximizing your JOY. Put aside any project deadlines and focus on the task at hand. I find I get better faster if I focus on the ways I am winning this mind battle.
Gamify it and Celebrate it: Here is where you have free rein to get goofy! Find something that makes you happy, makes you smile, makes you laugh, makes you wet your pants! All levels are good, find your joy.
For me, thinking of it like building my own little Frankenstein was the tipping point. Yes, I have yelled (in the appropriate voice), “It’s ALIIIIIIIVE!!!”. You can too. Don’t wait until all the seaming is done. One collar side seam about 8 rows tall deserves the declaration as much as a 28″ back. Plus it just feels fun! Go ahead, try it out, you know you want to.
I have to admit, the first time I did this, I was laughing so hard I did almost wet myself. There it was, a little 3″ cuff seam, sewn up, end woven in (leaving the full trimming of the tail until after washing/blocking, of course) and I did it:
The dog jumped up — looking at me very strangely. Came off the couch to see if mom was ok.
My teenage son came running out of his room, pausing his game!!! To see what had happened. I’m laughing so hard I struggled to tell him about my little seam. He shook his head, turned back to his room/game and said, “Sometimes you are so weird.” Perfect!
Go ahead. Try it. its really, really fun. Laughter really is the best medicine. It gets your brain that dopamine fix, it helps make you smarter and most importantly, you start looking for that next seam to finish so you can do it again!!
Bonus if you can annoy, embarrass or try the patience of your child. Huge mom points for that. Got the dog going too? More points!
What techniques do you use to build your own competence with challenging tasks?
What head games do you engage in to get yourself through those tasks that aren’t exactly your favorite?
What is your best “Annoyed my kid!” story?
Cheers!