A Personal Manifesto
We are all many, many things. For me the list includes woman, mother, knitter, Christian, designer, tester, white American, animal-lover, cook, dreamer, cheerleader, pot-stirrer, bear-poker and many other things.
As I go through this time of building my knitwear design business and defining who I am and what my contributions will be in the community, it makes me stop and think. Who am I in this role? Who do I want to be? What can I share that shows me as I am? How do I feed my creativity in this space?
Big questions.
Can’t answer all the big questions in one little post. This was too daunting a task.
Then I remembered:
Q: How do you eat an elephant?
A: One bite at a time!
So here goes bite #1, a manifesto for the knitwear designer in me.
I will share designs that can be knit successfully. It is important that my community can trust that my work and making sure that they can reproduce the patterns effectively is key. There are no barriers to becoming a knitwear designer, there are no standards or qualifications required. There is no gate to keep. We need to make our own standards so knitters can trust the work we do and that the money they spend will return value to them.
This means my patterns will be tech edited and test knit for all paid patterns. If there has been no tech edit or test knit, that will be shared in the description and those patterns will be offered for free.
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.
— Albert Einstein
I will give credit to those who help the process. None of us is an island. In this world, there is no such thing as a solo act.
In my knitwear design life, I listen to many voices and seek counsel from the trusted. I have hands to hold when I am fearful and hands that pull me upward and onward when I am tired. These are the ones that guide and correct my actions, raising my path and keeping my eyes on the possibilities. They help me find my best self.
This means they will be named. In my patterns, my posts and anywhere else they have had an influence on me. My website has a page for Connections. This is also where I will name them, both those active in my current process and those from the past, all who have been sherpas for my journey.
I do not fear mentioning someone else in this space. Too often we think we can’t or shouldn’t because it will take attention away from ourselves and our work. Sorry, but that’s just childish, ego-centric bullsh**.
Rising tides raise all boats.
Be a tide.
I will engage with my community. This one will be a bit difficult for me. Far too often and for far too long I have sat on the sidelines and watched events unfold. It has to end.
This means I will speak when I see a need for my voice. It means I will reach out and offer support. When arguments erupt I will work to quell the anger and focus discussions on the solutions. I will meet the harsh voices with calm and ask probing questions, seeking to understand before voicing my support or condemnation. I will not let my own anger feed the flames. I will not harm others with my words or deeds.
I will seek to include others in the nature of my work. To see the simplicity in the complex, the patterns in the systems, the nature of the piece, the yarn, the joy in the knit.
The need for connection and community is primal, as fundamental as the need for air, water and food.
— Dean Ornish
I will loose my creative self. Fear is a cruel master, Perfection is the enemy. Progress and transparency are healing. They lead to growth for all they touch. Be the change, right? This one is complicated and it has deep implications I am still exploring.
I am scaring the hell out of myself here. I live with all the same fears and anxieties we all have about the response we may receive when we are truly seen. I may not always hit this mark, but I will always remind myself it is there and it is the goal. I will offer the same to my community. Time to get to the real me. I want to see the real you too.
This means that I will reach into my creative storehouse and bring out all those long-hidden gems I had stashed in the past. I will let them inspire new things for the future. I will feed those ideas the daylight they need and help them grow. Then I will share them.
I will seek to share all I know in a way that is accessible to anyone who seeks it. I will take the time to explain both the ‘how-to’ and the ‘why?’, even when it isn’t convenient. I will share the origin stories, including when they show I failed. I will engage in discussions, serious self-reflection and turn those thoughts into action through my art. I will be present and open and honest. And I will let these pieces of myself go out into the big, scary world. And I will trust them to their fate anyway.
I will let the yarn and the design take its shape and I will share both the success and the failures. One cannot come to being without the other. I will give options and modifications, allowing the intrepid to create their own path.
I can see the simplicity in the complexity, the clear, small elements that make up the whole. It is my intention to break those things down and share what I see.
Making the simple complicated is commonplace;
making the complicated simple, awesomely simple,
that’s creativity.
— Charlie Mingus
Alright, that’s enough. I’ll come down off my philosophical soapbox and get conversational again.
These are the targets I have for my knitwear design business, my website and blog, my presence, my brand. This is where it starts. I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.
Join me? Share some of your own personal manifesto items, I’d love to hear them and I promise to be listening.