I am sitting in my sunny, bright family room feeling incredibly smug.
Today I finished something.
Now this may not seem like much of an accomplishment, but for me, it’s major.
You see, I love the thrill of starting a new project. Doesn’t matter what it is…a painting, a weaving, something I’m knitting or stitching. I was the same at work. Loved starting something new. Back in the old days of pen and paper, the blank notepad, the blank paper in the typewriter called to me….my heart just went pitta-pat.
Develop that plan, consider all the strategies, define the audience. Start writing.
Deadline driven. That was me. And I sailed closed to the wind in finishing things. Never missed a deadline, but I could be distracted, then have to light a fire under my creativeness.
At home, much to Ken’s dismay, I had (still have) the attention span of a gnat. Many of you will have heard me say that about myself. When we travel, Ken has taken to calling me Mags. No “Margaret” is hidden in my name or in my heritage. It stands for magpie, his version of that gnat, his way of laughing at me, with great love, as I flit from one bright object to another, not necessarily having to possess, but loving to look.
However you define it, this habit attaches itself to everything I do. I decide to clean out a drawer that needs attention for example. Two tea towels in I find a thinga-ma-jig that I have been searching for forever, and I need urgently to deal with it, so I walk away from the deconstructed drawer, with its contents spread all over the kitchen, to the bathroom where I put the thinga-ma-jig away, but in the meantime, as I walk by my loom room I notice something that needs attention. Six hours later I have attended to a dozen small tasks, but the deconstructed drawer is still spread all over the kitchen and Ken wants to make supper. Ooops. I guess everything will just get shoved back into the drawer and I will deal with it another day.
My crafting fun has kept me sane in this pandemic. I have always loved creating things out of other things, but being socially conscious and not visiting with friends and family except on face time or the telephone, not getting to movies or going out for dinner, these constraints have enhanced crafting’s appeal. I have an entire room devoted to my loom and my wool stash. And I am surrounded by a small area in the family room, well maybe it’s more significant than small space in the family room where I keep my current craft projects. Right now I have four stitching projects two sketch books, and five knitting projects in my little corner. Oh yes, and two crochet projects. This in in addition to the pictures from my daily calendar I am collecting for future painting, the i-Phone for dummies book I have so I can try and become less incompetent on my phone, my Moleskin note book I collect words in, along with other lists, like the play list for my celebration of life, and my notebook for collecting quotes. A magnifying lamp on a stand and a floor stand to hold stitching projects add to the joy of my corner. And of course my pens (but only one of my many fountain pens) and pencils go without saying as well as highlighters for marking patterns, paint pens, dry erase pens, and several colouring books and the double-tipped special brush tipped felt pens for colouring in them. (Not to mention novels and magazine) I love my little corner of the family room.
But I digress. My loom room also contains my many projects. I have two file drawers full of patterns I have collected for potential making. These patterns range over the crafts of knitting, crocheting, painting and drawing, beaded embroidery and beading (ie making jewelry). With my love of pens I have to admit to trying my hand at calligraphy too. I have all I need to teach myself to make bobbin lace. This is a carry-over from a work-related visit to Nova Scotia years ago where I was inspired by the cottage industry crafts there. I even tried my hand at their version of rug hooking.
And then I have to admit to the dozens and dozens (maybe more)of started projects. These range mostly over the various kinds of stitching as well as knitting, painting and beaded jewelry making. Many have been started and put aside for legitimate reasons….I didn’t like how they were turning out out and just haven’t deconstructed the project bag….some for not so legitimate reasons….they got put aside because the excitement of starting something, or more accurately something ELSE overcame the excitement I had when I started.
My daily knitting newsletter introduced me to an acronym. As a communications person, I hated acronyms and abbreviations. But this one captured my imagination. Sable…..Stash acquired beyond life expectancy. My stash exceeds possibly my great-grand daughter’s life expectancy. I wonder if there is an acronym for unfinished projects. I’ve seen some, but none that have the “beyond life expectancy” scope. WIP — Works In Progress — is one I am working at an extension to. So far I have WIPLASH — Works In Progress Languishing Alone, Solitary, Humble. Forced and artificial, I know, but maybe inspiration will come and redeem it or refine it.
I have recently started exercising a bit of discipline over these unruly started projects. Or at least trying. I am determined to pick up a started project and finish it before I start a new one. Two of the stitching projects I mentioned a couple of paragraphs back fall into that category.
And the project I finished recently falls into that category. I bought the wool so long ago, I forget when it was. I was still working….and I just passed the eighth anniversary of my retirement. And I think I remember what deputy was in office when I bought the wool and two more followed him. So i think I am safe in saying that this project was underway for well more than a decade.
Well, I was darned close. I just found a date on the pattern, 2013.
So excitement reigns. On two levels. I finished something nearly a decade in the making and it looks good. And because I finished an old project, i get to start a new one. Yay.
Now, what will it be? And can I limit it to one new project. Somehow, given my history, I doubt it.
Some of my recently finished projects.
