Kneatly Knitting on a Saturday Knight

Something's happening!  I'm thinking about knitting...alot!  I've given up waiting for the perfect moment to get creative and decided to just do it.  In the middle of the living room.  With my kids running around and husband listening to NPR.  And it's working!   I'm unbelievably slow but taking pleasure in watching my neat little rows form.   Never mind that I showed Clay my "work" and he commented, "Wow, are there supposed to be all those holes?"  

Admittedly I'm already starting to get a little bored with a simple knit stitch and eager to learn how to pearl, want to try out different yarns, ready for the next step.  A real challenge now is to force myself to continue with my current progress, to get a good handle on how to do this one thing before tackling the next.  I imagine this may be an important part of any creative skill training - mastery of one skill before undertaking a new one.  I still think it's going to take me 10 years to actually come up with a scarf, and an ugly pink one at that (I really hate what I'm working with now).  Still, I'm enjoying the process.  It's nice to have something actively creative to do when I don't want to face my school work, house work, etc.  

P.S.

Should anyone actually happen to read this blog, do you have any idea how I can upload a brief video from my digital camera?   Just writing this is maxing out my technological skills.

Hmmmmm.... maybe I should find a new creative skill...

I will preface my discussion of what happened today with my creative "skill"  (perhaps "unskill" is more appropriate?) with an update from the weekend.

Met my friend on Sunday afternoon and spent 2 hours together knitting. One of the things I'm enjoying about this project is the exercise in metacognition -- thinking about my thinking. Here are my reflections on this exercise in creativity:

1)  The act of knitting felt completely foreign and awkward.  I had difficulty holding the needles appropriately, making stitches, keeping up with the skein of yarn, etc.   During all of this I was reflecting on our reading on neuroplasticity.  My brain had to be changing!   I surely must be laying new neural paths!  

2)  As suggested in our readings, it really is difficult to effectively problem solve without a solid foundational understanding of the area you're engaged in.  For example, I kept adding stitches.  I started out with 30 and was up to 42 on my last count!  How could this be happening???  I really have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, or how to correct it, as I still have such limited understanding and experience with all of this.  

3)  Despite my seemingly intense concentration on what I was doing, the repetitive motions really did allow my mind to wander.   I was impressed that my meager little brain could, indeed, have two completely separate "conversations" going on! 

4)  If I wait for my ideal "creative environment," I will NEVER, EVER, EVER engage in a creative skill consistently.  Quiet time, a space free of extraneous noise and distraction, where I can reflect on what I'm doing...this is my ideal environment to get creative.  Alas, my current life just does not consistently provide this!   I've got to be able to do something with small children running around me.

All of this brings me up to today.  HOW CAN I HAVE COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN HOW TO DO SOMETHING I LEARNED JUST TWO DAYS AGO????   I admittedly did no knitting yesterday and sat down tonight and have no idea how to do it!!!!   Back at square one.  My friend is bringing me by her 6 year old daughter's book and I'm hoping to get back on track.  As research suggests, you clearly must practice a skill intensively and repeatedly before it becomes automatic.  

Can I be creative?

I secretly long to be able to tear it up on the dance floor, and would LOVE if someone would pick me for something like Dancing With the Stars (even though I don't have cable and have never actually seen the show).  However, unless there are adult beverages served, I just don't see myself getting up on a table and putting on a show for our final presentations.   

Keeping this in mind,  I'm going to pick up something I tried to do rather unsuccessfully years ago:  knitting.   Back in 2005 I thought knitting seemed so cool -- you could take it anywhere, pick out fun yarn, and make gifts for people.  All the celebrities were knitting!  My husband presented me with knitting needles, two skeins of yarn, and a book on how to knit for Christmas and I spent the next few days cursing his name in intense frustration as I created a nasty mess of knots.   Desperate to master my new craft and make a really cute scarf I signed up for a class at the Georgia Center.  I stunk and lost interest and my knitting needles have been tucked away out of sight -- a shameful reminder of my inadequate craftiness -- for years!   

I'm enlisting the help of a friend, a master knitter (she made BOTH her kids hats in a few mere hours!  Gasp!) , to get me back on track.  My goal is to make something, even if it's just a pot holder, I'm proud of. 

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3...Did I do this right?