Navigating the rhythms of formal and creative inspiration, another hat and stitch diaries

taken at the Japanese Tea Garden in Seattle some years ago

I often find myself swaying between the pulses of energy, balancing the demands of formal work and the calling of creative endeavors. Last week, I had a big surge of motivation and inspiration for my formal work* but that left very little space for my creative endeavors. Little space for play. 

*I say formal work, to distinguish between work and everything that we do for other reasons than pure enjoyment and play. I like to make this distinction because there is more work that we do every day, than our jobs, from taking care of our home, to taking care of others, to working on a dream we want to achieve. All this is still work, even if we are not paid or recognized for it. 

As I grow wiser, I feel like my energy is a delicate thread, woven into the time I invest in my various pursuits. I feel like meetings, deadlines, and the incessant hum of productivity can drain my reservoirs, leaving me parched for inspiration. Yet, paradoxically, these formal pursuits fill me with a sense of accomplishment and purpose. I love my formal job and very grateful for it. 

Even when I am creative, my energy flows differently depending on the type of craft and project I am working on. If I am working on a sewing project, for example, I tend to be consumed by it and forget time and place and sew in a fervor towards accomplishment. Knitting, on the other hand, is calm and slow. A restorative force that replenishes what the demands of formal work may deplete. There’s this quiet joy in the slow unfurling of fabric, created loop by loop. 

Each stitch becomes a metaphor for patience, perseverance, and the beauty of process. Knitting can be a sanctuary, a place that offers solace amid life’s storms and thunders. Knitting teaches me to be present and savoring the simple act of making something.

So I take all space I can make for knitting, cherish it and feel grateful for it.

What I am making

Another improvised hat

I wanted an easy and simple project and made this DK hat. I loved working with this yarn, La Rinconada, by Wooldreamers. It's undyed, organic merino, it's round and light and such a pleasure to move on the needles. There are the leftovers from my vest and I still have a little bit, enough for fingerless mittens, I think.

I knitted the band first in 2 by 2 rib, then increased 25% of the stitches to give it the almost-a-beret look, then, once the crown was long enough, I decreased rapidly, on each row, in points of the total number of stitches, divided by 8.

This should be simple to replicate on any gauge. You'll knit a swatch to get the gauge, which will tell you how many stitches you need to cast on for the size of your head. And then you just apply the simple recipe.

Example:

Gauge = 18st per 10 cm, thus 1 cm = 1.8 stitches

Head circumference minus 2 cm to get some negative ease = 56 cm (this is supposedly a medium head size) minus 2 cm = 54 cm

So to get a headband of 54 cm I need to cast on 54 * 1.8 = 97 stitches

So your pattern would be something like this:

• Cast on 97 st, rib 2 by 2 for 4 cm with smaller needles

• Change needles for crown, knit one row

• Increase round: K4, M1 to end (24 st increased, new total = 121)

• Knit for 12 cm, then start decreasing

• Decrease round, K14, k2tog to end. All following rounds until you run out of stitches: K13, k2tog to end, then on the following round K12, k2 tog to end.

• After I pulled the stitches, closing the hat, I made a small icord.

Book of the week

Slow Stitch: Mindful And Contemplative Textile Art by Claire Wellesley-Smith

This book is like someone saying to you: now take the biggest breath of fresh air your took all day and observe how you feel. It invites you to slow down and put down stitches, as a creative, therapeutical, daily practice.

I loved the idea of stitched journals, of taking just a few minutes a day to slowly and mindfully practice your craft. I also liked the idea of reusing materials and that projects are fluid proposals rather than cookie cut tasks.

If you need some inspiration to slow down and cherish the process of your craft, I think this would be a good book to pick up.

May your days be filled with mindful moments. Until next time, be present.

Sky