The title of this post When art becomes habit and habit becomes art, made me think of how folk art has often developed out of habits. Like collecting the family's old clothes to make a quilt. One sees that stack of clothes and starts thinking of how the prints and patterns might work together in a guilt. Certainly, some quilts are works of art! In the garden, we might start propping up the green beans with bamboo poles and they become quite attractive that way and one enjoys working in the garden just a little more for having done that.
Love the use of stitch markers to keep the knitting happening. I often use little gold safety pins to remind myself of pattern repeats and garment shaping. I also like to knit both sleeves at the same time whenever possible. I don't mine sewing sleeve seams if I can knit both sleeves at the same time.
My little trick to working towards the finished item, is to keep the finished piece image in mind. A picture of the sweater is usually near me as I knit. Somehow this negates my time spent getting there. I learned this quite accidently when I needed to have a lot of dental work done as a child. I wanted the work done, but it was not fun. Then one day, I told myself to just ignore everything until I was walking out the door of the dentist's office. It worked! I have been using this trick ever since when faced with an unpleasant or boring task.
Sandy, thank you so much for such an insightful comment! I never thought of that. Yes, the stack of collected clothes often leads to art. My twin aunts used to sew saree blouses for the neighborhood women, while I was growing up in India. My grandma used to collect all the leftover fabric and make large hand quilts out of them. Little gold safety pins can look rich and nice. :) Ahh!!! Visualizing end results is another amazing way to convince the brain. Did you also hear a mental applause when you walked out of that dentist's office? I would. 🙃
Twin aunts! That sounds like fun! Nice to think of them and your grandmother doing that needlework. Love the idea of mental applause for accomplishments! I will work on that. 🤩
Got to love a visual strategy! Despite this being a very tech digital age, lots of my students at uni (including young students) really find it helps to 'make it physical, make it visible' pinning big colourful encouraging things to their walls (like the session notes we jointly produce). I love the idea of colourful stitch markers to get through sleeves!
Oh, thank you for sharing this Lisa! Absolutely. There is something about physical, visible cues and activities. I am so grateful for the chance to be alternating tactile and knowledge work in what I pursue.
Oh! and I wanted to mention that I put a little stitch marker on my sock this morning, because - well this post was rolling around in my mind! It helps!!
I use a physical notice board and post it notes for my weekly planning. I’ve not tried pretty stitch markers for sleeve island before though. It has to be done! And...now I need more pretty progress keeper stitch markers! 🤷♀️
Oh.. physical post it notes on a notice board sounds more appealing than a my scribbles on various notebooks. Finally I switched to Apple Notes for all kind of todo-lists and notes. I try to keep it as organized as possible. Oh, The colorful bulb type stitch markers are my favorites. Those were originally called coil-less safety pins, I believe.
I’ve ordered some colourful bulb ones and some alphabet ring markers. I love my notice board! I use Apple Notes too as it works seamlessly across devices.
When I was test knitting Anne Hanson's cable pullover recently, she had mentioned to mark every decrease and inadvertently I placed different coloured markers and it was a happy sight I have to agree.:) And I also finished it on time. :)
I love this idea of marking decreases on the sleeves. It solves so many issues at once! That is also one of my favorite books and I recommend it often. I was thinking about the difference between routine and habit - I have an evening routine of either knitting, crocheting or embroidery - I suppose it is my habit too. Thank you!
You mean Watchmen? I am loving it. Routine and habit - how interesting. It never occurred to me to find the difference. Should try to look it up.
ETA: Ah, you mean Atomic Habits. I am so glad to hear you are a fan too. I have returned to the book 3 times so far and keep discovering something new every time. It is brilliant.
The title of this post When art becomes habit and habit becomes art, made me think of how folk art has often developed out of habits. Like collecting the family's old clothes to make a quilt. One sees that stack of clothes and starts thinking of how the prints and patterns might work together in a guilt. Certainly, some quilts are works of art! In the garden, we might start propping up the green beans with bamboo poles and they become quite attractive that way and one enjoys working in the garden just a little more for having done that.
Love the use of stitch markers to keep the knitting happening. I often use little gold safety pins to remind myself of pattern repeats and garment shaping. I also like to knit both sleeves at the same time whenever possible. I don't mine sewing sleeve seams if I can knit both sleeves at the same time.
My little trick to working towards the finished item, is to keep the finished piece image in mind. A picture of the sweater is usually near me as I knit. Somehow this negates my time spent getting there. I learned this quite accidently when I needed to have a lot of dental work done as a child. I wanted the work done, but it was not fun. Then one day, I told myself to just ignore everything until I was walking out the door of the dentist's office. It worked! I have been using this trick ever since when faced with an unpleasant or boring task.
Sandy, thank you so much for such an insightful comment! I never thought of that. Yes, the stack of collected clothes often leads to art. My twin aunts used to sew saree blouses for the neighborhood women, while I was growing up in India. My grandma used to collect all the leftover fabric and make large hand quilts out of them. Little gold safety pins can look rich and nice. :) Ahh!!! Visualizing end results is another amazing way to convince the brain. Did you also hear a mental applause when you walked out of that dentist's office? I would. 🙃
Twin aunts! That sounds like fun! Nice to think of them and your grandmother doing that needlework. Love the idea of mental applause for accomplishments! I will work on that. 🤩
Got to love a visual strategy! Despite this being a very tech digital age, lots of my students at uni (including young students) really find it helps to 'make it physical, make it visible' pinning big colourful encouraging things to their walls (like the session notes we jointly produce). I love the idea of colourful stitch markers to get through sleeves!
Oh, thank you for sharing this Lisa! Absolutely. There is something about physical, visible cues and activities. I am so grateful for the chance to be alternating tactile and knowledge work in what I pursue.
Oh! and I wanted to mention that I put a little stitch marker on my sock this morning, because - well this post was rolling around in my mind! It helps!!
Aww!! Thank you for sharing with me. Yes, it makes the plain vanilla sock go a bit faster.
I use a physical notice board and post it notes for my weekly planning. I’ve not tried pretty stitch markers for sleeve island before though. It has to be done! And...now I need more pretty progress keeper stitch markers! 🤷♀️
Oh.. physical post it notes on a notice board sounds more appealing than a my scribbles on various notebooks. Finally I switched to Apple Notes for all kind of todo-lists and notes. I try to keep it as organized as possible. Oh, The colorful bulb type stitch markers are my favorites. Those were originally called coil-less safety pins, I believe.
I’ve ordered some colourful bulb ones and some alphabet ring markers. I love my notice board! I use Apple Notes too as it works seamlessly across devices.
When I was test knitting Anne Hanson's cable pullover recently, she had mentioned to mark every decrease and inadvertently I placed different coloured markers and it was a happy sight I have to agree.:) And I also finished it on time. :)
Yayyyyy!!!! How awesome is that Vidya! I love seeing your projects.
I love this idea of marking decreases on the sleeves. It solves so many issues at once! That is also one of my favorite books and I recommend it often. I was thinking about the difference between routine and habit - I have an evening routine of either knitting, crocheting or embroidery - I suppose it is my habit too. Thank you!
You mean Watchmen? I am loving it. Routine and habit - how interesting. It never occurred to me to find the difference. Should try to look it up.
ETA: Ah, you mean Atomic Habits. I am so glad to hear you are a fan too. I have returned to the book 3 times so far and keep discovering something new every time. It is brilliant.
Now I need some prettier stitch markers! I agree that visual cues are wonderful for helping us to stay motivated and keeping up habits. :)
Hope you get your hands on some soon. Those bulb type colorful markers are my favorites. 😁