Who dictates my creative process?

And a design sneak peek, etc..

Last year, around this time, about 11 months ago, I decided to finally take the plunge and start a newsletter. 

I was increasingly becoming aware that social media was not helping me foster the kind of connection I wanted to have with my fellow makers. Typically, their algorithms are designed to sustain user attention and keep their users glued to their platform. 🤳🏼 So how does this affect you and me? 

Even though you “follow” me, my content may not be made easily available to you, if the algorithm decides it isn’t good enough to sustain a sizable number of people’s attention. You, whether you prefer it or not, will be served content that is designed and targeted to keep your attention.

Social media wants you and me to be consumer and content maker, while that is not the kind of connection I had hoped to develop with you!

I am your fellow maker and learner, traveling the same creative path as you. I like to think of us like this.

📱Social media wants me to create content, while I like to have conversations and write letters.

🌄Social media wants me to behave like a brand or a magazine, a finished product, whereas I am a work in progress and always will be.

📸Social media wants me to put out beautiful pictures of my flawless work shot at a perfect angle in soft lighting. Sure, I try, but I don't always get it right. Now what?

Social media is doing a disservice to my creativity (and yours!)

To remain real in a creative journey, one needs to learn from and share failures as well as successes. A creative pursuit is often full of experiments that may not  always bring the desired results.

When I try to share my trials with you, my fellow maker, to seek your valuable feedback, social media often decides to pass judgment and doesn't even show the content to many of you.

Seeing only finished, polished pieces of work from me is not going to help you as much as watching me try, learn, experiment and grow. 

• Creativity thrives in feedback and collaboration.

• Creative work should sustain creativity in others.

And that’s why we need to be able to share it. 

Social media dictates my creative process

All creative people like to try something out of their comfort zone every now and then just for the heck of it. But if I post something spontaneous and it gets a lot of attention, I'm afraid I'll be pressured to keep doing the same thing just to keep the attention coming. That makes me hesitant to try anything new and spontaneous.

Social media also penalizes me for not creating the type of content the platform decides to prioritize. It feels almost abusive when I'm forced to spend hours of my time trying to fit my content into videos that I don't know will be seen.

In short, social media wants to dictate my creative process.

Instead I prefer to just write to you directly. In fact, I'm inspired to have this simple and plain communication from a knitter/maker to another about knitting, fiber, and techniques, maybe once a week? 💗

In this process, we can think through ideas that are important and useful to you and me, while slowly loosening the grip of social media on our creativity.

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I have been enjoying this little project bag from Eva @thebluerabbithouse. It makes me smile every time I pick it up. Oh, the shawl design will be up for testing soon as well. So consider this one a sneak peek! :)

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Here are some things I thought you might like

Just a small sketch based on a photo I had clicked about a year ago, hope you enjoy it.

Tree growing on wall?.

♡A Handknitter's Guide to Superwash Yarns♡ is my last week’s post. Hope you’ll find some useful ideas there.

Books I finished reading recently:

📖 Banyan Moon by Thao Thai

📖Rivers of London #1 by Ben Aaronovitch

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  https://www.ravelry.com/designers/kavitha-raman

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