{"id":9066,"date":"2017-11-30T06:00:30","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T14:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tincanknits.com\/?p=9066"},"modified":"2020-07-08T11:17:29","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T18:17:29","slug":"knitting-and-grit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.tincanknits.com\/?p=9066","title":{"rendered":"Stitch by Stitch: Knitting and Grit"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the things I\u2019ve developed through knitting is grit; for me this means an ability to tackle larger, longer-term projects, and persevere, despite setbacks, until they\u2019re done.<\/p>\n

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Keeping my eyes on the distant prize, working through blocks, and bringing projects to completion doesn’t come easily to me, and I\u2019ll be the first to admit that I have still got a lot of learning to do! Yet, with Alexa by my side (metaphoric cattle prod in hand) together we have managed to complete several book projects<\/a> which have taken months or years from our conception, through gradual stitch-by-stitch and word by word development, to print.<\/p>\n

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Every project starts with a small beginning. Knitting projects proceed slowly, stitch by stitch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Grit as behavioural trait has been recently popularized in part by the work of Angela Lee Duckworth; you can listen to her popular Ted Talk here<\/a>. It is a bundle of learnable behaviours or orientations including motivation to work hard over the long term toward goals, willingness to stretch and possibly fail (courage), the ability to bounce back after setbacks (resilience), and belief that your actions matter.<\/p>\n

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After making 6-8 smaller swatches when designing the Chromatic sweater<\/a>, then got this far into the final knit before deciding that the blue tones had to go. So I ripped back and began again. See the final result here<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I feel that grit and endurance is something that knitters cannot help but gradually gain, because knitting is such a SLOW way to arrive at anything useful! If you keep up with it, finishing one project and casting on the next, you can’t help but teach yourself that YES, stitch by stitch I CAN tackle this hat, new technique, sock, shawl, cardigan, king-size bedspread, college degree, or even parenthood!<\/p>\n

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The number of stitches and hours that Alexa and I put in to bring you this bundle of blankets<\/a> was not insignificant! Blankets are one of the largest and most satisfying projects I’ve made.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This week I’ve survived a household full of the cold, and also the desperate last few days of my month-long novel project<\/a>. I bet there are a few of you out there who signed up to knit a sweater in a month during NaKniSweMo<\/a>, right? I hope you\u2019re ready to bind off today. I\u2019m pleased to say that I have just this morning written the final words \u2018The End\u2019 on my 50,000 word novel.<\/p>\n

Working on that project, I REALLY enjoyed the daily chunks of time I dedicated to writing, putting it ahead of pretty much everything else, generally getting most of my daily 1700 words onto the paper before 7:30 am. Despite a hectic schedule of nearly full-time work, plus two toddlers to get out to nursery then home, fed, books read, and to bed every day, 1.5-2 hours per day was actually possible (and to my surprise, almost entirely pleasurable!). Making it a daily necessity meant that it simply got done, and hour or two at a time.<\/p>\n

This creative marathon finished, below are a few of the things that I struggled with, which may relate to your own knitting or creative work.<\/p>\n

nasty voice of SELF DOUBT<\/h2>\n

Nasty Little Voice of Self Doubt:<\/strong> \u201cThis is a stupid, pointless project. It\u2019s rubbish and you\u2019ll never share it with anybody anyway, so what\u2019s the point?\u201d or “Geez this is embarassingly BAD, what were you thinking?!”<\/p>\n

Emily:<\/strong> “Surely this isn’t any less pointless than an hour or two of Netflix, and it’s way more fun!”and “If I don’t try, if I don’t write a first draft or knit a first prototype, I’ll never make anything beautiful or meaningful!”<\/p>\n

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There are elements of this yoke prototype (which I worked as part of the Strange Brew KAL<\/a>) that I didn’t love, but despite what I felt were imperfections, I decided to push through to completion. Finishing a rough draft can be more valuable than aiming for perfection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, if you’re struggling with uncertainty over a knitting or design project, you may be able to work on it WHILE watching Netflix… possibly an even bigger win-win?!<\/p>\n

The SLOG in the middle<\/h2>\n

Oh the middle. Self doubt can cripple you there (see above) as can the sheer daily slog of getting the work done, bit by bit. For me the middle of the novel writing was a bit like knitting the stockinette body of a man-sized seamless jumper in the round. You can the time in, but sometimes it feels so pointless, as the work grows a meager inch per day. Keep going! Find ways to distract yourself and celebrate every of forward progress you make.<\/p>\n

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The difficulty of FINISHING<\/h2>\n

I find finishing things VERY difficult. The novel project has been harder to finish than many, but I honestly come up against this difficulty with all but my simplest and least-demanding knitting projects too. The piece below (check out the finished cowl here<\/a>) languished for at least a year!<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Alexa and Emily (@tincanknits)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n