Making Peace & Enjoying Craft During the Holidays
In late November, I spent about 10 days in the snowy, quiet, winter wonderland of the Yukon, and it got me thinking about the benefits of slowing down the season.
Same Time Every Year….
It happens every year. One moment, I am happily making my way through fall, enjoying the autumn leaves, making Halloween costumes, and preparing for my son’s birthday (on November 11th), and then boom… It’s the holiday season.
Family, Work & The Holidays
My kids are still young (9 and 12) and love, love, love the holidays. My kids started playing holiday music in the car on November 10th, and my daughter told me she couldn’t wait for Christmas to arrive. She believes she’s gamed the system with Santa and wants to see if she’s right. For the kids, the holidays can never be full enough or come sooner.
knit with SweetGeorgia Mohair Silk DK.
It’s a blessing that we have a family calendar that gets packed with festive gatherings and events with friends and family, but we also have a big schedule of activities and holiday logistics (including last-minute holiday shopping).
Plus, since we take the two weeks off from the studio, between Christmas and New Year’s to spend time with our families, we have about four weeks of work compressed into two weeks.
As a Maker….
And for a maker, there is always an added layer to this season. I tend to view my life through the lens of what I can create — whether that is finished objects for myself, or handmade holiday gifts for friends and family. I feel both a distinct pressure to produce, and the imposing weight of urgency. What can I make? What can I make right now??
Accomplishments
Earlier in the fall, I was thinking about this idea of “Winter Arc”, where you focus really heavily on pushing forward on goals of self-improvement over October, November, and December, so that you could already be a “more improved” version of yourself by January 1st. But I think a lot of that focus is placed on the end product. What projects did you make? How many did you make? What skills did you learn? How many new techniques have you acquired? How are YOU a more effective and efficient maker? It feels like so much pressure on what you have “achieved”…
I completely felt this way with my Girdwood sweater project. I had started spinning the yarn last fall, then plied it, and knit it into a colourwork yoke by hand. And then, I had to hang it on the knitting machine. I made a whole slew of mistakes. I divided my yoke into the wrong number of stitches, so my front and back were too narrow, and my sleeves were too big. Then, I knit my second sleeve, complete with the hand-knit stranded colourwork, but I had carried along the wrong colour, so I had to rip it all back and redo it. And it was just one thing after another… I honestly started to feel really bad about myself… like maybe I wasn’t good enough at this… Maybe I was too lazy or too disorganized or too easily distracted… maybe I’m just not capable of making something like this.
Seasonally Slowing Down
But what if we look at it from a different perspective? What if knitting, crocheting, spinning, and weaving weren’t just about the item at the end — the finished sock, the blocked shawl — but entirely about the feeling of doing that craft?
Notice the Feeling
Maybe it was all those long walks in the Yukon snow that reminded me how I could just take a breath and enjoy the moment. If you rush, you’ll miss the incredible beauty and peace of just watching the snow fall around you. You have to pause and notice the feeling. As we head into the thick of the season, I try to remind myself that craft was never meant to be another source of stress; it is meant to be a sanctuary.
woven with SweetGeorgia CashLuxe Fine and SweetGeorgia Silk Mist.
When the world is frenetic, chaotic, and feels like everything is rushing around, our craft offers a physical anchor. There is a profound, grounding magic in the tactile experience of working with yarn and fibre. Simply feeling the yarn move through your fingers, feeling the wooden shuttle passing between your hands, or even just listening to the rhythmic hum of a spinning wheel… How does it feel? How does it make you feel? This movement is meditation, and it can be solace during this season.
Handmade Gifts
One thing that is very, very difficult for me is giving myself some grace during this time. It feels like, if I haven’t made a handmade gift for someone, then I was slacking off or too slow. My self-talk is generally terrible, and I have been intentionally reframing my self-talk by trying to think of what a friend would say to me. A friend wouldn’t tell me, “Oh man, you’re just not doing enough… why couldn’t you finish that project for the end of the year?”
Instead, a good friend would show compassion and say something like, “You’re doing great, and that project you are working on is lovely. I know you’re putting a lot of care and attention into it, so I can totally understand why it’s taking time. Don’t stress yourself over finishing it in a rush”.
Really give yourself permission to pause. If a handmade holiday gift is causing you anxiety rather than joy, put it away. Wrap up the WIP (Work In Progress) in a beautiful box with a loving note that says, “Coming Soon—made with extra time and care.” Your loved ones want you to be happy and present, not sleep-deprived and stressed over a project you are making for them!
Taking Time to….
Enjoy Our Craft
Consider casting on something entirely for yourself… A plain stockinette sock, a garter stitch cowl, something that requires no charts and no math. Do it just for the comfort of the stitch. For me, I have been quietly knitting away on a hat designed by Greta Cornejo. Just a couple of rounds here and there. I’m just enjoying the feeling of making stitches. And I know that when my carpal tunnel acts up, and my wrists start to feel cranky… I just put down the knitting and rest. It’s no big deal, no pressure. It will get done when it’s done, whenever that is.
And so coming back to my Girdwood sweater, I finally finished it (when I stopped talking to myself so negatively). And I thought, “Hey… I am going to slow down and notice what I’m feeling. I’m going to notice the colours more. I’m going to enjoy each stitch and each row that I knit, whether it’s by hand or on the machine. I’m going to just enjoy the crafting process, enjoy looking at these colours and the fuzzy texture. I just love it, no matter how long it takes”.
Enjoy Colour
At SweetGeorgia, we believe in the power of colour to transform and lift your spirits. In the grey days of winter, bringing vibrant, beautiful colours into your hands can help spark some warmth and light in your life.
And you don’t need to knit a complex stranded colourwork garment to experience this… Simply looking at a skein of hand-dyed yarn can boost your mood. It’s visual joy. Just sorting through your stash and imagining possible colour combinations can bring you some peace and joy without making a single stitch.
Enjoy the Process
As I’ve said many times, one of my greatest hurdles to working on projects is just winding the yarn… so maybe during this time of slowing down, you could just wind your skeins into balls, and enjoy the process of watching the colours emerge from the yarn. Maybe knit a swatch with a couple of yarns held together. Simply enjoy the colour and the texture in your hands. You don’t need a finished project to validate your identity as a maker… simply enjoying the materials, colours, and texture is part of the craft.
Rest & Relax
The days will go by, and the holidays will arrive, whether the ends are woven in or not. Cookies will be baked, holiday dinners will be eaten, gifts will be exchanged, and the new year will come. And on January 1st, you will still be a maker regardless of what physical objects were created by your hand.
I encourage you to take 15 minutes just for yourself this week. Not to finish a project, but simply to sit with a good cup of coffee (or tea), play with your yarn, and just breathe.
From all of us at SweetGeorgia, we wish you a season of peaceful moments, vibrant life-giving colours, and the grace to let go of perfection and production. Happy crafting and enjoy the crafting process!
The post Making Peace & Enjoying Craft During the Holidays appeared first on SweetGeorgia Yarns.
Comments
Post a Comment