Crafting in Progress
How crafting allows me to be a quitter.
I have always been very attracted to crafting as a hobby. Creativity, colour, personal expression. Buying pretty crafting supplies. Creating a tangible piece of art (hopefully) by the end of a project.
I am not terribly artistic. I lack talent at drawing and can barely paint a wall, never mind a watercolour. But I like to putter about with colours and textures. So crafting, be it sewing, loom knitting or cross stitch, provides an outlet for visual expression.
I have a couple of cupboards in my basement stuffed full of textiles. Fabric, yarn, embroidery thread and sewing thread. There are enough elastics, fasteners, needles and ribbons to outfit a haberdashery. I have scrapbook paper, beads, wire and Mod Podge. As well as a collection of frames, molds and pillow stuffings. I am quite attached to my twenty five year old sewing machine that I purchased in college and don’t even think about touching my good fabric scissors!
And my library of patterns. Because that is the real draw of crafting. Someone else went to all the hard work of creating the blueprint for the finished creation. I just have to follow instructions.
How lovely. How relaxing. There are no deadlines other than the ones I set for myself. If I get tired, I just put my project away for another day (or year). Bead crochet too difficult? Stuff it to the back of the cupboard never to be seen again. Scrap booking not actually your thing? Give the paper to your kids for school assignments.
Crafting allows me to get out of my own head, but also up off of my back. And I am bad at that. I have too many things that are too high stakes (job, kids, mortgage) that require me to show up and perform. I don’t want to always do the hard thing or the necessary thing or the urgent thing. Sometimes I want to throw my hands up in the air and quit. But I don’t because people are counting on me.
So I craft. And it gives me an outlet for those creeping frustrations and crushing responsibilities. In this one area of life, I cut myself slack. If I hate a project, I stop. If it gets too difficult, I walk away. And I tell that critical voice in my head to shut up. Because nobody’s gonna die if I don’t finish that t-shirt dress before summer. Or ever.
Deb