CREATIVITY

I believe the key to creativity lies in being certain that whatever you’re creating comes from your personal inner desire. Whether you’re writing, spinning, knitting, painting, sculpting, etc. if it comes from your inspiration and is done because it’s what you want to do (underline “want”), it’ll be a success in the purest sense of the word. If it’s done in the hopes it’ll please someone else so that they’ll admire it (or you), or purchase it, it’s pretty much doomed; it may come out “okay” but rarely will it be the kind of fantastic that you had in mind. In fact there’s a good chance it’ll never even get finished.
And if the idea is innovative and you try to create it with some faceless person lurking in the shadows, holding a fist full of money, you’re in for a nightmarish experience: is the idea any good? Will anybody like it? Is it too weird? Am I too weird?!..and on and on.
I did a battle of sorts after spinning a batt I received from COOLLIGHT on Etsy. The yarn decided it wanted to be a baby sweater. Every time I looked at it all I could see was a baby sweater. I had a limited amount of the colorful hand spun but was certain I had enough for some little sleeves. And what about the body? There were lots of colors in the batt to choose from and I knew I didn’t want to use any commercial yarn. That’s when I realized how much fun it would be to make it my own design by dyeing and spinning some of my super soft mohair to complete it.
During the process I had to keep reminding myself that I wouldn’t think about what I’d do with the end product (all the babies in our family are big people now) but instead would just enjoy my project each step of the way – which I did.
In the end I listed the sweater in my Etsy shop - even though it’s a complete departure from what I’ve been selling.
To visit my shop go to: www.recklessspinner.etsy.com