Documenting the Past -Looking Forward

ScannedImageI found a little trip down memory lane today when my kids were pulling out photo albums. When I was a kid growing up, my mom use to create oil paintings. I have a couple in my home now, but they were and still are almost the only things on the walls of my parents’ home. She had been paining long before I was born, and I remember as a child flipping through a small photo album that she kept of all the paintings she had created, in a way it was her portfolio.

My first afghan

My first afghan

When I was in my late teens and early twenties, someone had asked about all the afghans I had made. At this point I was already over a decade of stitching and had made many finished items to my credit, but I thought about my mom “portfolio” and picked up my camera to document some of the work I had done. I was probably consistent with this for a few years, and since designing it has become important for me to do such. However when my kids pulled out my little “portfolio” photo album it was a little journey for me.

I know that not every piece is in that album, but the ones that are brought back memories. There were many wedding gifts, and baby showers, many birthdays, and thank yous. I knew where most of the afghans had found homes at, and a couple I could not quite place.

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35 different baby yarns make up this afghan of scraps and memories.

In a way it is amazing to look back and realize how prolific I have been in my creating. This little book may only represent a couple of years of work, but it fills many pages. I have a scrap afghan that represents this as well; it is a full size afghan made out of baby yarns. These baby yarns are the left over yarn from the numbers of baby afghans I have made, and if I even wonder how many babies have been wrapped in a blanket I made, I can get a starting point with the 35 different colors in the afghan. Even that was created nearly 20 years ago, so I know the number would have increased since then.

I guess as a maker I need to keep my hands moving and my mind designing, I guess it has always been a part of me, but it is only in looking back that I can see that. Only in taking stock in where I have been can I better see my journey forward.

Creativity- We all have it

ScannedImageI was sitting with a group of ladies the other day, and we were talking about work and kids, the normal things women seem to talk about, when someone made a comment that made my mind wonder. My friend stated that she was not creative. She is an educated woman, which does social work- case management, of families with children and issues of mental health concerns. A pretty daunting undertaking that needs a unique skill set to accomplish successfully, as she does.

She felt she lacked creativity because she doesn’t paint, or craft, or really do other things that highlight a preschool very well. I gave her a sideways look, and stated, “But, you are so creative with you approach to every family you encounter”.  This took her back a little.

Why is it that we so narrowly define what we can and cannot do? To only believe that creativity stems from the ability to craft well, really I feel, underscores our abilities. Just because we have strengths in other areas doesn’t make us any less creative in our endeavors. The way someone approaches cooking a meal can be very creative, the way another person engages a 10 year old to discover the joy of reading does not lack a creative component, or a researcher’s ability to find an answer to a problem plaguing society has to have a way of thinking outside the box.Paintbrush with Blue Paint

So maybe I am being a little nitpicky about the definition of “creative”, but I find too often, even in myself, we compliment others by setting limits on ourselves. “I could never do that”, is not a friendly phrase, really. I know I have used it myself, but when I hear my kids say it, it makes me shake my head. I correct them and let them know that the words they tell themselves are powerful, if you say you cannot do something, you never will. I tell them that if they tell themselves something is too hard, it always will be. So why as adults do we not listen to what we tell our children. We never want anyone to narrowly define what they are capable of, but we do it to ourselves.

Maybe I am more sensitive to this “creative” comment due to my current work undertaking. I have many people tell me that they could never come up with any ideas for things to crochet, that it is amazing that I can find some many different things to design. I understand their thoughts on this, before I began doing it, I thought it was amazing that someone could design more then 1 or 2 things ever. But if you look at it a little differently, if you give me a box of peaches and have to eat them all in a week (yes, this does happen in my rural life, after a week a case of peaches  don’t look nearly as appetizing), you get a little creative in what to do with them. Peach cobbler, peach pie, grilled peaches, peach salad, peaches in everyone’s lunch, peach jam, peaches and cream, peach bread, peach salsa, canned peaches, frozen peaches and dried peaches. Everyone gets a little creative with how to make the most out of what they have; same is true for my designs. I take it as a challenge to pick up a skein of yarn and find as many possible outcomes for its use. But now the harvest is pears…I am going to have to get a little creative with pears now.

MC900436905Creativity is in each of us, we just express it differently. Remember that next time you see the incredible work of someone, which is expressing their creativity in a different manner then yours. They are probably in awe of what you can do.