Sunday, April 26, 2009

Worlds Collide

The collision is between my fiberarts world and my business life. There have been several instances where I was doing test knitting professionally, and still do, but It's not my "real" job. You know, mentoring professionals, consulting in various areas of business. The line is blurring more and more these days. I felt it most recently when I ended up cross posting from this blog to my biz blog for my interview with Brenda Dayne.

More and more I'm working with fiber arts professionals and that's a great thing. I know the market, it's strengths and limitations. Talking with non-fiberarts folks has given me the most clarity on what we're all doing. People ask me how many people are knitting. Once I get past the most basic points on the history of fiberarts that have brought up to this exact time in history, then we come to a really common question:

What is this all about? Is it a JUST a "hobby"?

A Hobby? I find myself taking offense at the term. It seems like something cheap and insignificant and "old-timey". Within me, I feel a passion. A drive to discover the very best in knitwear design right now. What makes this different than just someone looking at a fashion magazine and saying, "I was to buy that" is that I am able to have the instructions right there in a magazine, book or web tutorial. I make that fabulous garment. I own a part of it in a way that's very different.

As I write this, I realize this was my experience in making music, in playing the piano. Not in all ways, but in this way: When I read music, it's like listening to the composer's thoughts. I have a video of myself explaining this to my niece when she was just a wee one. I was so sincere. It was so important for her to understand. Reading a pattern is like listening to the designer's thoughts. I can recreate the object based on their charts and words, like notes on a page.

Now I surround myself with people who appreciate many of the same things I do. When I do come across someone who wants to understand what this thing "I do " is...well...mixed results. It's a difficult thing to explain why I would spend an entire weekend knitting one pair of socks, hour after house, like this weekend. I can say it's grounding, that it's something beautiful I get to wear. It's more than that. It's how I'm hard-wired. It's what I did as a child. It's what I have always done. It's what I consider to be essential to my existance. I will always do this and it is the one thing I have no doubts about.
This is something I knit from yarn that I spun from cashmere/merino fiber.These are the socks that I knit just this weekend.
This is part of the top that I started crocheting last Summer and finished this week.
These are socks that I finished this week that were started long ago.
The embroidered motif at the top was part of a large white shirt that I embroidered all over and I did another one as well. That was last weekend.

3 comments:

Marcia DeCoster said...

Love the pink neckerchief! spinning, sigh, I was so not good at that, I think I'm too hyper yet....

Anonymous said...

I get it. the whole passion thing. Aren't we lucky? To find a passion in life is such a gift. My biggest fear is having enough time to do all that I want to do on this earth.
Michelle

sara : 5 o'clock crows said...

I love what you say about trying to explain to people why you do what you do. I've been frustrated by that on so many occasions, the baffled looks, or "but why????" I'll have to remember that- I think you put it perfectly.

I'm coveting your pink neckerchief, btw. I made one in blue as a gift a while back and wasn't thrilled with it. Now I'm feeling inspired to try again, this time for me.