Getting back your crojo
- Leanne
- Feb 1, 2019
- 3 min read
Hello again! I hope you’re all having a wonderful endless-Monday-that-is-January. In hindsight perhaps that feeling is why I lost my crojo. However it has returned, and so I’ve put together some tips for anyone else who’s struggling to reignite their spark.
These tips can all be applied to any number of hobbies, whether it’s knitting, sewing, painting; all sorts really, so why don’t I stop babbling and we’ll get stuck in.
Being at a loss with your favourite hobby can be quite disheartening, it certainly was for me, so first and most importantly: don’t put pressure on yourself to be oozing wonderful crochet ideas and projects. Putting pressure on yourself often makes it much more likely that you’ll back yourself into a corner and end up abandoning all efforts to revitalise yourself.
Start small
Starting and finishing a little project can be just the boost you need. Once you’ve finished you’ll see that it didn’t take long at all AND you’re still as good at crochething as you ever were, et voila! I recently made a little cactus pen cosy for a friend and it was just what I needed!
Continue with an unfinished project
Sometimes going back to an old project can be the thing that sparks your crojo and suddenyl you’ve finished it and are well on your way to finishing another one (I know you have plenty of UFOs, we all do!).
Listen to music/ audiobooks while you crochet.
I’ve built up quite a library of books I’ve managed to listen to while crocheting, from the Harry Potter series to American Gods and I’m so chuffed I have because I’ve finished many a project due to this. Failing that though, just find your favourite playlist and settle in because there’ll be some serious row-smashing tonight!
Take your project out with you
I don’t go anywhere without my crochet hooks and a project in my bag. Sat waiting for your other half to pick you up? Crochet. On your break at work? Crochet. Fancy some quiet time in the park? Take out your crochet. When you’re sat in bed later browsing and drooling over all the lovely projects you can start you’ll smile to yourself at all the rows/ projects you’ve finished.
Guesstimations can work wonders
Sometimes getting a rough estimate for how many rows you have left can be just the thing to stop you getting bogged down with the shear size of a project. I use my measuring tape to see how many inches a single row measures, then I estimate how big I want the project to be and get a very rough number of rows needed from there. That means I can work a certain number of rows a day and eventually get to my goal.
Give yourself time
This sort of ties in with the start of this post but I cannot stress this enough: give yourself time. Constantly making yourself feel guilty for how much you just don’t want to crochet is unbelievably counterproductive, while that sounds like a simple observation, we still do it, everyone does, but all it achieves is to make us feel like crap and want to do what we love even less.
Makibird-Stitching – Deviantart
Start/ continue with another hobby
All you need sometimes is SOMETHING to be creative with. It may not be what you’re really wanting to work on but if you need to be doing something and you don’t want to crochet, sometimes just taking some downtime to try something different is the remedy. I’ve recently started cross-stitch, mainly because of the gaming patterns I’ve seen, I want a Dragonair in pretty much every craft I do.
Find sources of inspiration
My go-to sources include Youtube, Pinterest, Tumblr and crochet/ woolly blogs I follow so when I’m at a loss for what to do next I browse through these and more often than not I end up with a great new project to get stuck into. I also have a little library of crochet project books I can look through if I’m looking for something new.
Networking
Joining a regular crochet group can be the best thing to get your creative juices flowing. Seeing others with their lovely projects always makes me want to get going on mine or find something new to start. And apart from that just being around likeminded people who want to talk about something you love can be a great boost.
I hope this has been helpful for you. Please do let me know in the comments what you do when or if you reach a speed bump in the winding road that is creativity.
Toodles!
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