Living my Knitta Please Dream and Lessons of Isness Along the Way

Photographs by Jonathan Hokklo and Jake Dobkin

I've always admired the knit group Knitta Please ABOUT , so you can imagine how excited I was when my sweety daughter sent me an article from the leader of Knitta Please, .Magda Sayeg, KnittaPlease - Gothamist: New York City News, Food, Arts & Events... calling for volunteers to knit a parking meter cozy to knitafy parking meters on Montague St in Brooklyn. Brooklyn Heights Blog » Be Part of Knitting Art

We were given a pattern and allowed to make it our own using the colors, green, blue, pink and yellow. I love guidelines/rules because my inner lawyer hungers to find loopholes (and hopefully not stitch holes) that stick close enough to rules, yet stray enough to satifsy the "bad girl" within. Being a huge Eckhart Tolle fan, I chose to make a blossoming flower cozy to represent stillness and the study of how flowers accept the 'isness' of life. (Ever see a flower worry about anything?)

I love that an artistic knit vision can be created within a group. I loved seeing the generous and joyful volunteers who put the cozies up on all those parking meters...such angels! I love that Magda Sayeg and Chelsea Mauldin did such an excellent and thorough job in organizing such a fun and exciting project. Leading several minds in one direction is not an easy thing to do. Everyone involved did a lot of work to make this project materialize. I love being a knitting cog in the wheel of public knit creation! Send me more of that, please! Pretty please. Pretty Knitta Please!

The huge lesson learned from this experience came from the commentary posted about the project. Knitta Please Hits Brooklyn Heights - Gothamist: New York City News, Food, Arts & Events Such a cool project, yet I've never seen so many anonymous readers be so judgmental about such a creative project! It's no wonder many artistic types fear putting their work out there! There's a breed of people who crave attention so much that they don't care how they get it and often the way they get it is through tearing anothers' efforts to shreds. There's a ton of safety in anonymity! Anyone expressing their creativity has to earn the Teflon Heart Award if they ever put their creative expressions out there. What a twist to donate a cozy that represents 'isness' and witness how there are still humans who don't accept 'isness.'

There were kind things said in the commentaries as well and I so appreciate those encouraging souls who understand the intent of the project and the loving care that was put into every bit of that project. (You can see it on the faces of the people who put the projects on the meters.) According to the critical things said, public knitters who express their creativity are all bored housewives who are using their knitting to get attention and should be spending their time knitting for charity instead. One critic even threatened to pee on all the projects...even tho we were warned by our group leader to make the base of the project of darker shades because dogs already will do that.

So to all you brave souls who are expressing your creativity...whether it be through starting your own business, changing your career, starting any new kind of relationship...or just putting yourself and what you do out there....I hope you keep this lesson in mind that when you live your dreams, part of the experience is to know there will be critics, but because you love what you're doing so much that will weigh more than any criticism. So whatever it is you put out there you'll earn your Teflon Heart Award by just staying on the path. Much support to those who are using their gifts to make the world a better place!

Any "bypassing the critic stories" to share? Please do!

The book that changed my life forever...

In the 70s, my Mom gave me this book. It was hers. But I think she decided I should have it because of how it hypnotized me full of dreams. Looking through it made me drool and made my pulse raise. The textures...the colors....the surreal designs! Knitters, crocheters, designers really took traditional skills and came up with designs that grabbed our attention. It's because of this book I got a fashion design degree.( Barbie played a role in inspiring that as well.)
I am still amazed at how 70s designers took their materials as far as they could go without the incredible tools and yarn we have today.And it seems their lifestyles followed suit with their designs.
I've been knitting for 45 years and I have watched knitting go from Phentex and Columbia Minerva yarn and straight needles to limitless innovative tools and yarn fibers. I love to follow the activist and innovative needle workers who are endlessly evolving knitting from traditional craft to innovative art form.
I even wondered if Chris from Project Runway must've also been moved by this book because his pre- finale designs had the flavor of some of the designers in this book.
Do you have a book that changed your life forever? Tell us about it.

The Messy Part

Here is a "before" and "during" example of how art journaling....or any passion gets messy. The creative process is a messy one. Whether it's in making art journal pages, designing a knit project, putting a speech together, starting a business or any endeavor.

Often the messy stage of a project isn't publicized and we only get to see the successful result. This gives us the impression that everyone else knows exactly how to do everything perfectly.

I know when I design knits, art, speeches, classes or even business concepts....they certainly don't all work out in neat little journeys from point A to point B! There is that process between idea and manifestation that requires messy trial, error, play, work, not knowing, letting go of ideas, holding onto ideas and changing ideas. (This includes all the emotions that go with those messes.) Sometimes we can forget how many steps it takes to do anything...including getting out of bed in the morning or getting out of the house! Want to make a friend for life? Make friends with messy and accept it as a part of the process to turn ideas into reality. 

The Fine Art of Play

I have wanted to attend Teesha and Tracy Moore's Play Art Journal Retreat for years. This was the year I finally attended! And what a life and art altering experience it was! For 5 days you are submerged into a world of creative skills, sparky and fun fellow artists, surreal creations, brilliant teachers, and exploration. Teesha and Tracy are the most generous instructors on the planet! They teach you new techniques and their latest finds in skills and materials as well as help you get the coordination of using the tools while you experiment with them. There is a table of the journals that Teesha and Tracy created in the back of the room that is worth the whole price of the retreat to study and get inspiration from. I have to mention also, that many of the students remarked how they admired Teesha and Tracy's relationship. Two artists supporting and encouraging each other while sharing that same support and encouragement with fellow artists to keep them blossoming. These two work and play hard to keep artists sparked both during and after the retreat. I am guilty of enjoying a workshop or retreat long after it's over as my mind takes 'feeling photos' and I re-live them every time I go practice what I've learned. I left that retreat with enough new skills to try out and play with for years! THIS WORKSHOP NEVER ENDS EVEN THOUGH YOU LEFT IT LONG AGO!
I loved the skills they taught us using paper, but my inner fabric soul was hungry to try out what they taught us on a pair of pants I own that I rarely wear. They are now journal pants, which has been done before by artists, so it's nothing new. I love to try a new skill or different journal entry on them daily. I'm having many favorite parts on these pants already....my most favorite being the autographs of Teesha, Tracy, their awesomely talented daughter Tiphoni, and brilliant detail drawing phenomenon, Theo Ellsworth. I also have autographs of a few of the very gifted artists that were at my table on the front of my pants. I just love how artists sign autographs....why do it in just writing?
Another thing I want to mention about this retreat. I've met my tribe! They do not care how much clutter you have in your space. Every item in existence is art journal fodder. You are not a slob...you're an artist gathering materials for your creations. I get tired of being judged in every day life for saving items that may be considered trash or useless clutter. That rule that professional organizers use...if you don't use it within a year, pitch it....DOES NOT WORK FOR A COLLAGE ARTIST. I've had items I've saved for 20 years and only found the right use for them recently.
I see that both life coaches and journal artists see the potential in everything. Just go to the grocery store with a collage artist. Witness the perspective with which they see grocery items....potential art projects. One man's trash is a collage artist's treasure. 
I highly recommend any retreat Teesha and Tracy give to anyone needing a sparky kick in the art journal pants.
I have more to say about this retreat, but I have to finish tax receipts, so I'll continue next entry.

Make it Yourself!!!

I grew up with the same affliction many Baby Boomers had.

 When we didn't eat all of our dinner, we'd hear about people starving in China. When we didn't like walking to school we'd hear about walking 5 miles in the snow, uphill, to school. I was raised in an upscale suburb of Chicago, but because my parents had to work hard to keep the bills paid, my clothes came from the thrift shop. The high point was having to wear some other girl's hand-me-down underpants!!!! It was challenging being around classmates who had the latest this and that. When I asked if I could get the latest, I'd hear the response/mantra, "make it yourself."

As a child, I got so upset hearing "make it yourself." Living by that mantra through her own childhood experience, Mom taught me to sew, Mom and I learned to knit at the local yarn shop, and if I wanted to send a greeting card I'd have to design it, often with Mom's help. Oh...did I mention Mom used to be an art teacher in a Jr High School? I need to blog about that some time.

Now that we're in a recession, I hear thrift shops are thriving! Shabby-chic is the way to survive the recession. Did you know "recessionista" is a word defining the people who can find creative ways to dress stylishly while surviving the current tough economy? I much admire the creative knitters who are buying sweaters at the thrift shop, unraveling them, and reconstructing them into new sweaters. What a creative way to get classy yarn! Not to mention the recycling kindess to the Earth they are engaged in.

That make-it-yourself mantra and upbringing led me to get a fashion design degree because I love that space between idea and manifestation called process! Today I teach/coach others how to express through creativity and run a shop/studio with creative supplies and workshops. My hugest pleasure is uninterrupted creativity time in the studio. It never ceases to amaze me that the very things we didn't want to hear or do as a child are the very things that molded our lives today. Isn't it always the things that upset us most that bring the hugest gifts and lessons in time? How else would the lessons get our attention than to be challenging or upsetting? I thank my Mom for teaching me to defy what goes on 'out there' by making it myself.

Happy Holidays....Never forget these words....

I thank Jan Phillips for keeping artists inspired by reminding them that creating is as important as breathing. My prayer for 2009 is that everyone honors the creative ideas that are sent to them by manifesting them. Happy holidays!

Seeing Possibility After a Break Up

Ever see that Swiffer ad on TV where the Domestic House Goddess has "broken up" with her mop and broom? (I can hear the soundtrack of "Baby Come Back" that they use, going round and round in my head as I write this.) The mop and broom try to lure our Goddess back with flowers, all kinds of gift deliveries, hot tub invitations, etc. I think this ad hits home for a bunch of us!!!!
I can picture sequels to this ad. Sequels showing this Goddess at the police precinct getting a restraining order. Maybe even a scene in court, where the Goddess reveals all the abuse the broom and mop put her through...or even a scene in the shrink's office where the shrink finally says their client is cured from attracting abusive mops and brooms into her life.

The reason I bring up this ad is because I recently "broke up" with my couch. Every time I sat in it, besides it being horrible for anyone's posture, it brought back past boyfriend memories on that couch. I just couldn't stand to be around that ambience, so I moved it to my studio. It now has a new use....I take off the cushions and block my finished knit projects on it. And what a perfect blocking tool it is!!!

As far as the sweater in these photos....last Summer, I was so hungry to take a certain Drop-Stitch knit class I read about, but I had a schedule conflict. Instead, I saw a pattern for a drop stitch sweater in Cast On Magazine and gave it a try. One day I will make it to that Drop Stitch class if they ever give it again. Until then, I'll keep learning from patterns I find.

Have you ever used an item, appliance, or piece of furniture for a totally new use and loved the results? Please inspire us with your story!