Such great advice, thank you. As a knitter of many years I vividly remember how hard I found it to learn to crochet, but even harder was the mindset of not immediately being able to produce something of "good enough" quality. I found it really hard to go through the messy middle stage, and even now it's still very much a work in progress.
Thanks Louise, I'm so glad you enjoyed this post and it's great to hear your thoughts about this too. It's difficult when you are trying out a similar skill to something you've already mastered, and it's so easy to get really frustrated and give up on it. The 'messy middle' sums it up perfectly and it is so hard to power through it!
I have discovered that anything involving counting stitches or cutting really accurate angles is not for me, but I do still have an urge to come back to crochet at some point. That's one I'll definitely need to give myself a lot of time and even more patience for!
I always felt that for certain creative activities, writing especially, a certain mood has to first present itself (one where you turn into a middle-aged man pensively holding glass of whiskey and smoking a cigarette in a dim lit room). And so I never really get around to it. For painting and drawing I seem to randomly give myself a hall pass: I see it much more as a fun activity than something that should produce anything of quality. And therefore I do it much more often, which ironically improves my painting much more than my writing, even though I'd much prefer it the other way around. It's weird how these distinctions between types of creativity have come about in my brain, really.
Such great advice, thank you. As a knitter of many years I vividly remember how hard I found it to learn to crochet, but even harder was the mindset of not immediately being able to produce something of "good enough" quality. I found it really hard to go through the messy middle stage, and even now it's still very much a work in progress.
Thanks Louise, I'm so glad you enjoyed this post and it's great to hear your thoughts about this too. It's difficult when you are trying out a similar skill to something you've already mastered, and it's so easy to get really frustrated and give up on it. The 'messy middle' sums it up perfectly and it is so hard to power through it!
I have discovered that anything involving counting stitches or cutting really accurate angles is not for me, but I do still have an urge to come back to crochet at some point. That's one I'll definitely need to give myself a lot of time and even more patience for!
I always felt that for certain creative activities, writing especially, a certain mood has to first present itself (one where you turn into a middle-aged man pensively holding glass of whiskey and smoking a cigarette in a dim lit room). And so I never really get around to it. For painting and drawing I seem to randomly give myself a hall pass: I see it much more as a fun activity than something that should produce anything of quality. And therefore I do it much more often, which ironically improves my painting much more than my writing, even though I'd much prefer it the other way around. It's weird how these distinctions between types of creativity have come about in my brain, really.