Category

thoughts & things

7
Jun
2013

process or product?

Process or product?

Do you knit for the process of knitting, or the product you’re producing?
I would suspect that for many of us it’s about both.

I love the process of knitting.
The basic act of pulling loops of string through loops of string.
I find it as natural as breathing.

It’s a meditation. Embodying ease, rhythm, fluidity, flow, peace, knowing.
Every time I pick up needles it’s an act of affirmation.
I know that I know how to knit.

But at the same time, I don’t knit just to knit.
I knit towards something.
Not necessarily towards a finished object, but maybe. Or maybe it’s a swatch, or an idea, or a thought.
But I don’t knit for the sake of knitting.
I may not always get where I was planning on going, but the intention is still there.

The intention shapes what, how and where I knit. But the intention isn’t the process, and it’s not the final produced, even though it shapes and guides both.

Do I knit for an intention?
I don’t think I knit for it, but I certainly knit with it.

I knit for the sake of creating.
I knit so I know that I know how to knit.
I knit to strengthen the connections, and reaffirm the process, to confirm that I can still pull loops of string through loops of string.

I engage in the process with the intention of creating a product.

But when it comes to pulling loops through loops, and piling stitches on top of each other, I knit so I know, that I know, how to knit.

I knit so I know, that I know, how to knit.

It’s the process that I’m engaged in. Maybe the product is more of a planned afterthought?

 

 

 

I've always just knit. I've never really asked why before.
I just knit, because I knit.

So this is me trying to tease out the why. 

And if I know me, tomorrow I'll disagree with half of this, 
and think the other half is trite. 

But that's tomorrow. 

For now, here we are.
25
May
2013

sometimes we need a reminder

This is for makers. It’s a reminder.
It’s something we all know.
But sometimes we forget.

The thing that makes an artist an artist
is the act of making art.

It’s not past art, and how great it was.
Or future art, and how great it will be.
It’s in progress art, and what you’re making,
now.

The thing that makes an artist an artist
isn’t the awards or accolades
(rightly deserved or not)
it’s the act of making art.

Part of us knows this.
But sometimes we need a reminder.

The act of making art, makes us an artist.