After a crazily busy last couple of months I now have the opposite problem...
complete and utter unemployment.
Which is really really horrible.
I always imagined that once my social work degree finished I would have a few blissful weeks of unemployment in which I would wear flowy skirts and lounge about in the sun (why I thought it would be sunny in September in Tasmania I don't know). I would drink G & Ts with friends and sleep in and stay up late and indulge in all kinds of slack things like sitting and reading a book entirely uninterrupted. And I probably managed that for about a week before completely crumbling under the pressure. First of all, if you're unemployed you can't afford the G to go with your T, if you sleep in and stay up late after a while your body clock becomes in sync only with possums and the chaps who work at the 24 hour Food Stop. Your sleeping patterns become the opposite of what everyone else is doing which means you don't get to catch up with your friends as they tend to sleep at night and work during the day. Plus one of the most wonderful things about knitting jumpers, crocheting toys and sewing dresses is that these are all things that you do when you really should be doing something else. Faced with an afternoon of studying social policy, sewing takes on an illicit and forbidden quality that is much more satisfying. Once you can do these things all the time it's a lot less fun.
At least it means I have had lots of time for baking!
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| Afternoon Tea at Crochet Collective |
And thank goodness for the gals of the Crochet Collective!
However I am a firm believer that there is no such thing as a bored person, only a boring person. When my little sister Cat was really little she used to wander around the house complaining that she was 'boring'. I think she meant that she was bored but we all used to have fun reassuring her that she wasn't
that boring.
This is a Yoshitomo Nara painting that pretty much captures what my sister looked like all the time between the ages of two and five years old. I'm sure she'll appreciate me pointing this out.
So while I try and find this elusive social work job I wanted to keep myself occupied with a creative task every day. I know lots of blogger type people set themselves the task of creating something every day. However I think this works better if you are a photographer or visual artist - it becomes a bit of a problem when you work mainly with textiles (although I'm sure there are knitters out there who can go for hours and hours). So in order to avoid looming RSI I have chosen to work on a couple of bigger projects and a few little ones every week - just enough to keep me busy and motivated.
I actually decided to do this a week ago, but typically do not have the level of organisation required to blog every day, or even every second day. Once every couple of months is about as much as I can manage. However, given I have NOTHING TO DO ALL DAY EVERY DAY I will try and be more vigilant and post once a week.
I've been working on a jumper for myself for the past month and a half which uses a pattern from a Norwegian pattern book:
It's all about crazy fair-isle style patterns that can make you go blind or at least knitting-rage-quit if you don't take regular breaks. This is the pattern that I am following - hopefully I won't look as put out wearing it as the ethereal looking lady in the photo
I've just finished the body which took me about 2 months - it's bunched a little where the tension is uneven but this should clear up once I've blocked it.
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| Body of Jumper |
This photo refuses to be up the right way no matter what I do with it so I've given up.
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| Close up of the pattern |
Anyhoo,
Will hopefully be able to do a couple of little projects on top of this bigger one and won't destroy my hands in the process. Wish me luck!
