Perfectionism and me have a long and varied history. An ever present companion, it’s importance in my life has come and gone to different extents depending on what else is currently happening. But it’s always there in the background, waiting to trip me up.
Just when I think I have a handle on it or a system to beat it, it will pop up to cheerily raise it’s head and suggest a new and innovative way of tripping me up.
I signed up to a writers workshop recently. An hour long Zoom call of focused writing - just me and the keyboard. I thought I’d hit the ground running, write like an absolute demon and leave the session with plenty of material under my belt.
After all, I’d be in good company and would have nothing else to distract me.
Aha - my inner perfectionist voice thought better. I actually spent the first 15 minutes of the call dithering about whether I should write on my laptop or in a notebook. And then having opted for the notebook option - which one should I use.
Aargh!! Enough already.
Just like the famous quote that says ‘ the perfect camera is the one you have with you’. So the perfect place to write in is what you have in front of you at that moment. Just write, or take the photo or do the thing. Time waits for no man (or woman) no matter how much you wait for the perfect moment to present itself - hint - it never will.
It’s the same with journaling. It’s so tempting to wait until you have time to light a candle, you have half an hour in a quiet house, you have a beverage at the perfect temperature. You get the message.
I’ve learned over many years that if I don’t seize the moment and write, it will never get done. I tried getting up at 5am and doing the whole Morning Pages thing and I think I lasted about a week.
I’ll write in supermarket car parks, standing in line at the post office. Ideally, yes I’d be in my favourite cafe with a coffee and a massive wodge of carrot cake but that happens a lot less than I’d like.
For me, knitting spaces also fall into the same category. I’m endlessly fascinated by other peoples workspace. I love nothing better than a good old Instagram snoop around craft rooms, knitting nooks and those fantastic looking craft ‘carts’ people have by the side of their knitting chairs.
I love the idea of even having a knitting chair. All of these remain pipe dreams so far though as I am forced to work with what I’ve got. A smallish house with limited storage and more people than we have bedrooms - dedicated craft spaces are not an option for me right now so my supplies are corralled away into baskets and tubs.
And WIPs are left around the house where I can easily pick them up and put them down. The fruit bowl on the kitchen table is a good repository, as is my favoured spot on the upstairs landing window sill.
When knitting opportunity knocks I can just grab a WIP in whatever room I happen to be in and work on it. I do have a lovely old wooden workbasket on legs that used to belong to my husband’s grandma. It lives next to the sofa in the living room and it’s where I keep (in theory at least) my knitting notions, scissors, tape measures etc. In practice - well yes - you see where that is going 🤣
My point is though, that if I waited for the perfect space and time to come together in order to knit I would never get anything done. The perfect knitting space is the one you have in front of you. Just as the perfect camera is the one you are carrying.
In the immortal words of Arthur Ashe - one of my favourite quotes.
“Start where you are, Use what you have, Do what you can.”
How do you deal with perfectionism? Do let me know in the comments.
And if you have one of those nifty little craft carts, where did you buy it from? After our recent reorganisation of the living room I reckon I might have space for a small one down the side of our new (slightly smaller) sofa?
I nodded along throughout this piece. I was born of two perfectionists, so I suppose there was no way I was going to escape the Beast. I've tempered it here and there, but it still sits with me every day waiting its opportunity to strike. I was lucky enough to marry someone not familiar with the Beast, and that has helped to ground me over the years. I love that Arthur Ashe quote. Dare I say it was....perfect? No wonderful craft cart or knitting chair for me - I get by with just a handful of projects in knitting bags and a stack of patterns for sewing with their associated cloth.
I have a trolley! It's just the IKEA raskog, and it was a lifesaver when we were living in a two room tiny house (with four kids, homeschooled, over the pandemic - I needed every inch of space I could squeeze!). Now we are in a bigger house, and I have a craft "nook", I still use it to try* and keep the lounge room projects somewhat organised! I have a little round up of how I use it over on my main blog if you want a stickybeak.
*try, in this context, means leave everything all over the lounge but regularly reassure my family its not a problem I just need to pop it all away on the trolley right next to me...at some point.