Trying to Do the Impossible

It’s good to dream. It’s good to have goals in life. It’s also important to be realistic. Remember those resolutions we made in the New Year? How’s it been going? We spoke about Organising Craft Supplies in that post. We’ve also spoken about your Stashes, and what can be done with them. I think both of those resolutions can be achieved. But this time we are talking about something that I personally think is an impossible dream – only buying something new to replace something that has been used.

When I put together the Crafting Resolutions, I really didn’t think this one would fly. But like I said, it’s good to dream. Why don’t I think it is possible? There are many reasons, and here are some.

Crafting is a creative pursuit, and the things you work on are to a certain extent dictated by how you are feeling at the time, and you can’t simply force yourself to only work on things for which you have all the components already. If you really want to make that bag made out of recycled denim that you saw on Pinterest, you will not be happy making the baby bibs for which you already have everything you need. In fact, you won’t be happy until you’ve been to the charity shop, sourced those denim jeans, then been to the craft shop to get the matching thread, and while you are at it, bought some bling to jazz up the bag, and added to your collection of buttons with some that called to you while you were looking for the bling.

Made with leftover wool scraps

Trying to force yourself to work on things you don’t want to work on will only end in tears. I swear my sewing machine knows, and that is when the thread gets all knotted up under the bobbin, the needle breaks, and it starts making weird noises.

Another reason I think the “nothing new” resolution won’t work is because there are new things coming out all the time, and if you only buy to replace things used, you will never get a chance to try these new things. Taking this to the extreme, if we only ever replaced existing, we would all be sewing by hand as we wouldn’t have sewing machines! Yes, that is way too extreme. But everyone knows that trying new things is essential for our mental health, and we would all be bored, doing the same old thing.

If I only ever bought to replace, I would never have discovered the pleasure and meditation of doing cross-stitch. I would never have learned that I really don’t like scrapbooking. And I wouldn’t have the choices I do now to satisfy my crafting cravings – what do I feel like doing today?

My current “lust after” item

So I suppose the main aim is to not just buy things without really thinking about it. I think this resolution should be re-worded. Instead of “Only buy something new to replace something that has been used”, maybe it should be “Only buy something new when you need it, or really, really, really want it, and have already checked that you don’t already have it".

I can live with that. Can you?

The Stash, the Stash, and nothing but the Stash!

This time I’m all about Using Up Your Stash. I personally do not know any crafter who doesn’t have a Stash. In fact, most serious crafters have more than one Stash. There are Stashes of yarn, paper, fabric, trims, embellishments, buttons, cottons, embroidery floss, bindings, elastics, zippers, safety eyes…I could go on. And that’s just the Stashes of consumables. It’s also not unheard of to have Stashes of equipment – stamps, crochet hooks, knitting needles, patterns, cutting mats, even sewing machines!

Having an Equipment Stash isn’t (usually) such a big problem, unless you are a compulsive equipment buyer – and then possibly therapy is the answer. Or at least try to limit yourself to equipment for crafts you are already addicted to – DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES buy equipment for a new craft until you are absolutely certain you will have the time and the space to actually store and USE this equipment.

As for Consumables Stashes, the first thing I must say is don’t be embarrassed about your Stashes. Every crafter has one. They are an essential part of being a crafter. But if they aren’t kept under control, they can grow so they start to take over the house. To stop this from happening, every now and then you must actually use something from the Stash.

I believe it will never be possible to live without a Stash. I also believe it will never be possible to ONLY use things from the Stash. Crafting isn’t (or shouldn’t be) something you do because you have to, it is something you do because you want to. As a result of that, the projects you work on are the ones you feel like working on, that make you happy. So if you can’t find something in your stash that will make you happy to use it, there is no point in forcing it – it will not end well.

But the important thing is that at least you try. At least look at what you have in your Stash before you rush off to buy something new. You can even think of it as shopping – at a craft shop that is so close you can even walk to it! Maybe you have even forgotten some of the things you have in your Stash, so when you are on the hunt for a new project, pull all those items in your Stash out of their hidey-holes and have a good look at them. You might even fall in love with something all over again!

If you don’t find the perfect thing in your Stash, have a think about shopping someone else’s Stash. This will take some planning, and things could get ugly, but it might be worth a try. You will need a group of crafters you know reasonably well who have similar taste and shopping habits. Everyone sorts through their stash for the things they can live without. Organise a time and place (perhaps the home of the person with the biggest stash?). Then go for it!

There are a couple of tricky things to deal with here. Firstly, don’t expect to get things for free. Just because something is in a Stash and can be lived without by the Stash’s owner doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value, so be prepared to “pay” for things. The reason I say “pay” is you could decide to part with hard-earned cash, or negotiate a swap for something from your own Stash, or a combination of both.

An organised Stash - something to aspire to!

This leads on to the second tricky thing – everyone will need to have a good idea of what they are prepared to pay for things in someone else’s Stash, and what they are prepared to accept for things in their own Stash. Do think about this beforehand, do your homework, but also be prepared to be flexible, and perhaps negotiate, so that everyone is happy.

The most important thing is that everyone has FUN! Even if no Stash items change hands, it can be fun just looking at someone else’s Stash.

In summary:
1. Love your Stashes!
2. Shop your Stashes first, before you head off to any other shops,
3. Try shopping the Stashes of a good friend,
4. Have fun!

Crafting New Year Resolutions

It’s that time of year again. How many people make resolutions at New Year, only to find that by one month in, those resolutions, whilst not completely forgotten, are but dim memories? By now, at the end of January, we have a good idea which resolutions have a chance of survival, and which are already dead in the water.

Crafting resolutions can be just as difficult to stick to as losing weight (like suddenly the habits of a lifetime are going to change?), exercising more (that gym membership can be expensive), and eating less chocolate (that was never going to happen!). Here are a few resolutions that you may find familiar.

1. Organise those craft supplies
2. Use up things from the stash
3. Only buy something new to replace something that has been used
4. Learn a new craft
5. Only start a new project when at least one UFO (UnFinished Object) has been finished
6. Buy something that looks great and is made by someone else, instead of thinking "That’s great - I could make that!” and never actually getting around to it

How can we give those resolutions a better chance of success? Let’s have a look at them one by one.

Organising Craft Supplies
You’ve decided you are going to knit that jumper you’ve been meaning to do for years. You have the yarn (from your stash, of course!). You have the needles. You have the pattern. Now all you need is a row counter, because you’ve tried pen and paper and that just doesn’t work for you. You know you have at least 4 of them, because last time you started a knitting project you couldn’t find the ones you inherited from your grandmother so you bought some more. Where, oh where, did you put them? Any of them?

The perfect solution is to build an extension to the house and call it the crafting annexe. Then you could have enough room to carefully stack everything in clear, carefully labelled boxes, or in the specially built cupboards and drawers. Bliss! But somehow I don’t think this is very realistic.

A slightly less perfect solution is to at least try to keep all the like things together. For example, keep all knitting things together, all embroidery things together, all scrapbooking things together, etc, etc. Don’t get too obsessive about it, though, because some supplies cross borders between crafts, and you need to pick just one place to put them. But at least when you go looking for something, if it’s not in the first place you look, it should be in the second.

But the best piece of advice is to try, and I mean really try, to put things away when you have finished with them. A tip that might be worth trying for this is to not just automatically put things back in the place you found them, but in the first place you looked for them. The assumption is that next time you are looking, you will look for it in the same way, and look! There it is in the first place you looked!

So how about giving it a go. Keep crafting though – don’t let organising crafting supplies become your hobby!

Next time we’ll tackle the challenge of using up those things in the stash.