6 min read
I feel like I am entering the stage where the 100 Day Project gets interesting. The initial excitement has worn off and there are starting to be days where I definitely do not feel like creating. But so often when I push through and create anyway (I had to!) magic happens. Well, maybe not magic. But progress. The hard days are often the ones where making things brings me the most joy.
I’m learning about myself, about goals, about pushing through and letting go and not being too hard on myself.
Live in your season
One thing that I am learning again and again is that there are seasons for everything. Both on small and big scales. Right now, I am prioritising creativity, which means I read a bit less than normally. When I am in a season of writing lots, I make less music. There have been times where I sewed every weekend, now I spent my weekends doing crafts with my toddler.
It’s no use lamenting that I can’t do it all at once all the time. All I can do is to live in my season, be grateful for the here and now and maybe also for the fact that it won’t always be like this. What I really don’t want is to look back and wish I had enjoyed time with my children more instead of wishing it away in favour of more alone time.
There is also no use in pretending like I am in a different season. I cannot compare how much I sew now with what I was able to do five years ago when I had no kids and we were in lockdown with nothing to do but sew, read and go for walks. I cannot do it all! And that is okay.
Small things add up
The thing that is really encouraging to me right now is seeing how all those small acts of creativity add up. On some days I just sat down for 20 minutes for a bit of knitting or writing but doing it daily means I made a fair bit of progress on some projects.
Within the last 30 days I completed knitting a cardigan, a baby jumper and finished sewing a quilt. I am pretty amazed with myself haha!
What I did on days 21 – 30
Right, let’s chat about what I actually got up to over the last 10 days.
Days 21, 23 + 29: A new sewing project
After (finally) finishing my quilt I cut out a new sewing project – the Orbit bag by Helen’s Closet Patterns. As I am on a bit of a patchwork and quilting kick right now I thought it’d make the perfect next project.
So far I cut out all the small pieces and assembled the star that is going to be on the front of the bag.
Day 22 + days 25 – 28: Knitting a small jumper
There has been a lot of knitting over the last 10 days, I almost exclusively worked on the Flaxlight sweater by Tin Can Knits. (It’s a free pattern that I would highly recommend making, it’s a really nice project.)
On day 22 I finished the body of the jumper and the remaining four days were spent knitting the sleeves and weaving in the ends.
I’m very happy with the final result!
Day 24: A poem
I wrote this poem at the back of a conversation I had with Edd where we processed some of our current worries for our kids. In theory I know that difficulty is part of everyone’s life and actually can be really good for our characters. However, witnessing my three and a half year old experience hurt, rejection and sadness kills me. It feels so wrong. I want the world to be a better, kinder place for her and L.
Here’s the poem:
In the 34 years I have lived
I have learned that life can be hard
And that even happiness is often tinted with imperfections
I have grown
Accustomed to the presence of pain
But God forbid
My kid grazes her knee,
whispers “Mama, I am sad”
Or cries in fear
My heart breaks
that she experiences rejection
gets disappointed
maltreated by a friend
My whole body, my mind and soul
Wants to fight, to protect, to shield
To make a world
Without pain
I am no longer used to it
The presence of evil
Cannot accept the fallenness of earth
Oh, Lord
we truly weren’t meant for life
Outside of paradise
Have mercy and please come back quick
Day 30: Knitting a blanket
On day 30 I added a few rows to my Nellike blanket (another free pattern!) while reading. I am currently making my way through the nearly 600 pages of the third Fourth Wing / Empyrian book. It’s actually rather difficult right now doing anything other than reading it!
My yarn for this blanket got extremely tangled by my children and travel so most of my time was actually spent detangling rather than knitting which was a bit frustrating but needed to be done.
I’m excited for the next 10 days!
No Comments