kvelling kvetcher

I am going to kick off with a quote:

“The act of sewing is a process of emotional repair.”

Louise Bourgeois

Normally i would substitute ‘sewing’ for ‘crocheting’ but for this particular post, for what i want to dwell on today, let’s stick with the original quotation, because today, the glove fits, and i shall wear it!

I do love sewing. I have spent some time comparing crochet and knitting in one of my blog ramblings before HERE, but i do not think i have ever yet looked at how, why and when i sew for alleviating my struggles, or for giving a channel to my creativity… Sewing is another craft which brings me the sense of usefulness and the feeling of flow and all sorts of other awards when i engage with it fully. Suppose i have touched on it a little bit HERE, so I shall continue today, with a more directed description of what Sewing means to me:

Let’s talk needles and fabric.

I used to make clothes for myself from a relatively young age because of necessity.  Standard sizes do not fit me.  Looking for suitably long trousers and sleeves in my chosen fashion fad of a time has been a mean feat, and so i learnt to sew.  It became much easier to wear exactly what i wanted, by making it myself.

In that sense, then, sewing has been a means to achieve what i wanted, to make what i needed.  Not a way to process internal turmoil anywhere and everywhere, anytime i required to use crafting in such a way, which is how I use crochet. 

I was taught by my mum, as soon as i asked (i was maybe 12 at the time), and was even allowed to use my nan’s good sewing machine, once she became confident in my abilities and my respectful and careful treating of the first sewing machine I was allowed to use.  My nan’s old ‘for kids’ sewing machine became my right hand tool for a whole summer holiday one year, making scrunchies… We made hundreds and it was the best summer holiday ever!

I had made a few simple things at the beginning, a waist coast here, a skirt there, until all my efforts and skills culminated in me making myself a pair of rusty coloured corduroy jean style bell bottomed trousers – side pockets and all!  To this day, i feel these trousers were the pivotal achievement of my garment making career.  They were SOOO good!

I was SOOO proud!

Then there was my Queen Amidala fancy dress costume – born out of necessity again, when the costume i ordered was no match in quality or length to neither the birthday girl’s expectation nor stature.  It was not what i had envisaged for myself as the centre of the aforementioned birthday party. Read more HERE… Once again a little pent up energy, frustration, and a bit of planning resulted in a completed and shiny piece of wear i was happy to be seen/ photographed wearing.

In comparison to these bursts of energetic sewing now and again, crochet is more of a steady, ever present part of my life. Crochet is my salvation, my recuperation, my thinking time, my struggling time, my keeping focused and sometimes, my keeping busy/ keeping entertained time. I feel it runs through my veins: find HERE one of my most favourite INSTAGRAM reposts. Just the other day my proclamation of love to crochet came out of me very spontaneously and naturally, after admiring someone else’s work online. Crochet is just SO versatile and malleable.

I LOVE CROCHET!

I do like sewing, but in a very different way. We have a need to know basis relationship, me and my sewing machine. There has been, over the years, a lot of plans/ ideas to make stuff. This may be more of a universal truth about creativity and creative people in general..  If you are makers yourself, you may be able to identify with this whirl of ideas your mind comes up with way quicker than you are able to ever put these into practice.  For me, however, crochet ideas stick around for longer, and usually, EVENTUALLY, they DO get made… Not so with my ideas for sewing.

I have bought material and a pattern for leggings, over 3 years ago, and they are still sitting in the to do box. When i made my new dungarees a little while back, i was all fired up to make another pair the following weekend, then finally make the leggings, sew name labels on some laundry bags for my nieces and some other small but important sewing fix me jobs.

You guessed it, NONE got done after the first pair of dungarees were completed..

Not sure what it is, partially i suppose it is due the time i need to allocate, partially i feel the need to finish what i have started that day, and as rewarding as it usually is, it is often also exhausting…  It takes the whole day to do it properly, what with ironing your seams and overlocking.

Let’s not dwell.. The why is not as important as the fact that opting for not exhausting myself by doing even the most creative and supposedly rewarding task, can be more valuable to me on some days, than to embark on the sewing path. I need to allow myself some quietness and rest. And to listen to which one would be more beneficial at any one time, not putting unduly pressures on myself and my own creativity to distract myself into exhaustion, deserves recognition.  As I am mulling this over, writing this as I am thinking, I actually think I’ve got it:

I feel i understand now..

Crochet helps me through thoughts, it helps me untie them, because it is so automated for me. Crochet is a huge part of my life, my everyday.

Sewing is more a hobby, something that i do on top of everyday creativity. Sewing is lot more complex for planning and analytical/ logical thinking. It is a good distraction but it exhausts me and my busy thoughts may then overwhelm my exhausted brain and body…

To sum up:

I crochet to work thoughts out, and i sew to keep thoughts away until i am able to tie/ untie them into crochet stitches and include in my next hand crocheted item..

And breathe…

This month’s blog post titling is also very purposeful. More than usual, even, i would say. I am not going to explain too much here about why i name each blog post the way i do, i will leave some things for your own selves to work out, dear blog reader(s)/ crochet enthusiast(s).

I will, however, on this occasion, give you the dictionary.com definitions of both of the words from today’s title, and say, that for today’s blog, i wanted to find something fitting that starts with the same letter as my name.

I like the letter K. It is my first initial, it is what my name begins with, and i like both my name and my initial. Read HERE about the meaning of my full/ official name in the language of origin, and forgive my self indulgence for today’s post being all about me.

It made sense, because ‘k’ is my letter, to talk about my conundrum as to why a lot of my sewing ideas don’t end up getting made, whereas most of my crochet ones do…

And before i leave you to the rest of your day, a small change notification for future blog release dates:

I have decided to change my monthly crochet (-ish) blog release date(s) from 9th of each month to the first Saturday of each month, as i feel this may be a bit easier to build into your reading routines…

Thank You for reading!

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