Goal Number Three

In keeping with my 2012 goals, in particular, goal number three which is to be more creative, I have decorated my felted bucket hat.  When knitting the Nikki scarf, I had hat decoration in mind and kept aside a few metres of  the yarn.

Now you should know that creativity does not come naturally  to me.    'I am not very creative , but I copy well'  describes my efforts at creativity.  Copying enables me to achieve a degree of creativity but certainly not   full blown creativity.  But hey - not everyone can be   Debbie New.   Using  knitting magazines, ravelry and knit group, I watch for things that might inspire me, then copy them and with a twist or two,  make them my own. 

So to sit down with a felted hat on my lap and a few yards of thick and thin yarn and nothing to fall back on  but my own brain, - well, it took awhile  all evening.  I braided the yarn and wound it around the hat. Nope.  I crocheted a chain and wound it around the hat.  Nope.  I finger crocheted the yarn very loosely and wound it around the hat.  Nope.  They looked OK, but if the goal was to kick up the creativity quotient a notch, these attemps weren't doing it.

Next up, I tried bunching up a handful of yarn and attaching it to the side of the hat.  Attaching it with friction first, so I could stand back and assess the creativity level.  Of course, not a perfect method, as the 'bunch' of yarn kept slipping.  Now, this is the point,  in my search for creativity,  where I always falter.  I can't decide, at least not without input from other creative people, if what I am seeing looks like a kindergarten finger painting piece, or something worthy of the One Of A Kind show.  The latter being my goal of course. 

Another of my life's mantras is that 'sooner or later, one has to commit' so I eventually settled on a what seemed to be the 'best' bunch of yarn on the side of the hat and tacked it down.  Quite pleased with myself, I  tried it on and showed it to Fred.  Nothing like 45 years of marriage to bring honesty to the situation. 

"Looks like someone threw spaghetti against the side of the hat" said Fred.

"Well, at least we know it's cooked" said I.  Why bother to explain   the creative process to a man. 

Next day at Knit group, the 'spaghetti hat'  got a definite '10' from the knitters.  Nicki suggested a few beads here and there would make it even better.  Since the yarn is Nikki yarn, I felt I could accommodate her suggestion without damaging my artistic ego. (Hah!)

 

And so, I have my first goal-number-three project for 2012 complete.    If I walk with confidence - with my head held high - it looks much more like one-of-a- kind than kindergarten.