Perspective

 

The photo is of some yarn that I spun a few years ago and knitted up into shawls or something.  While I have been knitting since the age of 6 or so, I'm not a skilled knitter, just a reasonably competent one.  I don't do anything very fancy or complicated anymore, although I have done.  I've seen some magnificent things made both by my friends and on line.  What I do know is the skill level that is required to create those items.  

Since knitting isn't my primary focus, I don't generally watch knitting blogs or vlogs, but for some reason I clicked on the link Franklin Habit posted to his most recent vlog this morning.

I enjoyed it for a number of reasons, but I was taken by his attitude.  His acknowledgement that the top down sweater he'd just finished was pleasing to him.  Primarily because it fit and it felt comfortable.  And then he said 'Of course there is room for improvement - there is *always* room for improvement'.

And this resonated with me.

To be satisfied with the way something turned out, knowing it was not *perfect* but to find it *good*.

To know that there will always be room for improvement, time to learn more and then incorporate that learning into future projects.  To know when something is *enough* and accept the good that you have achieved.

I don't know Franklin in real life.  But I admire what he does and today?  His attitude towards what we make and how we go about accepting the results of what we have done, knowing that there is more to learn, seemed like a message more people ought to pay attention to.

Over the years I have come to 'know' people from their on line presence.  I am grateful for the internet and the ability to hear the voice of people who are involved in working with their creativity and skills.  People who are willing to share what has gone right - and wrong - and what they plan to do about the 'wrong' part.  Accepting that we are not 'perfect' but works in progress and the value is not in making of  that 'perfect offering' (thank you Leonard Cohen) but in the trying, the learning, the growing of our skills.

As I begin to spin again, I have been thinking about what I will do with the yarn.  In the end it will likely be something simple because most of my creativity is expended in my weaving.  Or, right now, in the teaching.  While I am enjoying crafting the Power Point presentations, they are making me stretch ever further in pursuit of the principles of the craft, how to showcase them, how to explain those principles to those who are interested in how the craft works.

But that's the thing.  There is room for it all.  However, there also needs to be a core of practitioners who understand the principles and who try to pass those on to others.

And I loved the fact that Franklin said the sweater wasn't wet finished yet and that he would do a video of how to block the sweater.  Magic in the Water, folks.  Magic in the Water.

(Franklin Habit has a Patreon - link here.)