Hi Knitalong friends! I hope you're enjoying a day off with family and friends this Memorial Day! I took 2 full days off and it was so nice. I'm helping my sister Jessie get ready for her baby on the way. We went through every single thing I saved for her as well as her registry for her upcoming shower.  It was a lot of fun washing and folding all of those little baby clothes! While we've been at my parents house in Rhode Island, the boys have been playing outside nonstop and it feels good to finally be able too. No more freezing cold (it is still a little cold, ha!) and no more rain! I am knitting a sweater pattern that KAL member Laurel designed and I can't wait to share it with you. I hope it wins for the next fall KAL.

Ok weekend rambles aside, I'm so excited to dive into this week's topic with you which is really all about leaning into your own creative self expression and fear. In week two's blog, I touched on how knitting has helped me tap into my own creative freedom. What I hope to encourage you to do in this blog post, is to inspire you to do the same. I've been knitting a very long time but when I knit my Penguono sweater, just a few years ago, my knitting was truly set free. When I knit that, something came out of me, something deep inside that I really wanted to get out. That was just me and my creative juices flowing; my spin on this sweater, totally crazy, totally me. AND THAT FELT SO GOOD! It reminded me so much of the days when I was a kid and would just create without worrying if anyone liked it or if anything came from it. It was so much fun! I used to make a lot as a kid, even as a teenager and I didn't care too much about what the world thought. I enjoyed the process and getting this part of me that was inside out in the world in a physical form.

What my Penguono made me realize is that that time of my life, where creativity flowed freely, didn't have to be over. It could keep flowing and growing. Somehow I'd let it get beat out of me by the world. Has this ever happened to you? Ironically, my creative business had me always worrying- could I make it viable and successful, how do I plan my inventory, how will I ever answer all those emails... The pressure of making sure it provided for myself and my growing family is probably what hurt my creativity the most. Add into that mixture a few bad mistakes around the time my son Tucker was born, and the creativity was zapped right out. Knitting the Penguono helped but I did a fair amount of mindset work too. The mindset work is an ongoing process. I still have my days where I completely freak out about one thing or another but on the whole, I believe everything is always working out for me. That shift into positive thinking and less fear based thinking has helped me be able to be more creative. Does that make sense? It's hard to create when you're living in fear. Trust me on this, this was my life for a long, long time. The Pengono sparked a new, freer time for me to just knit crazy things I thought were beautiful and then I felt a whole renewed love for my business. I have a lot to thank designer Stephen West for on this one. There's one podcast I'd love to direct you to where Jen Duffin, the macrame artist, speaks in her own life. It's powerful. Listen here. I also loved this episode on the Goop podcast with Arianna Huffington where she says she lives her life as if everything is rigged in her favor. Lastly, in episode 30 of my own podcast I also dive into my creativity vs. fear thoughts.

A few years ago, I cam across this Ted Talk, which I make everyone watch. It's called the Art of Being Yourself by Caroline McHugh. This idea is at the heart of my business, when we're best, when we're ourselves. Knitting creativity has helped me find this person again. I feel more in tune with that creative kid I used to be/still am and more inspired to go and make the yarns/patterns/projects I want to see in the world. Getting back to that person has been incredibly powerful. It somehow easier for me to let things roll off me because of it. Maybe it's given me a confidence to care less about what others think. I'm not sure. I say this all to hopefully inspire you to do the same. Whatever ways it might be, to get more in touch with that creative spirit and that unique voice that only you have. For me, my own take on a pattern helped, for you it could be totally different. Whatever it is, I am all about working that freedom of self expression muscle. 

Thank you so much,

Amy