intention yarns : reveal

On Superbowl Sunday I wound up a skein of “Focus,” intending to begin a new sock design.  I love designing socks, although to be honest I have very few finished pairs.  Okay, I have *one* finished pair.  I have a lot of single socks; it just seems to me that the second sock is so much more work than the first one.  Thus, sock knitting is often a brief flurry of fun activity followed by a long slow slog of work.  Ugh.

I began the design I’d had in my notebook for months as the Superbowl kickoff festivities began.  It took three plays and ten rows before I realized that the pattern wasn’t going to work.  The pattern was too muddled by the yarn’s variegation and I kept losing my place in the row.  Not a good thing for yarn called “Focus.”  I ripped it out and decided to try again in plain stockinette just as the first quarter came to an end.  It’s been a long time since I’ve knit a plain sock, and even longer since I knit something for myself that wasn’t a new design.

The knitting went quickly and by the end of the Superbowl I had 4.5″ of sock completed.  That has to be a record for me.  Never have I been able to focus so long on a project.  A lot of the credit has to go to the colorway.  This yarn is striping itself as I knit – something I wasn’t expecting.  I kept knitting rows and exclaiming over the beauty of the colors as the progressively changed.  It’s like the yarn had been dyed that way on purpose (which it hadn’t).  The colors held my attention in a way semisolid yarns just can’t.  I also think that knowing that the Intention is called “Focus” helped me.  I want it to help me stay focused on my knitting, so it does.  That is, of course, the core concept of Intention Yarns – to create the reality one wants.  I’m now ready to start the heel flap, which is honestly the fastest I’ve ever reached that point of a sock.

There are several skeins of “Focus” out in the wild right now.  I’d dearly love to hear if those knitters are having similar experiences.  Have you begun knitting/crocheting with it?  What about other Intentions? If you like, share your story on the Intention Yarns Ravelry group.  I’ve created a sticky thread called “Intentional Experience” for you to post your Intentions knit and crochet stories.  I hope to be able to feature some of these stories here on the blog.  If you have yarn from the previous evolution of Intention Yarns, that’s great too.  The power of IY is in the shared experiences of our members.

Living Crafts Magazine

Great tagline, isn’t it?  It’s the tagline of a magazine I really want to get my hands on.  It’s called “Living Crafts” and is a magazine with awesome DIY projects across many crafts.  The project that originally caught my eye was a rug made from wool roving.  The more I looked through the site the more projects I found that I really wanted to create.  They have a ton of free projects on their site in case like me you don’t (yet) have a subscription.  I love so much that it’s not craft-specific; it seems to me to be so useful.  There are projects kids can do, too, which is always awesome.  I’d love to hear from any of you that get this magazine – what do you think?

Last week we introduced “Focus,” IY’s first Limited Edition colorway.  Ever since it was dry I’ve been ogling the test skein.  It’s just so *pretty*.  I know I want to design something with it that will do the Intention and colors justice.

But what?

Here’s how my usual thought process happens:

Wow, that’s pretty yarn.  I really ought to make something awesome with it.  Fingerless mitts?  Oh, but what if the colors don’t line up?  That would be distracting, the complete opposite of the Intention.  Socks?  Same problem.  A shawlette?  Hmm, that has possibilities… Ysolda has done some cute shawlettes … who else has?  I’d better pop over to Ravelry to check.  Oooh, Ravelry … wow!  That’s a super cute pair of squirrel mittens.  Oh!  And that ten stitch blanket is circular.  Fab!  Has anyone posted on the IY message board? Wait – what was I here for?

Sound familiar? Please tell me that I’m not the only one who has this problem.  So, keeping in mind that the Intention I want to work with is Focus - how do I focus long enough to create something?  I’ve done some research on how to focus and here’s an amalgamation of what I found:

1. Find a quiet space.  It’s hard to think clearly when my dog is playing “Bark Until I Raise the Dead.”  Go to a room where you can shut the door, drive to a library … go where the loudest sounds you hear are the thoughts in your head.

2. Pick the right time of day.  I have a lot of energy for thought in the morning, but by mid-afternoon I’m ready for a nap and Wipeout and not much else.  I definitely love working on new things in strong morning sunshine.  I find that rainy days aren’t good for my attempts at sustained thinking (or anything but mindless knitting, really).

3. Single-task.  Multi-tasking gets a lot of press, but single tasking may be the best thing for a project.  If I decide that I have a specific thing that needs doing, I have to make sure that I’m not tempted to do anything else!  No dishes, vacuuming, tv watching, internet browsing … nothing but the task at hand.  Pick a block of time and do nothing else.  This takes some practice but it’s awesome when it comes together.  Voltaire once said that “no problem can withstand the onslaught of sustained thinking.”  Smart man.

4. Clear your work space.  On my desk as I sit here, there are a pile of Scholastic book orders that I want to go through, a piece of yarn from a current knitting project, a pair of  5lb dumbells, an empty water cup (bright blue) and an empty plate that once had cookies on it.  There are no white spaces on my desk, and no bare areas for me to work on anything (I can’t even rest my arms beside my laptop without having to shift something).  These things may be sitting still, but they still distract me from my focus.  Clear stuff off and away before you begin, and you’ll find it easier to stay on topic!

5. Take care of your personal needs.  Get a drink, go to the bathroom, put on warmer socks if you need to.  Find a comfortable place to be.  Put all your necessary items within reach – pens, paper, books/tools, tissues, hair elastics … the list goes on.  The goal isn’t to make you look like the bag lady in The Labyrinth

photo from "The Labyrinth" by Jim Henson

but to anticipate needs you may have so you don’t have to get up.  If you don’t have to get up, you have no reason not to keep working.

6. Stop working.  Sounds counter-intuitive, but it isn’t.  Honest!  Focusing and concentrating are terrific, of course, but are best done in small chunks.  If you’re in the zone don’t force yourself to quit, but don’t force yourself to keep going either.  About two hours is as long as you can be productive (and that’s counting breaks!).  A caveat: if you break up a single project into several different types of tasks you may be able to work a little longer.  If you find yourself distracted take a break or stop working on the project for a while.  Come back to it when your mind is fresh again.

Do you have any tips for staying focused?  Share them in the comments by February first and be entered to win your own skein of Focus!