Food for thought: 3 goals

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It’s May already and things are going swimmingly. I’m deeply immersed in colour and design and making stuff. Time for a regroup on the blog to push forward some of the ideas I’m currently working on!

It’s exciting when people look at my blog, but I do see it primarily as a journal of reflection that assists my creative process. Rather than keep everything in my head, I should be using this space to experiment and test patterns and images; somewhere I can return to when making decisions and refinements.

So here are three goals to give this reflective space a purposeful boost:

Goal 1: Moot a Mood board

I post my own and other’s images on my Too Many Pies Pinterest board but I think I should select some inspirational images to showcase each week. An image a day would be fine, but a posting of the week’s pins could also work.

TMPpinterest1

Goal 2: Rabbit on

[Always impressed by rabbits], rabbiting on, that’s something I’m sure I can do quickly and easily. Just write … just write about things … just write about ideas and colours and designs and images and current obsessions and the loops and twists and spirals of practice and things that are exciting or illuminating or inspiring or significant; or not so significant but still worth noting. How often? Aiming for once a week but it has to be a quick jabber.

Goal 3: Celebrate Pie floaters*

*Pie floaters are the designs or images that I have made and refined to the point where I think they are worth documenting as patterns for others to use or to print (e.g as cards, artworks or fabrics).

Here’s an example of a pie floater I’d like to celebrate:

bluegreyreverse1w

This reversible beanie design is thick and structured and beautifully simple. It’s almost ready to be written up as a knitting pattern. Still working on the design of the crown and exploring different colour ways and luxury yarns.

How will I measure achievement of this goal? I’m not sure. Wish me luck!!

kikyoblue   kikyodark   kikyoviolet   kikyored   kikyowarm

 

The art of procrastination

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I think I’ve written a few times about procrastination. Yes, really, I just jumped in and did it!

It’s been a few long months since I have posted on Too Many Pies. In my last post I wrote some notes to self about ideas on the boil and projects to complete. I’m pretty happy that I’ve managed to find a ‘hat with earflap’ pattern, part-design some cotton knits and make some adequate calzones.

In my pursuit of a new colour palette I realised the only colour combinations I don’t use are primary colour combinations—and I’m not about to start now, so I can sort-of tick this one off. (OK, so I didn’t complete this one, but thinking about it and realising it was a stupid idea in the first place is just as good IMO)

White note paper

Most of the other ideas revealed in that post are still percolating and many others have been added. I’ve started making fingerless gloves. I’m wrestling with a couple of mathematical problems in my design work. I’ve been working puns about fish into some new imagery. I’m in procrastination heaven!

An interesting read penned by Adam Grant titled Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate gives reasons why procrastination is a good thing:

When you procrastinate, you’re more likely to let your mind wander. That gives you a better chance of stumbling onto the unusual and spotting unexpected patterns. Nearly a century ago, the psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik found that people had a better memory for incomplete tasks than for complete ones. When we finish a project, we file it away. But when it’s in limbo, it stays active in our minds.

LIMBO and ACTIVE are oxymoronic but perfectly describe the state of my procrastination. It’s a good thing, I agree. Every day holds great excitement and promise as I delve into the substantial Repository of Incomplete.