We’ve all had the experience of getting really into a new craft or hobby, and then getting stuck or distracted a few months into a project.
While it can feel wasteful and even embarrassing to invest time, energy, and money watching tutorials and buying materials only to find that you’re not very good at something, the truth is that this kind of plateau is a natural part of any learning process.
The best way to ensure your effort isn’t wasted is to stick with it until it becomes fun again — which it almost certainly will.
If you picked up knitting during the pandemic and are having a hard time sticking with it now that things are opening up, here are three tips that can help rekindle your love for the craft.
- Push Yourself to Try New Materials
One of the main reasons creative people tend to plateau with a new instrument, hobby, or craft is that they get stuck between difficulty levels.
When you first start to knit, learning the stitches and watching your hat or blanket grow can feel incredible. But over time you become bored with what you can do, and discouraged when you try something outside your comfort zone.
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Trying new, more challenging materials can help you surmount the plateau by forcing you to develop — and master — new skills. If you’ve started out with yarns like Bernat Chunky Yarn, try something a little finer, like Bernat Handicrafter Cotton, to improve your dexterity.
- Try More Challenging Patterns
Working with different weights or types of yarn is one way to shake up your knitting practice, and experimenting with new patterns is another.
A lot of knitters start out with relatively straightforward items, like hats, blankets, or mittens. But one only needs so many hats, blankets, and mittens, and trying something more daring and fashion-forward can be a great way to make custom knitwear you’ll be excited to show off to your family and friends, or to give as a gift when the holiday season rolls around.
You can click here to check out some knitting patterns for your summer project that are guaranteed to help you fall in love with your knitting practice all over again.
- Get Involved in a Community
For some, it is just not that easy to stay interested in a creative practice that isn’t shared with others. People learn to play the guitar because they want to play in a band, and many artists meet regularly to sketch together.
The same is true for knitters. Plenty of people who fall in love with the craft stay with it because they make friends in the local knitting scene, the joy of each stitch magnified by the fact that it is shared with like-minded people.
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Find out if there are knitters active in your community, and if there aren’t, consider starting a knitting club of your own!
For the past year and a half, we’ve all had to get pretty resourceful about keeping ourselves entertained. And now that things are opening up again, it’s natural that some people will bid the creative outlets they turned to during the lockdown farewell.
But if you want knitting to be an ongoing part of your life, pushing yourself to get over the plateau by trying new yarns, new patterns, and using knitting to make new friends is the way to do it.
