crochet // it's all in the schlime (Patreon)

One of the projects I worked on this month was a crocheted cloak. I roughly followed Jayda InStitches' hooded cloak pattern on YouTube, subtracting stitches and feeling out the lengths to account for size. The video starts with these lovely shots of the artist wandering through a forest in her handmade cloak and fawn-like wood elf makeup. She uses just a little bit of a fantasy character accent as she describes the reasons you would want to make a cloak like hers. I watched the intro several times while I was working on the more monotonous rows. The YouTube tutorial entertainment/art/skill share nexus of creation is just fascinating.

This summer, I spent about 20 hours over the course of a week untangling and balling yarn. I definitely would not have felt so empowered to whip this cloak out if I hadn't spent all of that time reorganizing my old zip up plastic bedding bags full of string. It's funny how projects can percolate like that, over time. Everything I do feels like it's part of a collage. Collecting and loosely organizing pieces of ideas, practicing with and preparing my tools for the moment I will need them. As much as I am a believer in sitting down and doing the work, you just can't force a good metaphor. You have to build up to it, and meet it where it lives. Time spent is such an important part of the process, even if that time is used curating your space, or putting together a good playlist to work to, or going for a walk or taking a shower to clear your head. Not every moment of artmaking looks like making art. But it's all part of the process.

(Wario not to scale).