Today’s guest post on Tabula Rasa comes from
the one and only Justyna Lorkowska aka Lete’s Knit.
Justyna is an overall designer extraordinaire, every
single one of her shawls is to die for. She excites with her designs, they are stunning with gorgeous colour combinations, they evoke urgency….the need to
cast on every single design is unbearable, and if that wasn’t enough, she is
also a fellow Pole so you gotta love her. I adore hearing my name in the Polish
way, Ania 😊.
I have been admirer of Justyna’s work for a very long time and when I was approached to contribute to her husband’s, Marcin (Martin’s Lab), Stillness Collection, as you can imagine I jumped at the chance. De Anima shawl was my contribution and it was a pleasure working on her using Marcin’s amazing yarns.
Justyna also released two collections called TabulaRasa Naturals and recently Tabula Rasa Speckles, so who better to talk about
the subject……….
Some time ago Ania asked me to write a guest
blog post. At that time I was in a shop trying to pick the entrance door and
running around my 6-year-old daughter who was sure to hurt herself in a place
full of tools, tiles, doors and other building equipment. Ah, the “highlights”
of a knitting designer’s life 😉 (To tell you the truth, this life
is pretty boring: the same chores as everyone else, with some deadline knitting
and almost no knitting just for the sake of it… and taxes to pay just like
others). Anyway, I was sort of busy in the shop, but when a friend asks you a
favor, you say yes. So I did.
After some time when I was supposed to write
the actual post, I had no idea what to say. “Tabula rasa”…. “Tabula rasa”… scratch on the head… Well, I did name my
collection like that - after all it sounds inspirational and catchy 😉 Also Ania’s beautiful shawl from “Stillness
Collection” is called “De Anima” after
the treatise of Aristotle, in which the concept of Tabula Rasa in Western
philosophy originated (btw, that’s one of the most gorgeous crochet shawls I’ve
seen and I really saw it in person). Finally, I do know what “tabula rasa”
means (blank page, right? 😉), but writing a whole blog post explaining
if I think we are creative blank pages… oh man.
I was never planning to become a knitting
designer – it sort of happened organically. I just really love making things
with sticks and string. However, being one of those “knit-in-public” knitters I
get asked many questions by lots of people, I mean lots. And it’s not only
questions. A lot of “muggles” just chat to me and start talking about their
crafting experiences. They mostly describe their failures and end up saying “I
could not knit like you”.
My favorite story dates about 2 years back to a
summer holiday I was spending with my kids at my lovely mother-in-law’s. She’s
not a knitter or a crafter of any kind, but loves listening to me when I
describe what I’m making, when I talk about yarns (she loves caking yarn for
me) and she’s super proud when I make something for her. She has a bunch of friends
in the neighborhood so almost every time when we looked after the kids in the
playground, they would come over to us and chat. I was the youngest in the
crowd so whenever they saw me with knitting needles, someone would ask “Whatcha
making kiddo?” One day I was ploughing through a cardigan (if I remember
correctly I was making Dipped cardigan, which is contiguous) when I heard the
“whatcha making” question.
“A cardigan”, I replied. “I know it doesn’t
look like it but I assure you it’s a cardi. You start your work at the neck
line and then increase in certain spots to shape the sleeves, neck and so on”.
She stared at me as if I was casting some magic
spells on her.
“Wow, I could never make something like that. I
can only knit and purl.”
“Well… you actually could. I also just knit and
purl” I said. “With a few simple increases here and there”.
That sums up perfectly all crafty failures. I
taught myself to knit when I was a child, observing my mom and trying to copy
her needles’ movements. Then I stopped knitting for many years believing, just
like the lady, that I could never make more difficult stuff. So wrong! After
many years I took it up again, this time determined to learn and create as much
as possible. From simple techniques and easy projects to creating my own designs.
I can’t even count the number of times I had to rip the projects and the amount
of foul language accompanying it (I’m sure many can relate 😉) until one day I started feeling comfortable
enough to let my creativity rule. Was I a blank page or was it inborn? I think
a little bit of both. My skills were acquired throughout the many years or
ripping and starting again, but my innate stubbornness and drive to create helped
too.
I believe none of us are born with skills to
knit, sew, crochet and we need to learn and master them. Just like kids
learning a language, we need to provide ourselves with creative input –
beginning with easy stitches and projects to more advanced ones – until we possess
so much data it allows us to freely
create. So, Dear Reader, knit, make, create until you feel comfortable and your
mind if full of ideas! Thomas Edison once said “Genius is one percent
inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration” and I could not agree with him
more. Creativity takes hard work, it takes time and it is something that can be mastered. Every stitch gets you closer to
perfection and helps you build the vast knowledge of how and why. You can’t
expect to be creative by doing nothing. Just like kids who are kept in silence
since their birth can’t use proper language, you need stimuli for your brain
and hands to become crafty.
However, just like with anything that requires
both success and failure, a lot of people avoid stepping out of their comfort zone
to try new things. They would rather become this lady from the story than
experience defeat. Personally, I wouldn’t call the hours of unravelling “ugly
projects” being unsuccessful. It’s just a step you’re making in the process of
becoming better and more creative. Every small mistake teaches you, so if you
are learning from them they are meant to be.
Finally, as a former teacher, I can say there’s
nothing that drives me coocoo more than someone whining “I can’t do it” 😉
Justyna xx
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