Crushed by Comparison

As I've been pondering re-emergence from my cave I have been wrestling with how I will manage my relationship to social media.

Each time I've contemplated dyeing yarn I've been made aware that some one some place else has already done it or already does it and most often executes it far better than I do. 

This means each time I stand up from the sofa, I crash back onto it despondently wondering the point of continuing. 

There are so very many wonderful dyers, doing beautiful work and so very many beautiful designers out there creating lovely patterns.  And honestly, how much yarn are you really using?  Is it not just languishing in the back of your cupboards feeding moth larvae and silverfish?

I feel crushed by the comparison created by social media when instead I want to feel alive to the excitement of experimentation and exploration.  The compulsive nature of social media to be responsive and interactive soaks up time like a blotter takes up ink (have I mentioned my recent foray into the world of restoring fountain pens?)

The current preferencing of social media content to short snippets of video also drives me wild, perhaps it also confounds you? The idea of stealing any moments from your day by my jiggling something in front of your face daily is completely asinine to me. A waste of your life and mine.  I want to show up in some other way.  A way that values your time, your intellect and your choices. Perhaps an occasional something in your in-box is the way to go, with the odd longer blog post here on the website to share what I'm up to.  Does this sound like something you'd like?

Everywhere I look I see promises to be 'bigger' and 'better', the overuse of superlatives makes me cynical.  The pressure to be 'excited' and 'striving' leaves me feeling apathetic at best. A project which may previously have taken me a couple of evenings, has languished on the floor in a paper bag for three months seeking only that its final rounds be knit.  This is what life looks like, sometimes it is just one foot in front of the other.

I am promising very little. I am slow, but spirited. 

Katrina ⚓︎