Inspiration

Where do you get your inspiration from?  We all look, feel, smell something and feel moved.  So, what moves you?

I always love to see how other people are creative.  I sometimes wonder if that’s a good thing because then I’m envious.   Last time I checked, envy was a flaw, not a quality.  BUT, maybe envy in this case is good – it serves as motivation to try new things – things we wouldn’t have otherwise tried on our own or conceived in our own minds.

Sometimes you meet people that have done such great things that you feel inspired and small at the same time.  There’s a guy I work with – he’s 29 years old and he’s done two tours in the Middle East.  He brought in some pictures for me.  There was a particular photo of a soldier, in civilian clothes, down on his knees lacing up these little black runners that were clearly too big for a little guy who had no pants on – only a t-shirt to cover him.  Other soldiers were giving children clothing , shoes, hats – something we take for granted every day.  All of these children were smiling these jumbo happy smiles.  Will I ever do something this significant?

Some people just ooze creativity.  I think I’m creative but it certainly doesn’t flow for me like it does for some.  I read blogs and think “Where do they find the time?”  I also often think “Ooh, I have to try that.”  In my case, this is not a good thing – I barely have the time to do the things I’ve already learned.

My friend Michelle inspires me for a million different reasons.  I get a lot from her.  Every time we visit, I come away with something new.  During our last visit, we made soap together.  When I visited her in September for the yarn show, she made me potato pizza.  It was delicious.  The visit before that, I came home with a chocolate-peppermint plant for my garden.

I get a lot of inspiration from home.  My little cottage (that’s what I call it) is surrounded by nature.  Today, snow covers everything.  It’s white and pure and beautiful.

Now picture this scene but it’s night and the sky is sprinkled with a million stars.  Even at night, when there’s this much snow and the moon is shining, the snow has this glow.  It takes my breath away.  You’ll never get that in the city!  Oh, what you’re missing…

I love pictures.  I get tones of inspiration from pictures – especially pictures of far-away places.  They just carry me off.  I start to wonder what it would feel like to be there; what it would smell like and how the air would feel on my skin or what I could learn about the history and the architecture, or if the people there are friendly, what the food tastes like, etc.  My imagination just runs away.

Oh, I could go on and on and on.  Everywhere I look, there’s something inspiring.  Am I the only one like this?

Obviously, I’m inspired by fiber.  Here’s what I’ve been working on:

A scarf and tuque combo for my brother-in-law.

Socks for my sister.

I’m making the socks up as I go.  I’ll have to remember to write down the pattern because I think I’ll make these again.  The stitch is from a t-shirt I made a while back.  The pattern was in German.  I had to translate it all by myself.  You gotta love the internet!  I loved the stitch more than the t-shirt.  So, I’ve been meaning to use it in a pair of socks for some time.  When I saw this colorway, I thought it would be perfect.  So far so good.

Well, I think that’s enough blabbing for one day.  My mind is wondering to what’s inspiring me right now – those socks.  I’m going to go work on them now – I actually have a few hours to myself.  Woohooo.