Script for

Episode 142:

My Missing Mojo

Have you seen my spinning mojo? I seem to have misplaced it. I've looked everywhere for it, and I just can't figure out where I put it. If you see it, please send it home. I miss it. 

Hello there, darling Sheepspotter. Welcome to episode 142 of the Sheepspot Podcast. I'm Sasha, and my job is to help you make more yarns you love. In today's episode, I confess that my spinning mojo has deserted me and tell you what I do to get it back. So I haven't been spinning or knitting very much at all in the past few months, which is odd, because I'm usually at my most productive at this time of year. I think there are a few reasons for this. I've been moving around a lot between Ontario and Nova Scotia, and whenever I make that move, my routines get disrupted and I need to figure them all out again. And typically, my making routines are the last ones to get re-established after I've figured out how to work and exercise and take care of myself in basic ways. So that has definitely been happening.

Another mojo disruptor is that I had to take a long break from one of my current projects because I needed some more fiber for it, and the postal strike in Canada meant that it took way longer than it really should have to get to me. But the fact is that whatever triggers them, I go through phases where I don't want to spin or knit. These moments used to really worry me, and I've gotten a lot more mellow about them. So I thought that it might be useful for me to talk about how I think about these periods and how I work myself out of them, in case you're in one now or you find yourself in one in the future. So what follows are six ideas about what to do and what not to do when your mojo deserts you. The first thing is, don't panic. And don't think necessarily that something's gone wrong. I think creativity has its cycles and seasons just like everything else, and what you're experiencing is likely temporary and not something to worry about at all. Sometimes I just let it be and wait patiently for my mojo to return. And it always has.

Number two, missing mojo may not mean that something's gone wrong, but sometimes something has gone wrong. In my case, I often stop making when I'm burned out or approaching burnout, when I'm just really tired. Creating something from nothing takes a certain amount of energy, and sometimes we just don't have it. When I find myself in this situation, I focus on taking care of myself, getting enough sleep, eating healthy foods, getting enough exercise, and making sure that I'm attending to my emotions by meditating or journaling. If I do this, the mojo problem usually works itself out pretty quickly, and I'm back to my fibery pursuits within a couple of weeks. So ask yourself if you're just tired, and if the answer is yes, deal with that.

Three, consider the possibility that you're using your creative energy on something else, and especially on something that you don't necessarily think of as creative. Maybe you're choosing a new paint palette for your house, or overseeing a big project at work, or making your kids Halloween costumes, and you don't have much left over at the moment. When my husband and I were building our house in Nova Scotia, I was so consumed by the details of lighting fixtures and what the towel bars should look like that I didn't have the creative energy to do much making. And that was fine. Eventually, the building was finished and furnished, and I happily returned to my wheel.

Number four, consider doing something completely different. In this fallow fiber season, I've been experimenting with watercolors and creating little collages in my journal. It can be hard to feel like it's okay to start something new when you've got multiple wheels and a full stash, as I do, but my motto is that making is making, and I know that the collages and the watercolors will eventually enrich my fiber work in ways that I can't predict right now. The intensity of the pigments in the watercolors may eventually translate to dyeing. And what is an art bat if not a kind of collage? So when I get these urges to do something in a different medium, I just try to trust myself to follow my enthusiasm and go along for the ride.

Number five, do what's easy. This might look like going through your projects that are currently in timeout, finding something that's mostly done, and finishing it. I frequently put down projects that are well on their way to completion and then get distracted and forget how much I've done. Resurfacing and finishing them can be a great way to score a quick win and get the juices flowing again. Alternatively, you might look through your stash for a favorite fiber or color and start a new project with whatever's calling to you right now. Startitis isn't always a bad thing. In the guild, we call these spins palate cleansers or snack spins, and sometimes they're just the thing to get you going. Finally, get inspired. My favorite way to do this is to log into my spinning community, The Guild, and see what they're up to. If you're not plugged into a spinning community, try searching the hand-spun hashtag on Instagram or just searching hand-spun yarn on Pinterest to see some yarns that might rekindle your spinning spark.

A quick recap. First, and probably most important, don't panic. Two, ask yourself if you're just tired, and if so, divert the energy that you might spend spinning into doing whatever you need to do to take care of yourself. Three, consider the possibility that you're expending your creative energy on something else. If so, chill out. Four, try a different medium and trust that it will lead you back to and enrich your fiber practice. Fifth, do what's easy by finishing something that's close to completion or by starting something entirely new. And finally, try getting inspired by connecting to your spinning community or just looking at pictures of drool-worthy hand-spun yarns on the internet. What do you do when you lose your mojo? I would love to know. Let's share our best mojo restoring ideas in the discussion thread in the flock dedicated to this episode. The link is in the show notes for this episode, which you'll find right inside your podcast app. Just open up the description for this episode, click the link, and you'll be taken right to the thread.

Darling Sheepspotter that is it for me this week thank you so much for listening i'll be back next week with a new episode that you will not want to miss until then spin something or paint something or collage something or finish something or start something remember making is making i know it will do you good.