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One of the top tips mentioned in the combating the crocheting slump was to take a break from crochet. While it may seem a little counter-intuitive, taking a break can sometimes be just the thing you need to get back your crochet motivation.
I’m not going to lie, I have delayed writing this particular blog post for a while because it felt a little strange. How can I be encouraging fellow crocheters to take a break, when I can’t imagine taking one myself? But then, I thought about it more…
Although I think about crocheting all of the time and crochet almost every day, I don’t do it every second of each and every day. Also, when I think about it, some of my best crochet ideas pop into my head when I’m not actually crocheting.
This brings me to why I’m writing about this topic in the first place. I originally posted the article, 11 ways to combat the crocheting slump back in June, and had promised to write more detailed posts on each of the 11 tips to help uninspired crocheters regain their love of crochet. Tip four was about listening to your body and taking a break when you need one, which brings me to this post right here.
If you are feeling completely uninspired, unmotivated, and unenthusiastic about crocheting, it is time to put the hooks down and take a well deserved break. Hopefully you haven’t gotten to that point yet, but it’s so important to be aware of how you are feeling and take a break when you feel like you need one. The fact is, you won’t make your best work when you’re not feeling it. Our health and well-being is so important and how we feel will impact our craft whether we like it or not.
We’ve all heard about writer’s block and burnout. Well, the same thing can happen to any artist with their creative outlet, which includes crocheters too! The cure? Walk away. Take a break. Give yourself some perspective. And go find inspiration away from your craft.
However, before you do, I have three tips for you to consider:
Give yourself a deadline and stick to it
If you’re planning to take a break from crocheting to boost your motivation for the craft, then set yourself a time limit. Put a date in the diary for when you’ll pick up the crochet hook and yarn again, and stick to it. Otherwise, your break may be counterproductive. The last thing you want is for time to slip away and not crochet again for years down the line. By giving your break a deadline, you’re giving yourself permission to forget about crocheting for a certain period of time, but you’re also making a promise to yourself to pick it up again. This will give you the headspace to focus on you and regain perspective during your break, while having an end goal in mind: to crochet, and love it again.
Don’t put more pressure on yourself
The idea of this creative break is to let yourself relax, to take time out for yourself, to take the pressure off. If during your break, you make yourself too busy in other areas of your life, you’re also defeating the purpose of taking a break. Don’t stress yourself out for the sake of “keeping busy”. Take this time to relax and refocus.
Do what you love
I suspect that if you’re thinking about taking a break from crocheting, it’s because you’re feeling frustrated, bored, tired, or uninspired. If this is the case, the idea of taking a break is so that you can look after yourself. Think of this break as a ‘short holiday’ from crocheting. What would you do on a holiday? How do you make yourself feel refreshed? Maybe it’s going for a long walk, reading a book, or having a long bath. Whatever it is, give yourself permission to indulge in these activities during your crochet break, and you’ll feel much more refreshed when you pick up those crochet hooks again.
Reimagine your relationship with crochet
While having a break is great for relaxing, it can be productive too. When you’re relaxed, let your mind wander and imagine the kind of relationship you would really like to have with your craft. Maybe you’ll realise you’re taking on too many commissions that you just don’t enjoy making, or maybe you’ve realised you don’t enjoy crocheting a particular item. Whatever it is, dare yourself to dream. Imagine what would really make you happy when you crochet again. Then write it down, and come back to those ideas when you go back to crocheting again. Don’t only refer back to those ideas though, be sure to implement them. Try them out. See what works and what doesn’t. There’s no point in having ideas without weighing them up and acting upon those that just feel right. Do it, I bet you won’t regret trying.
I hope this post helps, and if you feel like you need some more crochet motivation, be sure to read my previous post on combating the crocheting slump here. If you have any thoughts, ideas, or comments to add, I would love to hear from you. Just add a comment below, or get in touch with me here.
Until next time, happy crocheting,
Cilla x
