"Handmade things are made by bodies"

How are you caring for yours?

Today’s headline is a quote is from ceramicist Julie Cloutier. It was also the headline in artist and writer Anna Brones’ newsletter from about a week ago. Both of their newsletters are worthy of a spot in your in-box.

Julie’s words, “handmade things are made by bodies,” has stayed with me, ever since I read them, encouraging me to explore my own relationship to making things.

Knitting can look quiet and calm from the outside, but it demands strength and flexibility in our hands and wrists. Shoulders and arms can get tired and sore. Bodies can hold tension without us even being aware of it until much later.

It hasn’t been until relatively recently that I’ve started moving and caring for my body in a way that supports my knitting and hand-making practice. And how I ended up with this movement practice has been a surprise.

I’ve always thought of myself as someone who didn’t stick with things. I’ve tried many different things over the years, some easy on my body and some more difficult, but everything always, eventually, felt like a slog. I might get in a groove, only to fall out of practice, later. I’ve had things I’ve come back to, and I’ve had transcendent moments where I thought “oh, (insert activity X) is what I want to do every day forever!”

But it didn’t stick.

Until about six months ago, yoga was one of those sometimes things for me.

My first yoga class was more than 30 years ago, taken in a community center rec room full of hippy dippy women who put things like alfalfa sprouts on their sandwiches. My next regular stint of yoga was 10 years after that in trendy hot yoga rooms full of thin and beautiful white women where it felt like a competition to be the most flexible or to hold a pose the longest.

My yoga practice was sporadic, as I dipped in and out of a lot of different yoga studios and scenes, never really finding the place where I felt like myself.

However, for the last six months, I have been surprising able to stick-to-it. I’ve been doing a live yoga class (at home) one to three times a week. Without fail.

It turns out, the problem wasn’t me.

(I’d be willing to bet that if you relate to the idea that your body needs a bit more care, but you find it hard, the problem isn’t you either.)

By chance, luck, or providence, I stumbled across a really different kind of yoga teacher: Emily Anderson (she/her) and her virtual yoga studio, All Bodies Welcome Yoga.

I took a class, and it felt different in class and my body felt different afterwards. I took a few more classes, and really liked how I felt afterwards. I took classes when I was feeling down, and Emily’s gentle encouragement to listen to what my body was telling me, encouraged me to be gentle with myself too. And you know what? Being gentle and encouraging to myself, rather than telling myself that I don’t stick to things … it actually feels a whole lot better.

Regular yoga, practiced during live classes from a teacher who focuses on accessibility, has made such a difference in how my body feels when I am knitting. I sit with greater comfort. My shoulders, arms, and wrists don’t ache the way they used to. My mind is quieter. I find myself, automatically, asking: what does my body (and mind and nervous system) need right now? What is this sensation or feeling trying to tell me? I’m less monkey mind and more reflective mind.

I’m softer with myself.

I remembered all of this because my yoga teacher has been away for the past two weeks and I didn’t do recorded classes. It’s like I grabbed a hall pass and said: let’s skip a few, okay? And I feel it in my body. My shoulders are tighter and my back a little achier. My body is trying to tell me something.

Today is the autumnal equinox, and we are heading into cozy season, but also a season of more darkness. It’s time to lean into our self-care, particularly those of us who are solar powered or who are vulnerable to seasonal depressions.

Knitting can help, making things by hand can help, and remembering that handmade things are made by bodies is an important part of the equation.

How are you caring for your body? How are you talking to yourself? How are you being gentle with yourself?

What kind of knitter or crocheter are you?

In my business life, I’m part of a marketing group, the Fiber Business Collective, and the founder, Anastasia, recently shared some prompts to help us to better understand our customers.

I found her prompts fascinating and thought I’d replicate a few of them for us. There are no right or wrong answers, just a spectrum to show how we all engage with the crafts we love.

Fun fact: I started my yarn and knitting life on the outer edge of the yarn buying spectrum: I was only interested in the colors or bases or brands that were hard-to-get or limited. I was in thrall to the hunt. I’ve now swung mostly the other way! There are no right answers. Only what brings you joy, right now.

Today is a perfectly balanced day of light and dark, and I hope the rhythms of the autumnal season to come are landing lightly on your heart. I hope you have plenty of good knitting or crocheting and are feeling the companionship of your own beautiful self.