If you are at all familiar with the Enneagram, it would surprise you, I think, very little to know that I am a solid 6. Sometimes I feel as though I have a 7 wing, sometimes a 5. but solidly, solidly a 6. The 6 is all about security, and preparation, and dealing with their anxiety in the best way they know how. I think that as a 6, I also have a quite strong propensity for nostalgia: of remembering former times in my life and, because I can look back on them and know them, feel like they are safe spaces. Who feels nostalgic for the year 2005?! Me, apparently. I have been reading old blog posts from Posie Gets Cozy (again), and thinking about the little boutiques that I would stop in and visit as a teenager, how much I loved monogrammed things. I’ve been going back to the last page of my Ravelry favorites and, in quick succession, finding myself purchasing someone’s stash of discontinued Debbie Bliss Chunky Tweed for a pattern that I have had saved for at least seven years in my queue. I have been listening to a lot of The Shins.
I find myself feeling very poetic about how things used to be which I have come to realize is a really dangerous and inaccurate space to live. We have come so far as a society, and we cannot go back, nor should we want to. We can’t glorify parts of the past without considering the world as a whole, and it is naive to think of the past as “better times” (better for who?). But even my recent yarn purchases have made me feel like it’s ok to remember when online crafts were a little more eclectic, and more things came in the mail, and the fanciest thing I knew to order at a coffee shop was a London Fog.
I think these feelings have also been influenced by our recent trip to Nashville. One of my dearest friends is having a baby any day now and B and I went for a visit for a few days to the place where we met, fell in love, went to college, and started our life together as a couple. You remember things differently, and you remember more, when you are in a place that you used to know so well. Oh, and our friends also introduced us to the Huji app, which makes everything you take a photo of look like it was from 1998. Amazing.
I’m not sure there’s really a point to this post other than just to say what kind of headspace I’ve been in recently, and how interestingly, it has made me so creatively inspired too. Between this mindset and my “lack of internet” breakthrough a couple of weeks ago, I have made incredible progress on two new designs, one of which I am going to be submitting for publication for sure, and the other we’ll see. But I’m really excited about both of them and for the inspiration that they’ve brought to my life, connecting my past and my present and sharing something absolutely cozy with you.
I have not forgotten about the Sunday Morning shawl, which I am hopeful will be on its way to being released in a few weeks. I’m also working out the kinks on my e-reader cover that I shared on IG last week and have had some interest in seeing written up as a pattern (this one will be free).