Incoherent Scribblings

Stitching Mojo

Time for this week’s (late) SBQ! Today’s question was suggested by Jenna and is:

Lately, it seems that many stitching bloggers have experienced a loss of their stitching mojo. Have you ever lost your stitching mojo? If so, how did you get it back and how long did it take?

When Jenna sent me this question I was wondering if it duplicated a question I posed about a year ago that asked how stitchers deal with “stitching slumps.” In some ways I think the question does deal with the dreaded slump, but according to one definition, “mojo” refers to magical influence, so I suppose the question is more along the lines of “Has stitching ever lost its magic for you?”

In that case, yes I have lost my stitching mojo a couple of times. During the time I have been stitching I can specifically think of two times that stitching seemed to lose its magic for me. (And as a result, I went into a stitching slump.)

The first time that I suffered a serious slump was a direct result of my first full-time job. I was just so tired all the time that the only thing I really wanted to do was veg out in front of the TV after work and for two and a half years my pitiful stash barely saw the light of day.

When I finally did decide to start stitching again it took a while to get my mojo back because by then I hadn’t stitched for a couple of years and had some UFOs that I was determined to finish. Once I got them done though and had the pleasure of starting some new projects I was back on my feet.

At that time I also discovered Internet freebies and started building up my stash and as a result I did pretty well for about a year. Then all of a sudden I seemed to get sort of bored and didn’t stitch for a couple of months. Through a complete fluke (read: poor German language skills) I “accidentally” bought a small kit that contained evenweave and when I finally decided to give it a try it wasn’t long before I got my mojo back.

When I look back now I think the reason I lost my mojo that second time was because I had matured as a stitcher and was ready for new challenges even though I didn’t realize it. By deciding to chuck the Aida cloth in favor of evenweaves, linens, fabrics with higher counts, more complex patterns, specialty stitches, and beads I have managed to retain my mojo since then and when I see all the wonderful things still out there for me to stitch I think I can probably hold onto it for a long time to come!