It's a new year coming up – heck, it'll be a new decade! – and there's no better way to start fresh than to do it by embracing the imperfection and occasional downright ugliness that comes along with doing creative things.
Join me from January 6 – February 7th, 2020, and together we'll work through my book Make It Mighty Ugly.
Through guided discussion, prompts and live chats, we'll fight our creative demons and kick the new year off with a focus on prioritizing the meaningful creative projects that make us happy so we can spend the rest of the year making and learning and not worrying about it all ending up perfect. Because perfect is boring and imperfect is fascinating.
If you're a supporting member at the $5-or-up level, be sure to enter your discount code.
Once you've registered, you'll gain immediate access to this group, and you're welcome to get to know your fellow adventurers before the workshop begins.
Be sure to grab a copy of the book before January 6th! (And please do feel free to request a copy from your local library. We love libraries!)
FLASH SALE! Get 20% off till Jan. 2nd (no code needed)
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Happy New Year! ‘Tis the time to get real about your creative habit – without stress or judgment. Right? Of course right.
Have you been desperately wanting to prioritize your creativity but feel like no matter what you try you just can't manage to follow through? Maybe you've tried a 100 Days challenge, or tried making a certain kind of thing every week, but then you miss a day and then another and, well…
Or maybe you used to have a rock-solid creative practice, but over time it's eroded and you'd really like to commit the time and effort to getting it back into shape?
The Daily Making Jumpstart LIVE is a two-week online workshop with daily prompts and exercises to get your creative habit up to speed – no stress involved.
The next session begins on January 8th, 2019, and includes 10 live video hang-outs (that will be recorded, because we're all busy and who can attend ten live video sessions anyway?).
I have never been excited about a new class like I’m excited about this one! Zigzag Crochet: A Beginner’s Guide to Ripples & Waves is all about my absolute favourite kind of project to crochet. (Uh, obviously, zigzags, ripples, waves, chevrons – whatever you call them.) Come learn how to bend stripes into cool shapes, from spiky chevrons to gentle waves. With texture or lace, and always with colour!
I designed the class around a baby-blanket pattern made in machine-washable yarn (as every baby blanket should be), and I walk you through the project from beginning to end.
There’s loads more in class, too! Learn how to use a zigzag pattern to make a project of any size, from a scarf to a king-size blanket. Explore how yarn weight and gauge affect the size of your projects, play with loads of colour, and learn how to handle all the pesky ends you have to deal with when you work in stripes. Discover how to make a wide variety of patterns, including the feather and fan pattern I’m using to make this epic scarf, and learn how to introduce variations into patterns so you can alter the way they look.
A couple of months ago, I got a Twitter mention from the Chattanooga Public Library in Tennessee, about a Mighty Ugly workshop they were going to host for Valentine's Day. And I nearly fell out of my chair. I mean, how perfect is that?! It's totally perfect. So of course I told the librarian how excited I was, and I sent her a signed book to give away, and I recorded a wee video intro for the event.
Here's the video (in which I explain why Mighty Ugly and Valentine's Day are a perfect match, natch) and some tweets from the event that made my heart sing. (If you're a librarian who thinks this idea is swell, or you're just an average person like me and you'd like to ask your friendly neighbourhood librarian to host a Mighty Ugly event, check out this link with loads of info to help!)
I'm still finding my way around Periscope, and one of the things I love most about it is that people can comment as you record, so you can respond to what they say or ask. I just love it. Anyway, as I've been experimenting with the platform, I find I've been chatting with people more and more about daily making and Year of Making, so I did a scope highlighting five reasons to do a Year of Making. The video of my five reasons is below, as is the link to get the free worksheet I promised in the scope!
Scope Notes
I mentioned my friend Meighan O'Toole (whose scopes are ace, btw), and this post she linked to from someone doing a Year of Making.
My online not-really-a-class: Daily Making Jumpstart. (That's what you'll find at the website I mention in the scope: camp.kimwerker.com. In a few weeks, I'll launch my next class on there; sign up for my weekly email to be the first to find out about it!)
I went to the postal depot at the end of my street today, and over tea, which Sal, the owner, insisted on making me, I sent a signed copy of my book to a reader in Latvia, and another to a library in Oregon that's in desperate need of a new roof and can't afford it without a massive fundraiser, of which my book will play a very small part.
While I paid Sal, we chatted about the holidays, and assimilation. I didn't realize his family is Muslim – they do such a great job of spreading holiday cheer at this time of year. Of course, “holiday cheer” is totally Christmas. So we talked about raising our non-Christian kids (and grandkids, in his case), and how they love Santa and singing Christmas songs at school, and sharing their own identity and practices with their friends, and how we all love seeing family at this time of year because most of our relatives are off work. I realized last week that of course my Christmas-birthday kid will never have to work on his birthday (unless he decides to become a doctor or nurse, or do some other kind of work that non-Christmas-celebrators do on Christmas so Christmas celebrators can celebrate). What a gift.
Sal handed me some biscotti to go with my tea. We wished each other well, and I left with a smile and a wave.
Hi! I'm a writer and editor, and also like a camp counselor for grownups. I help people have way more fun making stuff. Learn more about how right here.
Hi! I'm a writer and editor, and also like a camp counselor for grownups. I help people have way more fun making stuff. Learn more about how 