Process v. Product: What’s your crafting style?

Do you love the doing, or do you love being done?

In the age-old debate of process v. product, most of us fall to one side of the spectrum.

Does your brain delight in the aspects of process, each step coming into focus along the way, or is your mind always holding the end-point in focus, with a clear sense of trajectory?

Process-Oriented

For those who love to craft for the sake of crafting, working with a deadline can impede the sense of pleasure derived from the process. The anticipation of selecting a pattern, and choosing the perfect yarn for the job. The deliciousness of picking up the work whenever you have a moment, and putting it down as needed, knowing you’ll visit it again soon. The budding pride as you start to see your idea takes shape, and the rush as you get closer and closer to casting off!

The process itself can be the joy in and of itself, the act of creating something out of nothing, the meditative quality of concentrating one just one stitch at a time, the freedom from deadline.

From our instagram friend, @yarn_stash, working in LB Collection Natural Wool.

Product-Oriented

For others, it’s the deadline itself that might produce the greatest joy.

I’m a speed-knitter, racing along with precision. I relish a deadline, my mind scheduling out the time needed to arrive at the conclusion. Whether I’m crafting for myself or a friend, I can’t wait to see it finished! I love seeing things through from the beginning, quickly through the middle, to the closure at the end.

From our instagram friend, @yarn_stash, working in LB Collection Natural Wool.

Our society vacillates between maxims like ‘Enjoy the ride!’ and ‘Get ‘er done!’

We’re commanded to treasure the steps along the way & make sure we finish as fast as we can.

But in the ongoing debate between Process v. Product, is it possible to learn to balance both?

Are there benefits to both?

The Director of Education for our New York City Studio says after years of teaching, students who grow the most are those who embrace the opposite of their nature.

Those who are comfortable finding their way, maybe casting on an extra stitch here or there knowing ‘nobody will notice!’, might learn a little faster. By thinking less about perfection, you allowing yourself to fail, which gives you more opportunities to learn. Eventually, process-oriented crafters might become more invested in the product, and with increased focus their aim for the end goal will improve. For those who work tighter (me!), too much focus on the outcome in the beginning can make it harder to let yourself make mistakes. Fear of failing can stunt your growth, as a crafter and in in life, and make you more hesitant to try, fail, and try again.

Image from Pinterest

It’s hard to see things from the other side, and as someone who relishes the conclusion, I can’t imagine working the other way, and am jealous at the same time. Working with yarn gives me the opportunity to grow to appreciate the process – choosing a pattern with no deadline in mind is a challenge. I dare myself to pick something with unknown skills required! It takes extra time to choose a yarn I’m going to enjoy feeling in my hands, and a color that’s going to delight me for as long as I’m working in it. I remind myself to breath, soften my hands, and not to criticize myself if my project has been sitting, ignored on my desk, for a few days at a time while life gets busy.

However you work naturally, there’s a sweet opportunity to be found in trying it the other way. By creating that chance for ourselves on a small scale, and allowing ourselves to practice something new row by row, we just might gain skills that will show up in our lives in surprising ways.