a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal

Everyone has a style, right? It determines what clothes you wear, what furniture you buy, and what art you keep. But are we too hasty with labeling our style?

Owl Hats

Style changes, and a person’s style changes even more. You could be French Country today and Americana tomorrow. The French Country-ers will stick up their French noses and say “then they weren’t really French Country,” but you were and we all know it. The fact is when you pick a style you just pigeonhole yourself which doesn’t make anyone happy. And then you declare your style to the world and they will remember it. Forever. You will never see 90’s if you say you’re 80’s, no one will get you something modern if you say you’re traditional. They’ll never pick up something hipster if you say you’re grunge (is that still a thing?). Think of all those things you will miss. People don’t remember you; they remember the labels that get stuck to you.

Heart Necklace

Pendant Lamp

The same kind of thing happens when we pick up hobbies like knitting. We decide we’re going to be a certain kind of knitter, and we usually do it unintentionally. Maybe you know how to do cables and then suddenly everything you knit has a cable in it. Maybe lace looks hard and so you decide you’re not that kind of knitter. Some people get stuck making the same article of clothing over and over. There are sweater people and scarf people and sock people. Even worse, the people who are scarf people sometimes don’t even think they’re “real” knitters. What’s a real knitter? Was there an initiation ceremony I missed? Does everyone else have a Real Knitter certificate hidden away?

Cloche Hat

My biggest knitting fear was color. I didn’t want to change colors, I wanted to stay in the safety of a monotone world, then I had this whole thought process about how we label ourselves and picked patterns with color. So far, nothing catastrophic has happened.