I’ve noticed a few people I follow on instagram this past week mention that they have lost their crojo and haven’t touched a project in a long while.  This would be one of my worst nightmares!  Losing the use of my hands would be far more devastating, but “touch wood” we won’t have to deal with that scenario…

But in all seriousness, what would you do if you lost your crojo?  Or if you lost your drive for any craft of your choice?

Many of us feel and need the benefits of crochet when we do it, which is why else it becomes so upsetting when we have lost our motivation for it.

I can admit to having some days over the past few weeks where I have picked up my hook and then spent more time being distracted by other things, and just couldn’t seem to get in to the project that I was working on.  Losing your crojo is more than just a bad hook day though.  What starts out as one bad day with little crochet time, turns into two, which turns into a week and eventually leaves you wondering if you’re ever going to feel like crocheting again!

If you’ve lost your crojo, or have had a few days where you just haven’t felt like picking up your hook, then the first thing to do is not panic! I promise you that you will find your crojo again.

With any problem, it is important to get to the root cause of it all, which means you need to find out why you lost your motivation.

There could be many reasons.

It might be as simple as you’re not enjoying the project that you’re working on.  And I know that this has caused me to have less hook time in the past.

It might even be that you have too many projects on the go and you’re feeling overwhelmed by them all, which leads you to doing none of them just so that you don’t have to deal with the overwhelm when you sit down.

But what if the reason is more complicated than that.  What if life got in the way which i know is easy for it to happen.  Many of us have kids, work, or a home to manage.  We might have one of those or all of those.  And quite often it means that one or another or all of those will demand more attention from us, which means it leaves us too tired to pick up our hook.  Or if we do find that small window of opportunity, then we feel guilty that we have picked our hook up to spend some time relaxing the way we want to.

Once you’ve found your reason for why you’ve lost your crojo, it’s then possible to put in a plan of action to bring it back again.

So if your reason is that you’re not enjoying the project that you’re on, then stop making it!  It’s like anything, if it doesn’t bring you joy, you’re not going to want to do it.  If it is a project that you can’t give up because it’s promised to someone though, then you need to just commit to a little bit of time every day to chip away at it and then reward yourself with time on the project that you do want to work on.  If it’s a project that is too complicated, then put it aside until you’ve developed your skills more and it’s not so complicated anymore.

If you have too many projects on the go, then look at my blog from a couple of weeks ago where where I talk about managing your WIPs.  It provides you with the ten steps to take to get them back under control and keep them that way.

If your reason is that life got in the way, then I am here to tell you, that it is up to you to say no and to put your craft first!  Our craft brings us so many benefits that help us in every day life.  And like an emergency situation on a plane, if we don’t help ourselves first then we’re of no help to anyone.

The most important step to do if you have let life get in the way, is to prioritise your crochet.  Even if it’s just 10 minutes at the start of the day adding a row to a blanket, or making a square.  The sense of achievement that you gain from that will not only set you up for feeling better about the day ahead, but it will also help you feel more motivated to get back into more serious crochet time.

And if life is getting in the way, then you also need to look at what you can change to make it easier for you.  Most of life’s inefficiencies come down to poor planning and poor time management.  They can also come from trying to take on too much, which leaves us too tired and stressed to sit and relax with what we really need to do, which is crochet!  Living a more flexible and carefree life comes from being more organised!  Trust me.  I get a tonne of important work done every week, and still have plenty of time for crochet and feeling the benefits of it.  I plan out my week on a Sunday and then plan each day the night before.  It leaves me with fewer surprises, it helps me get into what I need to do sooner, which means that I can get it done sooner, which means I get more time for crochet and other things that I love.

And don’t over think it or over worry about losing your crojo.  Worrying about anything just makes the situation worse.  And worrying is probably the best reason to get yourself outside for a walk or to sit down with your hook!  Both will give you the opportunity to clear your head and help you to prioritise what is important.

So if you have lost your crojo and after reading this still can’t figure out why or how to resolve it, then message me!  I’m on facebook and instagram and even on email.

Crochet is an important part of my life, so I make time for it daily.  It might not be a daily task for you, but if you want it to be, or you want to make more regular time for it, then make the time.  You make the time to brush your teeth, wash your dishes, clean your clothes and go to work, and you probably don’t enjoy them so much, but you do them.  At least with crochet you actually enjoy doing it!

So bring your crojo back by making the time, and if you need to, make the simplest project that you can.

Seona xx