Help! I lost my knitting mojo and I’m struggling to get it back. I’ve stopped and started 4 different projects and taken them all apart several times in a heap. I don’t want to eat my feelings…I want to knit my feelings during this crazy time.
Any suggestions from those who have lost their mojo and gotten it back?!
Cocktail recipes also welcome!
Sally Judd
I get excited when I see completed projects modeled by podcasters. I’ll often stop it and go look at the pattern. I have a few favored designers that “speak to me.” I’ll go and look at their sites and renew energy. The best is attending knitting group and seeing what my friends are making.
Hi Sally. I can relate all too well. Injured my wrist last spring, as it is arthritis it will never completely heal but have found a way to knit that is not painful along with exercises, etc. Since the fall I have tried maybe as many as 10 patterns and nothing clicked. Visited a friend who is new to knitting and is fearless. She has knitted two Guernsey wraps by Jared Flood. The pattern looked beautiful and straight forward with many yarn options. Found some yarn I liked and I have found my groove. Kay’s recent post about dish rags sent me down that rabbit hole as well. So in between working on my wrap I have knitted a dish rag using Ann and Kay’s pattern and a free sun pattern from Knit Picks. Today my daughter’s mother-in-law wrote and asked if I know anything about knitted soap holders or soap sacks. Nope but now I do. Almost finished one for her.
Releasing this I realize I sound a bit scattered and perhaps a bit nutty. Yep to both but having fun.
So what am I suggesting? Just keep at it until you find something that appeals to you. That could be something new or something old. What has held your interest in the past? What feels good in your hands. What has sparked so much enthusiasm could not wait to get back to it?
Hang in there and keep well!
Nancy
Try knitting in a different chair. Or at a different time.
I am feeling the same way, to be honest.
I thought I’d be able to knit up a storm, being stuck at home for a month (I work for a non-essential business here in NV so we’re out til at least 4/17). Instead it feels like I can’t focus on anything for long.
So Wednesday I decided to embrace it. Instead of beating myself up for “succumbing to startitis,” I’m trying to acknowledge that yes, I’m worried and afraid right now, and so my concentration is suffering. So I’ll knit a few rows of a sock, then stop and do something else, then knit a row or two of my shawl, and so on.
I’m still feeling discombobulated but it helps me not to blame myself for the outcome of how I feel. And yesterday I got through an entire section of my shawl in one go (Steven West’s Fantastitch) instead of only managing a couple rows.
I’m so glad you posted this. I thought it was just me. I managed to wrap up my shakerag top but it took me much longer than it should have. I can’t seem to get motivated to do anything I have already lined up. I did think that viewing the free knit stars lesson with Ann & Kay might help so I’ve lined that up for tomorrow. I am also thinking that something quick, like a dishrag might be good also.
I have started things in the past and just couldn’t get the yarn to work, maybe it didn’t want to be a lace shawl. So I picked up something simple, a garter stitch headband in chunky yarn or a dishcloth that I can knit with mistakes if my concentration is off and try. By the way, the yarn that didn’t work as a shawl ended up as socks for a friend two months later. 
I have lost and found my knitting mojo many times. Currently in a bit of a slump as well. One thing that has worked for me is working on something modular - like squares for a quilt or pillow. Find some beautiful yarn that speaks to you. For me, this is often self-striping, which helps carry me along because I’m curious about the next color and how it will work. I always have some log cabin squares to work on. Have used Noro Kureyon and also Stonehedge Fibermill Crazy. I’ve also been known to knit small hearts, stuffed with wool to hold onto or give away. Small projects. . .
Or not. It’s OK to not be your usual self right now. Trust the process
Watch the knit stars episodes this week (from Sunday’s MDK post) while it’s available! I’ve had no time/focus to knit for a while, but I started watching yesterday, and it feels great today to knit my fingering log cabin square while watching. Easy, not goal driven but knitting with yarn that feels good to my fingers. Super simple pleasure.
You aren’t alone and I’m finding that I’m having trouble remembering the simplest skills—like which side does my working yarn go on—ugh. I can’t really help you with your knitting mojo as I don’t have my own 
. But I do have a good cocktail recipe:
Salt the rim of a highball glass (in any event the shorter one), add ice, add the juice of one lime AND one orange (tangerine is better), add 1 and 1/2 oz of tequila, 3-4 drops of bitters and then top off your glass with seltzer (grapefruit seltzer is good and not usually the target of hoarders). 
Cheers and good luck with your mojo!
I hear you! I just try to have any kind of knitting time every day…even if it’s just updating my Ravelry pages. Starting, stopping, ripping, IS knitting if I can lower my expectations!!!
I started an ugly Christmas sweater, but I couldn’t concentrate on it. Right now I am just doing little things. Christmas ornaments, tiny stuff. Stuff that I can finish quickly and give myself a sense of accomplishment.
My mojo has been off and on. I leaned into my startitis and frogged most of it early on. The one that actually is still going on is a virtual KAL with one of my local shops. It’s a super easy knit with just enough excitement to keep me engaged. I don’t always feel like knitting but I do it anyway. I keep it at my desk to knit on when work is slow. Here is the (free) pattern:
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-comfort-zone
I am doing it in Katia Concept Duomo which is absolutely yummy. I don’t knit a lot of non-wool fibers so the cotton/viscose is a nice change. It’s chainette so it has some give to it. So my other piece of advice is to knit a really yummy yarn and maybe a fiber or type that you don’t often use.
I’ve taken a couple of breaks to do LEGO. It is so different from knitting that it’s like a palate cleanser.
Hope this helps!
Stash bust? Right now I’m going through and picking yarn that I really want to work with and just going for it that way. And I’m also doing a variety of projects–one that takes a little more concentration, and some that are just straight garter stitch so it’s pretty mindless but my hands are busy!
I found that I’m at odds and ends too, couldn’t concentrate on anything so I decided to make myself a schedule. Now each night I make myself a schedule for the next day not too taxing schedule time for exercise, reading, knitting and a few chores it helps me feel more centered.
I lose enthusiasm for a knitting project for one of three reasons: (1) I don’t like the yarn; (2) I don’t like the pattern; or (3) I don’t like the combination of the two. My solution is to search for alternatives on Ravelry. I enter the pattern or yarn and browse the FO’s of other knitters. That’s saved me a lot of yarn that would otherwise be wasted.
This is an excellent idea. I’m doing the same thing.