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5 Tips for Increasing Your Creativity
Do you find yourself admiring the creative knits of others while working on yet another pair of the same socks? Although knitting is a creative hobby, it is possible to get stuck in your comfort zone and familiar routines. Similarly, you might repeat certain thought patterns: for example, thinking that you just aren’t a creative person. It’s time to break that cycle!
For many of us, creativity can be a somewhat vague concept. Anni Peltola, an artist and creativity teacher from Helsinki, Finland, knows this and wants to emphasize that creativity lives in each of us. “Creativity first brings to mind handcrafts such as painting, drawing and knitting, but it can be many other things, too. It is a way of looking at the world with curiosity and playfulness, a little bit outside the box,” Anni says. “During difficult times, creativity can also have a therapeutic effect. I think it is vitally important that we have activities where we put down our devices and immerse ourselves in what we are doing. Being creative adds moments where you are present and can lead to powerful experiences of flow.”
How to awaken your creativity? Here are five tips:
1. Romanticise the everyday
Creativity is a way to bring colour and beauty to routines. “Knowingly do everyday things differently: set a picnic breakfast on the living-room floor; use a new route to get to work or dress in an outfit you haven’t worn in a long while,” Anni lists. This tip is easy to apply to knitting as well: try working with a new colour; use that skein that has been waiting for the perfect project for years or do your knitting on a park bench instead of on your couch.
2. Break the rules
One way to wake up your creativity is to not do things according to unwritten laws and “should”s. “Creativity can mean solving a problem or daring to break the rules a little,” Anni explains. It doesn’t have to mean big things. If you always use the cast-on specified in the pattern, why not try something else? What would happen if, instead of weaving in your ends, you tie them in a knot?
3. Start an art journal
Even if you aren’t a diary person, you can try out a more free-form version: art journaling. “Collect inspiring pictures, colour combinations and materials into a little notebook,” Anni suggests. You could use it to plan knitting projects, for example! Anni loves the method so much, she has written a book about it: Canvas for Creativity: A Gentle Guide for Art Journaling (Cozy Publishing, 2024).
4. Try a new activity
Creativity benefits from trying something completely new — so a knitter, too, should give their needles a rest every now and then. Have you always wanted to sing in a choir, admired parkour athletes or dreamed about painting a large canvas? Anni encourages you to try out beginner-friendly workshops and join hobby-groups. The important thing is to let yourself be bad at something at first. Do things because of how they feel, not for the end result. Not everything has to turn into a new hobby, either. “Give yourself permission to change — there’s no need to try to hold on to something that doesn’t interest you right now. Creativity flows and changes course all the time!”
5. Cherish small moments
Everyday life is often busy and it can feel as if there’s no time for anything new or fun. When that’s the case, Anni encourages you to stop and think about what kind of creativity is important to you and to chop it down into smaller bites: 15 minutes every day or so can be easier to arrange than a block of 3 hours during a single night. In 15 minutes you can paint in a journal, read a few pages or take a quiet walk. Have a look at your schedule, Anni says. “Remember that creativity boosts wellbeing and decide to prioritize it. What do you need today? Take 10 minutes for it right now.”
TEXT: PAULIINA KUUNSOLA
ILLUSTRATION: PAULIINA HOLMA
This feature was first published in Laine issue 26.
