When inspiration attacks

I listen to knitting Podcasts while I drive in to work, and sometimes something they say just jumps out and attacks me with an idea. Sometimes these ideas are awesome, and sometimes they are just okay. Sometimes they are unmitigated disasters, but we can overlook that for now.

I was so inspired that once my fires were out at work, I sketched out my idea in my Manifesto. (It’s not really a manifesto, but calling it my “Idea book” had a lame feeling to it.)

The reason for the Manifesto is that I’m randomly inspired. The Manifesto fits in most of my purses, and I tend to have a pen in my bag as well. It has lists (I love lists), beginnings of blog posts, patterns I want to knit, doodles (which will be randomly scanned and uploaded to le Blog as appropriate), contact information for random people, sketches of things that I want to knit, or adaptations of existing patterns that I have in my queue. When I have an idea, it gets written down.

The first Manifesto began while I was doing my internship at XRX. I was required to keep track of my daily tasks in order to get credit for my internship (Elaine and Rick weren’t really taskmasters in that way). I used the front section to keep track of my daily/weekly tasks, and as the days passed, I found myself bombarded with inspiration. The center section became my “inspiration” section for doodles, and the back became my “lists” section.

There have been two (more recent) incarnations of the Manifesto, one that isn’t practical for temporary lists, the other that went missing during the move. I recently found the PERFECT notebook for the Manifesto:

I have a few preferences for “idea” books. Unlined pages, spiral binding, and about 6” x 8”. Where do you find the best stationary? The Japanese stationary store, of course! I also found fountain pens there, in standard AND awesome colors.

I love pens.