Process over polish
I learned very early on in my craft practice to lean into the process instead of the finish. When you start working with nothing but the final product in your head, the process can quickly become frustrating. Even joyless.
Let the first move be a question instead of a goal. Trust that direction can come from motion. Once you begin, the process starts to reveal its own shape—ideas surface, inspiration follows, and the work tells you what it wants to become. Don’t wait for a fully formed idea. Sometimes starting without a plan is the only way to start. Touch your tools and materials and let them lead.
In my own practice, this shows up through freeform knitting and crochet. I’ll start by learning a stitch I’ve never tried, add an edge with a new technique, and before I know it I’m wondering how this thing might become a wild scarf or a way to augment something vintage I’ve got lying around.
There’s a sense of contentment in just letting the work show how it became what it is—the seams, the edits, the visible decisions. You’ll always remember how you made the thing and other people will get to touch that story with their hands when they hold the final piece. The thing that you made.
What do you want that story to tell? A slew of “fuck you” moments where you thought that you were going to throw your sewing machine across the room? Or the extra attention you paid to getting your seams super straight?
Continue reading this article on Patreon…
AXO (she/her) is a multidisciplinary creator, editor, and builder of feminist media ecosystems based in Toronto. She is the founder of She Zine Mag, Side Project Distro, BBLGM Club, and several other projects under the AXO&Co umbrella — each rooted in DIY culture, creative rebellion, and community care. Her work explores the intersection of craft, technology, and consciousness, with an emphasis on handmade ethics, neurodivergent creativity, and the politics of making. She is an advocate for accessible creativity and the power of small-scale cultural production to spark social change. Her practice merges punk, print, and digital media while refusing to separate the emotional from the practical. Above all, her work invites others to build creative lives that are thoughtful, defiant, and deeply handmade.
