Amanda and I have been talking during our Twitch streams of Stardew Badly about what activities we’re learning or doing as the Quarantimes continue, and we wanted to ask everyone the same question. What hobbies have you picked up or expanded during the Quarantimes?
I started to teach myself to sew in January and February after receiving a sewing machine for Hanukkah. My (and yours, too, maybe!) local library subscribes to CreativeBug, which has a massive video collection of lessons and projects in all sorts of creative areas, including painting, sewing, woodworking, paper craft – it’s really inspiring. So I used some of those lessons to sew napkins for the house, and repaired some clothes. Then: masks. So many masks.
I am still cross stitching but now I’m taking my finished projects and making pillows out of them.
I’m going to try quilting next, thanks to yet another set of terrific online video tutorials via my library and Missouri Star Quilt Company.
Elyse: I am definitely knitting a lot more than before. Partially all meetings are now calls which means I can knit while I listen and contribute.
Sarah: I stitch and listen to a lot of things, too!
Elyse: Also we’ve been fostering kittens. We did it last year as well but since I’m home I can take bottle babies who need to eat about every 3 hours or so.
Elyse: Hungry baby
Sarah: I think bottle feeding neonatal kittens every 3 hours counts as an intense hobby. How is there not a Girl Scout or Epic Adult badge for that?
Elyse: Rich and I split feedings so it’s not as bad. Also unlike human babies, once they eat they just pass right out. You don’t have to settle them. It’s all eating and sleeping right now.
We will have them for 6-8 weeks in total and the last 3-4 weeks are super fun because they are weaned and cute and fuzzy
Amanda: Resin art! It’s been a learning experience and I already need to buy more resin. It’s definitely a lesson in patience and you don’t quite know what things are going to look like until you open the mold.
Sarah: What are you making with the resin?
Amanda: I have molds of varying shapes and depths and right now I’ve been putting dried flowers in them. I’m experimented with color with disastrous results. Everything is just purely decorative 😛
Claudia: I’ve mostly expanded my “from scratch” cooking horizons, mostly making bread, and ice cream. I’ve also returned to some long-forgotten knitting and crocheting UFOs but no new tricks. I feel I have less time now than before, even counting no commute.
Shana: I took a beginners knitting class in January, and have been teaching myself from library books and YouTube videos since then. I’ve made scarves, hats, shawls, socks, and I’m finishing up my second sleeveless top right now. I’m hoping to tackle a sweater next.
My interest in my regular hobbies (music, gardening, baking) has been nonexistent thanks to a hot summer and pandemic grief. I’m really thankful to have a new hobby! I do miss the camaraderie of knitting with other people, though.
Sarah: Would you be interested in virtual knitter gatherings? I know there are some. Though approaching as a stranger is a risky venture on many many levels
Shana: Also, I’m so excited that’s you’re sewing, Sarah! I remember you were talking about that in December.
Sarah: I am excited too! Thank you! I have a book on hold at the library of some simple clothing patterns so I might try that next. I’m very very excited to try quilting though. I found a pattern I want to make for myself that is all cats.
Sarah: And I’m buying different fabric with books on it to make it. It’s rather on -brand.
Shana: CATS! And oh yes. I would love ideas for virtual gatherings. At least on Zoom it’s easy to run away if people scare you.
Sarah: I have been setting a goal to do at least one happy hour a month with someone far away. Perhaps you can reach out to knitting friends for a gathering of crafting and chat?
Shana: That’s a good idea. I do have a knitting friend on the other side of the country who would be fun to do that with.
Shana: Also, my sister sent me a bunch of fun fabric from Japan
Sarah: Shana. The noise I just made at that chocolate fabric, oh my stars and bobbins.
Amanda: Love the chocolate print!
Sneezy: I learned how to ride a bike, and I think I’ll be picking up acrylic again!!!
Sarah: HECK YEAH.
Carrie: That fabric is gorgeous!!!!
Carrie: It’s not a new hobby since I’ve been studying tarot for over 10 years, but I’ve been working my way through Mary K. Greer’s “Tarot For Yourself” workbook which is pretty intense and discussing it every few weeks with my tarot mentor. (And yes, I do readings professionally…).
Also we are fostering 2 kittens but they are older so very much less work than Elyse’s babies!!!
Does maniacally cleaning out closets and organizing things badly count as a hobby?
Sarah: Yup. It’s definitely cathartic!
Shana: Marie Kondo turned it into a whole career, so I definitely think it counts.
Sarah: For sure.
Carrie: I don’t think Marie Kondo would feel I did an excellent job – but the stress cleaning took up most of March and April before I settled down to tarot and foster cats!
Claudia: I was doing well re. organization but went back to my old habits — and feeling more enabled by the pandemic!
Elyse: I’ve been buying a lot of emotional support yarn.
Catherine: For me, it’s not so much picking up new hobbies as finding new ways to keep old ones. I’m someone who normally sings in a lot of choirs, and while my main choir still meets socially on Zoom I really miss singing in harmony, so I’ve been playing around with GarageBand and my phone and recording choir pieces, singing all the parts myself.
And of course, I’ve started gathering my friends fortnightly on Zoom for our Shakespeare readings, which are hilarious and fun and full of ridiculous props and silly voices (necessary when twelve people are reading a play that has 60 speaking parts). They are getting really international now, and include friends living in Germany, London and Taiwan, as well as Darwin and Melbourne, and I’m really enjoying having my friends from different parts of my life get to know each other.
(No time for other hobbies as those two are fairly big ones – and my work is, if anything, busier than it was pre-pandemic!)
Lara: I’m trying to teach myself how to paint with watercolours. So far, I’ve painted approx 287 cacti and that’s about it… I need to branch out (ba dum tish) into other flora soon…
Sarah, I would love to see a pic of that quilt pattern. It sounds PHENOMENAL!
Sarah: Oh sure! It’s this one – Pins & Paws.
Lara: That is so so cool!
Ellen: I had been saving up for an iPad for a while and I recently finally got it and I am teaching myself how to do digital art! I have historically been very much a classic art mediums person and not a digital mediums person but the ease of digital for sharing, making prints, etc was too much to resist…
Sarah: That is seriously awesome.
What about you? Are there new hobbies you’ve picked up recently, or older ones you’ve rediscovered? What sorts of things are you doing?
Ugh, pandemic grief has finally caught up with me. I forged ahead in the first six months believing an end would be in sight, and then it finally sunk in that there isn’t one, and we’re likely in this for a long time. Also, I live in Portland, Ore. where daily and nightly protests bring anxiety, especially with militarized police around. Today the Proud Boys arrived and lots of violence occurred between them and BLM protestors. I have friends down there nightly actively protesting and I worry a lot.
So, for hobbies, this sounds silly – maybe- but I started paint by numbers kits. It’s mindless and soothing and when I’m feeling especially stressed or frazzled by the news, it does calm me down for some reason. My tried-and-true hobbies have been failing and I’ve even been struggling to read. I think too my pets help. My dogs are always with me, and I have two horses and like it or not, they are getting groomed a lot. Something about brushing them relaxes me. I love just being close to them and smelling them and putting my hands on them. I can’t ride right now because I fear falling and having to go to the ER during Covid. But just brushing them and braiding their manes and tails helps me. I’m sure they’re wondering what in the heck is going on with me that they don’t have to exercise anymore but look super fancy all the time.
I love reading all the hobbies others are taking up during such a weird time in history.
I wrote a paranormal novella! It’s on Wattpad. Probably not up there with the works of Shakespeare but it got me through April (when lockdown was stricter in the UK)
Now I want to write a novel! At the moment though, the reality and grief (lost my partner last year and Gran in June) has got to me and I’m struggling. So I’m busy gathering up blackberries to make wine soon.
@Kit, hugs. Grief is a hard thing at the best of times.
We moved out of our house into a rental just before knockdown, so the thing we’ve been doing mostly is house hunting over the internet. Certainly an… interesting way to do it.
Now that we’ve found a house, the new hobby will be packing up, moving, and unpacking.
I had planned to read all those books, cook all those recipes and sort out all that junk.
Meanwhile I’ve been knitting, reading and managing everyone’s life, Just like normal.
I’ve been getting more creative and thoughtful about my cooking (since there’s no one-off trips to the grocery store for random ingredients), but other than that, just getting through the slog of being two working parents with a highly extroverted and social kid at home has been enough.
That said, a friend of mine recently sent me the Dear Data Postcard Kit. Each card has a topic (a week of sounds, a week of complaints, a week of wildlife) and the idea it that you collect data on the topic throughout the week and then analyze your data and write a postcard about it. I’m actually really enjoying it since it’s given me a chance to reflect on things I don’t usually pay much attention to and to connect with a friend at the same time.
Kittens! Squee!
I am a quilter, and when the pandemic cancelled the weekly quilting bee I’m a part of, I’ve spent some more intentional time hand quilting the quilt I’ve been working on for a couple of years (can’t lose those fingertip calluses!). Depending on how long the pandemic stretches on for, I may be done by the end of the year.
I’m also a baker – especially a stress baker – and so I’ve been spending a lot of time in my kitchen. There have been several batches of gooey cinnamon buns, and I’ve finally learned how to make good English Muffins. I’m going to be in strict quarantine for 14 days in September (after travel), and am planning to tackle croissants.
Like others, the pandemic stole my ability to focus on reading; but that is coming back, and I’ve got 2 weeks of vacation coming up and a big stack of books I want to read.
@Blackjack — I’ve been doing paint by numbers too. I loved them as a kid, and I thought this would be a good time to get back into them. You’re right. It is very soothing to just paint in all the little shapes.
I’ve worked on two PBN so far. They aren’t very neat/pretty, but I’m considering them my learning curves. I have a Christmas one that I want to really take my time with and hopefully do a better job on.
Fun post. Thanks! 🙂
I’ve really leaned in to language learning. I began studying Korean before the pandemic, but I’ve really ramped it up. Since I have a Rosetta Stone account with access to all their languages, I’ve also begun revisiting my high-school-level Spanish. I like that languages are a hobby where I can kind of track real-time progress results. I take a fair amount of Spanish language phone calls at work, and in just a few months I’ve already started recognizing things before the translator gets to them. It’s cool.
Netflix Party has saved me. A few times a week my best friend (who lives very far away) and I will get together and watch things and catch up. We burned through a rewatch of The Untamed, then a Thai Boys’ Love drama, and now I’m introducing her to K-drama.
I also started writing fanfic again after 2+ years hiatus from writing original fiction and oh a…15ish year break from writing fanfic. I’m just having fun with it and trying not to put any pressure on myself, and the instantaneous feedback is super validating.
Go, go, go Heather M! Korean is on my language wish list.
I have gotten really into Italian since the pandemic began. It’s nice b/c it’s a hobby that I’ve expanded into all sorts of things – music in Italian! Netflix in Italian! Books in Italian! YouTube in Italian! audiobooks in Italian! News in Italian! It’s become reinforcing b/c I’ve busted through a plateau where I feel truly intermediate now.
Two of my regular hobbies have fallen by the wayside in the pandemic. I don’t get the same enjoyment baking for just my family that I do for friends, co-workers etc. I still do it occasionally but I find I get sick of my cookies before we’re done with them.
And I tried to write fanfiction at first and enjoyed noodling around, but I think I have a hard time imagining a post pandemic/non pandemic world. Since I do it for fun, I decided to set it aside for now.
But I’ve been able to commit fully to running or doing yoga each day and it helps we don’t have to rush off anywhere in the mornings now.
I bought a house that needed a lot of love to make livable April 1st. So the first couple of months of lockdown was spent removing wallpaper and patching holes and painting and moving. I’m still working on it but the pace slowed down dramatically once I got it good enough to move in. I love the sense of accomplishment I get when I look around at it now even if it isn’t finished yet. The last two weekends was spent with an air hammer removing the tile from the guest bathroom.
Besides that I haven’t been able to really focus on any of my usual crafts: crochet, knitting, sewing. I start, but my heart isn’t in it. I have soooo many UFOs. And I’ve been doing too much doom scrolling, which I’m trying to change. I have been playing a lot of video games and watching Sarah and Amanda play Stardew Valley had inspired me to play too. And I’ve done some random baking when the mood strikes. I really love not having to share a kitchen anymore. I have been reading but I’ve only really been able to re-read, new books also aren’t holding my interest. So I’m revisiting old favorites.
I was able to work from home and now we’re back in the office with masks and temperature checks, so I never really had any extra free time.
I love hearing about how everyone else has been spending the quarantine.
I got into plants a year or so ago when my daughters went to college and I needed something to nurture. During the pandemic I’ve REALLY gotten into plants. It’s….kind of ridiculous. The upshot is that from all of the propagating I’ve had plenty of extra plants to give away on the Underground Plant Trade on Instagram. I HIGHLY recommend participating in plant reparations for black people. It’s good for your soul.
We joined a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program this summer and I’ve been enjoying experimenting with all the fresh produce we’ve been receiving. Not just new-to-me veggies (kohlrabi!), but also using all parts of the vegetable (radish-top soup!). It’s been fun.
The last thing I need is another hobby. My activity has been devoted to making/using what I’ve stockpiled over the years. A quilters stash is a hoarders paradise. The first weeks of shut down I used to put together or finish all the make and take projects I’d acquired at various guild meetings and retreats, then moved on to sandwiching a bunch of small quilts for quilting when the weather is cooler.
Since I (luckily?) work in the medical field, I’ve been back to not quite full time since June. Being out in the world can be exhausting, so I’ve been stalled for a little while now. But now that my goddaughter & her husband have announced their social distancing failure due in February, I have been busily unleashing the unicorns. Or at least planning all the unicorns about to be unleashed. Also Pegasi and dragons. There will be no nabby-pamby teddies for my grandgoddaughter!
@Blackjack & @Jennifer Estep, you may appreciate this, and others take it as a caution. My BFF (soon to be a grandma!) ordered a paint-by-number kit back in May. The company noted that Covid protocols might had 2-5 days to the 2-3 day delivery window. She started tracking it using the number provided by the company, when the generous two weeks she allowed had passed. She posted it’s epic international/cross country journey six weeks in. It has actually been dropped at a hub IN HER TOWN TWICE and then sent to another hub in another state. I don’t know that she’s ever received it.
@SBSarah: I love the “I read past my bedtime” pillow! I interpreted it on initial reading as a confession “I read (past tense) past my bedtime” but I wonder how many interpret it as a brag “I read (present tense) past my bedtime.”*
*I realize either past or present tense can be a confession, a brag, or both! (Or just a statement of fact.)
@Violet: Thank you! I read it both ways, too – and it makes me happy every time I see it. 🙂
The only need thing I’ve picked up is cooking, now that I have to feed myself all.the.time. Things like pan pizza in a cast iron skillet (I was nostoglic for the personal pan pizza you’d get with your BookIt certificate from elementary school) and focaccia bread (oily, salty…and a lot like the pan pizza dough…) and a shepherd’s pie tator tot casserole (uses Worcestershire sauce instead of cream of mushroom soup for the umami).
I’ve been picking up old habits – sewing (fun, summer clothes) and cross-stitch. I have all of Lavender and Lace’s Celtic Ladies pattern charts and fabric, and had even started one, but was paused on finishing because these things are huge and I decided I wanted to make a pattern adjustments on all four after I had already started one and hadn’t had the chance to think about how I wanted to do that. Well – got that figured out now :), so we’ll see if I can finish my current one by the end of the year.
@Argie, I adore Lavendar & Lace crosstitch patterns! I unearthed the Guardian Angel pattern in preparation for the above mentioned Grandgodddaughter.
For me, it’s not exactly a hobby…more of something I enjoyed watching that quarantine has sort of kicked back into overdrive. Soccer…more specifically MLS, the American professional league. So yeah, now I scan the ESPN+ app for games between teams I have no vested interest in just because I can. As well as the show Banter, whose host is my current muse that’s gotten me back into writing again.
I’ve been doing genealogy for my friends…had already done a lot on my own family, but have enjoyed digging into other nationalities and ethnic backgrounds. It’s especially fun finding newspaper articles on their ancestors – I like the black sheep the best!
“My newest hobby is refusing to dust. I will not give in, I will not be the first to blink. How dust blinks is immaterial; the fact that it not only just lies there but increases daily is surely a sign it’s winning this standoff. Ever resolute, I have become my own anti-Ahab, refusing to conquer the Moby Dust that taunts me.”
–Excerpt Eleventy-Seven from The Covid-19 Diaries
I feel like a fuddy-duddy, but I haven’t picked up any new hobbies during quarantine. I’ve been reading, which isn’t unusual, and cooking/baking (ditto—but especially where baking is concerned, I’ve been doing more than usual during quarantine). One of my daughters and I did quite a bit of baking, including Mary Berry’s chocolate profiteroles (using her choux pastry recipe) and Martha Stewart’s yeast bread (which we made several times after a friend sent us yeast when we couldn’t find it here). One thing we started doing, that we hadn’t done since our kids were young, is plan our menus in advance, figuring out how to be creative with leftovers, etc. Over the course of the quarantine, all three of our (adult) daughters moved out (not because they couldn’t be stuck in a house with mom all day, I promise, lol), so I spent time helping them pack up and move. I was able to clear out a lot of kitchen/bathroom/bedsheet stuff and “gift” them to my girls for their new places. We also started converting one of the newly-vacated bedrooms into a “man-cave/music room” for my husband (in non-quarantine times, he plays in a Jimmy Buffett cover band on weekends).
Meanwhile, right now I’m sitting on the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain watching two hurricanes heading our way, one right behind the other. I was supposed to go back to work (in the public school system) tomorrow for the first time since March, but clearly God had other ideas!
@DonnaMarie — Yes, I have learned the hard way that some sites that sell PBN are more reputable than others. I ordered a kit back in April, and I never received it, despite multiple emails to the company. I am still trying to get my money back. Sigh.
But this is a good site for PBN and lots of other things: https://www.herrschners.com/
@Blackjack there is evidence to show that grooming horses reduces their stress levels, and that there’s a positive feedback loop at work. A horse’s lowered heart and stress rate calms the people around them as well as other horses. I volunteer as a leader at a riding therapy center and it’s amazing to see how horses help not just physical issues but emotional/mental health issues as well. I’m glad you have those wonderful fur babies.
Covid isolation has played havoc with my ADHD. I start things but don’t finish. The lack of structure is a challenge for me, and motivation is generally lacking. Audiobooks and tablet games fill time and help with the need for quick gratification and distraction.
I did buy a sewing machine and learned how to use it well enough to make my own masks, and masks for my family. In fits and starts I’ve gotten cleaning projects done around the house, and some yard work. I’ve also gotten into the habit of walking briskly with the dog each day. Other than that, I’ve been reading and writing reviews again, even if it’s just for myself.
I’ve started and stopped a Spanish course, and abandoned an organized house cleaning schedule. The only reason I miss work is that I was always able to be a self-stater there and was actually organized!
I started a new role within the same large tech corp at the beginning of April, and apparently my quarantine hobby is working 12 hour days. . I used to love cross stitching but at the moment I’m struggling to get my vision correction dialed in, so I just can’t see well enough to do that.
I’m knitting more, and my mother is baking more this year than she has in decades. (Earlier this week, she made a peach pound cake; last week, it was a plum torte.) Bob’s making model train layouts (he’s the resident train freak). We usually have a jigsaw puzzle going all winter, but we’ve had one all year, this year.
And we have a new kitten, so my new hobby is convincing her that no matter how hard she tries, I’m not going to produce milk for her. She’s really determined, though!
I and my household are Mega High Risk, so I’ve been finding solely household hobbies to sustain myself. The two biggest new hobbies are hand-painting wool for my knitting projects and practicing cosplay makeup, just for kicks. The wool-dyeing has been a great excuse to get out the years-old acid dyes I’ve had hanging around, and it’s always nice to have an immediate result hanging in the laundry room to dry.
Otherwise, gardening has been wonderful — if mostly done at twilight, because here in Texas, it’s just too hot for most of the day for me to be outside. My focus is on native plants and building up a year-round pollinator garden, with a sprinkle of prairie restoration. Plants local to the area have two benefits: they attract local pollinators and more importantly, they don’t usually require nearly as much care! They’re used to the vagaries of the weather.
Honestly I haven’t really had time for hobbies. I and both of my sons were considered “essential” so my daily life hasn’t changed except to pile more work on. My freelance business is going great guns (@ Jennifer Estep, I HIGHLY recommend Herrschner’s; I do a lot of work for them and they are a very well-established and reliable company) and my Etsy shop is going through the roof. I spent about two months making masks for family and friends; it was a great way to use up my fabric stash at first, but I underestimated the amount of work involved. (And I’m about to do it AGAIN with the specialty fabrics I ordered from Spoonflower — everybody at work is getting masks for Christmas this year.) Added to that was serving as emotional support for a friend who just lost her husband, another who lost her mom, my BFF who is battling cancer, and spending a minimum of 90 minutes every night on the phone with my sister who has panic/anxiety disorder. Last week I finally burned out and hit the wall and am so far down in depression I can’t see the light of day. Right now all I feel competent to do is binge-watching Star Trek Discovery season 2 and hemming a dress I got on clearance at Eddie Bauer. (I have been doing a surprising amount of online shopping; does that count as a new hobby?)
@ SandyD, genealogy can be a ton of fun; you just have to remember to verify everything with appropriate documentation, since even Ancestry.com is full of wild speculation. But you do find some great stories along the way. My husband’s family came in with literally the first boat into Jamestown, and all of them are either the most upright and righteous lawmen and preachers or the blackest scoundrels with no in-between. (And some, like great-uncle Mathew, were both. Mathew was a pip.)
I’ve been cleaning and fixing things around the house during the weekends or after work. I also tried to keep a routine of tidying up the garden. The heat has put that on hold.
One side result of the decluttering is I’ve been putting items up on eBay. I found swag from RT Con/BLC that are a kick to see again. The notebooks are my favorite.
I have a small stash of puzzles if I get bored, but so far reading and listening to audio books occupies most of my free time.
I’ve been listening to more Tagalog (Filipino language) and have been building up my vocabulary. I have Mango Languages through my library but haven’t had the energy to do structured learning.
I love this!
Thankfully I had a started quilting last winter so I was already well set up in terms of supplies and a machine! I know those got hard to find once lockdown hit. I just recently upgraded from my little brother to a Juki Haruka– feels like going from driving a golf cart to a car. I’m looking forward to trying out some free motion quilting on it among other things.
Sarah– I also watch Missouri Star but I also like Fat Quarter Shop since Kimberly is a perfectionist, and I desperately need that example! I also really like the Suzy Quilts blog & Instagram for her tutorials & patterns. I’ve also got a puff quilt planned and I will probably follow Lo & Behold Stitchery’s recent tutorial.
Not a new hobby, exactly, but my brother got us some chickens, and I’m the one who ended up taking care of them. They are quite amusing, a lot of the time. You would not expect a creature with a brain the size of a pea to have much brainpower, but they recognize me, at least, and usually come running at top speed when they see me. Most of them are also willing to eat out of my hand. Well, anyone’s hand, really, that is filled with birdseed, but I have to sort of introduce them to new people.
This is the sort of things that sounds like it would be a fun thing for young children to experience, but actually, the chickens can be fairly aggressive when they go after the birdseed, and they peck quite hard, the vicious little beasties! 😉 There’s no doubt in my mind they are true scions of the dinosaurs!
Fortunately my brother’s dog is a laid-back fellow, and doesn’t chase them (well, he almost never does, and only in a playful manner), and my cat decided almost immediately that they were too large to be considered proper prey.
@GHN, I have several friends who are madly devoted to their chickens. I’ve never really been around them and don’t really know much about them, but I can definitely see the love my friends have for theirs. It’s great for birthdays and gifts because there is a crazy amount of chicken paraphernalia out there to buy people. I had no idea until I tried to find a friend a chicken-related gift!
@Carrie G., Thank you so much for that great info! I’ve always known intuitively that when I’m down or feeling stressed, just being around my horses helps me. I’m so happy to hear that they benefit too from being groomed. My two geldings seem to enjoy the attention and quiet time we have together, but it does help to know it’s reciprocal. Horses are indeed magical creatures.
I haven’t picked up any new hobbies at all since the start of all this-which I will admit makes me feel like a bit of a slacker. I haven’t worked since the first week in March-I’m a substitute teacher who usually works a lot, and as of now, still don’t know when I may be able to work again. What I have done is read, read, read. I feel grateful, because I know many readers haven’t been able to focus on books like they used to. I spend quite a bit of time just getting books onto my kindle, going through my two libraries catalogs, hoopla and amazon. I garden, but that is my usual summer hobby.
Thanks for the thoughts on the PBN-I used to love to do that as a kid, so I checked out the recommended (thanks Jennifer!) Herrschnerrs website and found one I really liked. So I have that to look forward to.
I’ve also started watching more foreign films and series. I’ve been focusing on TV series set in Scandinavia, I love seeing their houses and even the dishes they use! Just finished Rita which is set in Denmark, and now watching Bonus Family which is Swedish.
@Blackjack-For me just walking into a barn is calming! I love the smells (yes, even of the less fragrant animals!), I’m so glad you have that outlet of your horses. My friend just got a new horse, and hopefully once social distancing eases up, I can go for a visit.
I really enjoy reading what everyone has been up to. So fun to see how diverse people’s interest are!
I built raised garden beds and planted a ton of veggies that did even better than I thought they would. It was quite out of control for a bit. The best part, aside from never needing to buy lettuce or spinach, has been giving bags of greens from my garden to friends and neighbours.
I really stepped up my baking when lockdown started. It was so nice to be able to bake scones or muffins during my work-from-home coffee breaks and I made so much bread. That has morphed into canning. I’d never tried it before but there are so many flats of fresh fruit around now. If nothing else they’ll make for good holiday gifts.
We also acquired two kittens at the beginning of July, and they have been such a joy. Our last furry family member passed over a year ago and it had been so quiet. Plus, it’s hard to dwell on the state of the world when you’re watching a tiny feline chase it’s own tail.
There are a couple more construction projects I’m hoping to finish before the snow flies, and then over the winter maybe I’ll finish one or more of the many knitting and crochet projects I have going on.
I’ve had to warn more well-meaning and kind people on “urban farm tours” not to pet that pretty hen, because she can peck you, hard! (I’m a city girl but my grandparents were farmers.)
And I must say, that with the amount of knitting I’m doing, it’s a good thing I had a big stash of yarn at the start of all this (it’s still large, just smaller).
I think my blood pressure drops by a measurable amount when a cat climbs in my lap and settles down and starts purring.
My lifelong hobby is all things food related: cooking it, preserving it, feeding it to people, reading about it, collecting recipes, gardening, and foraging for food in the wild. Shortly before the pandemic started I put together a fund-raising cookbook for a non-profit, which was a lot of work, and a lot of fun. I’ve definitely stepped up the amount of baking I do, especially baking with yeast. The garden is ongoing, flowers as well as vegetables. This weekend I foraged quite a haul of wild fox grapes from the woods, and I’m planning to make juice and grape jelly.
Thank you, @Kira S. for planting natives! I’ve also been adding more natives to my garden. It was so exciting to see the first monarch caterpillar on my milkweed, I visited it every day and it almost became a pet.
The first couple months of the pandemic, I didn’t do any housecleaning projects, but now I’ve started clearing out my basement and some closets. Anything useful I give away on Freecycle.
I had a stash of jigsaw puzzles pre-pandemic, which I never got around to working on, but now I’ve been doing them, so that’s the only new hobby.
It’s not a new hobby by a long shot, but I’m doing it A LOT, and that is my cross-stitching. I finished my HUGE Cuyahoga Valley waterfall, and immediately turned around and started on an also huge landscape of some AT-ATs on a beach with the Death Star in the background. I have to think it’s managing some of my anxiety, because when that cross-stitch is not in my hands, the brain does funny things. Plus, it keeps me awake while watching TV. I grew some herbs and some flowers that were new to me with mixed results. The rosebushes, peppermint, catnip, and garden sage did great, the cilantro and hydrangeas, not so much. I’ve also been Duolingoing like my life depends on it, and actually understood something that I heard someone say in Spanish the other day and felt very good about myself. I’m toying with picking up a deck of cards tomorrow and seeing if my daughter wants to join me in learning to play whist.
As soon as my fabric arrives, I’m going to make a Jane Austen quilt.
Go big or go home.
@Denise: Oooh, which quilt? Are you using a pattern? Good luck!
@blackjack @jennifer estep – I too picked up a pbn early on in lockdown. It came from Hong Kong and took forever. However, I posted something about it on my insta – tagging the company- and got several angry comments that it was a scam, etc. from people who hadn’t received theirs. Still slowly working on it but it was progressing faster when I was in a big reading slump. I have tried gardening, and while it hasn’t been a total failure I think the best I can hope for is to have a gray – not black, not green – thumb. My ROI on supplies for the gardening endeavor is definitely in the red. My only other new hobby, if it can be called such, is this app called Design Home.