I’m curious about your crafting and hobbies and what you’re up to! What are you doing lately to support and recharge yourself?
(I’m very nosy this week. )
Tara: I’m playing Hades again and have also been playing Balatro on my Nintendo Switch for months.
Sarah: Hades! There is a lot of Balatro happening in Casa Wendell amongst my offspring.
Tara: I think I’ve played almost 400 hours of Balatro since December 
.
It’s a perfect game to play while listening to podcasts!
Sneezy: Pencil crayons!
Sometimes we collect stuff for hobbies and feel guilty about not using them. And sometimes we really want to make stuff and Past Us is all, “WE GOT YOU SHINIES!!!!” and we say, “YEAH!!!!” and definitely didn’t use misuse our Bad Decisions Book Club card.
This was a prompt from my friend! “A bunny riding on a whale shark, swimming through a river of stars”
Who can resist a prompt like that?
Claudia: I am continuing with my ceramics education (really, I need summer school!! It does not come to me ‘naturally’ or whatever that’s supposed to mean.)
At the behest of a dear friend I am also taking a six-week flower arrangement class this summer!
Shana: Please share what you learn, Claudia! I went to a flowering arranging event recently and discovered it’s not a skill that comes naturally to me.
Claudia: I will! I feel I do not have a “good eye” so I am looking forward to learning more about composition etc
Shana: I’ve been knitting again recently and I love the repetitive math. It’s very relaxing.
Elyse: Every year Westknits does a Yarn a Long Craft Camp. You can buy the kits from Stephen and Penelope and they release three shawl patterns over the course of the summer.
I’m working on the first shawl right now and I’m enjoying all the new techniques I’m learning, but it’s definitely “pay attention knitting” and not TV knitting.
Lara: I desperately want to craft more. I miss it a lot. I have so many projects planned out in my head but finding the time to action them is proving tricky with a baby in the house.
I do have one craft going at the moment. I’m knitting a baby jersey. So much quicker than a jersey for adults!
Amanda: Not crafting, but a lot of mobile games or gaming on handheld systems in bed. It’s what I do as a nighttime wind down routine to help combat doomscrolling. So something a bit mindless and repetitive like the games Tara mentioned have been great. Brian also plays a lot of Balatro as wind down time.
Sarah: Agatha Andrews of the She Wore Black podcast recommended sticker by number books and I am intrigued:
One unexpected treat for me recently is I’ve discovered a mild addiction to Sticker by Number books with vintage imagery.
I’ve been doing these while listening to audiobooks and it’s done a lot to decrease my stress after some really difficult days. Here are two I suggest if you want to give it a try.
Sticker books seem to be a very trendy hobby, which makes my elder heart very happy since I had a sticker scrapbook I adored when I was a kid.
I just got a pitch yesterday about Fall in Love & Save the World, a Rrrrrrrrrrrromantasy sticker book with illustrations by Catarine Cruz:
I wanted a closer look and Noelle Brown at S&S sent me some sample images – some of these I want, like, right now, and so does my 8 year old self, despite not knowing what rrrrrrromantasy is.
I typically cross stitch and listen to audiobooks, but I could get into sticker books. I could get into them very easily, she said ominously. What a perfect marriage of low-stakes craft and high-grade nostalgia.
Currently my cross stitch project is this tarot card:
But I also have added shelving to my sewing area in the basement because I wanted to see all of my fabric instead of digging through different storage bins.
That’s a quilt I’m working on right now – I finished the top and am working on piecing the back.
Because of the weirdness of prices, especially on imported goods, I am determined to shop my own stash, given that I have a solid number of fat quarter bundles and yardage I bought on sale. And as we all know: acquiring the supplies and using the supplies are two different hobbies.
What about you? What crafts or hobbies or activities are you spending time with lately?
NB: I’ve enabled images in the comments so you can share pictures if you wish!
I too am knitting. I bought rather expensive wool last fall, assuming I’d find a project for it. And via tumblr (!) I found this designer https://www.ravelry.com/designers/lavish-craft, so now I’m knitting this magnificent thing:
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/emergent-growth-wrap
Before my stroke, I was just learning to crochet, and though my right hand isn’t very strong anymore I’m pleased to find that if I use a hook in a tennis ball, I can still do a reasonably good job. Crochet is very forgiving! I usually stick to Woobles/amigirumi, but I just got a book of patterns inspired by national parks that I’m excited to dive in to. I’m very bad at flat pieces, something to work on
Also for my hand (really everything I do is therapy) I’ve done a few of these clay ‘painting’ kits. https://www.amazon.com/OKTO-Colouring-Clay-Numbers-Fox/dp/B0CKLNZ5CB?th=1 Its not really clay, its like a weird polymer. Anyway, the paint by numbers fox came out great, the freehand Monet…less great. But fun to do.
I also enjoy assembling LEGO flowers, I’ve done two (cherry blossoms and orchid) and plan to get more as budget permits. And my next project will be a watercolor kit, we’ll see how that goes.
I am also quilting, making bags, and discovering how to use the embroidery attachment on my sewing machine. Embroidery involves buying lots of (relatively) inexpensive thread in many colors, and most projects don’t use very much, so you feel like it’s a deal to buy more. And one nice thing about crafting, I can listen to podcasts and audiobooks while I sew, which prevents me from doom scrolling current news. My current favorite podcast is The Rest is History, which is two British historians talking about various historical events. They started just after Covid, and I am working my way through it.
Sticker books! I’d forgotten about them, but did more than my fair share when I was a kid. I didn’t realize they were back.
This summer–starting today–I’ll be at my summer “craft”, canning. Today it’s tomato sauce and probably picante in a few days, then dill pickles. Currently my garden is overrun with tomatoes and cucumbers so, since they won’t last in the Texas heat, I’ll have to can while they’re abundant.
That is a *gorgeous* shawl!
I’m crocheting 4″x4″ dishwashing squares using cotton fingering yarn. My dogs are on a mostly raw diet so there are dishes that need to be hand washed after breakfast and supper. The cotton absorbs water and the uneven texture helps hold suds.
I’ve gotten back into Cross Stitch since winter last year and I’m still trucking along with diamond painting and audiobooks. Just finished a 85x35cm landscape of Rivendell I need to seal and frame for my living room. I need to get back into crochet as I have a niece on the way!
I crochet blankets. Which means I crochet moss stitch while watching the hockey so I have something to do with my hands and it’s so incredibly relaxing. I don’t have to keep track of a pattern or count stitches, I just zone out and rely on the yarn to create an interesting pattern for me. My current favorite is , and I’m using “All Night Diner in the Middle of Nowhere” (4th choice, top row at the link). The yarn names are truly outstanding – I just saw “Perfect Parking Spot During a Downpour”. It’s a pretty expensive yarn, unfortunately, but I love it so much.
Also, @Heather M, I LOVE Lego flowers too! I have mine in this jigsaw vase, if that’s something that might interest you? . Because I crochet sitting on the couch, I tend to hunch over like a little gremlin and this helps with shoulder and wrist soreness, so I thought I might mention it
Ah no I forgot to close html tags! Sorry please delete my previous comment and I’ll try again.
I crochet blankets. Which means I crochet moss stitch while watching the hockey so I have something to do with my hands and it’s so incredibly relaxing. I don’t have to keep track of a pattern or count stitches, I just zone out and rely on the yarn to create an interesting pattern for me. My current favorite is Wonderland Yarns, and I’m using “All Night Diner in the Middle of Nowhere” (4th choice, top row at the link). The yarn names are truly outstanding – I just saw “Perfect Parking Spot During a Downpour”. It’s a pretty expensive yarn, unfortunately, but I love it so much.
Also, @Heather M, I LOVE Lego flowers too! I have mine in this jigsaw vase, if that’s something that might interest you?
Because I crochet sitting on the couch, I tend to hunch over like a little gremlin and this helps with shoulder and wrist soreness, so I thought I might mention it https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BWTLLFDR?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3&th=1
I recently got back to an epic cross-stitch project that has been ongoing for several years. At work we have a small but dedicated group who do a weekly crafty zoom meeting and that has helped revive my interest. I’m really almost done but I’m also in a section where past me miscounted and then abandoned it for future me to figure out. Not cool, past me.
I’m crocheting Attic24’s canalboat blanket. It is huge – wish I’d made it slightly less wide. Am just under halfway. It is difficult in this heat though (UK, very hot at the moment for here) and heavy to carry around for crocheting on the move.
It’s a Summer of Shawls, as I am making Papillon right now (on page 6 of 7). I’m in a play right now where my character knits AND I have been told to knit whenever I want in the show, so I am going to have to come up with a project for her to work on in the show and one to wear. That’s very exciting.
I’m also trying to make the Glinda Ozdust dress out of yarn, which is slightly challenging.
I’m slowly getting back into knitting regularly, especially socks. I also need to finish a diamond painting I started over a year ago (covers eyes in shame) and only has a bit more to go. There has been so much upheaval in my life plus the general shittiness of our age that it seems easier to reach for a book than make the time to work on a craft, but I think about it a lot 🙂
I actually have a break from freelance work this month, so I have put up a couple of new Protest Patterns in my Etsy shop savinggraces@etsy.com and am catching up on some chores I have let slide. Getting ready to start shopping novel #3 around to agents again now that they have an official genre for what I write. And also starting to crochet more gemstone necklaces for upcoming fall convention shows, since the last show I did pretty much cleaned me out of those.
@Ely, those yarns are gorgeous!! I’m making grabby hands even though I already have three huge bags of new yarns I got at Joanne’s closing sale (and already know what I want to crochet with at least four of the skeins.) I also love the names! One of my faves is Kerfluffle and I can already see what I’d like to make with that too.
Beautiful quilt you’re working on.
Cross-stitch keeps me away from work emails after hours: such a good focus! I just wrapped up about nine-months of cross-stitching (47,000+ stitches) on a geeky D&D project (six D20s, each framing dragon scenes). Now back to the even more involved London landmarks cross-stitch kit from Thea Gouverneur. I may pick up something small for another break, as I find stitching on black 18-count fabric really challenging in the fall and winter.
I may have also gotten sucked back into an old MMORPG: Everquest. A new server brings back the old 1990s vibes and may suck up some more free time!
I’m not very crafty and not up to much, but for a relative’s birthday I’m making a sort of creature out of plastic flowers. A while back they saw a scam photo of flowers that look like cat faces, and since then they’ve mentioned wishing they were real. So I was going to try to make some, but the local plastic-flower shop didn’t have any of the kind the pic was based on. While I was trying to work out what other kinds might work for an alternate version of the same idea, one of the available items inspired a non-cat version, so I’m doing that. Or will be be, when I forgive out where my glue gun is.
Also an acquaintance has said they’d help me learn to sew (I want to be able to make clothes). I’ve dug out the sewing machine that’s in my house, and the power cable is missing, so they’re going to let me use one of theirs to see if the machine works before ordering a new cable.
Ugh! Once I *figure* out where my glue gun is.
I’ve been having fun following links and looking at various creations!
@Sneezy ~ can you share a link for pencil crayons? Your work with them is lovely.
I make bookmarks from old library date due cards.
I’ll try to attach a picture of one I made recently for a friend who has volumes of jokes she has collected since she was a child.
Here is the back of that particular bookmark.
I’ve also made bookmarks recently that focus on butterflies, zebras, giraffes, ladybugs, and chickens amongst others.
I’ve started making needlepoint bracelets after a workshop. Basically pixel art in needlepoint. I created a pattern with narwhals for my last one, and for the current one I’m working on I got a variegated rainbow thread to use for a pretty simple but very colorful band with a heart in the center. The vendor who sold me the rainbow thread also had glow-in-the-dark thread in stock, and my next plan is going to be to make a pattern for some Ghibli style soot sprites with glow-in-the-dark eyes (and some glowing stars).
It’s a half stitch rather than cross-stitch style, which I’ve found I can do while I’ve got a show on. It’s very soothing, and satisfying to make rapid progress (except when I tried mixing in a metallic thread, the metallics fight you). Plus since I’m choosing the colors I make sure they fit into my overall wardrobe.
@SBSarah, I’ve shopping my stash for about ten years now. It’s been so long since I entered a quilt shop that I actually had sticker shock last month when I was forced to buy a yard of batik for a project I had to rework.
I’m trying to get hand work projects done before the arthritis in my thumb makes it unmanageable. One is a three dozen flower baskets and the other is possibly unending English paper piecing hexie project. They are all made of scraps from other projects, because, yes, I’ve never met a scrap I could throw away.
Here’s the baskets.
It’s the usual for me. Video games and cross-stitch (which I do while I watch TV, this evening it was Reacher and Elsbeth). Video game wise I’m currently offing orcs in Shadow of Mordor, which is quite fun. It plays a lot like Assassin’s Creed, but in Mordor. Cross-stitch wise I’m over halfway through a gorgeous Potions Classroom, but boy, it’s big and complicated. I bought a couple of patterns for some Greek-themed cross-stitches for the next project, because my daughter and I are traveling to Greece in September and that seems like how I will celebrate.
I’m making a crazy quilt! I’ve been working on it on and off for 20 years and I’m feeling pretty good about my odds for finishing it in the next few years.
It’s my kind of quilting, which is to say it’s much more freeform than patchwork quilting. Most of the fabric is from my (extensive) stash. I started it because I wanted something portable I could work on in front of the tv and while traveling. And it’s been great for that – each square is 18″.
I’ve never worked with miniatures, but I bought a well-used dollhouse at a thrift shop on a whim and decided to create a witch’s house for Halloween/Samhain display. I finally finished the ripping out, scraping, & sanding of old bits and just started getting into the fun of painting and decorating. I often have to work evenings on our back porch. I’m really enjoying the creative process and unwinding from the world once in a while.
I primarily make cards and cross-stitch, but during the pandemic I started paper collage, and it’s taken over my life! (in a good way) I am a monster but yes, I do cut up old books; I use real & reproduced paper ephemera, old postage stamps, and whatever else suits my fancy. I usually use thrifted index cards as the substrate, but I have used the front/back panels of old books. Nothing is safe from my scissors and gluestick!
Another sample of my paper collage artwork … all hand-cut and paste. This one is a spread of a book I made, using thrifted tabbed dividers and the front & back panels from an old book I gutted for my art. Bound together with snap rings.
The key is good, sharp scissors of various sizes!
I’m very impressed with everyone’s projects! And I would also love a link to pencil crayons @Sneezy. Those sound like a lot of fun.
I’m trying to avoid doom scrolling at night, so I’ve decided to teach myself how to crochet. Would love recommendations for YouTube or other how-tos. I’m a medium-level knitter and thought this would help with crocheting, but I’m finding it hard to get even a slow rhythm going with the books I’m using. And the YouTube search for crochet how-tos is overwhelming. Any recommendations for training videos or step-by-steps would really help!
Trying to get back into drawing and writing (slow going due to wrist strain…and just general no-motivation-itis due to *gestures at everything* extenuating circumstances) and maintaining my little herb garden (the catnip’s doing great! The lavender, not so well) and cooking (mostly Indian and Mexican). I want to get into sewing clothes/thrifting and ‘making them my own;’ making music, probably with online tools; and animating if I get back to drawing for real. It’s mostly a throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks time.
So much fun to see all of these amazing creations! I am always knitting and right now am going to start a baby cardigan. If I don’t get sidetracked by starting this: sweater. I’ve also been playing with some quilt squares and every once in a while shift to cross-stitch…many distractions though from [gestures] everything.
You guys!! These are all so amazing – thank you Sarah for asking about this. This was the hit of dopamine my brain needed today.
You guys! These are all so amazing. Bookmarks, bracelets, quilts, a dollhouse and collages!
Thank you Sarah for hosting this little show and tell – it was the dopamine hit I didn’t know my brain needed.
@Kareni
Prisma Premier!!!
https://www.prismacolor.com/colored-pencils/premier-soft-core-colored-pencil-sets/SAP_3599TN.html
I also used Sakura Gelly Roll pens in white.
https://www.craypas.com/global/products/18617
Just in case for anyone who doesn’t know, DO NOT EAT OR BE NEAR ANYWHERE FOOD HAPPENS WHILE USING THESE PENCIL CRAYONS. The cores are so soft, not only do they flake off, they smear when you try to clean them. I used a wide busted brush to get rid of the flakes on the paper so colours wouldn’t smear where I didn’t mean for them to.
The softness of the core and the high amount of oils (wax?) in them is why the colours look so rich and blends so beautifully. It also makes them a bit tricky to photograph nicely if you burnish with them, because it becomes reflective with a sort of glossy-waxy sheen. I remember there’s at least one other brand that also makes fancy pencil crayons that doesn’t have the glossy sheen, but last I remember, they offer less colours than Prisma. Like you’d expect with cores this soft, you’d want to baby them a bit and not bang them around. That said, Prismas are fancy enough that they also get sold individually, so you don’t have to buy a whole set if you need a specific colour.
In my experience, both these pencil crayons and gel pens are pretty easy to find in any art store. In fact, art stores are more reliable than big box stores for these. Any uni with a visual arts program will most likely carry these too. Most art stores also give discounts to uni students, not a lot, but better than nothing.
I’m admiring your paper cutting work, @Bonnie Bee! Can you recommend any favorite scissors?
I crocheted the pieces for the cat couch that was linked last fall on a Wednesday Links post, but I haven’t put them together yet. I’m currently cross-stitching a Christmas piece for my sister. I’m also building a work bench for my garage – is rudimentary woodworking crafting? And I’m consistently working on my oboe reeds, which I consider an art!
A ton of unfinished projects.
Posting in the hopes of seeing six comments that are hidden!
@SB Sarah ~ When I posted, I got this message, “There has been a critical error on this website.” Sadly, I can’t see messages beyond 28 even though the main page of the site tells me there are now 36 comments on this thread.
I think it’s the plugin that allows images – darn it! I’ll turn it off. Sorry about that!
Re: Comments not appearing – I cleared the cached version of the site. Do you see the comments now?