Hobbies

[laconicchick]

Oh, quilters. My mother is a quilter. I have spent more time waiting in or outside of quilt stores than I care to remember. And, of course, she has a backlog of projects as well, including a quilted wall-hanging that was supposed to be for my 13th birthday (I'm turning 22 in June) and a quilt for my high school graduation (I will hopefully be graduating from university next year, so that one will probably be rededicated). She is now working on one for my sister's high school grad in a month. Heh.

But I will say this -- she finished one quilt for my grad and it's gorgeous. She spent years collecting all the blue-background/sun/moon/stars fabric she could find and assembled it all in some pattern with squares and rectangles and finished it on time and I love it sooo much. She got it professionally quilted with a swirly star pattern and it was totally worth paying for that, because she couldn't have done it herself.

Uh, but anyway, MY hobbies are mainly watching TV and cross-stitching, because I'm a sloth. Sigh. Sadly, my cross-stitching has been suffering since I got my laptop and have been spending all my time on here. I love cross-stitch, though, and I've been doing it for about 10 years. My mum says she could never be patient enough to do it, but she's the quilter! I could never quilt -- iron, cut, sew, iron, re-cut, sew, iron, cut... Etc.

Cross-stitch isn't difficult at all, though. It looks pretty but it's fairly easy. I'm currently working on a Mothers' Day (ha ha) present for my mother, and all I have left is the dreaded backstitching. I hate backstitching! The colour I'm working on now is outlining a bunch of rocks and it's practically the same colour as them and I can never tell what I've already done! Bah.

But on the up side, my mother bought me some scroll bars to do my work on a few weeks ago, since my hoop was stretching out the fabric (or... I was stretching it out). So that was exciting. It looks so cool on the bars!

[Deleted]

Oxynia wanted to see a picture of a tank I was knitting when it was finished, so here it is. It's greener than it appears in that picture. (Still adjusting to new camera!)

[Ripley]

Oh, spordelia that looks FAB! You should be so proud.

[ladymadonna]

I am in serious awe of the knitters (pronounced Ka-nitters in my house)! My mom is an awesome ka-nitter, and she has tried, in vain, to teach me over the years, but I just don't get it. Plus, I don't have the patience to sit down and DO it. English Rose, all three of my children LOVE the monkey backpack!

I noodle around on the guitar. I barely know anything more than power chords, but I love playing. I love to sing, and have been told that I am good, but I'm too chicken to actually sing for an audience. So, I noodle around on my guitar and sing to myself. I'm going to be a rock star when I grow up! ;D

[Deleted]

I am a novice knitter, I have made a few things from the Stich and Bitch book, and am now a little more confident in my skills, however I cannot read a pattern for the life of me. So I think I may hone my skills making afghans from squares that I knit. I don't have hours to devote to one large project at a time and the squares are pretty portable.

I am an avid cookbook collector. I love finding historical and international cookbooks, I read them like novels and love making retro theme dishes from some of my kitchy 1950's style cook books.

My other real hobby is gardening, I love it. I think 90% of it comes from the excuse to get dirty and the other 10% is using the flowers/veggies I sometimes produce in decoration and dishes I create.

[Deleted]

I am a majorly novice knitter. I can knit a scarf. That's it. I lack the ability to read patterns and I completely lack the patience to learn. Which sucks because I am majorly jealous of spordelia's awesome sweater collection. Hmph. I think I'm going to take a crochet class soon. I bought a crochet hook and the new Stitch 'n Bitch crochet book but can't get any further than the starting chain.

Book lessons for thread things make no sense with me. I always stare at the diagrams like "What the . . .? I put which string where?" Remember those knotted friendship bracelets that were all the rage in the mid-80s? I couldn't figure out how to do them from the instruction card but as soon as someone from school showed me I was a whiz. Hopefully it will be the same with crochet.

I have a sewing machine but haven't taken a lesson since I was 7 so I really am not all that good at it. Since buying the machine I have made a handbag and a pair of pajama pants. Both did not turn out well at all.

I also dabble in jewelry making. Not for sale or anything but if I realize I need a funky necklace to go with something, I prefer to buy beads and make it as opposed to buying something at Express.

I read like crazy--go through about a book a week. The rest of the time I am in front of the TV.

I've attempted to write one novel for the NaNoWriMo but it didn't turn out too well. I have a few ideas I'm kicking around in my head but nothing on paper.

I have plenty of hobbies that are half-assed and mediocre

[Oxynia]

spordelia said:

Oxynia wanted to see a picture of a tank I was knitting when it was finished, so here it is. It's greener than it appears in that picture. (Still adjusting to new camera!)

spordelia, brava!! That is stunning!! Love it and love you for sharing the pic!

I'm hoping to complete my cardigan some time before I retire but I don't think it'll be nearly as good as your work. I'm teaching my daughter to knit and so far, she's enjoying it. Hopefully she'll stay with it as it's such a nice hobby.

[Deleted]

I've done NaNoWriMo for the past three years. In my teens I used to write a lot of short stories, so I thought NaNoWriMo might get me back into writing... and it so totally didn't. But I keep doing it every November, because it's fun in a masochistic sort of way (and I like going to the NaNo events in Toronto, it's a fun bunch of people).

I learned to knit a few months ago and, well, on one hand, I like looking at patterns, choosing yarn, and most of all the feeling of creating something with just a ball of yarn and some pointy objects. But I am so, so impatient. Most of the time I end up either making small objects like hats or wrist warmers (because they're quick) or making things with big needles (because they're quick... see a pattern here?). I've been working on this pattern on and off for the past month or so and it's KILLING ME. The pattern is easy but it just takes so long! GRAAAAAH! I am clearly not cut out for knitting, and still I continue doing it. I guess it's that "fun in a masochistic way" thing again.

[kostgard]

That is my problem with knitting and why I haven't really moved beyond hats and scarves - I get tired of a project pretty quickly. The biggest one I've done so far was a wrap/shawl that I did for my mom and towards the end there it was like pulling teeth to get me to pick it up and work on it. I like knitting (and the whole creating something out of what is basically string and a couple of sticks as Calamity mentioned) and I love starting a new project, but usually during the last third of the project I'm always like "Come on! Be finished!!"

I only taught myself to knit about a year ago, so maybe with time I'll get the patience or will be able to knit fast enough to make some serious progress in short burst of activity. At least I better - I've picked out a couple projects for Christmas presents, and I know I need to get cracking on them now if I plan to actually hand out the gifts on December 25th and not some time in March.

A question for fellow knitters - does anyone have any recommendations for websites where you can buy good yarn at decent prices? I have a hard time finding it around here - the selection in most places sucks and if I see one more skein of "Fun Fur" I'm gonna slap somebody.

[Deleted]

A question for fellow knitters - does anyone have any recommendations for websites where you can buy good yarn at decent prices? I have a hard time finding it around here - the selection in most places sucks and if I see one more skein of "Fun Fur" I'm gonna slap somebody.

I have found a couple of good deals on large lots of yarn on Ebay. That is about all the online Yarn shopping I do, but there is always Yarn.com[/color] or Yarn Market[/color]. Those are the two that I know of. Though last weekend I was at the Tennessee RenFair and did buy a couple of Skeins of hand spun wool yarn one of the vendors was doing there on the spot with a hand spindle. I am ordering this[/color] book in hopes to find a small easy project for it. I am also getting this book too, cause like I said, anything more than a square is a hazard in my house due to kids and pets who seem to have a yarn fetish, or a fetish for destroying projects.

re:NanoWriMo, I started an attempt last year, but got so bogged down with my husband's impending deployment and the fact that everything I wrote seemed crappy reading it later that I have decided to start plotting and brainstorming now.