I have several hobby projects of which many are unfinished. 🙂
Some of the hobbies I enjoy are crochet, loom knitting, writing (see other page for more info), pottery, jewelry making, and rug making.
When it comes to jewelry making, I have many tools and kits and want to learn more about the process however find myself liking other creative hobbies more. As to rug making, I attending a lesson at a co-workers house several years ago but never ended up finishing the project I started. These experiences have not led to my ability to really convey much opinion yet. Perhaps one day I will take them up again.
Crocheting and Knitting
One of my favorite hobbies is crocheting and loom knitting. Because I often get bored doing the same thing over and over, I stick mainly to quick projects like pot holders, hats, scarves, and small blankets.
I am currently working on a Temperature Blanket that spans the first year of my son's life. You can use various websites to gather the low, high, or average temperature of a given day in a given area. For example, I was able to obtain the average temperature of every day of my son's first year of life in the city where he was born.
I added that information into a spreadsheet, and in some cases, I used the high or low rather than the average to give the blanket a wider range of colors. After gathering this data, I assigned different temperature ranges a color and began crocheting a small blanket. It will end up only being about 2 feet wide but quite long which means it will either be a cover for the back of my couch or may even be a shawl or large scarf. I might even frame it and hang on my wall. It is for me so I'll figure it out later!
Pottery
In the past, I have taken an all-levels class as well as a followup class for using a wheel. I found that the small amount of hand building they taught was far more interesting.
So this year I decided to go with a class that is specific to hand building. The photos in the right column are those I created in my first two classes a few years ago.
My teacher is great at sculpting which is an interesting process to watch. I'm not particularly interested in sculpting however it has given me ideas for some of my other projects.
My pieces are all very 'newbie' at the moment but I'm working on attempting to perfect my skill. I like the creation process even if the final outcome is not as perfect as I might want. It's a great way to focus the mind and deal with stress. The process of creating and perfecting is far more effective than other stress reducing methods.
