Category: dilettante

Of course I ordered stone beads and threads and findings after I talked about making a necklace–the best part of a hobby is buying things for it. I jumped right in to the tutorial and it turns out…getting the knots in the right place is a lot harder than it looks:

 

And as much as I tried to remember that you don’t have to be good at your hobbies, I was getting frustrated, so I cut it all apart and started practicing with the spare beads and thread:

 

Practicing helps! But at this point I was unhappy with the bead quality and the colors (that Etsy seller the tutorial recommended really doesn’t deliver colors that match what they show on screen) and my lack of IMMEDIATE EXPERTISE and was full of seasonal malaise to boot, so I put it away.

Will I finish this hobby? I don’t know; I don’t wear jewelry in my day-to-day, nor do I leave the house much (perhaps this is contributing to my malaise???). Maybe I’ll try again when I can remember these wise words better:

Like I said on Monday, I took a three-hour class on “Granny Squares 101” at Harmony in Provo. The name “Granny Squares 101” was right in the title but I assumed we’d get a breakdown of the stitches and THEN learn how to put them together into the granny squares. Well, not so much…so I can crochet a granny square and a granny square only. But I can crochet now!

I”m still figuring out tension and hand positions but it turns out that self-striping yarn works great in crochet, too–there was even an afghan example at the class that was just one giant granny square made with yarn with a long color change. (Naturally I bought the same yarn.) I guess we’ll see how long it takes to make an afghan!

I’m wrapping up the 30-day mark making class on CreativeBug and it’s been really fun. Yes it was structured, but it was definitely not a class in the sense of, “Do it exactly like this to get these particular results.” And for someone who doesn’t draw, that was perfect. I took ten minutes a day, tried new things, and learned a lot!

For example, I never would have thought that using one color and random lines would fill me with accomplishment:

 

I never would have enjoyed the travel watercolors so much that I bought the 36 color set (let’s be honest, the “buying supplies” part of any hobby is the best):

 

I never would have discovered that I like mixing media a lot (watercolor and Micron pen above, watercolor and colored pencil here):

 

Nor would I have realized how satisfying drawing ancient pottery could be:

Get your library card out and get your free subscription to CreativeBug and give it a try. Remember: you don’t have to be good at your hobbies!