State of the Hobbies

[osprey_archer]

When Joann’s closed (RIP), I decided to take advantage of the sale prices to get supplies for a couple of hobbies I’ve long meant to try: a crochet hook and yarn to crochet a scarf, and a cross-stitch kit featuring a motel on Route 66.

I still haven’t attempted the scarf, but I started the cross-stitch in July and I really took to it! I’ve already finished the Route 66 cross-stitch kit, acquired a second cross-stitch kit (from Michael’s, alas) featuring a handsome coffee cup, and spent a delightful afternoon at the library browsing cross-stitch books until I finally winnowed my selection down to Linday Swearingen’s Creepy Cross-Stitch, from which I have selected a favorite pattern that I am anxious to start except I’ve already started the coffee cup so I need to finish that first…

I’ve decided that the path of wisdom is to do one cross-stitch at a time, as the other pathway lies littered with unfinished cross-stitches. Not sure how to balance this with other potential fiber arts? As well as the crochet supplies, I’ve also gotten my little paws on a simple embroidery kit…

However, I remind myself that one does not take to every hobby. For instance, I’ve done some paper-crafting with my friend Christina (who is always happy to set us loose on her paper stash, as getting rid of some paper means she can buy MORE paper), and although I always enjoy our card-making sessions, I’ve never felt the urge to go into card-making myself.

The “one project at a time” principle is bearing fruit in another direction as well. Normally when I get a new cookbook, I mark every recipe I want to try and then make none of them, but this birthday a friend gave me Elizabeth Alston’s Biscuits and Scones, and I put a bookmark at the mushroom pie recipe, and made it… and then the herb scone recipe, and made it… and then the tattie scones recipe, which I made as well… and it’s been just a month since I got the book! (My bookmark now rests at the recipe for apricot swirl scones.)

Now of course it helps that this is just the kind of baking I like, but still, it’s rather magical to find myself actually trying these new recipes. Amazing!

Other hobby news. The garden does not perhaps rise to the level of a hobby yet, although it certainly ought to, as there’s some serious weeding that needs to be done. Sorry to report the tragic news that last week the condo mowers felled my thyme and my cherry tomato plant. The one that had actual baby tomatolets on it! The survivor has at last put forth a baby tomato of its own, but alas, alas, I mourn the tomatoes cut down in their prime…

In keeping with this newfound “one project at a time” theory, I am winnowing down my reading projects. There are currently four, but two of them are close to completion:

Newbery books (2 left!)
Postcard books (3 left!) (one of my friends gave me a set of twelve Famous Author postcards and I decided to read a book for each author. Actually, this coincided with my L. M. Montgomery reread, and so I ended up reading all of L. M. Montgomery… and there was another postcard for Jane Austen, and I had been meaning to finish up my Jane Austen reread… and Charlotte Bronte had a card, and, well, a Charlotte Bronte reread had ALSO been on my list… but then I managed to shake free of this “complete works” business, or else I would probably still be working my way through the complete works of Frances Hodgson Burnett, with a weary eye on the complete works of William Shakespeare, Jules Verne, and Charles Dickens.)

This leaves me with two projects. First, the Unread Bookshelf, and if I continue with my current pace of one book a month, that will be complete by 2027.

Second, when I was making my booklog, I noticed how many authors were on there whose works I had long meant to revisit. “What if,” I pondered, “I went through a year and wrote down each author I wanted to revisit, and then read one book by each author? And at the end moved onto the next year?”

I started in 2012 (that was the first year I had complete-enough records to make a book log possible) and have now reached 2014, so the great Saunter through the Book Log will keep me busy for a while.

Unfortunately for my hope of getting down to a single reading project, I’ve also been vaguely planning a readthrough of E. M. Forster’s novels (except Maurice, I did it one and three-quarters times and that was enough), and I don’t particularly want to put that off until 2027 or later… However that IS just five books (plus maybe some of his short stories, but those are strictly optional!) so perhaps I could sneak it in…

But not till I’ve finished the Newberys and the postcard books!

Comments

[threeplusfire]

The tomatoes!! :( What a tragic event!

[osprey_archer]

I KNOW. I was crushed! I can understand how you might not notice a thyme plant to avoid mowing it down, but an entire tomato plant??

[rachelmanija]

I can't even tell you how much I've enjoyed the Newbery Project.

[osprey_archer]

I'm looking forward to finishing, but I'm also going to be kind of bereft when it's over. It's been such a journey! It's taken me so many places! Who would have guessed there would be a Newbery book advancing the theory that Audubon was the escaped dauphin of France??

[rachelmanija]

Maybe you can move on to the Printz or the Carnegie.

[osprey_archer]

I think once the Newbery is over I need a long break from award lists, haha. But who knows what might happen in the future?

[phantomtomato]

Well, as an avowed Forster Fanatic, I will keep my eyes out for your decision on his works…

Congratulations on discovering cross-stitch! It’s one of those forever-maybe hobbies for me, in that I have a kit that I’ve never opened but would like to. In the fiber world, knitting seems to have both my hands. But it does sound fun, and your projects seem very cool!

[osprey_archer]

It can be difficult to tear yourself away from one fiber art to try another! Some people seem to get into ALL the fiber arts and flit from one to another, but there are also plenty of people who find one they like and stick to it.

[regshoe]

I don't know what condo mowers are and may be lacking context, but: I'm sorry, what?? Who on earth are these people that they can just come along and cut down other people's garden plants!? That's ridiculous! I'm so sorry.

Anyway: well done on nearly being done with those two reading projects, and also:

I’ve also been vaguely planning a readthrough of E. M. Forster’s novels

Yes, you should very much do that :D

[osprey_archer]

I'm not sure what the UK equivalent to be to a condo, but basically it's a housing development where the condo management does some of the basic management. Exactly how much depends on the specific kind of condo; in mine, one of the things they do is mow the lawn.

This particular tomato plant was in an exposed corner of the garden, so I can understand how a mower might accidentally clip it... but also, it's a whole entire tomato plant! How do you fall to notice that you're mowing down a tomato plant!

[marginaliana]

I am deeply impressed by your ability to do one project at a time as I am simply not built that way and have many half-finished projects tucked in various bags and closets. But on the other hand, if I'm not feeling into one of them, there's always something else to pick up.

Curses on the destroyers of the cherry tomato plant!

[osprey_archer]

We'll see if I can continue this one project at a time streak! I only just started cross-stitching this summer, so there hasn't been much time for projects to accrue. But it would be easy for them to pile up, just as the reading projects have done.

[ellenmillion]

THE TOMATOES. WOE!!

[osprey_archer]

WOE indeed!

[asakiyume]

Evil condo mowers, grrrr.

How neat about about your approach to Biscuits and Scones! Advancing on recipes one choice at a time.

[osprey_archer]

I got a little too big for my britches and checked out some cookbooks from the library and am now feeling the pressure, haha. Perhaps I should retreat to the cookbooks I actually own for a while!

[asakiyume]

But new things are

so

tantalizing!

[osprey_archer]

The cookbooks I own are also full of new-to-me recipes that I've never tried! They have waited patiently for years...

[asakiyume]

Well yes, that's true! But it's like when you're picking berries and you're at a good patch that has lots, but do you clear them before looking at that bush over there? I don't! I get a few here, then move on, get a few here, then move on, then maybe circle back, then over there, then back to bush 2, etc. The library cookbooks are like those new bushes.