Celtchick asks, “What with the quilting bug hitting, and then pottery, my question is:
Have you considered other fiber-related hobbies?”
I have considered ALL hobbies! Seriously. There’s nothing I like better than being seized by the passion of a new hobby. As a kid, I used to hang out in the hobby section of the library, looking for new hobbies. I was especially interested in hobbies that cost nothing, since I had no money. But I borrowed books on everything from fly-tying to matchbook-collecting, bird-watching and rock-hunting.
I spent the ages from 10 to 15 in Kinburn, Ontario, where everybody had the same hobbies: snowmobiling, step-dancing and embroidery. I didn’t have a snowmobile and I was too old to start step-dancing, but I did embroider a few pillowcases and hankies. (It’s been years since I last embroidered, but I’ve been collecting materials to make a crazy quilt, which involves sewing together scraps of fabric and lace with embroidery stitches.)
When I was 15, I moved in with my dad for a few months, and he and his wife at the time did needlepoint every night after dinner. They got me a needlepoint frame and I picked out a kit, and worked for months on a needlepoint of a little Indian child.
In my early 20s, I made about 50 rice-paper lampshades. I experimented with adding different materials between the sheets of rice paper, like japanese papercuts and leaves and so on. My signature rice-paper lampshade featured a big fat marijuana leaf in each panel.
I impulsively bought a used Nilus Leclerc floor loom about 8 years ago, at the Weavers’ Guild show. It’s huge. It folds up, but when it’s in its full weaving glory, it easily fills a small room. I’ve moved it twice, but I’ve never used it. I don’t know how to weave, and it looks complicated! (My friend Mary Jane teases me about it, but she’s a kindred spirit – she has a whole room dedicated to a huge harp which she bought impulsively and has never played.)
I also have a box of needle felting supplies which I’ve barely touched.
I tried my hand at spinning, but didn’t get into it.
Other hobbies over the years have included hunting for antiques, collecting old photographs, cameras, autograph books, buttons, vintage clothing, mannequins, boudoir dolls, antique playing cards, Victorian handbags, stamps and coins; birdwatching, geocaching, fish-keeping, fishing, creative writing, knitting, quilting, scrapbooking, playing guitar, camping, backpacking, dollhouses and miniatures, breadmaking, puzzles, macrame, journaling…
I’m sure there are many more, and they’ll probably pop into my mind as the day goes on. I know you asked specifically about fiber hobbies, Celtchick, and I’ve veered off course a little. But I think I covered all my fiber-related hobbies in this post.
Questions for Celtchick and everybody else: Are there other fiber-related hobbie you think I should consider? And what are your hobbies?
The Ask Me Anything series will continue for the next little while. If you have a question, ask it in the comments or by email at zoomery at gmail dot com.
“I was too old to start step-dancing,..” at the age of 10? So how old does one have to be to start step-dancing? Is that one of the skills you have to learn as a toddler, otherwise it’s too late?
Ten probably wouldn’t be too old to start step-dancing anywhere except Kinburn, which is the step-dancing capital of the world (or at least the Ottawa Valley, which is kind of the same thing when you live there). In Kinburn, kids start step-dancing when they’re two or three. By the time they’re ten, they’re super-accomplished and they’ve been in dozens of competitions and they have trophies and stuff.
OK, I see. I had no idea that step-dancing was such a big thing in the Ottawa valley!