All the hobby projects I did to get through the winter
I have no idea how to be bored at this point.
I always find that there are so many aspects to appreciate in all the seasons. With the arrival of spring, I have also found myself reflecting on this past winter. Winter is when I spend much more time indoors, which means I direct extra time toward my creative projects (rather than going outside often).
I thought it would be interesting to share all the hobby projects I did this past winter, as there were many of them. There are also some stories with these projects, so I will share those too. You will very quickly see that I have no idea how to become bored!
Knitting
Christmas Stockings
One of aspects I enjoy about all the seasons is seasonal decorating. Since I am an avid (and intermediate) knitter, I thought it would be interesting to cable knit Christmas stockings for my husband and I. It took from the beginning of November through mid-December to complete these. It was a slow and intricate process, but we now have unique stockings for the month of December.
Gingerbread Man Tree Ornament
After completing the stockings, I knew I wanted to make something gingerbread man related since I had brown yarn in my fiber stash. So, I created this little guy and think it turned out nice. Knitting takes a lot longer than you’d think it takes, so it took me about three hours to make this ornament between knitting, stuffing, and sewing. We now have our first tree ornament, though!
Baby Hat and Booties Set
Whenever there is a baby shower coming up, I always enjoy making baby knits for the soon-to-be newborns. This time, I knit these cute little baby booties and headband set. This probably took me three hours as well, and I think this makes for an adorable gift for a baby girl.
Sky Feather Sweater
With Christmas and little knits out of the way, I was ready to get back to making sweaters again. From the end of December through mid-January, I knit this beautiful top-down wool sweater that has cable motifs down the middle front and back, along with cables down the sleeves. This is definitely one of my favorite sweaters I’ve knit to date.
Avalanche Sweater
I was originally planning on making a cable knit scarf with the yarn I knit this sweater with, but turns out the yarn I purchased would make the scarf much wider than intended. So, I found a sweater pattern that matched the amount of yardage I had for the scarf and ended up making another top-down wool sweater instead. This sweater has a lace knit motif down the center front, along with cables on either side of the center motif. This sweater I knit in a week (most of it during a single weekend, though) and is evidently much simpler in comparison.
Fair Isle Headband
Ever since fair isle knitting some Halloween décor, I became super excited about fair isle knitting accessories and garments. I have always liked the classic fair isle snowflake design, so I decided to knit a snowflake headband with the leftover green and red wool I had from the stockings. Evidently this isn’t super high contrast, but I am pleased with how it turned out and look forward to fair isle knitting more.
Around Town Sweater
This is the latest sweater I knit, which is also now one of my favorites. This was knit from bottom to top, with a different construction method compared to the other sweaters I’ve knit. What intrigued me about this sweater is the various textured sections, which makes it an interesting sweater design overall. It only took me from about mid-February to mid-March to make this; it really wasn’t as complicated to knit as it looks!
Music
Writing Two New Songs
As mentioned in my post Hobbying in a Season of Change, I wrote two songs in the month of January. Sometimes there is a melody or harmony in my head that I just don’t have the words for yet, and these two songs were instances of that. But, the lyrics finally emerged and matched exactly what I originally envisioned for the songs. It’s amazing when that happens!
Completing a Song Composition
For one of those songs mentioned above, I had initially created a song composition in MuseScore (prior to writing the lyrics) that made the song sound exactly how it came to me. I then finalized the score with the lyrics once written to make it a complete proof of concept. Listening to my final compositions is one of those things that brings me the most joy.
That’s Most (If Not All) of Them
There may be a few odds and ends I forgot to mention in this post, but that’s a summary of just about all the hobby projects I did to get through the winter. There are more sweaters I plan to knit and more songs I plan to write this spring, but I am making a point to get outside more this season and enjoy the weather as well.
On another note: I have topics mapped out for Hobbyisms through the end of August, so I can say for certain that there is a lot to come! If there are certain topics you are interested in seeing or learning more about, be sure to let me know; I am listening.
Happy hobbying!