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The Weekend Hobby Thread

"I believe it may be safely said that the true hunter or fisherman is born, not made." President Grover Cleveland.

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Was Cleveland correct? Or can you make a person into a hunter or fisherman? Per a Google search for annual spending on fishing I found the following:

The average American angler spends $1,037 annually in support of their pastime, creating and supporting 826,000 jobs to the tune of $39.5 billion in salaries and wages.

This year, I'm pretty darn close to that average angler spending spree. I'm hoping the Fabulous doesn't read today's thread.

Although I hunt, fishing is my true passion. It can take me away from all cares, concerns and worries. My youngest child went fishing one night when she was in college. An eagle swooped down and brought up a fish. She said, "Dad, I get it." She might not fish now but she get's it. And that's all a parent can hope for.

So do you participate in any of these hobbies? Tell us about yourself and your hobby.

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I received the following from Orangent. He stated, "Here's the last of my seascapes. It's 18x36." He has told me that this painting is "Wet on wet Bob Ross style".

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As Teresa (Teresa in Fort Worth) observed, cross stitch is a great hobby for the busy parent because it can be easily set down at a moment's notice and picked back up. This quality differentiates cross stitch from other leisure activities such as Dark Souls. (Cross stitch, as compared to Dark Souls, also features an approximately 87.3% reduction in words unsuitable for the ears of little ones, further endearing it to parents who, while they fully intend to raise Morons, nevertheless prefer to wait beyond the age of eight before introducing Val-U-Rite vodka and hobo hunts.)

I started out about three or four years ago with a very simple piece from a kit, this little robot [01_robot]. This piece was an experiment to see if I wanted to keep going with the hobby. I found it oddly fun, so I decided to try something a little more challenging next time.

[02_peacock] The veteran stitchers in the audience can no doubt see the many imperfections where I was still very much learning the craft. I kind of wish I'd left this piece until I was a little better at cross stitch, since it's so gorgeous and deserves better work than I managed to do. But I really enjoyed the challenge and learned a lot about technique with this piece.

If you've been to JoAnn or Michael's or Hobby Lobby, you probably thought cross stitch was just a bunch of flowers and kittens and kitschy quotations. Thankfully, there's a much wider variety of patterns available these days, including even patterns to suit the discerning nerd.

In some corners of the cross stitch hobby community, there's a strong interest in having a neat back (and the rest are just jealous). Being more than a little OCD, I definitely enjoy being able to keep my backs neat, although it really doesn't make that much of a difference to the front. (Where it can make a difference is if you have a dark thread and light-colored cloth - then you'll want to minimize long trips across the back. Also, if you have a lot of confetti (single square of one color by itself) in your pattern, keeping the back neat helps ensure the front doesn't have any bumps when you frame it. In this piece, there weren't any such cases; I'm just super OCD.)

Sometimes pattern designers will set up a "stitch-along", in which bits of the pattern are released over the course of weeks or months. This collection of cryptids was a recent stitch-along from the Witchy Stitcher (http://www.thewitchystitcher.com); the frame was released first, then a new cryptid came out each week until the whole piece was populated. I made a couple of very minor changes to the original pattern. The biggest was that the Loch Ness Monster was originally called "Lochness", all one word. The designer noticed her error after completing the pattern, so she offered an alternate design that put a space between Loch and Ness, but I didn't like it, so I changed it to Nessie instead. [05_cryptid]

With the help of something called "waste canvas", you can cross stitch designs onto clothing. (T-shirt material is really hard to stretch evenly. So I will have to use a hoop, which I don't typically like to do. The alternative would be to stitch the design onto stiffer fabric that does stretch evenly and then stitch that fabric onto the T-shirt.)

And here is a piece in progress. You can see that I am working in blocks by color. It's fun to watch the castle wall take shape as I add each color to the active block. (And you can also see the silhouette where the end of the dragon's tail will go!) [07_current]

The next step for a cross stitch enthusiast is to start designing one's own patterns. I have a whole folder of ideas. After I finish the dragon, I plan to design and stitch a multi-level piece that should end up looking like the view from a spaceship window. If it comes out well, I'll send in a picture! - Mrs. Peel

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And, last but not least..............

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Hi! I usually comment as "cybersmythe" I don't really count woodworking as one of my hobbies, but I make things and some of the things I make are out of wood.

Here are a couple of examples. They're a workbench and a grill table.

If it's not one of your hobbies are you a professional? Very nice looking pieces you have there.

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The talents of the Horde truly impresses me. We certainly enjoy your contributions and thank you for sharing with us.

Next week's Hobby Thread will be spearheaded by the wonderful JJ Sefton. If you have something you wish to share with the Horde you can contact yours truly at petmorons at gmail dot com.

Have a wonderful weekend.