Learning to Make a Hat
When you are a full-time writer, who loves to read, and who loves to write for fun, but you also make your LIVING at it, sometimes, it seems like your entire world is writing and reading.
As some of my regular blog readers know, the last month or so has been in a word . . . a bitch. I am exhausted, stressed, having memory issues BECAUSE I am so stressed, like walking into the same room five times, forgetting why the hell I was going there in the first place.
Now my parents are visiting and I am getting less sleep than ever. They are night owls. I usually am in bed by ten p.m., but I am staying up late to spend time with them--but still getting up before dawn with the kids while my parents sleep in until 9:00 a.m. I am to the point where sometimes I even wonder if I am making sense when I speak because I am so tired.
BUT . . . one really great thing is happening.
I love to knit. LOVE it. So far, knitting in my world has consisted of making very lopsided scarves with holes where there shouldn't be any. After a while, I mastered scarves that AREN'T lopsided, and they have no dropped stitches. So I decided to up my repertoire to make a hat and a blanket. But this isn't something I find "easy." I can't learn by reading. I have to learn by DOING, and thus I need a knitting mentor to guide me through Hatmaking 101.
Enter Mom. I am halfway through making a hat with three different colors of yarn for my baby. And as she walks me through how to switch out stitches and yarns and master a more complicated project . . . I am reminded how much I ADORE knitting. I haven't knit a thing since Christmas--too busy. Too tired. All the excuses.
But sitting with her until late each night, making a hat, I am reminded that, tired as I am, making time for nonwriting things, nonreading things, is important. It staves off burnout. My garden is also something I adore for the same reason.
So, writers and readers, do you find you have to make time for hobbies so you don't get too burned out? And what hobbies do you have? And do you have to FORCE yourself to make time for them? I wonder, too, if I feel this way because I make a LIVING as a writer and it doesn't seem like a hobby anymore, but something that has to be worked like a business at times, much as I love it.
As some of my regular blog readers know, the last month or so has been in a word . . . a bitch. I am exhausted, stressed, having memory issues BECAUSE I am so stressed, like walking into the same room five times, forgetting why the hell I was going there in the first place.
Now my parents are visiting and I am getting less sleep than ever. They are night owls. I usually am in bed by ten p.m., but I am staying up late to spend time with them--but still getting up before dawn with the kids while my parents sleep in until 9:00 a.m. I am to the point where sometimes I even wonder if I am making sense when I speak because I am so tired.
BUT . . . one really great thing is happening.
I love to knit. LOVE it. So far, knitting in my world has consisted of making very lopsided scarves with holes where there shouldn't be any. After a while, I mastered scarves that AREN'T lopsided, and they have no dropped stitches. So I decided to up my repertoire to make a hat and a blanket. But this isn't something I find "easy." I can't learn by reading. I have to learn by DOING, and thus I need a knitting mentor to guide me through Hatmaking 101.
Enter Mom. I am halfway through making a hat with three different colors of yarn for my baby. And as she walks me through how to switch out stitches and yarns and master a more complicated project . . . I am reminded how much I ADORE knitting. I haven't knit a thing since Christmas--too busy. Too tired. All the excuses.
But sitting with her until late each night, making a hat, I am reminded that, tired as I am, making time for nonwriting things, nonreading things, is important. It staves off burnout. My garden is also something I adore for the same reason.
So, writers and readers, do you find you have to make time for hobbies so you don't get too burned out? And what hobbies do you have? And do you have to FORCE yourself to make time for them? I wonder, too, if I feel this way because I make a LIVING as a writer and it doesn't seem like a hobby anymore, but something that has to be worked like a business at times, much as I love it.
posted by Erica Orloff at 6:50 PM
18 Comments:
Um ... is the couch still available? My DH says writing is my hobby. I say that anything that takes up 20 hours a week, and is income that he counts on for our family, is most definitely not a hobby.
Between teaching and writing, I have no time for hobbies. My days off don't even feel like days off--they feel like days where I need to write more.
Knitting is awesome! I instantly relax, the second I start knitting. I struggle to find time for it either, though. I think I'm gonna do it now!
"having memory issues BECAUSE I am so stressed, like walking into the same room five times, forgetting why the hell I was going there in the first place"
This is happening to me so much lately. I fed the dog twice on Sunday night and after gulping the second lot down he puked all over me.
Stress is a bitch :)
spy:
I know (about the hobby designation)! It took me a while to "own" that I was a working writer vs. it was a hobby--but then it takes on this HUGE life of its own, as in all free moments should be devoted to it.
E
ava:
I have only been like this a couple of times in my life--but the memory thing drives me nuts. I feel like I am walking through life in a fog--constantly forgetting things, or starting to say something and losing my train of thought halfway through.
Poor dog! Take care!!!
E
Erica, right there with ya! I have to force myself to go back to my 'hobby'...crocheting. I tried knitting and I SO sucked at it!! But crocheting is relaxing and easy and if you ever need an afghan, just let me know!
Jigsaws. And always if I have a deadline (much to my CPs annoyance) I open a new one. But it helps me becaue it exercises a totally different side of my brain and then when I get back to writing the creative juices flow.
But I only do one sort of jigsaw - they're called wasgij becaue you have a picture but you don't do that picture, what you do is the view of someone in that picture. In fact I don't even bother to look at the picture. The thrill is putting sections together and trying to work out how they all fit together. (I hope you understand all that, hahaha)
Maureen:
Crocheting is beyond me at this point.
E
sara:
I love jigsaws, too, but have never tried that kind. Sounds fascinating!
I had to give up jigsaws when I had my fourth baby--at least until he's out of diapers and understands "don't touch!"
E
Knitting has always seemed like one of those supremely difficult arts that I just never got. I can crochet blindfolded, but forget knitting.
I haven't been do a lot of 'creative' hobbies lately, but I guess I'm going to say I color. I those neat Dover coloring books that have the elaborate costumes and designs and mandalas. That makes me happy.
M
Am excited to learn you are now a knitting fiend, too. Do you still have the purple wrap I made you? Hope so - it looked beautiful on you.
Hope you are climbing out of all the "life" things and getting back on your feet. I know what it's like, believe me. Am sending good vibes your way!
Tanya
michele:
I've known about you coloring almost since the first time I knew what a great author you are--and I remember following a link at your site to those books. They are amazing. Haven't tried them, but I would imagine they are really relaxing.
E
tangodiva:
Of COURSE I have that wrap--one of my most prized possessions. I wore it this winter (LOVED the cool temperatures here vs. Florida).
And I LOVE knitting!
E
Yeah, but do you still have your Cousin Easy and the Gutterboys T-shirt? ;)
My hobbies seem to involve hitting things really hard. Drums, tennis balls, myself in the head...
Very relaxing.
Jude:
You need a new hobby. ;-)
E
Next week I'm taking up Krav Maga, practical self-defense lessons.
Now I'll get to hit other people really hard in the head. :)
One of friends at work said Krav Maga (accent on the second a in Maga) sounds like something you might order in a fancy restaurant. "I'll have the Krav Maga, with onions and fava beans and a nice chianti..."
Now I'll get to hit other people really hard in the head.
Talking about sparring, of course. That sounded really violent when I read it back, LOL.
Erica, when our dog was a puppy one day she managed to get on the dining table (we have no idea how) and she ate several pieces of my jigsaw!!
sara:
Only a woman with four kids and three dogs can appreciate that!!!
E
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