A Year of Hobby-ing! – Better with Ju

I’m not a huge New Year’s resolutions person but at the beginning of 2024, I did share some hopes for the year, which included picking up hobbies. I’m happy to report that I picked up and stuck with needlepointing all year! I was completely hooked after completing a couple of beginner kits/canvases as I reported at the end of Q1.

Mindlessly basketweaving while listening to an audiobook is SO meditative, and I’ve spent many mornings doing so, even completing two needlepoint stockings! I find the act of stitching (and the accompanying ASMR) so soothing, and often find myself reaching for my current WIP (work-in-progress) when I’m feeling stressed or anxious.

While many of canvases I’ve stitched remain sitting on my TV stand, I’ve framed a few around the house, and I love having “art” I created/contributed to be part of the home. I also have lots of ambitions with how I want to finish the stitched canvases and also ones I will hopefully design, maybe in 2025!

I also love that it can be a social hobby, which was one of the reasons I wanted to start a crafty hobby. Over the summer, I started going to Arts & Drafts which is a community meetup, previously at Fullsteam and now at Durham Beer Garden, where people gather and work on all kinds of projects, crafts or not (some people show up just to chat!). It’s every Monday (until end of time as I like to say) between 5pm-8pm.

I typically bring my needlepoint WIP and stitch for a couple of hours, but I’ve also painted needlepoint canvases from a chart. Really anything relatively portable goes! Rex has been painting Warhammer models (or figurines as I keep calling them) at Arts & Drafts. I’ve recruited some people to join me as well (aka my “downstream”), and it’s been such a wonderful, low-key way to socialize and get out of the house regularly.

In Q4 of this year, Durham Needlepoint Club (@durham.needlepointclub on IG) started to meet, which has been a lovely addition to the social calendar. Since it’s a newer group, everyone is still getting to know each other so I find it a very approachable and welcoming group! I’ve posted about Durham Needlepoint Club meetup a couple of times on TikTok, in the format of my usual OOTDs, and there seems to be lots of interest so I hope the DNC continues to grow and I get to meet many more people through it.

Thankful for this hobby which has brought me lots of calm and fun through this year!