What's yer hobby?

What is your hobby besides permaculture?

I have two main hobbies which are related; Embroidery, and Ernest Thesiger.

My embroidery: http://imagination-heart.deviantart.com/gallery/33561114/mixed-media

My Ernest Thesiger website: http://ernestthesiger.org/Ernest_Thesiger/Home.html

What's yours? The more obscure and bizarre the better!

I'll bite!
My principal hobby in recent decades has been medieval study and recreation. I tend to focus on 14th century England, with plenty of excursions into other times and places. My architectural training has led to extensive* study of timber building techniques, and plans to recreate a complete cruck-framed hall exactly as it could have been built. Not sure I will have the time or money to get to actually build that, though... I also have shifted my pottery business to almost exclusively make medieval-style pottery, with a reproduction cob-built wood-fired kiln so I can fire authentically, scars and glaze runs included. I have hundreds of sherds and dozens of more-or-less complete original pots for reference.

*I typo'd extensive as "expensive"... which is not really a typo, with reference books often costing over $100...

Glenn Herbert wrote: I also have shifted my pottery business to almost exclusively make medieval-style pottery

Can you link to or post some examples? I would love to see them!

I like photography and crochet. Also napping is a popular hobby of mine.

Infrequently I keep up with archeology. It's very interesting but I have to make a point to Google stuff most of the time.

I actually don't have online photos of any of my current pottery... I'll have to take a few.

Sewing, Reading, Crochet and all other sorts of "old-timey" type of stuff!

A few pieces that were out on the shelf...

I knit extensively, and I coordinate a 1/3 acre community vegetable garden in my part of town. That's about all I have time for!!

Metalwork.
I do some blacksmithing. I used to make knives. I'm trying to learn a little machining lately, so as to build better blacksmithing tools.

I'm happy to see the craft hobbies in this thread. Neat pottery, Glenn, but I initially misunderstood you - the pottery is your business and the medieval study is your hobby, is that right?

That's right

There's been a few artsy hobbies, which were minor business ventures. Pottery, painting, driftwood furniture and carving wooden bowls.

Lately I've been watching some of the craziest stuff that YouTube has to offer. Conspiracy theories, girl fights, dwarf fights, bizarre pranks, medical malarkey, a black guy who rails against black women, extreme vegans trying to win converts, and funny lists of all kinds. It's a great cure for insomnia. Sometimes I watch permaculture stuff. It's usually good information, unless it takes a hard turn into peak oil, prepping etc.

It helps that I can find entertainment value in almost everything and even the most hateful rants roll off me like rain.

Tyler, I had to come resurrect this thread because your Ernest Thesiger site was just linked on a completely unrelated forum I frequent, making my internet world seem suddenly very small. The poster knows you from Craftster and thought the crafty group on this other private forum would enjoy your work (and might kick in on your GoFundMe as well).

To keep things on track, I'll say that I'm a bit of a dabbler in everything. I do a lot of crocheting, because it's easy to pick up and put down and cart around with you. I also knit a bit, and spin, and do cross stitch. I occasionally do linocuts and stamps. I quilt and sew. I cook in a way that shades over from basic necessity of life into hobby territory. I keep trying to find ways to turn some of these projects into money, but so far they remain stubbornly just-for-fun.

Holy Crap! Could you message me with the pertinent link? Thanks!

My hobbies aren't really weird...at least not for people around here! I love to paint, knit, embroider and read Science Fiction and Fantasy (mostly Fantasy). I love medieval studies and dabble in them when I can.

My husband, on the other hand, plays guitar and loves breeding fish and collecting rare South American catfish. When I met him, he had 20 aquariums crammed into a studio-sized apartment!

I make small-scale glass things, usually beads and tiny vessels and baubles

A glass squid:


And rainbow bead


And I dabble in felt- making beads and cat-caves and flowers and the like.

Does 'going on courses' count as a hobby? So far I've done stone carving, blacksmithing, wood carving, ceramics, inlay tile making, willow-sculpture and fruit tree grafting.
And I've got photography, basket making and soap-making planned or booked!
I don't do a massive amount with the learnt skills- but it is nice to dabble now and again!

I love the tiny squid!

I never know how to separate my hobbies from my work from my life. Everything bleeds into everything else. By trade I am a writer, which makes, I guess, everything else I do a hobby. Except sometimes I make money at it so I go in circles.

Photography. I obsess over taking pictures of dogs anywhere I go and critters in the garden. It is killing me that there is so little to draw critters to the new yard yet - no subjects. But that will change. I do art journaling and work in collage. Lately I color while we watch the ball games. (I can't just sit and watch TV.) I read at least 5 books a week, often more. Lately I am wandering the yard collecting things to make fairy houses because that is next on the list. Working the dog. We have a smart German Shepherd and training her is so much fun.

Hmmmm . . . well, I read a lot of poetry. The older the better - pre-1900 most definitely. I also love reading old essays - Emerson, Thoreau, Bacon, Poe (he's hilarious), and others whose names I can't remember right now . . .

I draw, and paint in watercolor. - www.tracywandling.com

I play guitar, sing, and write songs.

And I love miniature vessels of all kinds. Little pots and jugs and vases. The teenier the better.

And now, I grow stuff!

Tracy Wandling wrote:
And I love miniature vessels of all kinds.

I immediately thought ship-in-a-bottle!

Well, if it was a teeny tiny ship and a teeny tiny bottle, that would be great!

I have, somewhere in all the still packed boxes from moving, a collection of tiny glass animals that I have had since I was very little. I love teeny tiny things and collect them too. Also collect blue and white china and cobalt blue glass though I sold off a lot when we moved from big house to much smaller house.

I read so many things - lots of poetry because I write poetry too. Lately I am obsessed with reading everything I can about soil and I am rereading all my native plant gardening books, seeing where I can apply permaculture ideas to native gardening and vice versa.

Currently I have had to put my second ( and the one I love most) profession into the hobby list, at least for another year and a half (when I retire I'm hoping to have the time to get back to it).

I am a Martin Guitar Master Repairman and I build wood instruments such as Guitars, Mandolins, fiddles (not violins) and wooden flutes (NAF style and Baroque/ Irish) which are the True hobby instrument as I only build them for my wife and myself.
I also build tight casks for aging my own brand of distilled spirits. Nothing like a nice sipping spirit to relax with after a long day of hard work.

Right now with all the work involved in getting our hog farm going well, I have not had time (or the proper space) to build instruments.
I am really looking forward to getting my new shop built so I can get my equipment out of storage and back into use.

Redhawk

Fantastic, Redhawk, I would love to see photos of the instruments and/or casks.

I enjoy experimenting in a variety of rug hooking from late fall to spring.

Cj Castonguay wrote:I enjoy experimenting in a variety of rug hooking from late fall to spring.

CJ, that is stunning.

Beautiful rug!

I lift weights and practice gymnastic movements on suspended rings. I'm currently working towards a one-arm pull-up.

Boardgames.

I find it really relaxing to spend some mental energy on something trivial, fun, and ultimately worthless, in the company of good people.
I have over 100 games that run from 2+ hour thinkfests that definitely burn some serious mental energy to awesome kids games and everything in between.

What a wonderful array of hobbies!

Redhawk: I too would love to see photos of your instruments. I play guitar (recently found my dream guitar - Simon & Patrick folk-size gorgeousness}. My guy plays ukulele, and has quite a collection. When you get back into making instruments, that would be a good one to make, as it seems to be a really popular instrument these days. Anyway, please post photos!

Ooo, hobbies...my downfall. I have too many. I tend to cycle thru them. I do carting with my dogs. I paint:http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/lori-ziemba.html, crochet, knit and spin. I collect cacti and I have a plot at a community garden, along with a small guerrilla garden. I love post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction. I make wine from cactus fruit. I have a fishtank. Lately, I've been watching a lot of Youtube about the coming crash.

The dog carting is one of the best hobbies I've ever seen!

Tyler Ludens wrote:The dog carting is one of the best hobbies I've ever seen!

It's a real blast! We do scootering, too. Altho I may have to give that up since I broke my foot. And Otto pulls the laundry.

I love to do all sorts of hobbies. Recently I realised that I am a maker. It's sort of who I am. If I'm not making something then there's something wrong. I make soap, sew, both machine and by hand, knit, crochet, am learning to nalbind/nadelbind and to spin with both drop spindle and wheel, love Vikings and am joining a re-enactment group, gardening, leather shoe making (side seam and soon to be turn shoes), archery (made my own bow and I make my own arrows), and I want to learn to weave and dye and pretty much anything else I can learn. Ooh, and I love to read too if perchance there's a spare second in the day. I jump between hobbies depending on the season but these ones I keep coming back to.

It's difficult to tell the difference between 'hobby' and 'my permaculture activities'. Permaculture gardening (both in my own yard and the community garden) can be considered as a hobby, as well as all handicrafts (knitting, crocheting, sewing, etc.) and drawing I do. But because they are part of my 'way of live' and they produce usefull things (or products to sell), I could call them 'my business' too ...
I'll show a photo of one of my products.

small bag (purse) made of wool in nålbinding.

Yes, it's difficult to separate some interests as "hobbies" as opposed to "just living." I sometimes sell my embroideries, but embroidery is not how I make my living, so I consider it a hobby.

This is what I do for fun. I'd like to say and for profit, but when I do manage to sell something it usually only breaks even I also sculpt, weave, sew, and read, read, read Would love to spend a little time with CJ as I have a notion to try rug making...the pic you have up is gorgeous!!!

Now I read more (maybe all) of your posts ... You all have such interesting hobbies!

I'm another of the "where's the line?" people... Part of why I am doing permaculture is it may leave me time to do what I like to do so I can make money off it. I need to find someone who loves to sell stuff, because I hate it. To me it's just stressful. I want to make cool things, and have them magically get sold I get some business newsletters that I see people saying things "I can sell anything, but I don't have a product!" I'm hoping to find one of that type locally and say "I'm a product, sell whatever I do."

So what do I do? I have sold: dye work (silks and t shirts, got some cool ideas I haven't had time to do) custom sewing (basic, repairs, costuming, corsets, etc, rarely use patterns except as reference) cooking (cater a party all in Indian food? Sure!! good bread, herbal stuff, I'm putting in herbs and will get goats soon, watch for odd herbed goat cheese!) have made theater sets (I'm a master of low budget castles!) (sold one wooden folding castle for a Renaissance festival food truck, engineered to withstand 65 mph winds, rain, and 14 year old boys climbing on it) to start with. I have lost track of the things I have sold, usually only 10 or so before I get bored or busy or too sick to do it, and when I come back up in my health, I have new ideas I start in on.

I use the world "multifaceted" for myself, others say "distractable, chaotic and won't do production work" take which you like

I'm just now hitting my land, just moved, so it's all up in the air, house plan has the whole basement as my studio space, don't know yet what will come out of it Will be building a lot of custom cabinetry for the house (not a fan of normal cabinets or furniture) making some cool artwork stuff for the house (not even sure of words to name it) planting herbs and medicinals and dye plants, as well as foods, really not sure where it will all go yet.

Maybe one of these years I'll pick one or 6 things to focus on One of the "job" things I have fantasized about doing is "what can YOU make money at?" consulting. Meet with a person, figure out what their personality/skills/time makes them potentially good at, teach them to do it with a distinctive creative flair and let them go at it I bubble over with ideas for stuff, many of them would be a business as is, if I cared to focus on it (which I don't) love to see others take one and make a business out of it.

Attached a pic of a cardboard castle thing, made for a dance, for kids stand in to get their pictures taken.
And a dyed silk scarf.

Wow, so many talented people here. I play guitar and write songs, and my wife graduated from Hofstra with a degree in theater and then had a small troupe in NY for 10 years making a living at street performance (combat sword acts and man can she sing!) and we have about 10 original songs that we would love to do something with one day, but I am basically a carpenter by trade. I did renovations (kitchen and bath overhauls mostly) and cabinet building for 25 years and then turned my hobby of sign carving into a business. My work can be seen at www.practicalmadman.com . I moved to Tennessee a year and a half ago so gardening is my new hobby. I am a complete novice but I am learning and so far it has not been a total failure and it is starting to shape up. Carving this garden back out of a 7 year abandoned homestead into something workable leaves not much time or energy for my music lately, but it is really my first love and has been a hobby since I was 11 (I am 61 now) and I really have some very original music (sort of rock and roll with a New Orleans party flair) that I would love to figure out how to share someday. For now I still try to find time to sit out on the hill and enjoy the view with one of my 3 guitars.