There are people who say that you need five hobbies, or four hobbies, one for x, one for y, and one for z (that’s only three I know but you get the idea).
I reckon it varies from individual to individual. In paring down my hobbies (which you can read about here -> Simplifying Your Crafty Hobbies), I’ve come to enjoy just a handful of them from different categories.
For me personally, I have a crafty hobby (knitting), movement/exercise based hobbies (walking, gardening and sometimes dancing), spiritual hobbies (one being reading) and a hobby-turned-mission (writing). A lot of people have a social hobby as well, but that’s not my cup of tea. Not just yet anyway.
Here’s a discussion of my 5 very favourite hobbies.
Knitting – Crafty Hobby
My mum taught me to knit when I was about 12. As I said in my about page, I rage quit a few times before I stuck with it.
At first my stitches were extremely tight and it took me a long time to coordinate the two needles and yarn.
My first project was just learning and mastering simple garter stitch, and I made a few teddy scarves, then a very small blanket.
After a couple of years, I started working in ‘stocking stitch’, adding in purling to my knitting. I learned to make small toys, my first of which were two yellow teddy bears featured below.
From here I started making garments. I knitted simple scarves to start with, and then I knitted my first sweater with Aran cabling. I knitted a few sweaters in the same design, then I moved onto fingerless gloves and socks, which required four double pointed needles on the go at once. This required a lot of coordination.
I knitted blankets in various designs among other things. I did some craft markets selling my wares like knitted toys, beanies, scarves, and heart softies.
Now I focus on knitting for the animals and create lamb jumpers, penguin sweaters, and various sized blankets (and crocheted nests and possum pods and palaces, but crochet is not the same as knitting). I recently had an attack of the dog coats where I knitted a whole lot of them in different sizes. I donated these to our vet clinic along with blankets. I’d knitted these blankets for my future foster cats, but I figured I may as well give these to those in need now, rather than having them stuffed away in storage for some future day not benefiting anyone.
Animal items are my favourite things to knit, but I also like knitting toys and soft baby blankets.
Walking – Exercise Hobby
When I think of hobbies I often think straight away of crafty or artistic hobbies. But I looked at a massive list of hobbies, and walking was on it.
I have a friend who’s really into running. That’s his hobby. It’s a movement, social, emotional and mental wellbeing hobby all in one.
Being a person who likes to take things at a gentle pace, I prefer walking to running.
I especially like walking in nature, particularly forests or near bodies of water, including on the beach, by lakes, streams and rivers, and waterfalls.
When I’m just walking around the neighbourhood I like to look at people’s gardens and get inspiration, as well as spot cats on lawns and in windows and other places, like fences and roofs sometimes. My partner and my record for number of cats spotted in one walk is 13, and we’ve become familiar with where the regulars are.
Gardening – Movement Hobby
Another movement hobby, and maybe also spiritual hobby, is gardening.
I enjoy getting dirt on my hands and working with my hands to weed, clear spaces, prune away things, but also to plant things and watch things grow.
The idea of being a fairy garden designer appeals to me as I always try to bring in elements to the garden and outdoor space that would signal to the fairies that it’s a safe place to rest but also to have their parties and events.
I love flowers, so the more the merrier as long as there’s space for them all to flourish.
The last couple of years I’ve been looking into growing my own vegetables, and nearly had success with broccoli before it went to seed. Our spinach went really well. Our strawberries have gone quite well too.
I’m also big on my herbs. We have lemon balm, rosemary, peppermint, camomile, thyme, parsley, and lavender at the time of writing this.
As far as fruit trees go, out the front we have a feijoa tree that I didn’t know what it was at first (image of feijoas below). Out the back we have a dwarf lemon tree that’s producing one single lemon very slowly after years of setbacks and difficulties. We have a nectarine tree (the topic of its very own blog post) that’s also had a hard time but coming back nicely, losing its leaves at the moment as they turn golden yellow and drop. And then there’s my proud pink lady apple tree whose fruits are just about ready to be picked.
I’ve found gardening to be a really satisfying hobby that ticks a lot of boxes.
Reading – Spiritual & Mental/Emotional Wellbeing Hobby
Homebodies and reading go together like salt and vinegar or cats and warm spots.
I read spiritual and personal development books, including witchy or anything occult or new agey I can find. The past few years and especially since Uni I’ve been reading a lot of personal development and self-help books.
Recently I’ve been reading books that I used to enjoy as a child like Harry Potter and Deltora Quest.
I’m back to reading a variety of fiction, anything recommended by a friend I’ll have a go at, and also non-fiction.
If what I’m reading would be interesting to you, let me know and I’ll write a dedicated blog post about it.
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Writing/Blogging – Life’s Work Hobby
And last but certainly not least, and probably my main hobby is writing, especially blogging and bringing you this kind of content!
Final Thoughts
What are your favourite hobbies? Do you have one absolute favourite hobby?
Let me know if this was interesting or you’d like to know more about any of the above hobbies.
You can leave a comment below or reach out to me at [email protected].
I’d love to hear from you!
Love,
