I’ve restarted another hobby, which is great because I need more things to spend time and money on. Okay, without the sarcasm this time, it is great, because I tried to restart it a year or two ago, and it didn’t quite catch. This time, it’s finally gotten me in its grasp. No, it’s not the gun thing; it’s cross-stitch.
I started up in high school, and never went beyond those really small, really easy kits. A couple of years ago, I decided I wanted to take it up again, to have something to do while listening to podcasts or contemplating what to wear to the next Illuminati meet-and-greet. The only piece I completed at that time was this (NSFW language), which was a lot of fun to make. Then things rolled downhill for a while and I stopped right in the middle of a gift for my mother (NSFW), now complete. (What? I’m in the middle of this one [NSFW] for my dad. Where do you think I got my foul mouth in the first place?)
Now, however, I’ve got that stitching mojo. Even better, I have a bunch of supplies, and if there’s anything that motivates me, it’s organizing a whole bunch of art supplies. How I love art supplies. The problem is I can’t do anything with most of them. I’ve never been very good with the visual arts, except photography. Some people just can’t draw. No, really: I got a C+ in Intro to Drawing in high school.
But those jewel-colored, silky smooth skeins of embroidery floss now call to me with special meaning. “You can use us,” they purr. “You know what to do to us. And you know you want to do it.” I’ll admit to getting perhaps more than my share, but there’s just nothing like working a piece of floss all night long.
Oh baby, I'm gonna give you thread so good your eyes will pop.
Something I love about cross-stitching is that when I’m using someone else’s design, it’s a collaboration between me and the artist. That person designed the art in a way that I don’t have the skill to do, and then I bring it to fruition, either exactly as designed or with my own spin on it. Crossword puzzles have similarly been described as a contest between the writer and the solver…and it’s also been said that cross-stitching attracts people who like to do puzzles.
When I first relapsed into my cross-stitch habit, I thought it was a good activity for someone who’s in bed for a lot of the time. But I was dismayed at how much mental exertion it required, which for people with CFS can be just as or almost as exhausting as physical energy. I had to pay close attention, and it was tiring, and I wished I’d taken up knitting instead, so I could just stitch and stitch away while watching TV.
I thought this was a limitation, but I didn’t recognize it for what it was…just plain incompetence. Nota bene: this is a subtle yet important distinction, but extremely difficult to make except in hindsight. Starting all over again this time, I kept with the amusingly NSFW projects and found — no seriously, you’ll never guess. I found that the more I did it, the less difficult it became! What a concept!
So now I’m armed with an array of supplies in one hand, a long queue of upcoming projects in the other hand, and time on both of them, as well as a real desire to improve and learn more about the craft. You can always check out my Flickr photostream (NSF…oh you know by now) to see what other offensive or even benign goodies I’m working on.
