I have started a hobby journal on Instagram.
Follow me there if you don’t mind getting flooded with posts about my hobbies!
Fiber Arts: What I Made in the Last Two Years
I’ve only mentioned briefly the hobbies I took up in this blog. This time, I will list some of the projects I finished in the past two years! Every project is a different experience. I haven’t made the same thing twice which is why I can’t make these hobbies for profit. But I like it better that way—no pressure to disappoint a customer, no deadlines—just pure fun.
Crochet
I’ve always wanted to start knitting since I’ve seen it a few times in American shows. However, knitting sounded more foreign to me since I know no knitters, only crocheters. Crochet was also introduced in elementary school, I think, and I’ve seen a few crochet hooks in my childhood. It was easy to find a starter crochet kit online so I decided I’m going with crochet first.
For most of the projects I’m going to mention in this blog, Youtube was my teacher. My first ones were a simple flower, a granny square, and a coaster. I got hooked quickly and decided to get a crochet hook set and more yarns. This time, I went with milk cotton. It sounded soft and it got good reviews from the crochet community.
I went right in with a bucket hat. It was a good decision to use milk cotton. It might not be the best choice for our climate but it was so easy to work with. It just glides smoothly with my crochet hook, unlike acrylic.
I wasn’t happy with the results though, I ended up not wearing it. After doing other projects in between, I decided to frog it and remake it. It was a hard decision, but I’m glad I did it.
After a few projects, I eventually invested in a Tulip crochet hook which I used in this tapestry bag.
I also freehanded a UP Sablay-inspired headband. I made a baby beanie and mittens for a godchild. And, I followed a written pattern for the first time to make a bobble kerchief.
Knitting
After my success with the remade crochet bucket hat, I felt it was time for me to dabble in knitting. Since I already have yarns, I only needed to buy knitting needles and I went with the metal circular ones. I watched RJ Knits on Youtube to learn the basics. It was intimidating at first, especially because I can’t imagine how these loops could form a sweater. It was amazing to see those rows pile up and make something.
I also made a knitted top (that didn’t fit me well) with a matching crochet tie headband.
My most ambitious knitting project though was this sweater vest. It took me a while to finish it—I would put hours of work in a day and then forget about it for weeks. I think that also caused me to make more mistakes, and then those mistakes would demotivate me, and then the cycle continued. What pushed me to finish it eventually was knowing that it was nearing its anniversary. I also created a Twitter thread of my progress from the start so I also craved tweeting the final product on there.
I also rarely make something as a gift but I had this impulsive decision to knit a headband for Tin before she left for New Zealand. I feel accomplished every time I see someone start a hobby (she learned to crochet) after encouraging them, so I felt like giving her a knitted something to encourage her to try knitting as well.
I have had sets of double-pointed knitting needles for a while now. I wanted to knit socks but just thinking about making the same thing twice demotivates me already. Finally, I thought I wanted to knit a stuffed animal, and the easiest tutorial I could find gave the option to use double-pointed needles.
It only looked intimidating but it felt like a breeze once you get a hold of it. It was definitely easier and more appropriate to use them for small projects instead of circular needles.
I still have a lot of knitting techniques I want to learn especially colorwork and cables. Maybe next year?
Sewing
When I was a kid, I used to make paper dresses for my Barbie dolls. Back then, my dream was to be a fashion designer. I remember hand-sewing a black apron with broken heart appliques and tulle at the bottom back in elementary. It was so much fun creating it and I was so proud of my work. Being in fashion might not be what I wanted eventually but I still liked dressing up.
Ultimately, my goal is to sew something from scratch which I haven’t fulfilled yet. However, I was able to tailor some pants and sew a scrunchie from the scraps. I count this as a win.
Embroidery
One of my goals for the year is to learn a new craft and I was just able to fulfill it in the last month. I got embroidery kits for my birthday last year, so it was really just me waiting for that motivation to kick in. My motivation was to embroider a name on a blanket—my daughter’s.
A Productive Sunday
It was an unusually very productive Sunday, I’m glad I was able to document it. Or was it productive because I was documenting it? Either way, I won.
Start of something new
Here’s me actually doing what I’ve said I would do many times before.
2020 Year-End Review
I’m glad I got to get out of the house for the first quarter of the year more than I used to do. But this blog is about what I did for the rest of the year during the lockdown.
TV Shows
Everyone’s first instinct when thinking of what to do in a lockdown was probably to binge some shows. I started with K-Dramas—Crashing Landing on You, Itaewon Class, and What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim. My favorite though is Reply 1988. Its ending is as justified as How I Met Your Mother’s.
And, I can now finally understand The Office References after finishing the whole series in a month. I also started Parks and Rec but haven’t continued it yet after getting distracted by Reply 1988.
Gaming
Kix has been recommending Stardew Valley to me for some time, and I found the great opportunity to start in March. I got reminded about it because it got mentioned by my colleagues at work. Unsurprisingly, I easily got obsessed with the game. I played it a lot until I got tired of it.
Continue reading “2020 Year-End Review”Apple Arcade: 2019 Picks
Yep, the year in the title is right. Before I got employed last year, I’ve been playing Apple Arcade games. I’d like to talk about three specific games that stuck with me until this day. I thought of finally writing about it because I discovered that there are new exciting releases that I’d like to start playing soon!
The common denominators about these games are interesting narrative, great graphics & sound design, and can be finished in one sitting.
Continue reading “Apple Arcade: 2019 Picks”City Pop & Learning Nihongo
みなさん、こんにちは！お元気でしたか？9月から先週まで日本語オンランクラスにさんかしました。(純子さん、いつもしつもんにこたえてくれてありがとうございます！)
For the past two months, I’ve been taking online Nihongo classes by the UP Department of Linguistics. Thanks to Alvarez-sensei and my classmates, I passed Japanese 1. I had a lot of fun and I’m excited about Japanese 2 next year. 🎉
Continue reading “City Pop & Learning Nihongo”