Sewing as a New Hobby

I've had several crafting hobbies over the years. When I was younger I did do a little sewing, but I really didn't know much of what I was doing. I remember sewing clothes for my Cabbage Patch dolls (with help from my mom) and simple dresses for my Barbie dolls. We used my grandma's sewing machine, which I think was a Singer. I can still clearly remember threading it and putting in the bobbin and reinforcing the stitches at beginning and end by going backwards.

I also did a lot of cross stitching and kept that up for a number of years. I gave away lots of my cross stitching as gifts. The only thing that I have that I still display is one of my more recent cross stitching projects, an image of Harry Potter.

Then, of course, there is the knitting. I started knitting when I was in graduate school as a way of giving me something else to do to take a little break from all the work I was doing. Knitting is the hobby that I know will not fade with time. It is definitely my passion and I so very much love seeing what I can do with yarn and two sticks.

I told myself that I wouldn't get into spinning because I didn't really have time for another hobby and it didn't really appeal to me. Then last summer (2010), I went to a knitting retreat and one of our classes was an introduction to spinning with a spindle. All my past thoughts about spinning went out the window and I was hooked. And I got two spinning wheels and started spending a lot of time spinning. Again, the process of seeing what happens with a bunch of fiber turning into yarn is just amazing.

So why, if I have two wonderful crafting hobbies already, do I want to pick up another, especially since it will be time taken away from the other two hobbies? I think that part of it is because I am currently a stay-at-home mom and I feel the need for something to keep my mind active (and with so much to learn in sewing, I think my mind--and fingers--will be active for a long time). But I also look around on Etsy and even some on Ravelry and see some of the amazing projects that people are completing and I want to make them, too (and yes, selling them is something that I would like to do in the future).

And so here I am, about to embark upon a new hobby. A friend had suggested that I start a blog about my learning how to spin, but I just never got around to it. So this time I'm determined to get this blog started from the beginning of my sewing escapades so that I can reflect upon what I'm learning and in the future look back at where it all began.