September 5th, 2007

Do you know, there was a time when I had no hobbies. Unless reading counts as a hobby. I spent the largest part of my twenties bored, discontented, and searching for something, I didn't know what. Then I discovered knitting, and the deep, ancient satisfaction of making something with my hands. Knitting was soon joined by quilting, embroidering, and now drawing.

I haven't got anywhere near enough time to spend on my hobbies now, and have to be content with snatched minutes here and there. I could scream when I think of all those lost years, when I had all the time in the world and nothing to fill it with. But alas, time is like my 24-inch wedding day waistline - I'm never gonna get it back.

Still, one of the nice things about knitting is that a few rows done in the car (don't worry, I'm the passenger!), a few more done while waiting for the pasta to cook, and even the odd stitch done while I'm on hold during a phone call, all add up. You'd be amazed how fast a sock progresses - even at my snail's pace - if you knit on it every time you travel in the car. Especially if you live 10 miles from town, like we do!

Drawing is the same. Every spare minute snatched can be productive. I find fast sketches some of the most interesting, in fact I was looking at some yesterday done at a life class where the model held a pose for just 60 seconds. The resulting sketches were full of energy and personality. Sometimes, having no time to think about what you are drawing is the best way. Painting is a little trickier. This page from my journal took me a couple of days to complete, because the painting work was quite intricate and detailed, and I knew I would have to commit a chunk of time to it:

I think the time was worth it though. I'm still incredibly new to watercolour, and this was a great exercise in working in the medium. Joy of joys, I find the colour mixing a breeze after mixing dye shades for so long, but there is so much more to watercolour than that! I would love to get hold of some good technique books, for watercolour, and pen & ink, but they all seem so stuffy and old-fashioned. I'm sure that doesn't mean that the techniques taught won't be good, but I'm just being fussy.

Mind you, I've probably spent enough for this month on art books. I've bought Living Out Loud, Moonlight Chronicles, Everyday Matters, How to Make a Journal of Your Life, and The Creative License. What a good job last Sunday's sale was such a big one. Your support of Posh Yarn is currently funding my own personal art scholarship!!

I'm still hating this scanner though - I followed all the suggestions you gave me, but I'm still very dissatisfied with the results. Maybe my little laptop just isn't capable of managing such large file sizes, because every time I tried to turn the resolution up, it nearly had a fit on me.

PS. The toe up sock pattern I'm using is On Your Toes from Interweave Summer 2007, by Ann Budd. Its a great place to start for those new to the techniques involved - the toe is especially clever (albeit rather fiddly!).