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I was wondering if any of you have any other interests or hobbies other than violin, viola and cello. I guess, mostly, non-music related.
I sew, or try to. I use Sure Fit Designs. I started sewing out of necessity, but quite enjoy it. Not super good, but I did get waylaid from it. I cannot sew on knit material at all, and nobody around to learn from. Books and videos did not help. 😥. Then I got a sewing/embroidery machine. That was fun, but pretty useless and expensive for a little hobby. Trying to sell one of my sewing/embroidery machines locally.
That got me into quilting. Turns out, even here in the northeast, there isn’t much call for quilts. I am in the process of making quilts out of some of my deceased mother-in-law’s clothing for all of her 8 children. I call them, Memory Quilts. After they are done, I am done quilting. I will just sew my clothes, and the occasional landscape quilt pillow. They are fun.
Back when my kids were in school, I took up acrylic paining. I was sort of good. Not good enough to sell any, but that was not my intention. I did do a portrait of my husband’s grandmother from a photo. His mother requested it. Wow, that was fun and it worked! I actually figured out how to do glasses and curly hair.
I have since switched to watercolor. Have to get back to that when the quilts are done. I don’t sew clothing all the time, just when needed.
A friend gave me an old knitting machine that was hardly used. That got me interested in that. Unfortunately, you have to get a knitting machine for each size yarn or yarn groupings. There are three sizes of those machines. I now have all three. It is interesting.
The roadblock right now is finishing up those quilts. I have to get border material for the last six. I am making an extra for a niece that spent a lot of time with her gramma when she was growing up. I also made one for my father-in-law. So, there are 10 quilts, 4 are completed and distributed. My son got the first one. Then my father-in-law. The other quilt tops are all sewn together, I just have to get the border material for the edges (like framing them). Will get that in a couple weeks. My material that I have on hand does not look right with them, unfortunately. I am trying to get rid of all that quilting material, but I must buy some. Bummer.
So, do any of you have or have you had, any other interests? Most of my time is with my strings, now. They have been something I was interested in since I was a child, but could do nothing about. When my kids were home, money was spent on their interests. Now, it is “me time” for music. I needed to be able to schedule regular time for music, where the other hobbies could be done whenever I could fit it in. Therefore, I waited until now. Worked out pretty good because now I can just immerse myself in it whenever I want, as often as I want, for as long as I want.
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Only reading, which I'm trying to give up in favour of violining.
I try never to read beyond lunchtime. TV has been bad lately, so I find I can read in the evenings instead of watching TV, but I don't like to violin too early in the morning.
I wish I were a woodworker or, better still, a hobbyist luthier, but I'm very bad at woodwork.
I don't listen to enough music.
Andrew
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I do cook... I have cooked professionally. I really enjoy it. Although, as a living, food service is a difficult career. Most professional kitchens are small and ill equipped. Kitchen staff is often less caring than you'd think and kitchen conditions can be shockingly atrocious sometimes.
The "TV" version of professional chefs is not reality. Most of what you see are sets created for television or it is a professional kitchen that is so pristine and staff that are so professional because it is all on TV.
There are high quality professional cooks and chefs that do care about what they do and work in large, clean kitchens. Most have either worked years in dismal conditions before they got to this point, or they own and operate their own restaurants.
As far as time these days, I have been putting most of it into violin. Learning this instrument demands a great deal of time and dedication. Although, you can work at it at any pace you wish, if you have specific goals such as playing in orchestras and other ensembles like chambers it will require time to achieve those goals. So about all of my other interests have been set aside. Those interests are not serious activities anyway... (e.g., fishing).
Something I have noticed happen in my life since beginning violin is that friends and family have accepted that this is really my only interest. I have turned down many invites to things like going to the movies, going on camping trips, etc. I now am asked in a different way, "Will you have time to do 'X'? Or do you have violin during that time?". Not that I am no longer involved with them, but rather I put violin first in most cases and people just know that.
So violin has become my life. I do have other interests, but they are not my priority.
- Pete -
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At the time I don't feel like I've enough time to work on my other hobbies and interests. Sewing, primarily clothes, is one of my favorite hobbies. Unfortunately time doesn't add up. I started up with a shirt in Easter, still working on the final touches on that one. So yeah, it's a slow progress. It's fun though, whenever I find the time to do so. Have done some smaller sewing projects in the timeframe as well.
I like to knit too. I'm not a fast knitter, but it's a nice thing to do while watching TV or listen to recordings or something of the like. The winter here can be pretty harsh, so it's nice to be able to make my own winter clothes.
I usually paint during the fall and winter. Mostly acrylic. Occasionally watercolour, but I haven't cracked the code on that media yet.
Reading and writing has been a hobby of mine for most of my life. My English isn't that great, but I'm fairly decent in Norwegian. I'm usually better at reading English than to write, and I try to read as much as possible in that language to become better at using it. It's a continues progress I suppose.
Other than that I like to spend time with my dog. Training, take out on hikes and so on.
'Armed with theory, practice becomes meaningful. Through practice, theory becomes fulfilled.' - Egon von Neindorff.
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The other interest that takes up a lot of my time is soccer, both playing and watching it. I played all the way up to college level, and have played with and against a bunch of players who went on to play professionally though I never had the same kind of talent as them. I still play pickup games regularly, or did until I got the shoulder injury that's currently limiting my viola playing as well. I have a season ticket for Sacramento Republic FC, the local professional team, and am part of the Tower Bridge Battalion (we're the crazies behind the north goal who stand all game and sing all game).
But the viola takes precedence. I miss games when I have concerts. That said, whenever a concert takes place on a game night, I always drape a Republic FC scarf over the back of my chair.
Cooking is a big hobby, and I can justify spending time on it because I have to eat no matter what. I'm lucky enough to live close to two of the biggest farmers' markets in the country.
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I have too many hobbies, haha. I've always like to doodle, though I don't draw as much as I used to, so I am rusty at it.
I've done photography for quite a while now, played around with it in my teens, and got more serious with it in my 20s when I could buy better gear. Still mess around with photography a lot.
Hiking, I like finding pretty trails to wander down, and photograph.
Knitting.... oh knitting. I have so much yarn, and so many knitted items.
I've done cross stitch since I was teen, prefer counted cross stitch, though I only make a small item maybe once a winter now.
I like building things, I'm not saying I'm a talented carpenter, I'm not, but I do like to build things here and there. I just wing it and hope it works out. So far so good.
I'm probably forgetting something, but that's it for now. I would love to add pottery to the mix, though. Even if just to learn and never do it again, I'd like to give it a try.
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ooooo Cid, we have a lot in common, I crochet and knit, run the prayer shawl at church making everything from crochet toys to blankets, baby shoes and such - fun and rewarding.
I paint, and commission work, watercolors, and oils.
...and jewelry, leather jewelry like bracelets and hat bands and stuff, with leather and beads.
Fun!
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@Mimi Aysha Yes, it is fun.
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My main interests aside from my newly acquired passion in "violining" are hiking, gardening and maintaining my vintage travel trailer. I had major surgery the end of May and am still recovering, so it limits how much I can do the last 2 activities, as well as my endurance for the first.
I retired about a year ago and I'm still trying to get in the groove regarding what I want to be as I grow old(er). My trailer is waiting for me to be able to crawl under and over her to fix a number of things, and the garden keeps calling since this has been a bounty year for fruit (apricots, then peaches, now plums are ariving). If the fruit doesn't get picked from the tree, it has to get picked up off the ground.
Our dog gets us out hiking. The heat and my recovering stamina has made our hikes shorter than last year, but we still get out.
But since July 13, 2019, most all of my tmie is spent reading about the violin, practicing, watching videos, and trying to learn things online. Hoping I can play in tune soon in first position.
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We love to sail. How many sailors do we have here?
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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I owned a 23 foot O’Day while the kids were growing up.
The longest sailing adventures made were on a 53 foot Amel Super Maramu owned by a co-worker. I only got involved when it needed for seasonal repositioning. He never bothered with small craft warnings, noting that the boat was not a small craft.
The yacht had an interesting design philosophy. It needed two people, one of which needed the strength to pick up a five gallon pail of water. It had a main cabin safe, scuba tank filling compressor, and the propeller could be unhitched from the Diesel engine while under sail to charge banks of batteries.
It had a center cock pit with excellent sight lines and minimized motion in bad seas.
Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal. —Earl Nightingale.
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@Irv ..."it needed two people, one of which needed the strength to pick up a five gallon pail of water..."
that sounds ominous for a sailboat.
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I admire anyone who can paint. I always doodled in school and was a decent "doodler" never took that very far after I left school. I had a friend who was very artistic. He and I were the two school "artists" at the time. In trouble all the time for drawing and not doing school work.
cid maybe I mentioned this already. I have fond memories of seeing my grandmother, mother and great grandmother all in a room working on a quilt hanging from a jig in the ceiling. It seems almost a lost art now. They still make them out here and they command a steep price for the good ones.
Many of my interests have changed over time. I liked to build things and have built some cool stuff including my porch. Currently building an addition I designed. I'm beginning to get tired of that though. Not as much fun any more. I still upkeep things.
I have been involved with digital recording as a hobby for awhile. While not a "composer" in the sense that I do it for $$. I put original stuff down. Some of it is admittedly crap lol. Released a guitar album. Not really in it for that though.
While I don't own a sail boat, I seem to gravitate toward nautical themes in a lot of things I do. Go to the shore during the summer, visit light houses, sometimes charter a boat. I feel some of that is "in me" somehow.
Photography has been my last interest besides violin. I recently made some photo collages with original music added to them. I enjoy it more than I though I would. To get one sunrise shot I set up a time to put up my gear with a land owner, Did a lot of planning for only a few pics, was fun.
As others have said though, right now violin is taking the majority of my spare time musically aside from my weekly piano gig.
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Irv said
I owned a 23 foot O’Day while the kids were growing up.
Almost bought a 1984 O'Day 37 Center Cockpit. After carefully checking it out we dropped it.
The longest sailing adventures made were on a 53 foot Amel Super Maramu owned by a co-worker. I only got involved when it needed for seasonal repositioning. He never bothered with small craft warnings, noting that the boat was not a small craft.
The yacht had an interesting design philosophy. It needed two people, one of which needed the strength to pick up a five gallon pail of water. It had a main cabin safe, scuba tank filling compressor, and the propeller could be unhitched from the Diesel engine while under sail to charge banks of batteries.
It had a center cock pit with excellent sight lines and minimized motion in bad seas.
Sounds like a nice vessel. Do you have good memories from that trip?
starise said While I don't own a sail boat, I seem to gravitate toward nautical themes in a lot of things I do. Go to the shore during the summer, visit light houses, sometimes charter a boat. I feel some of that is "in me" somehow.
Never too late. 😁
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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I'd love to sail, but the sea-sickness gets me every time (as it did my grandfather who was in the navy on the Atlantic run during the war, lol), and I come from the Solent.
My friend Pete Scown went across the bay of Biscay on the ferry once in a gale and didn't suffer at all. He walked around the ship silently laughing at all the sick people. Then he went to the restaurant for food, and his good humour came to an end because there was no food because all of the kitchen staff were sick. lol.
Andrew
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Fiddlerman said
Irv said
I owned a 23 foot O’Day while the kids were growing up.
Almost bought a 1984 O'Day 37 Center Cockpit. After carefully checking it out we dropped it.
The longest sailing adventures made were on a 53 foot Amel Super Maramu owned by a co-worker. I only got involved when it needed for seasonal repositioning. He never bothered with small craft warnings, noting that the boat was not a small craft.
The yacht had an interesting design philosophy. It needed two people, one of which needed the strength to pick up a five gallon pail of water. It had a main cabin safe, scuba tank filling compressor, and the propeller could be unhitched from the Diesel engine while under sail to charge banks of batteries.
It had a center cock pit with excellent sight lines and minimized motion in bad seas.
Sounds like a nice vessel. Do you have good memories from that trip?
starise said While I don't own a sail boat, I seem to gravitate toward nautical themes in a lot of things I do. Go to the shore during the summer, visit light houses, sometimes charter a boat. I feel some of that is "in me" somehow.
Never too late. 😁
As romantic as owning a sailboat sounds, the thought if me being in the open ocean without so much as a "sailboat 101" course kinda scares me.I mean, I guess if there isn't a storm I could just float around until the coast guard finds me. Go far enough and I'll hit land again. I have this nagging dream about sharks eyeing my feet from under the water and thinking they look like good snacks. For that reason I would want to stay inside the boat at all times.
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@Fiddlerman . Went on that boat many times. Loved the craft. Owner was suspect. He always waited until his marina fee expired before a move, so we set sail regardless of conditions. The last straw came when another member of the crew lost an expensive hat over the side during a gale. We decided to use the retrieval of the hat as a man overboard drill. The two of us pointed and the owner steered. He disregarded our instructions and the hat was quickly lost. I immediately donned life jacket, and used life lines whenever top side, for the remainder of the trip. My now hatless mate did likewise. Never went on it again.
Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal. —Earl Nightingale.
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I guess it boils down to ones opportunities and experiences.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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@Fiddlerman . Two books that should be on your boat for a rainy day. Ice! and Heart of Oak. Both by Tristan Jones.
Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal. —Earl Nightingale.
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Did sailing and nautical studies at school as a kid...
Unfortunately spent more time falling out of the sail boat and having to be drug out soaking wet and riding in the speedboat with the instructors for the rest of the day...I felt so sick...they started making me wear a bright yellow plastic suit thing (probably so they wouldn't lose me) wasn't my finest hour...
I passed, but I think it was cause they didn't want me back for a 2nd year!
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