Blouse: Dorothy Perkins via eBay. Skirt: made by me. Shoes: Faith via eBay. Belt: eBay. Teapot brooch: from www.mockinghorse.co.uk
I was idly checking Facebook at lunchtime and found that Bravissimo (whose new clothing range, incidentally, I am really looking forward to in hopes that it will involve a wide variety of shirts and blouses whose, er, frontages I don’t have to sew up in order to prevent button-gape!) were asking about their followers’ hobbies. (Not hobbits, as I first typed. I never talk about my hobbit.)
There’s something about the listing of your hobbies which transforms them from ‘enjoyable activity on which I cheerfully spend hours’ to ‘slightly dull/twee/glib sounding label that’s totally inadequate to describe what you get from it’, isn’t there?
Knitting, Spinning and Sewing
All crafty, all involve (eventually!) the production of garments or accessories, all of them traditionally seen as feminine activities. But it’s not quite as simple as that. They are an expression of my creativity. They’re a means to own items of superior fit (like most people, I cannot afford bespoke garments created specifically for my body – like this skirt – unless I am the one making them) and quality (I do have a little mass-produced cashmere and silk, but it’s sale and second hand. Less than £20 for a skein of yarn that becomes a luxurious shawl or lightweight cardi is excellent value when you enjoy the process of transformation.) to that which I can otherwise afford. They’re a way of helping me feel as though I’m not following the Fast Fashion crowd, of making me feel more individual. They’re a way of keeping my hands occupied (my brother once called knitting ‘productive fidgeting’, and he’s right – I can’t sit without fidgeting, and so I turn my fidgeting into yarn, socks, shawls, and cardigans.). They’re a way of feeling connected to my mother – who taught me to knit and who always has some knitting either in her hands or on the sofa at her side – and my grandmothers. They’re a way to challenge and improve myself – sewing comes far less naturally to me than knitting and I have to curb my impatient side and learn new techniques all the time.
Hanging About On The Internet
Couldn’t sound lazier or sadder if I tried, right? But you only have to have a read through some of the blogs on my sidebar or have a look at the groups I belong to on Ravelry to know that there is nothing idle or intellectually lazy about this particular activity. The style blogging world is brimming with inspiration, and for me that inspiration is far more about attitude than it is about style. Sure, I’ve been influenced by the fabulous looks put together by the ladies in my sidebar. But it’s the people behind those outfit shots that are the most fascinating. It’s a world of intelligent, witty, confident women who are full of support and wisdom for one another.
Likewise with Ravelry. It’s a community that’s built around knitting and crochet, and I enjoy a conversation about a knitting show or particular pattern or new publication as much as the next person. But it’s not just about that. The discussions I’ve found most interesting lately have centred around body image, abortion, transgender, the situation in Egypt, the ‘women aren’t funny’ myth, and international political systems. It’s a vast and global community of thousands of people whose experiences differ wildly from my own. What’s not to find fascinating?
Watching Films & Reading Books
Um, well, it’s true, but it’s not very specific, is it? They’re broad categories of entertainment, after all! And there does tend to be an assumption unless I say otherwise that the films and books in question will be of the Bridget Jones variety, which is not the case (I remember when Bridget Jones was a column in the Independent at the time the BBC’s Pride & Prejudice with Colin Firth was being shown on a weekly basis. Frankly, I thought it was mildly entertaining as a weekly column and was utterly ruined by being slapped into a book and having a happy ending shoved onto the end. I’ve not the remotest interest in seeing the film.). When I tweeted this the other week, I was talking about my most likely options:
What to watch today? A Monroe? A Matrix? A LOTR? Marple? Godfather? This is what happens when Channel 1 (i.e. the Star Trek channel) dies!
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen the Matrix, Lord of the Rings and Godfather trilogies, I’m working my way through a box set of Marilyn Monroe films at the moment and I’ve always had a soft spot for Marple. And I really do miss the back to back Star Trek!
Books are an assumed gift in my family and we all seem to have radar for secondhand bookshops (King of these, if you’re ever in Buxton, is Scrivener’s. It’s a five storey marvel.). My degree is in English Literature, which just shows you that I couldn’t think what would be better to immerse myself in for three years than, er, more books. I don’t really have favourite authors (If I enjoy the book, it stays on my bookshelves rather than being carted to Oxfam, and I will seek out other books by the author. Favourites, though, are impossible.), but Terry Pratchett, Diana Wynne Jones, Georgette Heyer, the Narnia books, Jane Austen and, obviously, Tolkein, are the comfy-old-slipper books that get frequent re-reads.
I like, I suppose, to be transported into a different world and to explore (well, for the writer to do all the hard explorer work for me!) folk from the different angles that those other worlds inevitably present.
I wonder if this all basically boils down to ‘I’m a nosey fidget’?
