Both the hobbies in the OP. I do the Times puzzle (on paper) every day. Haven’t not been able to finish one in decades. I also have some British cryptic puzzle books around, and some other puzzle books in the bathroom.
I always have a jigsaw puzzle up in the living room. I now do them for the local library, who gives me the ones donated so that I can check to see if they are complete. I have several boxes of my own.
And reading, of course. I have about 2,000 SF books and magazines unread. Maybe a bit fewer. Those and the magazines I get are always on the go.
That’s an interesting volunteer job. How often are they incomplete?
I’m a hobby guy and non-screen electronics are a major part of it. Ham radio, lighting, instrumentation, audio, automotive, gadgets, DIY. Like most hobbies, they’re not all of equal activity at all times, I go through phases of interest. A lot of it is collecting parts and tools for little projects & improvements over the years, ‘on the go,’ if you like, in anticipation of the phase swinging back.
This drift and return also happens with my other hobbies like playing music/piano, drawing/calligraphy & art, various cooking techniques, history, outdoors stuff, antiques.
I can commiserate. My pile of shame grows faster than I can build (and painting almost never happens for me…)
OMG, I just assumed that that’s what a hobby is, almost by definition. Certainly for us textile-crafts hobbyists, there’s almost no such thing as a project that is just a one-shot deal.
I have occasionally finished a small project (a sewn zipper pouch, a garment alteration, a small quick knitted or crocheted object, etc.) in a single session, maybe for a workshop or similar, but it’s a rare event. “On-the-go” projects, on the other hand, are ubiquitous.
Things I’m actively making over multiple (as in, dozens of) sessions right now (and that doesn’t take into account the longer list, by about an order of magnitude, of hibernating UFOs [unfinished objects] or projects planned or prepped but not yet begun) include:
- Knitted hat
- Knitted headband/mitten set
- Thread crochet miniature afghan and pillow
- Knitted vest
- Repaired/re-stitched slippers
Wow. I really need to retire so I can get more stuff done!
Letterboxing. I always have a portable carving table nearby to carve rubber stamps with.
I also paint miniatures/models. It’s a hobby I can put down and return to weeks or sometimes years later with some models. I’ve moved away from Games Workshop in the last year or two. Mainly because I don’t think the game is very good and the prices. But I’ve been painting few busts here and there, Fallout models, and fantasy minis from Reaper and other companies.
Maybe 20% of the time. Depends on the batch. There was one that was such a mess, and a pretty hard one, that I counted the pieces and found about 100 missing.
The reason they wanted me to do it was to reassure the customers that they wouldn’t work hard on a puzzle to find it incomplete. I buy mine at thrift stores, and I go through so many that I don’t really care. But doing a 1,000 piece puzzle is a major activity for some people.
Gardening is the definition of an on-the-go hobby.
You’re never finished. Well, a particular project might be, but growing things requires ongoing attention.
Just finished a couple hours of repotting tubbed fig trees, hauling them out of their containers, using a power saw and pruners to trim root balls, and adding new soil. 15 fig trees down, fewer than 100 to go.