It’s a two year trend for me. I’ll pick up a hobby, get obsessed with it, learn all I can, join message boards, read as much as I can, introduce the hobby *du jour * to all of my friends and family and then-after two years-just slowly…fade…into something new and exciting.
Some previous conquests going backwards chronologically:
Euro-board games
Weightlifting
Novel writing
Singing
Playing guitar
Languages
It’s not that I won’t still do any of the previous hobbies, they’re just not the shiny new toy that they once were. So, as the age of euro-board games begins to close, a new age is around the corner, and I think I’m narrowing it down to something different like woodworking or furniture making or knitting.
Anyone else a hobby hopper? What’s been your past like?
If it weren’t for your list being so completely different I’d accuse you of being my FIL.
His list in order:
building ships in bottles
Calligraphy
watercolours
oil painting
stained glass
wood working
Somewhere in there, I can’t quite remember the chronology is pottery, golf club making and short story writing.
Unlike the OP he does not return to his old hobbies, they are consigned to a corner of the garage until time and the elements have reduced his investment to a value of zero.
Knitting (I knitted a couple of sweaters, which I felt was sort of my goal with that; being raised by a Mennonite lady, knitting is kind of cultural for us, though)
Drawing - I used to spend hours drawing (and a little painting)
Sewing (I still sew to this day, but out of necessity, not for pleasure)
Ceramics painting
Pottery (I’ve made some nice bowls, tiles, and house charms)
Landscape designing - I thought this one could be a career, but it turned out to be a hobby, too.
Guitar hero. That was an AWESOME hobby!
Reading is my only hobby that has lasted my whole life, and I don’t see ever getting over that one. I do go back to some hobbies some times; others I’m just finished with.
I have a similar group of behaviors, though not identical. I usually keep my hobbies, changing only the intensity of my participation at any given time. Lately, I’ve been obsessed with whittling, but yesterday’s wrist surgery makes that impossible, so I plan to work on some other hobbies while I recover, including:
Decoupage
Sewing
Learning German and Spanish
Photography
Cartooning
Mosaics
Kirigami
Baking bread
Gingerbread houses
Dollhouses
Embroidery
I like crocheting, too, but the wrist movement is impossible ATM. There are also some new hobbies on my to-do list, like stained glass and copper enameling. I have to wait for more cash to try those.
After you heal up a bit, crocheting (and knitting) are excellent physical therapy, and will help you keep much of your original range of motion. My mom was in a car accident 10 years ago, broke her wrist and some fingers all to hell, and even her PT is amazed that she’s regained as much functionality as she has - all due to the knitting she does constantly.
Seriously the only hobby I ever picked up and become passionate about was courtesy of the SDMB: The Society for Creative Anachronism.
I was hardcore dedicated to it for about 5 years, on year spending 50% of my weekends out of town at events. Since I began my relationship with my husband, my participation has ended ( its hard to be into it when your spouse isn’t)I haven’t been to an event in 4 years. I miss the pageantry and like minded attendees so much. Thank goodness I’ve remained friends with people I met who are still active.
I have a few hobbies that I’ve adopted and then drifted away from over the years (stained glass, for example). I can always tell when I’m about to suddenly lose interest in the hobby – it’s just after I buy an expensive tool or supply. I’ll spend weeks researching and shopping for the best price, finally buy the item, and then…interest gone.
I’m the exact same way. I think it’s healthy and augments one’s education and brain power. My various “hops” over the years:
-backpacking
-genealogy & genetic ancestry
-running (still do this, so I don’t know if it counts)
-learning German
-Arabic calligraphy, especially thuluth style (I studied Arabic for quite a few years)
-Anglo-Saxon history and culture
Well… it’s surprising how many. It seems that I have them in rotation, with key hobbies going out of style for several years and them coming back for a second round.
As others have said, if there’s some expensive gear involved, I’m on it. I get all of the cool stuff I can for my hobby and then it eventually gathers dust.
Photography - Ongoing over the years, but just got serious again this year. Jazz guitar - Off and on. Some years I take lessons, others I let it wane. Woodworking - I made a beautiful Shaker-style cherry desk for my wife in 2001. I also used to make spiffy wood boxes from exotic woods as gifts. Haven’t done much since. Target shooting - I was into black powder in my early 20s, as well as reloading. Haven’t shot a gun in fifteen years. Portuguese - I go in bouts of a year or so of reading Brazilian literature, once going as far as to translate a set of short stories from a Brazilian author into English. That fervor has faded. I’m in it for the long haul though since I married a Brazilian 22 years ago. Home improvement - I renovated several rooms in my house, sharpening my skills over the years. I think I prefer doing wallboard, with laying tile as a close second. I’m a lazy bum these days. Drawing - I was serious with pen and ink sketching in my young adulthood. It’s a shame I have lost this spark since I enjoyed it so much. Writing - Every once in awhile I sit down and write autobiographical stories about glimpses of my life, such as my first camping trip or my bootcamp experience. Family members are kind and say they enjoy reading them. I know I have great pleasure in putting the memories down and fine tuning them. Fitness - I spent two years trying to get into working out. I went to the gym 3-4 days a week, doing everything exactly like the trainer said to, working the muscle groups. It was crushingly boring.
The sad thing about hobby hopping is that there is no way to do them all regularly, so I always have rusting skills and expensive gadgets taunting me from under their layers of dust. It’s depressing to be digging through some boxes and find an expensive set of Rapidograph technical pens that remind me I haven’t drawn something in twenty years.
I definitely learned this from my dad. He’s been deeply focused for short time spans in tennis, bicycling, golf, astronomy, photography, genealogy, rock collecting, and many others over the years.
I guess I’m guilty of this, also. I’ve done oil painting, calligraphy, tai chi, and genealogy. Presently, I’m doing woodworking and will be starting guitar lessons in January. I still dabble in genealogy, but I’ve hit some brick walls that I just can’t get past. For me, I usually start something, find out I’m very good at it, get bored, and quit.
Well, one of my hobbies that I picked up about 4 years ago has become my main source of income lately (art/craft related). So, I really am trying hard NOT to start a new one because I know if I do that I’m not going to want to keep going with the current one. Instead, I just keep trying to come up with new ways to reinvent my craft.
Started as a kid collecting stamps.
Then collected coins.
Then discovered rock & roll, started collecting records 1969, and I still do!
Then it was backpacking for about 20 odd years.
Then it was hotrodding various cars, built a sand rail.
Then it was home video: Videotapes followed by Video Discs followed by DVDs.
Then aquariums for about five years.
Then it was model railroading and I still do.
Now I’m on photography for about ten years and still do.
Then it was home improvement and still is.
So I’m still juggling four activities, but they seem to mesh well.
I do go back to some hobbies some times; others I’m just finished with.
