A New Hobby | Reading Update 9.19.23

Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog! 

So far, September has been all kinds of chaotic. I feel like the days are flying past me and I can't seem to get a grip on any of them. Like, how is it already the 18th? There must be some sorcery at work here, because that seems impossible. 

I think a large part of that is that I'm kind of stuck in a reading slump. Well, I wouldn't go as far as to say a slump, more like...a reading lounge? Tilt? I'm not sure what the proper terminology is. Basically I'm leaning toward slump behavior but I'm not quite in danger territory yet. I've only read 3 novels (and 3 manga volumes) so far this month, and that's just not like me at all. I'm currently in the middle of 2 books--He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan and The House of Odysseus by Claire North--and I've been stuck on them for over a week at this point. I'm about halfway through both of them, however, so at least I'm confident I'll finish them before the month is over. 

The reason I haven't been reading very much the past couple of weeks is because I found a new hobby! My therapist and I are working on my perfectionism, and part of that was to find a new, creative hobby where I can make something and then not stew in its imperfect results. So I've taken up crochet. 

I used to knit as a kid/teen, but I often got frustrated with the seemingly endless repetition and would abandon projects long before I ever finished them. I figured crochet was similar, which is why I'd never tried it until now. But in fact, crochet is way different from knitting. It's faster, there's less chance of making mistakes, and it's much more versatile. I don't like to wear hand-knit things because I'm very sensitive to clothing texture, so I often felt like there wasn't any point to making stuff if it's never going to be worn. But in crochet, you can make so much more than clothing (I'm aware that you can make other things besides clothing with knitting too, but that always required extra skills that I didn't bother to learn). 

Right now, I'm making a teddy bear for my baby cousin. I'm planning to make a lot more animaguri (Japanese for "little stuffed doll") for both my friends and myself. I love the idea of having a small army of little crochet dolls. 

So, that's what I've been up to lately. I'd love to squeeze in one more book before September ends, and hopefully do a review on whichever book I pick. I also have another blog post in my drafts (that's been there since August) that would be awesome to get done this month, but I'm not sure if I'll get to it.

I'd love to know if y'all have any creative hobbies like crochet, or pottery, or whatever! Creative people are my favorite people. 

Until next time, friends!