Today’s post is brought to you by a Substack essay. Disclaimer:- I do not know anything about the author; I was sent the link.
I have written at various times about groups on Ravelry and the make-alongs they run and I might participate in. It is no secret that in previous years until I got my WIPs under control, I loved the WIP make along. But one knit along I will not join is the Self-indulgent one. When it was first introduced it started on 1 January, and then it was moved to 24 December; the idea being that you had finished your gift making now to do something for yourself. (The start date has now been moved to middle of December to fit in with the end of another make-along.)
So why do I hate this make-along? Easy answer, crafting is a hobby and although I wouldn’t call hobbies self-indulgent per se, they are definitely for your own pleasure, in whatever form that takes. In other words, if you are not doing it for yourself, then it is a chore or unpaid work. That doesn’t mean making things for other people or for charity is wrong or shouldn’t be done but is still under the heading of doing it because you want to. And sometimes that “want to” might just be “because I love my sister”.
I keep records of what I have made, read, exercised. But I always have, before there was an app for that. I don’t do it to compare myself to others. Maybe I compare myself to myself but mostly it is a record to look back at for pleasure or to get information on what size needles I used or what route I ran.
Here is the link to the Substack. Tell me what you think, have hobbies been ruined?
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