#(i'm crocheting something and watching a youtube tutorial about a knit hat that i have never even attempted)

[uncanny-tranny]

The funniest fiber arts BS is doing your current fiber-art-of-choice project while playing a youtube video tutorial about a completely different fiber art

[post-grammatic-stress]

In praise of a hobby you suck at

i'm a recovering perfectionist. and something i like to do is knit and crochet. I've been learning through YouTube tutorials for about the last six years (thanks so much to all those lovely folks who share their knowledge!), and I'm not great at it.

my family and my spouse watch with amusement as I start and restart and rip out and sigh in frustration when I find a mistake 6 rows back I know I'm not going to fix. Spouse even once said as he watched me undo knitting that was supposed to be flat but that I'd somehow knit into a tube, "you've been doing this for years and you still make these mistakes?"

they're all being goodnatured - not harsh - but it's just an interesting aspect of our culture. here is one thing where I don't force myself to be perfect, because the process rather than the product is what I enjoy, and no one in my life can understand why i stick with something I'm "bad" at (and genuinely, I am not great - i made my spouse a "hat" that they actually wear, but the inside of that hat is full of sins).

do things you're bad at. the feeling of accepting that you suck at this thing and yet you still enjoy it is so freeing. there are no standards to meet - you already know you're not competent. you just get to do this thing without having to be perfect at it.