A Hoarder of Interests

Sometimes I watch the shows on television about people who hoard stuff. I don't have the problem and feel sorry for those who do. But I can relate.

For decades, I carted around stuff necessary for several hobbies. I could never quite let go of the stuff or the idea that I should like the hobby, despite the fact that I sucked at it and was not truly interested.

Knitting and sewing are in that category, taken up decades ago because so many of my friends and relatives enjoyed them. And I didn't spend ten years making an afghan with all those holes in it to not have some attachment to knitting! I still have some knitting needles tucked away somewhere - you never know when a guest will come for Christmas, and I will have to make an extra stocking for under the tree - but the wool and pattern books are long gone.

I still have the very expensive, if aging, sewing machine and actually use it for curtains or mending, every once in awhile. Fortunately, I have stopped buying fabric for the possible chic outfit I could possibly, one day, create. It mattered not that neither I nor anyone else would ever wear the "outfits" I did manage to make; I had boxes of patterns, buttons, interfacing, and fabric for years.

Now, I've become a hoarder of interests. It takes up no space at all. On forms asking for a person's interests, I have a hard time not putting all these "almost" hobbies - the knitting and sewing, ceramics, making christmas ornaments, embroidery, and rock collecting. Is collecting those little bits of sea glass a separate hobby? - maybe I could have sub-categories? 

Okay, I'm lying - this is Gilles Marini, not our waiter, but you get the idea.

(Actually, perhaps I'm cheating a bit about embroidery. Years ago, a girlfriend and I took a class every Saturday morning, followed by lunch at a French bistro - there was a very sexy waiter there. We never missed a class!!!)

There is a pattern here. Mostly my hoarded interests involve crafts and probably a certain amount of residual guilt for not ever liking them. All the women I knew as a young woman, or so it seemed, were so exceptionally talented and genuinely liked these hobbies.

One friend could look at a designer sweater; then go home and make it. Another ended up taking tailoring courses and making suits and coats that sold. My mother's cross-stitch could just about be framed from either side, it is so perfect. Maybe these talented women were just too daunting for a not-very-interested dabbler.

So when those hoarders on tv have such a hard time giving up a set of knitting needles or dress pattern, I sort of know how they feel.  They are probably driven by many of the same impulses that cause me to hoard interests, even if I no longer hoard the makings for them. A little to the left or the right, and maybe it could have been me.



(photo credit - sewing machine)
(photo credit - yarn)
(photo credit - Marini)