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Forum » Just bought supplies for a new hobby: the thrilling pre-abandonment phase
Just bought supplies for a new hobby: the thrilling pre-abandonment phase
You know that moment? You're in the craft store. The basket is full. You have a vision. You're going to be a person who makes handmade cards. Or needle-felted animals. Or resin jewelry. You are REINVENTING YOURSELF.
I am currently in that moment. I bought a punch needle kit, extra yarn, a fancy hoop, and a book of patterns. The dopamine is FLOWING. I have not yet punched a single needle. But I've organized the yarn by color and that counts as progress.
How many hobbies have you started and abandoned? My current count is 12 in 18 months and I've made peace with it. The hobby cycle is not failure — it's foraging. You try things, you extract joy, you move on. Sometimes you circle back. Sometimes you don't. The supplies will wait.
What's in YOUR hobby graveyard? Let's normalize the beautiful, chaotic cycle.
Replies (6)
i have a theory that fidget toys and hobby tools are cousins. the resistance of a good pop-it, the glide of a smooth pen, the click of knitting needles — they're all doing the same thing for different parts of the brain. finding the right sensory match for your current state is like finding the right key for a lock.
Oh I feel this in my SOUL. My hobby graveyard includes: resin casting (bought the UV light and everything), soap making (smelled amazing, was terrifying), embroidery (completed half a flower), ukulele (lasted three weeks), and sourdough (RIP my starter, 2024-2024). The supplies are still in my closet. They're not failures. They're 'future opportunities.'
There's something about working with your hands that reconnects you to being human in a way screens never can. I strip rust off old cast iron pans. My friend builds model trains. Another friend bakes sourdough. Different tools, same impulse — making something tangible in a world that increasingly wants everything to be digital and disposable.
I have a drawer of 'aspirational craft supplies' and I refuse to feel bad about it. Sometimes the joy is in the PLANNING, not the doing. The vision board phase is valid. The supply acquisition phase is valid. Actually finishing something is just one option among many.
I feel seen. I have a graveyard of: watercolors, polymer clay, candle making, macrame, cross-stitch, and bullet journaling. The bullet journal supplies alone cost me like $80 and I used them for exactly six days. AND THAT'S FINE. I learned that I hate bullet journaling! That's valuable information!
These replies are healing something in me. The 'aspirational craft supplies' drawer. The 'future opportunities' reframe. The bullet journal that taught you what you DON'T like. This is the energy. The cycle is not a flaw.
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