Mindful crochet, prolific painting and distracting decor

One side effect of the pandemic is that people are investing more time in their current hobbies, taking up new pursuits and learning new skills. I picked up my knitting needles.

When The Well put out a call for University employees who have been particularly prolific, creative or dedicated in their pandemic hobbies, we received an overwhelming response! Here’s another installment of Carolina’s Pandemic Hobbyists. We’d love to hear your stories, too. Please email them to me at susan_hudson@unc.edu and put “Pandemic Hobbyist” in the subject line. Thanks! And happy hobbying.

Knitting and crochet

Mil Witt, clinical psychologist at Counseling and Psychological Services, Campus Health

I learned to knit and crochet as a child while attending a public day camp in New York City. Up until recently, crafting was a seasonal hobby I engaged in that helped me cope with parental loss over the winter holidays. During the pandemic this past year, I decided to fully commit to crafting year-round. I flipped on YouTube videos, experimented with mixing fibers, colors and hook sizes and attempted more intricate stitches than I ever had. I finished projects I started years ago and finally learned how to read patterns.

Mil Witt crocheted many gifts for family and friends. (Contributed photo)

As a meditation teacher and trainer, I also came to view my crafting as a contemplative practice. The repetitive motion, counting, measuring, feel of yarn between my fingers — and the often undoing of my work to start over — was therapeutic, allowing me to breathe, pause and reset. Personally, knitting and crocheting have helped me tap into my creativity and further develop patience, resilience and self-compassion. Both help me decompress and cope with job stress, grief and loss and our current race-based and health pandemics.

Crafting also connects me to my Haitian roots and especially to my mom, who loved sewing as a hobby and enjoyed mending tattered material.  When I hold my crochet hook or knitting needles, I connect with her, my ancestors and those I give handmade gifts to on a spiritual level. I have also incorporated crafting into my work as a therapist. In my office on campus, I purposely keep a tangled ball of yarn on my desk to sometimes offer to a student who might be in distress. I would give them the ball to work on, often watching them become calmer. I also sometimes suggest yarn work as a coping strategy. Post-pandemic, I hope to start a group for students through CAPS, combining yarn work with group talk-therapy and donating projects to the community at the end of group. Whether I am knitting or crocheting, and I slightly prefer the latter, I find them both to be anxiety-relieving, healing, grounding and meant to be shared with others.

Witt views her crafting as a contemplative practice. (Contributed photo)

Painting

Boots Quimby, associate director, Office for Undergraduate Research

Before the pandemic, I dabbled and mostly painted on the weekends. Now I paint pretty much every day in my home studio. I have devoted most of my free time to my art and have been very prolific and even sold a few of my paintings.

Boots Quimby draws inspiration for her art from far and near. (Images from the artist’s website, http://theartistbb2.com/)

I went from completing five paintings in 2019 to 22 paintings this year. My subjects are mostly from the five acres my husband and I live on just north of Pittsboro. For example, “Abandoned Nest” was from a nest we found cleaning out one of our bluebird boxes this fall.

I have also painted from past places we have traveled to, and that makes me feel like I am going back to that place. Examples: “Arches” from Arches National Park in Utah, “Three Lilies” from a trip to Peru and “Cave” from Morocco as well as a few paintings from our favorite beach, Topsail Island.

Since the pandemic stay-at-home guidance began, Quimby paints nearly every day in her home studio. (Contributed photo)

DIY decor

Dana McCarty, assistant professor, division of physical therapy, School of Medicine

Since March, I have taken on many DIY projects and crafts like reupholstering dining room chairs, painting furniture and doing oyster shell crafts. It’s been a welcome distraction.

When pandemic lockdown began, I started feeling antsy about the possibility of being cooped up for an indefinite period of time. We’ve lived in our home for 10 years now and, considering the growing amount of time I was in my house, I started getting ideas for little changes I wanted to make. I have zero sewing skills, so I looked for projects that I could easily do with a staple gun and glue. Since I have two kids under the age of 5, I did most of my pandemic hobbies during nap time.

Dana McCarty has used her pandemic downtime to paint a hutch, create oyster shell crafts and reupholster her dining room chairs. (Contributed photos)

I had seen my mom use a staple gun to reupholster a cushion before, so I thought I might be able to tackle my dining room chairs. I used a lot of YouTube videos and tutorials, ultimately choosing ones that were straightforward and only used tools I had access to. Sometimes this required putting a request on our neighborhood listserve to borrow items, like an upholstery staple remover, for example.

For the oyster shells, we picked up a lot of shells on our vacation to Harbor Island this summer. I had seen artists turn them into trinket dishes, jewelry and ornaments. I thought if I could figure out how to make these shells beautiful that they might be nice Christmas gifts for family and friends and would limit in-person shopping. Win-win! I used online tutorials that I found on Pinterest for these, and while I had much of what I needed, I did purchase some acrylic paint and brushes and decoupage to get me started. I think my family and friends have enjoyed the trinket dishes and ornaments I created. I hope that I can do larger scale art projects with the oysters next year once I’ve collected a few more. I also have six more chairs I plan to reupholster later this spring.

Being “cooped up” inspired McCarty to do some redecorating. (Contributed photo)