Finding Time for Hobbies as a Busy Working Mom
In October 2019 as a birthday present to myself, I visited my favorite local yarn shop and bought some beautiful green, wool yarn so I could knit my first-ever sweater.
My youngest was 10 months old at the time and I felt like I was turning a corner - coming back into myself and finding more and more pockets of time as he (and my two older kids) grew.
I used to knit all the time before kids and even completed a few projects after my oldest was born, but in that newborn phase with 3 kids it was just too hard to find the time, or my hands, to be able to pick up knitting.
So that October I was EXCITED! Excited for a fresh project and to get back to this hobby that I so desperately loved and missed.
And it was great at first. I did find little bits of time and made some decent progress.
But a few months later it was March 2020 and my sweater project took a backseat to surviving life.
I think I picked it back up later that year in winter and it continued in cycles like that for the next 3 years. Knitting for a few weeks, then collecting dust for a few months, and back and forth, and back and forth.
I'm not sure what it was about this fall, but I just finally felt the desire to finish it. So in September, I pulled it out of storage, reoriented myself to the pattern, and just knitted row by row.
There was a week where I avoided it because honestly, I was terrified that after all this time, I would finish it and it wouldn't fit!
But I knew that if I didn't finish, I'd always wonder. (plus I'd fallen in love with a new sweater pattern but promised myself I'd finish this one before starting anything else!)
When it came off the needles and I tried it on for the first time, I was BEAMING. My smile was so ridiculously big and goofy and proud!
Not just because I made a freaking sweater, but because of everything I've lived through in the last 9 years since becoming a mom.
And there I stood wearing a sweater as proof that I'm still me.
I'm still knitting, still doing things I enjoy, and still managing to make time for myself. And that's something to be proud of.
I know what it's like to miss your old hobbies and activities.
To miss the time that you used to have.
And to feel like this is just how it is now - no energy and no time for the things that you love.
But I hope my sweater can serve as proof, as inspiration, that even though it may take time. Even though it may feel like progress is slow and you take two steps forward and one step back, things change.
And those things that you love will always be there. They're not holding a calendar or timer. They know you'll be back.
The question is - do you know?
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