Consider Knitting

I wanted a custom kigurumi like these[1] but didn’t want to fork over thousands of dollars for one. Ended up buying a sewing machine and fleece, learning to sew while making it. Was a bit of a brutal first project but after about 2 months off and on work in my free time I was able to complete it. Was then able to make 5 more of them for friends. The later ones were significantly easier.

Also made myself a custom plushie which would have cost around $1000AUD had I commissioned someone to make it.

After doing it all, I can say, yeah the prices actually are fair if you need to actually make a living off it, but also you can just do it yourself with a $300 sewing machine and some determination.

[1] https://www.curlworks.net/kigurumi

Consider, though, one of the unique aspects of crochet or knitting -- you can fuck things up and it's not a big deal. Unlike woodworking or sewing, where once something is cut it cannot be uncut, with these crafts if you zone out while watching Wheel of Fortune and do a few rows wrong, you can always just ... undo it and try again. Nothing is lost but your time, and if you are doing it to relax while watching TV, you haven't really lost anything at all.

Hardest possible concur with everything OP said.

Knitting and other fiber arts are the grandmother of computer programming, and I'd go so far as to say your CS education is incomplete without at least passing knowledge of fabric weaving and especially weaving machine history.

Ignorance is not your fault, unfortunately they can't teach you everything in college, and people tend to downplay the importance and history of "women's work", much to all our detriment.

https://www.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stor...

Back in the mid-90s, I asked my mother to teach me how to knit. Like many women of their time, both she and her mother were skilled at Aran knitting¹ and I was always impressed at the complex patterns that could be created from a length of yarn with two knitting needles – or three for the more complicated stitches. Even though this was the 90s and mindfulness wasn’t something anyone would have heard of in rural Ireland, it served the same function for me. I knitted an Aran scarf and a jumper (sweater in American) but didn’t actually wear either of them so I eventually gave it up as a hobby.

Regardless, I think it’s important for those of us who work using computers to have hobbies where you get away from the screens and use your hands in a tactile way – ideally to make something. Cooking, baking and bread-making are things that almost anyone can do. We all have to eat and it’s great to be able to share what you’ve made with others (I find the best hobbies also have some degree of social interaction).

When I cycled and mountain-biked, I used to do all my own bike maintenance and built my own wheels; I got a lot of satisfaction from building a perfectly balanced wheel. I also did a wood-work course and would have liked to have kept it up but I live in a small house without the space for a work-bench and tools.

More recently, during Covid, I started to learn guitar. Even though it doesn’t come naturally and progress happens at a very slow pace, I get a lot of enjoyment from it. My goal is to get good enough that I feel confident jamming/playing with other friends who are amateur musicians.

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aran_knitting_patterns

> I'm so slow it takes too much time for me to not think that it's a waste of time because I could have done something more meaningful instead.

That's the funny thing about the idea of meaningful things. It is solely determined by what you think is meaningful. Personally, just sitting and making something is an extremely meaningful activity to me.