*through gritted teeth* being bad is the first step to being good. you're doing fine. it's fine that it's bad. this is part of the proccess. if you want to learn how to draw, you have to draw anyway. it's actually almost decent for someone who never even doodled in class. you're doing just fine

Neurodiversity and learning new crafts

Learning crochet:

Remember when I asked for good crochet resources for beginners a while ago? You've all been amazing! I found a lot of good tutorials thanks to all of your replies.

I've been slowly working my way through the basic crochet stitches. I had a hard time turning off my knitter's brain at first, but I think I've finally gotten around to how crochet works and am now making steady progress.

Neurodiversity and new skills:

Neurodiversity can make picking up skills like these a difficult progress for me. I'll get hyperfixated on learning something new thanks to my ADHD, but when my dyspraxia makes things difficult I'll drop it like a brick. I'll then feel like a failure for having dropped it, but can't get myself to try again because my executive functioning regarding the skill I was trying to learn just gets worse the longer I wait.

I wanted to share these difficulties because I know how isolating it can be when you're trying to learn something new and your experiences don't match up with those of others. This can be a huge barrier to picking up new skills, and deserves more attention. If any of this sounds familiar, know that you're not alone.

After years of repeating this cycle, I know how to recognise it and how to deal with it when it happens. I take things slow and put my project aside when it gets frustrating, but make sure to pick it up again later once I've calmed down. I try to learn from my mistakes, but also celebrate my successes no matter how small. I switch learning methods when something doesn't work for me, make sure to use sensory-friendly materials, and keep reminders around of how far I've come for when I feel down about my progress. I also constantly remind myself of the fact that being able to see the mistakes I've made is not a sign of failure but one of progress. Spotting mistakes used to drain my motivation but has become something that makes me feel good about myself over time, because being able to identify them means my skills have improved.

Most of my practice samples up until recently were tangled messes. I frogged them so I could reuse the yarn to try again. I've now gotten to a point where I can take some pride in the fact that I've got the bare basics of crochet down. I've kept my most recent samples instead of frogging them: they're far from perfect, but that's exactly why I want to keep them. I will store them in a box so I can look at them in the future, cringe a little, feel pride over the fact that I stuck with it, and appreciate the progress I've made since.

[ID: seven wonky crochet samples made in red yarn. Four samples were made in single crochet, half double crochet, double crochet, and treble crochet. The other samples are a flower, a granny square, and a square consisting of filet stitches.]

🌱🎸

My brother gave me one of those three drawer sterilite containers full of needle felting supplies over the weekend. A big foam board for working on my projects, TONS of wool roving, many felting needles of various sizes, wire to give little figures structure and poseability, scissors, pins, cloth measuring tape. Literally everything I could need to do this. It was so kind of my brother to think of me and give me something like that. I will always treasure it.

I felted a tiny bat this evening, and it was quite a bit of work for something so tiny. BUT I was given something I’ve been missing for years in the time it took to make that bat. I haven’t been engrossed in something to the point of being in a flow state in many years. It felt so good to be focused on my little project. And at that, it was a project solely for my enjoyment and learning a new skill. There was zero pressure, no goal; I just got to be and do without the shackles of capitalism forcing me to be constructive. I didn’t have to be productive or create something to sell. It was just for me. What a beautiful few hours.

I made a giraffe. she's supposed to have ears, but I didn't like the ones in the pattern and she looks cute without.

Anyone have a thought about wether I should make some up??

Also I'm thinking of making some pink and white flowers for her. A flower crown or necklace maybe. Not sure

I applaud you for the math, it's my least favorite subject because it's so confusing to me!!! I agree with the books, I would protect mine with my life as well! What's been your favorite thing to learn? I'm teaching myself needle felting and embroidery right now as hobbies and it's been so much fun, but I'm also learning coding and IT stuff for a career!

Well, most of the time I'm confused with math as well but somehow I keep going. My favorites thing to learn is hard to pick again, but I love learning languages. I can speak four languages and I'm learning my fifth right now. I was raised bilingual, so I can speak German and Polish pretty much perfectly. Then I learned English in school and now I watch most shows in the original. But then again, English is hard not to pick up in a such a connected world. Later, I learned French in school and did the DELF B1 exam (an exam that gives me a diploma at the end, which shows I know all the basics and it can't be taken away from me even if I forget some things later on in life). Now I'm learning Spanish and it's a lot of fun. Since I can compare the words to other languages I can memorize them better and most of the time, I can guess the meaning of a new word before I look it up because of the similarities to French. I think I want to learn Russian next. Since everyone is scared of a possible extension of the war over Europe I thought it would be neat to know the language of the enemy (that's what my old neighbor who lived through world war two always says as well). I already looked up how to beg for your life for fun, lol. My Duolingo streak is over a thousand days now. Your hobbies sound so cool, I would love to learn embroidery one day, too. I also thought about glass blowing, but sadly there are no courses on that in my area (and I don't have the time, but sometimes I try to repress this though and daydream about all these cool hobbies I could pick up). Wood carving would be easier to learn, you don't need an oven for that. Coding and IT stuff are super interesting. What programming languages do you know? I started learning Java this semester and passed an exam on it. Next semester I want to continue learning programming, diving a little deeper into object-orientated programming. At least if I didn't fail the math exam. I'm kinda always scared not to pass too often and get kicked out. Sometimes it feels like I'm lying under the sharp blade of a guillotine that could kill me at any moment, but I can never know when or whether it will fall at all. I'm currently still waiting for results. If I failed, I have one last chance left. But I would have to retake the exam orally instead of the standard written form. And I'm afraid that's pretty embarrassing. Today I told someone that me choosing to go to uni despite it being so hard, brushing off concerned warnings of friends saying I like challenges is strangely similar to the dozens of stupidly brave folks who climbed the Mount Everest just to die on it. Sorry for the rambling, the question leaves room for a lot of random infos :)

I found an entire three-piece suit at the thrift store the other day for real cheap. It fit me pretty well too, except for the trousers. Luckily my mum gave my a homemade sewing kit for Christmas and I've been trying to get better at making alterations and fixes. It's a lot of work when you don't know what you're doing, but it's really satisfying to fix things. It feels very intimate. Anyway, never tried re-hemming trousers before but it turned out decently well, and now I have a grey pin-stripe suit for my wardrobe!

I'm learning to crochet today and I'm very glad I recognized a fatal flaw in myself and rectified it before starting.

My fatal flaw is that I want to make a really cool thing out if a really cool material. But that material is never a beginner material. But I really want to make this thing, so I stick with it and get frustrated when it's hard and I don't get it right the first few tries.

So I put away the hard material (faux fur yarn) and got out the regular cake yarn instead and...

Am still frustrated that it's not going well immediately.

My chains twist. My tension is all over the place.

I HATE LEARNING NEW SKILLS WHY CAN'T I JUST KNOW THINGS! Why can't I just follow instructions and it turns out right the first time? Like baking. Follow instructions, boom, you have a cake. Follow instructions, boom, you have a hooded cowl.

This is why I don't know how to play guitar despite living with a guitar instructor for 10+ years.

"Space Ballet"

This wallpaper, created with love for my sister @valkblue, who adores whales and their songs, invites you to witness a surreal dance of humpback whales among the stars. In this celestial symphony, three majestic beings gracefully navigate the cosmic ocean, their powerful tails propelling them through the shimmering expanse of space.

It was a very unusual experience for me, as I deviated from my usual artistic process in several ways.

First, I had a vague idea of what I wanted: "I want to draw her a whale." That was the only clear direction I had. However, I had never drawn whales before, making this a first for me. I spent a long time searching for reference pictures before finding the first whale - the one on the left (as originally, I had planned to include only one in the image).

Once I was satisfied with the first whale, I added a white border to make it look like a sticker, so she could place it anywhere. But then, that whale felt a bit too lonely, so I sought out other references and chose a different pose for the second one.

That's when I realized I didn't even know her screen resolution. When she told me, it was much larger than I had initially intended, causing those two whales to appear somewhat lost in the image. So, I found more references and drew a third whale (I also turned the second and third ones into stickers).

As the three of them appeared on the screen, I recalled an old high school art lesson about triangular composition. That's why I arranged them in a triangular formation, creating a more visually pleasing composition.

In the end, creating the line art, as you see it now, was a more methodical process compared to my usual approach, which relies more on quick intuition. Nevertheless, I'm quite pleased with the result.

(As a side note, drawing this while listening to a Dark Academia playlist on Spotify added an extra layer of strangeness. I almost expected the whales to start dancing on my screen with each stroke—it was a surreal experience!)

It was a challenge, but I embraced it wholeheartedly because I wanted to gift my sister a piece of art that she would cherish. It's a testament to the power of love and generosity, which can drive us to acquire new skills and embrace fresh challenges, ultimately helping us become better versions of ourselves.

Software used: Clip Studio Paint.

why do skills take practice.... like why can't I be perfect already.. so rude tbh

I have never animated anything before ever OUGHHHHHHHHHHH

A recent accomplishment of mine is riding one mile on a bicycle. For the past two summers my dad has been teaching me.

I will be 25 this month and I'm proud of doing this. I was terrified of learning to ride a bike for my entire childhood and resisted every attempt my parents made to teach me.

I feel I missed out on a lot of things I could have experienced had I learned sooner, but it's better late than never. Because I also can't drive, my freedom of movement is limited. I think this will give me a better sense of control over my daily life.

Biking is scary for me and slightly embarrassing to do around other people because it is very obvious that I am a beginner. I tire out easily, I stop frequently, I wobble a lot, and I always have a white-knuckle grip on the handlebars.

But I am grateful to be learning and to have people supporting me. Without my parents' help, I'm not sure I ever would have committed to it long-term. I just wanted to say that I'm feeling very proud of myself.

I went to Joann Fabrics today, and was blessed with a father and his teen son standing in line with a cart of fabric, looking at their phone scrolling through the photos of a pattern they had bought and opened up saying things like....: "Hey dad, how do we know how much of each do we need?" "I dunno, I'm trying to figure that out....What is twill?" Shrug from kid. "You know I don't know how to use a sewing machine, buddy......I only know how to hem my pants." "Oh good you don't either, that makes two idiots" "We could try hot gluing it, dad" "yeah but....it wont like look right, hot glue is basically plastic." "Hot glue is plastic????" "yeah! where have you been?" "Do we have sewing needles at home?" ".........I have like 3 should we get more?" "We probably should look at thread, go and look for thread." "DAD! WHAT KIND OF THREAD DO WE WANT?!?" "what???" "There's so many and for so many things but they all look the same!" "Jesus fucking Christ, how did my mom do this?" "DAD! What's polyester?????" "Its plastic" "............It doesn't feel like plastic." "Hi I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Can you look at this and tell me how much I need, please?" I wish them well and I hope the kid likes his costume.

My most recent projects. One snatched up by my tiny human, but Donald was a Birthday Present for a family member

Ok I’m about halfway done with my shirt thingy… I think my technique is improving 🥰