With the Covid-19 pandemic and the Shelter-in-Place order mandated by Mayor London Breed, there’s no better time to pick up a new hobby than now. Flipping through my Instagram feed inspired me to land on punch needle embroidery. 

Since Michael’s was closed, I ordered the Wool Queen punch needle starter kit on Amazon and it came with everything I needed to begin my first project. The kit includes an adjustable punch needle, two natural 11 by 11-inch monk’s cloth, two no slip 8.6-inch hoops,12 colors eight-strand coarse yarn, five inspirational drawings and basic skills introduction. While the instructions were very basic and it didn’t teach you how to thread a punch needle, it was easy enough to find a quick tutorial on YouTube. Once you’re able to thread the punch needle, you’re well on your way to start your project. 

I wasn’t a fan of some of the drawings it came with, I took matters into my own hands and decided to draw my own. I was going back and forth between doing an abstract or actually coming up with a scene, but since my kit includes two monk clothes and hoops, I could do both. For some reason, I was compelled to draw a sheep and this drawing, which was overly simplified, brought me back to art class in grade school. 

It’s important to keep these drawings basic and save the complexity layer in for my next project. The fun part is usually changing colors and seeing the progress. Since the Wool Queen yarn is pretty thick, each stitch took up a fair amount of space on the canvas, so you could imagine that progress was quick. In fact, I ended up finishing my first piece within two days. 

I’m thrilled that I was able to use this time and discover a new hobby. What are you doing to keep your inner creativity alive and well?