There is a reason we’re seeing male Olympians knitting. There is a reason carrying a book around town is the ultimate accessory. There is a reason the cool girls are scrapbooking together at their girl’s night.
Grandma hobbies are back. . . as they always should have been! These skills are soothing, useful, and beautiful. They take us away from our screens and help us contribute to our homes, communities, and friendships. These hobbies are good for us, and they’re good for the planet.
So if you’re looking for a skill that resets your nervous system and gives you something to show for your work, read on. Here’s our list of grandma hobbies we should all try.
Knitting
My mom is an incredible knitter, and the sweaters I own that she’s made are some of my very favorite possessions. They’re absolutely gorgeous, and they’ll last forever if we treat them right.
She has mentioned to me that she worries she’s like Molly Weasley in Harry Potter, and that’s always baffled me, for many reasons. Sure, Ron’s hand-knit Christmas “jumper” and socks always seem to be maroon, which he doesn’t like. But where’s the enthusiasm?! Those knits are motherly love he can literally wear!
I’m lucky I have so many hand-knit goods from my mom, because she still works and doesn’t have much time to herself. But the slow down and relaxation that knitting brings is one of the reasons my mom loves to knit in the first place.
Some people call knitting “productive meditation,” and I think she’d agree with that statement. Knitting is rhythmic and repetitive, helping to calm you and lower your cortisol while at the same time requiring brain agility. Those stitches aren’t going to count themselves, and getting your pattern right requires planning. Calming your body and sharpening your brain at the same time sounds like a good combination, doesn’t it?
Plus, have you ever been in a knitting store? Going through and touching the different types of yarn, holding up the skeins to see how colors look together, and getting to chat with the storekeeper (who, for whatever reason, often has her friendly dog as a store companion) is its own form of therapy. No yarn stash is too big for you.
Crochet
Crocheting creates a different effect than knitting, but it is popular for many of the same reasons. Tons of my young mom friends are crocheting baby blankets and clothes for their little ones, and there is no heckling at the hobby.
Like knitting, crocheting is also great for slow fashion. Rather than relying on mass-produced clothing that often relies on questionable materials and low-quality pieces made by workers in poor conditions, you can customize your item to your exact color and fit and make sure your money doesn’t contribute to environmental deterioration and harsh working conditions.
The other benefit to knitting and crocheting is it’s portable! If you have your crochet hook or knitting needles and your yarn, you could keep the project going on the airplane just as easily as at home.
Crossword Puzzles
There is a reason the New York Times crossword puzzles have been going strong for over 80 years. Crossword puzzles are fun riddles for your brain and are great ways to expand your vocabulary.
Canning and Preserving
Have you ever had a dilly bean? I don’t know how common they are, but they’re delicious. Think of the perfect dill pickle, with that bit of spicy tang, but instead of a cucumber set to pickle in the jar it’s a green bean. The green bean keeps its same crunch and crispness but adds to it all flavor of your favorite pickle. Eat them with your lunch, on a sandwich, or straight from the jar.
Dilly beans are one of the favorite snacks at my grandma’s house, which is all thanks to—and dependent on—the continuing tradition of preserving and canning food.
I wish I knew more about preserving and canning my own food, but my maternal grandma is a pro. When we lived in the same town and often had Sunday dinners together, we benefited from her preserving all year. My grandma is a fantastic gardener (another skill we’ll get to on this list), and she always grew plenty of fruits and vegetables, not just flowers. Because she grew so many things, she was able to preserve much of her produce to last through the winter and spring until she had a new harvest of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Puzzles
Your grandma may have even had a dedicated puzzle table. Just don’t lose a piece or the satisfaction when you finish will go down a notch.
Collecting
One of my great passions in life is a beautifully decorated room. I love the interplay of color, pattern, scale, and natural texture that gives a room life. A gray wall just makes me sad.
One of the most important aspects of rooms that feel cozy, lived in, and beautiful are the personal collections. Whether you collect tchotchkes like the iconic Staffordshire dog figurines or you build up a set of blue-and-white dishes to display on your wall, finding something to curate over time isn’t just a grandma-ism. Collecting is what gives homes whimsy and life. Collecting is what distinguishes your walls or table or or wardrobe from anyone else’s.
Collecting doesn’t mean you have to become a hoarder, and it doesn’t have to be expensive. Half of what makes the collection beautiful is that it takes time, sometimes even many years. Start with one item you love that you find at the thrift store. Any time you find a new item for your collection, the rush will be even better.
Cooking and Baking
Cooking and baking are skills everyone needs and most people use daily, so maybe the grandma aspect of cooking and baking is doing it well. Let’s stand over our stoves and get friendly with our ovens. Check out a good cookbook from the library. Eating well is one of the great joys of life!
Antiquing
Think about your grandma’s home. What were the things that made it comfortable? Do you remember any special pieces? I bet most of us don’t picture too many IKEA shelves at grandma’s (though there’s NO HATE to IKEA from me).
I truly love a beautiful antique. They’re made better than any mass-produced item every will be, and they bring with them the character and charm you can’t get from something new. Grandma understood that, and while it may have been easier for her to furnish her home with antiques, it’s something anyone can do with a little patience. Even just one antique can help ground a room and bring personality.
Card Games
One of the clear memories I have of being a my maternal grandparents’ house is playing snirts, which is also called speed or nuts. I actually only ever played it a handful of times because all my family members were too fast and good at it, and some of them were very competitive.
Card games, like many of the hobbies on this life, are great because they allow you to socialize while also using your hands and keeping your mind engaged. Some card games also help you learn to react with quick reflexes without the need for high-adrenaline, high-risk activities.
Telling Verbal Histories
Older people get a reputation for telling story after story, but why should that be a bad thing? Telling stories is the way information was passed down for most of history, and it’s an incredible way to bond with family and friends. Without these retellings we too easily forget how much of life is a cyclical pattern, which can be equally comforting and helpful in steering us away from repeating bad choices.
Scrapbooking
Scrapbooking is another way we keep our stories fresh, and it’s so much more fun that just making an Instagram post. In scrapbooking you get the tactile experience of cutting paper, pasting pictures, and putting pen to paper. It’s a way of documenting experiences and of being creative all at the same time.
Embroidery
I grew up enjoying embroidery, and the last two year’s Halloween costumes have required that skill. Embroidery is one of the easiest ways to personalize your wardrobe. Take a plain T-shirt or button up and add a few stitches and suddenly what was bland has been upcycled into something funky and fresh.
Gardening
I don’t know that gardening sits squarely in the grandma category, because it seems like it never really faded out of style the same way some of the other hobbies on this list have. Still, it gets the grandma stamp of approval, and it’s hugely beneficial, so let’s chat about it.
Of all the hobbies on this list, I think this is the one everyone should give a try because it’s the most flexible. If you’re in a tiny apartment in the city, put a few pots of the windowsill and grow your own herbs. If you have a small yard, plant a few flowers along the walkway up to your front door. If you’ve got land to spare, try your hand at a cut garden or some of your favorite veggies.
Gardening gives you a dedicated reason to spend time outside, and it helps you consider your impact on the planet. It’s inherently quiet, and it requires a bit of hope. It’s a great way for the tenderhearted to look forward to something while also being present exactly where they are.
Bird Watching
Let’s grab the binoculars or buy an inexpensive bird feeder, shall we? Bird watching is scientifically backed to be good for you. Even just 15 minutes spent outside around birds is supposed to reduce cortisol, heart rate, and blood pressure, and just seeing and hearing birds can improve emotional wellbeing, including anxiety, depression, and mental fatigue.
Sewing
I’ll admit it now, sewing is not the easiest hobby on this list, but it’s sure worth it if you can get into it. Sewing brings many of the same benefits as other hobbies, like knitting, on this list, and it’s helpful for your budget. That rip in the seam of your dress doesn’t mean you need to donate it. Just stitch it up by hand or pull out the machine. Those pants that fit perfectly in the leg but are just a smidgen too long? Nothing a simple hem won’t fix.
Sunday Drives
The other day, my son said to me, “Mom, when you’re old, I’ll come take you for lots of drives in the fall,” so I think I’ve won the lottery. Drives don’t need to happen on Sunday or go on for hours. Even just taking the scenic backroads can help channel your inner grandma who prioritizes bringing just a little more beauty into her life.
Quilting
When each of her grandchildren turn 16, my grandma makes them a quilt. And these aren’t small, cutesy, cringey quilts. These are beautiful, heirloom, hand-stitched, bed-covering quilts. Often the quilt pattern she uses will have significance, either to the grandchild’s personality or to their name. They get to tell grandma the colors they’d like, and if they’re lucky, they can help pull specific fabrics they’d like to use from her stash.
Quilting is definitely a labor of love, but whether you make a quilt as a gift for a friend’s new baby or you simply learn to piece sham for your bed, quilting gives you something to hold that you can say, “I made that!”
Reading
Reading should never have been a hobby reserved for the retired, and luckily it’s never totally fallen out of fashion. Still, with the growth of things like Booktok and celebrity book groups, reading is becoming more and more popular, no matter the genre readers pick. My grandma would probably pick a biography or mystery, and I’m partial to contemporary literature, but let’s allow people the joy of reading what sparks their fancy. Reading is, after all, one of the best ways to expand our worlds and our compassion.
Writing Letters
After I moved, my violin teacher and I wrote letters to each other for many years, and I’ve kept all the letters I got back from her. It’s wonderful to have this visual representation of our thoughts and of our friendship.
You don’t need to have the same perfect penmanship as your grandma does. You don’t need to know how to write in cursive.
Writing can help you process grief, lower anxiety, and translate raw or chaotic feelings and thoughts into structured, organized space. It helps clear the clutter we feel and allows us to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of our beliefs while not only strengthening our writing skills but also our verbal communication.
All that and you get to strengthen your relationships and actually get something fun in the mail? I’d call that a big win.
Why We Should All Have Grandma Hobbies
I think we’ve made a pretty good case for why grandma hobbies should never have been labeled as just grandma hobbies. Yes, it’s great these traditions and skills have been handed down to our grandmas, but we should keep them going not just because we have to but because they’re good for us. And I’m pretty sure we’ll find we really, really enjoy them.
Time to step away from the screen, say goodbye to digital fatigue, and put your hands to work. Your grandma hobby is waiting.