Why I Created an Analog Bag and What I Keep Inside It

There was a time when every spare minute of my day seemed to circle back to a computer or phone screen. If I wasn’t writing a post, editing photos, answering emails, or learning something new about the back end of blogging, I was thinking about it.

After creating more than 1,500 posts over 16 years here on In My Own Style, I realized something had quietly happened. I had built a job I loved… but I had forgotten to leave room for simple, hands-on creativity just for me.

That realization is what led me to create what is called an analog bag or in my case and analog basket.

Why I Needed a Break From Screens (Even as a Blogger)

For years, evenings meant sitting at my computer long after dinner, finishing posts or planning the next project. I rarely gave myself true downtime. Slowly though, I began protecting my evenings the way someone with a traditional 9-to-5 job would.

No work after dinner. No weekends glued to a screen unless absolutely necessary. I started reading fiction instead of website tech tutorials. I allowed myself a Netflix binge without guilt. That shift felt good. Calmer. Healthier.

But I still felt something was missing.

I didn’t just want to consume. I wanted to create. I wanted something to do with my hands while watching a movie or listening to music. Something tactile. Something that didn’t involve a keyboard or scrolling.

That’s when the idea of creating an analog bag took shape.

What an Analog Bag Is and Why I Made One

An analog bag is simply a pretty basket or tote filled with screen-free hobbies you can reach for instead of your computer or phone. Mine sits on the floor beside my comfy chair in my living room.

It looks decorative, but it’s purposeful. Inside are things that invite me to make instead of scroll, library books, magazines, colored pencils, a coloring book, and now, yarn and crochet hooks.

The key for the bag is portability and simplicity. These aren’t big, room-taking-over projects like setting up a sewing machine or hauling out large canvases to paint. They’re lap-friendly, travel-ready, easy-to-pick-up activities. The kind you can do in the car, at the library, or curled up on the sofa with a cozy throw with a mug of tea nearby.

The Quiet, Hands-On Hobbies I Grew Up Watching

A few months ago, I started noticing what people have affectionately been calling “grandmother hobbies” start to show up in the news, online and in magazines.

These quiet, patient kinds of crafts many of us grew up watching our mothers or grandmothers do. Both my mom and Ed’s mom were always knitting, needlepointing or crocheting something.

These are the types of hobbies that don’t deliver instant results. The ones that require rhythm and repetition. They became popular again during the pandemic and have only continued to grow – modernized a bit as you can see on TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest, but still rooted in simplicity.

When I asked myself what I wanted to try, I kept coming up blank. I knew I wanted something creative, but nothing felt quite right.

Then a few weeks ago, while browsing a furniture store, I spotted a large woven neutral pillow that I loved. It was beautiful. Textural. Exactly my style. It was also over $200.

I didn’t buy it, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Even though I didn’t get the pillow, seeing it did something even for me, it brought me the inspiration I was seeking on what I could do in the evenings – I could learn to knit and make a pillow similar to it myself.

First, I had to learn how to knit. I checked out books from the library, watched tutorials on YouTube, and bought needles and yarn. I learned the basics, but the knitting process didn’t feel relaxing. It was more frustrating than freeing and what I was knitting wasn’t the textured look I was seeking.

Then, almost by accident, a crochet stitch tutorial appeared in my YouTube feed. The texture looked just like the pillow. Not the colorful granny-square style I had always associated with crochet, but a chunky, woven look that felt modern and neutral.

I watched a few crochet tutorials and found a few helpful books. I was feeling confident and bought a 10mm crochet hook and tried crocheting using the same yarn I had used to learn knitting. Within minutes, I felt that little spark. I made a small swatch and actually smiled at the result. It looked like the pillow that had inspired me.

That small success changed my evenings.

Now I sit and crochet while watching movies or listening to music. I recently finished a textured pillow cover that adds warmth and subtle dimension to my living room. The yarn has that slightly imperfect, handmade look that makes a space feel layered and collected over time instead of decorated all at once.

What Happens When You Replace Scrolling With Creating

What surprised me most wasn’t just the finished pillow. It was how good the process felt. Learning something new just for me. Improving stitch by stitch. Watching my yarn tension get more consistent. Seeing progress with my own hands.

Finding and holding it gave me such joy, which is a good thing in the busyness of life. This small, simple hobby has been a nice reminder that joy doesn’t have to be big to be meaningful. So don’t be afraid to try a new skill.

Creating an Analog Bag for Yourself

There are real benefits to filling an analog bag. Engaging in hands-on hobbies gives your brain a different kind of stimulation than scrolling. Repetitive motions like crocheting, knitting, or even coloring can be meditative. They create a rhythm that helps you unwind.

Some researchers have even referred to creative pursuits as a “forgotten pillar of health,” right alongside sleep, diet, exercise, and time in nature. And the best part, you don’t have to be good at any of these things to reap the health benefits. All you have to do is take part.

And unlike digital scrolling, these hobbies leave you with something tangible. A finished crossword. A journal entry. A handmade pillow. A blanket worked on one evening at a time.

If curating an analog bag sounds like something you would like to do, look for easy-to-carry, engaging activities that reflect your style and curiosity, maybe embroidery, sketching, journaling, crosswords, punch needle, or crochet like me. The point isn’t productivity. It’s the act of doing something you enjoy.

Since I love visual things, my analog basket includes magazines, a coloring book of Paris shop fronts, colored pencils, library books, a crochet book, yarn and crochet hooks I need to create a pillow cover, blanket or other decor I haven’t even envisioned yet.

To hold it all you can use any bag you own that you can easily pick up and take with you around your house or when traveling. I like using a woven basket with handles that looks pretty sitting on the floor next to my favorite chair shown earlier in this post.

A Small Shift That Changed My Evenings

I’m now working on a second pillow cover for the other side of my sofa. My stitches are more even. My confidence has grown.

And what I love most is that these projects aren’t about adding more content to my blog or checking something off a to-do list. They are simply about creating because it feels good.

If you’ve been feeling that pull to spend less time on your computer or phone and more time making something with your hands, consider putting together your own analog bag. Keep it within reach. Let it tempt you the way your computer or phone does.

You may find, as I did, that the smallest shift, choosing yarn over scrolling can quietly change your evenings, your creativity, and even the way your home feels.

Now I am going to start listening to audiobooks via Libby as I crochet, so I can read and make decor at the same time.