Do you already know how to do those other things? If not, you can start learning now, and when you get better with the skill, start selling stuff from it. Make it more of a transition than an abrupt change.

If you pick up knitting, just don’t go into it thinking there’s any money in big projects, because there absolutely isn’t. Blankets and sweaters and such rarely sell for the amount that pays for the time and material investment because mass produced items are dirt cheap. Hats, scarves, and stuffed toys are where the money is at for yarn-based goods, especially if you can recreate some of the more complicated hats like the bearded Viking hat, Roman gladiator hat with face guard, or octopus hat. You can sell those for a pretty penny at events, tho most sales will be the smaller cheaper items you can just crank out dozens a day.

But if you pick up all three of those hobbies over time and make stuff, you could have a very interesting booth at the farmers market or craft shows or whatever other events you might want to attend to sell your wares, and the variety on offer would be a big draw. Plus online ofc.

I have some friends who live the craft-selling life, one with only yarn goods. It’s doable, but involves a lot of events, which means setting up and taking down a whole display every sales day.

If you struggle with space or tools for the woodworking one, look up building furniture with cardboard. It’s a lot more durable than it sounds, can be done with wheat paste, which is basically free, and you can usually source cardboard from retailers for free, so pure profit. Just have to get good at doing it.

Edit: here’s a video I like introducing some techniques for cardboard building, including making it waterproof for outdoor use.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=45JhacvmXV8

This is why UBI is such a great idea. Many people would love to do things that simply aren’t worth doing under capitalism. If one can’t make a living on it, it becomes a hobby and for a lot of people that comes with real limitations.

Once basic needs are met, lots of people would like to cut down on work and do something good for the community. Do some volunteering or contribute in other ways. People could have their hobbies and sell stuff from that, like blacksmithing, knitting or woodworking. But because it doesn’t need to cover their existence, prices could be reasonable. Etsy wouldn’t need to compete with China, so it wouldn’t be the cesspool it is today. It wouldn’t even need to be profitable, making the hobby cheaper would be a win in itself.

Having every hour be spent “earning” the right to exist, to keep on living is bad for people and humanity on so many levels.

And sure there will be workaholics that work themselves to death for the sake of it, the rich folk who don’t need UBI but get it anyways and the stoners that smoke weed all day and play video games contributing little to nothing. But on the whole it’s totally worth the cost. There is no perfect system, every system will have downsides. But that shouldn’t prevent us from improving the life of most people.