I think that we may not be the best group of women to ask, Yari, as this particular hobby -- one that is both sedentary/requires you to be in your house and is usually done alone -- will naturally attract more introverts and other people who have a harder time making friends than those people who have more active/leaving the house/must involve other people hobbies.
With that said, it CAN be done. I don't have many close IRL friends here in Indy due to financial issues (not being able to go out and join clubs or make plans), but I have two close GFs in my hometown (the only 2 close friends I have left from high school) that I make a concerted effort to contact and try to meet up with when I am visiting my family and will be around a couple days. I try to contact them as soon as I know what dates I'll be in town to hopefully avoid any conflicts in their schedule, and I have been known to meet them at 'odd' hours (10 pm at a local restaurant-bar for my single friend) or come to their house between other activities (a couple hours on a Saturday afternoon at my friend's house who has 2 little ones in between bday parties) in order to make getting together work for them. As an introvert, it can be exhausting for me to spend 3-4 days solid with my family and know I will be filling my 'downtime' with seeing my friends, but since neither of them travels to my neck of the woods, I know that I have to initiate contact.
On the other hand, there are 4 ladies in my (local) Bible study that, no matter how hard I try to initiate contact or plan events, will not/cannot/won't meet for activities outside of our biweekly meetings, so I have had to 'drop the rope' there, so to speak, and focus my energies on other people and relationships. I think that's the other side of the coin, too: some friendships are worth the extra trouble and energy, and some aren't. Knowing the difference makes all the difference for your emotional health and sanity.