Some Things I Learned From a Long Trip - Projects

When we go to Nova Scotia I always bring a number of projects along since I know I'll have hours of uninterrupted time and no pressing outside obligations to attend to.  These projects include crafts, of course, as well as writing and art projects as well.  Berlin was no different.  What was different was the amount of time we had - almost three times as much time.

However, Berlin was different in that we weren't in a rural environment, with few distractions.  We were in a city that not only had things we wanted to do and see but people we met and wanted to hang out with.  What has this taught me about packing projects?

Firstly, let me outline what I brought with me and their status:

1. Yarn and the incomplete Tourist Sweater - finished
2. Beginning of and yarn for the Soho Smocked Dress - finished
3. A crossstitch kit that I'm 3/4 of the way through - didn't touch
4. The Alabama Chanin dress I started at the workshop last year - made some serious progress
5. My collection of short stories - shopped around a little as well as submitted individual stories
6. Drafts of stories and novel - worked on a couple of shorts
7. Two university classes to design - started thinking about.

That should've been enough, no?  But it was clearly (yes, clearly) unreasonable for me to take a "no new craft materials for a year" pledge.  Besides going to Liberty of London where it would've taken some kind of twisted logic to leave without fabric, there were yarns that I haven't seen in Canada or the US (okay, maybe I wasn't looking for them either, but still), and when taking one of our guests to four different yarn shops (need to write reviews of them), it was too tempting.  In fact, I have a new saying, "If you leave a yarn shop without buying any yarn, a sheep somewhere cries."  (This applies to "cotton sheep" as well.)  I ended up buying four skeins of sock yarn (two to give as souvenirs to friends, one for a holiday present, and one for me), yarn for the Loop Entrelac Tank that I actually finished in Berlin but need to readjust the straps on, yarn for scarves for the ladyfriend and myself (also completed in Berlin), and yarn for the Carnaby skirt I plan to make.  I also (yes, there's more) had some Alabama Chanin fabric brought by a visitor so I could make a skirt and t-shirt that I badly needed.  I wear that skirt like a pair of jeans right now - all the time (photos will follow one day).