I was away for a couple of weeks in the Philippines.  In my luggage, I had packed enough yarn & supplies to last me for months.  I had this vision in my head of getting ALL OF THE KNITTING finished on the plane trip or during miscellaneous periods and could not bear the thought of being without knitting supplies or yarn.  So I packed skeins upon skeins for a lap blanket I’m working on, and everything that I could for the cowl that I had started in early December.

I figured that I would at least finish with the cowl and get back to working on the feather-and-fan blanket but I was wrong.  I ended up finishing the cowl in terms of rounds listed in the pattern but found that the finished product was not wide enough for my liking.  Since it’s going to be something that I wear, I figured that I’ll keep going with the cowl until I’ve used up most of the yarn.  It’ll be a bit wider but that’s fine.  The project is good but a bit tedious at this point with fingering yarn.

Not sure what it is about traveling that makes me want to pack everything but the kitchen sink at least when it comes to my knitting. For some reason, the thought of going without while away from home… although a pragmatic circumstance that merits acceptance… just fills me with a bit of anxiety.  For those who do not knit but follow this blog: I suppose it would compare to any other hobby or habitual attachment that one might have while at home.  When away from home, the thought is to do what you can to have those comforts with you in a way that makes sense. (In my case, stuffing my luggage with skeins of yarn that I could not POSSIBLY go through in the time period that I was away from home.)

During times like these, I wonder about the merits attached to minimalism: the concept of going without many things.  Over the years, I have gotten a bit better at de-sentimentalizing myself because until very recently, I moved around a LOT.  Moving is a lot easier when you aren’t attached to a ton of your stuff.  There was a certain comfort to letting go of the “stuff” and the lack of attachment to certain things.  This trip has shown me that knitting is an exemption to this concept for me.  I may have a bit more to learn in that area.  Either that… or maybe in the area of overestimating the amount of knitting that I can get done when I’m halfway across the world engaged in family bonding time & settling a parent’s estate.

Happy Monday, all!