Next Thursday morning I head off to the Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat. I’ve already made my checklist of things I need to bring. Most of it reads like any checklist for any vacation. In addition to the clothes and personal items I need to pack, I need to bring my spinning wheel and folding chair, spinning fiber, yarn, a project or two to work on, and a finished project or two for show and tell.
In addition to the regular routine of living in a house with four dogs (and another human), I also need to double up on my share of the household chores next week (which I usually do on weekends) so that I can take four whole days off.
Then there’s a bit of homework I need to do for the four workshops I’ve signed up for during the retreat. Yes, one week before the retreat and I’ve just now got my final list of the workshops I’ll be attending and what I’ll need to do BEFORE those workshops. I need to do a small lace doily for a lace blocking workshop, a 6″ x 6″ knitted square for a crochet for knitters workshop, do the ribbing on a hat for a helical knitting workshop, and bring some ideas for projects I’d like to do for a workshop on color work.
Not too much of a problem. But this means setting aside the six WIP’s I’ve got going right now to do that homework. Yes, more WIP’s. On top of that, I also need to pick and scour as much of my bag of raw wool and as much llama fleece as I can so I can bring it for a lesson with a drum carder. I do feel a bit overwhelmed.
Why does perparing for a vacation, something we take to relieve stress, always involve adding more stress?