Travel Craft

My biggest source of confusion and packing disorder for my week-and-a-half long trip was what crafting projects to bring. It was a difficult decision. There was very limited space, you see.  I could take just two small bags, and I had to bring clothes.  Seriously, I considered mailing myself some supplies.  That’s sad, isn’t it?  A little compulsive, maybe?

I eventually elected to bring a new crochet project, a shirt I wanted to embroider and a pattern and materials for a skirt.  So in went my yarn, my box of all-purpose crafting goodies and tools that I like to carry with me, and a bag of stuff to take to my Grandmother.  Have I mentioned that yarn is bulky?  Yes indeed, Jeff did laugh at me stuffing balls of yarn into an overstuffed suitcase.  I also got rather cross when I couldn’t find my small scissors.

The skirt pattern I took was one I purchased a number of years ago.  I will publish the fruits of that labor soon enough (when it’s entirely done, I have to make adjustments).  I wanted to reap the benefits of my grandmother’s years of sewing expertise.  I mean, I can probably read a pattern, but there’s a lot more to patterns than the reading of them, although I did struggle with the quite irritating waistband of the skirt that I just couldn’t make sense of.  Plus with patterns there’s mostly the fitting of them.  Standard patterns aren’t exactly drawn to fit the Everyday Woman.  Or at least not this one.  I needed help.

I also took a bit embroidery as a nice little set of hand-work to do, but I really didn’t get much done on it.  The shirt needs some adjustment to fit properly to begin with.  Why can’t manufacturers EVER put in bust darts, I ask?  Almost every shirt could benefit from them, but they’re never added.  Anyway, this is a summer shirt, and it’s October, so it predictably didn’t hold my attention.

My crochet project got a lot accomplished by the end of the week.  I’m kind of impressed.  I’ll show you that soon, too.  I’d have thought I’d have gotten less done, because it’s not exactly bulky yarn and it’s only crocheted in half-double-crochet (a denser fabric, thus requiring more stitches and yarn), but I really kept at it.

As you can tell, though, I had a pretty good time just pointing the camera lens out my window on the train.  I’m fascinated by all the things you can see on a train - it’s not always the most picturesque way to travel, but you learn a lot about the places you go through when you travel that way.  I find you learn more about the ways that people actually earn their bread and butter, the things people do on a daily basis and how they live.  Of course, you see a whole lot of train yards, too.

If you’ve ever taken Amtrak from Washington, DC to New York City, you know just how ugly places can get.  Elizabeth, New Jersey by train is one of the most godawful places on the face of the planet.  It’s dirty, and sooty, and it smells funny, and you just know that they only reason the place doesn’t fall apart is that it’s being held together by its own grit.  But in other places you just see the industry they have, which is interesting and not always too gritty - agriculture, dirt and rocks, the rivers and highways, steel melting, petroleum refining, and who knows what else that I didn’t even recognize.

I had a great time on my 11 days of freedom and leisure.  I love the Midwest - I love my family, and their way of life up there, and the first days of crisp weather and fall, and getting out of a city into pasture and fields.  I was lucky to be able to go to the harvest festival they call God’s Portion Day in the town of 300 people that I’ve been visiting all my life, and see old friends and extended relatives.  It was hard, hard, hard to come back to the heat and the city and work and getting up at 6:15 to go run at the gym.  ARGH, I tell you.

I was entranced with the textures and shapes I saw on my 28-hour train rides from Austin to Chicago, and I hope you enjoy them as well.  I talked about them more on Flickr, if you’re interested.