You know, when you arrange a holiday or trip you do so with certain benefits in mind. A rest. A break from the normal routine. A reward. To broaden horizons. To experience something. I remember deciding to go to Canada because, darn it, I was working too bloody hard to not spend the income from all this hard work on something. So I guess it was a reward I was after. (It certainly wasn’t a rest!)

Sometimes you come back from a trip with a benefit you didn’t expect or plan for. Sometimes it’s because of something that happened (I once ended up in hospital after being stung by a jellyfish, and being forced to contemplate – even for a few minutes – that my life might end earlier than I’d planned definitely changed me). Sometimes it’s because you stepped out of your routine for a while, and were able to examine it from a distance.

The Canada trip? Well, it’s been more the latter scenario. I decided when I was away that the camera club wasn’t fulfilling my needs – in fact it was stifling and close to being detrimental to my creative development. But in the weeks since I returned I’ve been constantly surprised to discover more.

I want to paint and draw and do some of the art projects I’ve procrastinated over for too long. I want to rejoin the contemporary art group I was a part of a few years back. Craft is wonderful, but I miss art.

Knitting is still my favourite craft to do while watching tv or in waiting rooms. Machine knitting has some exciting possibilities, and weaving still is new and interesting. But overall I think I may end up doing less fibre craft so I can do more of other things – like art, reading, and exploring non-yarny crafts like bookbinding and printing.

Since I got back I’ve been spending less time in Ravelry and I have only visited Weavolution once. So far as social crafting goes… the s’n’b meetings are now all over the place in both time and location, while The Handweaving and Spinning Guild meetings are in one spot at a regular time and day per month. So it’s actually much easier to plan to get to the Guild meets than the s’n’b meets, which is a bit sad because I like the s’n’b girls a lot. I’ll try to get to the s’n’b meets, but I’ll plan to get to the Guild ones.

Then there’s blogging. I love reading blogs, but I’ve noticed in the last few years that people aren’t blogging as much any more. And that lack of enthusiasm is finally rubbing off on me. For ages I’ve been telling myself the main reason to do it is not for comments or some fairy-tale that you make heaps of like-minded friends through blogging, but to record what I’ve made and learned in the process. But when that becomes a chore, it’s probably time to stop.

Or perhaps to start a new blog to reflect the shift in my interests. I’ve been wanting to do that for some time now. I just need the time to set it up…