Vacation knitting

or, how much do I need to pack for a 4 day trip? We're heading north on Saturday afternoon, and returning on Tuesday. There is a fairly frequent theme in blogs and podcasts these days about how much knitting to take when traveling. I err (if it's an error at all) on the too much side. I cart around a fair amount of stuff on a day to day basis, it's out of control when I leave home. Throw in that I plan to visit Patternworks up in Center Harbor, and there is lots of yarn hitting the road.

Forget SABLE, there should be an acronym for taking more projects than could be knit if you didn't sleep while you were away.

And if I think of an appropriate acronym, I'll let you know.

No pictures today, because my projects look the same. The Montego Bay scarf is longer, the second Conwy sock is about to get a heel flap, and I may drag the cotton cable sweater out of hibernation and work on that. I'm giving up on cables without a cable needle on the cotton; it's too hard on the hands. My plan is to work on those projects, with the hope of finishing the sock and scarf. We'll see what happens.

Oh, and Ravelry rocks! Lots of ideas for projects, though browsing on Ravelry eats into my knitting time.

The start of a project

This scarf has most of my favorite colors, and I've decided that I'd like a summer sweater that goes with it. That's the easy part. Coming up with a pattern and appropriate yarn will be more difficult.

I'd like to use bamboo and/or a bamboo blend, to take advantage of its cooling properties. My preference is for a heavier weight yarn, worsted weight or thicker, and for the yarn to be variegated. In other words, a quick knit that doesn't need a complicated stitch pattern to be interesting. I like the look of this tank from Crystal Palace (also in the 2007 Pattern a Day calendar), but not the yarn (it's 100% nylon).


Artfibers has some interesting yarns, but not bamboo. Phyz is a cotton/nylon blend (70% cotton) that knits up at 4 spi on #10 needles, so should be quick.


So I'll be surfing the internet, especially Ravelry, and looking through my knitting books to try to find the perfect ingredients for this sweater. I'm thinking if I find the yarn, then the pattern can be worked out.

Stay tuned!

The Freshmen

Newly minted, freshly graduated, both my kids now qualify as "freshmen". One going off to college, one to high school. It was an amazing weekend - well planned ceremonies, cooperative weather...

I'm so proud!

WWKIP - New York Public Library

It was only for a few minutes, since I was with non-knitting friends. But I was there!

There was knitting done on the train, but not seen by many people. We went into NYC to see this:
Yes, instead of sending DD to college, we're having her bronzed! Her Theater Production class performs as living statues every year, to raise money for Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDs. Every time someone made a donation, the actors changed their pose. They were right in Times Square, and there had to be thousands of people. Then they went out to dinner, saw Mary Poppins, and on Sunday morning attended the dress rehearsal for the Tony Awards.

Rough life, huh?

Montego Bay Scarf

I have a pale pink scarf that I bought years ago. I wear it frequently, and am coming to realize that it may be past its prime. So when I saw the Montego Bay Scarf in the Summer IK, I immediately thought that the replacement was at hand. I found the Hand Maiden Sea Silk in Rose on the Hand Maiden site, then had to look around to find it on line. I found it at Knitty Noddy, and they shipped it right out.

The pattern is very straightforward, and will be a fun and quick knit.

The hardest part was winding the Sea Silk into a ball. We tried it on the ball winder, but it looked kind of messy, so I took it off and tried again. BIG MISTAKE! It instantaneously tangled up, and took me a couple of hours to rewind (by hand) into a ball. It's behaving now, but is quite slippery so be careful.

As for the fleece, it is all dry. DH bought a couple of wire dog brushes to try carding. After an hour, he is ready to buy a drum carder. So we'll have to wait and see what happens next.