I really can’t believe that I haven’t tackled this problem yet, but the vacation project stress is getting ridiculous. I never have regrets once I get to the destination, so I don’t know why I keep worrying about what to take with me. I think that it might be possible that all of the pre-travel stress / finding dog sitters / handling house prep / finishing up shop tasks/ etc is being displaced onto the knitting. If I just focus on the knitting projects, then everything else will seem much less upsetting. This is probably my mind’s way of preserving my husband and dogs from being slain. Really, it is not my problem if my husband shows up without sunblock or boxers, right?
This year we are returning to Playa del Carmen for a much needed week of rest and relaxation. I think that vacations are really all about recovering from pre-vacation planning and packing. I will need another vacation when I get back to recover from the vacation itself. This time I am traveling with my husband and two close friends (also knitters). The accompaniment of other knitters should make the project packing a bit better, since they will also have supplies, should I find myself without a stitch marker. Right now I have only one project sorted out, my Ravellenic Games project: Reine Cardigan.
I haven’t made much progress since Friday. I have only an inch done, but I imagine that hours on the beach will help that situation, right?
My struggle is whether to take one more project or two more projects and what those projects should be. I really really want more scarves. I don’t actually like knitting scarves, and so I tend to not have many. But I love wearing them. I have lots of triangular shaped scarves but hate wearing them and almost no rectangular / traditional scarves because I find that knitting them is torturous. Same thing over and over and over again. Right now, I have the Liz Abinante’s Traveling Scarf picked out (suitable name, right?), as it has some lace at the start, very little lace after that and then a center portion that is mindless. It seemed like just enough change in stitch patterns to keep me interested, since the majority of the Reine project is pretty boring knitting. I had a skein of Cephalopod Yarns Bugga in my stash that is a fabulous burnt yellowish color. (By the way, we still have some of this at the shop). I think it would make a great accessory color. So this is currently waiting to be put in the suitcase.
Then the other project is a basic sock. I seem to be very good at knitting socks in airports, on airplanes (when I am not knocked out from various medications and beverages), and on the beach. Socks can get dirty, are small and can be thrown in small purses and smuggled into bars and restaurants without husbands noticing. So I feel like I should take a sock project with me. Seems reasonable, right?
The problem is that I don’t imagine that I will knit the scarf if I take the sock, and I think I might regret not having the sock project if I don’t take it. So it is over this incredibly silly thing that I am currently stressed..less than 24 hours from our flight. I am literally to the point of calculating how much knitting time I might have if I don’t read three novels (yeah, I reduced my novel quantity from four to three), and if we spend most of our time just laying around on the beach. (Math, I have resorted to MATH.) If I have 40 plus hours of doing nothing, can I knit a sock, a scarf and a sweater? And then if I take all three projects, I have to wind the yarn for all three. I really don’t want to come back with a wound skein from my stash that I didn’t get knitted while I was gone. So then I started thinking that I could take the small ball winder with me…this is when I realized that my insanity may have reached a new level. Can you imagine my husband’s reaction? He won’t let me block a swatch on an airplane..he certainly isn’t going to be happy about a ball winder being clamped to our beach table.