Traveling

I don’t know why this is, but whenever I travel I always get anxious about what knitting I am going to take with me. Does anyone else do this? Perhaps it is a cover for the fact that I am an anxious traveler. I don’t mind the waiting; I don’t even mind the lines. But I hate flying so much. The slightest bit of turbulence and I freak out. If God wanted us to fly, she would have given us wings.

Normally I say socks are the perfect traveling project, their small (so easy to pack), sock yarn seems to go further than other weights, many sock patterns are easy to memorize and really who couldn’t use another pair of socks. But, I have been knitting a lot of socks lately. And I think I am ready for a break.

But now is the question what should I take. I have been going back and forth about this a lot the past few days. Yes, socks would be easy. I do have a few pairs I could make as gifts, even a few pair I could make for myself. But on the other hand, I haven’t made a sweater in a long time. To be honest, it’s more like I haven’t finished a sweater in a long time. I currently have a top down sweater on the needles, but it is so big, that it would take up most of my suitcase. And there isn’t that much left to do on it, just the sleeves. So that is out. (Let’s not talk about the other sweater I was making, I pinned together the other day – not good.) I have been lusting over the Tea Leaves Cardigan and I have some Road to China Light that I can make work for it. Or I can go back to my Rosamund’s Cardigan in (now :-( discontinued Gobi) that I started earlier in the fall. Although I know it is too big for me, I wish I had someone else to look at it for me, before I recast-on. The other choice is the Vine Lace Cardigan. I love this pattern. I have some Malabrigo from a couple of years ago that would work nicely. Too many choices.

I also haven’t swatched for anything (although I guess I can use the Rosamund that I already started as a “swatch”.) But, what if I bring the wrong needles with me? What if I start something and I don’t like the yarn I am working with? What if I don’t bring enough yarn with me? What then?

My back-up plan is socks. But I really don’t want to make any more right now. Any thoughts? Quickly? Did I mention my flight is tomorrow morning?

Goal Reached!

I want to thank everyone who helped me reach my goal. I collected 139 hats, 10 scarves, 1 pair of fingerless gloves and even 1 sweater. I want to give a big shot out to everyone who donated (for ease, only Ravelry links are given) Mary, Heather, Kara, Johanna, Joelle, Benita, Alyssa, Carlee, Joyce, Amie, Betty, Kathryn, Susie, Kathy, Sue and anyone else who either I forgot or didn’t leave your name with hats. If I have forgotten you, please email me so I can add you to this wonder list of people.

This is what our efforts look like:





When I spoke with the woman at New York Cares, she was really impressed. When I told her I had 133 hats (that was my count at the time) she got really excited. She said she thought I might have 5 or 6, maybe 10 at the most. It feels really good to know that I have done something to make someone’s day a little better.

If you still have hats for me, don’t worry. I am going to do this again next year. So hold onto those hats. I think since I achieved my goal of 100 from July to Thanksgiving and I will be starting in January my goal will be 200. Now I just need to figure out a better way to store them. Have I mentioned I live in a studio?