Carry On

Thanks for all the well wishes for the trip! Don't worry - we have enough memory cards for over 4,000 pictures! There will be plenty to see when I get back!

The packing for the trip iteslf was, like I mentioned before, pretty easy. I've been breaking in my new hiking boots this week (so comfy!) and all our clothes and toiletries are ready to go. Now for the hard part.

What do I bring to knit???

The flight is about 13 hours total give or take, including layovers. That is a lot of knitting time! I don't want to bring too much, plus I'm planning on bringing a book or two also to give my hands a rest. I'm looking at this as a chance to finish all my UFO's and clear out to start fresh for the new year.

The candidates:

1. Sock Hop Sock - simple stockinette sock with half of the pair complete. Not the most exciting knit, but the yarn makes it all worth it. Bonus feature: if I finish them on the ride down, I can wear them hiking!

2. Turret Sock - long (very very long) languishing in the UFO pile. These are for my sister, and I have one complete and about 3/4 of the leg of the second. It's just a point of sitting down and finishing them! The first one fits her perfectly, so I hope I wrote good notes! Bonus feature: this is my oldest UFO and will free up my guilt for not having it done sooner so I can start a new pair of colorwork socks!

3. Yoke Sweater - the sweater itself is getting a bit big to be portable (I'm almost at the chest) and I know I will have to get the sleeves done before I can do any yoking of any kind (which will also mean I have to decide on colors and a pattern!). Sleeves - much more portable. So, I cast on for sleeve #1.

The cuff and little bit above are still a mystery. I'm not sure what pattern, or what colors, but I do want a bit of color on the bottom of the sleeves, much like Jess did. So, I did another provisional cast on and knit from a little above the cuff up. I'll do the rest later when I make some kind of decision. Bonus feature: not much, I just need to get the sleeves done!

4. Scuba Gloves - These are for hubby for under his drysuit. He wears his handknit socks now under it and loves how warm they keep his feet, and how dry they stay. Ahhh, the powers of wool! My plan for these is to use a basic glove pattern then put on the scuba flag afterwards with duplicate stitch on the back of the hand. Having never done duplicate stitch before, does this sound workable? I didn't want any seams on the back of the gloves to drive him crazy as there will be another set of gloves over these creating pressure. Bonus feature: hubby will have them for his next scuba adventure.

So, that is the list for now. Enough? Not enough? I do want to get things completed. Starting a few new things did cross my mind, but being the type of knitter who really never has UFO's, the few I do have are driving me crazy. Plus, my ipod with a bunch of knit podcasts and music will be coming along for the ride.

For a festive closing, I want to wish everyone a very, very happy holiday. Here are a couple of shots from my parent's backyard this weekend. They got some great "tree sticking" snow. (now, everything is bare again - we got torrential rains all night last night!)