This is just a quickie.  I’m changing planes in Vancouver, with one more flight to go before I arrive in Seattle, meet up with Debbi (and a surprise) and then we’re off to Port Ludlow for the Lace Retreat that starts tomorrow night. I’m a little nervous, but mostly very excited. Planning these is no small amount of work, and I’m so looking forward to watching it all come together.  (This assumes that it is going to come together, but I think it would take something nobody could plan for to derail us at this point. I’ve got contingency plans for my contingency plans. It would have to be something like a herd of bison stampeding through the classrooms, although honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Debbi had an electric stock prod in her trunk – just in case.)   I’ve planned this thing to pieces, I think Debbi’s worried just as much, and last night I packed and got ready in general – and then lay down in bed and realized, just as I was dropping off, that I hadn’t planned my knitting.

I suppose that if something had to fall off the scale, the knitting is a good one, since I’ve got lots of knitting stuff to sort it out with, so I reached over, set my alarm 15 minutes earlier, and resolved to get it together in the morning while I drank coffee.  

In the morning, I realized that I should be referring to that moment as "mistake number one" because a) I cannot make a single decision in the morning before I’ve had a cup of coffee, and b) 5am is not morning, it’s still night, and c) I’ve never made a decision about what I’d like to knit in 15 minutes or less. Never, and that’s even when fully caffeinated and the sun is up.  I ended up largely panicking, throwing kits and needles and yarn into my suitcase, operating on the premise that if I took a lot, I’d at least have choices I could make at Port Ludlow.  (We will see later if the needles go with the yarn or if it was all way, way too random.)  Better too much than too little, I thought.

I stuffed it all in the suitcase, then added a skein of sock yarn as insurance (never mind that we’re having that awesome Community Market at the Resort Saturday and that there will be yarn there) and then tossed my current project into a bag, and tossed it in my carry-on – noticed that I was almost out of yarn, tossed in another ball and jumped in a cab.

Just now, I took out my pattern, patted myself on the back for remembering to bring it, and promptly realized as I read my next steps, that I have brought the wrong yarn, and this project is now luggage.  When this ball is finished, I’ll have to stop.
Stop, and think about how next time, it would be a great idea to plan this sooner.  In the meantime, I’m knitting slowly until I get my luggage back.