On Wednesday, after I got out of bed at 4am to go to the airport for the of three planes (plus two cars and a ferry) to take me to Port Ludlow (I really need a new travel agent. At present it’s me, and it turns out that consistently the thrifty Stephanie who books the flights has an almost boundless amount of confidence in the Stephanie who has to execute those flights) I stood in my living room drinking a huge cup of coffee and looked at the pile of knitting I’d amassed for the week, and tried to decide what to take and where to pack it.
On the top of the pile was the Tool Box Cowl I’ve been working on – not much left on that I thought, so I moved it to my carry on. I was pretty sure that wasn’t going to be enough – it was more than half finished of course, so I added the Jilly Mittens, though I almost had one of those finished and they’re really fast and… I moved another cowl to my bag. I sipped coffee and surveyed that. Three flights, two short layovers… a car ride on the other end, that should be enough, I thought. I added the yarn and needles for the November Socks to my checked bag – all that, I thought, had to hold me for a week (considering that I was planning on buying more yarn at the marketplace) and two cowls and a pair of mittens would definitely do for the travel day, for sure. I zipped shut my suitcase, moved my carry-on to the door and perched my passport on top, and went to get a bit lot more coffee. While I poured it, I checked the weather – it was fine. It was fine in Toronto, fine in Calgary, fine in Vancouver and fine in Seattle. As I checked for potential delays, I started to imagine more. A cancelled flight? Lost luggage? What if Debbi’s car broke down on the other side, or what if the way we struggle with the Ferry schedule was suddenly insurmountable? What if I have to spend the night in the airport? For what reason I couldn’t imagine, but what if? You can see how this ends, and two minutes later I was frantically winding yarn for another project and stuffing that in my bag too so that if I ended up living in an Airport for days I’d be just fine.
I got on the plane with all this-
Which actually wasn’t enough to manage days in an airport but was about all I could fit in a carry on, and enough that my seat-mate definitely made up his mind about me when I took that picture, and I cemented it when I returned his stare and said, as boldly as I could manage, “I knit.”
I did not spend the night in an airport, and I didn’t finish all that on the way, and it was more than enough for another whole travel day home, which means it was exactly twice what I needed, which seems about right. Details? Glad you asked.
Pattern: Tool Box Cowl. Yarn: Raveling Rose recycled cashmere – 6 mini skeins.
An invented cowl, cast on some and used up all the leftovers from this one. It’s about half the size of the first one, and just right as a cozy little tuck in.
Pattern, Jilly Mitts. Yarn: Jilly and Kiddles Aurora in Raven. (The yarn’s hard to photograph, it’s darker than it looks in those pictures. All the snow outside kept throwing it off. Yeah. Snow. Sigh.)
Pattern: Silhouette and Sky. Yarn: Gauge Dye Works club yarn.
That’s a considerable dent in the WIP pile to be sure, but don’t worry, I have lots more – and another set of flights coming up. I’ll be in Edmonton next week- if you’d care to join me, I’ll be teaching at River City Yarns on the 22nd, 23rd and 24th of November. (I love Cynthia and Barb and their podcast) and here’s a link to the workshops if you want to come. I’d love to see you.