Sunday, April 3, 2011

Extreme vacation knitting

A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?  -- Robert Browning
Ordinarily I knit in a semi-logical, semi-methodical, semi-monogamous way.  I start one project at a time (well, one big project and a few small ones) and knit on it more or less steadily until it is finished.  I take photos of it, post about it on Ravelry, enjoy the adrenoline rush of finishing something, show it off to friends at knit night.

But when I'm packing for a vacation, my optimism knows no bounds.  I don't want to take along the old projects that are nearly finished because they would take up room that could be devoted to the almost infinite variety of possible new projects.  But you never know.  Vacation time might give me enough time to finish two or even three small projects and make substantial headway on a big one.  So I overpack my knitting.  On the long days in the car I knit until my hands and wrists ache.  I don't come anywhere close to finishing a cardigan in a few days, but it's fun trying.

This trip, so far, I have cranked out about 4 inches on the sleeves of the Green Mountain Gardens cardigan.  And about 4 pattern repeats of the Persephone shawl.  I swatched and began a new cardigan out of my 3-ply shetland handspun using another Green Mountain pattern, On Your Toes Sweater.  (Yes, I like cardigans, although I'm slightly less inclined to knit on them in Arizona than in Washington.)  I also brought homespun yarn for another shawl, Pimpelliese, but haven't cast that one on yet.  Oh yes, and the socks I threw in that just have the toes done so far.  I'm not feeling very inspired to work on socks right now, but you never know.  And some more spinning on the Kuchulu for if I get tired of knitting.  Tired of knitting?  How could that happen?

Pictures, of course, will have to wait until we get back to the normal routine and the home computer.

No comments: