Vacation Knitting Project Selection
I am usually putting aside “want to” knitting weeks before I go on vacation. This allows me to think about projects I want to do, but not actually spend time working on them when I have other pressing things to do. This is different from taking along projects I want to finish, make progress on, or have been working on. Why? Because I never seem to want to do any of that stuff when I’m on vacation. I usually want to start something new, or swatch new yarn, or do anything but what I’ve been doing. To that end, it is necessary to do a little research and planning to end up wit the “right” knitting on vacation. Even with planning and research, you may be sure that I will bring an excessive amount of vacation knitting with me, and that I will knit much less than I thought or planned to.
Although I do tend to plan for this sort of thing–being on vacation or in some other setting where I will want to knit–it is hard to know what I will actually want to knit when I arrive at my alternate destination. That is why I indulge myself by filling my bags with more yarn than I could possibly consume during the time frame I’m looking at. I love my Addi Interchangeables for this purpose, but wish I had them in smaller sizes. Mitch is well trained and knows how momentarily(?) crabby I become when I don’t have the right knitting, so he always inquires to make sure I have my knitting and never complains or makes comments about the excessive amount of knitting I travel with.
The problem I had on our week in Puerto Vallarta, beyond the problem of it being hot and humid, was that it was a vacation, and my real agenda items were to read more books and honor the siesta tradition. I got so swept away in my reading that I never picked up my knitting. None of the eight balls of yarn I had brought to play with got touched. I wasn’t even able to get myself interested in them. I also blame this on the fact that I only brought work knitting. Nothing new or fun. I thought it would be sufficient that it was swatching, in new yarns, but it wasn’t new stitch patterns, so maybe that was the problem.
Vacation Knitting, Part Two
We are now enjoying another week of vacation, in another location. We came home from PV to see some dear friends married. They had wisely sent a save the date card in May or June, so they were plugged into our scheduling. Shortly after they gave us the date they would be married, some other special friends decided to tie the knot and set a date. So we came home for a week to witness these two marriages. This second part is a drive away vacation and a little less leisurely (Mitch is fielding phone calls and I’m doing some work), so I’m hoping to get my head around some more productive knitting. We finished our first jigsaw puzzle and Mitch says we can’t start the other one for 24 hours (I get obsessed; we need the table for picking crab tonight). There is an inviting window seat, plenty of pillows, and a view of the ocean, so maybe I should quit this and knit.
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