How The West Was Spun: Travellin'

January 13, 2011

Travellin'

I don't know about y'all, but I like small, easy to knit projects when I travel. I like to look at the scenery while I knit, and having something you can put down easily and get out at the rest stop and then not lose your place is also a requirement.

D and I decided that we'd like to try to take some relaxing vacations this year. Maybe without the horses even. I have a really limited number of days off per year at my current job (like...15 total - no sick days, no holiday days. If I want a holiday off, I have to use 1 of those 15 PTO days. Eats 'em up quick!). But I think with a little strategic management, we can still get it to work, and so, with that in mind, we decided to get tickets to the Fort Worth Stock Show. If you are gonna go do rodeo, no place to do it like Texas, eh?

So, in the next week or so, we'll be toodle'ing off to go watch some riding and roping and other rodeo-esque type stuff. It is, however, about 11 hours of driving each way. Which translates to knitting time in my world!

The first project I put on the needles with an eye towards a good travel project was a pair of socks. One of my goals for this year is to re-release all of my patterns using shop yarns, and get them re-photographed and set up on Ravelry as pdf downloads. First up on the ticket are my Filey Bay Socks. They fit all the criteria for travel - small/portable and easy. These are a gansey-styled sock with a small cable running down the leg and outside of the foot. I originally knit these up for Terry's alpaca/nylon sock yarn, but they work great with any light fingering-weight yarn. I'm working these up in my Ceridwen Sock yarn in the Waters' Edge colorway.

Then, since I am apparently on a blue kick, and since I have been eyeing the Tidepool Cowl from the December Ennea since Cayli submitted the design idea, I grabbed a skein that I had been sent as a mill sample of 80% superfine merino and 20% cashmere fingering weight. I decided not to order the yarn, as it was pretty pricey, but it's VERY soft and was 220 yards (perfect!), and already dyed in blues.

I am also taking along the beginnings of another design project, so I think with all 3 of those projects, I can likely fill my travel time to and fro.... all 22 hours of it.

All for now....

Jan 13, 2011 1:09:00 AM | Ennea, Knitting Projects, Scarves, Shop Talk, Socks

8 Comments

I have yet to go on a real vacation since maybe the late '90s? Just a few days off at home made the holidays a treat, though. What I'd love is a long train ride: All knitting, no driving!

Enjoy your time and your needles.

Posted by: jessie | January 13, 2011 at 04:13 AM

Fabulous! Have fun, enjoy the show, don't worry about anything and relax as much as you can!

Posted by: margene | January 13, 2011 at 08:34 AM

Oh fun! We went to the San Antonio Stock Show one year and had a blast. My sister lives there, so it was a cheap vacation! Good luck with the reknitting and photographing. That stuff takes so much time. I'm still waaaayy behind on some of that.

Posted by: mary lou | January 13, 2011 at 10:13 AM