Making a list, checking it twice

Our flight to Boston is tomorrow morning, so the weekend was spent cleaning the house (there's no good reason to leave ourselves a messy house to come back to!), endlessly listing off the things we need to do before we go, the things we can't forget to bring, etc. I think we now have all of the gifts and most of our clothes for the trip piled up on the bed, waiting to be stuffed into a suitcase (or probably two) tonight. All of this means that I haven't done much knitting lately.

Still, the packing isn't the only reason that my needles have been idle. Every once in a while I finish a project faster than I expect, or end up deciding not to do the next thing on the list. This always leaves me at loose ends, sort of wondering what's next and where my momentum has gone. So, this weekend I took a knitting vacation and regrouped. I have lots of things lined up that I want to do after the holidays, but for now I need travel knitting. I have the sideways cable sweater, which is nice and mindless stockinette at this point, but sweaters are bulky and don't make good take-along knitting. Then there's Irtfa'a, but I am still savoring the anticipation, and starting a challenging lace project on the go is just not a good idea. I will be taking Branden's alpaca scarf to match his handwarmers. I worked on that a bit over the weekend while mulling, and it's probably about 1/3 done now. Other than that, I don't really have anything lined up at the moment. I know that many people have UFO's hanging around all the time, but I'm not one of them. I tend to keep just a few projects going and finish them before moving on. I've tried starting several at once, but I never manage to start more at the same rate that I finish, and so I quickly return to just one project at a time. I cast on for Branden's socks last night (he gets a pair out of the holiday knit shopping). I'm thinking we'll do the spiraling coriolis on this pair, since I didn't get to try it on the toe socks. So, one scarf and one pair of socks on the needles. I think I'll probably bring the other sock yarn along, too, since I'll have the book and a lot of time. And I guess that's it. Should be enough for a week, right?

I'm assuming that blogging will continue as usual during the trip home. I think we should have internet, so it should be easy to keep up. If not, happy holidays, and I'll see you when we get back on the 25th!