What to bring…?

I’ve been casting about for a small fiber arts project to bring with me–not because I plan to do any fiber arts stuff while on the Ride (it’s far more fun to hang out with people, not to mention being on the road 11 hours a day), but because if something happens and I get incapacitated, I’ll need something to do. This happened to me on AIDS Lifecycle 1 — I had microtears in my left calf that froze up my Achilles tendon–and boy, was I glad I brought my knitting!

On the other hand, I have virtually no storage space to bring things along. There’s no room in my bike bag, and I’m very reluctant to add weight to my Camelbak because a weighty pack will give me back problems. Even a ball of sock yarn is too big.

So I think I’m going to bring my Golding spindle, a tiny packet of silk top, and perhaps one size 3 circular needle. Not enough to do anything “real”, but it will give me something to do if I injure myself to the point where I can’t help out with other volunteer work.

When I travel in early spring next year, I think I will probably take the Golding spindle and some silk roving with me again. Silk travels well. There’s no WAY I could shove a packet of wool roving into my Camelbak, bike 585 miles, and still have anything usable at the end, but silk is much more forgiving. Which is, of course, why I took it on my SE Asia trip. I look forward to bringing it along to India and Nepal.

Meanwhile, I am debating over whether to bring my laptop. Upside: I can write my blog while the memory is still fresh. Downside: have to drag it along, and worry about whether it gets damaged, and may or may not have time/inclination to write. I’m leaning towards bringing my old, beat-up laptop from SE Asia–it’s slow as molasses, but it’s expendable and relatively light–probably about 4 pounds at most.

Oh, decisions, decisions.

No progress on either top: B. and Nyondo and I went out to dinner last night, and B. is here through Saturday night, so I’ll be staying enjoyably busy with him instead. 🙂