So, we are now T minus two weeks to the China trip, which means that it’s time to start getting ready. Since I already have a full set of travel clothes (except for heavier clothing which I can pack pretty quickly/easily), a travel pack, etc. (not to mention being vaccinated for everything under the sun), it’s time to turn to the most important part of the entire planning experience: choosing a craft project to take with me.
Weaving, alas, is not a portable craft. Even the smallest loom available, the Ashford Knitter’s Loom, is not really compatible with backpack living. So it’s back to knitting, which you can do with two sticks and a string. The challenge is to find something that is interesting enough to keep my interest for more than five minutes, yet not too complex to knit on a plane or in a bus, and short enough that I can finish it in two and a half weeks of off-and-on knitting. I think that either means several pairs of socks, or a lace stole. At the moment I’m leaning towards the stole, specifically the Leda’s Dream pattern from Pink Lemon Twist. I don’t know if I’ll be able to finish it in the time allotted, but you never know. I might also make up my own pattern, or use Sharon Miller’s Unst Lace Stole, heavily adapted to give me a hope of finishing in time. (If you have suggestions for quick and interesting patterns, please let me know!)
On other topics, I have finished beaming on 13-14 yards of 5/2 cotton, and will be threading up Lady Di for placemats this week. Sadly, there is no weekend this weekend, because I’m working both days, but perhaps I can get something done in the precious time between work and sleep.
I don’t remember if I mentioned it earlier, but I have also dyed the first bout of linen yarn for the placemats, a nice straw color. The dye “took” somewhat unevenly (perhaps because I didn’t rinse it out thoroughly enough at first) but as it’s meant to be a “natural”-looking color, the unevenness shouldn’t be too bad. I will have to work on my dye techniques, though.
There’s a cat on Leda’s stole. Of course there would be a cat on something that took you the better part of a hundred hours to make, what was I thinking…