A Slight Change of Plans

Last night I was adding to the Arequipa Adamas shawl, thinking that I should have been giving my attention to the North Roe shawl instead, when I was struck by a sudden doubt. I put it aside and headed for bed -- but I woke up quite certain that what I was pondering was right. I shouldn't be attempting to take North Roe with me to the UK. Don't get me wrong! I love the yarn. I quite like the pattern, but it means that both shawls are involved in a fair number of pattern repeats, which I sometimes find challenging on the lack of stimulation quotient. Soothing knitting is good, sometimes, exactly what I need, but both projects of the same nature???? And then there's the fact that I have to focus more carefully when I'm using the 3/45 - I still haven't completely transitioned to the finer yarn. 2/24, no problem, 2/18 - piece of cake, even if it's alpaca (I started my first lace knitting project using alpaca and found its lack of stretch, and its willingness to think about felting a bit of a challenge!) But I'm in the early stages, having just completed the first repeat of chart 1 of North roe and begun on the shorter repeat, so still a little cautious with the yarn -- if I were interrupted or disrupted, I'm not sure how well I'd do at recovery ....

But even more, I'm knitting it on 3.25 mm needles, right now using my Knit Picks 16" circ, waiting to shift to my Addi lace which is longer. BUT, Heathrow doesn't like knitting needles in unchecked baggage. Sometimes they make a fuss and sometimes they don't. Obviously, I wouldn't want to risk having the needle removed from my shawl - even with a lifeline in place. And I don't have any interchangeable needles that are smaller than 3.5 mm, so I don't have any options - well perhaps if I had a bamboo circ .... Then I thought about putting this fine piece of art in my checked bag and risking them losing my luggage. I know, I know, it isn't likely to happen, but think about it -- if you'd been working on a pretty project that was the finest yarn weight you'd worked on to date -- would you want to risk losing it????? So I decided that it will stay home -- at least until my August trip .... Which meant that I needed a second travel project.

Don't you just love my logic? But what could be worse than having nothing to knit????? Even if I don't manage to do any knitting at all during the month of July, the thought of not being able to fills me with horror. Soooooo .... has to be a project on "normal" lace weight, yarn has to be in my stash (not a lot of choices in the Windsor/Essex area if I had to go shopping), and has to be enough of a challenge that I will be delighted if I make any progress, and has to not just be a "repeat this chart 4 times or 14 times or .... you understand.

The yarn???? Knit Picks Shadow in Vineyard Heather. I have 5 skeins (2200 yards) in my stash and I used 4.00 mm needles to knit with the Jewels Heather. The project???? I went to Ravelry and searched to see what other Ravelers had made with theirs, limiting the search to Shawls/Wraps and found Monika Eckert's Christmas mystery shawl, which I had thought I'd knit on my winter holiday in the DR, but which was swapped out for Scheherazade at the last minute as a gift for a friend. I even have the charts - yes, charts, lots and lots of charts, printed off and ready to be put in a protective sleeve ... There are 13 Clues, and edging charts for the last 6 clues in case you want/need to stop. I'm thinking that I have enough yarn to do all 13 clues. I am not thinking that this will get done during the month of July -- but the Denise needles come in the right size for this, as do KP options, so I'll knit on the needle that is appropriate for the timing (Denise for flying, KP when I'm relatively stationary.)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a project that needs to be cast on!