The heavy bag that goes with me*

How much do you need to take when going to stay at your boyfriend's parents' for two nights?

Why, this much, of course!


(Clockwise, L-R): swatching for sister's Treeless Apocalypse Hoodie; blocked but unmeasured swatches for Phildar cardie (I forgot to take the print-out of French knitting terms on holiday with me so that didn't get very far) plus more yarn and needles for further swatching/beginning the cardigan; kitchen foil inner-tube for winding green Koigu onto; plastic drinking straw for cutting into stitch markers; green Koigu for Embossed Leaves socks; swatches of variegated Koigu, only some of which have been measured; IK and Tendances with patterns for Embossed Leaves and Phildar cardie; Rang, Dale and Ritter; knitting notebook for writing gauge notes into when they're eventually taken.
(Not included: clothes, toiletries, novel, camera)

After your advice and encouragement (thank you!) I'm not going to start the leafy socks just yet, but when I get home will face my little red sock with renewed hope and enthusiasm and a smaller needle. This may also be the last gasp for the Phildar cardigan. I've been trying to knit this since buying the yarn over a year ago, and something never seems quite right. Maybe it's the gauge (although I hope not, because there are a million things with yarn knit at a looser gauge than that specified on the ball band which I want to knit), or maybe just the yarn and the pattern together that I don't like. We'll see.

This is only the upper layer of WISs in my work basket. That's works in stasis, if you're wondering.


*With apologies to Delmore Schwartz