Wordless: While the sun shines

Wordless Sunday- Making hay while the sun shines

Wordless Making Hay While The Sun Shines

 

Farm Boys, and The Essentials

You can take the boy off of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the boy. My husband looks forward to mowing our hay every year (we give it to a friend with a real farm). When he started mowing our 4 acres, the sky was blue, with light clouds. An hour later, things were a little iffy, and before the sicle mower broke down, it was flashing and booming and raining. Check out those nasty clouds. We've gotten another inch of rain since then (not a good thing- they don't say make hay while the sun shines for nothing), but they should still be able to turn, dry and bale it.

In prep for our vacation (we're leaving in a few days, I'll blog from the road), I have been cleaning. I tackled the space next to my knitting chair yesterday (of course I have a knitting chair. Doesn't everyone?). Tucked back into that little area, were 6 big bags of yarn, patterns, needles, and forgotten WIPs. I managed to condense the mess into 1 cloth bag with 2 drop spindles and fiber, 2 empty cloth bags, and 1 large plastic bag (the huge ones) with: a baggie of Twisted Fiber Arts Playful leftover bits (for future mitered socks), a baggie of Twisted Fiber Arts Kabam leftover bits (ditto), a baggie of Twisted Fiber Arts Arial samples, a baggie of assorted superwash sock leftover bits, a baggie of assorted non-washable sock leftover bits, a baggie of assorted worsted weight leftover bits, a couple of patterns, and lots of empty baggies. I put away probably 200 knitting needles, and threw away (!) some small leftover balls that I will never use.

I also put together my Essential Needle Kit for the road. It has one each of the following: 16" size 2 circular, 16" size 3 circular, 16" size 5 circular (for hats, if the urge hits), 10" straights in size 2, 3 and 5 (for mitered squares), and 8" Size 13 straights (in case I feel like knitting a quickie scarf. What? It could happen), and Size 5 and 8 dpns (for worsted weight socks and mittens). Multiple sock size dpns (size 0-3), stitch markers, safety pins, a cable needle, scissors, 6" ruler, airplane-safe yarn cutter, a couple of crochet hooks, a pen and tablet. That should cover everything I might possibly want to knit on the road.

I also gathered my Road Yarn: enough for 5 pairs of socks (not counting the Plymouth Happy Feet sock currently on the needles): Decadent Fibers Savory Socks in Sage, Koigu, Socks that Rock Lightweight, Angora Valley Fibers Monarch Fly, and 2 balls of discontinued Mexiko (I bought a whole bag years ago, and have just a couple left). I am really going to try not to buy (much) new yarn on the family portion of the vacation because I will be back in Portland in August, and I know I'll buy some (!!!!!) sock yarn at The Summit. If I knit all 5 pairs on the Road Trip, I can make a really pretty pair of mitered socks from the leftover Savory, Koigu, Monarch and STR.

What's in your Essential Needle Kit?