What to bring to Africa?

Today I went running around town doing errands. You know, all those millions of "last-minute" things to do that are floating around your brain. I always do this when I travel. I stress out with all the things I have yet to do-at the last minute! Everytime I do this I SWEAR I WON'T DO THIS THE NEXT TIME! I say to self "next time I'll be completely ready two weeks before so I won't have to deal with all this last minute stuff". Did I do it this time? Absolutely not.

There are always two things that give me the most grief about trip prep. What clothes to wear and what knitting project(s) to bring.

Ok I must admit that the clothes thing in the past two trips have been an eye opening, waist expanding endeavor! For work I wear a lot of Eileen Fisher clothes which has a lot of "wiggle room". When I say wiggle room I almost certain I mean...I have a lot more to wiggle and jiggle! So it is harder to notice that I have put on more than a couple pounds the last 6 months. I've been having to do a fair bit of shopping because the casual stuff I already have is just a bit too snug! Plus, this is vacation and I want to be COMFORTABLE! Can you say drawstring waisted pants and shorts? Also forget the form fitting, snug shirts. I want a fair bit of room (so you can't see my newly developed rolls of extra padding and insulation!)

Enough about that. Now on to something FUN!

I went to Village Yarn and Tea http://www.villageyarnandtea.com/ and bought some patterns, a book by Sandi Rosner and one(yes, just one) skein of yarn. Oh! And two circular needles. My dilemma on knitting needles. I have literally thousands of dollars invested in knitting needles. Casein, hardwood, bamboo, Addi-turbos, blah blah blah.

I knit socks sometimes with double points, sometimes with two circular. For travel I like using two circular. I don't have to think about the yarn coming off the needles.

I had bought, at one time, a lot of sets of two circular in sizes 0, 1 and 2 when the new technique came out to use two circulars for socks. Since I knit loosly I usually need size 0 or 1. The ones I'm using for my Jaywalker/Vesper Yarn socks are 2.25 mm-I don't remember the brand - I think they are German. The only problem is that the tip is very pointy and hurts my finger! I don't like it AT ALL. So...I go to Village Yarn and Tea in Shoreline where I have a huge credit for not taking a design class(had to cancel thanks to work!). I want some Addi-Turbos's in 0 and 1, 24" length. They didn't have two in the length I wanted in the size I needed so I thought I'll try a smaller length. Nope. Didn't like it at all. The bad thing with not following the instinct is when I don't follow mine it bites me in the butt. Yep. I wasted $26 because I don't like this length. I should have just waited. That means another trip to another yarn store. Hhhmmmmnnnn...maybe that mistake wasn't so bad after all!

I was also tempted by some Alchemy silk yarn. Can you believe I walked into a yarn store and just bought one skein of yarn? This is what I'm going to knit called Dream Swatch by Wendy Bernard http://www.knitandtonic.typepad.com/dreamswatchwrap.pdfp:// I'm definitely taking that with me.