Are we there yet?

Finally it’s time to plan our vacation! Woo-hoo! Sun, surf, sand and cerveza's here I come!

Time to get away from the snow, the sleet, the black ice, the alternating freezing winter blast or pelting rain and fog. My children are muttering with frustration that they aren’t coming with us or at least not heading off anywhere warm them selves, and are barely speaking to us. And I do feel a wee bit guilty, but appease that guilt with the knowledge that I come back rested, happy, and more than willing to help them with their various causes, which if I didn’t get away, would most surely not be the case.

I never imagined when I moved here to Ottawa, some 7 plus years ago, that I would need a break so badly each winter the way I seem to now. I have a really hard time imagining not basking for a week at some point each Jan or Feb, in the sun and sand, short reprieve that it is, but blessed, blessed relief from the wickedly and seemingly endless winters we experience each year. 6 weeks from winter’s onset to vacation time, and only about 6 weeks left of winter when we return – psychologically I can do that, count down 6 weeks either way you look at it. But every year I seem to need it more and more. And each year it is a bigger challenge to maximize this relief within our ever-tightening budget, and on a specific time frame.

Still, brief that it is, I am thrilled at the prospect of seeing even a restricted glimpse of other countries, sanitized as the resorts and vacation packages may be, I enjoy every minute getting to know as much as possible about where I am and the people who live there. And as we become more experienced travellers especially on repeat visits, we no longer feel the need to do everything by the book, and have begun to more freely explore local attractions on our own now, take local transportation, and try hard to experience local life a little more inter-actively where ever we may be.

But don’t get me confused with the climbing Mount Everest, or camping in the rain-forest for a month type vacationer. Although I am a excellent traveller, and make the best of all situations, good or bad, and I admire the formerly mentioned adventure travellers, I am still a fair-weather vacationer, meaning I love to visit and experience, but at the end of the day a great hotel, well groomed beach, margarita or mojito in hand, and the sounds of the local band in the backdrop are a critical components for my rest and recuperation plan.

Naturally one of my biggest issues each time we travel is what to take in the way of knitting. It must be interesting enough to keep me, well, interested, but easy enough not to require my full attention all of the time. It must be light and small enough to be carted around with ease. It definitely needs to be airline friendly (knitting on circ’s are good in that regard).

Socks are always good, small and very portable, so this year I will take Sanna’s wonderful sock yarn and the Holiday Gifts 2007 iIsue Citrine pattern from Interweave Knits http://www.interweaveknits.com/holiday/holidaygifts/gifts_preview.asp :

As well, I think the Estonian shawl pattern, again a lovely gift from Sanna, will travel with me as it is also long on knitting time, light weight - being only one skein - and challenging in that I have not done lace before.

I cannot decide if I need one more project, a real no-brainer pattern to take in case my brain, well, goes on vacation completely so I need something with endless garter stitch to amuse the fingers and numb the mind. It’s been known to happen so I must be prepared! I have another shawl

pattern http://www.knitwitts.com/item/Koigu_Wrap/4066/c114 from Koigu that I thought would not be too difficult and might bring it along too - lovely isn’t it! But it’s a lot of KPPPM so I’m looking for a substitute with a better price tag. I’m thinking of this from Yarn Forward:

http://yarnforward.com/ca/arequipa.html Glorious colorway, yes? And I have almost enough in my birthday gift certificate left that it wouldn’t really count as spending to top to what I need!

Oh, I do so love planning for vacations! And yes, I’m completely ignoring the fact that I’m planning to pack more knitting than I could do in a month let alone a week! What’s your point?

Now as if to prove my point, a wicked thunderstorm (yes I know it is winter !) has just arrived. I must sign off or lose this post!

Knit on……