Distractions

I am officially on vacation! Whew. I have been working at least 45-50 hour weeks for a long time now and I need a break. I am leaving the city to go visit my mom in Saskatchewan for a week. I'll get to see my nephews and nieces. I haven't seen them since Christmas so I'm pretty excited about that. Apparently my nieces have my week planned out for me (swimming! more swimming!!) so it should be fun.

Before I leave, I have some progress to show on the Blue (un-named) project:

I just noticed that my tension was a little wonky up at the top there and has somehow evened out as I got further down. I seem to have difficulty keeping even when working with mercerized cotton. I feel like I need just a little "grab" in the yarn to keep a really even tension. hmm...

Now, before you think I've become a focused, single-project knitter, I'll show you distraction #1:

This is a mesh beach bag out of Bernat Handcrafter cotton. I started to make the Kitchen Sink bag from Knitty but about 2 inches into the body I realized it was turning out much bigger than I wanted. I plan to give this to Niece #1 (sister to the girly-girl) as a very late birthday present (along with a Klutz Origami book!) and didn't want it to be too overly wide. So, I frogged the original and cast on a smaller number of stitches. The original has these really cool basket weave sections that are very sturdy, but I was frustrated to the point of throwing it down in a fit having some difficulties with them so I am just using plain stocking stitch for those sections.

Distraction #2:

I had a sudden urge to do something with some of the beads I've collected. I have no idea if I did this "right", nor do I particularly care! It's exactly what I wanted. I have a feeling this could turn into a new obsession thing...

Distraction #3:
While at Michael's today (distraction in itself) to get some extra origami paper for Niece #1, I wandered to the ever diminishing yarn area. I didn't buy yarn (!!!) but I did notice this on sale for $1 each in the needlework section:

I never did finish the Perdita I started, as I couldn't bring myself to restring the beads onto the second skein. Two 10m skeins for a project requiring at least 20m won't do when there are beads involved (which is the excuse I am sticking with). These are the right length for the project, which should save some tears.

Sigh.

So, now I will go and pack. I've given much more thought to what knitting etc. to bring than to clothes. I plan to be in the town swimming pool at least once a day with the kids and the rest of the time, I'm on vacation! I don't need to worry about what to wear!

See you in a week!