It’s that time of year again – summer holidays have begun and we have made the trek south to visit family and friends.
Leaving home is probably the hardest part of taking a holiday. Especially when you’re leaving home behind for more than a week. Some dilemmas:
The packing dilemma. Not just what clothes to take – I’ve become a very efficient packer over the years, especially once I realised packing a good outfit in case my husband saw fit to take me out for a nice dinner was just silly given all the travel my nice outfits got, in comparison to how much they got worn. My biggest packing dilemma was the knitting one. How much yarn to take, *what* yarn to take, which patterns to pack, what *will* I feel like knitting during our stay and so on.
So, I have packed my Whisper Cardigan and then realised I forgot the second ball of yarn, so there isn’t too much more to be done on that these holidays. And I packed my Cotton Fleece, some for the girls and some for me, project as yet undecided. *And* I went pattern-less – yay for Ravelry’s Library function – it means I can access any paid patterns I’ve purchased from wherever I am. Just as well really as my printer spat the dummy last week. I think it is on a permanent vacation. Hmph. And I packed the two unfinished Christmas projects destined to go under trees close to me. One was a single sock and the rest of the ball of yarn, with the pattern lost. Thankfully the pattern writer emailed me a new copy of it – bless you my friend! So that sock has been flying off the needles today in my quiet moments. Which there are so many more of when there are four adults to share the care of the three kids!
One other project I bought with me is a pattern I am writing and testing at the moment – I’ve a couple of testers lined up, but if anyone is keen to try a baby and toddler sock pattern, feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll contact you. I’ve got two sizes, one for babies, the other to suit older toddlers, and I am looking at sizing up a third size for slightly bigger feet too. It’s a lacy pattern more suited to girls. But I am working on a unisex pattern as well, so boys’ mamas will be catered for in the new year too.
But back to the dilemmas
The garden dilemma. It is so hard to leave behind a newly thriving vegetable garden when you go away! We planned our trip to leave 2 -3 weeks earlier than usual, so hopefully the garden will be in full swing when we return. I spent a good few hours in the flower garden spraying, weeding and trimming the week before we left, as well as stakeing out the vege garden as well as I could. Where we live we can get a lot of rain, which tomatoes hate, and it results in blight. Hopefully I’ll avoid it this year and the wee yellow flowers on the plant now will be yummy ripe tomatoes by our return. Our blackberry was in flower with wee fruit starting to form as well, so I will be keen to see what this looks like on our return.
The toy dilemma – it’s very difficult to justify packing *any* toys when you know there’s a whole suitcase of presents packed already. Luckily Mum came over with a box of stuff yesterday so the girls have been very well amused between that, the little things we brought with us, and the paddling pool.
I think those are the biggest dilemmas. The best bits of travelling for Christmas has been that (aside from the knitted gifts to finish) I have a smooth run up to the big day – our presents are all wrapped and labelled, tree and stocking ready, the travel has been accomplished before the big rush, and here we are all relaxed and ready to enjoy this special time with family and friends.
Oh, except I appear to have forgotten to pack the Christmas stockings. I wonder if that means Santa doesn’t know where to find us this year?