Monday, March 29, 2010

One more sleep and I'm off!

I am so excited I can hardly sit still and type. I have most of my packing done, so I am wearing things that won't be travelling. I am up to 9 kg in my suitcase, but that's OK until we get to Glasgow, and I can leave some of the things there, to lighten the load. I'm actually grateful to Ryanair for the restrictions, because they're forcing us to pack light - very light.
I have been trying to finish off the Swallowtail shawl, mainly so that I can use the needles on my 'travelling' shawl, which will be Icarus. However, Swallowtail has been giving me grief! I ran out of yarn in the second-last chart, and, because people on Ravelry mentioned that the *nupps* take up so much yarn, I frogged back the two nupp charts and knit them again, subbing beads for the nupps. And now, I'm in the first row of the edge chart and I'm going to run out of yarn AND beads, and I just discovered that I've lined up the two patterns wrongly - I was going up when I should have been going down. Grrr. I have a skein of Elann Kydd silk in ALMOST the same colour, and so this Swallowtail is going to have a slightly fuzzy edge - and possibly no beads.
Because we have the whole day in Toronto on Wednesday, I'm planning a trip down Queen St. West to Romni Wools and Arton beads. Luckily sock and laceweight yarns don't take up much room, and neither do beads. And they can be left in Glasgow too. I am glad for the 30% expansion zip on my carefully measured and weighed "carry-on" bag, which will come in handy on the way back.
Luckily for us, Glasgow is open on "Good" Friday, so I have a few yarn shops to see on my list - one that carries Knit Pro needles, which is the European equivalent of Knit Picks, or so I am reliably informed. I have a little list!
We have some local guides laid on for the Cork portion of the trip - we'll meet Bert and Annie in Cork City on Sunday the 11th and then they have a tour planned to Mizen Head on Tuesday, and a music session afterwards. And then dance class on Wednesday night in Skibbereen. They will be sick of the very sight of us.
Off I go!

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