Triage Help Needed

It's never the case that I don't want to go on vacation (if I didn't have a job but did have an income, I'd always be somewhere else), it's just that any vacation, no matter how well planned, nor how far in advance, is somehow always in the middle of a gazillion things that need to get done first.

Class proposals are due.

I got stuck with this thing. I need thinner thread, thinner needles (but not bendier) and bigger bead holes because the thread is stuck there, and if it tries to go anywhere, beads will break.

I think this won't be among the proposed classes.

For some reason, it was vitally important not only that I list in my Etsy shop the instructions for the class I taught last Tuesday, but also a kit.

Not done yet, but I did list this necklace.

Apart from practising packing, there's been frenzied movement on the knitted items for the nieces and nephews.

Some things are finished.

Some things are in the frantic stage.

And some things are still balls of yarn (for my niece's shrug; not pictured).

The big thing about travel of course is What To Knit.

Clearly I'll be knitting my niece's shrug on the way there (the blue sweater WILL have sleeves), I'll be knitting a gift for my cat-sitter while I'm there, but it has to be finished before I set off for home, because there's no ways I'll be able to smuggle metal sock needles on the plane, and wooden or bamboo size oughts will just splinter in my death grip. Or bend a lot. Too much.

What I need is something that can be knitted in small pieces using wooden (or bamboo or plastic) double-points because they're not a lot different from pens in size and shape on the X-ray machine, but the yarns that I wanted to use for the thing that I want to knit wasn't the right number of colours (more than one), so I had to do some dyeing in enough time for it to dry properly so that I can wind centre pull balls here at home where where I have my fibre technology toys.

I wasn't quite sure how I made the original sample for one of the classes I'm planning on teaching in the coming months, so I had to make a couple (before leaving on vacation, you understand), just to be sure I could write instructions for it.

These beaded beads make pretty decent earrings.

My first try (I wasn't paying the right kind of attention) was pretty but not the same thing at all.

However I thought it looked lovely with this chain, so it's in my Etsy shop.

Am I nuts? I listed more things this weekend than in any other two-day period that I can remember, perhaps apart from when I listed left-over kits after Puget Sound.

I still haven't packed the kumihimo project (just in case I can't knit on the flight. It could happen), and spent a good half an hour trying to figure out just where I could have put my bobbins (I have only one set).

My Bathroom Saga of Leak is over, finally, so I won't be wondering if I'll be coming home to a flooded basement, though I guess that could still happen anyway. There's always Weather.

My Nook is loaded (I have over sixty books, which should be enough, even if half of them are awful, which is unlikely since all are by authors that I like. I also have a couple of documents describing what I plan to knit, and how, should I become so overwhelmed by being in the bosom of my family that all thoughts of knitting flee my conscious mind. It could happen. Never has, but anything's possible).

I still have to take care of bills. That's always so much fun. Every time I travel I'm convinced that there was something Very Important that completely slipped my mind, but this time I'm sure I'll forget to pay my mortgage or something, and then we'll come back to a house that belongs to the bank.

Online bill-pay. Peace of mind.

I think I should buy new underwear, just in case no one has a working washing machine and I feel too delicate or mellow to bother with hand-washing. Lunch-hour is best for such onerous errands because after work everyone else thinks that shopping is a good idea, which makes it of course less of a good idea unless you like crowds and no parking within walking distance which I don't, but there are team Holiday Lunches and the like, so errand-based available lunch-hours are at a premium.

I did find the time to get a massage though, Apparently I'm occasionally capable of prioritizing. Still need to get on those blue sleeves though.