Travel Knitting

I got lucky and found some affordable tickets to fly out to Oregon with my youngest son and visit my parents!  Yay!!!  I was searching online on Friday, and found the tickets for Monday (yes, this coming Monday, July 4th!) and grabbed them.  They were half the price of the least expensive tickets I had seen recently (yes, I had waited too long to make my travel arrangements and the prices had all gone up and up and up!) so I had to take them before the fare disappeared.

Now I'm starting to pack, and, of course, the most important choice I have to make in my packing is what knitting project I want to bring. I'm currently working on a sweater for ME(!!!) that is small enough to bring along on the plane.  It's a top-down raglan cardigan in a cotton blend yarn. I've been trying to knit down the stash and this project uses yarn that I bought over 10 years ago - yay!

This is called the Weekend Retreat Cardi and it's a free pattern that I downloaded from Lion Brand Yarn's website.  Here's the url if you're interested---it's a quick and easy knit--- http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/81016AD.html?noImages=  and you'll probably have to create an account and log in to get the pattern. I'll try to put it up on my ravelry page too.

This pattern has short sleeves but I'm thinking that I'll knit them to 3/4 length if I have enough yarn.  I'm also thinking that I should have put in some short rows in the back neck.  I've already knitted down to several inches below the underarms, and I can probably put some short rows in here, before I knit the bottom ribbing. Hopefully that will be enough. I really hate it when my sweaters ride up in the back.

Of course, the decision to bring this project along is a no-brainer, but I'm close enough to finishing, and I'll be away for a week, so I'm thinking that I need a second project (which just about guarantees that I won't get to it).  I'm debating between the second of a pair of socks, or starting a new vest pattern.  I would have to wind the yarn into balls if I bring the vest, but starting a new project is so much more exciting than working on a pair of socks that I'm tired of.  I really should bring the socks, but I'll probably be bad and take the vest.