Well, I've finally decided on the projects for the trip. Not taking the World of Knitted Toys book. Not taking a shawl.
 
Instead, I'm going to have UFO blowout. I'm going to take all the projects I have going (well, except for one long-stalled sock and an afghan that may never again see the light of day) and try to finish them up. I have three scarves (the DNA helix scarf, the crocheted "Open Season" scarf, and the simple moss stitch Artful Yarns scarf) in various stages of completion. I think the crocheted one can be done with an hour or less of work, the DNA scarf four to six hours, the Artful Yarns one longer.
 
I've got three pairs of socks in progress: the Broadripple socks (which are going to be my stow-in-the-purse-to-work-on-on-the-train project), the Fairlane Fair Isles, and the long-stalled Canal du Midi socks, which I've decided to try to finish if I can figure out where I am in the pattern.
 
I'm also still working on the SitCom Chic out of the Rainbow, but it's fast approaching FO status: I'm within a row or two of the garter stitch and eyelet rows on the top. I'm delighted by this because one of my goals during this trip is to find a nice button for it. Something sparkly, maybe glass-looking...
 
I am also planning to take the makings of the second Booga Bag and some selfpatterning sockyarn, for while I read the chapters and for the numerous side trips where I will be a car passenger.
 
I packed my clothes last night, and also the chapters, in my suitcase. Once again, I'm delighted at my packing ability - three and a half weeks of clothes, two 100-g skeins of sockyarn, 4 50-g skeins of sockyarn, the chapters (400 pages, single-sided). All that remains to go in that bag are my field boots (there's room) and possibly another pair of shorts.
 
I do still have to pack my "carry on" - with my current projects, toiletries, some kind of nightdress (I'm in a sleeper and if I paid for it, I should dress comfortably enough to sleep), books (I've already picked *those* out too), my needlecase, the directions for the things I'm making (I ran in early this morning and made photocopies of the scarf patterns, so I'd not have to take the whole magazine with me), my CD-ROM of slides, my transparencies, my articles, and the diskettes with everything backed up on it.
 
I'll be back around 15 August or so. I hope that notation is enough to keep me on the knitting webring - I doubt I'll have easy enough or long enough computer access to update while I'm on the road. And frankly, I'm kind of looking forward to not spending hours on the computer each day.