And in a week, I will be leaving for my Thanksgiving vacation!

I am now glad I decided to travel rather than making my family travel. I am looking forward to getting to see people I haven't seen in five months (or more; some of my friends up there I didn't get to see on my last trip). I am looking forward to my mom's cooking. I am looking forward to some unfettered knitting time. And I am looking forward to being able to get a "guest password" at my old university's library and spend a day getting journal articles that are hard to get here.

I'm already contemplating what books and projects to bring. I think the only "big" thing I'm going to take is the Landscape Shawl (which I do want to finish but which never seems to demand my time when I'm at home).

And I'm taking the Lady Detective Hat, if it's not completed yet. (I'm not loving the twisted-stitch pattern that you make the crown out of. Oh, I like it architecturally - it looks good and it does what it needs to (making a firm and not floppy fabric so the crown keeps its shape). But it's so dang TIGHT to knit, and the needles I have don't like doing that k2tog after the p2tog - I keep dropping the working yarn. So I'll be glad when this one is done.)

If the Miranda and Snicket socks are not done yet, they are coming too. And I'll probably take more sockyarn, maybe wind off some blue Schaefer Anne I have (Color "Peter." I don't know if that's an allusion to the jacket Peter Rabbit wore [it's a similar color] or if it's an allusion to the UK kids' program [which I have never seen but have heard of].) I've been looking at the Vintage Knitting Socks book again and decided I want to make that sock with the diaper and citron pattern, but I want a solid (or nearly-solid) for it. Stash to the rescue, again.

And I also have a complex colorworked sock pattern - I think I originally bought it from Lisa Souza's site but I don't see the pattern there any more - it's based on some different tile patterns from places in Asia Minor; I'm going to do the one called "Thessalonika" and I have some deep-blue and sort-of-mulberry yarn (from her Sock! line) to make it out of. I want to wind those off and start THAT sometime - another stash project.

(I love my stash. I know a lot of people have really conflicted feelings about what yarn they have on hand - either because they want a more mobile lifestyle (or are planning to move sometime soon), or it's all tied up with their concerns about consumption and about how much of the Earth's resources they use. Or something.

And I have to admit, I do sometimes feel a bit guilty on that last point. (But then again - wool is a renewable resource, at least).

But I do love my stash. It makes me happy to go and look at it, to plot and plan what I'm going to make out of the yarn I have stored there. Or to find a yarn I bought for one thing and realize it's actually perfect for another thing that I've decided I want more.

It brings me a sense of security - they were making vague noises about "recession" on the news this morning and it strikes me that if the economy really tanks and I need to pull back on spending (because my retirement dollars are going poof and I need to start chunking stuff into the savings account, which at least has the virtue of being SAFE even if it earns next-to-no interest), I've got my stash to rely on.

Or if the bird flu strikes and we all have to hole up in our own little houses, I will be occupied and happy, working down my stash.

And you know? Since joining Ravelry and making my queue and spending more time LOOKING at the stash, I've been less tempted to buy yarn or even look at on-line yarn purveyors - I'm far more prone to "shop the stash" for what I need. Which is good.

This morning, I walked into my room and saw the bag from the trip I made to Longview still sitting there (it still has the Araucania and the fluffy mohair stuff and the yarn for the Koolhaas hat and the unicorn yarn, plus a couple other things I dug out of the stash and stuck in there instead of putting them back). And I kind of smiled, and I said, "Y'arr! 'Tis me booty!"

Yes, I do feel kind of like a pirate with treasure when it comes to my yarn. Or like Smaug the dragon (only not, you know, evil) with his gold and jewels...if I WERE a dragon, I'd probably pile all the yarn up and lie on it like he did with his gold. That's how much I love having it and love having it available to knit with. )