Break planning already

It's still just under 10 days off, but I'm already thinking about what I want to take with me over break to work on. (This is a serious consideration and always seems to get more thought than what I am going to wear.)

I do want to take a couple of in-progress projects - I have a pair of simple socks, and I want to (finally) finish the Little Ice Age socks. And the two shawlettes that are underway. (Well, maybe both of them. Maybe just one.). And maybe the long-stalled Hagrid sweater.

But I also want some "new" stuff. I found a simple knit/purl stitched cowl (well, really, a loop scarf) and I got some pretty variegated yarn for that. And maybe another one of those Sockhead hats; I have a purplish Jitterbug yarn (colorway is named Raphael - after the painter, not the ninja turtle) that I think would make a nice hat.

And toys. As I've said before, there have to be toys. Because I'm a wee bit embarrassed (at 45) to ask my parents for a stuffed toy or similar for Christmas (though I have one or two on my Amazon wishlist), I make my own over break. I bought a couple Mochimochiland patterns, in part, so I could get the free "Deck the Walrus" pattern. (I already know I want to make the one with the watchcap/Jacques Cousteau style cap - and I haven't decided whether to name him Jacques, or Zissou, or perhaps go in a different direction and name him Jamie - in which case he might need a little pair of glasses). And I have a small sock-yarn dragon pattern (a Susan B. Anderson pattern - she seems to do a lot of small, cute, sockyarn animals).  And I have ridiculous pink fur yarn and hot-pink worsted-weight: I have a pattern book with a yeti pattern in it where the original yeti was made from a wild variegated, and I like the idea of a hot-pink yeti.

And I have a bunch of recently-purchased Suncatcher eyes, including the "sleepy" eyes, which would work well on the yeti, I think.

But then today I fond a Crocheted pangolin (Ravelry link). I've written before about my childhood fondness for "unusual animals" and how I had a tiny toy plastic pangolin I liked because it was unusual - so I had to buy the pattern. (And I found uncommitted skeins of light and dark brown sockyarn - I could have gone up a yarn size, toys are flexible, but the pattern as written makes a 35 cm pangolin, which is large enough to begin with, and a worsted weight one would be really large).

I'm guessing the pangolin takes a fair bit of time; its scales are made in something called "crocodile stitch" and apparently each one is made and then joined on to the others....but it should give a really satisfying result.

So I am going to have to think hard, and winnow down, and decide what I really want to take and do...the good news is sock yarn, like for the hat and some of the toys doesn't take up much space in a suitcase. And I plan on getting walrus yarn up there, because I can use craft-store yarn (or yarn already on hand at my parents') for that.