Ducking My Head and Looking Guilty

I packed five skeins of yarn for the trip to Egypt.  I would have 18 hours of transition on the way to and just under 24 on the way home and those hours don't include the to/from NY.

I officially completed "a" sock and the ribbing on sock 2.

I know, I'm a little disappointed in me too. I'd hoped to get through an entire pair while on the trip at the very least.  That and the 11 books (no I'm not kidding, most of them were really short paperbacks) and nearly a gigabyte of podcasts.

I am caught up, finally, on Sticks and String.  I had fallen woefully behind on David, his cats, and the urban wilderness in his backyard and was happy to have a couple of dedicated hours where I could just enjoy his voice. I made a dent in the Cast On backlog too, and was grateful to have it when insomnia hit the last night in Cairo.

I had originally cast on in the Ewephoria Yarn.  Only, I recalled about 21 rows in why I have hesitated to use the yarn from that dyer--it is very splitty on little wooden needles. And I had wooden needles with me.  The prospect of doing M1R and M1L, repeatedly, on 2.5mm needles (US 1.5 I think?), with yarn that was splitting every single stitch wasn't a happy one.  I made it through the first round of the pattern repeat, got to the next round of M1 stitches and thought no, not worth it, I'll hate the socks by the end of it.

Ripped it out and recast on. Now I am using Ewetopia Yarn, dyed by owner Kathryn Ashley--who promises that a new shopping cart will be up on her website soon. Trust me, her sock yarn is GOOD.  It's soft, squishy, and so beautifully dyed. And in this particular skein, it's sport weight--so I needed to bring stitch count down a little to not end up with a sock that wouldn't fit.  Super dense squishy sock.  Yum. 

I cast on again before we left New York and despite flying out of JFK, through Paris/CDG, into Cairo and back--with all of the myriad layers of searches and security, I had no problems.  I am knitting on Harmony Wooden 4" DPNs from Knit Picks . 

On the plane I knit until I got too tired. Once we got to Cairo I had every intention of yarn everywhere with me.  Only, it had a pattern.  Perhaps it was not my wisest move to take a sock that required me looking at it.  In the evenings, I would knit, I promised myself.  But by Day 2 I wasn't feeling the hottest and knitting time turned into extra sleep time.  Six hours in the van to-from Alexandria? --I was in the back seat snoring.  By the last night though my hands were itching for wool.  I'd only gotten through a few pattern repeats and I couldn't come home with only the leg of one sock done, now could I?

So, into my ears when the headphones, on came Brenda Dayne, and I was rolling. Once we got to Paris and I was no longer sitting right on top of anyone, I really whipped along.  This last picture was taken somewhere over the Atlantic, about 5 or 6 hours into the 8 hours flight to JFK. 

I immediately cast on sock 2 and did finish the ribbing before we arrived at the gate.  At which point in time I was so exhausted that no more knitting occurred until I got back to Wisconsin.