The Trouble With Packing

I'm trying to do all the swatching and knitting planning for our upcoming vacation.  I find it's a lot easier this way because it means I have to bring less (and by less, I mean I don't feel compelled to bring all of my needles in case I'm wrong about what I need to get gauge) and because it makes things a lot nicer once we're there.  I can just knit.

This means, however, that most of the knitting related activities I've been doing for the last couple days have been swatching and charting things out, which are my two least favourite parts of knitting.  I do it while fighting the feeling that I just want to get one with it and knit.    So far this is what I have:


1. Plans to make two pairs of mittens, the charting is part of the way done for the first pair, but I feel like I've gained some momentum and it won't be too bad.  (That being said I was feeling pretty twitchy by the time Caleb woke up from his nap yesterday which was when I gave myself permissionto stop working on this.)

2. Plans for a pair of lined mittens.  The fleece lining has been cut out and sewn and the planning of the stitch pattern is sorted.  I still need to swatch but then it's mostly a case of doing that then picking the correct number of stitches I'll need (it needs to be a multiple of 6), which isn't too hard or time consuming.

3.  The shawl I've been working on and put on hold for the drive, just need to pack the right needle tips (I'm using the addi clicks, and have taken the tips to use on Caleb's sweater, but that's almost done).

4. The hat and mitt set I was working on before I started Caleb's sweater--just need to throw everything in a bag and go.

5.  An idea for a tea cozy, this requires me to do a little math and typing today, and it feels like a chore.

6.  Enough yarn to make a second shawl if I finish all the other knitting (this is my contingency knitting, I don't actually care if this happens but I'm worried there won't be enough knitting otherwise).

7.  The pattern for my niece's Christmas present that I have to remember to pack because I want to get the materials at our destination.

The amount of things still to do doesn't look nearly so bad when written out like that (it may also help that laundry, grocery shopping, and actual packing have all been left off the list).