I spent the weekend on a whirlwind trip to western Massachusetts for my 20th undergraduate reunion. When packing for the trip, I ran into that ever-present knitter's question:

How many projects do I need?

The answer to which is, of course: as many as you can pack and still have room for clean underwear. For my three day trip, I took four projects. Two unfinished and two to cast on in case I found myself shockingly without anything on the needles.

The first of my unfinished projects, a shawl for Boo's Year 2 teacher, I finished sometime during my viewing of "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug". Since my other unfinished project was in my checked baggage, I was forced to cast on something new. Woe is me...I had packed a couple of balls of this lovely yarn,

*Firenze fingering in a gorgeous blood red...*

so I cast on for Veera Valimaki's Juniper, which is running as an Unwind Brighton KAL. It is such a pleasure to knit someone else's pattern, I can't even...this is a good sign that maybe I've been doing a bit too much on the design side of things recently, although I suspect that most designers don't get to knit other people's stuff. In any event, I cast on in the plane, and have made some progress.

*Juniper in progress with funky Instagram filter to make color nutty*

I'm enjoying it, although I keep screwing up the teeny tiny cable crosses along the shoulder line. You would think that I would be able to count to four. Apparently you would be wrong. Very, very wrong...

I'm dubious that this will actually be finished by the end of the month (see above mention of presents for teachers!), but I am having fun working on a project that doesn't require that I do any math. Or rather, any math beyond counting to four...

Porpoise Fur