I’m getting ready to leave on a family trip in a week or so, and thus begins my dithering over what to bring.

Of course, I’m not worried about clothes, much to the annoyance of a number of my family members- I’m worried about what to bring to do. Unlike many of us, I have a tendency to bring what looks like work with me on trips, because I’m lucky enough to work with the things I love best- yarn and books.

My current basket of work I’ll be taking includes a knitted vest I’m working on, a hat I’m designing, and some nalbinding for kicks. Probably the cowl and a few oddments in order to show my mom how it works. She’s as bad as I am.

Books for the trip are another decision. Do I bring one or two Barbara Pyms? Do I bring a mystery or something like Camille T. Dungy’s Soil? Or both? What about a moomin book? But I’m already working on rereads, so how about that new book on The Troubles I haven’t started yet?

And what about the Whirl Wrap I have been trying to finish prior to leaving? Will I finish it? I wasted about an hour last night winding the green/turquoise one the other way around so it would stop collapsing in on itself. Then I had a tangle, managed to undo it while watching the last episode in Blue Lights and felt very good and responsible until I noted the time. Oops.

In reality- I will likely get some knitting done, and I’ll work on the design most of all- it needs finishing soonest. I’ll probably show my mom the nalbinding. I’ll likely finish a Pym and maybe a few chapters of one of the others, but no need to bring the whole library.

And we’ll drive and hike and breathe mountain air and I’ll become mopey when we leave, because even though my parents aren’t living in the exact area I grew up in, the Rocky Mountains are where I began and grew and so, will always be a touchstone for me, along with my mom and step-dad. Them too.