Tom Foolery

If you put tomfoolery into a computer, nothing comes out of it but tomfoolery. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled and no-one dares criticize it. - Pierre Gallois

I like quotations. I used to have a huge collection of them, that gave me a goofy sort of pleasure back in the days when I sat at computers all day long.

Consider this tomfoolery and I'll just keep on typing.

Spring is nigh. I cannot quite say it has arrived here yet, though I did see some very tiny leaves on some of the small well protected bushes. The forest canopy is devoid of anything more than the merest hint of buds. Spring will be a while yet. It may be waiting for summer. Its hard to say and this is Alberta.

Be that as it may, come heck or high water, the calendar says it is camping season. It is time to pack the van up for the season, and it is time to prepare the vans very own knitting kit. You never know when we'll be dropping everything, end up miles from no where, and there I'll be with no knitting. I like to travel prepared.

This past winter, while updating my study's accessories, I made up a tool kit for traveling. Nice basic tool, scissors, inexpensive markers, wool needles, a calculator, and a measuring tape. The only thing this tool pack needs is some needles for socks, and a set of 4 or 4.5 mm needles.

Then there is the matter of yarn. An good kit is going to need a couple balls of sock yarn. I can knit those sans pattern and in the highest stress situations. Shopping in the stash, I find all manner of contenders. Up in the top right hand corner, there is a really nice earthy colour from the Lana Grossa line of yarns, and right beside it, a couple balls of Cotton Fun. Both of those yarns are under consideration. The down on the bottom, you can see a couple balls of Kroy sock yarn, still my go to yarn for everyday socks and right there on the bottom is that nice blue tweedy Australian Merino. These are all going to be great yarns to carry along for a traveling kit.

Then, in case I needed a little something different, I'd like to take at least one scarf yarn along. I'm having a little trouble deciding which yarn. The red Tupa would make a great travel project. Its interesting way of sucking light into what you knit from it would make a ribbed scarf a thing of simple wonder. The blue tones of the Knit Picks yarn is another. A little chevron pattern? A feather and fan? A small undulating wavy pattern? And I have to take along a skein or two of silk Garden Sock. It would make the nicest little shawlette scarf following Cosmicpluto's Simple Yet Effective shawl pattern and just knitting till the yarn was gone.

I could use stitch dictionary I suppose. I'd nominate my copy of Mary Webb's compact little book, 'Knitting Stitches' (My copy is compact. I am not sure if all versions of this book are.) Hundred of patterns, edging, lace, cables. There is enough here for all the emergency knitting I hope to ever not need to do (if you know what I mean).

When we are off about the province, we seldom stop at yarn stores - not for want of trying on my part- but because where we like to travel is where there are very few people, and where there are no people would be a pretty silly place for a yarn store.

For the first traveling of the season, coming soon, I've decided to make it into a finish me weekend. I'm going to take along all the socks that are ongoing and work on those. I'm taking the Easy Drop Stitch Scarf too.That should keep me out of trouble but it's comforting to know that I'll have just a little backup in a hidden corner of the van, just in case.

I pack extra food if we get stuck in the mountain country for a couple days, and it is only right to take the same precaution with yarns.