Clearing out MKAL kits and readjusting plans

So I have been going through the MKAL kits from Stunning String and realized that I didn’t like the shapes of various club patterns from 2022 on which is probably why I didn’t knit them. I Do Not Like asymmetrical shawls or short stoles knitted the long way across (one of the patterns I am considering starts out with casting on 302 stitches, for the smallest size). I love top-down triangles and part-circles and crescent shaped shawls, all symmetrical thank you very much.

So thoughts on repurposing the yarn from the kits:

1) world traveler (a medium blue) in Bountiful, 650 yards/skein: Muileata, https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/muileata-shawl because the kit came with beads

2) morning glories in super sport, 650 yards total, kit came with beads: maybe https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ballets-russes-wrap if I don’t like the way the club pattern knits up

3) Ellis Island kit in gray and red fingering, pull one of the shawls that’s tagged heraldic in my queue (preferably with beads as the kit has beads) I like some of the mosaic motif in the club shawl, but I don’t like the overall shape. 

4)down from the highlands kit, another two-color in a sport weight (I think I got the blue and red yarns from the club colors). No idea yet whether to knit the club pattern or not.

I am waiting on Knit Picks to send me more needle tips so some of the other club patterns are in hibernation status until I get enough size US 6 needles to work with. I  still can’t figure out where my current ones in that size are, as I should have at least 5 pair if not more (four square dark and light, also the colored aluminum ones, then my nickel plated ones, then the metal square ones) and I don’t have that many active projects in Ravelry using them. The answer is that I probably have more projects that I haven’t entered into Ravelry yet using those needles. 

And then I’m going on vacation this week, a week on the beach and the hardest decision is what craft projects to bring along.   The socks are a small project that takes a lot of time, so that project and one embroidery are really all I realistically need, as Mr. Rudbek will want to bike to the beach and snorkel and swim all day. Merino wool and salty air don’t play well together in terms of getting the yarn to move on the needles. Embroidery does pack small, flat, and light so maybe I will bring two projects. The camouflage lace shawl is this year’s club MKAL so I don’t have all the clues yet, and I don’t want to hassle with it and run the risk of it getting lost in travel.

I am halfway tempted to bring along yarn for a blue and gold heraldic shawl in order to guarantee that Notre Dame loses the National Championship (as the MAGA alumni and subway alumni will be absolutely insufferable and in full superstitious mode if ND wins).   I’ve been knitting alumni shawls for over 20 years now and no national championship, so maybe there’s something to knitting up the team colors constraining their luck (like in the pre-Enlightenment era when a laboring woman was supposed to undo her hair from its braids and then unlace her clothing, like in The Mists of Avalon, sympathetic magic). Since ND has a lousy record against Ohio State, I may not need to provide much of a stumbling block anyway.  If I tell my sibling about this idea, I may get sent off on a funeral pyre of all of my alumni shawls in particular, not just my knitting in general.