I am an avid backpacker, hiker, kayaker, mt. biker, etc. I’ve done several multi-day trips, so I’m very good at packing very light. I’ve gone so far as to break the handle off my toothbrush. I’ve often gone several days without changing my socks because I didn’t want the weight of carrying extra pair, and I would certainly never bring a paperback to read–way too heavy.

Last week I went kayak camping in the San Juan Islands outside of Seattle, WA for four days. It was awesome. The weather was perfect, we kayaked about 60 miles, carrying all our food, water, lodging and entertainment with us. I’m working on Christmas gifts, so brought my knitting along and I finished the project.

I was so excited when I realized that I could easily bring my knitting with me. It was SO light and can easily be squished into my backpack.

Oh, and when I finished it, I used the large survival knife that is always attached to my life jacket to cut my yarn after weaving in the ends–scissors would have been too bulky to carry.

The hat I finished is for my mom for Christmas. I’m next going to make matching fingerless gloves.

I used Swish DK in Hollyberry with an Eggplant stripe. It’s a basic 2 rib hat, I cast on 88 stitches and decreased after 6 inches. If I hadn’t put in a stripe, I could have done the whole hat with one skein. <