The travel knitting horror story

It's been a crazy last few months for this knitter, with long days spent trundling around from one place to another.  And because I'm torn between traveling light and having knitting and a book with me for down times, I have been switching between a little bag that fits my wallet, phone (with Kindle app), and keys, and a bigger bag that holds all that plus my travel knitting.

Switching between bags is something I'm sure most people can do without thinking, but for me, especially when life is super hectic, it's always a magical source of surprises.  Like when I went to find something in my bigger bag after Christmas and noticed a Smell.

I had to do some digging to find the source of it.  I mean, I'd used that bag several times over the break without incident, so I wasn't sure what could possibly be causing the problem until I found a Ziploc bag of brown liquid.  After some thought I concluded it was once a pear, packed on a site visit day long before the holiday, when I knew I would need a snack (but apparently didn't.)

Did you know that pear slices turn to liquid if you leave them long enough?

Did you know that Ziploc bags don't sequester Smells?  and that Parachute purse fabric doesn't either?

urrrrg, all the different sections of my purse were permeated, spreading to all the textiles contained within, including

MY TRAVEL KNITTING.

and the beautiful vintage linen bag I keep it in.  Also, my earbud pouch.

and oddly, the squishy part of my stash of pens.  what? why?

All the pictures in this post were taken several days after my discovery, incidentally, once the Smell had been entirely aired out.  Because EW.

Thankfully, the purse is machine washable (go LeSportsac) and so was the matching case where I keep all my tissues and Tylenol and other loose stuff, and super thankfully I have loads of Soak for washing linens and earbud pouches.

But man. Am I ever going to think twice before I ever again store perishables in the same bag as my precious knitting!

This sock is almost done, incidentally, but do you think I can find my notes on whether I started the toe on the 48th or 49th round after the heel decreases?  Nope. And the finished mate starts its decrease right in the deepest part of the navy round. So I'm holding off for a really sunny day and non-tired eyes to count it out by hand.  Man, I was so sure I wrote that down in my phone's Notes when I was knitting all the other socks in this size.

I dunno - is it better to have a sock with a smell, or a sock with a horribly dropped stitch 35 rounds back?  I think it's better to have no knitting problems at all, myself...