Considerations for Travel Knitting

I believe I mentioned before that I like to plan out “travel knitting”, or what projects I am going to take on a trip. If I am going in a car with my husband he usually insists on driving, so I usually insist on knitting in the passenger seat. This trip, though, is going to be a little different. This time I am going on a train.

I am going to visit my brother’s family for his kids’ combined birthday party. Their birthdays are one day apart so they always have one big blowout celebration, and it is my luck this year that I get to join them. Because right now I have more time than money, I decided the most economical way to get there would be to ride the rails. I am going to see the country from the comfort of an Amtrak seat.

There are pros and cons to every decision, and the major con in this case is the length of the trip – thirty six hours to cross the country. I guess the pioneers would be jealous, but considering the last time I made this trip it took four hours and flew nonstop, well, the pioneers don’t know what they are missing. But with regulations and added fees in the airline industry, the flights cost more than they used to; and the last time I went my days of vacation from work were limited so time was of the essence. Now I can easily spend a couple of days just getting there. And while I am getting there, I intend to knit.

Now in addition to the other usual stuff you have to pack when traveling, underpants and toothbrushes and so forth, I need to consider knitting projects. One major concern with travel knitting is portability. I am going to be lugging my bags all over green acres for days on end, I certainly don’t want to start an afghan right now. So that says the project should maybe be small, like socks or baby hats. I usually make socks on double pointed needles, but the chances of one of them getting lost (or dropped and rolling away under the feet of a grumpy stranger) are pretty strong, so maybe double points are out for right now. I tried making socks on two circular needles before and ended up with ladders up the sides, but maybe I can try to get over that just for this trip.

Oh and patterns! Let us not forget the portability of patterns. I don’t want to drag a book of designs or techniques on the road with me, so whatever pattern I take will probably be a photocopy of something I already own, and will have to be easy enough that I won’t need to stop and look up an unfamiliar abbreviation. I do have a sweater in progress, that is a good candidate for long uninterrupted knit time and the pattern is already copied and laminated for my knit bag…so socks and the sweater. Maybe.

I say “maybe” because, just lately, I have felt an urge to crochet. I have been knitting and knitting and knitting for the past year, and haven’t knocked out so much as a granny square in months. Crochet is as portable as knitting, but much faster. It only requires one hook that stays in your hand the entire time, so it is unlikely to slip out and roll away across the floor of a crowded train. Crochet is very forgiving because you can stop at any point and rudely stuff it into a bag and you won’t lose any stitches. This might be a good time to purge my crochet-craving and then get back to what I was doing.

What was I doing? Oh yeah, a sweater.