DC Bound Knitting- 5 Travel Knitting Tips

Bolt Bus - Source: Wikipedia

I used a DC business trip as an excuse to visit friends in Bethesda, MD and shop for yarn. To get to DC, I took the reasonably priced Bolt Bus from near Penn Station in Manhattan. While I slept most of the trip, I did get some knitting done on my Baktus Shawl.

When I travel, I always plan my knitting to ensure that I can work regardless of the conditions. It’s a great way to keep your stress level down and feel like you’ve made good use of your time. Here are my 5 travel knitting suggestions:

  1. Pack an easy, mindless project and a more intricate project so that you have a choice of what to knit and can change projects if you tire of one.
  2. Include a copy of the complete pattern including the schematics to ensure that you can work on the projects. If you’re using a pattern from a book, make a copy of the pattern to reduce the weight of the items that you’re carrying. If you have them, I suggest using a plastic cover to protect the pattern since it’s easy to spill things when traveling.
  3. Make sure that you have all of the correct size needles that you need for the project since it may be difficult to determine how much you will get done and where you may be able to knit. If you are travelling via airplane where your bags may be screened, I recommend using bamboo or plastic needles. I find that circular needles are the best for traveling since you don’t poke your neighbors and it prevents you from dropping stitches. If you’re headed somewhere that doesn’t have knitting shops, I suggest bringing a backup set of needles in case you loose one or one breaks, etc.
  4. Carry a small supply kit with knitting notions. Make up cases and school cases are great for this. Among the things I always carry are a tape measure, stitch markers (I have run out on vacation and needed to find substitutes), crochet hook, sewing needles to knit garments together and finish off ends, row counter(s), scissor and/or nail clipper (I use the nail clipper on airplanes since I can’t take a scissor), cable needle and stitch holders. In addition, I have a pencil and postits to write brief notes on my patterns. Further a small ball of scrap yarn can be useful since it can double for a stitch holder.
  5. Use small project bags to ensure that everything related to the project is in one place. This is particularly helpful for shorter trips like subway knitting so that you don’t need to worry that you’ve left something critical behind.

The great part of knitting on public transportation is that it makes people feel that you’re more accessible to talk to.

Submitted by Knitted Yarns Editor-in-Chief

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