Dear Ann:
Hey, here’s the first sleeve of my Monomania cardigan.
In my push to finish this sweater, I’ve been dragging it around the city with me in a little cloth bag, getting a few rows in here and there when there is a lull in the action of whatever else I’m doing. I’ve left the bag behind twice now, and both times it nearly gave me a heart attack. To be so close to the finish of a sweater, and to lose not only the sleeve, but the four little balls of yarn needed to knit the sleeves, would be tragic. The first time, I got a text from the host of my book club, asking, “Did you leave knitting here?” (No–someone else left knitting there. YES it was me. Gosh.) It was a simple matter of picking it up from the doorman the next day. But yesterday evening, I sat down to cast on my second sleeve, and couldn’t find the bag anywhere. I had been to three places — that I could remember– with that bag in tow, and all were public places: a gym, a diner, a grocery store. I retraced my steps. It was at the gym, behind the desk. But what a scare. I do not need this kind of stress in my life.
So, Monomania is grounded until the last sleeve is finished. Sleeves are not a good thing to knit on the go, in any event. Too much checking the pattern to figure out which increase row I’m on, is it time to bind off yet, etc. etc. Shaped knitwear is not ideal travel knitting. You can do it, and if you don’t have a choice of knitting, you will do it (not knitting while traveling being an unthinkable thing) but if you are planning out what knitting to take when you are moving around a lot, you don’t choose sleeves, or cardigans with shaping, or colorwork that has you tangling two or more balls of yarn in your bag.
Recommended Travel Knitting
So what do you choose? I’ve had good luck with…wait for it…the Honey Cowl. There is something so neat and portable about a Honey Cowl. It is knitted in the round, which is tidier in your lap than a scarf that starts to drag as it grows, or twist as you turn it, and you use just one color at a time. There are no increases or decreases to keep track of. It’s a two-row pattern sequence, with one row being plain knit and one row being a simple 2-stitch repeat. You can put it down safely without getting to the end of anything, and no matter how long it takes for you to pick it up again, you’ll know exactly where you are.
Other Cowls
It doesn’t have to be a Honey Cowl, but cowls in the round are one of my top picks, especially for short junkets.
Right now, I’m besotted with the Wollman Rink Cowl by Michele Wang. I need a new cowl myself, and I have plenty of fingering weight yarn sitting around in my favorite colors. I’m a little concerned that all that linen stitch–which gives that magical woven-look fabric–will be tedious, with the constant yarn-in-front, slip,yarn-in-back business. But if I’m in transit with no other knitting with me, I’ll knit linen stitch and I’ll like it. And then I’ll have this beautiful thing at the end of my vacation. (The Wollman Rink cowl is striped, so it violates my rule against colorwork while traveling. But I make the rules. And on a long flight, I relax all the rules. There is no sweeter zone of zen for knitting concentration than a long flight.)
Non-Cowls
When I’m going to be away for a week or so, I love to knit a lopapeysa. If you time it right, you can work on the body or sleeves–both are stockinette straightaways once you’ve done a few rows of patterning at the edges–while en route to your destination. Then, when you get there and are relaxing in your mom’s kitchen or other well-lit, well-catered spot, it will be time to work the patterning and decreases for the yoke. Last Christmas, I finished a lopapeysa and left it behind for my nephew, thus freeing up space in my luggage for the kids’ presents.
(The pattern is Jon by Hulda Hákonardóttir. Look at the pattern gallery.)
If lopapeysas are not your cup of skyr, any relatively plain pullover will do.
In 2014 I knitted both enormous pieces of a Relax sweater on a two-week vacation. That sweater has become one of my favorites, and it’s also a sweet souvenir of punting on the Cam, and a 4th of July barbeque in London. It’s a big sweater, but the yarn is light enough that I could always carry it with me in my main bag (thus reducing the risk of leaving it somewhere).
Sock-knitters: when you travel, you should knit socks. They seem like excellent travel knitting, if you are experienced enough not to have to squint at the pattern a lot, or pull out bits that you’ve messed up and start over again. (You want to minimize the need to dig stitch markers out of your airplane seat or chase them down the aisle of a train.)
I will not give advice about how much yarn to take. The human heart is full of optimism. The future is always going to be better than the past; we certainly are going to knit faster in the future than we have knitted in the past. So we always take too much yarn. It’s a waste of space in our bags, but it’s kind of touching how we keep fooling ourselves about the limits of human knitting speed. Remember: at many destinations, there is yarn available to be purchased, if you run out. Or if you just want to purchase yarn.
On Thursday, while my Monomania sleeve was hanging out uptown with a doorman, a friend came over to my house for a knitting lesson. To keep myself from knitting her knitting when she was supposed to be knitting it, I cast on a dishrag.
So if you’re really afraid you’re going to finish two lopapeysas over Christmas and have nothing to knit on the way home, pack a few balls of emergency dishcloth cotton.
Love,
Kay
Takeaway moral of your gym story: exercise is hazardous to one’s (knitting) health.
My current travel knitting is a Honey Cowl. Paired with Shonda Rhimes’ ‘Year of Yes’ audiobook makes for a zen commute.
Right now I am knitting the Stephen West mystery knitalong, which is mainly garter stitch and mainly intuitive once you get the week’s instructions. I took it with me on a long flight last week, and of course a half-knit sock as well. You are right, we always take too much, but one time I did run out of knitting and had to buy fun fur and big needles in the thrift shop for the flight home!
That’s a very scary story, Mary!
“The human heart is full of optimism.” I’m going to carry that with me through the day.
Omg that tiny Gilipeysa you linked up top is the cutest thing ever! If only my tiny cousins lived somewhere other than Florida …
I have a rule of thumb that I can knit about 40 yards of yarn a day with average non-knitting level of activities (more if knitting is going to be the primary activity). This has helped me rein in untoward levels of knitting-on-the-road optimism.
Good Morning Kay, we are traveling today to Nashville for a family Thanksgiving and I have lovely Plucky Knitter yarn caked and ready to CO a Wollman rink for my daughter. Yes, multiple colors of yarn, but thought this would be a great travel project. PLUS, Christmas will be here before we know it and I need to get a whole bunch of gift knitting done between now and then.
Happy Wollman Knitting!!
? Laura
I LOVE the dishrag. I have your first book with Ballband Dishcloth on page 21. Is there a simple way to make it an -in-the-round cowl? Thank you as always for a creative way to start the day!
Di, Ravelry is your best friend when it comes to questions like this one. There is at least one knitter on Ravelry (rubyfruit) who has turned the Ball Band pattern into a cowl. She says that she “cast on 72 and worked it in the round.”
I also find if knitting is going to be a secondary activity on my trip (hard to believe but sometimes true) that I need to have started the project before I go traveling. It’s like my brain can’t handle the traveling and the knitting unless my hands have already got some muscle memory going on the project.
Mmmm, I like that Wollman cowl. I also love the Honey Cowl, and almost cast one on for my son’s girlfriend before remembering thatI made her one last Christmas. So, she’s getting mitts and a hat, instead.
I always have a crochet project going that I can pick up for travel projects and/or anything that involves other people in the room. It is more forgiving and I need that as my powers of concentration wane dramatically if I am not alone. ;-P
Socks and dishcloths keep me sane when waiting,I always a bag to grab. I think of you both every single day, I just pulled out a new batch of dish cloths to use. I thank you again for sharing your lives, the patterns, knowledge, FUN, laughs, life in the north,life in the south (though I live in Boston, I’m grew up in Alabama ) I re-learned to knit in Nov. 2004. A 6 week stay in the hospital had me needing things to do, I started with those “fun fur” scarves…(“fun”?? yeah right and so was the hospital.. NOT! ) BUT most of my nurses knit and it was like a school. Every shift there was someone to help me. I found your blog then and the rest is history! Have a lovely Thanksgiving! #thanksforsharing #thanksfordishcloths
Yes, what you said, Wendy! Though I have neither Northeast nor Southeast geographic living experience, and no weeks-long stay in the hospital, I also learned (re-learned?) to knit in 2004, and think of Ann and Kay often, and with great affection!
Your seed-stitch comment re: cowls makes me want to evangelize for Norwegian purling. You purl with the yarn at the back, and it’s changed my life !
Hats! Hats are excellent road knitting, just remember to use 2 circs or bring your DPNs for the top. They go quick and they are very giftable.
Have you got a favourite pattern?
My favorite travel knitting is self-patterning socks. Since most of my travel is limited to riding my bike to the various ice cream/coffee shops in my neighborhood, I cast on a pair of socks at the beginning of spring and put them in the bag on my bike. At the end of fall, I have a great souvenir of the summer just past, and I only wear them on really cold, snowy days, so they can encourage me to believe that winter will end and summer will come again.
This post made me realize I’ve never knit linen stitch. Ever. How is that possible? Linen in the round would float my boat this week. I think I know what I may be doing as soon as I finish the last few yoke rounds of a bottom up sweater that I have been carting around town (and, horrfyingly, occasionally leaving behind!).
I just packed for a train trip and violated my rule of only taking sock, cowl, or hat projects on trips. They are not such big projects and also not a lot of yarn to stow waiting to be used up. I had started a Weigh It Shawl 2 before leaving and since it was so simple I brought it along to be the major work. I love doing it but I have too much yarn taking up space waiting to be used and a lot of knitted up fabric on my lap. Also, while I am at it, a train ride IS the perfect way to do knitting uninterrupted, the seats are wider and the rocking of the train and view passing by the perfect environment for clicking needles.I will take up the Honey Cowl next trip.
I’m working on my first “Ball Band” dishcloth and having more fun than it really calls for. What took me so long? I even sneak in a row or two while at my desk at work (shhhh) Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas!
Ok, one trip to this blog and I’ve bought myself new dishcloth cotton. Like Wendy above, I have *never* knit an actual ballband dishcloth. But now that I have a *house*, I’m ready for dishcloth knitting!
Ignore the 6 WIP’s in the corner – they will be worked on when their mental category is appropriate…..
I’ve knit lots of ballband dishcloths, mostly for my mom, and it occurred to me a little while ago that she probably needs a new one or two. This time, I’m working on a Linoleum Dishcloth – it will get done before I see Mom at Christmas. I also started a 3-color Cashmere Cowl (in actual amazingly soft cashmere!), but I’ve put that aside to be my Christmas traveling knitting. And I’ll take a sweater to work on, too. (I used to be a sock knitter. When did I stop??)
So glad y’all are back…. 😉
How you can tell Modern Daily is back–a new era of knitters will discover the Ballband Dishcloth.
Teddy bears are great for travel knitting. I had the ZickZack Scarf, but it’s disconcerting to realize how easily one can mess up a pattern where every row is the same repeat of 12 simple stitches.
Hats. Hats and cowls are great travel knitting.
This line resonated with me: “To keep myself from knitting her knitting when she was supposed to be knitting it” Yup.
Just returned home from a 3 day road trip. I had the dp’s for the hat I wanted to finish, but forgot the pattern for the crown decreases. So good thing I packed the ‘just in case if finish’ knitting to keep me occupied on the way home. My husband is grateful, too. Car trips go better with me occupied with my knitting. Question: what is the best way to keep e-patterns accessible on mobile devices such as phone or Kindle?
I use iBook app for storing patterns. When you open the pattern in Ravelry, it asks if you want to open in iBook or somewhere else. Tap the iBook request. The pattern is saved as a PDF and can then be opened anywhere without Internet access. This is done on an iPad or iPhone specifically. I have friends who use other PDF storage tools but this one works for me and the app is free.
Not sure about the Kindle, but Dropbox is great for knitting pdf storage on phones and other tablets. As long as you can get an Internet connection, you can get your pattern wherever you are.
Another Dropbox tip: you can make selected files available offline with the Dropbox app (as long as you remember to do it while you’re still online!). That means you can view your pattern even if you’re off in the back of beyond with no internet. I find this super useful! And since Kindles were mentioned, a note: there is a Dropbox app that works with Kindle Fire tablets, but it’s not in the Amazon app store (find instructions for installing it here: http://www.dropbox.com/mobile).
There are quite a few PDF reader apps for phones/tablets that let you store e-patterns offline and even annotate them with notes, highlights, scribbles, complaints etc. — check your favorite app store, or you may have a built-in option (like iBooks for iPhone/iPad, as Lu points out!).
(Have this conversation long enough and someone will inevitably recommend knitCompanion, which takes the concept of e-pattern reader to another level with a ton of bells and whistles to automate the process of following complex patterns. But there’s a non-trivial learning curve, and it may be overkill if all you want to do is refer to your patterns when you’re out and about)
By the way, love the colors on your ball-band dishcloth above.
The Lopi sweater is spectacular!
My travel project is a simple garter stitch alpaca and silk scarf. Very hard to goof it up, but I still might manage it. In fact, I was knitting it on a plane at an ungodly hour this morning.
I remember reading about EZ’s Pi shawl, and that it was good travel knitting because of the circular needles (no way to drop one), and because (when large enough) the ball of yarn can be dropped into the middle for storage and will not roll around. At least I think she wrote this. ( that’s my story and I’m sticking to it).
Love Diane
Oh, I feel sick just thinking about leaving knitting behind. I’m bad enough with keys, sunglasses, umbrellas etc.
I can see that getting this blog up and going again is going to be very dangerous for my ‘favourited’ Ravelry projects list (but I’m really very glad you’re back!)
I recently flew to Omaha (Kay, I waved at your old stomping grounds. In a general, non-creepy way.) and I took way too much knitting. Not that silk mohair takes up a lot of space, but my dishcloth cotton did. I only took cheap bamboo knitting needles since I was afraid that an overly zealous TSA agent might take my good circulars. Two flight attendants commented on my WIP. In other news, tomato juice did taste great in the air, and the Hampton shower curtains look like ballband dishcloths.