Tips for Successful Travel Knitting

Knitters talk a lot about how to take our work with us when we travel and joke about how chaotic it can be, but there are some actual concrete steps you can take before you leave to make sure your travel knitting is a success. Here are some ideas gleaned from 15 years of experience.

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Small Projects with Lots of Stitches

When I have limited luggage space, I know I can’t pack a big project like a sweater or blanket. Instead, I like to pack projects that use finer yarn and smaller needles. Things like socks and fingering-weight shawls are great for this because they only take up a little bit of space in your suitcase but will provide you hours of knitting entertainment.

A Digital or Printable Pattern

When you’re traveling, every bit of space and weight in your luggage matters, so you don’t want to be hauling around physical books. Instead, go with a pattern that’s entirely digital and accessible on your phone/tablet, or print out a single pattern that you can carry with you. These will be more portable and will leave room in your luggage for more souvenir yarn.

Think About the Weather Where You’re Headed

The kinds of projects I bring to a colder place would be different from projects I might take to a hot and humid beach destination. Give some thought to whether the fiber mix in your project will be comfortable to work with where you’re headed.

Try using circular needles

When I first started knitting, like many knitters, I worked with two straight needles. Until I flew home with my knitting one time, dropped a needle, and watched in horror as it rolled under the seats in front of me. So now I knit almost exclusively with circular needles, and when I know I’ll need to use DPNs, I bring extras

Put Your Knitting in a Small, Separate Bag

When you travel, you’re often carrying a lot of things all at once. If you’re like me, that means your purse or backpack is more full than it usually is. That, in turn, means there are more things to snag and spill on your knitting. Which is why you don’t want to just dump your WIP into that purse or backpack. Instead, try to put your project into some sort of project bag.

Curious to learn more about knitting or to dig deeper into travel knitting tips? Click on through for tutorials, free patterns, technique tips, and more.

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