Summertime is well and truly upon us here in the northern hemisphere, and that means a lot of us will be going on vacation. If you’re like our family, most of those vacations tend to take the form of a road trip. Even if we’re flying somewhere, we have to go all the way down to LA to get a plane, and that’s still an extra hour to two hours in the car on each end of the trip. That means car knitting is going to be abundant.
I’ve had a lot of time to think about what makes for a good car knitting project, so I thought I’d share some tips here.
Pick a small project
When you are knitting in the car, you’re working in a confined space. This might be even more so if your car is also full of luggage and other items for a long trip.
Unlike when you’re knitting at home, in the car, you don’t have space to spread out. That means you’re going to want a smaller project. A large blanket that has already grown to five feet long probably isn’t going to be the best car knitting project, though if you’re on a deadline or feeling particularly determined, you do what you gotta do.
For me, I tend to work on socks, hats, and fingerless mitts in the car. These are itty-bitty projects that take up almost no space and require me to pack very little yarn but will take hours of my time to finish.
Pick a project with a relatively simple stitch pattern
Many people struggle with motion sickness. One thing that helps is being able to look up and out the window pretty regularly. If you are working on a really complicated stitch pattern on your project, though, you’re not going to be able to do that.
Depending on the severity of your motion sickness, you might want to knit something that is plain vanilla stockinette in the round or garter stitch knit flat. That way, you can look out the window the entire time but still keep your hands busy.
If you have a stronger stomach but still don’t want to live too dangerously in the car, you can choose a fairly simple stitch pattern and look up periodically when you’re at a mellow part in that pattern.
Simple stitch patterns are also great for car knitting because you don’t want to completely miss the sights outside. Sometimes you’re driving through an absolutely beautiful part of the world, and it’s nice to see what’s passing by your windows. Having a relatively simple stitch pattern will allow you to look up regularly and enjoy the world around you.
Pick a project that doesn’t require too many needles
There is nothing worse than working on a project, dropping one of the needles you need, and not being able to fish it out. Then you’re stuck. I have lost so many DPN’s under car seats and not been able to retrieve them until eventually we stopped the car and I was able to move the seat around.
That’s why I like to work on projects where I can use circular needles when I’m knitting in the car. Most of the time, if I’m knitting something flat, I’m knitting it on circular needles with a longer cable. I even knit my socks on tiny circular needles, so I almost never need to worry about losing a needle anymore. It’s really only an issue when I am working the parts of socks where I still use double pointed needles.
Your preferences might be different, though, so this is worth taking into account when you are car knitting. If you tend to use double pointed needles a lot, that may not be the project you want to bring in the car. Then again, maybe you’re willing to risk it—or you can mitigate the risk by packing some extra double-pointed needles in the size you’ll be using. The call is yours.
Pick a project that you can put down and pick up easily
When I’m car knitting, I’m usually riding shotgun while my husband drives. That means that I’m also the navigator, so there are times where I need to put down my knitting and pick it back up pretty frequently. If I’m needed for adding a pitstop to our route or seeing if we can find a way around something we don’t want to get stuck in, I need to be able to set down my knitting pretty easily.
This is related to the suggestion that you choose something with a simple stitch pattern, but it’s not quite the same thing. There may be projects where you have a relatively simple stitch pattern overall, but there are pieces of it that require your concentration. When you’re car knitting, depending on your role in the car, you may find that the interruptions are wholly unpredictable and might come during one of the rare times when you have to concentrate more carefully.
This is why, for example, I don’t like knitting garments in the car. Even if the sweater has a relatively simple overall stitch pattern composed entirely of knits and purls, if I am at the point where I am shaping the collar and decreasing the shoulder at the same time, I’m still going to have to concentrate on that. That’s a project I can’t put down and pick up quite so easily as a hat or a sock.
Summertime is prime roadtrip season. If you’re hitting the road this summer, too, I hope these tips are helpful for you!
Got some other tricks that make car knitting easier for you? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
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Do you have any ideas or suggestions for bags to use for car knitting?
It’ll depend in part on how big your project is and what your concerns are, but my favorite bag makers (I have bags from both of them) are Elena at Rows and Seams (https://www.etsy.com/shop/RowsAndSeams) and Garlene at The Kitchen Sink Shop (https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheKitchenSinkShopCA). Elena uses a really sturdy foam in the base of her bags so they’ll stand up on their own without flopping around. Garlene’s bags are really lightweight and easily smushed into another bag for carrying around. Both are great bags.
@Trudi, Zip lock bags are my choice. I use quart size for the balls of wool and gallon size for the project and needles.
Oh yes, I love a good Ziploc bag! They’re wonderfully versatile.
@Trudi, I just use a string bag or a plain cloth bag. I put the skein of yarn in a ziplock bag – I can also drop my cable needle if using one, my needle tips or the note cards that have my pattern on them in there when not in use. Sometimes I just use a plastic bag such as a Target bag for instance. Something easy to use that keeps my project clean. Nothing fancy or expensive. I can stick that into my backpack, purse or carryon bag if flying when you are limited to space.
My car is getting experience got a hundred times better drive bought one of those things you can put between the console and your car seat to hold things. It plugs up that hole. Can’t tell you how many knitting needles I’ve dropped down the left side of my passenger seat.
This is a great tip! Do you have a link for one you can recommend? I’d love to add it to this post.
@Mary, please send the name of that thing that blocks the hole between the console and the car seat.
Ack!! I used voice typing. Sorry for the typos.
You know what’s funny? I use voice to text so much and have to correct so many of those weird typos that I was able to decipher it just fine 😆
I made the mistake of knitting a scarf with pink fuzzy-textured acrylic yarn while on a trip with my husband in his new truck! The interior slowly transformed into a beautiful hue he wasn’t comfort in. Haha! My suggestion…make a project using a cotton yarn or one that won’t spread its fibers throughout!
That is a really good suggestion! You also don’t want the little fuzzy fibers flying around and getting in the driver’s eyes or making them cough/sneeze while driving.
I almost always have a hat for car knitting even if I’m a passenger around town. I’m much less inclined to tell my husband how to drive if I’m knitting!
Same! I am kind of an anxious passenger, and the knitting helps keep me relaxed.
I pack my yarn first! Favorites for me are easy projects with a bulky wool and larger needles. It’s a good time to knit for charity—. Cowls, caps (but I wait till I get to the hotel to take out my dpns and close up the top). Scarves require a larger bag at the end, but still nice and easy.
If you get car sick, you might try meclizine, generic for Bonine.
It’s a non-sleepy anti car sickness medication. Of course check with your doctor, first.
I have no side effects from it. I look up and list all the yarn shops along our route.
Good luck with that plan!
I love the idea of looking up all the yarn shops along your route!
I have a pill bottle that has all my necessary things like a cable needle, yarn needles, markers, couple of clips – both spring type and regular. A nail clipper instead of a scissors. This is always in my bag. I also make cards for each row when doing afghans. Have a light along so you can knit in the dark – I use a headlamp pretty much all the time.
Knowing me and my self-awareness (or lack thereof), I’d look straight at my husband while wearing the headlamp and blind him as he’s trying to drive 😆
@Lauren Rad, I highly recommend the neck lights! They are double ended lights with a moveable snakelike center that you just set around your neck and position the lights in whatever downward positing you want. No tight straps around your head or blinding your husband! I think they are marketed as reading lights but mine lives in my knitting bag for night knitting in the car!
Ah, I’ve seen these around! I might just have to give them a try. That could revolutionize nighttime trips.
There is a method using 2 sets of circular needles instead of double pointed. Put half the stitches on each needle and alternate.
Yes, that’s also an option!
If you have a spare set of needles matching the project you are working on (and probably a spare cable for interchangeables), it’s not a bad idea to include that in the work bag. I was “riding shotgun” when my husband and I were traveling home on a 6-hour drive, and my interchangeable got cross-threaded. I had to be just a passenger for the rest of the trip!
My heart hurt just reading that! Agony. Did you both survive okay?
I tend to knit dishcloths, dishtowels, hot pads, ear warmers, cowls, boas and scarves in addition to hats in the car. I do carry a spare pair of needles. I knit scarves back and forth on the circs.
Carrying a spare pair of needles is the best insurance policy, if you have them and have the room for them.
These are also good tips for people who want to knit while traveling, regardless of vehicle. One of the reasons that I ditched straight needles in favor of circular needles is so that I don’t poke the people sitting near me on the bus or plane. Small projects with simple patterns that are readily put-down-able are great when you need to keep track of your stops or transfer between trains.
Very true! Many of the things that make car knitting tricky extend to other modes of transport, too.