Project Notebook: Bamboo Stitch Table Runner

Sometimes you start a project and, before it’s done, you just get tired of it. Or maybe you need to be knitting something else so you put it aside for a while, with every intention of getting back to it soon.

So it was with my Bamboo Stitch Table Runner, which the archives at About tell my I first published in October of 2008. At the time I knit what I thought would be about half of the pattern, enough to know how much yarn it would take to make it as long as I wanted, and enough that I could take a picture where the knitting needle in the end wouldn’t show.

And then it sat. It was in a folding basket that got packed up when we moved to this house almost exactly four years ago.

I just unpacked that basket a few weeks ago and decided it was time to finish the project.

In the intervening years (more than six, egad) since I started the project I either lost some of the yarn or used it on another project, because while I have a bunch of the gray and a decent amount of the cream color, I couldn’t find any more of the gold yarn anywhere, other than the part of a ball that was with the project.

So when I was about to run out of that yarn, I bound off, with a much smaller project than I intended, but it does fit perfectly on the table in our entry way. So I guess it all worked out after all. Eventually.

Any good projects on or recently off your needles? I’d love to hear about them!

Knitting and travel are two hobbies that are highly compatible. Travel often involves waiting or time spent on planes, trains, boats, etc., time that can easily be filled by knitting, a portable and productive craft you can do most anywhere (and yes, you can take your knitting on a plane most of the time).

Krista Ann combines knitting and traveling regularly and ended up visiting every continent in 2022 with her knitting needles along for the ride. The Wandering Knitter explores travel, knitting and learning new knitting skills no matter where you are.

This isn’t a book for beginners, but if you’ve wanted to learn techniques like brioche, cables, lace, colorwork, mitered squares and short rows, there’s a set of more beginner level patterns followed by ones that are bigger, more detailed or required a little more skill. For example a brioche washcloth is the beginner pattern, while a brioche sweater (with unexplained exceptionally long sleeves) is the stepped up project. A basic mesh lace scarf becomes a more complex lace kerchief. A giant mitered square cowl graduates to a mitered square tote bag.

Interspersed among the patterns are essays about traveling to different continents and what she saw there. There are also tips for traveling with your knitting and tips for reading charts, but no tutorials for knitting skills (other than a written explanation of how mosaic knitting works).

Some of the projects would be useful to have when traveling, such as fingerless gloves, a warm headband or a colorwork hat. The travel angle is an interesting hook for a book, but I would have enjoyed essays more about specific incidents or shopping for yarn in a different country or something more than the general essays about things she’s liked and places she’d like to go back to.

Still, if you’re looking for a skill building book that doesn’t focus on the basics but gives you some wearable, attractive accessories, this book is a good one to check out. Just maybe make the sleeves shorter if you knit the sweater.

About the book: 128 pages, paperback, 20 patterns. Published 2026 by Quarry Books. Suggested retail price $24.99.

Have you read?