Knitting

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Tips for Packing Your Travel Knitting

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I was recently on vacation, which involved trips up 12 hours in the car there and back.

Being a knitter, of course I saw that as prime knitting time.

I always have a little anxiety around what knitting to pack when I’m going on a trip, and I don’t always make the best choices. This time around I had nothing planned until the night before we left!

It all worked out pretty well, and I decided to write up my tips for building your travel knitting bag over on my blog.

It’s important to consider how long you’ll be gone and how much travel time you have to work with, what kind of projects you like when traveling and what other supplies you will need for your chosen projects.

How many projects do you take with you when you travel? Any good travel knitting tips?

[Photo: Our Daily Craft.]

Comments

  1. For road trips I can bring my usual 3 or so projects. Sometimes I’ll start new projects on a trip. I usually try to bring a variety that includes something challenging and something a little more mindless that doesn’t require a lot of thought. For trips that involve air travel it depends on how long I’m going, and what else I will be doing. On my last trip I brought a pair of socks that include cables, and a project that involved stockinette in the round where I didn’t even need to carry the pattern with me. I had air and train travel, and a day in the city where I didn’t want to worry about a pattern in addition to my project.

Have you read?

Pencil Knitting Patterns

Getting ready for back to school makes me think about pencil crafts, so let’s take a look at some pencil themed knitting patterns! 

I recently made a pencil on a circular knitting machine, and it was a fun, quick, easy project that uses little bits of leftover yarn (and if you don’t have yellow you can make it a colored pencil using whatever color’s your favorite). And if you want to make a bigger version check out this pattern from Orange Olive Road on Etsy.

If you want to knit a pencil pillow by hand, check out Sketchy, available on Ravelry from Shana S. Cohen. This one uses worsted weight yarn and has two size options and the choice to make a pencil with an eraser or a colored pencil. 

Pencil scarves seem to be the most popular kind of pencil knitting pattern, and there are lot of cute ones. This one from Cosy Craft UK mostly uses garter stitch, with some welts to add texture and what looks like an I-cord edging. It calls for DK weight yarn. 

If you want to go all garter stitch try this version from Emsley Co Creations, which uses five colors of DK weight yarn and just a little shaping to make the point of the pencil.

There’s also this fun, mostly stockinette so it looks like it curls a bit, pencil pattern that looks like it’s worked in chunky yarn from Little Knits Studio. This one uses just a little garter stitch and easy shaping for the point. 

If you don’t want a pencil scarf, how about some pencil socks? The No. 2 Pencil Socks from The Yarn Enabler are available from Ravelry and use five colors of sock yarn. They feature wide ribs to mimic the texture of a pencil and have options to be worked from the top down or the toe up. 

Needs Sharpening by Alexander Walker is a free pattern on Ravelry that uses five colors of sock yarn to make a sort of shortie sock. The little bit of black at the tips of the toes inspired the name. These, too, can be worked in either direction and are available in three sizes.