Any dedicated knitter will tell you that planning travel knitting is at least as important as planning which clothes and accessories to pack!  Everyone has their own criteria for travel projects, but the main considerations are pattern and/or stitch complexity (or lack thereof), weight of yarn (bulky yarn is bulky to pack, too!), and appropriate size (big enough to last, but small enough to be portable).

Socks are the traditional choice, but needles are another factor… I generally shy away from small double pointed needles when flying, in favor of circulars.  It is extremely awkward to go fishing for a skinny dpn down beside an airplane seat, and equally uncomfortable trying to avoid poking a seatmate with any of the 10 pointy ends!  Yes, I know that a lot of sock knitters use one or two circs, but that’s not my preference.

Making Waves – the designer’s pattern photo

Earlier this year, I settled on what may be the perfect travel knitting – a Making Waves cardigan knit from laceweight Juniper Moon Farm’s Findley Dappled yarn in the Woodland colorway.

This project has LOTS of stockinette, which is saved from being completely mindless by the shaping.  Circular needles are the order of the day, and the whole thing fits neatly into a double-fist-sized project bag and weighs almost nothing!  The clean lines are adorned by ruching (a pretty detail which also includes lots of stockinette), and I am looking forward to wearing the finished sweater!  But since I don’t find it an addicting project, I can save it up for trips when I am a ‘captive audience’, and am happy to have it ready to go.

We saw some gorgeous scenery on the Oregon coast, and I was able to snap a few pictures.  Just look at the colors in this one, and compare them to the colors in my partially-completed cardigan… the yarn designer/dyer could have used my snapshot as inspiration!

The other thing about knitters and travel is the opportunity – nay, obligation – to plan yarn shopping.  It is generally accepted that souvenir yarn does not actually count in one’s stash, and when a single 100-gram skein of luscious sock yarn is enough for a very special project, the only difficulty is making a selection!  But that’s another story…