This is a travel swift I inherited from my great-grandmother, who was a knitter, crocheter, tatter, designer (yes! she published patterns in newspapers, we have the clippings!), sewer and all around handy woman to have around.  The swift clamps to the surface, and then folds out, as you can see.  It’s not quite a tabletop swift, not quite an umbrella swift.  The best part about it though?  It all comes apart, and can be stored in a computer bag.

When I’m traveling, it makes a lot of sense for me to keep things in the skein until I need them.  So I bring the swift along, and hand ball them.  With the swift, I can hand ball something in less than ten minutes, if I had Michael hold his hands out or tried to do it off my lap, it’d be a 30 minute process, at least.

As you can see, I’ve taken over our sleeper compartment as I set things up. I got some great comments from the Sleeping Car Attendant, and also made a friend who was a knitter.

It was great, we geeked out over socks.

Well, wish me luck as I punch out the last of the pattern today.

Do you have anything that makes traveling with your yarn easier?