MENU

Off to India!

Michael and I are winging off to our honeymoon in India this evening.  Today (and last night) has been a flurry of packing, wrapping up loose ends, and arguing with myself about how many knitting  and crochet projects I can REALLY get done in India.

On one hand, we’re going to be taking the train a lot, and that is prime knitting time.

After going back and forth with myself, this is what I’ve decided on:

  • 2 balls of sock yarn (yarn under wraps, sorry) for a half-finished design submission, and needles.
  • 1 ball of sock yarn (Mountain Colors Mountain Goat) for an old half-finished sock for myself.  It’s entirely stockinette.  I stalled out when my Knitter’s Pride Karbonz metal tip broke off.  The needle breaking was no great tragedy (I wasn’t really enjoying working with them as much as I thought I was going to – the seam between the metal and the carbon fiber was not very good, and rubbed by finger), but it was sad that I stopped, the yarn is gorgeous.  I actually knit a pair of socks in the color, I ended up giving them to my mom.  Then I brought more of the yarn in the same color for myself.
  • Rainbow colored sock yarn to play with and to make a pair of socks for myself.  I haven’t knitted for myself in forever.  Two new pairs of socks to add to my collection would be great.
  • 1 ball of sock yarn and beads to play with a design idea for when I come home.
You might sense a theme with all the sock yarn – basically, I didn’t want any big project, I wanted to maximize yardage for space.  All my stitch markers, needles and scissors are packed in carry-on luggage.  I’m good to go!

Some other pictures from our trip, because I have a deadline today

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?

The Second Half of our Trip, Chicago

After we stayed a few days in New Orleans, we trained up to Chicago, where we had the day to noodle around before we caught the last leg of the train.

It ended up being a pretty nasty day, with it alternating between snow and rain, so we didn’t do as much as planned.  But we did go out for Greek food in Greektown, and we did visit one of my favorite yarn shops in Chicago, Loopy Yarns.

This was the second time I’d been to Loopy Yarns, the first being nearly five years ago.  They are right near one of the old Chicago Train Stations, which means Michael is happy visiting there.  They’ve got great places for non-stitchers who are tagging along to hang out (I’ve begun to appreciate that more).  Their yarns are organized logically, they have a great teaching space, and they have one of my favorite ways I’ve seen of organizing needles.

This time around I got to meet the owner, who I hadn’t gotten to meet last time.

I also got to avail myself of one of my favorite aspects of the store: THEY HAVE A WHOLE ROOM DEVOTED TO BOOKS.  I would go there just to page through the books, never-mind the yarn.  They have one of the best selections of books I’ve come across in my travels, second only to Webs in Northampton, MA.

I managed to pickup The New Tunisian Crochet, which I’ve been eyeing since it came out.  (It’s worth it by the way!  Go out and get!)

I fondled several of the new yarns that are in – glad to see some of my favorites are carried even as far as Chicago.

So thank you Loopy Yarns, for making my day in Chicago better despite the weather.