It’s summertime, and that means traveling!  I just got back from a lovely weekend trip to Pennsylvania to visit my husband’s family.  It’s about a six hour flight from one coast to the other, so I had plenty of time to indulge two of my favorite pastimes:  knitting and reading SkyMall.

When you’re traveling with your knitting, it’s important to keep three factors in mind.  Or, at least these are the three things I keep in mind:

1.  What will the fuzz (the po-po, the man, the 5-O) let you take on the plane?  TSA regulations can be found here.  But basically, the only thing you (as a knitter) need to worry about is that your scissors need to have blades that are less than 4 inches long.  Needles/crochet hooks are allowed.  Now, if you bring a pair of super-sharp 15 inch-long size 10s, they might have a problem with it.  But, I’ve never had an issue with bringing my needles on a plane.

2.  What can I carry?  I like knitting small projects on vacation, so I’m not lugging a great big sweater around with me.  Socks are great, because they don’t take a lot of thinking, and you can pick them up and put them down without worrying you’ll loose your place.  Lacework is fun, too, since you can work on a pretty big project, but it crunches up into a tiny little ball when you’re not working on it.

3.  What will prevent the folks in my row from hating me?  If I didn’t get to knit during a flight, I would probably go insane from boredom.  I have to keep busy.  It’s sort of a nervous tick.  But, when you’re stuck in such a small space with other people, it’s important not to piss them off.  So I like to pick a project that doesn’t take a lot of room to work on.  So, no big, long straight needles that poke my seatmates, no blankets or anything that will take up more than my allotted personal bubble space, and no projects that use multiple balls of yarn that could roll around and get in people’s way.

So, safe travels!  And may the TSA never confiscate your knitting!  (And, if you are thinking of getting me a present for early Christmas, I’m a huge fan of the swamp zombie statue from SkyMall.)