The Adventures of the Knitting Tourist: Traveling with Chic with Stix
The Travel Series: Packing for your trip
With the summer traveling season thrust upon us, a day does not go by when a new discussion thread or post pops up the knitting discussion boards. Questions like, “Who has travelled recently through London Heathrow with knitting needles in their carry-on?” or “Should I bring my Harmony Knitpicks on my flight from New York to London?”
I have flown many times on Aer Lingus, Air Canada, British Airways, BMI and Ryanair.
Without question, I knit when I travel. As a general rule of thumb, if my flight is over 1.5 hours, I will bring my knitting on board the aircraft. This is how I do it…Can you see the bamboo dpns?
List of Knitting Parapharnalia in my carry-on:
> pencil case with the following items…
>> pencil
>> eraser
>> pens
>> USB flash memory stick
>> iPod Shuffle
>> Brittany Birch dpns
>> plastic darning needle
>> plastic stitch markers
note: I have no metal objects like paper clips or safety pins
> sock pattern
> sock yarn
> dental floss (use the tiny blade to cut your yarn, also keep it separate from the pencil case)
next week: on flight knitting
hey D! How are things? Just had to comment (from honeymoon in Aruba!!) to give my 5 cents on travelling with needles.
I was going to put my dpns in a pencil case going on Aer Lingus from Dublin to San Francisco, but in the end i didnt as my pencil case was too short for my dpns, so I put my good bamboo ones in the checked luggage and not so good bamboo ones in my handbag, flat on the floor of the bag. i got through, no problem, and as i was putting my shoes on after going through, i glanced back and saw a childrens pencil case being gone through with minute detail by one of the guys.
Phew
I knit on the plane without a problem.
Coming from San Francisco to Aruba, i did the same. While we were both given a special treat of having our luggage checked out for explosive materials, which also meant the carry-ons being searched- my needles remained intact (luckily as i had both sets of dpns in my handluggage, the good ones with the sock on them) and I had no problem in knitting then.
Unfortunately, i just haven’t been in knitting mode, and ripped the first sock i started and have only probably done about 3 inches of the one i cast on afterwards.
Enjoy your trip and talk when I get back also!!