The last two weeks have been really bizarre, and I mean that in the most neutral way possible. Not bad, not good, just absolutely maniacally bizarre. I’ve been up against a crazy deadline or two (one is registration, the other book related) and Joe’s been up against a deadline that makes my deadline look like a cozy little kitten. The two of us have been going to bed late, getting up early, declining invitations, ignoring texts from people (even the ones that say "why are you ignoring me?") eating strange leftovers and oddments, and all the while thinking that next week will be better and we just have to hold on and by the way Honey, did you know we have no toilet paper, today is recycling pick up and we’re out of clean clothes?
Last night I burst out laughing because we were both going to get about four hours of sleep (each, and not at the same time) and we both thought that was AWESOME. Still, we’re lucky to have the work, especially since it’s work that we love, and so we’re trying not to complain, but we are living a strange existence. The day before yesterday all I got to eat was three hard boiled eggs, a half bag of jelly beans, and a bowl of edamame I made at 11:30pm because I was starved and out of eggs and jelly beans. I feel like if it hadn’t been the week after Easter, I might have starved. Add to the whole shebang that today I’m flying to Sock Summit International World Headquarters for Registration launch on Wednesday, and I’m one weird lady.
I sat at my desk yesterday from 7am until about 12:30 this morning, then ran around packing, tossing things in my bag and checking email and finding my camera and finally fell into my bed- then got up four hours later and tossed the last few things in my suitcase – and guzzled coffee, and then the cab came, and I zipped my bag up and wished I had more sleep or more coffee and opened the front door and realized….
I did not have any knitting. None. That’s how messed up I was people. No knitting. Do you know what that’s like? It’s like Cher going on stage without sequins. It’s like a teenager who says "You know what, you know more than I do. You decide" It’s like a dog not getting on your furniture while you’re out. It’s like… It’s like a thousand things that are not like me. I ran back into the living room grabbed the two closest projects, rammed them in my purse and split.
It was there nearest miss I’ve ever had.
Now I’m at the airport, I’ve drunk three cups of coffee to try and be more like myself, my flight’s delayed and here’s what I’ve got. 
My April socks. 
That’s probably good, because.. er. It’s May. Other than the fact that they’re not done, these socks are totally working out. It’s the same yarn that was pooling so badly last time, and I changed the pattern to the Edwardian Boating Socks, and now it’s playing nice. I’m done the first, have a good start on the second and if I were a good little knitter, I would just work on these. However…
The other project I grabbed was the Jacob Damask- and I’m so in love with it. 
I cast on with the darkest colour just like I planned, and I’m making my way though the colours. I’m only about 30 rows in, and I’m in love with it. The other colours are still in the skein though, so I don’t know if I’ll be working on it on the plane, because I’m not sure how easy ball winding would be, and I’m not quite far enough gone to ask a stranger to "hold my skein." Or maybe I am. It might be worth it.
Mostly I’m just so excited about the knitting time on the plane, and I’ve been excited about it for days. I keep sitting at my desk thinking about how the plane is soon and I can knit on the plane. Can you imagine what would have happened if I’d have left with no knitting?
I can, and it involves seven phone calls, a security breach, an accomplice, ten expensive airport drinks and a merino handoff by a chain link fence. Nobody wants that scene.
Before I go, Happy Election Day Canada! I voted in the advance polls so I wouldn’t miss my chance while I was travelling, don’t miss yours. Voting gives you the right to complain about politicians, and makes us look a little less stupid to countries where democracy is harder to come by.
Maybe that explains the long annoying dream I had about packing for the airport while a taxi waited outside my door. I must have been picking up our brain waves. Good thing you had knitting at the ready to grab!
I knew a very weird energy was hanging over North America, but I never imagined it was because the harlot almost forgot her knitting! Makes sense.
The sock pattern is great, and a good match for that yarn! Since you will be down in the US you will not be able to watch TV to see the results of the election. Oh well, there is always the internet! It is going to be very interesting to see how this turns out.
Whew!! That WAS a close one! And, I would Totally hold your skein for you… ;^)
Off to vote now. I was just trying to figure out if I’ve got a knitting or spindling project I can take in case there’s a line.
I was on a flight to Frankfurt a few days ago, knitting, and the flight attendant asked me if I was allowed to bring knitting needles on the plane…
Hope your travel goes well!
That WAS a near-miss! And I’d be tickled if a stranger asked me to hold her skein while it was being made into a nice little ball.
Hope you and Joe get sleep soon – maybe even together!
I’ll be sending good thoughts and wishes for a smooth registration. And the Damask is looking beautiful…must download that one.
Hang the skein around your neck ala fiber jewelry and knit from the skein, no weirder then asking our seatmate to hold your yarn!
Here is what I had to say about voting today in my f/b status:
Tonight after I get home from work and have dinner with my family I’m going to walk with my daughters to my polling station and I’m going to participate in our democracy and I’m going to VOTE and I’m going to talk to my kids about it the whole time until they roll their eyes at me and assure me that yes, when they are old enough, they too will take it seriously and VOTE…
Thanks so much for your great post – your line about accomplices and chain link fences made me laugh out loud in my beige cubicle… !! Happy knitting…
Hope registration goes well and enjoy the knitting time. I’m green with envy, as we’re still not allowed to take knitting needles on any flight leaving from a UK airport. Sigh…..
any seatmate would be honored to hold a skein, and a tray table in the down position might do in a pinch.
enjoy!
We would have found a (legal) way to get yarn to you, even if we have to activate the Mobile Yarn Emergency Task Force. We’re working on a Batman-like signal to hand out to knitters in case of emergencies like this.
I just wish that I had a candidate that I could really get behind. I will go vote for the one whom I disagree with least. It’s kind of depressing. Enjoy your trip.
You have my complete empathy. My partner and I are both teachers and what you described sounds like report writing time at our place. We both go slightly mental when we are writing reports after working all day. Your socks look wonderful…and I’d wind your wool for you. 🙂
That is a beautiful, beautiful sock. Happy Voting Day to you, too.
Wow, that was a close call. I bet if you put out an emergency call via blog/twitter, lots of knitters would show up at your stop over (if they missed you before initial departure) and smuggle yarn and needles to you.
Maybe someday, in a perfect world, right next to the fire extinguisher and defibrillator will be a knitting kit – a ball of nice wool, appropriate sized needles (knit & crochet), a simple quick pattern. This simple kit wouldn’t cost much but could maintain a knitter’s life until the plane could touch down near a yarn store (or a sheep farm). I hope an airline executive reads this message and acts on it soon!
I had a 12 hour car trip a few weekends ago, and my boyfriend treated me a little like a crazy person because I was bringing 5 different projects with me. My bag of knitting projects was almost the same size as my bag of clothes and stuff for the rest of the trip! Glad to know I’m not alone….
Boy, do I sympathize with you on crazy weeks–there have been a couple when my husband and I wave at one end of a day, and 2 days later, have time to wave again. I sure am glad you remembered the knitting. You might have had a brain spasm without it, and in your weakened state, a “lack of knitting brain spasm” would have been very ugly indeed. 🙂 Have a great time of enforced knitting on the plane.
holy cow that was close! I once went on a six hour car trip,(notice I say once!) and I am always so happy to be a passenger. I went to pull out my knitting and….holy f$#*…how could I forget my knitting?!? It was the most horrible car ride ever…glad yours was only a close call! 🙂
So glad you remembered to bring your knitting. I love seeing what other people pack for trips. I show these posts to my husband in the hopes that it will help him to understand. Well. I can try.
I’m in my last week of finals, and my daughter just hit 18 months… your first paragraph pretty much sums up how I feel.
i’m still not really that into knitting socks, but i think i kinda HAVE to go to sock summit. i don’t know if i can wait two years, ya know?
DEAR GOD WOMEN! I can not believe you almost left the house with no knitting. I think I would have heard the scream all the way in the St. Louis airport (which is where I was at 4:45am heading home after Loopy Ewe’s Spring fling). I’m glad my flying is done for the morning. Hope your flight is uneventful! Hugs to you and Tina et al. as you brave the SS11 Registration. All in the name of KNIT!
“a merino handoff by a chain link fence” – lol! I can just picture it in my mind 🙂 Have a good trip!
Stepnanie, Stephanie, Stephanie, do yourself a favour and just sleep on the airplane!
Holy poop your pace exhausts me just reading it.
I’ve used the tray table as a swift, and it works. Not beautifully, not perfectly, but it works. Good luck!
I can’t help but notice that hard-boiled eggs, jelly beans, and edamame are all the same shape (at least once you get the edamame out of its shell).
As usual you are so funny. However, Toni and her emergency knitting kit next to the defibrillator made my day.
I can’t even fathom no knitting on the plane. Horror of horrors. I’m glad you grab some! And do get some sleep will you?! It’s bad for your health not to (I know you know that).
I’ve been known to use my knees to hold the skein while I wind. So which is worse – asking a stranger to hold your yarn, or looking like you’re recreating a lamaze class on an airplane???
Did you know you can SLEEP on airplanes too? Best wishes for some good rest. When I want everyone to understand how really tired I am I tell them “I am too tired to even knit!” They usually gasp
Toni C and her emergency knitting kit idea is terrific! I wish I were an airline executive with the power to make this happen.
Goes back to the question of why there aren’t knitting shops in airports. Congrats on getting the knitting time. Advantage of driving – you can take more to work on at destination. Disadvantage, no knitting while driving.
I love those socks. What a great choice!
I love that attitude! I told my husband the exact same thing… “if you don’t vote, you don’t have a right to b@&#h about the government later”, lol. And the sock pattern is fantastic!
Forgetting travel knitting is just another reason why a civilized nation would have knit shop kiosks in every major airport! If I won the lottery I just might try to make that happen…
Remember, there will always be someone not happy about registration. Do your best and then rest. Great socks!
“The two of us have been going to bed late, getting up early, declining invitations, ignoring texts from people (even the ones that say “why are you ignoring me?”) eating strange leftovers and oddments, and all the while thinking that next week will be better and we just have to hold on and by the way Honey, did you know we have no toilet paper, today is recycling pick up and we’re out of clean clothes?”
Sounds like my life with a newborn right now.
“A merino handoff by a chain link fence” – I’m still laughing.
Bon voyage, happy Sock Summit, and congrats on that smooth last-minute grab of knitting projects.
My last flight was at age seven years and in a military plane. It is now fifty years later and in a few weeks I have a trip requiring air travel and then eight days after my return a second trip requiring air travel. So, thanks for the advice–pack knitting first!
You can drape the skein around your neck or over your knees and knit from it that way. I’ve knitted directly from a skein many times during traveling this way – since I’m usually too impatient to wait till I arrive at the feet of a ball winder. 🙂 Happy knitting & traveling!
Thank you for that HILARIOUS entry…it made my day!
This sock is FAR lovelier than the first and I’m dying to see the completed shawl – STUNNING!
Safe travels.
Here’s to good server mojo and to eating with utensils in the near future.
I normally wind my skeins of yarn with it over my knees. It works surprisingly well, and I have done it even on a crowded subway (but not super crowded). You could probably do this on a flight.
As someone without a ball winder, or a willing assistant – I’ve gotten good at improvising. My suggestion: hang the skein over the folding dinner tray in front of you. May not be the tightest fit, but will do in a pinch.
I’m just glad to hear it’s not just theatre families that have such insane schedules every so often. I’ve barely seen my husband for the last week or so, the kitchen is a mess, I haven’t eaten properly in quite some time, and work has me doing overnights, just to make things extra crazy.
But I’m sure next week will be better…
Happy sock summiting!
Neener! (For not finishing the April socks in April.)
Boy, I’m so jealous!!! I’m gonna be on an incredibly long BA Flight all the way to southamerica very soon and I can’t take needdles on the plane!!!
Maybe I should start some kind of protest against it HAHAHAHA!!
ps. Your April/May socks are just b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!!!
The socks are beautiful! They look wonderfully intricate. Bet you’re glad you ripped the first pattern when it didn’t do justice to the yarn.
Can’t wait for registration, I plan to organize my participation like a military campaign. Hope you have a great flight and make your connection in Vancouver.
Voting, done. Commencing with socks now (December socks – does that make you feel better?). Love the way that wool is working in your pattern.
Can I please clarify what I wrote earlier about knitting needles on UK flights, having just had an anguished query on my blog from someone about to travel to the UK from Canada.
You can take as many knitting projects with you as you like, as long as they are packed in your checked-in luggage. Knitting needles are NOT allowed in hand luggage on flights from UK airports or on all the UK airlines I have experience of (along with absolutely anything else which could remotely be used as a weapon). My yarn-mad daughter has just invested in a plastic crochet hook for our two-hour flight to Italy this month 🙂
Amazing how much better that yarn looks in a different pattern!
To solve the little packing situation that you almost alway find yourself in–why don’t you leave a weekend-worth of clothes at SS11 headquarters? I’m sure you could stick them in a suitcase under a bed somewhere–and that would mean you only have to grab fresh essentials and your knitting and be on your way!
Dang – sounds crazy! But thanks for blogging; it always makes my day.
BTW – Socks look great! Excellent save.
And fingers crossed for all the ST’s for registration this year. Wish I could join the fun.
Great choice on the sock pattern. And, what a perfect example of how yarn colors pool differently depending on the design of the pattern. The colors really look wonderful now, compared to the ‘before,’ which was, ahem, not good.
Great choice on the sock pattern. And, what a perfect example of how yarn colors pool differently depending on the design of the pattern. The colors really look wonderful now, compared to the ‘before,’ which was, ahem, not good.
The socks are gorgeous. The shawl is beautiful. Glad you had those seconds to run back in. No knitting and stuck in an airplane=torture!
Hang in there Stephanie!
The new pattern for the STR sock is great – AND it involves linen stitch (my favorite).
I’ll be interested to hear whether you feel that the legs are suitably stretchy.
minm
I’m being thinking about a good location for a yarn store. Got it now – the airport!
Doesn’t sound much crazier than my life lately. So glad you remembered your knitting. Suggestion for the future (assumes you use the same carry-on bag each trip) is that you leave a wound ball of yarn along with pattern and needles in said bag. Only to be knit on as a last resort. If you get really going on that project it must be replaced by another unstarted project. Basically your sock a month kit as emergency plane knitting. Seems to me you recently worried about being under-yarned on a flight and this would save that worry as well.
Looking forward to Wednesday when I try to register while waiting for a flight to board. This could be interesting. Fingers crossed that your promises of a smooth registration event come true.
Hugs to everyone at SSIH.
Thanks for encouraging folks to vote. I’m living my way through life as a public employee in Wisconsin because people didn’t bother to pay attention to issues and/or vote last fall. Now, we’re dealing with recalls, recounts, a whole slug of new elections in July and hopefully more early next year. Yup, this is what Democracy looks like, but, couldn’t we have done it right the first time!
Happy knitting!
nice to know I’m not alone. I’ve been telling people for years “if you don’t vote you can’t complain” that it’s turned into a barnburner when it was categorized as unnecessary is such a bonus. Enjoy your airplane knitting time hope the registration goes like clockwork
nice to know I’m not alone. I’ve been telling people for years “if you don’t vote you can’t complain” that it’s turned into a barnburner when it was categorized as unnecessary is such a bonus. Enjoy your airplane knitting time hope the registration goes like clockwork
I would totally hold your skein on a plane. I wish I flew from Toronto to the west coast ever so that I could. If you stop in Minneapolis, I will lend you my ball winder.
If I was on that plane, I would beg to hold your yarn for you! As always, a good laugh. Are we all that much overworked? Seems like it!
I can just see you standing up to address the entire plane: “I’m looking for a volunteer to hold my hank of yarn while I wind it into a ball. Any takers?”
You can always ask me to hold your skein, but I cannot guarantee I won’t forget my manners and start knitting the other end (and we’ll meet in the middle somewhere!)
Next time let your fans know and we’ll hook you up with more than eggs and jellies.
At a Yarnover class in St Paul, MN this weekend I sat in front of a lady who, in between keeping up with the class project, was winding a skein of beautiful green sock yarn using her (crossed) knee and that foot as a “swift.” I was SO impressed–she never created a single tangle either!
I totally understand about what would have happened if you’d left without your knitting. I made it to church yesterday without knitting, and had to sneak out and dash back home and get it. Not as long a stretch as your flight (although we meet for more than just a main service), but I think I would have lost it without it.
Have fun!
Those socks are so pretty! Thanks to you, I now have them queued. I hope you have a great time @ Sock Summit.
a near miss indeed. however the socks are stunningly nice, and of course you had me at the word “jacob”
in the event of an emergency in the usa, especially near the east coast be reassured that i am NEVER without jacob roving, fleece, or yarn.. have a drum carder and a spinning wheel, and i CAN emergency supply a yarn harlot if need be….
good luck
Hope you get knitting and a nap. Thanks for all you do take care of yourself a bit you are our only Harlot. Here is hoping you get a few sunny days in Oregon to soothe your sole. 🙂
I love the idea of a yarn hand-off at a certain chain-link fence…which makes me wonder why don’t airport stores sell knitting needles in at least one size and inexpensive yarn? You know I’d crochet a doofy hat in polyester pink if that’s all that the aiport shop had.
Not that this will EVER happen again, but do remember that any number of your readers would be happy to meet you at any airport and hand you a ready-to-go project if your layover is more than 2 minutes. Next time you’re contemplating drinks by the dozen remember, you have thousands of allies all over the world.
If I were you, I’d sleep once I got on that plane!
The knitting can wait. You need some sleep.
Have fun! At least you’re finally getting in your knitting time, and keeping everything in perspective.
Me, too, on the yarn handoff through the chain link fence! You know how much of a pain in the neck it is to laugh so hard you squirt tearn on the inside of your glasses? Yeah.
Also, I keep going back to the photo of your new socks. I really can’t believe it’s the same yarn as before. In general I’m not fond of varigated yarns at all, but that pattern actually looks better in that colorway. Just spectacular.
I cannot imagine flying without knitting. That would be a major disaster! About having a stranger hold your yarn for winding: I did it at Christmast time and the woman was thrilled. She said, “Oh yes! I’ve always wanted to do this!” She was happy as a clam, living the dream. I had made her day. It’s the little things that make life good.
I live in a town that still has Local Town Meeting every spring. It was last week. My college age daughter went to as much as she could, before she headed back to school. The other college daughter was in another state, and insisted on her dad having skype on his laptop open, so she could listen in!
When my kids are 17, they have to come observe a couple nights, and at 18, they are there for all of it! They can do homework, but they need to know what is going on! I get a lot of knitting does, as do many others 😉 But, it’s important!
I live in a town that still has Local Town Meeting every spring. It was last week. My college age daughter went to as much as she could, before she headed back to school. The other college daughter was in another state, and insisted on her dad having skype on his laptop open, so she could listen in!
When my kids are 17, they have to come observe a couple nights, and at 18, they are there for all of it! They can do homework, but they need to know what is going on! I get a lot of knitting does, as do many others 😉 But, it’s important!
I’d totally ask a stranger to hold my skein. People are bored on flights, you’d really be offering a public service by asking and providing a little interest!
Another vote for the tray table. It works!
Glad you realized that you’d forgotten to pack your knitting! I’d die if I forgot knitting for the flight, especially if I’ve been waiting for the precious, uninterrupted knitting time.
And I’ve even traveled with size 17’s!
Go ahead, ask your neighbor to hold your skein — if you’re lucky, he or she may not try to talk to you for the rest of the flight!
Kelly
p.s. – Check out my new knitting blog at http://www.all-about-knitting.blogspot.com
LOVE the shawl and how the colors are working out.
Maybe you will actually have MORE free time at Sock Summit registration (?) Seriously, you need to take better care of yourself. Go, NDP?
I sure hope you sit next to a knitter or knitter-friendly individual.
Love the sock. It just shouts ‘spring is here’!
I feel like we should all post pictures of ourselves, just in case Steph ever sits next to one of us on a plane and needs someone to hold yarn.
Love and prefer the change of sock pattern to make the best of the dyeing. I’m with Cynthia at 1:01, love the innuendo on that one!
I am wondering how the socks will feel when on, with the rib effect of channels of non-stretchy ‘linen’ stitch, maybe quite ‘hose’-ish.
“Voting gives you the right to complain about politicians, and makes us look a little less stupid to countries where democracy is harder to come by.”
THIS! Eleventy times over!
our primaries are tomorrow in indiana, and i intend to keep my nearly-unbroken string going (i’ve missed voting just twice in 45 years of eligibility).
the women in my family take this stuff seriously. my grandmother was among women who weren’t allowed to vote until well into their adulthood. my mother was in the first generation of girls who grew up knowing that they would be able to vote, and my daughter was able to vote when she turned 18, not 21.
so thanks for the reminder, lest we forget that people elsewhere consider it worth risking death for even the hope of gaining the right to vote.
Annalea @ 1:56: You knit in church? How many “Thou art damned” looks do you get?
I sure wished I had mine during yesterday’s sermon.
Whew! That WAS close! Your last two paragraphs made me laugh…which I needed oh, so much, so thank-you! You know, I don’t sit on the same side of the political fence as you in a lot of areas, but I respect your views and always thoroughly enjoy your political comments. You’re right, of course; everyone should vote! (Because it gives you the right to complain about politicians; you’re right about that part, too. It certainly isn’t because they ever actually do what you want them to, once they’re elected!)
If ever I have the good fortune to sit next to you on a plane, I will be happy to hold a skein for you! 🙂
Long years of sitting through executive sessions as a reporter (I’m an editor now) taught me never to go anywhere without at least a book. So there’s usually a book in my purse, and Designated Travel Knitting in the car … just in case!
Down here south of the border in Vermont, we have no elections today, but I salute you for making sure you didn’t miss yours. I take my voting very seriously, and am glad I’m not alone in that.
I’m staring at that sock picture, remembering what the yarn looked like on the last go-round. Wow. Change CAN happen! Vote, knitters, vote!
To Annalea, I also knit at church, during Sunday School and also during the sermon in the sanctuary. Everyone has become so accustomed to seeing me knit that on the days that I forget to bring knitting I get asked where it is! I do have a self-imposed church knitting rule: I must knit a charity project and if for some reason I can’t (finishing, complex pattern repeat-I only do ‘tv’ knitting at church), I knit on a dishcloth.
Stephanie, I wish I could come to the sock summit. I’m sure that everyone will benefit from your hard work. Love the socks!
Thank goodness for your daughter and her hard-boiled Easter eggs. You could have mashed them up with a bit of mayonnaise and had a lovely sandwich (if you had any bread.) The sock is beautiful now, and who cares if it’s your April sock? No one but you will know, and I think the colours are very May-like. The magnolia trees in my neighbourhood are about to burst into bloom, and I definitely see some of their lovely pink colour in your yarn.
Sleep as much as you can, Stephanie. Not doing so will affect your older years. Ask me how I know? Hurray for the voting, though. I’m all for the voting.
….aaaahhhh….what? Leave the house without kniting? You must be feverish from not getting enough sleep, easter egg and jellybean overload. Your coffee needs to be stronger?
You must NEVER EVER think about or conciter leaving your knitting at home ever again! It is all that keeps you sane. I know, with all the stuff going on in the world….it is all that keeps me out of the funny farm….
Peace my dear!
Barb R.
I too would die if I forgot my knitting. I would hope there are enough nice people around that someone would hold a skein for you. I sure would! I have incorporated your personal “sock of the month club” for my genealogy. I have wanted to get family history goals accomplished, but other things are just too inticing ( my knitting?) You are a genius. I set my genealogical sights within reason, have written down my small monthly goals and voila – I am a happy. Also put my dozens of unfinished knitting projects in zip lock bags with instructions and yarn. It is all so organized I can see what I really have and am committed to finishing. Downside is that means I can’t go to the local yarn shops for a while. Too much temptation.
Thanks for the link to the lovely socks… I have just the yarn for them in my stash and I haven’t put my own project club into motion this year. It’s May, and my resolutions are doing very poorly.
‘Don’t miss your chance to vote’ – I won’t, thanks Stephanie. This election should be interesting!
Good luck with registration; please find some sleep! (Sleep deprivation is my idea of hell – I get crazy.)
I’m off to vote in a few minutes when my daughter gets home from work. She has her first real job and this is her first opportunity to vote. She’s excited and I’m a proud momma. Obviously all those years of dragging her along while I voted has rubbed off!
Oh… and I do like these socks better than the pooling ones although I didn’t hate those.
Forgot this was a knitting blog for a moment!
My God. A plan ride without knitting would be unbearable. I would need to be sedated for the safety of all those around me. Glad you didn’t forgot and Good Luck with the Summit stuff.
As someone who has always wound balls from yarn draped around my knees, I’m surprised every time someone suggests a helper is necessary.
I love the new socks! And glad you voted at the advance polls, we all did (we have 3 voters in the house).Have a great trip!
“Cher without sequins”, ” a merino handoff by a chain link fence”, LOL, LOL! I really needed this tonight. Good luck with the Sock Summit registration.
I’d totally hold your yarn for you to wind if we were on a plane together.
seems to me that little tray table would hold a skein for winding quite nicely!
Packing knitting first works great when you have plenty of sleep.
Given how bizarre life has been, I might have been imagining sleep on the plane.
Your blog does so well when you are in the pacific northwest.
Waiting for your next book… patiently.
“Luckily”, I don’t have “near misses” that involve leaving my knitting at home pre long-trip-that-absolutely-REQUIRES-that-I-take-something-preferably-knitting-to-busy-hands-that-would-otherwise-be-engaged-in-the-manual-strangulation-of-traveling-companions..,no, i leave my knitting in the Taxi. I am writing this from prison.
I hope you manage to get that beautiful handspun wound somehow so you can knit on the plane! Maybe there will be another knitter on the plane somewhere. You could have them make an announcement like they did in old movies, “Is there a knitter in the house???”
you never know who will be sitting next to you on the plane. it could be me (or someone like me) and i (or the person like me) would be happy to help you wind that lovely jacobs.
happy knitting!
ps. love the new socks.
I don’t believe this. I simply don’t believe this.
The day after I cast on my first proper pair of socks (the mismatched little test socks I made to learn the technique = improper), I find that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the woman whose books I am, as a new knitter, DEVOURING, the woman whose personal sock-of-the-month club inspired me to branch out into this new territory… is knitting the same socks at the same time. (With yarn I now think I like better than mine, but no, no, I’ll ignore that. I’ll let it go. Because the ‘plane is probably going too fast for me to catch it, even if I leave right away.)
Good luck with all the deadlines! And congratulations on your fine taste in socks. 🙂
Good on ya for voting.
So far, it’s looking like a f*&^ing Conservative majority government with the NDP as the official opposition!
Glad you remembered your knitting before it was too late. Also, knees make good skein holders if you wind slow enough.
It’s funny how the beginning of your post – the writing – reflected your insane crazy deadline life. But the moment you began talking about knitting, everything seemed to calm down. As it does when we knit. hmmm.
Oh, I’m so glad to know you are enjoying the Damask. I’m knitting the Rock Island shawl now and have purchased the Damask and have my lace book already made, ready for me to start! (My brain isn’t wired correctly for charts. I have to have it written out with letters, rather than symbols.) I have yet to decide on the yarn for the Damask, as I normally don’t knit with anything heavier than a 2-ply lace weight. I imagine it will feel a bit like knitting with butchers twine for a while, but I will get used to it.
Hope the Summit Stuff goes well. Namasde.
Good grab with the Damask! I knitted one of these and loved it. It was especially nice to knit a shawl that had *fewer* stitches each row instead of more. Looking forward to seeing it with the gradient of colours. 🙂
You could try putting the skein around your tray table, and winding it from there. It’s worked for me!
Can’t believe you almost left without your knitting, though. I’ve forgotten stockings (yes, I still wear them) for a formal event, but I spend an inordinate amount of time planning my plane/trains and automobiles knitting!
Shocking…I gasped and am very glad you remembered. You and Joe are quite admirable how you both do your ‘thing’ and no one gets stuck dropping their dreams. Bravo you two.
Wow…for last minute you sure did a good job snagging great projects! I’m glad you remembered!
ah, harlot, how well i remember the days when the first (and sometimes only) things you had packed in advance were your knitting projects, only remembering things like underpants at the last second! thanks for the smiles and for the lovely pictures of your WIPs.
And thanks also to commenter Bella @ 9:29 PM, who made me laugh out loud. The cat, who was startled by my cackle, thanks you less. Ah, well, c’est le chat!
I hope to the knitting gods that someday I’m randomly next to you on a plane and get to hold your skeins as you hand wind balls – the scene is so fantastic to conjure in my mind!
I don’t know where to start. Okay, the important stuff first. A huge thank you for staying sane throughout all the craziness that is Sock Summit. I’ve looked at the schedule and am having a difficult time deciding on classes.
Second, and really just as important, thank you for the reminder to always have some “travel” knitting ready to grab on the way out the door.
Third, please bring some sunshine with you……
Amazing what a difference changing the pattern makes to the pooling/non-poolingness! I’ll remember that the next time I’m getting puddles in a pattern!
Go ahead and ask a stranger to hold your skein! As a matter of knitting policy I think we should all do that often. Conversation starter, or stopper, at least. At best – most folk of a certain age can remember holding the skein for a mom or grandma and they would probably be tickled pink to help out. It’s not like plane trips are so crammed with interesting events that they might not want to miss out on something!
OMG. I am in the middle of many deadlines and neither my dayplanner nor my brain are big enough to manage it all… so I took a two minute “layover” to your blog to see if there might be a new diversion for me. Well, I laughed hard and out loud at the “it would be like Cher going on stage without sequins!” Thanks for lightening my day. Now I can handle all my own deadlines. So glad you got to bring some of your knitting after all. It’s what makes airline travel bearable. 🙂
Wow. That almost looks like entirely different yarn. I love what it’s doing in the new pattern. Really shows off the beautiful colors.
And so good that you remembered your yarn. Merion handoffs by the chain link fences have gotten increasingly harder now that airport security has become so…twitchy.
And I thought I was busy. . .
Glad you have a whole flight to knit, you definately deserve to have a few hours off.
They sould have a kiosk or some little stand in the mall for people who are without adequate yarn.
I vote for sleeping on the plane too, but if you need to wind a skein, and you asked a seatmate to hold it, what’s the worst that could happen? They take guns and knives away before you get on the plane, so the worst would be that they would say, “No, I’d rather not do that.”
Hmmm…. After the first part of the story, I’m wondering what happens with your knitting when you just plain fall asleep in the middle of it?
And I’m not near in your class as a knitter, but the list of things for my trip(s) this weekend is headed off by … knitting. It may end up being pretty simplistic, but with the number of hours in a car that I’m facing (no, I’m not driving) I’d better come up with something.
It’s probably too late now….but couldn’t you have put the skein around the drop down table on the plane???
Me, I’d definitely be asking my seat neighbour for help. But that’s just me…a 48 yr old, pushy Dutchman LOL
I have never commented, but always read. Just wanted to say your last paragraph was so “right on”. Thank you and happy Sock Summit.
“Can you imagine what would have happened if I’d have left with no knitting?”
Yes, I can and I think it would be a very good thing for you. Soul strengthening, you might say. Perhaps even character building.
I have suggested a knitting diet to you before, Stephanie, and you have steadfastly ignored me. I understand. You’re frightened. You don’t believe you could survive the sudden withdrawal and the thought of an hour empty of furious productivity would be devastating.
We patiently await your moment of person growth or utter collapse…whichever comes first. >:-)
Please tell me your edamame was in the pod. Otherwise you would have eaten the same shape food all day–no wonder things have been bizarre.
Didn’t recognize the same yarn, even when I went back to look it was hard. Good save.
Stephanie – those socks are gorgeous!!!!!!
Can completely relate to the craziness of work commitments and deadlines – hang in there, knitting was the only thing that kept me sane (or from hurting people) – I’m sure the plane knitting will restore your being. Safe trip.
Oh my gosh, yarn lust, pattern envy! What a great combo.
As a single woman whose dogs refuse to hold the skein, I’ve had to learn how to hand wind yarn by myself. If the skein is large enough, I loop it over my foot and my bent knee. You can also use the armrest of the seat and your knee. Of course, there’s also the less popular (and most risky) method of just laying the skein open on your lap and carefully pulling the yarn out of the skein. None of these methods are perfect but they work in a pinch. 🙂
I just love the idea of asking a stranger to hold your skein. It’s the kind of story/idea that sends knitters into hysterics and confused everyone else.
I voted. I foresee lots of complaining by me. 🙁
Great comments on creative ways to wind yarn on the airplane! I have always just used my knees in a pinch…..
Thanks for the hard work on the sock summit. I have two wishes for you: first, that the server(s) on Wednesday cooperate properly, and second, that you and Tina are paying yourselves handsomely for all this hard work!!
Aileen
Phew! Escaped that knitting escapade … in the nick of time.
Love the Jacob Damask! Cannot wait to see it all done.
Registration has just opened. I can’t go, so I’m not signing on – but I’m sending you lots of deep breaths and warm wishes. I imagine now might be the sort of time I would forget to breathe.
I don’t even KNIT and I wanna go to sock summit. And I would have been happy to hold your yarn on the plane.I never get to sit next to someone doing handwork. I always sit in front of the 3 year old who kicks the back of your seat from LA to Baltimore, but the mom is holding an infant and reading to the six year old so it would just be WRONG to threaten to eat the kid.
I am shocked and amazed that the yarn that pooled on your first sock (which I still thought looked waaayyy cool and I would have happily worn) looks so AMAZING in the Edwardian sock.(I wanna go to that hand painted yarn lecture) And I cant WAIT to see the shawl completed. Do you get to keep any of this stuff?
Amen on the voting. I’m not always crazy about my choices but I get sick of people who complain when they don’t bother to vote. My son was a Marine in Iraq in Jan 2005 when they had the first elections in the 5000 year history of Mesopotamia. People dodged bombs and carried grandma on kitchen chairs to vote. Americans and Canadians don’t realize how well off we are. It’s a messy system and my candidate doesn’t always make it, but we get a do over on a regular basis. Thank God for that.
Lovely socks, and highly apropos, being named after a royal and all.
I am going to guess that your last sentence does not refer to your neighbors to the south, even though some of us sometimes feel that way. This in turn makes me thankful for what we have. I do need to be reminded sometimes.
I’ve got a decent hotel room trick for winding balls from skeins of yarn.
Surprisingly, many hotels have giant lampshades on at least one of the lights in the room. Some of them can even spin freely.
It’s not quite as great as a swift and ballwinder, but it works in a pinch. I had a yarn emergency before the knitting olympics, and had to wind a couple skeins of cascade heritage sock yarn this way…
hard boiled eggs, jelly beans, and edamame are all the same shape. just wanted to point that out.
Glorious! And a celebration you so deserve. Carpe Bloom!