Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Flying high


I recently had the opportunity to fly from Boston to Wisconsin without my entourage. It's the first time in 5 years that I've traveled without 5 or so kids in tow. I felt like I'd taken off my 50 pound backpack after a long day of hiking - it was like floating. One bag, no one running ahead through the security check, no one begging for money to buy soda and no one to disturb my knitting. Of course I missed my little companions, intensely at times. But still, it was kind of nice to not have to play 20 rounds of 20 questions.


I also discovered the joy of flying as a knitter. It's so much more relaxing? Long lay over? Great- I can knock off a few more rows. Flight delay? No problem. I wanted to get past the heel turn. Everyone else jumped up as soon as the flight was called, milling about and standing around in a long line while I peacefully finished off the seed stitch start to a new scarf. Toward the end of the flight - that long interminable part when the plane has landed but the captain hasn't turned off the seatbelt sign yet - everyone else puts their stuff away and starts impatiently fidgeting. I calmly k, k, spsso, k2tog, k, k. Okay, it really wasn't calm. In fact, it was rather frantic as I raced to finish up a part of the pattern. My only complaint is that the flight wasn't long enough!


Here is what I learned:


If you've missed a yarn over, you can fix it on the next knit row. When you come to the place where the yo should be, gently pull apart the stitches. You will see bars in between them. You need to focus on the top two bars. Take the second bar from the top and loop it around the upper bar as if you are picking up a dropped stitch - et voila, you have a yarn over. Presumably you could do this several rows down if need be but I haven't tried it yet.


Q: When you are doing seed stitch and you realize several rows up that you are off the pattern (knitting when you should be purling) do you have to frog?

A: No! It can be fixed without major surgery. Tink back or knit to the trouble spot. Let the stitch above the mixed up area drop to a row below the problem. Look at the stitches around it and figure out if it should be a knit or a purl. Make sure you loop it over the bar just on top of it in the right direction. Then switch to the opposite for the next bar. Keep switching until you've brought the stitch back to the top.

The picture is a mystery project I worked on while on the trip. Details to follow.

6 comments:

Diane said...

I know what you mean about having something to do while others fidget. Prior to 9/11 I would knit on simple projects using circs so I wouldn't disturb the space around my fellow seat mates. Now, I work on my needlepoint. That is even easier to get through security, and I don't have to worry about dropping stitches when there is turbulence.

Unknown said...

Yay! Don't you just love it when you can "read" your knitting well enough to correct mistakes???!

Janice said...

Yes, my days of flying have been much nicer since I have taken up knitting (and my kids have grown...) How nice to have that time by yourself! (although I am sure you were happy to get back to the fam!) And it looks like you learned alot! thanks for sharing your tips :-)

Holly Jo said...

When we went to Seattle sans kids my husband joked I was looking forward to the flight more than anything. :)

Glad you had a good time, and enjoyed your mistake correction info. :)

monica said...

Glad you had a nice flight. I often wonder how people who don't knit can stand any type of travel. Very little seems to bother me as long as I have my knitting to keep me occupied.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting way to optimize your time!!

The power of the knitter : he is always cool in every situation he has time if he can knit, whereas other people are often in trouble!!^^

I understand you : I do the same during my long ling travel between my home and my work place!!

Thanks for the advises!!