Showing posts with label TSA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TSA. Show all posts

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Have project, will travel

Traveling to Washington, D.C., this week and am at a loss on whether to take a project or not.

Before smart phones and tablets, traveling for work presented a lot of boredom. Flying from a regional airport means at least a two hour layover in Houston. I don't like to read on airplanes or in airports, so a little knit or crochet project is usually tucked in my carry-on. That way I can while away the time while creating something. But what to take?

First, the TSA had no problem with my taking some aluminum #9 needles on board, along with little scissors. But those little cutters that are like a pendant are verboten. Crazy, huh? Right after the bombings in 2011, I often had fellow passengers tell me they felt better knowing we had a weapon.

Back to crafting. A good travel project will be small and have few moving parts. Once I tried to complete a complicated cross stitch pattern that was almost illegible. Too many threads, small needles, charts, scissors-- yuck! When knitting, using circulars is a bonus because you can't lose one. Doing some socks on dpns is fraught with danger. Once, I took socks (small, right?) and the little metal needles kept sliding out and skittering across the floor. Not my finest hour.

This trip, I won't have lots of nighttime hours to spend in front of the tube and I'll be gone six days, so the suitcase will be stuffed. I think I'll take along a thread crochet project. One ball of thread, a hook and a spare, some blunt scissors, and the pattern! Crocheting is my 'native' language so I won't have struggles with figuring out what I am to do. I saw a pattern for a tablecloth in the June 2012 Crochet World magazine that would look great on my dining table. Nine squares of filet sewn together and then edged. Very similar to a throw I made out of thread and keep in the living room for chilly evenings in the summers. If I only got two or three squares done, that would be a good start.