Knitting on planes

I suppose (please note grammar pendants) that the title should read "Knitting on 'planes". Otherwise it sounds like I've done something rather clever and unexpected with the ancient craft/art (delete as you see fit) of knitting. I haven't...not unless taking your knitting, needles and all, onto an international flight and no one, not one single solitary person bats an eyelash counts as unexpected. Which it does, actually. Otherwise why have I spent a significant percentage of the last fortnight figuring out how to make my knitting seem like just a bit of knitting - and not a potentially lethal weapon - to the airport and airline security checks?

Anyway...here's me, at Heathrow airport..doing a bit of knitting. Which, I have to tell you, felt downright brazen; and I didn't spot a single other soul knitting either. You'd think in such a place, where waiting around was the main activity, that knitters would pop up left right and centre. So to spot none at all was making me think that this particular bit of knitting was going nowhere fast.

I couldn't have been more wrong. Maybe I'm out of touch, and knitting on planes (or 'planes) is not an issue anymore. Anyway - here's proof...

This is on the second leg, Malaysian Airlines, flying out of Kuala Lumpur early in the morning with about 8 hours flying to go. Which means I'm about two thirds of the way to Brisbane at this point. And I'll concede the issue, the knitting has not grown that much in the intervening hours between take off at Heathrow and this point.

I'm not sure why, but I just didn't do much knitting. Maybe it was the rather cramped environment, but I just couldn't settle to it. Did not expect that. In fact, most of the knitting that did occur was actually in the airport, apart from this rather brief stint, which I confess I did more out of annoyance than inclination - I mean I'd put so much effort into getting it up in the air it would have been almost criminal to not do some of it. 

Also, I didn't read much either. Or do any studying. In fact, none of the various the things I'd crammed into my cabin luggage to keep myself occupied got a decent look in. 

But I did get a master-class in how to to do long haul flying, from the very polite and smiley young man in the seat next to me. 

He was very nice and chatty before take-off, then once we were up he slept almost the THE WHOLE WAY to Kuala Lumpur. Twelve hours straight. He didn't even go to the loo. He woke up when they brought food or snacks or drinks, and then disappeared into a kind of lurching upright semi-coma for the rest of the time, with only a couple of failed bids to watch a movie or two somewhere along the line.

I on the other hand, managed to watch three and a half movies, do a few paltry rows of knitting, go to the loo twice - would have gone more but I couldn't bear to disturb my neighbour. I did try but failed to sleep - and lets face it 'trying to sleep' has got to be the least restful combination of ideas ever, plus I managed lose my glasses. And that was just the first leg of the flight.

I shall travel considerably lighter on the journey home. Maybe I'll just take the knitting. And a change of clothes. I hate to admit it, because I usually find that a bit of knitting can alleviate any number of ills, but having a fresh set of undies for the second leg of the journey was definitely the best travel tactic. 

So I arrived in Brisbane, in clean pants and with all my knitting accoutrements intact, and there to meet me - after two and half years of living in opposite hemispheres - was Nelson. For anyone reading this who doesn't actually know me, Nelson is why I'm here, and why the trip is such a big deal. Two and half years is a long time to not be in the same room with your kids, no matter how grown up they've become. Knitting can't alleviate that particular ill either (sorry knitting, you are getting a bit of a bad rap from me at the moment...we'll make it up later after I've recovered from the jet-lag, I promise).

Skype is great, as is Facebook, for keeping in touch and making the world feel manageably small when close family live far away. But there are no substitutes for the real thing. None.

PS: Malaysian Airlines are great.

Off on my travels: pod hotel and the knitting-on-the-plane plan

I know it's nothing much these days to travel round the world. It's almost as easy and unremarkable as hopping on a bus to go into town. For me though, this trip is a big deal - I might tell you about some of the many reasons why it's a big deal later - but for now let's just say that I decided to document it because for me it's a big deal. There will be some occasional references to knitting.

To kick off my big adventure, I stayed in a japanese style pod hotel at Heathrow.

I booked it as I my flight time didn't sync with the bus-times and I was, frankly, a bit daunted at prospect of the long journey I had ahead, so a good night's sleep (rather than a long uncomfortable night in the airport) seemed like a good idea. Plus, I'm not an experienced traveller, and to be honest I get nervy about the possibility of missing flights. Missing this particular flight would be a disastrous heartbreak of a screw-up, so I needed to do something. Yotel ticked all my boxes in one go: cheap, easy to book and use, and it was lovely and clean and neat and just perfect.

I suppose if you are prone to claustrophobia, this wouldn't be nice. And, given that I've already made a bit of a fuss about how this trip is a big deal for me, I expect I could segue-way into a load of cheesy allusions as to how comfortingly womblike it was, and how though I hadn't planned it for any other reason than practicalities, that it felt like a kind of ritualised symbolic re-birthing of pre-adventure me to adventurer me....but I won't do that. Let's get to the serious business of taking knitting needles on planes.

Twenty four hours plus in an airplane, apart from being a bit daunting, is also potentially a lot of uninterrupted knitting time, but only if the airline/airport security don't decide to view your knitting needles as unacceptably like some sort of dangerous weapon.

I have developed the habit of taking a current knitting project with me pretty much wherever I go. Often as not, I don't actually get to do much knitting, if any, at all. I just like to have it nearby. Comfort knitting if you like. Security knitting even. Not getting to knit it is less important than knowing that I could do so if the opportunity presented itself. The idea of getting through twenty four plus hours in an airplane with no access to a bit of knitting? Not going to happen, at least not if I could help it.

After much consideration here is what I took.

This is a single ball, about 420m, of Zauberball 4 ply in 'Where's the coconut', to make a scarf version of Summit, (which is a simply brilliant and inspired bit of knitterly engineering), on a set of 3.75 interchangeable wooden tipped circular Knit Pros. I figured that if airport/airline security won't let me take the needles on board, then at least the knitting itself can be saved.

The yarn is delicious, lovely and soft to the touch, but it's just a bit 'sticky', so it's actually not ideal for this pattern because of the drop stitch element. This means I'm going to have to tease it out, either as I go, or once the knitting is done and it's time to block. 

I did consider contacting the airline (Malaysian Airlines) to ask permission, but decided on balance that this was probably the best way to be told 'no way', so am going to go for the innocent, inexperienced, harmlessly but slightly dotty middle aged lady approach. Wish me luck!

PS: This is not the only knitting that is coming with me of course. There is a a large half-finished, Dimpsey shawl in DK, and some other sock yarn and needles safely stashed in the suitcase. Just in case, I mean what if I can't buy yarn and knitting needles and stuff in Australia? Not taking any chances.