Seaside Mitts, Tips for travel knitting

Hello again,
This past weekend I found myself on a bus going to and from Maryland. I brought my knitting with me, but on the ride there I didn't do any knitting because the thought of knitting with my body drenched in sweat from 100+ degree heat didn't really appeal to me. However, on the ride back, I got a chance to knit and worked on completing the second mitt of another pair of the easy fingerless mitts.

For those wondering, the ride was quite boring and uncomfortable. As usual, here's some proof of my bus travelin'. This is what I was looking at for about four hours:

Ah, the ever-classy stylings of a coach bus. Check out those beautiful patterned seats...

 And as always, a lot of this:

While I was knitting, cramped up in my seat, I thought of some tips for knitting while traveling-especially when in a cramped place like a bus seat.

Yes, I was this close to a stranger's butt and thigh for four hours. Good times. The only better times were when I was in the bus bathroom...yayyyy

Anyway, here are some tips for bus knitting I compiled while cramped up between a window and someone else's body:

1. Use circular needles. Cramped quarters means you won't have fun using 14 inch straight needles. I use circular needles for knitting flat things as well, and they take up way less [elbow] space than even short straight needles.

2. Bring a thread cutter or small scissor. Trust me on this one. Last time I was on a bus knitting, I needed to change to a new ball of yarn and didn't have anything to cut the old one with. I ended up sawing off the yarn...with my teeth. NOT FUN PEOPLE! Bring some effin' scissors and you won't regret it. I use one of those clover thread cutters thats about the size of a half dollar. Very easy to travel with.

3. Bring enough yarn. Self explanatory-you'll regret it when you are on a roll knitting, have hours left to the trip, and you've run out of yarn.

4. Bring WIPs, not UFOs or new projects. Always bring a project that you know you'll actually want to knit. Don't bring that UFO that's been sitting in a plastic bag of shame under your bed for the past six months. It's easy to think, 'oh those 12 hours on a bus will be a great time to get myself to finish that sweater'. But if you don't want to knit it in the comfort of your own home, you definitely won't want to knit it on a cramped bus with a stranger's arm rubbing up against yours. Also, don't bring a new project that you are planning on casting on during the ride. You may not end up liking the project or you might have trouble with it, and then you'll be stuck with nothing. Bring an in-progress fairly simple project that you won't have to look at the pattern every 5 seconds for. Just trust me on this one.

5. Get a window seat. Maybe. As you can see in the picture above, I'm sitting with the yarn wedged between my leg and the side of the bus. This helps keep the yarn from flying all over the place, versus keeping it on your lap like you'll have to do in an aisle seat (I don't believe strangers appreciate yarn wedged between their leg and yours). However, window seats sometimes kind of suck. Pick your poison.

And lastly,

6. Don't forget the pattern if you need it.


ANYWAY,


Here's a few pictures of my finished project. I loved the way the yarn pooled on this one, but the quality control at the loops and threads factory is clearly made of suck, because the yarn was flat. Seriously, flat. Not spherical, like its supposed to be. Whut.

By the way, that ugly brown mark on one of my fingers is a burn. Thanks toaster oven.