Plane Knitting: Hooded Cowl

I am a really terrible flyer. I get motion sick, anxious, hungry, and I always decide I have to pee right as the captain turns back on the fasten seat belt sign.

Because of all these things, I really hate the parts of the flight where I can listen to music, watch a movie, or whatever other electronic stimulation I try to use to distract me from the fact that I am hurling through the air at 500 mph in an aluminum tube.

Since I can't just sit there and contemplate my own mortality, I knit. Please don't ask me to fly without my knitting, I won't do it.

For this trip, I wanted to switch up my project from what I had been working on lately. A chunky scarf for my mom, a chunky baby blanket for High School Best Friend, and Fuzzums for the Hooks and Needles Sale.

Long story short, I've been itching to use some thinner yarn, on a project I actually get to use.

Enter my idea for a cowl. My ears get cold in the winter, but hats always make me overheat. I thought a nice, lace cowl is just the ticket.

I happened to have picked up some Cascade Pima Tencel when on vacation in Niagara Falls with Code Boyfriend. It seemed like a great fit.

Unfortunately, it was a pain to fine a lace cowl pattern I like for DK yarn.

After a lot of searching on Raverly, I found the Smoke Ring pattern. It has beautiful, leaf-like lace pattern, not too complicated for plane travel. I don't like to use patterns that I can't easily remember, because of the whole motion sickness thing...

I need a pattern that I can memorize and work for 5 minutes before consulting the chart again. This pattern is easy to memorize and works up quickly.

The circular needles it calls for are also TSA approved and a great size to have on planes. I feel like needles that are too big or too small are just too much fuss on planes.

I'm not done yet, but I'm very happy with this plane knit.

Unfinished Objects

As week 10 ends and the quarter winds down, I'm beginning to try and wrap up loose ends so I can start new things next quarter.

Then I looked at my knit-list. I have no idea how it happened. I used to be perfectly content with a single knitting project. I would work on it until it was finished, then I'd move on.

Those days are now long gone.

I'm starting to pack for my Thanksgiving trip back to Colorado and the sweater vest for my mom is about 3 hours of knitting from done... and has been for about 4 months now.

The pair of socks I started to be able to not feel like such a poser as the president of Hooks and Needles....

 I've been about 2 inches from finishing the second sock since June.

I just keep getting distracted. My best friend from high school is pregnant, so I selected a beautiful pattern to knit for a blanket and it keeps me busy now.

If you would also like to knit up a great, albeit bulky baby blanket, follow this link to the Norma blanket on Knitty.

I'm 9 rows from starting the edging. Only problem is it's too large to carry around in my backpack. When am I going to work on it now??

At least I can curl up with my new distractions from the Winter Sale.

I'll have a more detailed post about how to make Fuzzums, like Clyde here, as soon as I can get home in the day light to take some better pictures of the group.

The only project I've finished in the past 6 months has been for Hooks and Needles. The snowboarding team asked us to make hats.

To recreate this hat to be more specific. 20 times. After many, many hours of loom knitting (not my favorite activity, but a great place to start crafting) all 20 are done.

I need to buckle down and finished some of these projects. I want to start new ones! Well, I guess I'm doing that either way.

You Can't See an Elephant in the Dark

Spring Break is almost over now and I feel like I haven't stopped moving since I left my apartment in Rochester last Friday.

I'm talking insane amounts of travel people! BF and I drove to Phili, then flew to Pheonix, AZ, where we met my parent.

Then Flagstaff -- where we met up with many of my old friends from before I transferred away from NAU (Northern Arizona University for those who don't know). 

 Plus we saw the Grand Canyon...

All in 2 days. Then we drove down to Tuscon, to meet up with some of my parents old friends and my extended family. Poor BF. He spent the whole time we were in Tuscon being left out of conversations because he wasn't in Tuscon 20 years ago.

 Luckily he got to spend these long car rides watching me make knit roses for the people we are seeing. This is some of them in the door to the car. I'll have a tutorial for them up soon.


BF survived the scrutiny of many family members of mine during this trip, much thanks to the help of a wonderful frosty beverage called an Eegee. Eegee's are a magical substance, like a fruit based Icee, but a bit thicker. 

 

BF had never had one before, but after going from a chilly Rochester March to a 85 degree Tuscon spring, he has been converted.

If you haven't noticed the title of this blog, it happens to be a quote from my dear Aunt Paula. This woman is amazing. After she turned 50, she spent 5 years in Botswana, Africa with the Peace Core, fulfilling a life-long dream she had. When talking to her about her travels, she said something so sincerly it was adorable, but it is a quote that continually helps me with my anxiety.


"You can't see an elephant in the dark."

So everytime I'm worried about something, panicking about something I believe no one else can see, I turn on the light to see if it is really an elephant. 

Maybe that makes me a little nuts, but so is my Aunt Paula, and she's the happiest person I know. Maybe accepting your little bits of crazy that allows you to be happy.


All I know, is that you can't see an elephant in the dark.

Plane Ride Knitting Projects

As you may remember, I took a much needed vacation from my summer break.

Plane rides take a special kind of knitting project. It can't be too large, need large metal needles, or may different types of yarn.

For my plane ride to San Diego, I wanted to work on lace headbands for 2 of my cousins. I wanted cute patterns so my cousins (ages 9 and 12) would like them.

Headbands don't use a lot of yarn, so I used some leftover purple bamboo yarn, and a fingerling green acrylic yarn. These yarns both have enough stretch to work well for these lace headbands.

Gimbiya's headband
 Cast on 3 stitches.

Knit an I-cord for 8 inches.

Increase Pattern:
Row 1: K1, M1, K1
All Even Rows: K2, P all middle stitches, K2
Row 3: K1, M1, M1, K1
Row 5: K2, M1, M1, K2
Continue this increase pattern until 13 stitches.

Lace Pattern:
Row 1 (RS): k1, p2, ssk, (yo, k1) 3 times, yo, k2 tog, p1,k1,p1
Row 2: k1,purl until two stitches before the end, k1, p1 last two stitches
Row 3: k1, p2, ssk, k5, k2 tog, p1, k1, p1
Row 4: k1, p1, k1, p7, k2, p1

Repeat the lace pattern until the piece measures 12 inches.
Decrease evenly until 3 stitches.

Knit 8 inches of I-cord.

Sew in ends, and enjoy :) 

I'll post pictures when I can!!!