Well-travelled stripes

Tags

Cologne, Europe, Lana Grossa, Munich, plane, socks, stripes

Older Soknitsome Daughter sent this yarn to me from Munich via Mr Soknitsome’s suitcase last January.

In March it accompanied me to Europe and spent the weekend in Munich with Older Soknitsome Daughter and her then fiancé. I knitted about half a foot. The project was laid aside for others until it was time to head off to Europe again. There was some knitting-on-a-plane between Cologne and Salzburg and even a spot of knitting during some downtime in Salzburg, where we spent a long weekend for Older Soknitsome Daughter’s wedding. By the time I left Cologne to head back to Sydney, the toe of the second sock was cast on. I finally finished these at knit night yesterday.

I’ve knitted stripey socks like these before. The pattern’s Magic Zauberball Stripe Socks by Tofutrulla and you knit alternating 5-round stripes from yarn with long colour changes. This yarn is Lana Grossa Meilenweit Magico which is very similar to Schoppel Zauberball. Last time, I actually broke the yarn and moved on a bit whenever the two colours got too close. This time, I either swapped anyway or knitted 10 rounds in the same colour so I have some blurred stripes but the overall effect is similar. Naturally there were fewer ends to sew in, too.

So what’s next? Continue with the cardigan I started in Europe, cast on my ‘social knitting’ project and of course some more socks!

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Knitting in planes – Cologne to Sydney

Tags

aeroplane, DPNs, knitting, plane, socks, yarn

As I mentioned in a previous post I wasn’t too unhappy at the prospect of spending more than twenty hours in trains and planes in order to get from Cologne to visit Mr Soknitsome in Sydney. I knew I could use this time well to knit socks.

I did!

Green Apple Clouds

I finished these lacy green socks. Well…bar finishing off the ends. It’s all very well taking bamboo needles on a plane but I’m not too sure if two-inch darning needles are allowed so I left the sewing-in-the-ends for later.

On the second leg (Bangkok to Sydney) I found myself sitting next to a lovely lady from Adelaide. Laura still sounded British despite having spent a couple of decades in Australia and was kind enough to give me her contact details should I need them. It went further than that: once she saw me knitting socks she pulled out some wool from her carry-on and gave it to me, saying that she’s been clearing out at home but that she didn’t really knit anymore. I was quite overwhelmed and I’m sure I didn’t thank her enough.

Regia Kaffe Fassett Design Line

Sweet Tomato Heel

Knitting on a plane

Tags

aeroplane, cardigan, DPNs, knitting, plane, socks

A year ago Younger Soknitsome Daughter spent 6 months commuting from Cologne to Frankfurt Airport for an internship. There’s a high-speed train so the journey takes 50 minutes station-to-station. When I told my best knitting buddy about the commute her comment mirrored my first thought – Think of all that knitting time! (said with pronounced longing!).

This week I am spending the best part of a day in aeroplanes. I’m really happy about this as I get to see Mr Soknitsome after 7 weeks and 3 days. And I have 2 flights of ten hours in which I can eat, catch up on films, read and knit to my heart’s content.

So my Kindle is full and I’ve already figured out what projects I’ll be working on en route: socks! Why? Because

1. They are easy to get through airport security if you use bamboo DPNs.
2. They are easy to carry around anyway, and I will be out and about by myself during the week.
3. I have to get 2 pairs finished for presents before the end of October so I may as well get started on them now.

Mr Soknitsome will be busy at work and a little part of me wonders whether I might actually have more time to knit than wool so I’m considering whether I should not just squeeze in the beginnings of a cardigan too…I wouldn’t like to be sitting there with nothing to do 😉