Friday, February 22, 2013

Yarn on a Plane

I left the bright sun of L.A. for the deepening gloom in Chicago. No green grass here, just naked trees against a lavender evening sky. And now it’s snowing.

It’s always an issue of what crochet project to take on the plane. It needs to be simple and something I can do without a pattern because there is no way a sheet of paper with instructions is going to stay on my lap. The project needs to be small. The shrug I’m still working on even though it was supposed to be completed in a few evenings would need its own tote bag and take up too much space to work on.

And I’d rather work on something I could finish during the flight. It is very satisfying going all the way from making a foundation chain to fastening off the yarn and having something complete.

At one point I had decided to use up the dark purple Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice yarn I’d bought for a class project I didn’t do and every time I flew I would make single color granny squares to be sewn together into an afghan or bag. It lasted for a couple of flights, but the problem is that the overhead lights are pretty punk making it hard to see the stitches in such dark yarn. Lucky I didn’t try to work on it this time because the guy next to me sat forward to get a better view of his tablet and blocked part of my overhead light.

It would probably help if I wasn’t trying to come up with a project to take at the last minute. Finally I grabbed my bag of tools - I always carry hooks and assorted tools and now knitting needles, too. I threw some skeins of what is considered kitchen cotton in a plastic bagand figured I’d work something out on the plane.

And I did. The perfect crochet item is a washcloth. I made up the pattern as I went along. The simple repetitive stitches were easy and meditative. It was small enough to have plenty of time to finish and when I walked off the plane I had something useful to get the travel grime off my face.

How much better can you get?




10 comments:

Julie said...

That came out very nicely! And if you look at it as a whole, it looks kind of like argyle. It's always interesting to see how space-dyed yarns work up.

Betty Hechtman said...

Julie; I was curious how the yarn was going to look when I crocheted it. You couldn't tell by looking at the whole skein.

Monica Ferris said...

Very pretty. To me, the spots of yellow look like flowers.

Julie said...

You can play with the patterning in space-dyed yarns by varying the number of stitches or the guage. This yarn might come out very differently if it were knitted, too. I just finished a hat in a yarn that was pretty in the skein, but I'm not in love with it.knitted up. Still deciding whether to keep or donate. It has very short color changes and the colors kind of blend and end up brown. Hmm...

Linda O. Johnston said...

A spontaneous washcloth? It's lovely, Betty! Worth the plane trip.

Betty Hechtman said...

Monica, it is all serendipty with this yarn. It looks much better crocheted than it did in the wrapper.

Betty Hechtman said...

Linda, the best part of crocheting something simple on a plane is the relaxation factor.

Betty Hechtman said...

Julie, I had the same experience with yarn looking great on the skein and awful when I worked it. It was called changes or something and didnt't change color, but changed texture. I tried knitting with it and was disappointed in the results.

Julie said...

If you want to see yarn and a pattern work together, knit a Wingspan scarf using Zauberball yarn. The long color changes could have been made for that pattern, and the scarves come out beautifully. The "Lace Wingspan" pattern on Ravelry has the best explanation of the pattern's overall shape, and worked in super-basic garter stitch, they come out beautifully.

Betty Hechtman said...

Thanks for the suggestion, Julie. I'll check it out.