Air Travel: Newflash

I hadn't done any flying since the latest round of changes to airport security, so I wasn't sure what the situation was.

We had a quick trip to Boston this weekend to visit the newest member of Norman's family, a special little baby born of challenging circumstances called Jacob Nathaniel.

It took me ages to decide what to take with me to work on: I couldn't take my current design project, as it's colourwork and 4 balls of yarn would have taken up too much room in my bag.

And I couldn't take the design project that's up next on my to-do list, as it's lace, and I haven't settled on the stitch patterns.

So I dug in the pile of UFOs and came up with the Noro Sekku laceweight scarf design I'd been playing with in the winter. Of course, nothing is ever simple: the needles were an issue. I'd been working it on 2mm metal needles (!), and I suspected that choice wasn't going to fly for two reasons. 1) No one would ever want to knit a scarf knitted on 2mm needles, and 2) 2mm metal needles look more like a weapon than anything I've ever knitted with. I was quite convinced they would be taken away.

So I dig up the smallest non-metal 16 inch circ I own - 3.5mm - and swatched. Ick - too loose.

Alison found a 3mm bamboo for me, and so I took that home and started working with that. Ack. Awful. First of all, it was too loose still, and it was just so damn slow with the Noro.

So I decided, in the spirit of science, to gamble. I restarted the scarf on a 2.5mm 16 inch metal circular needle, and stuffed an emergency ball of sock yarn and a set of bamboo sock needles in the corner of my bag just in case I had to surrender the circular needle. I also packed my little Stitch Saver mini crochet hook.

And I'm very pleased to report I didn't have any problems - well, other than getting distracted and making mistakes.

So, yes, short metal circulars - still plane-friendly.

And the baby? Adorable!