Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Unfaithful

Yes, it's true. I've been unfaithful. After years of fighting it, I finally succumbed to the lure of Facebook and I've been posting like a crazy woman the last few weeks. Not my knitting, strangely enough, but cooking photos.


I know, I know. What's up with that? I'm not exactly sure but I've been posting photos of stir fries and homemade granola and all sorts of goofy things and having a lot of fun. My theory? I think I'm posting photos and recipes because that's far easier than actually stringing words together to tell a story. I'm deep in deadline psychosis right now on Sugar Maple #3, SPUN BY SORCERY, and I don't have so much as a syllable left over when I'm enjoying down time. Sometimes the writing is easy; sometimes it's like pulling teeth. I've been having dental nightmares lately so I leave it to you to draw the inference.

I'm starting to put together the back material for SPUN BY SORCERY and am putting out the call for your thoughts on road trip knitting. Do you love it as much as I do? What's your favorite road trip knitting project? You can let me know in comments or email me here and we'll talk.

My favorite road trip knitting? Socks, definitely. Magic Loop. DK weight. Simple stockinette. Nothing taxing. Nothing fiddly. Just lovely round and round as I watch the world roll by the window and let my mind run free. (That makes my mind sound like it normally needs a leash, doesn't it?)

Send me your comments and I'll send you some yarn. (No, I'm not above bribery!) Snail mail addresses go here with ROAD TRIP as the subject.

I can't wait to hear from you.

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26 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Socks are my all time favorite road trip knitting too. Hats are another - just plain ole stockinette, knit in the round hats.

6:35 AM  
Blogger Knit Twit said...

Socks are good because they are so easily portable, but the last time I traveled I took a bag I was knitting with me. It was knit in the round and had the advantage of being far enough along to hold its own yarn ;)

7:53 AM  
Blogger Saren Johnson said...

You don't need to bribe us, just post!!

Sweaters are my trip knitting. Miles and miles of knitting and purling.

8:23 AM  
Blogger Mary said...

Just about anything I take along!!
I have NEVER knitted a pair of socks yet. So scary. I am always looking at sock yarn telling my self I can do it and then I chicken out. Oh maybe one day soon. Bc I love everyone elses!!

9:14 AM  
Anonymous Cathy R said...

I agree that socks make excellent road trip knitting. The selection of a new sock pattern and appropriate yarn is very cruicial for the retaining of sanity over the long miles. It is hard - I want a 'new' project for a new trip, but what if the yarn/guage/pattern don't work out.

I once had a four day road trip where I wasn't allowed to drive. I sat in the back seat and worked on a complex sweater. Pure heaven!

9:37 AM  
Blogger Katminder said...

I am so looking forward to your new book! Socks are fun to knit anywhere! When you're out in public, people always stop and ask about what you're doing. I have a simple pattern that I know by heart, works for any size foot, love it!

10:26 AM  
Blogger Nicole said...

I must say, it depends on the specific project. I love taking socks as trip knitting, but some socks (Bayerische, anyone?) are too complex for that. And some sweaters or shawls are simple enough -- or have simple enough sections -- that they make better trip knitting.

12:30 PM  
Blogger kozmic said...

Hi Barbara

After a couple of semi-nasty accidents with dpns on road trips I've gone back to knitting scarves using a circ. needle.

The only mindless problem with that is when you stupidly push the knitting around and carry on knitting instead of turning and heading back the other way. Tubes with short floats are not the look I was aiming for!

2:16 PM  
Blogger Sharon said...

I like sock knitting on 2 circs, but also enjoy working on mittens. Although I love when people ask me if I'm knitting mittens when I'm working on a cuff down sock and I'm well past the heel? smile....

2:26 PM  
Blogger Estella said...

I am not a sock knitter so I usually take a cowl or a scarflet/small shawl on the road. I've learned the hard way to make sure you have all the pattern printed up as one time I was making cabled mittens and the cable part of the pattern didn't print. I spent 4 hours on the road with NO knitting - a horrible fate.

6:11 PM  
Blogger dawnbrocco said...

Because hubby hs long eyelashes (lucky him!), my road trip knitting can't use any fuzzy, fly-away yarn. So, plain wool socks are my car project of choice. Dpns, always dpns!, DK wt or thicker.

7:14 PM  
Anonymous Sally at Rivendale Farms said...

A hat or a bag, love to do felted bags, for the same lovely round and round reason you have. I did have one road trip where I worked on The NECFH (The Never Ending Cape from Hell). Eleventy-million miles of black stockinette with the occasional purl row that was the only thing that kept me from stabbing myself in the eye with the needles. I'll stick with bags.

Absolutely love your books, by the way!

7:25 PM  
Anonymous Sally at RivendaleFarms said...

A hat or a bag, love to do felted bags, for the same lovely round and round reason you have. I did have one road trip where I worked on The NECFH (The Never Ending Cape from Hell). Eleventy-million miles of black stockinette with the occasional purl row that was the only thing that kept me from stabbing myself in the eye with the needles. I'll stick with bags.

Absolutely love your books, by the way!
(If this shows up twice, sorry!)

7:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My favorite roadtrip projects are felted bags. Once the bottom is started you just knit in the round till it is as big as you then stop. I've also done simple scarfs on short trips.
Page P.

7:43 PM  
Blogger GrandmaMoo said...

Hats and small toys are my favorites, except that I can't do toys if I have to help with directions... We once missed an exit by 45 miles because of a bear's nose...

8:32 PM  
Blogger Turtle said...

i also like an easy to remember simple cable patterened hat as well as socks when traveling. hmmm, new book??? grin! Yes, facebook is as addictive as ravelry, beware, lol!

8:50 PM  
Blogger Renna said...

Anything mindless is what I take on roadtrips. My hubby likes to talk as we drive down the road, so I can't knit anything that requires me to concentrate on a pattern. Socks, dishcloths, scarves, fingerless mitts; those are all projects I take in the car.

As to Facebook, I think it's lured many of us bloggers into it's clutches. I've been like an addict with a new drug. First thing each morning? Not e-mail, but FACEBOOK. Yep.

2:47 AM  
Blogger kshotz said...

I agree on socks...for years they were the only project I took on road trips. (And every road trip needs a knitting project!!)

I have to admit that when I was knitting mittens like a fiend for Christmas gifts, quite a few ended up on road trips with me....and I discovered they too are great companions for the journey! Also small, portable and not too fussy much of the time....mittens make a great road trip project as well!

(Do you want to hear about my knitting of blocks for an afghan on road trips? Because I've recently done that too!!)

9:25 AM  
Blogger ikkinlala said...

For me road trip projects are usually socks (stockinette or ribbing), mittens, or fairly plain dishcloths. They have to be projects that I don't have to look at too often or I'll end up with motion sickness (so even with an easy project splitty yarn doesn't work well), and they have to be small enough that they're portable and they fit comfortably in my lap.

3:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What they said...... Socks, hats, dishcloths -- anything small, easily portable, requiring just one set of needles, and using a pattern that's easily memorized. (Having said that, please note that I once took an ARAN AFGHAN-in-progress on a road trip. In self defense, (a) it was a wedding gift, so (b) there was a deadline looming, and (c) I had the cable patterns memorized by that time. Still ... not an experience I plan to repeat.)

Lynda in Oregon

4:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Scarves or baby blankers are for me in the car. But I must confess my favorite thing in the car is reading. Endless hours with no phone etc.

Looking forward to your next book.
Ellen

8:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Can't wait for your new book, either, BB!

But, c'mon, you guys...SOCKS? On the ROAD? You're speaking to a woman who's still trying to work through her sock phobia (we won't discuss how many projects I've done since I started the sock--singular, note--that's to be found some months back in our archives.) I'm trying to envision enjoying my drive, all stressed out like that.

AND, I might add, feeling really, really, severely much like a failure because I'm still a sockophobe...

Is there hope for this benighted soul, gentle readers?

11:17 PM  
Blogger Deirdre said...

A lot of my road trips happen with my husband on a bike this means that there's limited space, so sock patterns it is, the e-reader is useful for the pattern cause it's coming too!

11:40 AM  
Blogger Sue O said...

Dishcloths! Mindless, colorful and useful. I keep a set of short needles and several balls of kitchen cotton in the car so I am never without something to knit.

3:18 PM  
Blogger SusanB-knits said...

My all time favorite for road trips are socks! Usually a basic sock pattern but using a variegated or self-striping yarn. The second thing I like to knit on road trips are washcloths/dishcloths. Just a basic corner start, increase to middle and then decrease to the other corner.

5:44 PM  
Blogger T.M. said...

Socks are the road trip knitting here. I use just a plain pattern but pick crazy,striped yarn so it has a good visual.

3:15 PM  

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