Knitting on a plane

It's holiday time, but can you knit on the plane...?

I recently read this tip in Lion Brand's newsletter:

When traveling by airplane, I carry a printed copy of the rules that say that you're allowed to carry knitting needles in my carry-on. I have used it to get my knitting on board many an airplane! You can get this information from www.tsa.gov.
- Cynthia G.

That tip is American, but there is much debate about this subject wherever you are in the world including here in the UK, see these debates on Folksy and UK Yahoo answers:

http://forums.folksy.com/forums/6/topics/17001

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070702114341AA7aJlU

CAA provides a 'what can I carry' list - as usual it refers to knives, scissors and other sharp items, but not specifically knitting needles:

http://www.stanstedairport.com/assets/Internet/Heathrow/Heathrow%20downloads/Static%20files/DangerousGoodsOffice.pdf

The answer seems to depends on the airport.

Stanstead / Heathrow / Glasgow / Edinborough / Aberdeed / Southampton (BAA airports) - YES! I had to search for it, but there is an FAQ on this page which tells you unambiguously that "Knitting needles are allowed":
http://www.stanstedairport.com/portal/controller/dispatcher.jsp?CiID=21aeb8874d9b7210VgnVCM10000036821c0a____&ChID=750bb8874d9b7210VgnVCM10000036821c0a____&Ct=B2C_CT_GENERAL&CtID=448c6a4c7f1b0010VgnVCM200000357e120a____&ChPath=Home^Stansted^General^Airport+information^Stansted+security^Security+FAQs#7

Luton doesn't specifically mention them on its site, but they seem to be a little more strict than others (besides the usual "Pointed or bladed articles" they ban scissors from hand luggage with blades more than 3" rather than the more usual 6") so I guess not.

Manchester is a NO! - they're specifically banned from hand luggage. In fact they're so worried about our needles that they regard it as an offence to carry them on board:
http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/manweb.nsf/Content/Departing

For other airports - check your airport's website.

Good advice is to put them in your check-in baggage if in doubt, or to have an SAE with you so that you can thread your work onto scrap yarn and post your needles back to yourself if it comes to that.

Spinning might be a good alternative. The worst story that I've heard of is dropping the spindle and having to rescue it from under a seat several rows forward!

Making a call on the hoof

I can't really see the link between sheep and telephones, (maybe the switch to optical fibre for communications...) so they strike me as a little bit surreal. But these captivating sheep are beautifully-made.

They're made from old telephones and cords, and so maybe they highlight the green aspect of real wool. Make up your own mind.

Thank you to Joanna Kenny for this one.

Read the original post

Zwartble fleece - comparing young and older

This rare Dutch breed's fleece is a rich black and said to be great for felting and spinning. The wool looks quite brown in this picture, but you're seeing the sun-bleached ends. (all together... Aaahhhh).

I'm lucky enough to have been sent samples and can compare spinning fleece from a year-old ram with some from an older ewe.

The young fleece is very consistent in colour - inky-black (with bleached tips of course). It's very 'zingy' - crimpy and bouncy

The older fleece is less crimpy and isn't quite so black. It's a little more brown with a few silver threads in it (like me).


Surprisingly I enjoyed spinning the older fleece a little better. The fibres were longer and they were also 'tamer' and so the result has a little less of a halo. It may not end up as bouncy as the younger fibre, and not quite as black but it's no more coarse and I think I prefer the resulting yarn.


The two sample skeins are soaking now, which I hope will plump them up a bit. When they're dry in a day or two I'll compare them again and update this post.

[Update]

These are the finished sample skeins - the younger on the left and the older on the right.

A wheel with a history

One or two spinners will recognise this Kiwi's amazing paint job.


In case you haven't guessed, she's called Freya. Her original owner, Leni (correct me if I have any of this wrong, girls) painted the wheel blue. Her last owner, Helen of myheartexposed added the beautiful flowers.

Helen has something new and very exciting on her shopping list and so I'll be offering Freya very shortly after making my own mark on her.

Selvedge magazine

Mmmmm... Selvedge Summer issue (number 35) is with us. Beautiful images and writing as well as the wonderful smell of new book. http://handspinner.co.uk/selvedge_magazine.html

less than warp speed

I'm warped up now. It took a whole afternoon and some of the evening, and I've only used a part of the width of this slim loom (96 ends) and four of the eight shafts.


I can't imagine getting to grips with this if I wasn't already familiar with warping up my knitters loom, and it's difficult to imagine how long it would take to fill the width of one of the wider looms.


The few passes of chunky yarn is a heading - to spread the threads out evenly after the knots. This is also useful to test whether the warp ends are all threaded properly (they weren't) and give you a chance to sort any problems out before you go any further (I did).

Zero calorie chocolate fruit fondue

This chocolate fondue has no calories. In fact you'll burn some when you make it.

I recently mentioned Kate Jenkins' incredibly realistic food. Here are a couple more scrummy knitted projects.

First of all, for the fridge, knitted meat complete with polystyrene tray and cling film:

See knitted meat

The chocolate fountain in the picture is from skymagenta's Flickr photos. Her crocheted food also includes pizza, hot-dogs and coffee and biscuits. Follow the links to her etsy shop where she's selling the crochet patterns for the food and lots of other objects.

See crocheted food