Airplane Knitting

Last night flying home from Dallas, where I've been all week on business, I sat next to a 10 year old girl who was flying to see some relatives in Atlanta. She was a seasoned flyer and wanted to know what I had brought to keep myself busy on the plane after I asked her about the book she was reading. I don't think she was prepared for the answer.

I brought out the purse I'm knitting for my mother and showed her how I liked to pass the time away. I think she asked about 100 questions. She loved the colors (pink and brown) that I was working with. She loved the feel of the wool/alpaca blend I'm using. She wanted to feel my bamboo needles. I even cast on a few stitches on the double pointed needles I had with me and let her try her hand at it. I guess knitting lessons can happen anywhere!

Here is the photo of the flower I worked on before I left. Lesson learned on the Lion Brand yarn that they claim can be felted... can't. It's not a huge waste of time. Only an hour of two. So you live, you learn. I want to get a larger set of double pointed needles (13 if they make them) and try again.



One thing I'm a little nervous about is down-sizing the pattern I have for the flower. The yarn is bulkier than it calls for, but the color is too perfect for the purse I'm working on (seen here, pre-felting with my youngest cat Nomie napping on it). Any suggestions on downsizing a pattern so the yarn that I'm using doesn't double the size of the piece? It calls for worsted weight, the yarn is bulky.



I should be done with this purse this weekend. I'm ordering the yarn for my sweater this weekend. I have my eye on the Einstein Coat in Melville's Knit Stitch book. I'm open for suggestions if you think there's a better start. I think I'm going to order Reynolds Lopi in a nice Chocolate Brown color (maybe 315 or 87). Maybe it will be here by next weekend and I can get started. Let me know if you have other pattern suggestions!