knitting while traveling - the bus

     I love to travel. At least, I love to explore new places and find new people to people watch. Sometimes it is the getting there that can be long and tedious, however. So that's why I always take my knitting! Because I get too anxious just sitting there. I hate waiting!
     When I worked downtown, I would take the bus to avoid having to park, and all the traffic as well. It was a wonderful hour (30 min each way) built-in knitting time.  You would think it might be difficult to knit on a moving bus. And indeed, I couldn't work on just any project - but I could work on a large number of them. I would just put in my headphones and knit away.  If you are rushing to your pile of projects to decide which one to bring, or if you are still hesitant that you could knit on a moving bus, here are a couple of tips for bus knitting. (BTW, I've learned all of these things the hard way!)

• Use circular needles - the benefit here is it is much harder to drop your needles as with straight or double-pointed. There is always that accidental needle toss action, and I've dropped plenty of double pointed needles and had to go chasing after them.
• Bring a yarn ball bag or carrying case - unless you've rolled a center pull ball and intend on holding it between your legs or under your arm, you might want something to hold onto your ball of  yarn which inevitably will roll onto the floor. This could be a problem if the bus makes that frequent stop and everything shifts towards the front.
• Make sure your row counter is securely attached to your circular needle, or don't take it out of your bag when you increment it. This one time I was working on double-pointed needles and my row counter slipped off the edge. I saw it fall to the floor in slow motion just as the bus slammed on the breaks and it rolled - all the way to the front of the bus. Ducking under the seats and trying to see where it had gone, I finally decided it must be at the front and so when I got off, I walked by, made a quick bend and found it in a pile of crumbs and other debris that had also found it's way to the front. EWW! 
• Make copies of patterns in books, and fold up the copies in an easy to read way.  I learned this after many a trip toting around my entire pattern book, constantly pulling out the book and opening to the right page, then having to stow it back in my bag and just repeat the process. The copied pattern on the other hand I could fold up and manipulate however I wanted.
• Double check your supplies list, and skim your pattern before you leave home. Too often I have brought a new project to start, grabbed my yarn and needles, and get on the bus and start reading the pattern only to realize that I needed the other pair of needles in the pattern first and did not bring them.
• Bring enough yarn. Also too often I have brought what I thought was all that I would get through and then I end up finishing knitting everything I brought - with most of a bus trip left. I guess this might be OK for some people, but I like to knit every second I can. And when I run out of stuff to do I start spiraling into 'oh my, this ride is taking forever!'.  So make sure you bring plenty with you!

Happy Knitting!