Finally! I’m getting out of the house and going to the beach. I’ve knitted my way through quarantine, making 3 cardigans, an intricately patterned lace scarf, and a fun mosaic shawl. I’ve made a good-sized dent in my yarn stash and filled it up again with summery yellows, oranges, and taupe colored cotton and linen skeins.
So why am suddenly perplexed as to which yarns to pack for a trip to the beach? Travel poses certain challenges to one’s knitting life. You certainly don’t want to find yourself hundreds of miles from your yarn stash, needing that one more skein to finish a project. Worse yet, you don’t want to find yourself with several days of vacation left and nothing left to knit. On the other hand, you really don’t want to drag everything skein you own to the beach, taking up precious room in your suitcase, only to find you didn’t even touch most of the yarn you took.
What to pack to knit at the beach? After switching off umpteen items in and out of my suitcase, here’s what I’ve finally settled on:
- A small cosmetic bag of tools (scissors, tape measure, tapestry needle, stitch markers)
- Inexpensive cotton yarn. With so much illness everywhere, I want to be able to wash my project when finished. If it gets stained en route, no big deal.
- Easy projects. I have in mind to sit under an umbrella and mindlessly knit, possibly while listening to an audio book. I don’t want to think.
- Projects I Can Wear or Use While on Vacation. There’s nothing more fulfilling than immediately wearing or using something you’ve just knitted. I’ve packed yarn to make a loose beach cover-up and coasters to use under cold drinks while lounging in the sun.
What did I leave at home? The expensive wool yarn imported from South America is staying home, safe and sound from getting lost or destroyed. I also talked myself out of taking projects using advanced techniques that would take my attention away from family and friends. And the sheer number of projects has dropped as I pack. Though I like to be prepared, I know I realistically won’t go through more than two – possibly three – knitting projects during the entire vacation.
What’s your go-to knitting supplies for beach vacations???
Safe Travels this Summer, Cindy
Cynthia Coe is the author of The Prayer Shawl Chronicles, a collection of interrelated short stories about knitters and those they meet through knitting and sharing prayer shawls.
Copyright 2022 Cynthia Coe
Sycamore Cove Knitting 