Category Archives: Travel

How to: Crochet and travel


I enjoy both crochet and travel and have mixed them together on a lot of occasions. Crochet is one of those hobbies that can be really portable and can fill in those long hours. I crocheted on my USA trip and have come up with a few pointers and tips for anyone interested.

Size. Don’t bring a giant double size blanket with you. It’s heavy and not practical. Bring something small or something you can sew together later. Make a few granny squares, a baby size blanket, a scarf, beanie, or shawl.

Limit yourself to only a few colours. The last thing you want is to juggle 15 different colours. This takes up space in your bag and increases the risk of misplacing something. Stick to 3 balls of yarn. If you must bring heaps of colours rewind them into smaller balls.

Storage. Project bags are a must. I have several made of cotton or organza. The opening is a drawstring allowing it to be fully closed but still be able to draw up the yarn. I travel with a normal sized handbag which allows for 1 ball of 100g 8ply yarn. This is an awesome size as it isn’t too bulky. Watch out of liquids in your bag (or nature) from spilling on your project.

Hooks. While it is legal to carry hooks on Australian international and domestic flights you should always check with your airline. I’ve had mixed results in having to open my bag and prove that it’s just a hook. With my first flight with hooks i was so scared they’d take them off me I brought a plastic hook! I hated this and it slowed me down. My next flight saw me take my ‘good’ hook and wasn’t any drama. I also took my hooks through security at The Pentagon, One World Observatory, and The Capitol Building in Washington with no problems. This info may change at a later time 😉

Looks. People will look, people will be curious. It’s something you have to deal with. I go into my own world and don’t even think about it, my sister seems to notice it more.

Goals. Don’t set goals, enjoy your holiday. If you don’t feel like crocheting, don’t do it.

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Back from holidays!

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So in July and August I traveled to the USA with my sister. We started in LA and traveled trough Vegas, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Memphis, Louisiana, New York, and Washington DC. It was an epic month long holiday filled with a lot of sun, new experiences, food, and most important of all, crochet! I managed to visit a whole bunch of stores and stocked up on some delicious yarn. Once the jet lag has worn off I’ll be blogging about the stores I visited in case you would like to do a USA yarn tour.

Knitfest 2016

We made the 2.5 hour drive up to Maleny this weekend. It’s in the lovely Sunshine Coast hinterland and we could not have asked for a better day! Last weekend it was flooding! This was the first year the festival was held and hopefully won’t be the last. The town of Maleny is only quite small but the main street was covered in crochet bunting and decorations. I grabbed some wool from the trade stalls they had set up as well! They had classes and talks but decided to skip those in favour of walking about and admiring the displays. There were three cute alpacas and heaps of fleece for sale!
Hopefully it is bigger and better next year!

http://www.knitfest.com.au/

Travel: Sydney Weekend

A couple of weeks ago i travelled to Sydney for the NRL grand final. Naturally I brought my yarn and hook with me! We visited a lot of the touristy spots as well as some of our old favourites. The weather was super hot considering we usually wear jean and jumpers in October, but it was 36 degrees!! Over the weekend we drove up to The Entrance on the Central Coast. I managed to find a shop that has a heap of crochet magazines! We don’t have anything like this where I live to I stocked up! We drove Continue reading Travel: Sydney Weekend

Sydney Vacation

IMG_3846I’ve just come back from a long weekend away in Sydney. Naturally I took my crochet project with me! We covered a lot of the NSW wales area with trips to The Blue Mountain, The Entrance, Bondi Beach, and Brighton-Le-Sands.

The project I am working on is a simple corner to corner but with random colour changes. So I didn’t have to bring scissors on the plane I precut lengths of the yarn and took them with me. This was a great idea! I found crocheting in the car very relaxing and the flight took no time!

In Australia you can bring crochet hooks on planes but I didn’t want to risk my hook I purchased in America so brought a cheap plastic hook instead.

New York, New York

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It’s been a dream of mine to travel to New York City for years now. Recently I traveled to the USA for a month of exploring which included an amazing 10 nights in New York City. After a delayed flight we finally got to our hotel at midnight. I should mention we had come from Las Vegas, so obviously was exhausted.

The next day we woke to rainy and cold! Well, cold for an Australian! We set out exploring the city. We walked an average of 20 km a day! We saw all the touristy stuff like Times Square, Central Park, 30 Rock, Empire State, Statue of Liberty, 9/11 Memorial, and heaps more. We also took in a concert at Webster Hall which was hipster and awesome! I loved the fastness of the city and learnt to negotiate the streets. The food was slightly disappointing, but maybe we ate at the wrong places.

I would love to return for about a month to explore the non-tourist side of the city.