Friends, I went to the Super Summer Knitogether in Nashville last week, and it was amazing. And HOT. I’ve never experienced 45C weather unless I was sitting in a sauna. But it was so worth the sweating to meet everyone who was there, I am SO glad I went.
I’ve got lots of new stash enhancements to show y’all (I ate collard greens and drank sweet tea – I can say “y’all” now.) but so many people boggled at the fact I carried on all my luggage on the plane, including my wheel and stash enhancements, that I took a few photos of the unpacking process to prove it:
It is an Osprey Transporter 46, the smallest of the series (we also have the next size up and love that one too). It is the maximum carry-on size on larger aircraft.
I unzipped it and it poofed open.
Under that bag was a layer of fibre to protect the wheel. See? I needed to buy yarn and fibre, they’re packing materials!
The top half of my spinning wheel is in that shopping bag. (An American Lamb shopping bag, yes I bought it from a butcher to use for knitting purposes.)
Half of the spinning wheel unpacked.
Then there was another padding layer between the top half of the wheel and the bottom half.
I slip the drive wheel/treadle part of the spinning wheel into an old pillowcase for protection against scratches.
One tiny spinning wheel! (A Majacraft Little Gem)
Drawbacks to this method of travel:
- It’s the maximum carry-on size on planes that have 3 people sitting either side of the aisle. Only one of my 4 flights was this type of plane, so I actually had to “sky check” the bag on the other 3. Everything seems to have survived intact, although I would still never check this bag to go deep into the belly of the plane. With sky checking you get it back as you get off the plane, it doesn’t get sent on all the conveyor belts with the rest of the luggage.
- It gets heavy after a while, and I missed a connection, so I spent a few hours lugging this around Chicago O’Hare, and my shoulders are a little sore.
Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to check it in a hard-sided big suitcase into the bottom of the plane, but not yet.
Stash enhancement post to come soon!
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