Last week, I traveled to Portland with the Centurions, a leadership program through the KC Chamber of Commerce, to learn about the city and what we can bring back to Kansas City to improve our communities. With a four hour flight ahead of me, I thought, what a perfect time to make some real progress on my sweater.
My immediate first thought was, "Are knitting needles even allowed on planes?" I mean, they could be used as a weapon, right? And I must not be too crazy because I had several friends ask me that exact question when I told them what I was doing. But with a quick Google search, TSA confirmed that knitting needles are allowed on flights. Yay!
So I packed my bags and included my fledgling sweater. I must admit though, at that point I wasn't entirely sure I would actually knit on the plane. I would be traveling with several other professionals and I was nervous of looking like a dork.
Thankfully, since my motivation to do this is to carry on what my mom started, I felt compelled to knit on the flight regardless. If you ever traveled with my mom, you know she always had some sort of knitting project with her at all times. So I told myself, this is what my mom would do and carried on. I am so glad I did.
More than any other time since my mom passed, I felt connected to her. Beyond simply the act of knitting while traveling, I had to smile when the following thoughts came to mind:
Knitting and gazing out the window
I quickly found myself gazing out the window when I was knitting. I couldn't help but think of all the times I caught my mom lost in thought while she was working on a project. Someone could have been yelling fire a few rows up and she would have kept knitting - oblivious to the disruption. I definitely can see how that can happen now because I did the same.
Flying over Colorado
My mom had a special place in her heart for Colorado. When I was an early teen, she spent 8 weeks in the mountains at a field camp studying geology as part of her bachelors degree. She always spoke fondly of her time there. I think that is in part because it was one of the only times in her adult life that she truly did something for herself.
But beyond that Colorado has an amazing fiber community! I definitely found fleeces and fiber samples that she had bought in Colorado while she was at field camp. I always thought it crazy that she bought so many fleeces and had never spun them. Now, I look at them and feel blessed that I have something she loved that I can create something new with.
Sitting where you can see the wing of the plane
This one makes me chuckle. Last time I flew with my mom was out to see my grandma in Maryland. We ended up in one of the rows where you can easily see the wing of the plane out the window. This reminded my mom of a certain episode of the Twilight Zone in which William Shatner swears there's a something out on the wing of the plane.
"Don't worry," she said. "I'm keeping an eye on the wing to make sure there are no monsters."
I had NO idea what she was talking about, but she thought it was hilarious. So here's a clip from the episode in case you're wondering.
Time flies
Over all, the biggest take away was how quickly time passed when I knitted. Before I knew it the flight was over. The flights there and back all seemed much shorter than I anticipated. I also made much more progress that I thought I would. Here is where I ended up when I made it home. The colors really pop!
