I've got a long flight coming up next month and wanted to bring my current sweater project to work on. Last time I tried traveling with knitting, my yarn got all knotted up in my carry-on and my needles poked holes in my bag. What's the best way to pack everything so it stays organized and doesn't become a mess?
Keep your yarn wound tightly in a ziplock bag with the needles secured separately - I've found that loose yarn balls just explode everywhere in a bag, but a compact wound ball stays put. The real game-changer is securing your needles with a rubber band or needle cap so they don't shift around and create snag points where yarn can catch on them.
the needles poking holes thing is actually pretty avoidable - it's mostly the yarn that causes real chaos on flights. i'd grab a clear ziplock bag or a small project pouch (knitting-specific ones exist but honestly any organized case works) and wind your yarn into a ball before packing, then secure the needles with a needle case or even just a hair clip so they stay together. keep the whole thing in an easy-access pocket of your carry-on rather than buried, and you'll avoid that tangled mess. plus tsa doesn't care about knitting needles, so you're good there - the real enemy is just yarn escaping into every corner of your bag.
Wrap your working needles with a rubber band or hair tie so the stitches can't accidentally slip off during turbulence - that's the sneaky problem nobody mentions until it happens mid-flight. For the yarn itself, sliding it into a gallon-sized ziplock does the job, but consider keeping your needles in a separate small case or even just a pencil pouch so they're not tempted to poke through anything. Are you working from a ball or a skein, and how far along is the sweater? That matters because a partially finished project with live stitches needs a bit more care than a yarn ball waiting to be cast on.
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