Making it Portable

She obtains wool and flax and makes cloth with skillful hands.
Proverbs 31:13

Church Ladies appreciate those quiet evenings at home, quietly doing needlework while someone else reads aloud from an edifying book. (The fireplace is lit, I have a hot cup of mint tea, a cozy chair ... sigh!) The reality, however, is I'm more often doing my needlework on the go while riding in a car, waiting for appointments, or for a child's activity to get done, even while sitting in a meeting. I always have at least one project in process that can be classified as "portable" and few things are more frustrating than facing a long car ride with nothing to do because I've dropped a stitch and can't maneuver everything back into place with the stuff I have in my glove compartment, and why can't I find that paper clip I know I saw on the back seat floor last week? But I digress.

I've found the following to be useful for yarn projects and it all snaps securely into an eyeglass case. The case easily lives in a project bag and doesn't snag yarn because the edges are all rounded.

• retractable tape measure (88 cents at Wal-Mart)
• folding scissors (also 88 cents at Wal-Mart)
• a small pencil or pen (I'm always making notes on my patterns)
• stitch markers
• row counter
• crochet hook (for picking up dropped stitches, etc.)
• paper clip (to mark my place in a pattern sheet)
• needle and safety pins (poked through a ribbon to keep them together)