Very important security question. Can I now take my knitting needles

[efhmc]

on a plane?

[Oreo]

1. Here's the TSA website

I think they're allowed now

http://www.tsa.gov/public/display?theme=40&content=090005198018c349

[efhmc]

4. Thanks, I see that I can. So is the world now safer than it was before

old ladies could not carry their knitting on a plane?

[truth2power]

27. Prohibited: meat cleavers, swords, spearguns??...rofl!

:rofl:

[efhmc]

33. Yeah, that site was fun, wasn't it. How about people with zero good

sense should not bother trying to get on an airplane but should instead get in their cars and go back home.

[Ravenseye]

48. On British Airways the list includes Catapults

Of course that translates to Slingshots, which makes more sense, but when an American reads it it reads as completely absurd...

"No Catapults eh? How bout a Trebuchet? Would that be ok?"

[efhmc]

51. How about spitballs? They could be made with the travel magazine,

dipped into some of that horrible swill they mostly don't serve anymore and become a deadly weapon.

[Ravenseye]

53. I can't find it but there used to be a makeshift weapons site

What you could get past TSA, sort of showing how absurd some of the restrictions are. It might already be gone, taken down, or whatever...

Things like...

Homemade Blackjack
1) A sock
2) A baseball
Place baseball inside sock.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

2. As long as they're not Al Qaeda knitting needles! n/t

[efhmc]

6. I have the same knitting project I started before the ban and

am now not traveling very much by plane. It was always a soothing and productive way to pass the time for me. Probably will never finish that sweater.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

29. Just try not to hum any songs in Arabic

while you're knitting and you should be OK. :hi:

[efhmc]

31. But if I am humming, how will they know that they are in Arabic?

[GrpCaptMandrake]

34. Precisely my point!

:rofl:

Humming is suspicious!

You do know now that we expect a photo of the completed sweater, don't you?

Whomever you're knitting it for (even yourself) is lucky nad has a generous benefactor!

[efhmc]

36. Ahh, a code. It make me think of something I heard once that long, long

ago, when young college women were on trains coming home, they would whistle a special tune to identify them as an alpha alpha alpha (insert sorority)so they could link up with their "sisters". At the time, I thought it was a cute, quaint custom but now it sounds might suspicious.

[ProfessorGAC]

40. You Could Be Singing In 9 Tone

That would identify you as a terrorist, immediately.

Besides, why are you knitting a sweater? A good american would buy a sweatshop sweater from southeast asia.
The Professor

[NMDemDist2]

3. yes but not your lighter

i was at the airport bar having a cig before going through security and I cracked up the waittress when i asked her "Do you have any TSA approved safety matches you can give me?"

you can take matches but not lighters, knitting needles and nail clippers and scissors up to 4" long

[NanceGreggs]

5. Actually, it depends ...

Are you a Democrat knitter, or a Republican knitter? It seems that lately, all laws apply differently depending on that distinction ...

[efhmc]

8. Well, you certainly know the answer to that one. I have a "Wild and

Crazy Democrat" button which I bought on one of my trips to California that I love to wear.

[NanceGreggs]

16. Well, if you plan on wearing it to the airport ...

... you can forget your subversive knittin', purlin', cablin', and whatever else you Democrats do with those two sharp sticks!

I'm also an avid knitter, and just realized that knitting needles could be seen as dangerous - they're Weapons of Mass Destraction!

[efhmc]

18. You are too clever and funny. They are my "weapons of mass

distraction" and help put me into another dimension and take away some of the worry of watching my country go down the tubes, at least for a little while.

[NanceGreggs]

25. For me, too!

But it's so hard to find the time to really get into it these days.

Maybe we could get jobs with Halliburton, and hope they get a no-bid contract for knitting oil-field equipment out of steel-wool!

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. Yes, but only if you are sitting in First Class

The space allocation in sardine class is so small, I doubt very much anyone could knit on a plane. And if anyone tried while sitting next to me, I would calmly flag the flight attendant and accuse my neighbor of terrorist acts. :mad:

(I had it happen to me a few years ago, an otherwise sweet grandmother type started knitting on a flight from Tucson to San Jose. A polite reqest that she stop hitting me with her elbow got me a dirty look and muttered comments for the rest of the flight about how I should go on a diet. I tell you, that scarf she was working on came within an inch of becoming her shroud.)

[efhmc]

10. Seem like even the most inane behavior has become invasive these

days. Was she knitting with straight or round needles? I always make sure not to poke people, unless I know for sure they are repukes.

[TechBear_Seattle]

30. Straight ones, about a foot long

And she was a "flapper," one of those knitters who ends up looking rather like a penguin trying to fly. My grandmother , my mother and her sister all knit. My mother is a "flyer" while my grandmother and aunt both are "perchers"... their wings don't flap while they're at work. I wouldn't mind sitting next to a percher, but my experience is that most knitters are flappers.

[efhmc]

32. Good gravy. There are people who have technical terms for how one

knits. I am so undereducated.

[TechBear_Seattle]

37. Heh, the terms are an old family joke

The story goes thusly: My older brother, maybe 4 or 5 years old, wandered in to the living room one day during a "stitch and bitch" afternoon.* After watching the ladies for a few minutes and apparently thinking of something he saw recently on television (nature documentaries were very big in the late 60s), he loudly proclaims to the room: "Mommy, you look like a penguin trying to fly."

Needless to say, the story became part of family legend. Supposedly, my aunt proclaimed my mother to be a flapper and my mother retaliated by calling her a percher, as in "The Raven." My mom and aunt love each other dearly, but sometimes they can be a bit... well, like close sisters.



* Another tradition that, sadly, has fallen in to disregard. It used to be that the women of my family, along with assorted friends (mainly from my grandmother's generation but occasionally some younger ones) would get together regularly to knit, crochet, mend, do embroidery, cross-stitch or needlepoint, and to teach others how to do these crafts. Usually, these afternoons were accompanied by bowls of bridge mix, finger sandwiches and "just a little bit more, thank you" of gin or sherry. And no, they weren't called "stitch and bitch", not by the women. Just by my grandfather.

[efhmc]

38. Thanks, for giving me that vignette of a wonderful family. Too bad, so

many of those work/play and gab times are gone (with my grandmother, it was quilting and with my mom, it was bridge, not so productive but still a way to get away and relieve stress). I think many people and many marriages and families could benefit from these types of get togethers.

[TechBear_Seattle]

39. Spoke to my mom about the tradition

As far as she remembers from what my grandmother said, the get-togethers started during World War II. My grandfather was a junior officer in the Navy, and it had been the tradition for officers wives to get together every week to socialize and do some politicking for their husbands. When the war started, one of the women in my grandmother's circle, who was British, adopted a custom from the UK of attending the get-togethers with "work for the boys" in hand; the other women quickly followed suit, as it helped them feel that they were actually doing something for the war effort. It is questionable as to whether the many socks, scarves and hats made any difference, but apparently it was very good for morale on the Home Front.

After the war ended, my grandmother and several others continued the practice, and soon their daughters (and eventually a few granddaughters) were regular attendees, even long after husbands had left the Navy. It was well in to the 1980s when the get-togethers stopped happening.

[pitohui]

11. i also saw them recently in exit row

i agree i mostly see this in first class, i think it's non-revs (flight attendants etc.) who pass the time on their many trips by working on projects


there is some exit row seating where they can be used in coach, i saw it recently

i think it would indeed be horribly rude if nothing else to try to use them in regular coach seat

[kath]

14. Using a circular needle (or perhaps the short "scarf" needles) helps to

cut down the jutting elbows problem significantly.

[pitohui]

9. you have always been able to take knitting needles on the plane

even before the recent changes, knitting needles were allowed, i saw them often, even in first class!

[efhmc]

12. Told this repeatedly by the person who runs the yarn shop here. I called

AA which I almost always fly and was told repeatedly NO, no type of needle was allowed (my friend said they allowed wooden needles) and I was not having my sweater confiscated in order to find out.

[pitohui]

13. they are allowed on northwest airlines

maybe it's because a good many northwest employees are knitters

i think continental also but won't swear to it

haven't flown american airlines in years but i doubt they would confiscate the sweater, only the needle, if they were real exercised about it

[efhmc]

15. Do you have any idea what taking an aran isle sweator off of those

needles would do to it? Quelle mess.

[pitohui]

24. no i didn't know that

maybe that's why northwest allows them then

[kath]

19. I have flown several times with knitting needles in the past year with no

problem whatsoever. Two round trips on American, one on Delta. One of the trips was with a plastic circular needle, one with long metal or plastic needles, the third I'm not sure if it was circular or long metal or long plastic. I knitted on the plane, again no problem - knitting in airports & on board sure lowers my stress level!
Current TSA regs DO allow knitting needles.

What some knitters advise is to take along a self-addressed stamp envelope that the needles fit into. That way if the baggage screeners don't know what the hell they're doing and try to confiscate your needles, you can step out of line and mail the needles home to yourself. (a piece of yarn to draw through the stitches to keep them from unravelling might be helpful) Just allow some extra time for this worst-case scenario.

Heck, you could do just as much damage with the tip of a ball point pen as with a knitting needle. It's at least as pointy.

[efhmc]

20. Well, I should have known not to call the airlines but to go here for

the right information. Knitting does help alleviate my stress. Thanks for the help.

[Gormy Cuss]

28. They have been allowed for a while

They were reinstated a few years back without fanfare.

Now if only they'll use more common sense on shoes.....

[efhmc]

35. I give up checking after a while. It such silliness I felt sure it would

stay and I have never seen anyone else knitting on the flights I have been on.

[ProfessorGAC]

41. Huh?

So knitting needles have always been ok but i can't take my syringes for a prescription drug on the plane? You sure about that? I know for sure that my syringes are not allowed, because at 2 or 3 airports, the pictographic signs showing banned items actually show a syringe!

So, i can't take syringes for medicine on a plane, but 10" knitting needles are ok?
The Professor

[efhmc]

44. I know for a fact that you could not take them at one time because I

called before two different trips and was told very clearly, "no".

[ProfessorGAC]

47. And Yet I Can't Take Mine?

That's just stupid, isn't it? My needles are 24 gauge and are only 1" long. I'd need to stab someone a hundred million times to hurt them! Sheesh! That'll teach me for having a long term illness.
The Professor

[efhmc]

49. I was thinking about this and perhaps they think they might be filled with

something lethal and used for threatening people. When I flew overseas with medicine and needles for my daughter, they could, but never did, take up the needles before flight and return them at the flight's end. Since they were shots for allergies, I just packed them in my suitcase.

[ProfessorGAC]

52. Yeah, But Mine Are Empty In The Packages

I USED to be able to take them in carry-on. At one time, the medicine needed to be kept cold, so i had to travel with a special cold-pack. The formula has been changed so that in it's undiluted form, it is stable for years without cooling. But now, i have to check luggage when i do biz travel, just because i have to take the syringes. This is just stupid.
The Professor

[efhmc]

55. It is stupid and there should be a way to change it. Can you get a

medical dispensation saying you need to be able to access it quickly?

[ProfessorGAC]

56. Don't Know

It wouldn't be true. It's medicine for MS. I take it every other day, so there isn't really that sort of need. But, it sure makes it less convenient to travel when i have to check luggage for a 3 day trip, especially given how light i travel. (A valise that is 18" x 8" x 14" for a 6 day trip to Europe, for instance.)
The Professor

[efhmc]

57. But what happens if the airline loses your bags? I think a cleverly

worded dispensation might work. If you have a helpful physician, you might be able to work something out without telling any fibs. Hope so. Also, stop bragging about that light packing. I just do not seem to ever be able to do it, no matter my intentions.

[sweetheart]

17. up to a certain size

Above 18 feet in length, and 2 feet in diameter, they are
still not allowed. But if you bring ones slightly smaller
that this, you can surely fit in several nuclear devices and
trick the TSA in to thinking it was just a "big" knitting
needle. ;-)

[efhmc]

23. Yep, that would be my plan, but I am sure my telephone is being tapped

and my e-mails checked to avert that type of action.

[sui generis]

21. not the ones filled with anthrax and the missile homing device

they'll git you for that.

:P

[juslikagrzly]

22. I knit every time I fly

and have never had any problems. I've had my entire knitting bag with me many times including metal 18" needles, circular needles, etc. Knitting in coach is fine, just keep your elbows in :-). They do confiscate my lighters however.

[efhmc]

26. No lighters for me. They are home with the only thing I light, my candles.

[Maiden England]

42. Heck I had a cross stitch needle confiscated once...

Apparently some blithering idjit reckoned you could terrorise a plane with a 1 3/4" blunt needle.

:wtf:

[efhmc]

46. Yet, they are letting things back on now that actually do have the

potential to harm people.

[Missy Vixen]

43. Do you have bamboo circular needles?

Let's just say that my customers are having better luck with those. If not, be sure and have a self-addressed, stamped envelope and stitch holders in your purse. You can mail the needles back to yourself if they won't let you on with them.

Good luck.

Julie

[efhmc]

45. That's is what I was told by my local shop owner but the airlines said

they would not be accepted. Now, all knitting needles seem to be okay.

[crispini]

50. I took mine on three months ago.

But they were wooden. No problem at all, including an international flight.

[efhmc]

54. I I think perhaps this change took place a while back but I was just

unaware of it.

[Jawja]

58. You won't hear that from me.

I hope they sweep ALL of 'em out, Dems and Repugs both. We need to get these creeps out of Congress.