Hi! I will be going on vacation for the 1st time in a very long time; (can’t wait! Anyway, are there restrictions on the types of needles I can bring on the airplane?
Thanks, Susan
:XX:
Nothing metal…
Last time I flew, I printed up a page from the TSA to bring with me in case they gave me trouble.
Check this out:
http://www.tsa.gov/public/display?content=090005198006c36a&print=yes
thank you!
thanks for that link, im flying on sat. and was wondering the same thing. Kind of sad though :crying: , both of my projects right now are one metal, and i dont want to spend money on bamboo or wood right before my trip
I recently flew to New Mexico and took plastic needles and had no problems.
Hi everyone!
I bet it also depends on the country, or maybe the airport. I was really bummed when I flew to Europe because I could have finished my scarf on the long flight and then wore it around Spain 
! Because they wouldn’t let me take the needles on (they were metal), I didn’t finish it till after I got back 
(no chance to knit when sightseeing in Europe!). It’s sooooooooo stupid - you can take pens and pencils on the plane, and they serve plastic knives with meals - but you can’t take big fat, rounded tip needles!
- Jessica
You can’t xray metal and also metal conducts electricity. On the other hand, I don’t get why they won’t allow hockey sticks on a plane, but I saw a guy carry on a tennis racket over the holidays. Is it that hockey players fight more? Or is it just that airport security is lackluster?
i just returned from a short trip to chicago and had a project with me on denise circular needles. no one said a thing.
A male, non-knitting friend of mine recently told me of how invasive these new flight standards are. While flying out of Newark, New Jersey last month, he told me he was searched very thoroughly (it was an emergency flight home to his native Puerto Rico, to be at the hospital bedside of his dying mother, unfortunately, a cancer victim). Upon his saddened return, he was again very thoroughly searched while flying out of an airport in PR.
While in Newark, he told me of a woman, dressed in a full-length (real) mink coat, who was taken aside by a female TSA worker. She was led to another room and asked to disrobe to find whatever was setting off the alarms. It turned out to be her wirecup bra…as she related to my friend once they boarded the plane.
Bamboo, plastic, Luxite and wood are probably all good to go through, without the classic, rubber-gloved, body cavity search being automatically done on you.
A few months back I bought the complete knitting needle (US 8, 5 mm through US 15, 10 mm) and crochet hook (US G6, 4 mm through US P16, 11.5 mm) line of Red Heart, Crystalite’s and would recommend them for people who travel frequently. You can also buy them individually if you like. The knitting needles, while only about 10 inch, 25 cm long (approx. 9 inch, 23 cm working area and 1 inch, 2.5 cm for the end), are see-through and colorful and get the job done when you need a transportable tool. Unfortunately, most of the patterns I see these days call for some other size, so I tend to use the crochet hooks more often and I do like working with them!
The TSA guideline’s are rudimentary at best. I thought the idea about taking a crochet hook to complete a knitting project was totally bogus! I can just see/hear someone throwing an absolute FIT over that idea at an airport!
If a reporter recently was able to LEGALLY fly this country with an automatic rifle in his checked baggage, then your metal needles can stow that same route too.
:shock:
we can’t take knitting needles on airplanes, but teenagers can take guns into schools and murder their teachers and classmates. What a smart system :wall:
I have taken my aluminum needles on planes, no questions asked.
I flew from New Orleans to New York-JFK with both metal and bamboo needles on Jet Blue. I did not have any problems, no one even questioned me about the needles.
Jaclyn
Right after 9/11 my mom had to buy bamboo needles to take on a plane trip, but in the last year she has had no trouble taking her metal needles, and she has taken at least 6 different flights. Good luck!