Loop Theory Creations

Over the past few years, my day job has been taking me all over the country. Before college I would have thought it would be so cool to travel for work, but it was only cool for about two trips before I started getting tired of it. Traveling on a monthly basis doesn’t sound like it’s a lot, but the cost and time add up. For most of 2025, my employer sent me to Colorado for about a year and put me up in a hotel (weird to be in a hotel so long, but lots of reasons for this). This meant limited space and definitely no hoarding yarn. I’ve dabbled in all forms of art by this point, but it became more difficult for me to sketch and paint since my surfaces are quite unpredictable. Yarn arts were perfect because of how portable it is, and I personally felt more comfortable with someone looking over my shoulder while I crocheted vs when I was sketching. As I write this on a flight, I wanted to share my experiences traveling so much but never missing a minute to create. 

Limited space

When I was living in the little studio hotel room in Colorado, it was officially the smallest space I’ve lived in for longer than one week. I was at the Residence Inn in Boulder (not a sponsor, just love them so much) which had a full kitchen and a full fridge! My room had a cozy couch, a king sized bed, and a really spacious bathroom which I miss dearly. The accommodations were wonderful, but hotels were not really designed for super long term stays. I had a little extra space to store the empty boxes I used for my cross country drive and maybe a few extra things. 

I knew I needed to be intentional about what kinds of projects I was going to do. Usually I’d casually collect materials, inspiration, whatever I found that was interesting until I found the right time to use it. I also didn’t always love what I was making, and this was before I realized that method of pushing myself to make (in other words, always showing up) was not working for me.

I had to spend way more time finding projects I was truly excited about and could not stop thinking about. I asked myself whether I see myself wearing it, using it, or gifting it to someone and genuinely being proud of it. These may seem like such simple and rudimentary things, but it personally took so much self control to avoid buying without purpose. This was also my first year crocheting, so I was still figuring out what I wanted to get really good at and the pretty yarn was just so distracting. In today’s day and age of trends and micro trends, it’s easy to do something just because someone else is doing it. 

In a future post, I’ll tell you guys about all of the things I made in my first year crocheting!

Constant travel

At the end of 2025, I moved to Louisiana to be with my life partner since my day job is much more mobile and flexible. This also meant I had to go home to my home city of Philadelphia constantly. Being in a much more remote town, it is about 3 hours to Dallas which is the nearest city, and the nearby airport is only a regional airport which inevitably means layovers. A one way flight will cost me several hundred dollars and about 10 hours of limited internet connectivity. was thankful to find so many longer term projects that use sport weight yarn because those skeins really go a long way. I can bring 2-3 skeins in my bag and be well entertained for my whole trip. It’s also so wonderful to meet other crocheters during my travels when they peek over and ask me what I’m working on. Whether in a lounge, sitting at the gate, or in my seat during the flight, I’m very content!

Of course, what do I do when I have a night time flight and it’s dark in the cabin? Do I turn the bright and utterly blinding light on like a menace? Absolutely not. I pull out my phone or laptop on the darkest setting and just write instead. 

Entertainment while creating

Even though my hands are busy, my ears still need to be occupied. I love long form youtube and have been watching/listening to a lot of Bailey Sarian, SWOOP, Rotten Mango, and Alyssa Grenfell. 

Staying organized while traveling 

If you like to work with color like I do, you probably would have to deal with lugging around a ton of yarn to only use some colors very sparingly. Maybe you don’t work with color like crazy, but maybe you like to work on large and intricate projects and have to carry around a lot of yarn anyway. To keep my stuff nice and tight, I cake my yarns before travel so that I can get a nice center pull and it’s not going to take up more space than it has to. I also keep an offline copy of the patterns I’m working with so that I’m not stuck because I can’t download something. I only bring the absolute essentials to continue a project.

What’s in my bag

I reused a little zip bag that I got from when I had LASIK done, and have not bothered to get another one since. It has a bunch of hooks, tiny scissors, a small case of stitch markers, and measuring tape. I also have a pen because those are always useful, and various yarn labels depending on what I was working on. if I run out of yarn during my travels, I’ll just hope that I can find the same yarn in the same if not very similar dye lot at a nearby store. 

Stuff I tried

I’m not very chronically online, but it’s clear that the world has become super interested in crochet! That does mean there will be lots of opportunists that try to make some quick money without a care for what the product is and how well it works long term. That being said, I thankfully only wasted my money on a few things before settling with my tried and true stuff that I really love to use!

Crochet Hook Kit

Early on, in the interest of saving space and being more efficient, I tried out those crochet hook kits where it comes with a handle with a light build in,, interchangeable hooks, a charging cable, and a small wrench to loosen or secure the hooks. It was pretty awesome for a while! There were so many different sizes of hooks all in one case. The light was fine except if someone is nearby you then you might blind them by accident. I ended up not really using the light at all. The handle was plastic with a silicone grip, but it was not glued down or anything, so eventually the grip expanded and loosened and then it started slipping all over the place because it was no longer taut like it used to be. This made it quite annoying to use, and after a certain point I was questioning whether I needed that many hooks in my possession at once. Maybe just being at home it’d be cool, but it doesn’t solve the potential problem of the grip becoming wonky over time. It was easier for me to just carry the hooks I knew I would need for a particular project. 

Like I said, not really my favorite! I just use the metal Susan Bates hooks that are comfortable enough for me, allows yarn to glide nicely, and are relatively inexpensive! Sometimes it is hard to find very specific sizes, so I have a mix of Susan Bates and Prym hooks.

Neck Light

To attempt to solve my problem of having enough light without blinding my neighbor, I tried a neck light. In my mind, it made perfect sense because it would stay on me and light up just the space that I wanted it to light up. This was actually great for low light scenarios but I did find it difficult to crochet for a long time just because the focused light strained by eyes. I would still use this if I had no other choice of light. Generally the search terms “reading light” can show you some good stuff!

Reading light photo from Amazon (not sponsored)

Honestly… it’s better for your eyes long term to just work with ample light (overhead light or sunlight) instead of with a very focused beam of light to illuminate your work.

Finishing my projects away from home

As an overpacker, if I have to check a bag I might as well bring stuff I might need! I also ask my friends that I’ll see if I can borrow stuff, and also employ my own creativity to make the most of what I have. This time, I had some blocking mats because I knew I would finish this shawl when I got home and I knew I wanted it ready to give to my mom.

I also have skeins of yarn in the most random places, so technically you could find me in many states across the country… big thanks to my friends and family that keep my yarn around in some box or drawer!

Closing thoughts

Crochet is an awesome thing to take during travel because of its portability. I can just sit down and pull it out of my bag if I had as little as a few minutes. My bag has become pretty slim after learning how I create and what I need to do so. Self control in a yarn shop will always be immensely difficult, but just like grocery shopping, never go in without a plan!