In fact, the thought of it was "honestly ... quite guilt-inducing".
"We’ve created an environment where actually we can’t get off the train if we want to.
"We can’t go and hang out the washing if we need to, we can’t cook a meal.
"We’re basically going on a five-hour social sojourn with our knitting needles and our crafting."
The owner of Crofters Yarn said tomorrow’s scheduled trip, on the Taieri Gorge train, was following a "craze" of people knitting on trains which had taken parts of the world by storm.
She had started the Wakari wool shop just over two years ago, after being made redundant, and had grown it into a community of hundreds of "yarnies" from many walks of life.
A total of 40 knitters, most from Otago, would join the trip — and in their very own carriage too.
"It’ll be loud — I can tell you that now.
"Some of us have already jacked up how we’re going to get to the train and how we’re going to get home, because there’ll be some that will drink a couple of wines, some will just have coffee.
"We do swear, we are unapologetic about that."
Mrs Aitken — the daughter of a sheep farmer — said she created the community after feeling isolated from losing her job and realising knitting was becoming popular again.
They held community knit sessions four times a week and supported a chosen charity each year.
It had grown from herself and a couple of friends into an "enormous beautiful community".
They were not what you would expect grandmothers who knitted to be like, and they could be a "little bit naughty" and cheeky, Mrs Aitken said.
She was expecting the trip to be "really noisy" and it would be "quite a challenge" to get some knitting done.
It would not only be women on the trip, as the blokes and some of their older children were also coming along for the ride.
"And the boys are just as excited as us girls are, but I think they might be into the beers."
