I've gotten to the point of having a small project in my backpack pretty much at all times -- and have found that a single-color sock is a great project to walk around with when, for example, standing in line for two hours in an airport, since the single ball of yarn can often neatly fit into a pocket. (Though currently I only have three projects on the needles, since I just finished one last night -- but fortunately the Ravenclaw scarf and Mom's socks are both portable.)

I suppose I have to agree with the idea of loosening one's knitting, but I've solved my problems by just adjusting needle size to get the correct gauge. (Like the striped kneesocks pattern I keep doing, where the pattern calls for size 3 on most of the sock and size 2 ribbing, and I use size 5 or 6 on the ribbing and 7 or 8 on the rest of the sock, depending on the calf-thickness of the recipient.)