Someone commented in that when they’re knitting, people come up and talk to them. The conversation can take varying levels of depth, but she says that sometimes people will comment that it must be much cheaper to knit your own things than to buy them. In fact, though, the opposite is true. This leads people to ask, “but why do you do it, then?”
No one’s ever asked me that, which means I must be hanging out with the right crowd. However, I do have some answers that come up when strangers comment:
“Knitting just let me meet you, a total stranger. Pretty neat, eh?”
“I can sit here and do nothing or I can sit here and do something.”
“It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”
“I have a handy skill in case society collapses and we all wind up herding goats.”
“I can make something while drinking coffee that I can hand down to my grandchildren.”
“Knowledge is power.”
“It’s like yoga without the sweating.”
“Because it’s there.”
I do get people saying they don’t have the patience to knit, or maybe they just mean they don’t have the patience to learn. It’s not that hard, really. And as for not having the patience to knit, my response is generally that I don’t have the patience NOT to knit. I can stand in line at the post office and crank out a few rows on a hat, or I can stare into space. I know what I pick.
I can knit and read, or otherwise look at places other than my hands, and that seems to be what gets people commenting the most. I say, “it’s like driving a car. When you first learn, you’re very tense and nervous, but after a while you get to the point where you realize you’ve gone five miles you don’t even remember driving.” I’m very fond of analogy, you may have noticed.
My daughter’s occupational therapist just found out that the things I make in her waiting room go all over the world, and now she’s fascinated. For instance, yesterday: “Where’s that one going?” “Oxford.” “Wow!” Which pretty much sums up how I feel about it, too. Of course, the down side of knitting the Jayne hat over and over is that people who see you ever day think you’re just really slow at knitting a single hat. It takes a while for them to realize what’s going on.
Firefly DVDs are on loan to a woman from Charlotte Yarn, and another woman there wants to borrow them after. Then they go to prostiturtle. There’s some kind of strong crafty/Firefly link that’s not been explored enough. Maybe the show would have made it if there had been flyers at your local fabric store.
Hats up for: VA, CA, CA.
At the grocery store this morning, I was wearing a little silk garden roll-brim beanie I threw together in Jan 2005, and saw a young mom in a cabled green hat with a garter stitch base. Hers was handmade, very well done. Now, I’ve found that when I make things too well or too polished, I don’t get compliments, possibly because people assume they’re manufactured.