Dr. Strangelook, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Knitting in Public

I knit at work on my lunch breaks now. This might not seem like a big deal to some but it's a very new thing for me. Before my surgery I was very much a closet knitter. Outside of my knitting group and my immediate family people knew I knit and saw some finished objects here and there but very few actually got to witness me in the act. Not being able to drive for 2 months changed all that. Always relying on others for transportation means a lot of waiting. Not that I ever minded, I was always grateful to get rides from anyone even if it meant waiting for a cab to take me to the train station to take the train home from work. I was grateful to have the option to have a cab to take me where I needed to go. But there was a good solid month before I was even coordinated enough to take the train. Before that I would have to wait for my husband to pick me up. He works later than me, so once I finished work I usually had a good hour before he could make it to my office to pick me up. Those hours started to add up. Those plus the fact that no driving (or walking that much for that matter) also meant no lunch hours out. I sat at my desk everyday. Now spending that much time waiting is not really that bad, but if you're a knitter without your knitting, well, it's going to put you over the edge a little.



So now I knit at work and it's not so bad. My co-workers are intrigued. I have yet to do it in front of my main boss, he's not around a lot and I still worry about what he would think of it. But for the most part each day I either bring my lunch and sit at my desk and knit for an hour or go out and eat and knit somewhere else for an hour. My work is part of real estate, and the real estate market is frightfully dead right now so things are slow. I never skip lunches like I tend to do when it's busy.

And this knitting in public is not limited to work anymore. I knit at the vet waiting for the cat's appointment. While waiting for my hairdresser. On car trips where I'm not driving. I always knit on the long car trips before sure, but if I pick up the needles on a trip here or there, the extra 2-3 rows still put me 2-3 rows ahead.



It's made me super-productive, I think. On these soakers the legs sometimes seem like take me forever. They're 70 rows of 50 stitches, it kind of reminds me of knitting a pair of socks. I can usually do about 15 rows in a lunch hour. Add that to what I normally do at night and the finished objects are just flying off the needles. Before I start I usually set little goals for myself, like doing a certain number of rows or finishing the i-cord drawstring. I usually meet them and surpass them, I finish the lunch hour feeling very accomplished!

And this is how it should be. Knitting is so important to me really, why should I always hide it? Leave it for when I only have blocks of time in private to devote to it? It's funny how many people know so little about such a big part of me. While I'm not yet one of those people looking to spread the word necessarily (I'd rather sit and knit myself than teach someone new, I'm selfish I'll admit it) I'm definitely more comfortable with this than I've been in the past. And so what if someone thinks it's strange or silly? Really would I rather be concerned with what they think or be on my way to finishing up another project or using up more stash? Like I said I'm selfish...