Forgive me for being away so long! I began this blog around a year ago full of good intentions and even as recently as this January I resolved to post at least monthly. Well here we are in April and I finally find a moment to put fingers to keyboard.
This post has been titled the
Most commuters will only watch (and I like to think admire) from a distance, but many will pass comment on "how lovely" my creation looks etc etc. Watching someone knit or sew can be a great distraction as well - as I discovered once travelling to Bournemouth on a train, while doing some blackwork. When the guard came along to inspect the tickets he began to ask what I was doing and became so engrossed in the conversation (especially when the elderly gentleman sitting next to me joined in) that he completely forgot to check our tickets and moved on.
While most encounters have been positive I do recall one incident that happened some time ago - back in the days of the old-style slam door trains - that was a bit bizarre to say the least. I had joined the train at Waterloo (nothing unusual about that I hear you say) and sat in a compartment with 6 seats - you know the ones with the corridor running along the length of the carriage outside - and it gradually began to fill with other commuters. Having sat there for a few minutes watching me knit one man left and moved to the adjoining compartment, but before he sat down I could hear him asking the women already in the carriage "You're not going to start knitting are you?" How could anyone find knitting that offensive???
Of all the conversations though, the ones with children have made me smile the most and I would like to share three of these with you now. The first involved a little girl (approx 4 years old) who was sitting with her mother opposite from me on a train. I was knitting - no surprise there! Having watched for a few minutes, staring intently at the movement of the needles, she turned to her mother and asked in a loud whisper "What's that lady doing?" Her mother replied "She's knitting." "Oh." said the girl. A few minutes of more intense observation later she whispered to her mother again, asking "What's she making?" "I don't know" answered her mother. At this point I pretended to look at the pattern, making sure that the image on the front was displayed for the girl and she announced for all to hear "Oooo, it's a cardigan!"
On another occasion a boy of around 10 or 11 years asked me what I was doing. I told him I was knitting and asked him if his mother knitted. "No" he replied "she is only 35!" Perhaps he has been watching too many Shreddies adverts!
More recently a family (mother and 3 children) joined a bus I was travelling on in London and the eldest boy (approx 9-10 years old) sat next to me. He soon began watching and asked what I was doing. When I told him he wanted to know "Is it easy?" and "Can I learn how to do this?"
It's a shame that so many children have never seen anyone knitting and the skill isn't being handed down in every family like it used to. Even more reason to keep being the Knitter on the bus!
I love this blog post, sorry it's taken me so long to read it! I always knit wherever I am, although sadly don't get much opportunity to travel on public transport anymore (I used to love bus and train journeys) so I can relate to people talking to me about what I'm making. My main knitting venues outside the house seem to be in hospitals and doctors waiting rooms these days, and it is such a good conversation starter! People always want to know what you are making and then you can have amazing conversations. My best one was with a lady who worked alohgside a member of the Royal Family during the war making woolies and collecting clothes for the homeless. I can't remember which Royal it was now, funnily enough there was something about it on tv just before I met this lady so I knew what she was talking about, wish I could remember the details now. It might have been Queen Mary or someone like that.
ReplyDeleteLovely reading about the experiences you have had - I love it when children show an interest in knitting, hopefully the old skills will be passed down to the next generation! And hilarious about the man who had to move seats and check that nobody was going to knit before he sat in that compartment! He must have a real knitting phobia!