KIC

I know that so many people have very strong opinions about knitting in church. I don't. I could take it or leave it. If you knit in church, fine, if you don't, fine. I don't see a problem with it as long as it is quiet and doesn't go all over. Let me rephrase. I have no problem with knitting in any meetings at church when other people do it. And in Sacrament, if you keep it quiet and yarn doesn't roll all over the chapel, I don't have a problem with that, either. I bring my knitting to church every Sunday. I get it out on occasion after church while I wait for Michael to finish all of the things he has to do. Every week, I sit in church and think about all of the knitting I could be doing and wonder if knitting will help me pay more attention to the speakers. And every week, I wish I were knitting while my knitting remains inside my bag.

I don't know why I can't just get out my project and work quietly. There is no way it could be more distracting than the many people sleeping, whispering, pawning their kids off on other people, chasing kids down the aisles and up on the pulpit, or trying to quiet screaming children. I could just keep to myself and quietly feel a little more productive as I listen to the millionth talk about not sucking by relying on yourself and not expecting everyone else to carry you and your burdens all the time, especially when you get yourself into deep financial debt (I live in an area of low socio-economic status). And Michael and I have a deal. If the speaker doesn't quote scripture, general authority, or state the topic of his talk in the first three minutes, Michael is allowed to get out his DS and play because the talk will be a waste of his time. That's right. Valuable time he could spend gaming. However, with knitting, it could help me stay occupied enough to endure really paying attention to every speaker, even the ones who mumble through or never even prepared a talk and so ramble on and on. I do ask Michael to keep his DS down so it doesn't disturb anyone and it has to be on silent, of course.

But I absolutely hate how everyone comes up and asks what I'm making and then looks completely nonplussed and kind of like I am a freak of nature when I say, "a handbag" or "a scarf" or "a hat". A knitted handbag? How does that work? But could you teach me to knit? I really need to learn to do that. And it's all lip service and I can't tell if they mean it or they just think they need to say it. I don't care if they don't notice my existence at all--well, a "hello" or something would be nice, but I mean they don't have to notice the fact that I am knitting. I would actually prefer for no one to notice, I think. I just want to knit. I am not fishing for attention. I am just trying to make the idle time I spend waiting a little more productive.