I’m just curious if any of you have broken in your non-knitting friends, in relation to letting you knit and not thinking you are bored by their company?
After a recent gathering, I’m thinking that if it’s okay for them to pick up their smart phone and start googling, then it must be okay for me to knit?! Who is really breaking the rules of politeness here?
Of course, I’m hoping you’ll all say that I’m not the rude one, however I can also take the heat if you disagree.
How to KIP & Keep Friends from Thinking You Are Bored?
In my mind there are different types of knitting. Some require a lot of attention and you have to think about them a lot, consult directions, count, etc… Other knitting you just knit and turn and can look up, make eye contact quite a bit and be an active participant in the conversation. I think it is a bit rude to knit with company present with the first kind. The second kind I find okay.
It doesn’t sound very polite to me to do anything that takes your full attention away from the people involved. Can they Google without thinking? Can they still pay attention to what you are saying? If so maybe it is all right for them. If not 
.
It may depend on how much time you spend together too. Maybe if friends are over all the time they need to adjust to the fact that you want to get some knitting done and it may involve a short interruption to the conversation once in a while. 
But if you don’t have much time together and they made an extra effort to get together, a lot of interruptions seem more out of order.
Also…tell them you are not bored, you just like to keep your hands busy.
My KIP projects are usually the ones that I do not have to give complete attention to so that I have to tune out conversation and others around me. I KIP and others are so used to it that they ask why I am not knitting if I don’t. I KIP for a number of reasons:…it keeps me alert, I often fall asleep if i sit still too long, I think it is rude to surf the net or text at those times and yes I do own a smart phone, I have a very busy life nine and a half months a year so I squeeze knitting in almost every spare moment. Let your gut feeling be your guide in new KIP situations. If your are not comfortable, it may not be a good time to knit. Otherwise, if you are unsure, ask before you start. There are a few unwrittten ‘rules’ I have for KIP like in a restaurant or coffee house I only knit as long a the food or drink lasts or I order another drink. ( my 80 year old mother takes much longer to eat than I do so I keep busy while she finishes her meal, In church, I visit with the minister and see if he has a problem with it. ( Again, I take notes look up bible refferences and follow the lesson). Because I am comfortable knitting in public, I have made new friends and new knitters! Happy Knitting!
I agree with the previous posters. It just depends on the project and the company. Each and every time will probably be different. You could also ask “do you mind if I knit while we chat?”