This one gets me too. My sister in law said it to me recently and all I could think was “well WTF do you do with your time then?” I mean she watches daytime tv all day - she could knit and do that at the same time!
“What is that called?”
“It’s knitting”
“Oh, I thought it was crochet, how can you tell the difference”
(from a friend)
“I want you to teach me how to knit…but I don’t think I’ll be able to learn because I’m not good at chopsticks”
Actually I have to add my response to her. I looked kind of blank when she said this because it was so odd and unexpected. I just responded in kind of a dazed voice, “chopsticks are one handed, you’ll have more control with knitting”
I didn’t know what else to say.
“Why did you learn how to do that? You actually make things!?!”
and…
“Have you ever stuck yourself in the eye with one of those sticks?” :passedout:
I kind of stared blankly at this person, with a bit of a WTF look on my face, and responded, “well I did in the begining, but now that I’m more coordinated I usually just get them stuck up my nose.”
:roflhard:
My response probably would have been a really sweet smile and, “No, not myself.” And then kept smiling sweetly at them until they backed away in fear.
did I already respond to this thread? I forget.
not so much a strange comment, but…l just, idk, it took me by surprise.
I KIP all the time without any negative comments. one day I was knitting in the waiting area at Kaiser Child Psych, waiting for my kid while he was at his appointment. there were 3 other adults sitting and 1 little boy, who appeared to be about kindergarten age calmly playing with blocks in the waiting area with me. we were all quiet doing our own thing minding our own business.
a woman across the room from me said, "you know, you shouldn’t be using those needles in here."
I thought, noooo, she’s not talking to me, I’m not gonna look at her.
she said, “excUUse me! knitting lady!”
“yes? what is the problem?”
“those are dangerous, you should know better than to use sharp objects in a child psychiatry office! I’m gonna tell the receptionist!”
"I’ll talk to the receptionist."
the receptionist told me, with a roll of her eyes and a wink and smile, “it’s okay, go ahead and knit, just ignore her.”.
receptionist, to woman: "ma’am, she’s allowed to knit in here. please do not bother the patients and their families."
just as she said this, the child who was calmly playing with blocks runs to the complainer and punches her, over and over.
complainer YELLS at the kid, "JOSHUA!!! WILL YOU STOP F**ING HITTING ME GDDAMNIT?!?!"
the receptionist asked her to take her child outside.
I was like :shock:, trying to not to :roflhard:.
This is the most awesome thread ever! I’m so glad it was ressurected. I’ve had great fun reading everyone’s posts.
My friends and co-workers are generally positive about my knitting. They tease me goodnaturedly, but they can’t really be mean or condescending about it since I work in a place where everyone plays tabletop role-playing games (AD&D, Werewolf, and the like) or talks about “next-gen” video game consoles. My manager runs LARP (live action role-play) games in the city, where people dress up in Victorian-style costumes (some handmade) and pretend to be vampires.
So really, knitting? Not so weird. One of my co-workers actually said “You can make clothes out of a piece of string. It’s awesome.” One of the programmers at my workplace actually thought my SNB kitty-hat was so cute he wore it around for an hour.
Though yesterday, when I was talking about getting another cat once I have a bigger apartment, someone joked about me becoming a crazy knitting cat-lady by the time I’m twenty-five.
And I don’t really knit in public but the one time I did, this old guy came and sat down next to me on the bus and said “I thought only old ladies knitted.” He was curious about what I was doing in a good way though.
I guess the weirdest (and most hurtful) thing came from my ex-bf a couple years back when I made him a scarf. I don’t remember if he said it right then or sometime before (or after), but he said: “I don’t know why you do this. You’re so talented and you could do so much more.” I guess he thought that since I wanted to knit, I couldn’t possibly have any other ambitions. So I stopped knitting for a while.
I guess it comes back to the whole progressive women thing. I don’t knit because I feel like it’s my duty. I do it because I enjoy it and its a creative process. I’m not setting feminism back thirty years because I enjoy cooking, knitting and yes, even cleaning (am a neat-freak and afraid of dirt). It’s a choice that I make and what’s important is that I get to make this choice.
i was kip today, working on the bottom of my booga and this lady from my church came up to me and asked what i was knitting, so i answered, a bag. she then said i knit, but i could never do anything this complicated :shrug: i was like, it is just garter stitch, whatis so hard? but, i just smiled at her and nodded. :wall:
You should have told her that! It might have given her some confidence to try it. And you should have told her about usssss!
I’ve been getting mostly positive remarks about my KIPs. Which are mostly at my desk at lunch time. Though one of my coworkers teased me when I said this morning I was ready for summer. “Then you wouldn’t be able to knit all these warm things!”
“I’ll just use cotton.” :teehee:
I had never read this thread till today. Again, I’m gald someone resurrected it.
I recently completed a pair of lacy purple socks. I proudly showed them to my husband- several times while in process… and when I was done. He keeps saying they have holes in them. I explain it’s lace. He says they are holes. He had never heard of lace socks.
But the other day at work I was showing off these same puple lace socks, removing my shoes and the whole bit. Most people know I’ve taken up knitting. Everyone is generally complimentary of my knitting. One co-worker worker looked at my feet and said. "Oh, you made those! How useful! When the world comes to an end you’ll be able to have something to sell."
It was terribly funny, she didn’t mean it in a bad way I think she meant if we are suddenly plunged into post industrial chaos I have a useful skill. Which, if they can just provide me with two sticks and some string, is true.
:roflhard:
My response probably would have been a really sweet smile and, “No, not myself.” And then kept smiling sweetly at them until they backed away in fear.[/quote] :roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard:
When I first starting knitting back in Sept. (and before I found all you wonderful people) I was sitting on my bed practicing my garter stitch when my roommate came home. She has to go by my room on the way to hers and she took one look, stopped and said WHAT are you doing??..um, well I’m teaching myself to knit so I can make a blanket for my neice. She procedes to laugh. I don’t know why people think its so funny that someone under the age of 75 could be knitting. :noway:
I get laughed at by my Mother in law whenever she sees me knitting and she wonders why I never make her anything .
Most like and want me to knit them something .
Never had a negative comment except that I knit too much .
I love it when after making a blanket for someone they snuggle it up to thier face . Also has anyone here had someone actually smell what you have knitted ? , and say “this smells good ,smells like you .”
:??
What was that? The universal translator must be broken again, I can’t read that.
:??
What was that? The universal translator must be broken again, I can’t read that.[/quote] What ?
“knit too much.”
That’s not English. I can’t read what it says. 
lol…gotcha …never can knit enough .
i like this thread…can’t wait to catch up on all the posts. not sure if this has been mentioned before, but i hate knitting in front of my FIL because he always asks me kindof condescending questions about it. i only see him a couple times a year, and when we do go up there, i am usually in the middle of a project. anyway, this past thanksgiving, as i’m knitting, he asks me if i ever finished anything, b/c he always sees me in progress and claims he has never seen me with an FO (which is not true). but even if it was true, i just found that to be a completely obnoxious question. of course he only sees me in progress. that’s the whole point of knitting. you’re always working on something.
anyway, thanks for letting me vent. 
mines isn’t weird… just said with love…
“are you gonna finish that?”
WTH is that supposed to mean!? i finish a lot of stuff.
:roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard:
This didn’t happen to me, but a favorite knitting blogger posted the all-time best stupid knitting response:
“Now, did you learn to do that in prison?”
:roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard:
While waiting for the train and happily knitting away I am asked, “Are you knitting?” I answer “Yes, yes I am.” Next question. “Are those real, authentic knitting needles?” :shock: I didn’t know what to say, I mean how do you answer that question and not sound rude? :shrug:
Nadja xxx