Would You, Could You Knit on a Train?

I listened to Socks in the City today. That's a podcast specifically about knitting socks. The host, Dharmafey, is entertaining and really energetic - and really into knitting socks. On her latest podcast, she rewrote Green Eggs and Ham (Dr. Seuss) using sock knitting in place of the green eggs and ham. It was cute - and long (okay, it made me laugh a couple of times), but it reminded me of me knitting on the train.

In the knitting community, June 9 was "Knit in Public Day." Events were organized in New York City and Boston, etc. Knitters across the world took their needles and wool outside and dared to knit in public.

I didn't. I was busy working on this writing project that is taking up all of my time lately. Plus, I'm not really connected to the knitting community here in Amsterdam because when I signed up for Stitch 'n Bitch Amsterdam, I immediately got a job teaching on Monday evening, so I couldn't go. Plus, I sort of always knit in public. I'm big on knitting on the train.

Normally, I just sit and knit my sock - it's always a sock - and I listen to my ipod and I don't really look up. I imagine that people are talking about me, I've heard people say things that I think are related to me and knitting, but I don't pay attention because I'm usually exhausted coming back from The Hague in the afternoons.

However, twice recently people have talked to me about knitting while I was knitting my magical "talk to me" sock. The first was an old Indonesian man. He started in Dutch and we continued talking in Dutch the whole time. It was a good fifteen minutes. (I'm always sort of surprised at my ability to keep talking and not run out of words. I imagine shrugging at some point and saying, "Sorry. I used up all my Dutch. We have to talk in English now.") The old man said that he thought I was Swiss because he knows that they teach everyone to knit when they are children. It was a nice conversation. Just chatting, but I never talk to anyone on the train.

The second time was yesterday when Fred and I went to Haarlem to a party for his niece. An old woman (noticing a pattern here?) was quizzing me about what I was knitting and why and this and that. I couldn't follow her and Fred was no help. The Dutch thing wasn't happening because I was really not into going to the party (although it turned out fine - it was the getting there) and I couldn't understand her very well.

People ask me all the time if I get a lot of "looks" when I'm knitting. Again, I don't know. I'm usually in Andy's World on the train and when I'm in Andy's World, the camera is always on Andy.