Public Display of Knitting

As I settled into my seat at the meeting for my daughter's school, I realized it would be a long night. Everything had to be repeated in Spanish, making it twice as long. My knitting project whispered to me from my purse, "Pick me up." I looked around the room, no one else was knitting. I thought I should be good. I should just patiently sit here like everyone else. But my mind wandered. I thought about my project, I admired the outfit of the lady across the room, I pondered the pattern of the sweater worn by the man sitting next to me. I didn't really hear what was being said. "Just a couple of stitches," my project whispered, a little more loudly. No, I thought, it will embarrass my daughter. "I'm not going to get done if you just sit there," the project whispered. Ever so subtly I slipped just the needles out of the bag, slowly, I hooked one stitch and then another, all while looking attentively at the speaker. My mind focused. I could hear what the man was saying, my hat was getting finished. I didn't get kicked out of the meeting. No one glared at me. They probably didn't even notice. My daughter was embarrassed, but then she's 13, so she's embarrassed pretty easily these days.

The project, shown here in its embryonic stage, is a beaded hat made from a kit sent by my wonderful secret pal. The beads are strung on and then brought down as the hat is knit. It's quite fun.