knitters

“Please turn off or mute your cell phones and put away your knitting needles.”

I realize that knitting is the current cool homemaker hobby for young professionals, but I think that some need to realize that there is a time and a place for such activity and a professional conference is not one of them. At least, not during the sessions.

I was at a librarian conference on Friday, and I saw at least three knitters in the sessions I attended. One was very good about knitting while still keeping her head up and giving the appearance of paying attention to the presenter. That was a little more acceptable than the behavior of one of her fellow knitters. This woman never looked up from her knitting for the whole session. She may have been paying attention, but her body language didn’t indicate it. I consider that sort of behavior to be as rude as falling asleep or talking.

So, to the librarian knitters out there: please put away your needles and give your full attention to the presenters while at professional conferences. Thank you.

1/26/05: Knitting has made its way into the ALA Council Drinking Game.

Game begins with one drink for each member present who intends to actively knit, cross-stitch, crochet, tat or otherwise engage in handcraftiness at some point during session. Bags will be checked for needles, hooks, looms, and hoops as members enter Council chambers.

3 thoughts on “knitters”

  1. I’ve seen the same thing at a few conferences and I found it very annoying. Even though they don’t make much noise, there is a lot motion involved. The people sitting around the knitter get distracted by the knitting and can’t pay as much attention to the speaker. I actually saw one librarian who was spinning her own yarn. That was even worse than the knitting. I like playing video games, but I’m not going to fire up my GameBoy in the middle of a presentation.

  2. no knitting at library conferences?!

    Eclectic Librarian has an anti-knitting at library conferences post. I must say at one conference I went to (the library section of BloggerCon) the host of the section specifically invited people to bring their knitting, and I did.

    In my other exper…

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