The Yarn Harlot mentioned me today! If you’re a knitter you already know who the Yarn Harlot is: she’s only the Online Goddess of the Knitting Universe, that’s who! And when she mentions your blog on her blog, your blog goes platinum for a day as gazillions of knitters pour in. So – a warm wooly welcome to the gazillions of Harlot fans!
The reason the Yarn Harlot mentioned my blog is because she was promoting the Canadian Blog Awards. She’s been nominated, I’ve been nominated (thanks to Robin Kelsey and Scott Tribe) and lots of my favourite blogs have been nominated. Go check it out and cast your votes. (There are lots of categories, and you can vote once in each category. It’s a great source of fresh new blogs to read, too.)
What else? I loved all the comments people left me this week. And I was touched that Duncan Donut the Glorious Dogcat and I were mentioned with some fondness in the Elgin Street Irregulars’ latest meeting minutes.
Yesterday I was delighted to find a present in my mailbox from one of my favourite local bloggers, whose birthday is today incidentally. It was a book called The Girl Who Married a Lion.
And then today I discovered that two people had landed on my blog after googling “ottawa cat blog.” Ha ha ha!
This has been a five-star week to be a blogger.
Now here’s a little knitting story for the visitors from Yarn Harlot. A few days ago I took the train to Toronto, and as soon as I got seated, I pulled out my knitting. I’m on the last sleeve of Sirdar 8336 (I know how you hardcore knitters are. Sirdar 8336 means something to you, ha ha.)
Now, when I READ on the train or bus, the seat beside me gets snapped up instantly. However, when I KNIT on the train or bus, people pause, they hesitate, they check me out, and then they move on to another seat. Nobody wants to sit next to me when I’m knitting in public. I don’t mind since I’m antisocial anyway, but I do find it intriguing. I wonder if maybe they have a concept of what a public knitter is like, and they don’t like that stereotype. For example, maybe they think I’m going to sit and knit and yack non-stop for five hours about my cat or something.
So anyway, maybe it’s just me, maybe other knitters-in-public don’t have the same experience. I don’t know. But I did get the whole two seats to myself all the way to Toronto. Then, on the way back home from Toronto, I pulled out my knitting and hoped for the best. But the train was full, and an old lady had no choice but to sit next to me.
“So,” she said disapprovingly, “You knit.”
“Yes,” I replied brightly, “Do you knit?”
“No,” she said, “I sew.”
“Do you live in Ottawa?” I asked.
“Greely,” she replied.
We then talked for awhile about those pesky coyotes who are eating all the small dogs in Greely.
Once we had exhausted that subject (I played devil’s advocate and stuck up for the coyotes), she asked me if I was from Ottawa.
“Yes,” I said, “I live in Ottawa with my cat Duncan. He’s a gigantic orange tabby. A 22-pounder. I got him from the Humane Society just a couple of weeks ago.”
And I sat there and knit and yacked on and on and about my cat for hours, and the next thing I knew we were in Ottawa!
Hey, cruised over here via the Harlot’s post. I am a Toronto knitter in my twenties, and nothing guarantees an empty seat beside me on the bus like knitting. This morning, a woman (possibly in her thirties?) sat down beside me, noticed I was knitting, and fled. You’d have thought I was on fire or something.
Hi there. I’m a visitor from the Harlot too and am enjoying peeking around in here. Great blog! I have similar experiences when knitting in public. People tend to fall into one of three categories: a) they pretend I’m not knitting. b) they tell me about how they used to knit argyle socks 40 years ago. Or c) the most common category: they look at me as if I’m juggling flaming swords.
Oh, I’m SO glad you’ve started talking! It was weird sitting here watching thousands of you come through and nobody was saying anything. I felt like the host of a really bad party or something. 😉
I’m also happy to hear that I’m not the only public knitter who repels the non-knitting public.
I think the banning of knitting needles on flights during periods of terrorist alerts has convinced some people that knitters are extremists.
I tend to think people avoid me when I knit in public because of the strange faces I make when I concentrate, the talking to myself as I count, and strange freeform things I’m usually making (toys so until I stitch em up they do not look like anything…well maybe map puzzle pieces).
The best thing about knitting in public is that you meet other people who knit. The last three times I have knitted “outside” I have had knitters come up to me and begin to share. It was great for two reasons; 1. I loved sharing my project to someone who was interested and 2. I needed help and they knew what to do.
Congrats Zoom!
Good to hear you and Duncan are getting along fine. How I found your blog is through my daughter who is learning to knit. I as a woodworker and kitchen wench know little or nothing about knitting; I got caught up in your cat chronicles ‘)
Daughter is poring over knitting books and sweating over balls of yarn painstakingly picked apart or put together by sticks to create… a sort of lop-sided square. Sigh. She undoes it and starts again. She says she needs to meet knitters, and takes her project to school in her backpack; her club is making knitted squares to be made into blankets for women’s shelters in our town. Maybe she will find some of your compatriots on the bus. In any event, her lopsided squares make darn good washing up cloths!
We’ll vote for you ‘cuz we feel we know ya! Go knitnut!
— An update on Lady Black of Crosstown: her registered owner is still AWOL. She’s still with us.
just popping on by from The Harlot. Good luck on the blogging awards!
Hi Zoom
I am one of the “ottawa cat blog” googlers. I am a retired lady here in Ottawa with two cats who spends far too much time on the net reading about cats. I think Duncan is just a wonderful cat.
The only thing I knit are mousies for my cats and to donate to shelters.
I don’t understand why someone wouldn’t want to sit next to you Zoom — I love your cat stories. I tend to have similar experiences on public transit, however, when I pull out my loom and begin weaving.
Grats on the nominations! I went over and voted for you.
Maybe you could have a link to the Cats of Parliament Hill blog for those people looking for a “ottawa cat blog”.
Not that your cat isn’t enough, it’s just that the cats of parliament hill are so, um, cats of parliament hill.
I knit on the train into Philadelphia every day. Very often I see folks standing rather than sit next to me. I start to question my hygiene. Is my deodorant wearing off (at 7 AM?)? Do I look frightening? I figure since I am usually knitting socks and that involves several pointy sticks that people are just afraid. Or they pull out the “lost art” comment. And I love the folks who sit and steal glances but don’t want me to see them watching.
Hello, the Harlot sent me. I take the train to work everyday and have had the same experience with folks not sitting next ot me while I’m knitting (unless they are knitters too). I guess a knitting seat-mate is as appealing a a nose picking seat-mate.
Welcome all you knitting outcasts and pariahs – if I ever see you knitting in public, I’ll sit with you!
Dirtwitch, I hate to tell you this, but the reason they won’t sit next to YOU is not because you’re knitting but because you’re covered in small children.
Janet, thanks for the tip – the next time I get hopelessly stuck in my knitting, I’m going to go sit on a street corner and wait for someone to come along and sort it out for me.
Liz, say what you will but I think Lady Black is YOUR cat now, registered tattoo owner notwithstanding. Congratulations!
Debbie, hi and thanks for stopping by.
Demae, thanks for taking the time to say hi. I think that’s great that you found my blog by googling “ottawa cat blog.”
XUP – Ha! I actually have a great big loom in my basement that I want to sell. It was an impulse buy and afterwards I realized I have no idea how to work it. (My friend has a harp, similarly acquired and similarly taking up a large amount of space and similarly never once used.)
Malva, thanks for the vote and for the idea of posting a link to the Parliament Hill Cats blog. I’ve been meaning to get around to that, and today I’ll do it.
Donna Lee, I think it’s hilarious too when people steal furtive glances at me knitting, like they think I’m mentally ill and it’s rude to look.
Kim, even some knitters won’t sit with knitters! I was just talking to a colleague who is an avid and prolific knitter, and she says she avoids sitting with knitters because the sound of anybody else’s needles clicking drives her crazy!
I was sent by the Harlot too, and i like waht i read! there’s nothing like a knitters sense of humour.
It makes me feel better to know that other people get the ‘backing away’ treatment when they’ve got their needles out too. I’m a newbie knitter, so i sit at the bus stop, on the bus and any other spare time knitting. The amount of people who come up to the bus stop, see me sitting there alone knitting and then gingerly back away is amazing! So i’m glad its not just my sticks that are offensive!
Another knitter wandering over from the Harlot’s blog and very glad I did1 I’m totally enamoured of your cat Duncan, orange tabbies and Maine coons are my favorite sort of cats, but I really love them all. Anywho, have enjoyed the visit.
Fee and Beverly, thanks for stopping by and saying hi.
Fee, it appears it’s universal. We can all stop worrying if we stink. 😉 I’d love for the non-knitters to weigh in though and tell us why they shun us so.
Beverly, Duncan’s my first orange tabby and it’s funny how being orange can make a cat’s personality so distinctive.
Bah! I may be covered in small children (who DO pick their noses!) BUT ATLEAST I’M NOT ON THE BUS WITH A STROLLER!
Happens to quilters, too. We just look scary.
I think that people are just being considerate and feel that you need room for those needles to function properly.
I dunno Deb, the same people won’t give up a seat to an almost 10 month pregnant woman with two other children swinging from her arms…not that I’d know anything about this!
Maybe they’re afraid you’ll take out one of their eyes with an errant needle?
Dirtwitch – LMAO!
Thanks for the tip! I do not ride public transit very often but will be doing so tomorrow and I am antisocial as well and wanted to be knitting anyway! Perfect combo.
I also knit on the metro (in DC) with the same experience – people just look at me weird, and then walk right on past. Being an anti-social person also, it doesn’t [usually] bother me. Although I also worry some days whether or not I smell funny…..