Knitting at Library Conferences
Thank you, Tangognat, for reminding me what a friend reminded me about earlier that I totally forgot: I don’t mind if people knit during my portion of the blogging course at SLA in June, well at least the first part. When we get to the hands-on blogging part, I might be offended by someone who’d rather knit than blog. (I usually have the opposite problem.)
My friend mentioned people knitting in a presentation he was at, which reminded me that I needed to invite people to bring their knitting. I, of course, forgot all about it during my walk home.
He and I then talked about the appropriateness of knitting at conferences. I can’t say I’ve noticed too many people knitting at SLA in the past, but I know many attendees who knit. (Stitch and bitch in the News Division suite, anyone?) I can certainly see both sides of the issue: knitting can help someone pay attention better because it’s productive fidgeting (which is why I like it) and it can be distracting to the presenters and other attendees. If it becomes a problem in the weblog course, I’ll just encourage people to surf the ‘Net or blog instead since that’ll be much more topical to what we’re doing.
I tell the people who attend the meetings of the committee I co-chair to please bring their knitting since I can’t knit while I run the meetings and take notes on my computer.
I also very heavily encourage people to bring computers, especially those with wireless and ethernet capabilities, to the blogging course. I won’t be offended if someone’s taking notes on a keyboard during my talk. I’ll probably be one of the people at the conference unintentionally annoying others because I’m typing on a laptop. My apologies in advance.
Addendum: Someone, whom I’m assuming wishes to remain anonymous, informed me of an awesome yarn store in Toronto: "stacks and boxes and aisles and bins of yarn."
Wait … that person reads my weblog?!? Oh, wow, now I feel all sorts of pressure to say something witty and intelligent. I think I need to put my thinking cap on.
February 8th, 2005 at 4:55 pm
Well, some people are too busy knitting to “read you” every day. But we use blog time-shifting to catch up.
And, I am a bit worried about that person who takes pictures of your beanie. Sounds rather distasteful and slightly scandalous. Fortunately, no one in the N–s Division has a reputation to save!
February 8th, 2005 at 7:10 pm
Some people think I should knit more than I blog. = )
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:37 pm
Hi, I stumbled upon your webblog, I am a product designer from Dundee, Scotland. I am fascinated by this idea of knitting at a conference.
If you have tried it, could you tell me more:
Does it actually help you concentrate and stay alert?
If you were not knitting what would you be doing?
In general how long are these conferences?
Anything else of interest, have you ever stumbled upon someone doing something else productive?
It would be very much apreciated, Thank you!
October 3rd, 2006 at 4:31 pm
Hello Tommy,
Actually, knitting does help me pay attention. If I wasn’t knitting, I would be doing some kind of other fidgeting, like playing with my fingernails or fingers, which, to some people, is even more distracting and a bigger sign of boredom than knitting. Knitting is akin to doodling with yarn, I think. I’ve noticed many other people in conferences doodling on paper or writing lists or things or such. At conferences where more people have computers, many people are often doing other things on their machines.
I find that knitting and fidgeting don’t stop me from taking notes. I’ll stop what I’m doing to write or type.
I’m the kind of person who often multitasks.