Sunday, December 11, 2005

People are strange...

I remember reading in another knitting blog a while back a discussion about strangers touching one's knitting - WIP's, yarn skeins, etc. Well, I now have my own story to add.

I was leaving church today, and naturally it's a bit crowded and close as everyone heads for the door. There were two older ladies next to and behind me, having a discussion as we all moved towards the door. I was wearing my Squiggle scarf over a black jacket. It's long enough to wrap around my neck once and still have rather long tails left.

All of a sudden, the woman who was to the left (and slightly behind me), picked up the end of my scarf on the left side and held it out to the other lady behind me, saying, "...and I made a bunch of these for my grandchildren." I felt like a shop mannequin, and then turned in surprise, and she said, "You made this, didn't you?" "Yes," I replied. "How many stitches did you use?" "Oh, ...I don't remember," I stammered, holding the end of the scarf up wide. "I guess it's pretty wide." With that, the lady resumed her conversation with her friend, now moving on to knitting socks...

I was floored by the abrupt rudeness and boldness of her actions, and the fact that she didn't even say anything to me before or after grabbing my scarf such as "Excuse me" or "May I see your scarf?" or even just , "thank you". It's truly amazing how people can act. ..And they say the younger generation has no manners!!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I suppose you should take the woman's actions as a compliment -- perhaps rudely given, but a compliment all the same. You're right, people do like to touch hand knit items.

kathy b said...

Bernadette

Your story was great. I would have reacted exactly the same way. She wasn't admiring your skill, she was bragging about her own.

If you are going to touch someones clothing without asking, I hope you are not a stranger to that person.

We have to think of a good one liner for when this happens, don't you think? I'm going to have a contest!