Not Wasting My Time

Yesterday I had the oddest response to my knitting encountered thus far. There is a new research assistant (RA) in the lab and she is very chatty. She was already not my favorite RA because when she speaks she sounds like she just stepped out of Clueless and she is too young to be really familiar with that era. Regardless, I make chit-chat with her to be polite and to figure out what kind of RA she will become (industrious, lazy, flaky, etc.)

I was knitting away on the socks pictured (Noro Jaywalkers) during my lunch break. The girl previously mentioned asked if I was knitting another pair of socks to which I replied that I was indeed. The rest of the conversation went something like this:

Rachel: Do you knit?
RA: No.
R: If you're ever interested, I'd be happy to teach you.
RA: Uhm, that's okay. If I started knitting I'd be a loser. Uhm... not that you're a loser! Just I would be a loser.
R: Okay...
RA: It's just that I did that potholder weaving things in high school and if I started knitting I'd waste all of my time knitting. Uhhh... not that you're wasting your time!
R: Actually, I like knitting because you can knit while you're doing things like standing in line or waiting for an appointment, time that would otherwise be wasted.
RA: Uh-huh

Oh dear. It appears our new friend has no filter on her mouth.

Needless to say, I've decided to keep knitting and no longer waste my time listening to her.

And the Jaywalkers? My first socks ever were a pair of Jaywalkers I knit on size 2's in the largest size, way back when I unknowingly twisted all of my stitches. I cast these on with the same needles in the smallest size and they were huge. I ended up frogging my inch or so and restarting on size 1's and they look much more reasonable. As for the yarn? While it isn't the softest yarn I've felt by a long shot, the colors are beautiful, making it really fun to knit with. I highly recommend Noro socks if you're big on color and not so particular about a yarn's hand (how the yarn feels when you touch it). It's no Red Heart, but it's also far from Lorna's Laces.