Did you ever have one of those weeks where you blinked your eyes and not seconds but whole days have gone by?  I am having one.  It hasn't been a terrible week (except for some intestinal virus which seems to be making the rounds) and it hasn't been a particularly productive week.  Just a normal, everyday very-warm-for-November week.

I don't even have any good progress shots.  I haven't spent any time on the bayerische sock.  It takes a fair amount of concentration and I haven't seemed to have it lately.  I have been working away on the wildflowers shawl.  It's pretty but looks pretty much the same, only bigger.I fell asleep with it in my hands the other night around 9:00 pm.  I've just felt tired and have gone to bed early every night. 
( Next week is Thanksgiving here in the US.  It's one of my favoritest of holidays because it's all about the family/friends and the food.  We have the same menu (my family is nothing if not consistent, violently so) and the number of people varies depending on who needs a place to be.  I have been fortunate that the girls are always home for dinner (and often bring friends).  I know the day will come when I'll have to share them with inlaws so I'll enjoy this time.  We have to do the shopping this weekend and the stores will be mobbed so it's either after work tomorrow or early Sunday morning.  I don't usually take a list, (I know what we're out of since I do all the cooking,) but for this meal, I'll make one.  I could get into trouble if the fruit relish was missing something or the stuffing wasn't full of sausage!

Does it feel like Christmas is creeping up behind you (quietly and very fast) and is about to poke you on the shoulder and say "I'm here!"?  I know that it's 5 weeks from tomorrow but my head just can't accept it.  I see all the lovely knitted gifts and wish I had planned some things for my loved ones but I didn't and I refuse to stress myself out by trying to quickly knock out something before the holiday. 

Interesting discussion going on in a forum this week about the appropriateness of knitting in seminars, church, meetings,etc.  Someone made an interesting point.  She said (not a direct quote here), that just because our hobby happens to be portable doesn't mean it should be taken out everywhere and that knitters shouldn't feel that they have a "right" to knit anywhere they please.  It can be distracting to others.  Of course this raised a hue and cry about "not being able to listen if my hands aren't knitting" and other such protests.  (and I do not mean to belittle anyone with ADHD or any of the autism spectrum disorders.  I fully understand how difficult it can be to sit still)

I know I don't listen well at meetings sometimes so I make myself take notes.  This means I doodle all over the page. You can tell how bored I was by how decorated the notes are.  I don't think I'd be insulted if I were speaking and people in my audience were knitting but then I understand that you can listen and knit at the same time.  There were a surprising number of people who think it is insulting and disrespectful to knit when one is part of an audience.  

I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing.  I do not knit at work.  Not even at lunch time.  They've made the corporate opinion on that subject well known.  No big deal.  It IS a business, not a leisure time hang out.  I have taken my knitting when I've gone to trainings.  I sit in the back and quietly knit and pay just as much attention as anyone else.  No one has ever asked me to stop or complained.  I've never been bothered by someone else's knitting (although to be honest, only once did I run into someone else with yarn and she was crocheting).

As far as church goes, a minister wrote that although she would never ask people to stop knitting during services, she thinks it's not too much to ask someone to give up one hour a week to concentrate solely on God.  Even though she freely admits that she doesn't think God really cares if people knit and worship as long as they're worshipping!

So what do you think?  I don't think I have a "right" to knit everywhere and I can go out places and not take knitting with me.  Knitting is something I do, not who I am.  I can separate myself from my craft.  I tend to take something small with me and if the opportunity presents itself, I knit. If not, then I don't feel deprived.

 Just as often, Pk wants to hold my hand and that supercedes any knitting!