Young filmaker, Vanessa Yuille, is also making a documentary about this topic: http://www.heartmountaindoc.com/

Pondering's question is connected to the discussion about parental leave in my previous blog post. My perception is that senior faculty understand that junior faculty will be having kids. Two seems the magic number these days and lots of folks here at Buffalo seemed to assume that I would have a second child soon. I think in the long run, deciding when to have kid two is best made based on your family needs/desires (your age/health, age spacing of kids, financial stability, etc.). Not sure timing can ever be "perfect." Either you catch up on publishing or you stop your tenure clock and take an extra year. A more senior person is better equipped to give feedback here, but my perception is that the only things you can do to show you are "non-serious" are to either (1) not write anything or (2) blow off teaching obligations.

Wow, during an interview. That would be a little weird. There should be some unspoken rule about number of people in the room perhaps? Not just for knitting but for all these things -- perhaps when there are fewer then 12 people in the room? Checking blackberries only acceptable for people expecting urgent calls? clinicians with active cases?

Thanks for the interesting comments everyone. I am not planning to defend knitting here (oh well maybe I am a little ), but I was noticing an interesting grouping of issues based on these comments and e-mails I received. Concern 1: Knitters can't really be paying attention. Concern 2: Knitting is distracting to others. Concern 3: Knitting is simply unprofessional and disrespectful. Number 1 is the easiest to dispute and depends mostly on the knitter (both their level of knitting skill and their learning style). People who are kinesthetic learners can often listen better if they are doing something that keeps their hands busy. Of course, the could choose less obtrusive things like doodling, but that really gets to concerns 2 and 3. Easier to listen while knitting than while e-mailing I think. Numbers 2 and 3 are harder. Instead of discussing knitting though, I wonder generally about what types of actions/activities cross this line. Do we feel the same way about people working on the laptops, ipads, and blackberries? The person with the sketchpad? How about those people who sit in faculty meetings prepping for class, grading papers, or reviewing admissions files? The woman nursing her child in the back? The father who brings his 6 year old who sits in the back coloring? The person blogging at a conference (or perhaps more distractedly putting together the power point presentation for their upcoming talk)? Which activities do we deem acceptable and which cross that line? Of course that line is ever-moving but it does seem that technology- and paper-based activities are the most readily accepted. Oh and a side note. I did not realize that this would be such a controversial topic. Almost all pro-knitting comments have been e-mailed to me directly. It appears that folks are not only reluctant to knit in public but perhaps also reluctant to endorse knitting.

For the knitters out there (and because two people have already asked): Yes of course I am on ravelry, the world's greatest social networking site, you can find me under the very creative moniker "owley."