Knitters

There are a lot rares now that it's sunny, although I still see them occasionally. The knitters, sitting on benches, or waiting for the bus, or at the doors of professors on office hours. Filling dead time knitting. No, they are not little old ladies. They are Cornell students, young girls, making the most of the empty minutes between two classes.

Isn't that a great idea? I like to do things with my hands (embroidery, cooking, jewelry) but I never carry anything on me that I can do while waiting. My discman or a novel fills in that function. The first time I saw a knitting girl, I as suprised but then I thought it makes perfect sense. Let's see. It is a cheap hobby, it is portable, you choose for how long you want to do it (you cannot read three lines of a novel, stop, then read fine lines, stop...) and at the end you have something useful (you definitely need those hats and scarves in Ithaca).

Considering that a huge number of students at my home university are commuters, the surprising thing is that they don't do anything at all with their waiting time (up to three hours a day in my own experience). Oh, yes, they do something to keep their hands busy, sure. They smoke. Bleh.