Knitters Say Stitching Helps Them Follow the Thread in Meetings

Growing up, Lisa Ben-Haim noticed that her mother could never sit still while watching a movie or TV — she always had to be working on a knitting project. Ms. Ben-Haim, an educational technologist at a school in Highland Park, N.J., finally understood why after she took a knitting project to a professional workshop.

“It needed just enough of my attention that I could still pay attention to what was going on,” she said. “And then I realized all of a sudden, ‘Wow, I’m paying more attention than I would if I was just sitting there.’”

Ms. Ben-Haim recalled that a man once called her rude for knitting during a speech at a conference. She noted that he had been typing on his phone throughout the speech, which she considered an actual distraction.

She hasn’t faced any pushback in her current job for knitting during workshops or meetings.

“I always try to bring it back to the student,” she said. “Just like we would give a student anything they need in order to learn, that’s what I need. If it’s disruptive, I will stop. If we’re doing something active, I definitely put it down. It just has to be done with respect.”

Knitting in meetings, and in lines and over coffee.

Taylor Payne, who was diagnosed with A.D.H.D. after taking up knitting, agreed that the hobby has helped her in her career and personal life. She learned from a friend in 2014, when she took leave from her job to protest police brutality in Ferguson, Mo., after the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/31/well/knitting-remote-work-meetings.html