Like most knitters and crocheters, I never go on a long trip without one or  two projects to work on while the time passes. Ever since the terrible events of 9/11, it is much more difficult to travel with projects. I had to pick up rounded "kid" scissors because my usual project scissors were no longer allowed. One time I was traveling from Newark to Chicago and was checked so thoroughly because of my project bag I thought I deserved a date!

Well, the Travel Columnist for a local paper in New Jersey, The Record, wrote an editorial on November ninth about how horrible a recent flight was due in large part to the woman sitting next to her that was knitting! If you would like to read the column, please click here. The title for this column? "Schensul: Knitting passenger makes trip unbearable."

One of my favorite quotes from the article...
"The needles hissed and clicked at an alarming rate. Their relentless rhythm was, I'm sure, barely audible, but it had become some Poe-like pounding my ears could not tune out. Suddenly, this woman, despite her earth mother attire, despite even the glow cast upon her from the overhead light, had not a trace of angelic."

Now, I can't imagine that the "clicking" from the needles could really be heard over the white noise from the cabin we have all endured when traveling.

She also went on to complain that she had to put her nasal spray and wine had to be in her checked baggage, "while a foul-smelling woman with a poke-the-pilots'-eyes-out weapon sat right beside me."

Ms. Schensul obviously wasn't in the best of moods for this flight, something I am sure we can all appreciate and have probably endured at one point or another. What I cannot appreciate is her personal attacks on a woman who was simply trying to pass the time knitting on a long flight. She also mentioned that this woman "tried to talk us to death." Again, an easily understandable dilemma on a plane - I'm sure this has all happened to us - while an easy solution was available to her. Mention you are sorry, but you would like to take a nap and please excuse me while I settle in.

What I am sure Ms. Schensul didn't realize is the backlash she would receive by so many knitters and crocheters! I honestly enjoyed reading some of the posts from angry readers more than I did reading the original article. The comments were so many that she actually had to write somewhat of a retraction yesterday entitled "Lesson One: Don't knock the knitters." If you would like to read her rebuttal, please click here.

She attempted to win back the hearts of fiber fanatics by explaining how she at one time was a knitter and even knows "what spinning is, both the wool-related and the exercise technique. And, by the way, I love sheep and learned how to shear them in college."

I must admit that I found her rebuttal was, at best, a tongue-in-cheek attempt at an explanation. Instead of making things better, in my opinion, she made it worse. "You’ve certainly given me much to think about. And opened my eyes about knitting enthusiasts. Next time I see someone with a pair of pointed knitting needles on the plane, I am going to be assured you are all quite well adjusted and wouldn’t say, much less do, anything bad to your fellow humans aloft."

My feelings when reading this was she wrote this under duress - like a child being forced to apologize. I am also sure she will think twice before writing such a cranky column.

Remember we yarnaholics stick together!