How would you deal with this?

[Flossyfloof]

I bet when written down this seems really insignificant it it is so irritating!
I have an acquaintance who, I know, likes me more than I like her. I find her hugely irritating but try not to show it. She has this habit of correcting people. She thinks she is highly intelligent and comments often on how thick others are. I think this is relevant.
Two examples that happened recently - we were talking about advent calendars and I was laughing about the crappy ones we used to have in the 60's. Cardboard, no chocolates or anything behind the doors, just a picture of a ball or something and you always opened 24 early - always to find Jesus Mary and Joseph behind the door of no 24. She leapt in and corrected me "25!" We didn't have 25 doors, we had 24 and I just repeated that - but why correct me in the first place? It just doesn't matter! And she was wrong anyway!
Later, we were talking about a knitting stitch. For the knitters amongst you, I said I dislike rib but really hate moss stitch. She leapt in and said "they're the same thing". They are not - the action is the same but the feel is different because you are kind of going against the grain with moss stitch so it is more awkward, I think.
It really gets on my tits, it interrupts the flow of conversation and I find it rude.
How would you deal with it? Without falling out?
( no idea how long this is, I'm on my phone, can't see! Hope a few people manage to get to the end!! )

Just a little diversion....I love both of these (both glittery but one is traditional)

My daughter does this. She's twelve. I hope to fuck she grows out of it because it makes me want to throttle her.

I remember a star picture in the old advent calendars. We also had to share so I only got to open every forth window. In actuality my sisters and brother were strangers to delayed gratification so after a few days every window had been 'secretly' pried open and squashed shut again.

Large year I had my first ever Advent calendar just for me (I am in my fifties) and this year I have the M&S Beauty one. Excited.

You forgot the lit candle in the advent calendar. gosh that was a treat.
And I find moss stitch awkward, but then I actually knit.

I worked with one of these about 15 years ago - so I was quite young at the time. I didn't really know how to deal with her but one of my colleagues used to call her out Every. Single. Time! She would either say "oh you are possibly one of the most contrary people I've ever met" or "You are very pedantic".

It worked and she soon stopped doing it.

They also always had a toy soldier!

Someone correcting me if I wrong wouldn't bother me, someone correcting me when I'm right would fuck me off. Someone wanting to correct me mid sentence when I'm right would REALLY fuck me off.

Candy cane. Sleigh. Star. Angel.

You always need Google to hand to deal with these people.

I find that misguided -totally fucking wrong-- pedantry is can be stopped by a very slow "riiiiiggggggt", with a slow head turn, possibly a single eyebrow raise and do not engage further.

I totally understand the impulse to argue your point when you know you are right. But the real life equivalent of will annoy the hell out of her!

another strike through fail, sorry!

Used to be 24 and i like the old 1960s advert calendar as they always more fun than the chocolate one.

I know someone like this; if they correct me where I know I'm right, I say something like 'that's not my understanding/recollection, but whatever...' and let it drop. I dislike being corrected, but I dislike arguments more.

And yes, 24 doors on the advent calendar...
Ball
Bell
Angel
Star
Snowflake
Snowman
Present
Candy cane?
Train engine
Bus
Roller skates
Toy car
Sleigh
err...

Advent calendars were a bit shit, but exciting.

I can kind of see what she means re the moss stitch as you're alternating knit and purl on each stitch, but it's NOT the same as rib. That would give me the rage too.

Oh I miss those calendars! The modern chocolate ones look so ugly, often not even having a Christmas picture on the front! I remember going into primary school and asking friends what picture they had that day... Christmas tree, cracker, angel, sleigh, bauble etc.

I knit and I like moss stitch; it's less boring than other stitches, looks good and stops the edges curling up.

Anyway, as for your 'friend' OP, I should just all but ignore her interruptions if I were you, save for an almost imperceptible sigh, then continue with your own idea as if nothing had been said.
Alternatively, stop seeing her!

What about a boot? There was always a boot!

Personal experience tells me that some people just can't help themselves - it's just a reflex and nothing personal.

Irritating though...!

Boot! How could I forget the thrill of opening the little door and finding a boot?

Oh I miss those calendars!

Oxfam has them. They are very popular too - mainly with grannies who are buying them for grnadchildren. Chocolate in advent calendars was unheard of when i was little.

Elf, turkey (sometimes alive, sometimes cooked), fairy, present, wise men, donkey...

Donkey

I loved advent calendars and we had a candle too. Those were the days!

This is definitely my kind of thread - spirited discussion of knitting stitches and advent calendars! Very seasonal. (almost!) I haven't heard a mention of "moss stitch" for decades but this brings me right back to beeing taught to knit (socks!) in my Granny's kitchen. So thank you for that, OP! I too remember the old advent calendars, with their glitter and Nativity scenes but you can still buy them in John Lewis and other places. I got a lovely one last year.

As for your friend, I don't think it's so much a matter of being pedantic (lots of us are ) but being unable to keep it to herself. I, too, sometimes find myself mentally correcting things people say but have the sense not to vocalise it - there is nothing worse than being interrupted when you are saying something by someone making a completely irrelevant and unimportant correction. It doesn't sound at all as if your friend is being malicious, or trying to put you down, but simply sees things very much in black or white, right and wrong, and can't bear to let something "wrong" go uncorrected. If you have always been polite and never let your irritation show, she probably has no idea of how annoying she is being. I would start replying when she does this - not nastily but lightly - making a joke of her determination to get everything accurate. Once you've done it a few times, unless she is completely insensitive, she might get the message and stop. Often people have no idea of how they're coming across to others but can change if given the chance.

I had the same 24 v 25 day debate over advent calendars in work on Monday. I was overruled and ridiculed for having a dodgy memory. I'm so glad that it's been confirmed that it used to be 24 days. I'm not back in until next week but will print off this thread as evidence and put it on everyone's desk and in to loos. Not that I'm petty.

BTW I had a wonderful advent calendar that I kept for years. It was a Nativity scene with numbered slots and pop out lambs, shepherds and donkeys that you put in every day. The 24th was a star. It was cardboard but I kept it really carefully so it lasted. I bet it's still in my mum's loft.

My boys (7 and 17) get a traditional card/glitter one with no chocolate, but we also have a shared fabric pocket one which I put choc coins or little father Xmases in and they take it in turns.

We have a fabric advent calendar with pockets as well, FV45, which we have used for many years. Now I'm wondering if I could knit a new one in moss stitch...