To be puzzled at knitting in meetings

[JoanThursday1972]

I go to a few cross-organisation working groups and meetings. One woman always brings her knitting - I was really surprised. Is this a thing now to bring crafting projects to meetings?

Many us with ADHD will doodle, fiddle with necklaces or hair, click pen tops or play with fidget toys whilst we concentrate. For me, crochet is a natural thing I can do when I’m concentrating on other things. It’s really no different to faffing with a pen or doodling. I’ve known a few women (and men) knit & crochet (in person) in meetings over the past 30 odd years of being a grown up.

DH was in a meeting with the big wigs of an international bank & there was a VP of a section knitting. It’s not unprofessional at all!

Just to clarify - I'm ND, and benefit from disability adjustments. Knitting ain't one.

I know not everyone shares this view, but I don't like the idea of ND people being coded as necessarily childish, cutesy or quirky. Knitting is often coded as all three by others, and it's such a far throw from any of the more appropriate stim/hand tools (or alternative adjustments) available.

Being at work isn't the same as relaxing at home. There are things expected of me, ND or not, and for good reason. I'm still a professional, not an alien from planet sparklekitten.

I knit in teams metings where I don't have to have my camera on. If I'm honest it stops me from doing other work while I'm in the meeting, and means I actually listen to the discussion rather than answering emails etc. I'm not ND as far as I know, but if I find it helpful, I can see why lots of other people do too. And sometimes my knitting is the most productive thing to come out of some of the meetings I have to sit through so that helps avoid the pointlessness pit of despair.

Wouldn't bother me but I probably wouldn't do it myself as I'd feel like it was drawing attention. I struggle in long meetings with attention and sitting still so I will usually doodle or write down random words as they come up, it really does help me listen and take things in.

One persons reasonable adjustment is another’s trigger in my case. I have ADHD too and understand the need to fiddle (fidget rings have been a life saver) but the clicking of those knitting needles would make me feel like crying while wanting simultaneously tear my own skin off my face, my stomach is knotting just thinking about it. Yay for hypersensitivity. I’d probably have to say I could attend meetings in all honesty IF this was something that was considered a reasonable adjustment for another ND person.

Clicking / tapping of pens would irritate me, but not the same intensity as it’s an noise that “shouldn’t” be there if that makes sense?

Physically seeing it wouldn’t bother me.

I used to work with an older nurse who sat on her arse ALL shift and knitted. Unashamedly would bark at the baby nurses to do her jobs for her.

Funny old bat. She doesn't work anymore. No suprise

I take my crochet with me to WI meetings, I’m usually making something for charity or for the WI Sale Table. It’s not a formal meeting obviously, often there is a speaker but I can still pay attention and crochet. I tend to be making small pieces ( recently made over 200 poppies towards a huge village display) and don’t need to use a pattern or count stitches etc so not distracting to others.

Knitting is not noisy. Especially if you have wooden/bamboo needles and not metal ones. I regularly knit in non-formal online zoom meetings. Wouldn't if it was a paid work one though.

To help myself concentrate in meetings I've sometimes typed up notes.
But I don't actually want to be asked to do the minutes 😕

I was just going to say that. If your knitting is noisy then you're doing it wrong. Also many people use wooden needles, so definitely no clicking involved.

As long as the knitter wasn't trying to follow a complicated pattern then knitting can help you concentrate better. It is also a great stress reliever and maybe the person needed that.

My first thought was Neuro diversity. When we were all WFH during the pandemic I had the rabbit on my lap and stroking her made it MUCH easier for me to concentrate during meetings. I doodle now we're back.

I’ve never come across this before.
But most of my meetings are with builders 🤣
I would initially think it was a bit odd but it wouldn’t bother me. She engages in the meeting so what’s the problem.
It could easily be her coping mechanism so it’s not something I would question or even bring up.
Im more likely the sort of person to ask her to knit me a cardi.

I can’t meditate or use mindfulness techniques at all.

So why can't people do as they've done for decades and doodle or use fidget aids discretely? Because they want to appear different, eccentric, boundary-pushing...

How long before support animals have to be brought into meetings, I wonder - if they haven't already?
Ever increasing in size... two support animals...support animals and knitting...?

What will we do when meetings collapse because Jezz's support kitten has tangled in Alex's wool and Ayla's support dog is territorial and won't let anyone else in the room?

Depends on the nature of the meeting surely? I've knitted through meetings within my department, where there's six of us who are all friends. If we were talking about a crisis meeting of the board of directors of a multinational corporation it would be different, obviously.

I don't care if it's knitting, colouring, doodling or anything else. All the more power to the people who do it, as long as they are being considerate to others. You don't have to be ND to benefit from the same techniques, just like you don't have to have a physical disability to benefit from ergonomically designed mice, keyboards and adaptive software. "It helps me to focus better" is a valid enough reason for anybody who wants to knit in meetings, IMO.

Now imagine you're in a workplace with an an autistic person who finds the motion of the knitting extremely distracting, and another person who has ADHD who finds it really helpful to knit while doing any tasks that don't require their hands, such as contribute to meetings. Then you have an inexact analogy for my workplace. It's not fun 🙄

Yes, I do. Usually knitting, sometimes crochet. It helps me stay focused and not daydream. I generally put it down if I have something to say, but I have it going while I listen to everyone else. The exception is if it's a sort of lecture where I want to take notes; then the writing keeps me on task.

Modern needles aren't nearly as noisy as people think, especially if they're wooden or bamboo. Those old fashioned hollow aluminium straight needles are the noisy ones. Even modern nickel-plated needles don't make that audible click sound. (Technique also matters.)

Visually I don't see how knitting is really different from doodling or fidgeting. But, hey, it's a gendered activity: I've absolutely had snotty comments about being a knitter, not in any way related to knitting in a professional meeting.

@Tanith who the heck hurt you with their knitting support kitten?! 😂

People HAVE been knitting in meetings for decades already. Knitting has just become more popular so more people are doing it.

People HAVE been bringing support animals in the form of assistance dogs to the workplace including meetings for decades.

Emotional support animals are not protected by UK law but if a reasonable adjustment were to be made for an emotional support cat to come into a meeting I'm sure the relevant risk assessments would be put into place to ensure that they couldn't fight with all of the other emotional support kittens and get tangled in all of the emotional support knitting that was going on.

I've had many colleagues who knit or craft during meetings. It really wouldn't help me focus though! I'm usually too busy making notes. (in my notebook - names, links, things to follow up). Though I'm fine with the knitting I do wonder how the people doing it remember what they need to from the meeting! eg, if you hear something you really should write down , while you're halfway through a row!

Unless there were other reasons why you were a twat in your 20s (like many of us, to be fair!) you sound very hard on your past self. I wouldn't think twice about someone knitting in public.

@XenoBitch it's definitely a recognised thing that people (with adult ADHD) who are helped by multi-tasking overlap significantly with those who find mindfulness next to impossible.

I recently found out I have fairly mild ADHD, which as an adult woman presents differently to the stereotypical behaviours we associate with children who are given the diagnosis. Might be interesting for you to have a research around the subject, see if you see yourself in more things that are common for women with ADHD. x

I doodle a lot in meetings and people sometimes comment on it. But it helps me concentrate. I do seem to need something to do with my hands - it helps me focus and retain information so much better. I can't knit so I have no skin in this game but I don't get why people think knitting, in particular, is so beyond the pale. I see the usual mumsnet social crime of people drawing attention to themselves is out in force on this thread.

Nope, but your posts demonstrates how clueless you are about reasonable adjustments for certain disabilities.

I suspect you also feel a bit inferior being unable to multi task as effectively as some of us are able to. What’s your mental arithmetic like? Can you add up a column of numbers in your head whilst listening to a presentation on a completely unrelated topic? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I CAN knit at work sometimes (specifically on companionship calls where i am there to be company) and often do some clients are delighted by it and I might make them bits and bobs from time to time to their delight. I'm also ND and do find meetings awful, whilst I often knit when chatting with friends in a social space I don't knit in meetings or contexts where I don't know some people. But I do find if I say " do you mind if I knit, stop me if it is annoying" then people actively encourage it.

I wouldn't think twice about someone knitting in public

Obviously not, but 'in public' isn't the same as 'at work'. It depends on the aim of the meeting and also the persons job. Most people in meetings are meant to be working.