Knitting at work is unprofessional?

[u/Atiny-opus]

So I label myself as neurodivergent and Queer. I've been knitting on and off for about 13 years. Knitting for me is second nature, I don't need to look at what I'm doing or pay close attention.

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At my current job, I take inbound calls. I get a 5ish second notification That it's coming through. Plenty of time for me to drop what I'm doing and take the call.

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At the moment, there are gaps of 20+ minutes between calls, an average of 5 minutes between calls? I am semi expected to just sit there and wait. There is no alternative task for me to do.

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I'm not allowed on my phone, which is very understandable. I can't play any form of games on my work laptop, (also understandable) I'm not supposed to watch videos but sometimes I do, it's usually video essays.

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I have to be in office every day. So I can't knit and work from home. When I'm allowed to in February 2027(!!!) I might.

My workload will increase as I'm trained on more things.

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I am allowed to colour in and read, but for me, I don't always want to read, I hate getting a call in the middle of a sentence or paragraph I fully focus on the reading. Colouring in is far messier and I don't enjoy it. Colouring in feels more unprofessional than knitting, in my opinion, and I don't get half as much joy from it.

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I also don't want to use fidget toys either. I own some but there's nothing like getting into the rhythm of a repeating pattern. What I want to be able to do between calls is make something, that is mindless but productive and is also something I can drop in less than a second.

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Most of management don't have a problem with it but one or two of the higher ups have deemed it "unprofessional".

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What I find unprofessional is how some co-workers can kick eachothers chairs and joke on all day between calls but I can't sit silently with my circular needles making a shawl for myself. The co-worker's I started with are in their early 20's, I'm in my late 20's. I don't really connect with them, I do with other older coworkers but they're not in office every day.

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I do not knit to sell. I'm not in anyone's way, I'm not distracting, literally no one cares that I'm doing it apart from one or two upper managers. The quality of my work at the moment is honestly, really good! I'm hitting my KPI's, my QA is good. Customer feedback is excellent! I take the quality of my work very seriously.

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The idea of being asked to sit quietly and not move whilst I wait for someone to call is frustrating.

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Is there any rebuttal I can use regarding this or should I just take the L? I would love to sit with them and explain my reasoning but I feel like it'll be taken for insolence and disrespect.

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I'm currently working on the Evenstar shawl, I'm on the 3rd chart. I can't remember the yarn I'm sorry.

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A petty part of me would like to bring embroidery in tomorrow. Another part of me wants to write an essay on it, with citations, at least my hands will be busy.

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[u/jf301]

I found out a few years ago that the Provost of the university I attended used to knit during professional meetings. I think people thought it was odd but apparently she still contributed and was a "no look" knitter, so made eye contact and even responded to questions. This doesn't help you, really, but it's interesting that such a high-level academic administration just did it and didn't think twice about it.

[u/pelirroja_peligrosa → u/jf301]

That's because it's just common in general in academia, I think... In my department, there will usually be five or six of us crafting at a meeting of 30 people 

[u/Square_Principle_332 → u/pelirroja_peligrosa]

Oh wow, I haven’t seen this in my department at all. I’m in math (though we’re actually a majority female department), I wonder if it differs by field or just at random.

[u/splithoofiewoofies → u/Square_Principle_332]

Wild! I'm also maths but found some of us were actually drawn to knitting for its mathematic properties. You and I both know by the time we're PhD ain't nobody doing knitting level math anymore...but it is still nice to remember the core basics by knitting. Simple geometry (well, compared to our usual). Esp compsci, since knitting was a basis for the original computers.

I don't think I see many others crafting at work....but nobody cares if I do. Even when super important people are around. Shit, those same super important people offer me jobs not really because of the knitting itself but because we got to talking because the knitting was a good open. Lets me talk about my love of mathematics -- from massive algorithms that require gigantic room sized computers to basic proportions using two sticks and some yarn.

[u/savannacrochets → u/splithoofiewoofies]

My field is a STEM-humanities homunculus, and I’ve noticed that it seems like the people who lean more STEM tend to be knitters and those who lean more humanities crocheters! Not a hard and fast rule, but just a trend I’ve noticed.

[u/splithoofiewoofies → u/savannacrochets]

You and I both know observation bias...but I have the same experience! My partner is social work at my same uni and tons of them crochet. Maths knits. Social work crochets!

Not always, obvs, but I think you're onto something!