The pros and cons of knittng

Allow me dear children, to tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a lone knitter who was sitting in her French class listening to the lecture and every now and again putting down her mitten to take a note or two. This was fairly normal behavior for this knitter as she had asked her professor at the beginning of the term if the knitting would be a problem. The professor had said it wouldn't be a problem so long as it didn't cause the knitter to miss important information in lecture and it never had, so the knitter continued to knit.
Now, upon this day there happened to be a non-knitter sitting across from our beloved mitten-maker, and this non-knitter must have had a terrible day because out of nowhere she snapped: "Why are you always knitting? Don't you have anything better to do?"
Now our Knitter has experienced her fair share of people who are confused by the culture of knitting. She had been told that knitting was for grandmas, she had been told that knitting wasn't cool, she had even been told knitting was a waste of time, but never had she been approached about her knitting in such a hostel, unprovoked way.
The non-knitters outburst had stopped the class dead in its tracks. All eyes were on our knitter and her little burgundy mitten. Our knitter, bless her little heart, was so astounded by this encounter that she couldn't speak for a moment. Her mouth agape like a wee fish and her fingers nervously unsure of whether she should continue knitting or if that might invoke the non-knitter's wrath.
Our knitter began: "I knit because it makes me happy. I take yarn, I take sticks, a few hours of my time, and voila. I made socks."
The non-knitter's eyes became slits as she tried to kill our knitter with a glance. "But you do it all the time and it's really annoying."
The knitter laughed. "Why is it annoying to you? It has nothing to do with you, why are you so offended by it?"
The non-knitter rolled her eyes and turned back to the front of the class, only just realizing that the professor was rather unhappy with such an interruption. The non-knitter was quietly asked to stay after class to discuss "proper classroom behavior" and our knitter did a little jig inside.
After class was dismissed and after the non-knitter was chastised for rude behavior, our knitter approached the professor and asked if the knitting was too distracting for the class. The professor smiled and said: "Doesn't bother me one bit. In fact, I would love to see that mitten pattern you're working from. I've been meaning to make myself a pair all winter."
I think I'll make her a lace scarf. Us knitters have to stick together after all.