As undergrads Joan and I were both English majors. Long before we met, my friend was studying at McGill while I was at UBC. At both universities, and quite unbeknownst to each other, since we weren't yet friends, we both used to sit in class and knit.
I had wanted to go to McGill, but dependent as I was on a scholarship, a loan and a prayer, I couldn't manage to get to Montreal to study. McGill was full of wonderful people. Joan remembers being greeted civilly on campus by the literary giant Hugh MacLennan, though she was not in his classes. John Grierson, father of documentary film and NFB founder was teaching there too.
Joan sat in Grierson's film course at the back of the largest hall on campus, knitting. She was mortified when she heard by chance that Grierson had remarked on this disgustedly to a colleague. Later in the term, when he publicly praised an excellent paper she wrote, she felt redeemed.
In those huge lectures, a lot of the marking was done by T.A.s; profs didn't know all their students. Though she wanted to go and introduce herself, explain to Grierson that she was both the knitter and the writer of that paper, and meant no disrespect, Joan was too shy.
Meanwhile at UBC, I did everything I could to avoid the larger classes, but I did register for The Philosophy of Science. A science class was a necessary requirement for graduating from the Faculty of Arts, and this one was mobbed by artsies. It was co-taught by David Suzuki, and I sat in the front row unabashedly knitting.
Knitting certainly didn't interfere with my enjoyment of that class. But what Suzuki thought of this I'll never know. He didn't say.
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