This user went to a folk concert by a beloved artist. But instead of connecting with the music, all she could hear was the sounds of the needles bumping into each other!
A Quiet Affair
OP (Original Poster) went to a concert at a seated venue for a folk singer that featured soft, acoustic music, full band songs, and some with only vocals, fiddle, and guitar.
She noted that the music was tame and quiet but somewhat emotional to listen to. OP added, “This was a fairly quiet folk show at a theater, as opposed to a rock or pop concert at an arena. The room was dead silent outside of the performance itself.”
Music in My Soul
The artist offered an immersive listening experience that OP was eager to take advantage of. OP was also thrilled that the venue was seated so she could focus on the music and enjoy it.
Not Your Average Crowd
For OP, most people watching the concert would probably be big fans of the artist, too.
She wrote, “I’d venture a guess that most of the people who would go to this type of show are going because they’re emotionally invested in this person’s music.”
Lights, Cameras, Action!
The show had started, and OP was enjoying it. That’s when OP noticed that the woman who sat right next to her was knitting, which she thought was odd.
However, she ultimately decided to ignore it.
Endless Clicking
OP tried her best to ignore the knitting, but it had gotten worse. The constant movement was something OP could constantly see in her peripheral vision.
The clicking noise of the knitting was also distracting, like someone tapping on a phone with long fingernails. It had become impossible to ignore and had been going on constantly for 30 minutes!
An Eroding Distraction
OP’s attention was being dragged to the knitting, and OP couldn’t focus on the show at all. The only thing that had been going on in OP’s mind was what she would say and how to ask the knitter to stop politely.
Enough Is Enough
OP could see that the woman had come with her partner and that there were two or three open seats next to them.
It took a while, but OP summoned the courage to address the issue.
Modern Problems, Modern Solutions
Confronting the woman would have been more disruptive, so OP came up with a solution. She wrote a message on her phone and showed it to the woman.
The message was, “I’m so sorry to ask, and I know this is probably ridiculous, but the knitting is distracting me from enjoying the show. Would you mind either stopping or moving one seat over? Again, I’m sorry.”
The Wrong Crowd
Given the music, artist, and crowd had been chill, OP assumed the woman would be too. She proved OP wrong, though, because after she had read the message, the woman gave her the “nastiest” look possible and sighed loudly.
No Chill
After glaring at OP, the woman “huffed and puffed” at her partner sitting beside her. She dramatically shoved her knitting into her bag and stormed out of the concert venue.
Flabbergasted, to Say the Least
OP had been shocked, and she didn’t know why the woman was so angry because her message had been as polite as possible. She was left to wonder if the woman had a mental or medical condition that had made the knitting necessary.
Hidden Possibilities
OP hadn’t known if the woman was neurodivergent or if she was in some recovery. She had tried to be sensitive to the woman, which is why she had politely suggested the woman could have moved over to another spot to lessen the interruptions.
Was It That Bad?
OP began to doubt if asking her to stop had been the right thing to do because the woman’s reaction had been so shocking. She realized that knitting wasn’t the absolute worst thing to do, and now she felt terrible even though she had tried to be as polite as possible.
She wrote, “I couldn’t tell if me asking her to stop was unreasonable and maybe I should have just sucked it up, but I thought I was polite about it, and I’m still just really shocked at how mad she got and even more shocked that she completely left the show halfway through the set.”
What the Community Thinks
OP’s post drew several responses from Redditors, many of whom claimed to be knitters themselves.
One brought up the distraction caused by knitting, saying, “Not the a**hole. You asked nicely, and moving one chair over seems like a reasonable suggestion. I find the clicking of needles to be a soothing sound when I knit, but I agree that it’s definitely a sound that isn’t easy to ignore, especially if they’re metal. Her reaction was pretty out of proportion to the ask.”
Another Redditor had a similar viewpoint, saying, “So I am absolutely someone who might knit in a setting like that, in part due to ADHD. And the ADHD is exactly why I can totally see something random like that being disproportionately distracting. I would have had zero issues with a request like that and happily moved over or quit knitting if there was no other option. Definitely not the a**hole.”
Wrong Place, Wrong Time
Overall, Reddit was firmly on the side of OP and made their feelings clear about someone who would get upset over being asked to move while knitting during a performance.
One Redditor summed it up best by saying, “This thread is crazy, not the a**hole. You did it as politely as you could. If someone right next to me were fidgeting for hours at a show, I’d lose my mind. No matter how quiet people want to say knitting is, you’re going to a concert!”
Was a quiet, acoustic folk performance the proper time to knit? What do you think about what happened, and what would you do about it?
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This post first appeared as She Politely Asked the Woman Next to Her to Stop Knitting Because It Was Distracting Her From Watching the Folk Music Concert. But She Pinned Her With the “Nastiest” Glare and Angrily Stormed Out! on Quote Ambition.
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