Hazardous when knitting

Hooooo boy - another week with downtown driving in it.  And if I could see my way to do it - I do mean literally, if I could see in advance whether I can make a left where and when I want to - I would be driving downtown this afternoon as well.  So I guess I'm getting used to the whole thing.

Meanwhile, it's a lot of public transit to boot and now that I'm doing it so much more I can see where it's a problem.  Formerly, I could knit socks on a bus, effortlessly.  I'd knit at the bus stop, fold the sock so the needles were all lined up nicely when I saw the bus coming, hold all five needles plus the sock in my left hand against my body so as not to poke anybody while getting on the bus, then resume knitting as soon as I sat down.  Ditto on the subway. 

All was well at first.  One bus driver I kept getting for one particular run always calls out "Don't forget your purse or bag!" on arrival at the subway, the end of his line.  Last time, he called out "Don't forget your purse, or your bag, or your SOCK!"

Then one day I was getting on the subway - literally with one foot almost on the car floor - when I saw my old neighbour Tony getting out of the subway right beside me.  Our greeting went like this:

"Hey! Tony!"

"Mary!!"

(unexpected Tony-initiated hug at brink of subway door)

(near stabbing of Tony)

This made me think that maybe I should be putting my needles away entirely, not just holding them in one hand.  Or maybe I should always wear one of my skirts with the insanely huge pockets so as to jam the needles right out of harm's way.

But I haven't done it yet, and the other day things got worse.  I was taking the very long trip from a bus at a busy station to the far-away platform and just as I was running down the last of the steps to grab the train waiting in the station - I must have let my arm free from its hand-against-body position - my needles caught somebody else's scarf.  A somebody else who was running in the opposite direction.

Quick reflexes allowed me to tilt my hand and release the fabric while merely missing my train. I don't know what happened to the scarf and I can only hope it wasn't anything bad.

Still.  What if it had been somebody's hand?  What if I'd actually pulled that girl down the stairs with me?  I gotta stop the insanity. 

I might even have to find something else to knit on public transit.  Something I could do on nice safe circular needles.  Like... a hat... or maybe a nice handspun cowl. 

Otherwise I might as well be driving, you know?