Thursday, October 02, 2008

Busted!!

Yesterday, after literally YEARS of doing the stupidest/coolest thing a knitter can do, I got busted.

I had to drive up to Whatcom county yesterday for what turned out to be a wasted trip, and of course, my knitting came with me. It's my closest and bestest friend, after all.

On the way back down, (after a stop in Bellingham for perhaps the best poppy-seed bagel and scallion schmear this side of New Yawk), I had driven though the little mountain pass, past all the outlet malls, and was on my third episode of Lime N'Violet before my fingers started to get a little itchy....... I mean what's the harm, a little sock knitting, really vanilla stuff, while driving 74 mph on the I-5.

Well, there was this brown minivan at first beside me, and then behind me - I thought nothing of it. I try very hard to ignore mini-vans at all costs. They make me itch. Suddenly, the brown van sprouted flashing lights! Busted! It was a frickin' County Sheriff's vehicle. What's up with that? County Mounties driving crappy, early 2000's minivans! Talk about sneaky! So I pulled over, and carefully dropped the offending sock and needles into the back seat (without trying to look like I was dropping anything into my back seat - I've seen "Cops.") The kindly deputy walked up to my passenger side window, and intead of asking, "do you know how fast you were going?" he asks, "were you knitting?"

OK, so the innocent doe-eyed thing doesn't work for me. I'm more the blank-dumbfounded-stare type, really. Finally, I admitted I was, without really saying I was - the Alford plea of knitting. I was already calculating what the ticket was going to cost me, and how big the hit on my brand, shiny, new auto insurance policy was going to be - and just what Snohomish County's finest was going to charge me with, anyway..."wreckless knitting?"...when he asked me kindly to stop knitting while driving, told me to have a good day........and let me off the hook.

I have not told my husband about this little adventure, and I will not. He accuses me of knitting while driving when I have both hands on the wheel! Will I knit while driving again? Yes. Will I knit while driving in Snohomish County again? Not if I see any crap-brown minivans around!