This sort of sounds like a story that would come from The Onion, but it’s true, far as I can tell: the Knit and Natter group in Cramlington, Northumberland, has been banned from meeting in the city’s new library because they take up too much room and are too loud.
The group of up to 30 women has to find a new home by the end of September. Organizers say they were never told they were too loud at the old library, and they’ve done good things while meeting there including knitting a Christmas tree for the library in 2011.
What do you think? Are knitters too loud to meet in a library, or are county councilors going too far?
[Photo, which has nothing to do with this story at all, from Flikr via Buzzfeed.]
Well, knitting needles are dangerous – they could poke out someone’s eye. Same way books are so dangerous because you could get a papercut…
I went to a facility once where I wasn’t allowed to take in my knitting needles (size 20’s!!!) because I might use them to take drugs.
I think the world has gone mad sometimes!
Knitters may be too loud but they’ve been there a while so why ban them now? Maybe they can find a community room that will let them get together.
What they didn’t like the clicking noise by all those knitting needles? That is really dumb call there.
Many areas in the UK are facing libraries closing as councils try and cut costs………So craft clubs, childrens groups and mothers groups meeting in them enables a community library fit into the social life of its area.
If a group stays in the library all day long it could be a nuisance for other users yes, but for goodness sake, meetings are what, a couple of hours?
Leave them alone Northumberland Council!!
We can’t really judge how disruptive they might be without being there. I must say, though, that we have a couple of rather small libraries in our area. When they put on any sort of lecture or kids program, they can’t help but present it to the whole library. There’s no escaping it. I guess the librarians figure drawing people into the library for an activity trumps the inconvenience to other patrons. Our big local library, fortunately, has both flexible community rooms for activities like knitting, and a quiet reading room for those who really need quiet. Oddly, they sometimes let a community group use it. Libraries are, first and foremost, for reading.
I like the phrase “knit and natter” better than “stitch and bitch.” And my curiosity was piqued by the activity in aid of breastfeeding. Hard to picture.