[Funnily enough, this is a line for exactly the same sort of thing I’m talking about, only in a different location, and taken by cafemama, who I do not know, but feel camraderie with, as she and I have obviously shared a similar experience, along with thousands of other knitters. Hooray, knitting!]
Because it is flexible.
Knitting really is flexible. Aside from the obvious, that knitted things stretch to fit stuff (if you’ve ever tried to sew knits, you know of what I speak), the lifestyle itself is also quite flexible.
You can:
Knit with friends or alone. The experiences differ, but the knitting is the same, regardless of the number of participants (though all of you knitting on the same object does create some logistical issues).
Knit anywhere that doesn’t require you to pay attention closely. That is, at a cafe, at work (on your lunch hour, of course), on the bus/train, in a car (not while driving, please, though folks I know knit at red lights), in the hospital, at IKEA, or wherever else you choose. While walking. In line waiting to see knitting celebrities (we have them, non-knitters, and they are awesome, so halt your nay-saying). I suppose you could knit while in labor, or on the toilet (not a bad idea, but I’m not admitting to it), or even in the bath. I would not recommend knitting while running from the police, mowing the lawn, or playing tennis. Or using a rowing machine (Jennie, this means you).
Experiment with a wide range of materials, tools and design. You can choose from wool, cotton, silk, bamboo, alpaca, angora, cashmere, etc., blends of those things, or plain old acrylic (also often blended). You can choose yarn weights. You can choose pattern styles. You can choose ways to combine these things into (eventually) finished objects. And you can knit with an assortment of needles in an assortment of materials and finishes. Whatever you want.
Be anybody. President of Burundi? Go for it! Grandma? Go for it! Lumberjack? Go for it! (Am I a giant dork? Totally! But I knit, too.)
And you can learn in a variety of ways, from a variety of sources, and you’ll probably end up in the same place as much of the knitting world, which is to loop yarn through itself using two sticks, and coming up with something relatively useful, regardless of knitting English style or Continental style (or some other style), or whether you learned from a book or a class or your great-aunt Margaret, or your best friend or the internet.
Pretty neat, huh?
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knitters = angry mob 