The hills are alive with the sound of....sirens

It's a fabulously gorgeous day outside. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and fire engine sirens are wailing in the distance.
Nothing too serious, I hope.

The major downside with a day like today is being stuck indoors. It's the kind of day that makes me wish I were doing some sort of outside job, or had a garden to potter in. I guess I'll have to settle for hanging wet washing out on the clothesline.

Last week, I knitted up a baby hat for OH's niece, and here it is


Looking all squishy and cute in its dual role as head warmer and bannister decoration. My box of bits is in Dublin though, so I've not been able to stitch it up yet.

When I received my package of even more cashmerino and addi's on Friday, I squeed. Squeed a bit more, then inhaled suddenly, as I realised that the shade of green in my package was not just beautiful, but an entirely different shade of green to the hat. Bummer. On the plus side, I'd ordered a ball too much, so running up another one is not a big deal. (As a side note, I also found out on Friday that one of my friends is finally pregnant, so my apple green bannister decoration will be going to her as a belated meme craft present!)

Equipped with my bag o' yarn, needles and a 3 hour stint on a train, I cast on the Baby Shrug from Debbie Bliss Simply Baby. Lovely pattern, and quite easy, even though it's all knit in one piece. Granted, I haven't gotten to the "pick up on million stitches" part, but I'm quietly confident.

So here's what 6 hours of train knitting will get you.

Train knitting is a funny thing. The Dublin-Cork train is the most fancy and fabulous in Europe, apparently. They're new and shiny, and meet all the carbon emission standards for 2012 already. They do, however, sway a bit more than the old diesel warhorses, which makes knitting impossible at times. They also vary between artic cool and sahara hot at other times, resulting in my fingers being too cold to knit, or my dozing off, needles in hand.

That said, I knit pretty much every time I'm on public transport, even if it's just a few lines here and there. Every journey I knit on (save local busses) someone has struck up a conversation about how they/their mother/their aunt used to knit all the time. I've even had a 7 year old boy demand that his granny break out some needles and yarn when they got home to teach him.

Are knitters more approachable than other people? Or just seen as being? Is it that a WIP is an instant icebreaker, and people are insanely curious beings?
In my mind, there seems to be something a bit magical about it that draws people in.

Anyone else had some interesting WIP experiences?