This week a sweet knitter from my online knitting community experienced one of our fiber nightmares: her knitting bag was stolen. Right out of her car. In broad daylight. The thief smashed her car window and ran away with her project bag, along with the sweater project inside of it.
[Insert your favorite curse words here.]
Why would someone snatch your knitting bag? Because a bag is a bag is a bag.
A thief doesn’t have time to determine whether the bag is a purse, a fancy lunch bag, a diaper bag or a knitting bag. If it’s within view and it looks like it has potential, it’s at risk. And these days our project bags are pretty gorgeous, don’t you think? WE know there’s only knitting inside, but they don’t.
Side note: This will not stop me from loving (or acquiring) beautiful bags.
A few years ago this happened to two knitters I knew in the very same week. We think it won’t happen to us, but friends… sometimes it does. It’s important to remember that if something has value to YOU – even if it doesn’t have “street value”, extra precautions are in order. Here are a few tips to keep your projects safe:
- Take your knitting inside with you. This seems obvious, but we’re often tempted to leave our knitting in the car because we’ll only be inside for a few minutes and won’t have time to use it. If the loss of your project might devastate you (or ruin your day), by all means, bring it with you – even if you won’t have time to actually knit anything while you’re there.
- If you do leave your knitting in the car, take it out of your project bag completely and leave it out in the open on the seat. Someone looking for trouble might still break in and grab your bag, but they’re much less likely to take a half-knit project with balls of yarn attached. If you’ve ever walked out of your car and accidentally trailed yarn behind you through the parking lot, you can guess why this might be an effective deterrent. Realistically, they’re not there for your knitting and they’ll leave it alone if they can see that’s what it is.
- I’m a fan of multiple projects; if your current WIP is getting a little bit big to carry around, consider taking a smaller project on the go… something that can fit right inside your purse or carry-all tote.
- If you can’t take it in with you, put your project bag in the trunk where it’s out of view. We often think to do this with our purse and other valuables, but we too often discount the temptation that a knitting bag might present. After all, a thief wouldn’t want my knitting, right? You’re right – they don’t. But thieves don’t take the time to check; they grab and go.
While there are certainly worse things that can happen in life, losing your bag (with a project inside) is definitely sob-worthy. Think of your project bag like your purse – even if you don’t keep “valuables” inside. Let’s keep those projects safe!
