Knitting Meets Car Talk
The "Car Talk" guys, Click and Clack (aka Tam and Ray Magliozzi) also have a syndicated Q & A that appears in our local paper. Today the question was this:
"Is it safe to knit...in a seat with an air bag?..."
Hmmm, something new for me to worry about. The guys say it probably isn't. Inflating air bag could ram those needles right through you. Then Tom goes on to say:
"I would be nice if someone made knitting needles out of some sort of firm rubber, with perhaps a short, hardened point. That way, they'd bend in an accident, rather than spear somebody...."
I love it! Tom the car guy has a new marketing idea for knitting needles. Maybe the folks who brought us the light-up variety can get working on this. I'm heading for their website with follow up questions: would working with circulars qualify as safe? How short is "short"? Are sock needles short enough to be safe? Wonder how many knitters they'll hear from....
5 comments:
I once read that even a straw in a fast food soda pop cup can be a lethal weapon if the airbag deploys. Something to think about. Also, over the years, I've heard Tom and Ray mention airbags that spontaneously deployed while parked in a driveway. It's rare, but it can happen. More fodder for the phobia mill!
I guess knitting should be a backseat activity!
Yikes! Maybe I should move to the back seat. Feels sort of "Driving Miss Daisy", though.
I'm feeling stumped on the risk assesment here.
It's all about the velocity of the "wind" coming from the airbag. Think about tornadoes—I found this online:
"Tornadoes can... drive straw and blades of grass into trees and telephone poles." (Source: http://www.wunderground.com/tornadoFAQ.asp)
Not sure how strong airbag wind is, but it may be able to do serious damage. Scary!
I <3 Tom and Ray, have bought their books and CDs, and learned a lot from them over the years. But I'm not giving up my car knitting. At least I'm generally doing it with circs, which seem like they might be safer.
On an NPR note (I listen to their program on Saturday mornings), Garrison Keillor had knitting humor on the Prairie Home Companion in tonight's episode of Lives of the Cowboys. We were all in the car on the way to dinner and laughed ourselves silly.
Oh darn, darn, darn, I missed Garrison this week. Just checked the archives, but it's not there yet, will have to keep trying
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