Some friends asked me to join them last weekend to go to a music festival out of town. It was a wonderful offer that would get me away from home but having been out of town just a week ago, I declined with at least the thought, although I didn't say it, I should stick to my knitting at home. Now I didn't literally mean knitting, I meant I had things at home to do. But then I wondered what that colloquial phrase really means. The truth about where "sticking to your knitting" originated is not easy to find. It is often linked to a similar idiom: "smoking your own cigar". Some suggest each is gender specific which explains why we need two of them. On the personal level it generally refers to one not sticking one's nose into other people's business or that one shouldn't act as if they know something about something that they don't. In short, don't be a busy body. Tom Peters and Robert Waterman's 1982 In Search of Excellence,...
Getting it together one stitch at a time.