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A sad example of a by-product of the women's movement. I thought that femminism was about offer women choices, not degrading those who chose to persue more traditional interests.

Too many sisters fought to free women from aprons and mops for me to voluntarily become Aunt Bee and pretend it's by choice.

The only noise I want to hear from you is from pots & pans rattling in the kitchen.

The author goes a bit overboard, but I thinks she's right that knitting and similar activities can often be an unhealthy habit used to block out serious matters that the woman ought to be addressing. Repetitive, nervous activities engaged in compulsively for no good reason, are unhealthy, whether it's women knitting constantly or kids spending hours at video games while their schoolwork and social development go untended.

As for "traditional", our grandmothers knitted because it was the most cost- and time-effective way to produce items that were actually needed, or to produce occasional nice little gift items. Most had to stay home, because without modern labor-saving devices, just keeping the home in order and food on the table was a full-time job. Fitting in a little knitting or needlepoint around the other chores was a good use of time (except of course for wealthy ladies of leisure, for whom these activities were usually pure decadence). Very different from many of the compulsive knitters of today, whose kids are dumped in public schools and parked in front of the TV or video game, while mom obsesses over her latest knitting project and spends gobs of time and money at craft stores.