Being a knit designer, I work from home. In theory. In practice I work everywhere. Today I snuck in a few rows on a swatch while selling ice cream at my younger son’s school. They are raising money for their 8th grade trip to Universal.

Now I’m trying to repair my broken relationship with another one of my workplaces – Panera. I love working at Panera, and I try to be a good customer. I try to time things so that I’m not here at rush time. I never take up a 4-top table when I’m all by myself. And I always buy lunch. But Panera has been doing me wrong lately. The last half dozen times I’ve visited I could not get on their internet. But today we seem to be back in business.

My most favorite place to work is the beach. But that’s really only good for days when I have uncomplicated knitting to crank out. And sadly it’s going to get cold soon. Yes, I know cold is relative, but I’ve adjusted to the weather down here!

My other satellite office is the library. The wifi is strong, the a/c is true, the chairs are comfy, and people mostly follow the “Shhhh! It’s a library!” rule. If I could just get the city here to stop jacking around with the hours and locations, it would be perfect. But for some reason Jacksonville seems to think that the libraries are a reasonable place to apply massive budget cuts. I’ve signed petitions and attended meetings, and well you know… I mean our own federal government isn’t even doing their job, so why should I expect our city to be doing better?

Sometimes I kind of miss having a real office. When I worked outside the home my favorite job was as a technical trainer. I had a huge classroom outfitted with macs and PCs and my own podium and huge desk. It was nice to have a door that I could close and a place to collect my thoughts. I think all my random “workplaces” are an attempt to recapture that.

Where do you do your best work? Your best knitting? What are the hidden workplaces I’m missing?