More Strangers on the train

The past 2 days I've been having encounters of a different kind with strangers on the train. The first day was when I forgot where I put my iPod so I didn't have anything stuck in my ears. The girl sitting next to me started asking me about how to get started with crochet. She took notes on her phone and asked me how I first learned, and where to buy yarn. On my walk from the train station to the apartment, a lady walking in the opposite direction admired my ability to crochet while walking. When I got home, there was a lady in the elevator who commented on my crochet and started talking about how her sister, mother, and grandmother all can crochet but she was never able to. The next day I actually did have my headphones on (I found my iPod in my purse, doh!). But the lady sitting next to me, as well as this old Asian lady sitting in front of me both started admiring my crocheting and asking me questions.

I don't know why there is suddenly all this interest when I've been crocheting on the train for the past month now. Here are some possible ideas I threw around in my head.

• iPod - Having headphones on stops conversations before they can even start because people assume you don't want to be bothered. Sometimes this is true. This also does not deter some people from bothering you anyway.
• Project specific interest - One interesting point about these past few days is that I've been working on a scarf. It's a very bold black with a red stripe running vertically, and I can work very quickly on it because it's only single crochet with a large hook. Maybe as a more fun project, it's more approachable to ask about than say my lacy butterfly wrap, which uses thin yarn, a tiny hook, and no color other than black. Other women look at the scarf and it piques their interest because they think to themselves "Hey that's pretty and it looks easy, I can do that."
  
• Familiarity - Maybe these people have seen me on the train before and decided to comment because I happened to sit next to them.
• Gender - Maybe I sat next to too many men before.
• Clothing - Maybe I dress better now so people don't think I'm some weirdo.