shutting him up

"Ooh knitting! You don't see people knitting nowadays. I taught both my sons to knit, but they knitted scarves for teddy and that was that. Still, they learned how to do it."

It turns out that knitting on the bus makes me queasy.

"My son is into all those computers, and I can't pick it up. I say to him: can you knit a Fair Isle jumper? That shuts him up."