Knitting, social link since forever.

Today I went to Hankou, the district on the other side of town from where I live. It is 1h30 away, with both a trip through Wuhan metro and bus. Going there was easy, thank to Lea, who put the right address on my phone so I could find my way.
I went there alone, my headphone on and my knitting work in my hand back. The best way not to be bothered by anyone in the public space I noticed is, as Jim Butcher says in the Dresden files, to look confident. or bored. Act as if you belong there and no one will question your presence no matter how eccentric you are (like a green haired ginger girl knitting in the bus). That works every time!
Almost every time.
When I was waiting for the bus to get back home, after running from an office to the other for an hour and managing to fill all the forms in order to get my resident permit, I started knitting again.
Two women, around 60, starting talking to each other about me (no, I'm not getting any more paranoid, they were pointing me.)
Another girl arrived at the bus station, something around 20 years old. The two ladies called her and together they came to talk to me. They had asked the younger girl (Penny) to come so she could translate, as she spoke a little English (way more than I speak Chinese)
They were curious about what I was knitting, where did I come from, How long had I been in Wuhan, did I like living here, what did I do as a living, everything. They wear all extremely kind and warmhearted. Since we were going on the same direction, they said they'd check on our itinerary, that I needn't worry about not missing my bus stop.
It's funny to think how it was easy to talk, even if only some minutes ago, none of us knew each other. It came as totally natural and obvious. Penny and I had to regularly browse through or dictionaries, looking for one word or the other, laughing about the misunderstanding.
The two Ayi (aunt in Chinese) were very curious about my knitting and sometimes took it from my hands to show me how they held the needles or how to pass the thread.
I took her wechat, offering her to keep on texting so she could practice her English and me my Chinese. It felt good to meet new people and to practice my Chinese outside a classroom.
I hope I'll be able to get to know Penny.