What do you do while you're knitting?

[jackandahat]

I've just read yet another person going "Ooo, you can't possibly knit during films with subtitles". And I keep getting people doing the internet version of looking at me funny when I talk about knitting while reading fanfic.

But... to me that's perfectly normal. Obviously there's some stuff where I have to look at my hands, anything like picking up stitches. But if it's something like plain knitting/ribbing or an easy pattern, I'm generally either watching a film (with subtitles, dodgy hearing) or reading fic/a blog. I don't have the one-track attention to only be knitting unless it's something incredibly complicated - in which case I can only do little bits or it drives me nuts.

What do you do? Do you knit in front of the TV? Do you read while you do it? Do you knit while only focusing on the knitting? I'm curious now.

Comments

[laughingrat]

I can't knit or spin while watching a movie that really needs attention--silent film, foreign film, physical comedy, or something where the cinematography is really important. (Which basically weeds out all my favorite stuff, alas.) But if someone can truly enjoy and attend to that stuff while also doing awesome craft stuff? That's pretty badass.

[jackandahat]

Well, it's not like I'm knitting anything particularly complicated - right now I'm doing k2p2 ribbing for the brim of a hat. I wouldn't dare trying to do anything like picking up yarn overs or something, I'd end up with a mess. I think that's the trick - simple stuff only!

[apis_mellifera]

I watch television while I knit. I can't knit or spin in front of the computer because I get a massive crick in my neck. I haven't really tried reading while knitting or spinning, but if I ever get a decent stand for my e-reader I might give it a go.

[jackandahat]

I hadn't thought of e-readers, I bet that could be really handy if you can get it propped up in the right place.

[hellkitty]

I watch tv/netflix a lot. I've even done the thing of having an easy project with, say, swaths of stockinette, during the show and *snatching* up a more complicated pattern (fiddly lace pattern, set up rows, etc) during commercials.

DVD movies are wonderful because if I get too engrossed--I can pause and go back! I also love the Teaching Company's CDs/DVDs.

[jackandahat]

See, now that is proper multi-tasking. *Impressed*

[liseuse]

I knit and watch TV. I find knitting useful for my consumption of films, actually. I tend to get bored and a bit fidgety during films, but if I'm knitting I have something else to focus on a bit. I haven't managed to learn how to knit and read at the same time though, but I think that's because I read too fast.

[jackandahat]

The fidgetty is exactly why I love it - OK, hands busy, brain can enjoy the film. Otherwise I get bored and wander off.

[lomedet]

I taught myself to crochet, lo these many years ago, specifically to have something to do with my hands while listening to the radio. In grad school, there was a whole knitting culture, and I knit my way through most lecture and discussion classes (although not all of them) and a whole bunch of guest speakers and community meetings.

These day I mostly knit while watching TV or listening to the radio/audiofic.

[jackandahat]

I've heard a lot of people talk about listening to audiofic/books on tape/etc while reading, that sounds like a really good way to enjoy both.

[jenna_thorn]

Simple knitting like stckntte or ribbing I can do while paying attention to something, but since I don't live alone, much of my television viewing is for other people's shows, so I can knit patterns and still keep up with who the current suspect is or call out answers to Alec Trebek.

I can't, however, read while knitting. Part if it is that I engage more with written text than I do with video, and part of it is that the way I hold my yarn and needles doesn't leave a finger free for scrolling down the touchpad without jumping all over the screen.

[jackandahat]

When you say "other people's shows" do you mean stuff you're not invested in?

And yeah - I can't do the trackpad at all, I just use the spacebar.

[glinda]

I've never tried knitting and reading at once, I'm not sure I could manage it. I do like to be doing something else while I'm knitting (or other crafts for that matter) as I really dont like working in silence.

I prefer to knit listening to the radio/podcasts/audiobooks, but I can and do enjoy knitting while watching tv/films. I can usually only cope with films in English while knitting, but I can manage gaelic tv along with french and german language films reasonably well (cos I know a bit of the language) but other languages not so much.

[jackandahat]

I envy anyone who can speak another language well enough to watch films in it! It's always impressive.

[kareila]

My favorite time to knit is while watching sports, because of all the dead space in between exciting things happening on the TV. Yes.

I think I could also knit while watching a film with subtitles, but not while reading - unless I could scroll down or page turn with my feet or something.

[jackandahat]

Ha! That's a good one - I've heard of people knitting at games, but I guess the same applies watching it on TV. What's your sport?

[gwaihiril]

If it's something simple, yes. Actually, if it's something simple, I'll usually only knit it in front of a tv/computer or while talking to someone, because otherwise I get bored with plain stockinette/garter/ribbing. I can't watch/read while doing complicated knitting, though, because I have to look at what I'm doing.

[jackandahat]

"because otherwise I get bored with plain stockinette/garter/ribbing."

Very much this - I would never get through knitting socks or plain hats if I didn't have something else to do during it.

[spikewriter]

I knit a lot while watching television/DVDs. There are a few things I won't knit during -- or won't knit anything serious during -- such as Sherlock, opening and closing episode of a Doctor Who season, etc. At least, I won't do it the first time I watch them. Anything where I find myself getting seriously sucked in, I put the needles aside as quickly as possible.

The current rewatch of Dark Shadows? Oh, that was made for knitting.

[jackandahat]

...funnily enough, I timed knitting a hat using Sherlock. I found if I watch all three episodes back to back, I can cast on during the opening for the first, and gather up during the closing credits for the last. Very plain hat, k2p2 all the way up to the decreases, but I was going for basic.

[meretia]

I can't knit while I'm reading, because I keep needing that hand to scroll down or turn the page and it disrupts my groove. Other than that, though, I really can't watch TV or movies without knitting in my hands anymore because it feels like such a waste of time. I get bored very quickly just sitting and staring at a screen without doing anything else.

[onthehill]

THIS! I actually took up knitting because I felt like watching TV was such a horrible waste of time. I feel so much better now because I'm actually making something while being entertained. \o/

[wednesday]

Subtitles are just another picture on the screen for me: look, absorb, no extra distraction to speak of. (If anything, I prefer to keep them or captions on regardless of situation - less chance my brain will drop content on the floor. If it's a translation situation, I only notice I've stopped understanding the content when I look down, and I can always go back! ^_^)

If whatever it is is too complex for me to watch video content at the same time, I still need *some* audio. ADHD brain needs two or more processes running.

[jackandahat]

*nods* Subtitles are easier for me because if I'm "listening" to someone, I'm lipreading, and subtitles are so much easier than that.

It's interesting you say that about ADHD - I wasn't aware of that, so thanks for explaining.

[owlectomy]

I usually want to either listen to a podcast, or watch a TV show that I can mostly absorb just by listening -- news is good, procedural shows tend to be pretty good. Even if it's stockinette, I'm not very good at watching something else while I knit, but I do like to keep my attention focused on something else.

[wired]

I almost always have something in my hands while I'm watching tv or movies. I went out to the movies this week and deliberately set it up so I had big swathes of stockinette in the round waiting for me to work on.

I especially love knitting and watching football. I can do colorwork during football, which I can't always do during less repetitive programing.

[jackandahat]

Football knitting sounds great, as long as you don't drop it when someone scores a goal and you have to jump up and cheer. ;)

[pennyplainknits]

Edit podfic, mostly. I have to pick it up and put it down a lot but it's pretty much the only thing that makes the editing bareable

[jackandahat]

Oo - that's a new one, I've not heard that one before. I'm guessing that involves listening until you hit something that sounds wrong, then stopping, so you can knit while listening?

[tephra]

I generally watch TV/video while knitting. What I watch depends on what I'm knitting. Easy knitting gets subtitled anime, not so easy knitting gets something in English. I can read and knit too, but find hitting the space bar so often to get a new page a bit annoying, it breaks my knitting rhythm. Maybe I need a voice command entry program to translate "page down" for me. XD

[usuallyhats]

I learnt to knit so I'd have something to do while watching TV! I used to do my maths homework in front of the TV and now feel vaguely guilty if I'm just watching and not doing anything else. And I knit while I'm reading (as long as whatever I'm reading stays open on its own...). But knitting while listening to audio plays is the best.

[19_crows]

I can't knit and read. In fact, I can't knit, even stockinette, without looking. Maybe this would be a handy skill to learn. How did you learn to do it?

I mostly knit while the TV is on which at our house is mostly sports (baseball and hockey.) I also get fidgetty during movies & TV so knitting helps. If I'm not knitting, I'm doing something on the computer or playing solitaire on the Palm.

I knit when I'm a passenger on long car trips, too. That's perfect.

[jackandahat]

I learned through necessity rather than on purpose - I taught myself to knit from books when I was a kid, and the internet later on - so I was used to having something in front of me while I knit. It took a while to get into a rhythm, but it's a case of focusing on how it feels in my hands, rather than how it looks.

[clare_dragonfly]

I also knit while reading on my computer a lot, generally stockinette, ribbing, or garter. I actually mentioned this on my journal a while back and had a lot of questions about it. Apparently it's not as common as I had thought! I definitely can't do plain knitting while doing nothing else. Too boring. I can't read while doing more complicated stuff, like lace and colorwork, but I usually listen to podcasts while I work on those, or bring them to my knitting group.

[jackandahat]

When I first really got into knitting, I assumed it's how everyone did it - because if there were all these knitters online, then surely they must be knitting at the computer? The thing was, I hadn't known anyone who knitted in real life except my great grandmother, who knitted while shouting at the football. So I knew nothing about "what knitters did".

[lindorie]

When I got my Kindle for Christmas, it was THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER -- finally, I could read books AND knit at the same time without fussing with page turning or keeping the book open! I'm the girl who knits her socks while reading for class, just reading period.

I knit in front of the tv, the computer screen, whatever. Subtitles, no subtitles, it doesn't matter.

As for knitting while focusing only on the knitting... I can only do that in small amounts, otherwise I screw up and it irritates me to the point where I want to chuck it at the wall. ADHD and lace knitting do not mix, I don't think.

[james]

I knit while watching tv or while sitting at the computer (if I don't need my hand every three seconds for the keyboard.) I can't do knitting that requires 8any* counting while listening to an audio book because if I zone out from the book for a few seconds I'm lost. But with tv I can keep up with the dialogue pretty well if I refocus to check my knitting.

I can read a book or other printed matter while knitting, because I can stop and glance at my knitting if I have to and go back to where I was before. The problem there is something to keep the book propped open that also lets me turn pages easily.

The only thing I can't do is knit from a chart while doing something else, because I get confused and distracted and go too slowly to bother multi-tasking.

I will add that I pretty much *have* to knit while watching sporting events on TV because there isn't enough plot to keep my brain entertained if I just sit there. But I love watching sports, as long as I can knit at the same time so my brain doesn't get bored.

[aunty_marion]

Yeah, I get a lot of knitting done while watching snooker on TV. Used to do a lot during cricket matches, too, but then they went over to satellite, so I can't watch those.. I can just about listen to cricket on the radio and knit, though.

[willidan]

I read fanfic, watch TV, watch movies (with or without subtitles). The only thing I can't do is eat a meal. But I do eat snacks while I knit. I'm with you, sometimes I need to pay attention to what I'm doing, but once I get the pattern I'm fine.

[bedlamsbard]

I always knit and watch movies/TV/Netflix on the computer/etc. -- I'm actually a bit unsure how much I'm actually looking at the screen when I'm doing so, so if I'm watching something where I need to be looking at the screen the entire time rather than absorbing it by ear, then I'll pick up a project that I can do without looking. (On the same note, I knit in movie theatres as well, but only with projects I don't need to look at. I don't do much plain stockinette, so it's usually small lace projects where I have a constant count in my head about when to yarnover or k2tog or so on. Used to be washcloths or the odd sock pattern; I haven't been to a theatre recently, though.) But, yes, ninety percent of the time I'm knitting from a chart when watching TV/movies. Occasionally music or podcasts, depending on my mood, and very rarely I'll be knitting and not doing anything else at all. I usually only have one project going at a time, so I don't tend to switch for something less complicated unless I'm going into a situation where I know I won't be able to see what I'm knitting. (Movie theatres and airplanes being the big two, as while there's light on planes, it's harder to stick the chart somewhere you can see it. So easily memorizable patterns are good.)

I can knit and read, either on the computer or from a hard copy, but I don't do that very often because in that case, my hands are doing something else so I don't need them to be knitting.

I know I'm glad to have something to do with my hands when I'm watching movies/TV -- I have the bad habit of peeling the skin off my lips when I'm not paying attention, and before I started knitting, I used to come out of movie theatres with my lips and fingernails bloody. So, yeah, knitting is definitely preferable there!

Hmm, and since someone else mentioned car trips...this is actually a place I don't knit, because I can sleep in cars but I can't sleep in airplanes.

[maegquare]

I can't watch tv unless I am knitting. I don't hear well, so I always have the subtitles on, too. And I knit while watching YouTube and reading blogs and fanfic. I don't read as many books as I used to before I started knitting again, so have been thinking of getting a Nook or Kindle.

Knitting while reading or watching something interesting requires plain knitting. (Thuja socks are working well for me at the moment.) :)

Sometimes if I want to knit something that takes more concentration, I listen to audiobooks or music (usually instrumental), or if I'm keeping someone company who is watching something I'm not interested in, or watching a movie I've seen before.

[shadowwolf13]

I knit pretty much any chance I get. I watch a lot of Hulu so I knit during that, during gaming (D&D pen and paper game nights) concerts, plays, riding in the car, standing in line, attending conventions, grocery shopping ... seriously, any time I can. I don't do it while reading because I get so caught up in the story but that's about it.