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

[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.