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

[ironed_orchid]

I mostly knit while watching tv shows, on the bus, or on my lunch breaks.

I have knitted while reading academic papers, sitting in seminars, and reading hardback books (I find it too hard to prop paper backs open).

I do find it harder to knit when there are subtitles, but I think that may have more to do with needing a new glasses prescription, because I'm not really looking at my knitting most of the time. I often won't knit when watching something for the first time, because it has my full attention, but I do rewatch a lot, and once a series is a couple of seasons in, there's a familiarity which makes it easier to multitask.

From the knitting point of view, if I'm learning a new technique, I need to concentrate, but if I'm doing rows of ss or rib, then I could probably do them in the dark.