What Do You Do While You Crochet?
By Rachel Choi – 24 CommentsThese days, who doesn’t multitask? When I crochet I end up listening to music at the same time or watching a TV show. Actually I listen to the TV show. I’m not brave enough to crochet without looking. I’m afraid if I turn away, and then look back down, it’ll look like I crocheted with my feet.
But if I’m in deep concentration with a pattern that needs a tone of stitch counting I would crochet in complete silence. There’s something about crocheting that is so soothing that just doing crochet and nothing else is still satisfying.
Funny thing I can’t do while crocheting is talk, unless it is rows and rows of double crochet. I think it’s because I’m secretly talking to myself about what to do next in the pattern.
What about you? What do you do while you crochet?
About the same as you, actually. I have my iTunes music on my computer running or I have the TV on. I mainly listen as I crochet. I am too new at it for my eyes to stray farther than the line I am working on.
It makes me feel better that I’m not confident enough to look away! I thought that was something you developed over time and I was starting to feel “undeveloped” in my skill level. 🙂 I also listen, which can be bad when you’re watching a movie you’ve never seen before. My husband often gets frustrated if he has to rewind, but I just feel like I could be getting so much done in those two hours!
I do the same thing. My husband could never understand how I can crochet/knit while watching TV and knowing what’s going on. I belong to a group called Mad Hatters (not to be confused with the Red Hat Ladies) and we knit/crochet baby hats, afghans, chemo hats and lap robes and donate them all. Since 2002 we have donated over 88,000 baby hats to our surrounding hospitals. We have groups all over the country. The only rule we have is that we NEVER sell our hats, everything is donated. I’m so glad I found your web site. Congtratulations.
Something here, listen to tv. sometimes i will put on my ipod.
What a relief to know I’m not the only person who listens to TV while crocheting! 🙂
I like to listen to books on tape!
I’m a TVer too. Usually I have to keep my eyes on my work but if I’m doing granny squares I can usually just do those by touch (except the corners).
I don’t look away from my work while I crochet- too afraid I’ll miss a stitch, have my count off at the end of a row and have to pull it out ’til I find the skipped stitch (can you tell I speak from experience?). I usually crochet in silence but today I listened to Tom Verlaine while I worked on a rascally hat (thus described because I used two strands of worsted with a 7 hook; I got the “shape it any way you want and it will stay that way” weave I was after, but it was not as soothing to work on as crochet usually is:-)
I usually like to watch tv, or I’ll chat with friends online. I just do a couple stitches, look at the tv, do a couple stitches, look at tv……….
Lol.
If you are like me, you are counting, so talking to someone else is out of the question. I listen to TV, usually. It’s more just background noise,though. I don’t really pay attention to it because I’m concentrating on the crochet.
Being a seasoned crocheter, I can look away (depending on the pattern) I almost always watch TV while I am crocheting or knitting. I can’t stand to have idle hands.
I always need something in the background, so I keep the TV or a movie on, or YouTube (which is a little of a pain because I gotta stop every so often to load a new video, but I’m obsessed w/the Angry Video Game Nerd and the creator James Rolfe’s other works, so I watch his stuff for hours online while making amigurumi). My friend – a knitter – and I hang out every week to have dinner and watch movies or episodes of iCarly if we catch it at the right time (Nickelodeon needs consistency, man) and get projects done together, so we’re able to work while talking. I’ve been making amigurumi and working in the round, increasing and decreasing a lot for the past almost-year so I’ve gotten so used to it I can count in my head and still carry on a conversation – more or less. I end up recounting from the stitch marker every so often just to be sure I’m still on track. The only thing that’s ever been truly distracting from my crocheting is when I’m crocheting at my fiancee’s house and his youngest cat, Nibbler, is being extra cute, or the times she’s literally dug into my yarn bag and stolen whole skeins of yarn and I have to chase her into the kitchen to get it back. (a cat playing with a ball of yarn, talk about perpetuating a cliche)
I like to listen to audio books while crocheting. I used to be an avid reader so that gets me into the mode of ‘reading’. Also I like to watch tv. No blind crocheting, though. I have hard enough time counting stitches looking at them as it is! LOL Thanks
Podcasts, books on tape, riding in a car, TV, conversations, standing in line, and even walking! hahah. I can usually look away, but not all the time.
I watch TV. I also crochet when my husband and I take a trip. He drives I crochet. I crochet on airplanes and in airports. I take my crocheting everywhere. I crochet in waiting rooms for doctors and dentists, at family get togethers. I guess I’m a hopeless crochetor. Can’t help it, I love it.
Don’t worrie about looking away. I have 2 kids who need to be watched at all times. You’d be surprised at how fast you catch yourself before you make a mistake. Just trust yourself
I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one who can’t quite look away from my crocheting quite yet, because I’m an avid crocheter. While I crochet I listen to the TV, but if the project is extremely demanding (2 strings, homespun, 2 strings of homespun…) I sort of loose track of time and what they are saying on the TV. At least I know now that I am not alone and not as hopeless as I once thought….
I also have the TV on when I crochet. I can look away for a few stitches, but if not too many. I cannot have talk while I crochet. My family is usually pretty good with not talking to me , but sometimes they seem to forget and they get a loud SSHHHHHHH or they get a shake of my hand . What I don’t get is that even thought I say Shhhh they still talk !
I really enjoy it when I am all alone and can crochet in peace.
Yay! I’m normal! I honestly thought I wasn’t doing that well in crocheting because I don’t look away from what I’m doing. I resigned myself to thinking ‘oh well, it’s fun for me anyway.’ Still great to know that lots of people still watch what they do and count. I like to watch movies I’ve already seen before while crocheting. Ghostbusters is a big one that I watch all the time. Sometimes I listen to my mp3 player.
I sit with my son, who’s 4, while he watches his shows. I listen to his shows and crochet. I also listen to iTunes when I crochet at night. Currently, I am obsessed with listening to REM’s “Monster” while I craft in the evenings…
One good thing is to listen to a relaxation or meditation tape/CD/MP3. I find I can crochet as well as doing the visualisations. As a lot of you are saying I hate to sit with idle hands as well!
As you say if its rows of double crochet with thick yarn you can literally feel your way, just make sure you don’t go astray at the row ends!
Oh Rachel, I’m just like you in this regard. Nice to not be alone, huh? LOL Funny thing is – I have discovered how come I don’t remember seeing/hearing some show I watch as a repeat: it’s becuz it was on while I was crocheting. Even tho I’m only listening (look up once in awhile, but quit stitching), I now know that I am catching only parts of the show. So now, if I really want to know what’s going on, I mainly crochet during commercials — and we all know there are plenty of those. Usually 15 min. within an hour show! …. Also, I do love having total silence sometimes — that’s usually how it is when I crochet during daytime. 🙂
i watch tv too, i really can’t crochet while everything around me is quite
i just learned how to crochet , and i am crocheting a blanket for my cousin’s future girl =D
it kills my back but the results are amazing
I usual watch tv or talk on MSN while I crochet. I’m usually working in the round with only single crochets to worry about so I can crochet and look up at the tv or pause to read/type on MSN without getting confused, though I do count my past stitches in the round I’m working on to keep track every now and then. I have to have some sort of noise, but I agree that talking out loud in a conversation makes it difficult, I loose count very easily that way.