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flac  ·  2544 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: December 6, 2017

Mostly, yes. I started it at the end of college, and just knit scarves. It was totally mindless, and worked well to help me focus. I've always been antsy, which is why I make so much stuff. If you like making stuff with your hands, odds are you'll like knitting.

My suggestion would be to get a big, thick ball of cheap yarn (not too dark or it'll be hard to see the stitches), find a pair of needles, and knit some kind of rectangle. Don't worry about following a pattern, or counting stitches, just get a feel for the tactility of knitting and see if it works for you.

Tomorrow's my day off, I'll upload some links to tutorials and stuff - YouTube is how I learned to knit, I found the visual nature of it really clarified the techniques for me.

Personally, I find knitting very satisfying, and a nice combination of several of my interests. Math, design, craft, hand stuff. It's now something I'll usually do instead of reaching for my phone - not consciously, it's just naturally more interesting to me most of the time.

I'm really good at knitting in near-darkness now because I knit while I'm sitting guard during naptime at the pre-school. There's something very meditative and immersive about just counting stitches with your fingertips, feeling your way along the row. There's a movie theater near me that has $4 tickets, and I go see a random movie a few times a week and just knit as well as I can in the darkness. I usually end up with a somewhat lumpy scarf or blanket at the end of it.

Anyway, I think it's a good way to spend your time. If I could play video games, make music, or read while knitting, I would probably never leave the house again.