Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Day 7

I made it!

 

Day seven: 3rd April. Your knitting and crochet time.

Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to craft – alone or in more social environments, when watching TV or whilst taking bus journeys. What items do you like to surround yourself with whilst you twirl your hook like a majorette’s baton or work those needles like a skilled set of samurai swords. Do you always have snacks to hand, or are you a strictly ‘no crumbs near my yarn!’ kind of knitter.

Tips: Last year we had a topic asking about the actual location of where you knit or craft, this is similar but not the same. Try and concentrate on all of the little aspects that make up your knitting time. Maybe you always head for for your Flaming Lips CD when taking on simple knitting but prefer a bit of Brahms when tackling more intricate work, or maybe you enjoy knitting with audiobooks or complete silence. Perhaps your crochet time is never complete without a cuddle from Tiddles the cat.

Knitting time for me falls in one of 3 places - at home, Knit Nights, and while traveling.  Each has their own subtle differences, of course, allowing for differences in location and company.  So I'll break them down here.

Wherever - the Essentials.  Not really the Environment, so much, but definitely a part of my Knitting Time:

• A tote bag of project and supplies.
• I have a large pouch of my accessories that travel along as well - stitch markers, tape measure, needle gauge, pencil, etc.

At Home:

• A movie going, or a TV show - almost always.  I'm slowly getting into audiobooks, but as I've mentioned before, I'm a visual person, so I zone in and out of my listening.  When I have an audiobook going, it's gotta be a story I know very well or a book I've read before.  That way there are no surprises when I focus away from the story and come back - "Wait, who is this character again?  What just happened?"  The more complicated the pattern I'm working on, the more familiar the story needs to be, so I can tune it out and count stitches without losing the plot.
• Nestled into the couch or easy chair, TV table at the ready for my supplies.  I like having a table at the ready to set cable needles and the pattern and similar essentials
• Defense measure take to protect my project from Scruffy.  He likes sitting in my lap during a project, but he also likes chewing on the yarn, the needles, the needle cable for circulars, the row counter, the stitch markers... anything dangling close to his nose as he occupies the lap - which is pretty much everything but the worked piece.  So, I have to be prepared!

At Knit Nights - usually at a friend's place or at Starbucks (closest we have to a cafe here):

• A drink of some sort.  At Starbucks, obviously something coffee or tea related (my favorites are the Mocha and Caramel Light Frappucinos when it's hot, and Vanilla Chai Lattes or Skinny Caramel Macchiato when it's cold).  At my friend's place, usually a White Russian.  She makes great ones!  No complicated patterns on White Russian Night, though ;)

On the Go - This is usually in the car or the airport.  I just don't take the bus or subway in the areas where I live (not available!)

• Just the tote bag of essentials.  If I'm knitting while traveling, Zach (or someone else, but usually him) is driving, so I just chatter instead of listening to something.

And such is my knitting!  Always need the project and accessories, obviously, but I rarely knit while it's quiet,  needing either chatter or a movie/audiobook going.  And I don't have qualms about food or drink near the knitting.  I do try to keep it neat, though - a mild "no crumbs" rule.  And depending on the project, it might be stricter.  I Do, for example, worked in white cotton, did have a pretty strict no food rule :)

And such is my Knitting Environment!