Crochet: A little hook to improve attention? | Hacker News Reader

Crochet: A little hook to improve attention?

medrxiv.org

81 pointsJPLeRouzic37 comments

Not quite the same deal but years ago to break myself of being a keyboard tyrant while pair programming, but mainly cause I have a large head and couldn't buy tools, I started knitting. This was 05 so as a large male in the Midwest I got some shit for it, but I covered that by knitting everyone a custom hat and squares to block out our physical kanban board lanes. You can't grab the keyboard quickly when knitting so it completely broke me of it and had me much better at being able to talk through things.

These days for meetings I'll sometimes sit back and leatherwork. Finished a nice duffle recently. Really helps me pay attention to listening and not start 3 side convos on slack.

Also helps me watch TV without reading garbage on my phone over and over. Overall I find it like being in a flow state for half your brain like meditation or tig welding.

You know what they say: "The best way to deal with sexist bullies at work is to knit them a hat"

"I'm gonna tell Angel to knit you a nice scarf and it's gonna be your favorite color and it'll be SO THOUGHTFUL you're gonna feel like a real heel for callin' her a bitch when your brain chemistry levels out."

(https://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/pushing-th...)

My grandpa took up knitting in the 1950s. He was a chemist (all he did was make vinegar which is enough to make him a chemist, but doesn't actually need much education) who often had to sit around waiting for tanks to fill. (20,000 gallons of water into a tank). He couldn't leave the room the tanks were in for hours, but there was nothing to do, so he started knitting.

He used to knit sweaters for the bulldog on the mac trucks making deliveries at the plant.

How do you semi-mindlessly do leatherwork?

Hand stitching long runs with pre-pricked holes takes little attention. And you don't need to look at the screen to listen or talk. I often look away when talking and thinking hard. You do it by feel.

Different part of the brain?

Thanks for the stories!

For a bit of anecdata, I was diagnosed with ADHD in the past year. I asked around on some forums and somebody suggested knitting. I've tried it and I've found it helps me with my fidgety hands and helps me focus. I work remote and it is especially helpful for me during long, audio-only meetings.

I just finished knitting myself a winter scarf.

I also have ADHD and also recently got into knitting. I’m curious if you’ve run into trouble keeping count at all? I find my biggest struggle is getting into a rhythm only to find I’ve dropped out added a bunch of stitches after it’s too late

Do you mean that you are forgetting to increase/decrease at the right points? As mentioned, stitch markers will help, as will a good row counter.

Of course, you will still have to remember to increase your row counter at the end of each row. I have a row counter I keep hung around my neck, so it's easily accessible. A physical row counter (as opposed to an app) is better for this. I really like this cheapo one: https://www.amazon.com/Clover-Knitting-Stitch-Counter-Kacha-...

I love all of the folks coming out of the woodwork! Not the OP, but I appreciate the suggestion.

Two ways. You can either use a stitch marker or you can count your stitches as you go (in all fairness, this does take a bit of trial and error to get good at). If you go over, just pull those stitches out. Not a big deal.

The first afghan I crocheted, I probably pulled out as many stitches as I successfully created. But, that's how you learn.

It also depends what projects you choose. Colorwork generally requires counting and keeping careful track, but there are plenty of projects where you can get away with just stitch markers and occasionally glancing at the pattern.

Hot pads are super simple projects.

Why not switch to crochet? I find it easier and redoing a few lines isn't as much of a hassle as with knitting.

Crochet is a nice alternative.

I'd recommend starting with a loom and knitting a hat or something similar. It's easier to be consistent and pick it up and put it down.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=hat+knitting+loom

How did you get started?

Besides youtube videos for the few basics you need for crochet, ravelry.com is a fantastic community and also has plenty of patterns. https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#craft=crochet&pa=pho...

My suggestion:

The first step is casting on. This gets the first row of stitches on the needle and no matter what you have to start here. There's a ton of variations of it, but this is a nice basic cast-on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vm6oaYzHyA

Cast on ~20 or so stitches and learn the knit stitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egp4NRhlMDg

Do this for a few inches until you can repeatedly go up and down without dropping/missing stitches and your work looks uniform. You'll probably have to pull it out and start over a few times. Also, about 98% of mistakes will either be dropped stitches, or things that can be fixed by intentionally dropping stitches and picking them back up correctly so this is a useful skill to work on here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9obiqiTAGNw

Then, do a basic 2-color scarf with the knit stitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsmHWRIo2UI

At this point, you'll have the basics down and a ton of muscle memory built up which lets you get more creative. A 1x1 Knit/Purl scarf would get you into purling (the "reversed" knit stitch, useful for patterning), or I jumped straight to socks which teaches knit/purl ribbing and some basic shaping.

As with anything, just dive in. There are loads of free patterns available online and an equal number of tutorials on YouTube. You can get cheap yarn / hooks from Joanns or Michaels or you can order online.

You're going to make mistakes, get frustrated, have to start over again, etc, etc, but that just means you're learning and are ahead of everyone who still hasn't started.

To add to this, there's joke from knitters about "tink-ing" which happens a ton. it's just the reverse of knit. I've watched my SO rip out HALF a sweater torso which is hours and hours. She also crocheted full body lace for over her wedding dress, she made it 80% of the way and ran out of yarn and couldn't get a color match so had to start over. It was almost a full month of crocheting all told. But that's how you get quality, be willing to rip it all out, it's a thing that doesn't happen with source control and code anywhere near as much.

There is a local charity that knits hats to donate to newborns at hospitals and they got me started.

However, what really got me started was the loads of videos on youtube.

Ram Dass tells this story where there is a 70 year old woman in the audience in one of his lectures on life, the universe and everything, and the woman nods at everything he says. When he asks her, 'how do you know all this, what brings you into this state of consciousness', she replies 'I crochet'.

https://youtu.be/P2kmM078z78?t=2428

This is affirming, I crocheted in a few of my lectures at college. Felt like it helped.

Having worked remotely for several years now, keeping one's attention during meetings is a constant challenge.

Going for walks, or doing chores like dishes and laundry definitely help. It makes sense that handicrafts like crochet, knitting, etc., also help. I'd be interested to hear in general how people cope with paying attention during meetings.

1) I wonder how it works. Is it possible that we have X capacity for attention and if we want to engage only X/2 capacity, we find it difficult? so if we engage X/2 (in meeting) and X/2 in crocheting, that engages X and so we function better?

2) Maybe unrelated not sure but I was reading about voice training in acting. One of the ways to free voice, it being busy in some kind of movement that takes up part of your attention.

Would be interesting what other activities work in the same way. This is about crochet, and people here are commenting that knitting works for them. I think doodling is also fairly common, isn't it?

Anything that can be done on semi-auto mode, so that it captures the remaining attention that is left when focusing on something else, so that the mind doesn't wander but is fully captivated.

I started to do crochet small animal … forget Japanese term. Otherwise I found out I have no patience for larger item knitting … except use those round plastic one.

It is sort of like programming and totally agreed it distract you very much

amigarumi... it's really fun.

I keep a 10 ft piece of 550 next to my desk and tie knots during meetings. It helps me concentrate on the meeting (I tie the ones I know, not ones I'm trying to learn). I have actually been wanting to learn how to knit.

Knitting is arguably a species of knot-tying.

I recall hearing once that Dirac was watching a woman knitting and applied knot theory to deduce the existence of the purl stitch. He told her about it and she was amused[1].

  Another time, Dirac was watching Anya Kapitza knitting while he was talking physics with Peter Kapitza. A couple of hours after he left, Dirac rushed back, very excited. "You know, Anya," he said, "watching the way you were making this sweater I got interested in the topological aspect of the problem. I found that there is another way of doing it and that there are only two possible ways. One is the one you were using; another is like that. . . . " And he demonstrated the other way, using his long fingers. His newly discovered "other way," Anya informed him, is well known to women and is none other than "purling."

[1] http://www.dirac.ch/PaulDirac.html

Lots of great YouTube videos on casting on and making hats or scarfs. Get some larger needles and go to town. Happy to provide more pointers. I personally love picking up crafts, which it in of itself is a skill, that and dealing with failure.

Do you have any particular YT Videos you would recommend for beginners?

This really interesting. As it happens I just got into knitting and I’m working on my first beanie. I find it really relaxing and at the you get something you can use yourself or give as a gift.

For me my head is giant so it was the only way for me to get hats that covered my ears... It's also interesting how fast you can rip one out. My record is a hat on 7's for my head which I think is about 160 stitches around and 28 rows, was 4 hours. My spouse who knits a ton slammed one out for my friend who forgot one before a ski trip in 2.5 hours while we were at the pub the night before the flight.

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