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Comment by phaedryx | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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