How Knitting Helps with Digital Overload

I found this article on Slate really interesting, about how the author has used knitting as a way to slow down, to calm her temptation to digitally multitask and to regain some of her joy of reading, albeit through Audiobooks instead of actual pages.

Katrina Gulliver says she learned to knit as a child but only recently picked it back up and found its calming properties allowed her to “engage more productively with digital media,” extending her attention span and making her podcast-listening and Netflix-watching time more productive.

She’s firmly a project knitter (rather than a process knitter, who cares more about the act of knitting than the thing being made), but still sees the benefit of time devoted to a project as a way of delaying gratification that’s rare in our society.

Does knitting do the same thing for you? Do you find yourself checking your devices less when you’re knitting? I’d love to hear what knitting does for you.

Next Pattern:

You probably know by now if you’re a regular reader (and if you’re not, welcome!) that I love a knitting pattern that’s a little silly or a little different from the usual. Classic patterns are great, too, but sometimes you just want to make something with a bit of whimsy. And when it’s super functional, too, that’s even better.

That’s the case with the Bananen-Socken pattern from Susanne Shahin. These banana socks are one of those patterns no one seems to be totally sure where it came from, and this free pattern on Ravelry explains how she makes them based on how she learned it.

It’s a sock that’s curved and when not on a foot it looks rather like a banana. There’s no heel, and you can use whatever number of stitches you need to make it fit your foot. If you’ve knit enough socks to know how many stitches you like you can just use that number, or the pattern notes include sizing charts to help. (It needs to be multiples of 2 for the ribbing.)

After working a traditional cuff, the body is made with ribbing on the back and welts (or what the pattern calls horizontal ribbing) on the front, which is what gives it the curved shape. There’s no heel, but there is toe shaping, but for the leg and the foot you just keep working the same pattern as long as you like.

I’m a little skeptical about how these socks will feel with ribbing on the bottom of the foot, but I’m definitely intrigued and will probably give them a try.

The pattern notes are available on Ravelry in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. If you head to the pattern page you can see a photo of what it looks like on a foot, and it just looks like a normal sock.

Have you ever knit banana socks or do you want to now? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo: Susanne Shahin]

Next Pattern:

Comments

Have you read?