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.

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I haven’t knit a lot of hats, because I don’t wear hats that often, and because I don’t wear hats that often, the ones I have knit tend to be pretty basic and utilitarian. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s also nothing wrong with treating yourself to a lovely hat that takes a little more time to knit but will also be a joy to wear whenever you need to.

I think the Two Grey Hills hat from Tressa Weidenaar is an example of that second kind of hat. With its allover colorwork design and use of DK weight yarn, this is going to take you longer to knit than, say, a ribbed hat in bulky yarn. But you’ll also get that time to enjoy the process and reflect on the meaning behind the colorwork, which is inspired by Navajo weavings.

The pattern calls for two colors of DK yarn and is available in two sizes, adult medium and large. Two colors with a nice contrast will be helpful for seeing the design, which is somewhat intricate in places.

Despite that, this isn’t a difficult pattern if you’ve done stranded knitting before. You need to know how to cast on, knit, purl, work in the round, do colorwork from a chart and decrease stitches to make this hat.

Make this hat with a soft yarn and you’ll want to wear it all day, every day when the weather is cold. You can grab the pattern on Ravelry, and also check out the Rug Weaver’s Headband, which has a different look but is also inspired by Navajo weaving. The headband might be a better choice to knit if you don’t live somewhere where you need a winter hat that often.

Looking for more hats? Check out these hat knitting patterns that use worsted weight yarn leftovers.

[Photo: Tressa Weidenaar]

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