How knitting can help you stop the scroll

Let’s face it - if I could figure out a way to knit and scroll my phone at the same time I probably would have done it by now.

The fact of the matter is that it is near on impossible to scroll and knit a sock at the same time. Unless you are somehow a contortionist who can scroll with their toes. And as my morning yoga sessions with attest, I am definitely not a bendy person.

I have been on a bit of a mission to redefine my relationship with my phone recently. I use it for lots of useful and helpful things - banking, yoga, reading on my Kindle app, texting my mum. But those social media apps are so persuasive, so tempting that before you know it you find yourself 30 minutes later, knee deep in cat videos with a cold cup of coffee at your side.

Helpfully though, knitting has been my saviour.

I’ve been reading a book called The Phone Fix by Dr Faye Begeti and she talks about ‘surfing the urge’.

When you have the urge to open an app - say Instagram - ‘just to check’, she suggests you stop and pause.

You aren’t telling yourself no to opening up the app. You are just saying ‘not yet’, It’s a bit like telling a toddler that they can have the sweets - just not yet.

Then she suggests you find something else to do for 5 minutes, whether that be to read a book, wash some dishes, make a hot drink. You get the idea. The aim is to just distract your brain long enough to make you wonder whether you really want to check out that app or not.

It will come as no surprise that for me, knitting has proved invaluable in this kind of distraction activity. And 90% of the time, if I tell myself I will knit for 5 minutes I end up knitting for far longer than that.

It’s a win win. I get more knitting time and my brain benefits from fewer doom scrolling moments.

5 good reasons to knit an afterthought heel

Ta - da! Self stripe socks are just so satisfying and with an afterthought heel they are doubly so. These socks are knitted from a Uneek sock yarn kit in the most fabulous brightly coloured stripes - they very definition of addictive knitting as you just want to race through to the next magical colour change.

Have you worked an afterthought heel before? There are a number of advantages to this most impressive of heels:

1. No need to try on until the tube is completed - ideal for travel. No one wants to be whipping off their shoes in public to try on a sock WIP after all.

2. It doesn't interrupt the flow of the stripe.

3. You can get the heel exactly where you want

4. It always looks impressive when you take scissors to the yarn

5. It’s a great opportunity to play with colour and use a contrast yarn. Or to eke out a 50g sock skein by adding contrast heels and toes.

If the idea of actually cutting your knitting is faintly terrifying, let me offer a few words of reassurance. It really isn’t as scary as you might think and with a few simple steps it’s even fun. I have a step by step tutorial for you if you want to have a try - just tap the button below.

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How to knit a Super Sock Snake

Super Sock Snake

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A different kind of social summer

It’s quite common for people to take an Instagram break over the summer, and there are definitely years that I have done just that. Getting back into it in September is always a real barrier though and it can take a while to build up momentum again.

This year I thought I would buck the trend and do something a little bit different - I’m going to go random and post a photo a day - just snippets of my summer. Memories I want to save and things that have made me smile. No pressure, no strategy, no curation or filters. Just happy snaps.

Kind of like how we all posted in 2015/2016 when the biggest decision we had to make was which filter to apply - I was always an F2 girl if you were wondering.

I’ve decided to start with a 30-day challenge to myself and I’ll see how it goes. It might make my Instagram grid look a little weird but does anyone even look at the grid anymore? Probably not.

In terms of writing and more in-depth content then my Substack publication is where it’s at. I’m going to be focusing more on my community there as it’s honestly such a friendly and supportive place to hang on.

Whereas once I would find myself opening Instagram multiple times per day and scrolling stories I now find myself popping into Substack and chatting with people on Notes.

Eyes down for a substack summer: blog post

If you are a Substack reader please do pop over and say hi, and if you aren’t maybe I could tempt you to take a peek. It’s not at all scary I promise and there are tons of fabulous writers (and quite a bit of knitting content too).

You might also enjoy: What can Substack do for you?

Never knit with green yarn...and other knitting superstitions

This article was first published on my Everyday Knitter Substack on 19 June 2024. If you’d like to find out more about my Everyday Knitter community there and join in the conversation please tap here to find out more: See what’s on Substack.

My Nana who taught me to knit was a font of all knitting knowledge but was also raised from a strong Irish Catholic background - and as such she had some deep rooted and ‘interesting’ superstitions that she wasn’t shy about sharing with us.

She was scandalised for example when I wore my fabulous new pair of red shoes on my graduation day - as red shoes were a well known sign of a fallen women, apparently. When my Dad took photos she insisted that he crop my feet out of shot.

Showing a similar colour bias she would also refuse to knit with green yarn on the grounds that it was unlucky. After doing a bit of reading around this it does seem to be a widely held belief, especially in Ireland that green is a colour worn by faries - and for humans to do so is considered ill luck, especially when knitting for babies.

She did make an exception for my bottle-green school cardigans however, presumably on the grounds that, that particular shade of bottle-green was so ugly that no self respecting fairy would want to wear it.

Green Gable Socks - probably my Nana’s knitting nemesis

There are other superstitions which she held which I think are more widely known among knitters in general.

Never to stab your needles through your ball of yarn is quite a common one - as it’s said to cause bad luck. Similarly she would never hand knitting needles to me directly, she would always put them on the table in front of me and have me pick them up. And if she dropped a pair of scissors on the ground she would always cross herself.

After reading various online knitting forums over the years I’ve also come across a number of other knitting superstitions, some of which include:

• Knitting a strand of your hair into a garment for a loved one will tie them to you.

• Never knit socks for a loved one or they will walk away from you - I think after years of knitting socks for my husband I can safely debunk that one.

• It’s bad luck to start a knitting project on a Friday

• Every knitting project should have a deliberate mistake to keep you safe from the fairies

• The boyfriend sweater curse is well known too - although I have never tried this out in practice.

Have you ever come across any knitting superstitions in your crafty endeavours?

I don’t particularly hold any myself although I do refuse to knit with black or navy yarn.

Though this is less to do with long-held superstitious beliefs and much more to do with declining eyesight.

Tips for success with circular needles

I have to be honest here and say that it’s been so long since I used straight needles for anything that they feel distinctly odd and alien to me. Despite the fact that I grew up learning to use straight needles - knitting flat now, for me, always involves circular needles.

I find them to be much more comfortable as they spread the load of the knitting more evenly. As well as that they are much more portable - easily tucked away inside a project bag.

Knitting on public transport can be a little cramped at the best of times and no one needs long straight needles further antagonising the ‘armrest wars’.

That being said, there are a lot of people for whom knitting is synonymous with straight needles and when they do try to change the habits of a lifetime it can feel uncomfortable to say the least. I often see comments on forum posts where people are trying out circular needles for the first time. They try once or twice and then give up as they find it too difficult.

Changing any kind of established movement or habit is hard work. Our brains are hard wired to prefer the comfort of familiar routines, they take less thought and we can almost do them without thinking about it.

If you are in any doubt about the power of muscle memory try folding your arms the ‘wrong way’ and see how alien it feels to you, how hard you have to concentrate on the movements. And that’s just a simple thing like crossing your arms. Imagine how many more neurons and muscles have to be recruited when you try to hold knitting needles in a different way. You literally need to rewire your brain - and that takes time.

The good news is that by developing new neural pathways like this you are developing your neuroplasticity - something which is linked to staving off age-related changes in the brain such as dementia. SO it’s well worth persevering with. If it helps here are a few things that I have found worked for me and those I teach.

How to get to grips with circular needles:

1. Choose a good quality brand - the best you can afford. Look for needles with a smooth join between the cable and the needle portion. Cheaper, plastic needles often have a rough join which will just catch and snag on your stitches. Tugging the stitches over a rough patch won’t help your enjoyment of the knitting.

2. Cast on for a simple project first, something like a hat where you can just focus on the process.

3. You don’t have to knit in the round at first if you don’t want to. Just practice using the circular needle to knit flat, knitting back and forth as you would normally.

4. When you do decide to knit in the round knit flat for a few rows first before joining. This helps you to avoid accidentally twisting your stitches and you can stitch up the little gap at the end with the tail of your working yarn.

5. When knitting in the round try to use the tips of your fingers more than your palms. When using straight needles much of the weight (and control) rests through your palms/wrists - this is the reason for many RSI-type injuries. With circular knitting most of the weight is distributed through the cable and you are just using your fingertips to manipulate the needles.

6. Practice daily. Aim for 5 to 10 minutes every day on your ‘in the round’ project. Try not to do more, especially if you are finding it frustrating. It will take time to develop your new skill but you will gradually find it easier and easier as you reprogramme all those little neurons.

Practice really is the key here - little and often - and in no time you will surprise yourself with how much you are managing to knit.

What aspects of circular knitting do you find challenging? Why not let me know in the comments and I’ll see if I can help.

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How to make your handknit socks last longer

A pair of handknit socks knit in yarn from The Yarny Octopus

A lot of time and effort goes into knitting a pair of handknit socks. By my conservative estimate I normally reckon on around 8 hours per sock, if it’s a plain vanilla sock with a short row heel. Larger socks for the men in my life or anything requiring a pattern or cable can be upwards of 10hrs - a total of 20hrs for a pair.

Whatever way you look at it - that’s a lot of time invested in two small woolly object. So naturally it makes sense to want them to last as long as possible, no one wants to have sock holes to deal with.

Socks in general have a hard life, unless you are knitting cashmere bed socks. Stuffed into boots and shoes, subject to a lot of friction, it’s no surprise that they can suffer from wear and tear. But there are a few simple things we can do to help them last longer.

1. Choose a choose wool/nylon mix. Ideally 80% wool/20% nylon or 75/25. Yes, I know that you can knit long lasting socks with just 100% wool but in my experience a little bit of nylon really does help.

2. Choose a yarn with multiple plies firmly twisted around each other.. Some brands sell a high twist yarn which is perfect for fabrics which will get a lot of friction and rubbing. Avoid anything that pills as this will inevitably lead to thinner areas developing on the sock - and holes forming.

3. Avoid putting handknit socks in the tumble dryer. The excess heat can damage the fibres and reduce the amount of stretch in the yarn.

4. Go down a needle size. The ideal sock fabric should be firm with no gaps between the stitches. I noticed an immediate difference in my socks longevity when I went down from a 2.5mm needle to a 2.25mm needle. The fabric is firmer, more even and definitely longer lasting.

5. For someone who is very hard on their socks consider adding in a re-inforcement thread at heels and/or toes. You can buy commercial thread for this purpose or you can add in a strand of thin mohair or silk. Both will have the advantage of adding strength and durability to any vulnerable areas and hopefully increasing the socks lifespan.

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