Friday, February 12, 2016

Ways to have more knitting and crocheting time

Lately I have seen articles about the health benefits of knitting and crocheting.  Your mental and physical health can be helped in so many ways by the repetitious nature of these hobbies.  But I hear so many say, "I don't have time to knit, how do you do it." "Do you ever sleep?"

Yes I do sleep.  I have spent more than a little time thinking where can I find minutes here and there to knit or crochet.  I've been a stay at home mom, a working mom, an empty nester, and for a short time one of our baby birds has come home to roost.  With crazy schedules and deadlines to meet, I turned to tools to help.

1.  Cook with slow cookers.  I have some tried and true quick to prep and toss into the crock.  Now I have some free time to work on projects while a meal is cooking.

2.  Find minutes when you have some down time.  In my town, there is a railroad track bisecting the town.  I kept projects in the car for these times.  Half of the businesses I frequent are on the opposite side of the tracks from where I live.  Get caught by a train?  Not a problem, I have a project to work on.  Have to wait for a kid at school?  Again no problem.  Waiting in lines at the grocery store, bank, doctors office?  I have time there, more sadly at the doctor's office than other places.  I even take a small project with me to restaurants to work on while waiting for waitstaff to take the order, bring the food, bring the check.

3.  Keep up with clutter.  Try to practice the one touch approach.  Decide whether the mail needs shredded, put away for later paying, filed.  Done reading that magazine, newspaper, other?  Put it to recycle, put it away if it needs kept.  

4.  Use a dishwasher, if that is something within your budget or if your kitchen has space for it.  Only a couple of people in your home?  Run it only once a day or every other day (after rinsing well).  It's been shown that new dishwashers use less water than hand washing also.

5.  Delegate.  Have kids at home?  Have other adults in your abode?  No one says everything has to be just for mom to do or that it's women's work.  There are age appropriate jobs for even the pre-school set.  If the other adults make things dirty or a mess, they can clean it up.  

6.  Schedule your crafting time. This might sound silly to some, but there are those in our midst who  live by the calendar and schedules.  Put time in your schedule for relaxation, crafting, whatever.  We make time to shower, exercise, and cooking and cleaning.  Why not knitting and crocheting?

7.  Use labor saving devices and environmentally friendly cleaners that cut time from the drudgery.  They are out there, you might have to hunt for them at times.

And yes there are times when I feel the need to finish something and do without some sleep.  I also look forward to snowstorms.  When things slow down and stop outside, I have some prime time for knit or crochet.  This doesn't mean I want people stranded in dangerous places; as has happened recently near my home.  I also understand my husband and I will have some major clean up after to dig out after the snow stops and help the neighbors to do the same. 

Do you have more ideas for carving more time out for knitting and crocheting?  Let me and others know what they are.

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