ADD and Knitting

[nellie]

Ivriniel, I always find that if someone showed me how to do something I don’t have so much of a problem but learning on my own may or may not be successful. Sometimes just having someone there to help show you where you are going wrong helps diminish the frustration. Have you tried lessons?

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[Ivriniel]

It’s not so much that I need lessons, it’s more a matter of lacking the manual dexterity to do it well. I can get stitches on the needles, but it’s a slow, awkward process for me.

When I had my Psych-Ed assessment, it revealed that at the age of 36 I had the graphomotor skills of a 12 and 1/2 year old. If you saw my handwriting, you’d understand.

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[Geoduck]

My handwriting is atrocious, too. I didn’t know that was a thing that people looked at. Now I’ll have to ask about this graphomotor skills thing. I had to have somebody show me how to knit. I couldn’t just look at a book and do it. Same way I learned to write. Someone had to literally hold my hand through the motions. Wonder if that means anything, now that I read your post. Is that related to ADHD, though?

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[wawabyjohnah]

I tried knitting a while ago- when my nan got moved into the nursing home and was bored. I knew the basics so got her to show me how to read a pattern and all that. She couldn’t break down the movements to slow motion and I couldn’t follow her, so I had to sneak a look at youtube on my phone so she thought I was learning from her. We gave up when her eyesight and arthritis got too bad. Plus I gave up because I am sooo slow. I bought a book with things to knit quickly. The mittens said they took two hours. One of mine took more like 10 hours. Well I have never finished the second one it was taking so long. And if I’m knitting, I can’t do anything else as I need my whole concentration span on that only. But this was a few years back now, maybe I should give it another go, especially now with my adhd discovery.

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[Galadriel724]

I just saw this thread, or I would have added my 2 cents. In fact I was surprised I didn’t already.
I crochet constantly. It is my way of shutting out the world, or serves as a fidgit type activity when I need my mind to be occupied. My profile pic is something I made. I don’t finish things all that often but this one is a 3 headed slugtopus.
It just occurred to me that I am really really stressed out and overextended. haven’t had time to crochet in a week. That is not good. It keeps me sane. Now to figure out which of my 4 projects that I am working on to start again, or whether to start a new one totally.

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[Patte Rosebank]

In one of my mom’s dresser drawers is a little white sweater she started knitting for me when I was a baby.  It’s still on the knitting needles, unfinished after 44 years.

I’ve a pretty good idea which of my parents carries the ADHD gene…

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[darktendril]

I love the slugtopus, that’s awesome!!

I like cross-stitching! though I have also never actually finished anything lol..  My mom tried to teach me to crochet once, but I never got it.

I also have jekyll and hyde handwriting (ok, printing lol).. when I was a kid, I really really wanted pretty printing like my friend had, so practiced it a ton.  I still print nicely – so as long as I can hold the pen with a super death grip, press hard, and am not mentally tired or trying to write quickly – lol.  Any of those things missing, and you would never even guess it was the same person’s writing… even as the day wears on, my writing quickly starts to nosedive… and the super death grip was the demise of every poor crayon I have ever attempted to use lol.

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[Galadriel724]

Cross stitching is something I wish I was better at but loathe. It’s why a lot of my creatures have no face…..
I decided to start a new project, my current ones weren’t challenging enough. I am working on a doily, not because it has an actual use, but because it is complex enough to engage me and take my mind off current stress.

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[Blue Yugo]

I’ve been doing cross-stitch for years.  It amazingly holds my attention while other things do not.  I guess because although “repetitive”, it does take brain power to plan a path out and back, or try to reach another X by dragging as little string as possible, so each cluster is a game.  And I ALWAYS listen to music or have the TV on when I work on it…but nothing I have to pay excessive attention to.

It’s funny because it’s the non-ADD people who look at my work and tell me they would have no patience or attention span to do such projects.  (Wait, which of us has ADD here!?!?)  Alas, I do have 2 or 3 lying around which I started in the past couple years and never finished, but hmm, that coincides with how long ago I adopted some cats.

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[Patte Rosebank]

I’m still amazed that I can put in dozens—even hundreds—of hours, gluing thousands of rhinestones onto a costume, but cutting & sewing, or crocheting, or embroidery bore me to death!

I guess the sparkle of all those rhinestones more than makes up for the repetitiveness of gluing them on.

 

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[kc5jck]

I suspect that gluing rhinestones gives the satisfaction of doing something of value while allowing your mind to wander all over the place.

I find I can go for hours doing something boring if my mind is free to wander.

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