It’s no secret that I like to knit/crochet whilst walking.
It’s pretty rare that I’m out and about without yarn. Maybe it’ll get me labelled as the village weirdo, but we all have to decide our priorities in life, and it turns out that I like knitting more than I dislike being called a weirdo, so meh.
It’s also no secret that I like to go running most days. Goodness, those are words that I never expected to write, way back when I was the dunce of the PE class at school. But it turns out that after several years of encouragement from the Stoic Spouse, I’ve gone from hating every lung-hurty second of running… to disliking the running but enjoying wildlife-spotting along the way… to actually sort-of enjoying the experience for its own sake. Sort-of.
Yikes, did I really just type those words out loud?
I should explain that when I refer to the Stoic Spouse’s ‘encouragement’, I mean the sort of encouragement that your drill sergeant might give you when s/he’s hungover, sleep-deprived, and someone’s nicked his/her favourite space in the car park. I’m sure you get the picture. And the Stoic Spouse is of the mind-set that pretty much any problem in life can be cured by going for a run. Feeling lethargic? Go for a run. Witnessed your entire family being abducted by aliens? Go for a run. Both of your legs fallen off? Stop making feeble excuses and GO FOR A RUN. I’m sure you get the picture. (You and I both know that yarnery is the ultimate balm for the soul in times of stress, but the Stoic Spouse hasn’t realized this yet, poor love.)
So, yeah. Knitting/crochet is good. Running is (eventually, after several years of excruciating pain) surprisingly good. And it’s always frustrated me that you can’t knit whilst running. Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could?
I mean, running is primarily a legs/feet thing, knitting/crochet is primarily a hands/arms thing, they both take lots of time, so how awesomely multitaskual would it be if you could combine the two?
Sadly, I’ve never managed to run and knit. It’s hard enough breathing whilst running, let alone adding yarnery into the mix. Oh well.
When I signed up for the Oxford Half Marathon last year, I assumed that I’d never really be able to run 13.1 miles (21km) without stopping, but I knew I could quite easily walk that far whilst knitting. Win! 🙂 Maybe I’d even get a completed scarf out of the experience! But unfortunately training went unexpectedly well, and it turns out that I can run that far without stopping, so the knitting stayed home. Lose. 🙁
But guess what? To my fall-off-the-chair, gob-smacking, surprise, it turns out that there is someone who knits and runs! No, really! And he holds the world record for the longest scarf knitted whilst running a marathon. To be fair, there probably aren’t vast numbers of entrants to threaten his superiority in this category, but I deeply respect his ability to run whilst knitting a scarf of any length.
And best of all, you can read about his experience! Because he blogs… or at least he used to blog, but sadly his site is no more. I wonder what happened to him, and can only hope that he’s still knitting and running. His old site is right here. Isn’t he amazing?
Sir, you have my utmost respect (especially as you’ve raised truckloads of cash for Alzheimer’s research).
I can walk and knit with one yarn but how do you manage the fair isle? I would appreciate knowing how you manage multiple balls of wool while walking as I would love to do the same!
I used to run at your age. I miss it. As for running and knitting, I’ve heard about that dude and give him mad props. I never could figure out how to run and drink water on those 10k runs!
re knitting and running –I think this lady does it —-I thought I’d pass along the blog address. Always enjoy your blog – your knitting is something I aspire to!
Oh! Oh! I need to scurry off to read this. Thank you so much! (And thank you for your kind words.)
http://extremeknittingredhead.blogspot.co.uk/2017/ is where I was redirected to.
Hi Jean, that link lead to an error-page – “link does not exixst”
http://extremeknittingredhead.blogspot.nl/
Thank you Tinke for sorting out the extremeknittingredheadblogspot link – I had cut and pasted it so not sure what went wrong.! Jea
Excellent effort Ms T but the gold goes to the running man! What an athletic craftsman!
My own weirdo moment was learning to drop spindle and walking the kids to and from school whilst spinning … lots of weirdo looks. Anyone who can knit and run in sync has my respect, if only because I’d be terrified of falling over and skewering myself (if I could run at all). Keep on walking, keep on knitting, the world needs a little harmless weird.?
I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who walks and knits. I walk from the bus stop up the hill to work, don’t enjoy walking, so decided to see if I could knit or crochet and walk–safely. Knitting works better than crocheting it turns out, and cotton most times of the year over wool, so I work on dishcloths usually, socks when it’s cooler. I do just hold my knitting while crossing roads to make sure I’m paying attention to the cars.
I don’t think I could walk and knit, I’d either fall over or drop stitches!
You do have to be careful. Please note also that one must still be paying attention to safety always. A person who is involved in knitting will catch the attention of bad people, as will someone whose attention is on their cell phone or otherwise being in the white zone of attention compared to the yellow or orange one should be while in public. Granted that, as a knitter, I have something sharp to attack with if necessary (which may be why they are not allowed in some government buildings), so be sensible. It is not as difficult as one would think if you can already knit and carry on a conversation while not looking at your hands. Your feet pretty much already know how to move and you’re probably not paying much attention to the sidewalk anyway. I’m not sure I could do fair isle while walking, but I did work on Christmas scarves for the people I live with last year.
I love walking. I love knitting. Together-no!
The knitting redhead lady sometimes knits and runs…and she did 52 marathons in 52 weeks last year..
Knitting and walking was perfectly normal in the shetland isles…even the men would knit while going from one farm chore to another. They wore a special belt to hold 1 needle. I guess when you are subsistence farming any way of earning extra money is welcome.
Maybe I can teach myself by walking on the treadmill very s l o w l y…
I can’t even walk at the same time as yarny action, never mind running! That’s impressive
I am in awe that you can walk and knit at the same time. I’m thinking I’d land myself in the hospital if I tried that in my neighbourhood. Enjoy it:)
I am so stealing your word “multitaskual”……applies to me almost all day every day right now!
Fab read as always, I love your blog!!xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
You have my utmost respect for combining walking and knitting, multitasking at its greatest! I love to walk and I love to crochet but have never tried to combine the two, in fact I tend to shie away from getting my crocheting out in public full stop as I feel a bit self conscious but no more, I will hold my head up, crochet in public, maybe even whilst walking, and embrace being a weirdo too. I also run a lot (I’m currently in training for the Berlin marathon later this month) but could not even begin to imagine knitting or crocheting whilst running! how awesome that there are some people in this world who dare to push the boundaries and be different, good on them.
I was doing a bit of kipping (Knitting In Public) today while waiting for my husband to finish looking round a hardware store.
An oldish woman asked what style of knitting it was.
‘Sock knitting.’
‘I’ve been watching. Didn’t think it was English knitting. You never see anyone doing it.’
Hmmm, she was older than me, so I merely said that there were a lot of sock knitters in the UK and refrained from saying that _she_ never saw anyone doing it! Putting people’s backs up rarely turns out well.
That written, I am _NOT_ going running. Not unless there’s a bus to be caught or a lorry bearing down on me as I’m crossing a road!
I shall continue to KIP, particularly while waiting for and travelling on buses. Knitting is a great stress buster for when that bus not only doesn’t arrive on schedule, but just doesn’t arrive. Period.
When I wove, knitted and crocheted for a living, I used to walk the dogs in the evening and always had needles or hook and a ball of wool with me. One thing I did discover early on is that cable needles are not good at staying in the stitches while on the move, The other thing is that groping round in the dark for the cable needle when walking in deer/sheep country can be a s****y experience. I reckoned on a hat per walk.
This is amazing! I can’t imagine running and knitting. I love the idea of multitasking, but unfortunately, the only thing I’ve mastered is watching TV while knitting. Though I did knit while standing in line once!
I agree with knitspins, I also watch TV while knitting.