What is the most portable form of crafting?

April 22, 2018 1:14 PM

I am looking for the most portable type of crafting that I can take everywhere and whip out as soon as my anxiety/sensory stuff gets out of hand, or when the conversation of People I Can't Avoid Forever And Their Upsetting Topics becomes distressing to me.

I am an intermediate knitter but find carrying bulky yarn and long needles around to be annoying and slightly dangerous. I have thought about embroidery but the many threads and complex patterns seem less than portable. Do you have any suggestions?


Requirements: it needs to be relatively small, tidy, and simple enough to perform that I can jump in and out of conversation at will. It absolutely needs to be something that I can look at if I can't handle any more eye contact.

Alternatively, if there is something other than crafting or looking at my phone that serves the same purpose, I'd like to know; I can only search for and put on hand cream so many times!

posted by windykites to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (52 answers total)

I do tiny origami for this sort of thing - I just cut printer paper down into small squares and keep a little baggie of that in my jacket pocket, mostly for waiting rooms (doctors, DMV, etc.). It's tidy, costs almost nothing and keeps my hands busy without draining my phone.
posted by mordax at 1:17 PM on April 22, 2018 [7 favorites]

Coloring (or, if you have more talent than me, drawing) might work. All you need is a page and a pencil.
posted by workerant at 1:23 PM on April 22, 2018 [4 favorites]

Knitting on circular needles is very tidy. It's also much more low key than origami or colouring; appears as still being social because we are used to seeing women knitting everywhere; and it can be done standing so it lends itself to a multitude of situations.

I mean, I wouldn't knit an afghan but I'd take a specific, very portable scarf on a pair of needles. Make 24 scarves a year if needed and donate them. Or open an Etsy.
posted by DarlingBri at 1:29 PM on April 22, 2018 [15 favorites]

Knitting or crochet. I'll never forget standing (really) in line at the DMV for hours to change my name in my driver's license, while knitting a baby blanket for a friend. I had the yarn tucked under one arm. People were impressed.
posted by Brittanie at 1:32 PM on April 22, 2018 [5 favorites]

Crochet hooks are smaller than knitting needles.
posted by salvia at 1:33 PM on April 22, 2018 [16 favorites]

I will add that I find the repetitive motion of knitting and crochet especially soothing to my own anxiety.
posted by Brittanie at 1:34 PM on April 22, 2018 [4 favorites]

Try knitting socks on tiny 9"circular needles.
posted by fancyoats at 1:37 PM on April 22, 2018 [4 favorites]

Kumihimo is the technical word for the braiding used in friendship bracelets. All it requires is a single disk, about the size of a CD, and a couple small spools of thread, maybe golfball sized.

There's also the flat kind of friendship bracelets, which you'd just need like 3 different colors of embroidery floss. This technique is good for more than just bracelets, you can make short plaits for things like adding onto hair clips, stationery gifts, you can make keychains, etc.

Actually, just check out this thread of crafts to do with embroidery thread, the wrapping your headphones in thread idea, the small bracelet ideas, they're all really portable.
posted by FirstMateKate at 1:39 PM on April 22, 2018 [8 favorites]

crochet. highly recommend granny squares or a babette blanket: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/babette-blanket
Portable, really easy to do, colour changes to keep you amused etc, and you just transport what you're working on, assemble the lot at the end.
re: knitting, knitting socks could also be your saviour. short needles, one ball of yarn.
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/simple-sock-in-three-sizes -- handy ebook of patterns you can take with you :)
posted by gusset at 1:42 PM on April 22, 2018 [4 favorites]

Crochet hooks are often allowed in places (like courthouses) where knitting needles are not. I suggest granny squares because the pattern is easy to follow and after you make a heap of them, you can connect them into a blanket or placemats or whatever. There are several crochet motifs books you can get with variations on a motif shape to try.

To make yarn portable, get a clean coffee can or tupperware with a lid, and cut a hole in the lid. Put the ball of yarn in there with the end thru the hole. The container will keep it all straight and keep the ball from rolling away.
posted by blnkfrnk at 1:43 PM on April 22, 2018 [8 favorites]

Crochet is more flexible than knitting for this because there's only one hook and you don't keep the stitches cast onto it. But it can get quite bulky with the skeins of yarn and the size of the project all the same.

Origami is excellent, it travels quite flat and you can leave the finished folded objects behind without much concern - or just recycle them. But sometimes you'll need to either carry an unfinished piece around with you or unfold things and lose progress, and you need a flat surface to work on and that can get a teeny bit awkward sometimes.

Simple drawing in a sketchbook is a classic and really quite socially acceptable, I've found. If you're not much of a drawer you can develop go-to doodles like repeated patterns and motifs that you fill pages with, or sketch design ideas for other craft projects you're planning on later. Crochet diagrams, for example, are exceptionally beautiful and rewarding to hand draw. But depending on these people you'd rather avoid, folks can get nosy and want to see what you're drawing.
posted by Mizu at 1:53 PM on April 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

Years ago I read an interview with an Iditarod contestant who carried tatting in her pocket. It is done with one or two small shuttles about 2" long and some crochet cotton.
It seems limited in usefulness unless you want a lot of dainty edgings and I admit I once tried and couldn't get the hang of it but it looks like the kind of activity that might be soothing once you learn how.
posted by Botanizer at 1:58 PM on April 22, 2018 [4 favorites]

I agree with circular knitting needles! If you search for "tiny projects" on Ravelry, you find:

The ultra-portable Beekeeper's Quilt

A tiny pirate and lots of little animals.

Dishcloths are another very portable project.

Petal dishcloth

Lots more dishcloths..... both knitted and crocheted.
posted by 6thsense at 1:59 PM on April 22, 2018 [4 favorites]

Rubik's cube? It never ends....
I also liked the drawing suggestion. Although you don't want to look like you're idly doodling on scratch paper, so use a special sketchbook.
posted by miyabo at 2:20 PM on April 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

You can buy small knitting looms (board or circular) that are very handy to carry around. I carried mine and a ball of yarn in a cosmetic bag.
posted by Calzephyr at 2:40 PM on April 22, 2018

If you like to use double pointed needles (to make socks, for example) but are worried about breaking them while carrying them (or poking yourself with them), consider a double pointed needles project tube. I use these for carrying projects around and they are great.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 2:45 PM on April 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

Another vote for kumihimo (aka friendship bracelet braiding).

I also agree that a Rubik's cube can fulfill a similar purpose. Cubes are cheap (as long as you don't buy an official Rubik cube) and it's a matter of following tutorials to learn how to solve it.
posted by O9scar at 2:51 PM on April 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

Thread crochet is fussy, but very very compact to carry around.
posted by LizardBreath at 2:58 PM on April 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

What about needlepoint or cross stitch? I had an elementary school teacher who did needlepoint projects during study hall and other quiet times. She kept the whole kit in her desk drawer.

D'OH. Sorry, just saw you weren't terribly enthused by the idea.
posted by minervous at 3:04 PM on April 22, 2018

Sock knitting can be kind of fussy for while out and about, but if you don't mind winding up with way too many dishcloths, dishcloths are incredibly repetitive, very portable, and simple enough that if you wind up accidentally dropping stitches or whatever if you're doing it while distracted that it's no big deal.
posted by Sequence at 3:07 PM on April 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

I know someone who liked English paper piecing as a portable craft. Basically, you're sewing the edges under on small pre-cut hexagons (or other shapes) using a paper pattern as a base and then piecing the hexagons into patterns.
posted by momus_window at 3:07 PM on April 22, 2018 [11 favorites]

Sashiko embroidery is less fiddly than other types of embroidery, often just a single color yarn, and just uses a running stitch in patterns. (Random internet guide). It's very portable and can tolerate your looking at it closely or looking away as your need requires.
posted by crush at 3:13 PM on April 22, 2018 [5 favorites]

Maybe English paper piecing?
posted by christinetheslp at 3:33 PM on April 22, 2018 [5 favorites]

I have a friend who makes knotted fleece dog toys as their answer to this. The materials fit in a very small tote bag and the movement is repetitive enough to allow for participation in conversation while making the knots, but the project can also serve as something to look at. They have an online store with other crafts (coloring pages, fabrics from designs they've created, etc) to sell the finished toys, but if you don't want to sell them, or don't have a dog, perhaps a local shelter would take them as donations.

Here's a tutorial.
posted by danielleh at 3:35 PM on April 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

I came in to suggest the beekeeper's quilt recommended above!

You can buy special drawstring bags to put the ball of yarn in and then pop loop around your wrist (so the yarn bag is kind of a big wristlet) to make it easily portable, too.
posted by kalimac at 3:38 PM on April 22, 2018

Nthing English Paper Piecing. My therapist "strongly recommended" that I take up something artsy craftsy to help with my anxiety and mania. My mom taught me EPP in about an hour, and I LOVE it. I carry a ziploc bag or small zipper bag in my purse or backpack at all times. It's all hand-sewing, so it's perfect for portability. And it's easy on the budget; you can pick up a fat quarter at Walmart for 97¢, a spool of thread for a buck or two, and a pack of a dozen needles for about the same.
posted by The Almighty Mommy Goddess at 3:42 PM on April 22, 2018 [4 favorites]

nthing knitting. If needles or crochet aren't your thing you can get knitting looms in a variety of sizes at most craft stores.
posted by wwax at 3:43 PM on April 22, 2018

I have found that sketching appears to be a performance - complete strangers come up, look over your shoulder and give completely univited and uneducated opinions. Crocheting squares seems less of an issue because people can see what you're doing.
posted by b33j at 3:53 PM on April 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

Embroidery can be portable if you put the thread you’ll be using on floss bobbins. I fit all of my stuff in a small bag and used to do embroidery in waiting rooms all the time.
posted by FencingGal at 3:53 PM on April 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

I keep an embroidery kit in my purse, it fits in a small zipper bag to keep it clean and the threads untangled. I have a couple of different table runners in the works: one that I pre-prepared by machine zig zagging all over random pieces of cream colored lace on a dark background. I embroider over the lace with whatever stitch moves me at the time with cream embroidery thread (bonus, only one color of thread/floss to keep track of).

The other is just a length of pretty printed linen home decorating fabric that I am slowly embroidering around each of the motifs. I may add some french knots or decorative stitches into the pattern, if I decide to as I get farther along. To prevent color choosing-paralysis, I picked out 4 colors from the pattern and am only keeping those in my bag.
posted by sarajane at 4:28 PM on April 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

Tatting is small enough to put in a pocket.
posted by jgirl at 4:52 PM on April 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

Nthing sock knitting, which is about as compact you can get and can be as simple or complex as you like. Those tiny short circular needles take a little bit of getting used to, but they are amazing. And you usually only need one skein of yarn - I’ve done other small projects that use multiple colors or scraps, and they’re not as portable as socks because of the color-switching and fiddliness.
posted by Metroid Baby at 5:32 PM on April 22, 2018

I used to crochet amigurmi animals all the time. They use small amounts of yarn, so you can carry everything you need for a project in a ziplock bag or small project bag in your purse. And when you're done, you have this cute thing, and you just give it to the next child or other interested human you see.
posted by Orlop at 5:36 PM on April 22, 2018 [3 favorites]

Knitting on circulars. Crocheting is great, too, but I’m terrible at it, so I say knitting on circulars.
posted by greermahoney at 6:38 PM on April 22, 2018

Plastic lanyard weaving? Known by a variety of names.
posted by batter_my_heart at 6:47 PM on April 22, 2018

Tatting! The shuttle is teeny, and it's not difficult to learn. If you get good at it, it looks hella impressive while you do it, because the shuttle just flips around.

If embroidery is in the picture, candlewicking is very simple. You do need a hoop, but it's white-on-white embroidery, and pattern is printed on the fabric. So it's only one kind of thread, and three stitches (stem stitch, french knots, and satin stitch). It's an authentic early American form of embroidery, done by women who had access to undyed fabric and undyed thread and little else -- and indeed there's a split in kits, among those that use undyed (oatmeal-colored) fabric and thread, and those that used bleached (white) fabric and thread. But a full candlewicked bedspread is like The Fanciest artifact of frontier life. Anyway, it makes gorgeous pillows and things and because you only need one kind of thread and you don't have to carry the pattern with you (it's printed!), it's very portable -- you just need enough space for the hoop.

I also find cross-stitch bookmarks are easy to carry around -- the fabric is small enough you don't need a hoop, you can work them in just a few colors, the pattern can be folded up and put in a quart-sized ziploc along with the work.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:36 PM on April 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

whittling
posted by KazamaSmokers at 8:05 PM on April 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

Another vote for knitting with one skein of yarn + circular or double-pointed needles here. Socks are my favorite project because they hit the right mix of soothingly repetitive vs interesting bits and I can make them in a wide range of fun colors/patterns without worrying too much about wearability. But 100 grams of yarn in fingering to worsted weight is also enough to make hats to fit just about every human head, fingerless mitts or wrist warmers, gloves (in fingering weight), little bags to hold small items, toys (maybe a bit fiddly for your purposes), lightweight scarflets/neckerchiefs (in fingering or lace weight), dishcloths/scrubbies (in cotton)...all of which make great little gifts if "what do I do with what I've made" is an issue for you.

And if you want a simple, repetitive pattern to make over and over you could make ribbed hats in machine-washable yarn for charity. Just make sure to pick one in advance because different groups have different requirements for the type of yarn.
posted by bettafish at 8:07 PM on April 22, 2018

Cut a piece of cardboard 8"x10", notch in the 8"side like: [ (so 1/2", 7"notch, 1/2"...does that make sense?) Wrap your yarn around and around the board (so it stays in the notch and doesn't slide off) then store your 8" needles under the yarn. Now your knitting kit is like a magazine instead of an awkward ball and needles. Also, instead of scissors, you can just use a capped seam ripper.
posted by sexyrobot at 9:10 PM on April 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

I’ve been enjoying crocheting stuffed octopi. There’s a Facebook group “Octopus For A Preemie” if you’re interested in trying to donate the octopi. I find their standards so strict (and necessarily so) that I’ve just been giving the octopi to friends’ babies. The babies love them!

Also, you might find fidget toys helpful or at least fun. The website Trainers Warehouse has great prices. I’ve even known a couple of people to use gear ties as fidget toys. Gear ties are like large twist ties and are endlessly posable and very portable.
posted by ticketmaster10 at 9:13 PM on April 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

Nthing amigurumi crochet or Irish crochet (also called thread crochet). Both are small projects, and people quickly learn to "doodle" in them. Irish crochet you can net together later to make entire intricate garments, or you can keep your motifs in a bag and occasionally turn them out and garden the Land of Counterpane, which is my approach so far.
posted by clew at 9:44 PM on April 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

Speks.
posted by hannahelastic at 3:27 AM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

I have found that sketching appears to be a performance - complete strangers come up, look over your shoulder and give completely univited and uneducated opinions. Crocheting squares seems less of an issue because people can see what you're doing.

I think this is kind of a risk with anything in public, bar reading your phone. My solution to the question is knitting (I like socks with repetitive patterns so I can mostly knit without fretting - lace charts are for uninterrupted time), but no matter where I am if I'm alone, someone wants to talk about their mother's knitting or what I'm making, and I end up focusing on trying not to be a dick instead of having a nice anxiety-alleviating time.

If you're already with people, this might not be such a concern - like, at a family gathering or sitting with friends, I find it's as brief and positive as me complimenting someone's haircut. Having a project you can't finish during your conversation is good, too, because there's no pressure to show off the result.
posted by carbide at 4:32 AM on April 23, 2018

Even though I'm a knitter, I think crocheting something like squares for a blanket might work. My aunt took up crocheting when she quit smoking and ended up making several incredibly large blankets. We were all surprised at the final products because all we ever saw was a single crochet hook and tiny balls of yarn.
posted by betweenthebars at 4:49 AM on April 23, 2018 [3 favorites]

Origami requires no special equipment and relatively little space. Learn a few simple patterns. Boxes are fun and useful to fold, for instance.
posted by cross_impact at 12:09 PM on April 23, 2018

I have made thousands of those origami stars with strips of paper. I can make them without looking if I need to and since each one takes less than a minute, it is conducive to jumping in and out of conversations. I have been able to find the precut strips for a dollar or two at various places.
posted by Altomentis at 1:24 PM on April 23, 2018

If you need a goal for your origami, I did the 1000 Cranes a couple of years ago and it was great to have in my purse and do them while I was out and about.
posted by fiercecupcake at 1:33 PM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

Spinning yarn with a drop spindle
posted by aniola at 2:20 PM on April 23, 2018

Practice knots. Carry a piece of paracord -- around 18" -- in your bag, and when you want you can tie a knot, untie it, tie it again. You can look at a knots app on your phone if you want something else to look at (I like Knots in 3D, but it does drain batteries). Do a clove hitch around a table leg. Put your water bottle at the bottom of a crevasse (well, on the floor) and rescue it with a bowline. Learn that sheepshanks are actually very easy. Daisy spinnets, then unravel them, then do them again. Tautline hitches around your car's steering wheel at stop lights. Make a monkey's fist to attach to your keychain as a fidget.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:34 PM on April 23, 2018 [3 favorites]

Have you heard of English Paper Piecing?
posted by killy willy at 6:29 AM on April 28, 2018

Spool knitting! https://club.chicacircle.com/how-to-make-your-own-spool-knitter/
posted by wenestvedt at 8:12 AM on May 2, 2018

I would also point out that should you choose to fold 1000 cranes, you can sell them as a lot!
posted by DarlingBri at 10:46 AM on May 2, 2018 [1 favorite]