Letters
Knit to This: Lofi Hip Hop
Dear Ann,
Although I’ve yet to meet her in person, designer Jen Geigley has improved my life. With her inspired, chunky designs, surely, but also just her overall joie de vivre. In a twist on the classic “I want to be you when I grow up,” I want to be Jen when I time-travel backwards 20 years.
I can’t remember how this came up in our online correspondence, but Jen introduced me to a genre of music that is intended as a background to study, work, or other productive activity.
I have one of those minds that wants to focus on one thing and shut out everything else. It’s hard to interrupt me, as my children will attest. I tend to work in silence. Sometimes that makes me sad. I’d like a little more of an ambiance to my day, you know? I’ve tried listening to classical music while I work, but find that I start paying attention to the music, and the productive activity, typing or whatever, just…trails…off….
So I’m trying the lofi hip hop! The musical session up top goes on for 2 hours. I like the video loop of the girl filling out her BuJo and really getting her life together. There are plenty more where this one came from, if this ends up being something that works for you.
Love,
Kay
The girl who is journaling is left-handed!
I know many left handed knitters who knit right handed as the one who taught them .
Me! I knit right but write left! This is so sweet! Thank you. I hope to share with my daughter in the hope that she thinks I’m cool!
Ha! I listen to the lofi hip hop playlist on Spotify every morning. It’s on right now…
I love how I learn new things not at all about knitting with you two! I’ll have to try this in the open plan office.
I can’t knit w/o music or mindless tv playing. It helps drown out my mind running in circles so I can concentrate on the project at hand.
That helps me too. It helps me stay focused longer and, as you said, drowns out my mind.. TV works better than music for knitting because I tend to get involved with the music. Music is good for stuff like housecleaning.
I have been to two conferences recently at which the presenters not only acknowledged my knitting but applauded it. I also attended a series of classes on diabetes self-management during which I knitted and crocheted. The other attendees enjoyed watching the progress and the facilitators were so charming I gifted both of them with two dishcloths and a potholder.
I kept waiting for her to put her bullet journal away s andado something. So it seemed kind of sad for her to sit there, isolated with her journal and her headphones while you can hear the sounds of people talking and getting on with living their life.
Dear Kay and Ann – holy crap, I love you! Still listening to lots of lo-fi hip-hop over here … it is definitely my ‘creative music.’ I listen to it when I write patterns, do book layouts, photo editing … and of course, when I’m knitting. I play it while my kids do homework or when I’m making breakfast on a Saturday morning. It’s kind of the best (and you ladies are too!) Thanks for sharing the lo-fi hip-hop love!
Thanks but this is really not doing it for me! And I agree about her sitting there with life moving on around her. The music doesn’t go any where and neither does she. I’m glad that there are different kinds of minds and different people to create things to meet those needs!
Me either. I guess it takes all kinds! I prefer either silence (like Kay), or the all-classical radio station, which has very few voices and mostly music. If it’s something really easy, then Netflix is my friend.
Yeah, I guess I’m more of a Motown kind of person myself. Or all the old classic blues singers, like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, and Sarah Vaughn. I have visions of being trapped in a dentist’s chair while this lofi is playing. . . .
I love the music! The cartoon is cool w/ the kitty’s tail flicking in the background as he lazily looks out the window. Thanks for sharing
Nooooo, this sound is not for me! Thanks for offering it though. Always up for a new experience. I had to go back to mute it so I could write here. I really prefer left brain, tslk, discussions, audiobooks while I make art or knit. It gives the busy brain something to do while I create. Like amusing a toddler while you get on with your work.
Lofi hip-hop stations are the best! My favorite is the live channel with a raccoon cozied up in her room – the music keeps playing and the small scene movements fill the “mindless TV” space of “pictures moving onscreen” without me just having the tube on. I’m not really watching anyway, there are charts to follow and stitches to count!
As a current Masters student this playlist is very welcome beyond my knitting habit. I also love to listen to webcasts while I am knitting. Unlike studying, I can concentrate on dialogue during knitting and webcasts can be not only entertaining but educational. Listening to podcasts on psychology topics (I am a Masters of Counselling Psych student) is a great way to justify taking time to knit without feeling guilty for not hitting the books.
OMG. Thank you!
I’ve been listening to lofi hip hop for days since I first read this! It’s chill and repetitive enough that my mind can roll merrily along with stitching or cleaning and cooking- thank you for such an enjoyable tip! I’ve been loving all your Knit to This suggestions, but this takes the cake! (As an introvert, the animation of the girl steadily working with the sounds of the world around her looks like absolute heaven)
I have 5 hours of nature sounds–waves, rain, gurgling streams–on a playlist that has been my writing trigger for 6 or 7 years. At first I listened to drown out Durwood’s TV down the hall but then my brain started thinking “oh, that’s the writing music” and words would come out when the earbuds went in. They still do. I have no intention of changing but I’ll be glad to listen to your musical session. Thanks. MDK is a font of esoterica.
Oh thank you for this, Kay! I really need music on in the background at work or every little cough, snippet of conversation, etc. drives me insane. (Misophonia much? Ha.) This is the sort of thing I am always looking for. It is so soothing!
You might like an artist called Nujabes, he wrote a lot of jazzy hip hop beats for an anime called Samurai Champloo. Sounds like something you might dig.
https://youtu.be/h6f9XTxjenM
Fun! This might be a good choice to play at work. I run a university costume shop and I need music that will allow work to continue, please both students and faculty, and give the room a cool but happy vibe. This could be a good addition to the current playlists (an eclectic mix of bebop jazz, musical soundtracks, Beatles, Pink, and, always, Motown), especially for the tense week before tech.