5 ways to find Time to Crochet this year when you have a Toddler!

If you are like me and always trying to squeeze in time to crochet but you have little ones toddling around, then it can sometimes be a challenge to pick up the hook. The wonderful thing about crocheting is that it is very portable, of course this depends on the number of colours you choose to use in your final crochet projects.

Another great thing about crocheting is that you can drop off and pick up right where you ended, but beware of those WIPs! Which means you can slot in crocheting time in short time blocks, which is not ideal but that’s the best you can do as a mum right? So if you are trying to figure out how and when to find time to crochet, try these ideas…

1) Before everyone else wakes up

So I am not personally a morning person so I definitely do not get up earlier to crochet because my sleep is much more precious. We had a saying as doctors on call, if you have to choose between sleeping, bathing and eating, what would you pick? Don’t judge me for being dirty, but I would pick sleep hands down every time :).

But having said that, there are many people who choose to wake up earlier in the morning to exercise, so if that is the quiet time you can get away from the hubby and kids, why not?

2) During their afternoon nap

If you are lucky enough to still get their morning naps, then you can squeeze in two short blocks of crocheting time. But if they are just down to the one, or you are squeezing both naps into one, you can sometimes get a good 2 hour stretch to crochet! Another great thing about crocheting, while the LO sleeps, you could quietly pick up your hooks next to them and crochet with peace and quiet!

3) Their quiet time with their toys

Now this might require a little bit of training and implementation may be difficult from child to child. But from a young age, I try to implement some alone time, whether my daughter plays (or reads on her own when she got older), but they can be quite a long stretch. Having said that, I’ve been told boys might be a lot harder to get to sit still with the same activity so sometimes quiet books or interactive toys help a lot. Hence, my attempt at making interactive toys now too!

4) After they sleep at night

This is a big one for me, because I actually work best at night. Only after having a kid then I started having to sleep earlier in the night to adjust for early morning awakenings. But I’m not greedy, so 1-2 hours at night is plenty sufficient for me; another reason why choosing to do mini quick amigurumis has its perks! I tried C2C one and it took so many weeks, I almost gave up on it haha. If I embarked on a new design and had to tweak the pattern but it’s a small ami, probably 1-2 weeks of nights might be sufficient.

5) When you are out for an appointment and you have babysitting options

This could be any scenario and not necessarily for an appointment, like on the train or the bus or on any form of public transport. It’s really easy to bring along a crochet bag with a few balls of yarn and a crochet hook and you can easily pick up when you ended off. I use an expandable make-up bag which contains most of my essential crochet equipment! You’d be surprised how much crochet work you can get done just waiting 15-30 minutes, especially if you already have an existing pattern to follow!

There you have it! Some simple suggestions to pull out time blocks in your busy day as a mum to get some crocheting done. Psst, I use these same time blocks to crochet, work on my blogging, do up my patterns, send out emails and sometimes photography, in no particular order! What about you? What are some of your suggestions to find time to crochet as a busy mum - comment below and let me know!